武则天传记英文版.doc

EMPRESS WU THE GREAT FOREWORDS Not like in Europe where men stick to the principle of “Lady First” and where there have been many sovereign queens in the history, in ancient China, as a whole, the social status of women was low. They were not allowed to do what men were doing and not allowed to interfere with what men were doing, especially politically. They were deemed as ornaments in mens life and as reproduction machines to bear offspring for the male families. Their sole duty was to obey men and please men. Although in some particular families, the husband might listen to the wife or might even be henpecked to the wife, yet it was not the main stream in the ancient Chinese society. It was an individual case. There was even such a tradition that when a woman did not bear any sons (daughters did not count) for the husband, the husband could divorce her for that very reason. The word “divorce” here was not accurately used. The actual situation was just that the husband could send the woman back to the family of her parents, where she had come from for the marriage. And the parents could not refuse to take their daughter back. Under such circumstances, it was not easy for a woman to climb all the way up successfully to the throne. Now let us go back to that period our heroine lived to see how she had become the sole female sovereign ever in the Chinese history. She was generally known as Empress Wu Zetian the Great. The low social status of women began much earlier before Tang Dynasty (AD 618AD 907 ), in which she lived. It started almost at the beginning of Zhou Dynasty (1121 BC476 BC). As far as I know, those foreign readers, who are familiar with Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Indian histories, may not know much of Chinese history. To give readers a general idea, I enumerate in the following list all the important dynasties in the Chinese history: Xia Dynasty (2207 BC1766 BC) For this dynasty, some modern Chinese historians deny its existence because there is no archeological evidence ever found from the digging site. There are only written records in some history books. Therefore, when the Chinese government boasts that China has a long history of five thousand years, those Chinese historians hold that China has only a history of three thousand seven hundred years. Shang Dynasty (1765 BC1122 BC) Many bronze utensils dug up proved its existence. Zhou Dynasty (1121 BC476 BC) War Period among Seven Kingdoms (475 BC221 BC) Qin Dynasty (220 BC207 BC), conquering other six kingdoms and forming the first empire in China. Han Dynasty (206 BCAD 220) Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220AD 280) Jin Dynasty (AD 265AD 420), conquering other two kingdoms by 280 AD War Period among many small separate kingdoms (AD 420AD 589) Sui Dynasty (AD 581AD 618) wiping out all other kingdoms by AD 589 Tang Dynasty (AD 618AD 907) War Period again (AD 907AD 960) Song Dynasty (AD 960AD 1279) Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271AD 1368) formed by Mongolian Tribe Ming Dynasty (AD 1368AD 1644) Qing Dynasty (AD 1644AD 1911), the last dynasty in China. I hope this list will be helpful to the readers when I mention other dynasties in this book. The basic reference book of Chinese history for my writing is “Zizhitongjian”, a famous authoritative ancient history book, written by a prime minister in Song Dynasty by the name of Sima Guang, who was a great scholar as well. The chronicles in his book began from toward the end of Zhou Dynasty and finished in AD 959, divided into 294 volumes. Since Song Dynasty was almost right after Tang Dynasty, the facts stated there were mostly reliable. But the author Sima Guang was a conservative man and hated anything against any traditions; and so, he might give a little twist where they were not to his ideal of the things. One obvious example was that when Empress Wu had already established her new dynasty and become the sovereign empress, Sima in his book still addressed her as empress dowager, not as empress. In his mind, women should not be a sovereign empress, could only be an empress dowager, which reflected his notion that women always belonged to men (as empress dowager, the widow of her husband), not an independent person (as a sovereign empress, an independent person ruling the country). The facts in this book were arranged in yearly order, but I divide them into parts and then subdivide them in chapters, and still in (A), (B), etc., as needed, putting the same kind of things together, also in yearly order. The contents provide readers with some ideas about the history of that time. The same materials will be repeated in different chapters and parts, which are needed for comments and analysis. Whenever an important person is mentioned in an event, his brief biography will go right after the event. Part I : Background Chapter 1 Her Father and Family (including her early life) Her father, by the name of Wu Shiyue (?AD 635)(surnames before given names in this book), was not rich when young. His family lived then in Wenshui meaning Literary Water Town in Bingchow Bing here means Emerge and Chow here means District (in the present Shanxi Shan here means Mountain and Xi here means West Province). He had two elder brothers. The eldest one was called Wu Shiling and the second one was Wu Shiyi. The family business was to make and sell bean curd (tofu). Bean curd was made early every morning. Then her father took it out for sale. As their bean curd was of good quality, it sold well. So they saved money. A) Her father rose from a merchant to a noble man China was then under the reign of Sui Dynasty (AD 581AD 618). Emperor Yang (AD 560AD 618), the second emperor of Sui Dynasty, led a life of indulgence. He loved to travel and to have an extra palace built wherever he would go. Therefore, there was a large demand of lumber. Her father seized the opportunity to become a lumber merchant and accumulated wealth. But in the feudal