The only empress in the history of china (中国唯一的女帝).doc

The Only Empress in the History of ChinaName: Class:14 Student Number: 0000000000000 Abstract: Wu Zetian is the only empress in Chinese history. In AD 637, the eleventh Zhenguan year, Wu was selected into the palace to be a concubine of the emperor Tang Taizong because of her beauty when she was 14 years old. 13 years later, when Tang Taizong was dying, she had been promoted little in position of concubines. However she became the crown princes lover, opening the door to her tremendous way towards a great empress in the history of China. In her legendary life, many people, even her offsprings were compelled to sacrifice under her widespread power. On the other hand, as a governor of a country, she did well and achieved a lot. She showed amazing capability which was not second to any great male king as a woman. Key words: empress; power; sacrifice; great; amazing As a tremendous woman in Chinese history, Wu Zetian had made great success in many ways. Apart from her surface glory, there were still much items deserved our attention. Id like to introduce some aspects of her from the following parts.Part 1. Her love To begin with, Wu Zetian was one concubine of Tang Taizongs. When she was 14 years old, she was selected into the imperial palace, but 13 years later, when Tang Taizong was dying, she still didnt had any offspring and stayed in a low position in imperial harem or seraglio. According to the law, she was supposed to leave the palace and be sent to Ganye Nunnery as a Buddhist nun and spend the latter half of her life in reading scripture by the light. However, she had had affairs with Tang Taizongs son, the crown prince Li Zhi, and the subsequent emperor Tang Gaozong. About in 650 AD, Tang Gaozong went to the Ganye Nunnery to hold a memorial ceremony for his father. By chance, he met Wu zetian. Not seeing each other for several years, they missed each other very much. Tang Hui Yao has the following records: “Emperor met Wu when he held the memorial ceremony; Wu began to sob, and emperor also became tearful.” Why did she fell in love with Li Zhi? Because she was lonely, very lonely. Li Zhi was the very person who could discover her glamour, admire her, appreciate her, warm her, and comfort her. Before her birth, her mother wanted to give birth to a boy to improve her position in family. She felt disappointed when Wu, a girl, was born. According to some historical records, her parents didnt show much love to her and sent her to a robust wet nurse casually. After the third daughters birth, Wu Zetian was sent to Huangze Temple and worked as an acolyte for several years, fed up with forlorn cold and cheerlessness. In 635 AD, when she was 12 years old, her father died, so did the support and core of her family. Lack in mothers love, helplessness and sadness in the temple, and the death of her father took her sense of belonging away, her loneliness developing gradually. Apart from this, after she became a concubine of Tang Taizong, she was set aside by Taizong because of an event called Lion&Piebaldhorse. Her dream came to nothing. She wanted to pour out to somebody but failed. Later, Taizong became ill seriously. During her nursing Taizong, she acquaintance with Li Zhi and they fell in love with each other quickly. Then, her loneliness pushed all of her feelings to Li Zhi. For the poor girl, Li Zhi was the whole world and everything. She was great. She owned a whole country and everything. However, as for love, she had only one - Li Zhis. He was the only person whom she wanted to stay by when she died.Part 2. Her massacre Wu Zetians real struggle started after she returned to the imperial palace from Ganye Nunnery. Then she stepped little by little, walked calmly closer and closer to the centre power, finally replaced her son and got the throne. During this bumpy and long journey, she gave up a lot, sacrificed a lot, utilized a lot, and also achieved a lot. Her returning to the palace owned to her rival in love, the queen of Tang Gaozong. At that time, when Wu was in the nunnery, the queen was very jealous of another woman, Xiao Shufei who was the most beloved imperial concubine of Gaozong. The queen was afraid that Xiao would rob her queen position, so she planned to dissolve Gaozongs infatuation to Xiao by sending for Wu. However, she was totally wrong. After Wus returning, Xiao did fell out of Gaozongs love, but so did the queen herself. Whats worse, Wu manoeuvred Li Zhi, letting him put those two relegate to limbo and appointed herself as the new queen. In her plan, the most unacceptable thing was that to make the emperor lose faith in the original queen, Wu killed her own daughter with her own daughter. Certainly, she lied it was the queen who killed her daughter. This is her most criminal behavior. She was so thirsty for power and to get what she want she even could put her own offspring to death. More appalling, the daughter was not the only child she killed. It was just the beginning. To evanish the menace from her sons on her way to the empress, she poisoned her son Hong, executed her son Xian and put another two sons who were not as intelligence as their brothers in prison. As for her relatives, she definitely didnt show any sympathy as well. In her eyes, they were just her chips when she was playing the game of power. Whoever stood in her way, he was to disappear. Whoever was against her, he was to die. Whoever was not obedient to her, he was to vanish. Because of jealousy, Wu poisoned her sister Lady Han and Hans daughter who both were concubines of Tang Gaozong. Because of her former contradiction with her half brothers, she eliminated them by plots. However, these were the tip of the iceberg. According to some records, she killed 23 relatives, above persons included, and 70 Lis generation and officials. Among them many peoples whole family was executed and many people had major contribution to Tang Dynasty. That is to say, uncountable lives paved the way for Wu Zetian. The unique great empress in Chinas history was bloody. She was criticized by many people. People always regard her as a cold, cruel, cattish woman. Also people regard her as an excellent