Wu Zetian
Wu Zhou · Tang · 1st ruler
武則天 Wǔ Zétiān武曌 Wǔ Zhào
Wade–Giles: Wu Tse-t'ien · Wu Chao
Reigned 690–705 (14 years)
Reigned 14 years (690–705). Died at 83 (East Asian reckoning) of natural causes. 1st ruler of Wu Zhou.
Facts
- Reign
- 16 October 690 – 21 February 705 (1st ruler of Wu Zhou)
- Length of reign
- 14 years
- Born
- Unknown
- Died
- 16 December 705
- Age at accession
- 68
- Age at death
- 83
- Cause of death
- Natural causesNatural death or illness (including old age)
- Path to the throne
- Abdication from another dynastyReceived the throne from an emperor of another family or regime in a change of dynasty led by the new emperor (e.g. Cao Pi, Yang Jian, Zhao Kuangyin)
- Predecessor
- Emperor Ruizong of Tang
- Successor
- Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (restoration)
- Era names
- 天授 Tiānshòu (proclaimed 690)
- 如意 Rúyì (proclaimed 692)
- 長壽 Chángshòu (proclaimed 692)
- 延載 Yánzài (proclaimed 694)
- 證聖 Zhèngshèng (proclaimed 694)
- 天冊萬歲 Tiāncèwànsuì (proclaimed 695)
- 萬歲登封 Wànsuìdēngfēng (proclaimed 696)
- 萬歲通天 Wànsuìtōngtiān (proclaimed 696)
- 神功 Shéngōng (proclaimed 697)
- 聖曆 Shènglì (proclaimed 697)
- 久視 Jiǔshì (proclaimed 700)
- 大足 Dàzú (proclaimed 701)
- 長安 Cháng'ān (proclaimed 701)
- 神龍 Shénlóng (proclaimed 705)
Ages are given in East Asian reckoning (sui): a person is one year old at birth and gains a year at each New Year, so the figure is one or two years higher than the Western age.
Life
In brief
Wu Zetian rose from empress of Emperor Gaozong of Tang to running the government, and in 690 changed the dynastic name to Zhou and became emperor herself.
Road to the throne
She came from Wenshui in Bing prefecture; at the age of 14 (East Asian reckoning) she became a cairen consort of Emperor Taizong of Tang, became a Buddhist nun after his death, and was summoned back by Emperor Gaozong of Tang as a zhaoyi consort. In 655 Gaozong deposed Empress Wang and made Wu Zetian empress. When Gaozong came to suffer from a wind ailment, she was entrusted with deciding on memorials, and the two were called the Two Sages. When Gaozong died in 683 and Emperor Zhongzong of Tang took the throne, she began ruling from court as empress dowager that same day. The next year she deposed Zhongzong, installed Emperor Ruizong of Tang, and went on ruling as regent. In 688 she accepted an auspicious stone forged by Wu Chengsi and added the title Holy Mother, Divine Sovereign, and after the risings of the Prince of Yue and others were put down, the princes of the Tang imperial clan were executed one after another. According to the Zizhi Tongjian, in 690 Fu Youyi asked that the dynastic name be changed to Zhou, more than 60,000 people submitted the same petition, and Ruizong himself petitioned to be given the surname Wu, after which Wu Zetian gave her consent. She ended the mandate of Tang and named the state Zhou, three days later took the title Holy and Divine Emperor, and reduced Ruizong to imperial heir.
Reign and death
In 705, while Wu Zetian lay ill, Zhang Jianzhi, Huan Yanfan and others led the palace guards in and beheaded her favorites Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong. When Huan Yanfan pressed her to give up the throne, according to the biography of Empress Wu in the New Book of Tang she simply lay back down and said nothing more, while the Zizhi Tongjian records that she went on to speak to Li Zhan and Cui Xuanwei. Soon afterward she passed the throne to the crown prince, Zhongzong, but the annals of Zetian and of Zhongzong in the Old Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian differ by one day on the date. In the same year, by her last decree, she gave up the title of emperor to be called Empress Zetian Dasheng, and she died in the Shangyang Palace. Her age at death (East Asian reckoning) is given as 83 in the Old Book of Tang, 82 in the Zizhi Tongjian and 81 in the biography of Empress Wu in the New Book of Tang, and the Kaoyi commentary to the Zizhi Tongjian says that it adopts 83.
Translated from the Japanese text of this site, which is written from the official histories. Years are given in the Western calendar; months are omitted because the histories use the Chinese lunar calendar.
During the reign
Number of times each event is recorded in the official histories. How each item is counted
- Era name changes
- 14
- General amnesties
- 17
- Empresses installed
- 0
- Crown princes deposed
- 0
- Personal campaigns
- 0
- Rebellions suppressed
- 1
- Rebellions faced
- 2
- Capital relocations
- 0