China, the merchant was classified low in the social status. (There were four social classes or castes in the feudal China. The first class was scholars, including courtiers and officials. Peasants belonged to the second class because they produced grains to feed people. The third class consisted of workers and craftsmen, who provided people with other necessities of life. The merchants were of the lowest class, because it was thought that they earned money from the pockets of other people.) So he wanted to change his social status and joined the army as a low-rank officer. As he gave good service, he got promotion to be a staff officer in charge of arms keeping. Then he joined the army of Li Yuan (AD 566AD 635, and AD 618AD 626 on the throne), who would be the first emperor of Tang Dynasty (AD 618AD 907) in the years to come. He came to know Li Yuan personally. Several times when Li Yuan was commanded by the emperor to quench the fire of riots of the peasants here and there and passed Wenshui Town, he would stay in the residence of Wu. Their relationship developed cordially. In AD 617, Li Yuan was appointed the prefect of Taiyuan meaning Extreme Plateau City by the emperor of Sui Dynasty, who was a cousin of Li Yuan because his mother and the mother of Emperor Yang had been sisters. At that time more and more peasants in many places rose to arms because of the corruption of Sui Dynasty. Wu Shiyue advised Li Yuan to hold up his own flag against Sui Dynasty. Li said to him, “Just between you and me. If I can sit on the throne, I wont forget you.” Then Li Yuan began to recruit and ordered Liu Hongji and Changsun (double surname. There are a limited number of surnames in Chinese, 438 in all, including double surnames, 30 in all. As for given names, people can choose any Chinese words in the dictionary to form them.) Shunde to be in charge of the raw recruits and to train them. There were two vice prefects, Wang Wei and Gao Junya, also appointed by Emperor Yang. They were loyal to the emperor and suspected Li Yuan of betrayal. They consulted Wu, saying, “Liu and Changsun were army deserters when His Majesty (denoting the second emperor of Sui Dynasty) invaded Korea. Shall we arrest and interrogate them?” Wu Shiyue was on Lis side, of course, and replied, “They are Prefect Lis men. Its not appropriate for us to arrest them.” So no action was taken. Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty had built Jinyang Jin here is the name of an ancient kingdom in China and Yang here means the Sun Palace close by Taiyuan City. Li Yuan told Wu Shiyue to lay an ambush at the eastern gate of the palace in case that some surprise attack might come. A soldier learned it and wanted to report to the vice prefect Wang Wei, but Wu Shiyue stopped him by letting him know what would be good for him. In the fifth moon of the same year, Li Yuan killed both the vice prefects on some pretence and then in the seventh moon, held up his own flag against Sui Dynasty. He appointed Wu Shiyue as his staff officer responsible for arms keeping and other equipments. At that time the army of Sui Dynasty was fighting with the rebellious peasants. Li Yuan grasped the chance to besiege city after city and occupied them one by one. In the ninth moon, they entered ChangAn meaning Everlasting Safety City, which was later made the capital of Tang Dynasty. As now it seemed that the whole nation was up against Emperor Yang, Li Yuan supported Yang You (AD 605AD 619), the grandson of Emperor Yang to be the emperor of Sui Dynasty, called Emperor Gong, and named the present Emperor Yang as ex-emperor. Li Yuan announced himself to be the general prime minister and Prince Tang. Why did he call himself Prince Tang, not using any other word? It was because his grandfather had been Duke of TangGuo in a previous dynasty; hence, Tang Dynasty later. Then Li Yuan granted Wu Shiyue a big manor house, three million coins and five thousand scrolls of silk. He appointed Wu as the vice minister of Etiquette Ministry, plus a title of Duke of Yiyuan. He also gave Wu two hundred blood horses and two thousand bushels of grains. On the fourth day of the tenth moon in AD 618, Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty was killed by his general Yuwen (double surname) Huaji. Then Li Yuan made the young Emperor Gong abdicate and declared himself to be the emperor of a new dynasty called Tang Dynasty. After a feast to celebrate the victory, everyone got rewards in accordance with his service. Wu Shiyue was appointed a general and awarded again with three hundred acres of tilling land, three hundred slaves of both sexes, five hundred catties of gold and twenty thousand pieces of colored fabric. Besides, he got a metallic certificate of exemption from death sentence once if he committed a serious crime that deserved the death verdict. In AD 620, Wu Shiyue got another appointment as the minister of Construction Ministry. (There were six ministries in Tang Dynasty: Official Ministry, Military Ministry, Judicial Ministry, Household Ministry, Etiquette Ministry and Construction Ministry.) Since he did a great job, the emperor was so delighted that he conferred Wu another title of Duke Yingguo, but Wu declined the honor. Anyway, he rose from a bean curd dealer and a lumber merchant to the position of a new nobleman in ChangAn City. He was satisfied with his life. 