politician. Whereas, behind any great monarch, whether inland or outland, who didnt have a large number of deaths which represented their sagacity, announced their ability, and revealed their intelligence?Part 3. Her policies As the unique supreme empress in Tang Dynasty, she didnt ruin the great age; on the contrary, making the best of her intelligence, she reformed and innovated with many political items. Thus she led Tang Dynasty to its heyday. From 684 AD when Tang Gaozong took over the throne to 705 AD when Wu Zetian died, she was actually in power for nearly half a century. In terms of imperial examination system, she made a great contribution. Firstly, she highlighted the successful candidates in highest imperial examinations (called Jin Shi in Chinese), broadening a way for scholars from poor families. In Tang Taizongs 23 years, the successful candidates in highest imperial examinations added up to 205 while in the 55 years when Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian ruled, there were no less than 1000 people. For instance, great poets in Tang Dynasty, such as Wang Bo, Song Zhiwen, Liu Xiyi, He Zhizhang, Chen Ziang, and Zhang Jiuling were all successful candidates at Wus period. Secondly, she exerted Zhiju, a candidate selection test required by emperor himself, to the utmost. Zhiju had three benefits: the closest connection to practice, the wide examinee range, and the quick result presentation. Wu held Zhiju once one and a half years, and this rate exceeded any emperor in Tang Dynasty. Whats more, in this test, Wu paid much attention to Palace Examination which was held by emperor himself at the palace hall. In fact, Palace Examination was created by Tang Gaozong, but he had held only once and the dimension was small. However, the previous year when Wu was enthroned, she held a large scale Palace Examination at Luocheng Palace in Luoyang. In this test, there were more than ten thousand participants, and it lasted for several days. Lastly, Wu Zetian initiated Military Examination to absorb army man. Military Examination consisted of Horse shooting, Horizon shooting, Tube shooting, Carabine and other test items. In a word, Wu Zetian selected a large number of talents from the whole society via a series of effective measures. She didnt care their work experiences and family background, appointed them in accordance with ability, and employed them on the basis of talent. She had hired 78 Prime ministers (called Zaixiang in feudal Chinese) from the first year of Hongdao to the first year of Magic Dragon. For example, well-known Wei Zhongyuan, Di Renjie, Yao Cong, and Song Jing were among them. These gifted people contributed to the booming development in Wus period. At the same time, they were prepared for the coming Flourishing Kaiyuan Reign Period. In 690 AD, Wu Zetian was throned and changed the title to Zhou at the age of 66. Then she started her continual reformation. One of her most distinctive reforms in politics is the encouragement of giving secret information against colleagues not only among officials but all over the country. She used this way to get to know who her opponents were, to know whether her inferiors and citizens were loyal to her, to know what faithless events her opponent officials and discontent persons had done, etc. That is to say, she used this way to cement her reign effectively. In her decree, once there was an informer, any regional officers couldnt stop and oppose, even he knew the informer was going to inform against himself. Besides, regional officers had to prepare the best transportation, provide the best meals and accommodations at every station, and company the informer along to the capital. Whats more, during the trip to the capital, the informer had to be treated as a level five official. If the secret was worthy, the informer would be awarded with some official appointment or promotion in official position. Even if the secret was not true, the informer wouldnt be punished. Because of the attractive benefits, there blew an informing wind at that time and everybody felt feared. Another outstanding one of her policies was the cruel torture. Combined with the former policy, it wiped out many opponents of Wu Zetian, working as a very efficient weapon to control the country. At her time, once an officer named Zhu Jingze handed her a document, saying in Qin Dynasty, encouraged by Li Si, embracing legalism, Qin Shi Huang operated cruel tortures wildly to rule his kingdom, which contributed to the fast collapse of Qin Dynasty. Zhu Jingze wanted to use the lesson of Qin to warn Wu Zetian not to pull her country to the edge of death. Unfortunately, she set it aside later. Why the policy of informing could became Wu Zetians powerful tool to govern her country? Because it took advantage of weaknesses of human beings characters. In humans deep nature, there is a trend to gossip others mistakes. Many people even regard it as fun. Its amazing how she knew about the weaknesses of human nature and applied it into her rule successfully.Besides influence on policy, poetry was also developed well in Wus period with the help of beneficial policy. She reduced the burden of taxation and cost, attached great importance to agricultural production, developing the economy. Prosperous economy boosted commerce. Finally, palmy commerce created high level city civilization. Although countryside, fields and gardens, frontier juncture, and boundless desert were described in the poetry of the Tang Dynasty, the main part stayed in portray of city life. Changan, Luoyang, Yangzhou, and many other famous metropolises were all places filled with poets. These luxuriant cities provided lots of inspiration for countless poets. Posteriorly, Wu Zetian herself made difference on the development of poem, too. She was not only a empress, a stateswoman, but also gifted in poetry. She valued scholars, liked literature, awarded good works, which encouraged scholars to create. In a conclusion, in the half century ruled by Wu Zetian, through the reform of the imperial examination system, she provided a good social atmosphere for the poetry of the Tang Dynastys inheritance from the Northern and Southern Dy