Defying Norms: The Journey of Wu Zetian, China's Female Emperor

Most outcasts of history had a particular, exclusive life; full of struggles against the society ever since birth and grew up with a heart made out of steel from the harsh criticism they have endured. They differ from the community within their beginning to their end, and many of their stories end up becoming legends and gaps of the past that nobody will be able to reincarnate. China’s first and last female emperor, Wu Zetian, was one of these exclusives. Ever since birth, her history of tactics to the people around her; in order to ascend the throne, juxtaposed towards society’s attitudes of women at the time; through her breakdown of gender stereotypes and quick knowledge, and offered a new perspective to the world of just how cruel and beautiful women can be. She successfully destructed all accumulated views of women in the Tang Dynasty, and created her future in the way she wanted it – on top of every man in her country. She was an outcast – somebody who juxtaposed against the demands of her. She was history.

Born in the year 624 on the 17th of February in the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian’s destiny of becoming an outcast of the expectations of society towards women was determined at her birth. Bought up in the custody of a noble, rich, and royal family, she learned the skills of literacy in both reading and writing, and was exceptional in playing musical instruments which attracted the attention of the Palace, who bought her in as a low concubine for Emperor Taizong. This was already something that was unheard of – as women in medieval China, recorded by Confucius, were usually dim-witted, had no education and freedom, and had no rights to path out their own future. Unable to express their own feelings, a woman’s marriage would be arranged to them by their father, and after being married, her role and goal in life was to satisfy her husband and bore children for him – as stated by Confucius, “Woman’s greatest duty is to have a son.” However, Wu Zetian went against this concept of life determinedly; and after her first husband passed away when she was only 26, instead of being sent into a nunnery like all the other concubines to spend the rest of their lives grieving, she instead, used her beauty and skills in order gain the Emperor’s son, Gaozong’s interest whenever he visited the nunnery; and within 3 years, returned back into the Palace as her ex-husband’s son’s new concubine.
Using her intelligence and wit, Wu Zetian stunned the entire court with her capabilities of the politics and country welfare when she came a concubine once again; breaking apart from the stereotypical association towards the Emperor’s women and earned the trust of the Emperor. Unlike the people of her time, she surprised society by extending her powers through the administrative duties of the court, and looked over laws for agriculture, social reforms, and tax reduction, among many others. These controversial actions stirred the questioning of officials, however, Wu Zetian’s tactics oversaw the raising awareness of her actions as a woman, and secretly summed up her own recruits into the Palace’s civil service to gain support. However, she was still mentioned harshly among the officials, who wrote, “with a heart like a serpent and a nature like that of a wolf, she favoured evil sycophants and destroyed good and loyal officials.” Nevertheless, within 5 years, she became a permanent member of the state affairs in court and participating in the discussions of the country’s economics, history, battle strategies and military skills – which were unheard of women participation before.
While the Palace conditions were cruel and many concubines had to resort to unspeakable methods – Wu Zetian bought up the scheming to a completely new level. Heartless and deceptive, the chronicles describe her with the phrase “she killed her sister, butchered her elder brothers, murdered the ruler, poisoned her mother. She is hated by gods and men alike.” After being pregnant with her first daughter with the Emperor, her manipulative nature resorted into successfully accusing the former Empress of infanticide, and later was promoted to become the new Empress. Later in history, this action shocked the many researches of her story as ruthlessness completely juxtaposed towards the society standards of the time which confessed that one of a woman’s greatest duty on Earth was to become a good mother, and bring up her children in peace. However, instead of fulfilling her role as a mother, she instead intentionally killed her child for the promise of greater power. Even Confucius’s follower, Mencius, also stated in his documents “that the worst of unfilial acts was a failure to have descendants” Once Wu Zetian became Empress, she began her to secretly add more of her followers in court, and ones who did not obey her words was removed from office, exiled from the country, with a few of them committing suicide in order to be removed from her wrath.
Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, Wu Zetian’s tactics does not end with her simply being the Empress. When the Emperor suffered from a stroke in the 660, she was able to take over the administration of the court, and begin to unleash her rulings. Despite original changes to place Gaozong’s 3rd son on throne when the Emperor died in 683, he was removed due to inexperience in ruling the country. In 690, after 7 years of waiting, Wu Zetian claimed the throne as hers and ruled the country. This sparked a new height of controversial flames, with one poem in Book of Poetry concluding in rejection to the new Female Emperor: “women should not take part in public affairs; they should devote themselves to tending silkworms and weaving.” However, instead of confirming to her roles as a women in the Palace, Wu Zetian began to send officials and Palace guards out into the country, to find and recruit people of intelligence and knowledge to support her in court. She made successful amendments into Palace recruiting laws that no woman was able to adjust, and the system as rebooted so that anyone, regardless of social class. Those who opposed her decisions in court had been the subjects of her harsh treatment were executed or never to be seen in the court again. Her torture towards anyone who disliked her shocked the nations, yet nobody was able to protest furthermore after she successfully formed her team of officers under her name, who all furthermore helped her keep her throne in the Palace.
The actions of Wu Zetian were controversial; and whether did she portray her image was a “different” woman correctly is still within the debates of historians, who are surprised at her colossal over the court, but yet feel distributed by the amount of deaths she contributed to in order to become a living God. One Chinese poet and critic, Luo Binwang, portrayed Wu Zetian’s shocking actions as “all fell before her moth brows. She whispered slander from behind her sleeves, and swayed her master with vixen flirting” and argued that despite Wu Zetian’s torture and heartless nature to those who opposed her, she “cleared her path to the throne” and her manipulation towards the people around her – even her family members whom she poisoned – was for the safety of her throne. On the other hand, critic and Professor Richard W.L. Guisso mentioned that “the empress was a woman of her times. Her social, economic and judicial views could hardly be termed advanced, and her politics differed from those of her predecessors chiefly in their greater pragmatism and ruthlessness” and argued that despite Wu Zetian’s struggle to not comply with women’s expectations at her time, she still, unknowingly followed those stereotypes – she became someone who exercised her power out of greed and used her “beauty” and “gifts” in ways to receive higher treatment as a woman. Meanwhile, Anderson concluded her report on Wu Zetian with the following: “military expenses were reduced, taxes cut, salaries of deserving officials raised, retirees given a viable pension, and vast royal lands near the capital turned over to husbandry” and did not conclude whether Wu Zetian, as a woman, managed to overstep her boundaries after becoming China’s first female emperor.
Wu Zetian’s controversial actions as a woman of her time is still, and will be a highlight of Chinese history that needs to be analysed.

Her unfazed attitude towards society’s expectations of women shocked the country – from marrying more than one man to killing her child to poisoning her family – she became a figure no one else would ever replace. Only her legacy will live on, as well as all the effort she has put into pushing away the boundaries and limits for women, in order to show the world, that women can be just as cruel. Historian C.P. Fitzgerald wrote, “Without Wu there would have been no long enduring Tang dynasty and perhaps no lasting unity of China,” and just with this simple quote, it can be observed that throughout her shocking tactics she used in order to become emperor of China, she indeed succeeded and showed the entire country just how dangerous and cruel a woman can be – completely opposite to the stereotypical expectations in their

books.