删除 2011-04-16 22:50:31 海外逸士 B) Her father married her mother When Wu Shiyue was traveling with the troops, he suffered loss in his family. He had four sons by his first wife. However, during the time he was marching with the troops, two of his sons died of some kind of diseases. A year later, his wife also died of some disease. He could not go back to see them for the last time before their deaths. He only mourned for them in heart and still worked hard. When the emperor Li Yuan learned the situation, he was moved and gave Wu Shiyue a great praise for his loyalty to his duties. Now as Wu Shiyues wife died, the emperor thought that he should do something for him by finding him another wife. The woman the emperor thought of was a middle-aged spinster from a noble family. Her father, Yang Da, had been the vice minister of both the Official Ministry and the Judicial Ministry in Sui Dynasty. He had gone with Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty to invade Korea and had died in the battles. Since her father died, she had stayed single, praying for his soul everyday before a statuette of Buddha in a special room at home. She was the cousin of the brother-in-law of Prince Qin, namely, Li Shiming, the second son of Li Yuan. So when Wu Shiyue married her, he would become a distant imperial relative of the Li family. In AD 622, the emperor wanted to be the matchmaker for Wu Shiyue. The woman was then forty-four years old and Wu was forty-six. The wedding expenses were all on the emperor. She became Ladyship Wu, nee Yang. She gave birth to two daughters for Wu Shiyue. Empress Wu was their second daughter. On the twenty-third day of the first moon in AD 624, Empress Wu was born in ChangAn City, (the present XiAn meaning West Safety City), the capital of Tang Dynasty, when her father was working there as the minister of Construction Ministry (supposedly based on his having been a lumber merchant). Her father was forty-eight and her mother forty-six. She had two stepbrothers and an elder sister, still a child. In AD 625, one year after the birth of Empress Wu, her father left ChangAn City for Yangchow Yang here means Raise and Chow here means District City under the command of the emperor. He took his wife and two daughters with him, leaving his two sons behind as they were already adults. Yangchow City is situated to the north side of the Yangtze River, on the lower reaches, close to Nanking meaning South Capital City across the river. Back in AD 616, Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty escaped to Yangchow City since riots after riots broke out almost everywhere in his empire, and when he was killed in AD 618 by his general Yuwen Huaji, the city was occupied by this general. In AD 619, a riotous army of the peasants took over the city. Then another peasant army conquered it. The city changed hands between peasant armies during the next several years. The emperor of Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan, sent his nephew, Prince Li Xiaogong, to attack Yangchow City in AD 624 and took it in the third moon. Then the emperor appointed Prince Li Xiaogong to be the governor of Yangchow City. Generally after war, the government should do something to restore the agricultural activities, but the nephew turned his attention to his own merry-making and enjoyment. Therefore, the situation was as bad as before. Then rumor spread that Prince Li Xiaogong would rise in mutiny. The emperor summoned him to the capital and imprisoned him. Then Prince Shenfu was appointed the governor of Yangchow City. According to the regulations at the beginning of Tang Dynasty, the position of the governor should be given only to princes, but generally the princes only took the positions in name. They did not even go to live there, and so an administrator would be appointed at the same time to actually take charge of everything in the city and the surrounding area, generally the province in which the city was located as its capital. So was the position of Wu Shiyue to be the administrator in Yangchow City. But later when Li Yuan abdicated and left the throne to his second son Prince Qin, the second emperor of Tang Dynasty, called Emperor Taizong (AD 599AD 649 and AD 627AD 649 on the throne), the rule was changed. Any courtier could be appointed a governor. 删除 2011-04-18 01:21:16 海外逸士 C) Her father became a governor In the first moon of AD 627, General Li Yi, titled Prince Yanjun, rebelled in Jingchow Jing here is the name of a river. The reason was that he was a haughty person and once when Prince Qin had sent a messenger to him, he had beaten him for no reason at all. Now as Prince Qin was crowned to be the second emperor, he was afraid that the emperor would kill him. A sorcerer from Zaochow Zao here is a surname read his face and said to him, “Your Highnesss face reading shows that Your Highness will reach a higher position soon.” A position higher than a prince should be the emperor. Therefore, at the advice of the sorcerer, he rebelled. He lied that he got a secret imperial edict to lead his army to the capital. On his way there, he reached Youchow You here means Secluded. The magistrate Zhao Cihao came out to meet him. General Li Yi occupied Youchow. The emperor sent Changsun Wuji (AD 594AD 659), the minister of Official Ministry, as commander-in-chief to attack General Li Yi. When Zhao Cihao knew that the government army would come, he planned to attack General Li Yi, assisted by a junior general Yang Ji, who camped outside Youchow. When General Li Yi learned the plan, he imprisoned Zhao Cihao. Then junior general Yang Ji assaulted General Li Yi and put his troopers to rout. General Li Yi deserted his wife and children and escaped alone. He wanted to run away to Tujue Clan, a minority to the north of Tang territory, but was killed by his followers. His brother Li Shou, the governor of Lichow meaning Benefit District, was executed. Then Li Xiaochang was sent to Lichow as a new governor. But in the twelfth moon, Li Xiaochang went to the capital. He stayed there and planned a revolt with some generals of different ranks. He wanted to seize the power and to be the emperor himself. But as a result, he failed and was executed together with his accomplices. After his death, his followers in Lichow were uneasy and the situation there seemed in unrest. Emperor Taizong wanted to send someone there to assuage the followers. He weighed all his courtiers one by one to see who would be the more suitable person for that errand. Finally he decided on Wu Shiyue and then transferred him to the position of the go