A Critical Analysis of Wu Zetian as an Example of Womens Political Empowerment - Essay Example

? A Critical Analysis of Wu Zetian as an Example of Women’s Political Empowerment A Critical Analysis of Wu Zetian as an Example of Women’s Political Empowerment Introduction In the history of the Chinese civilization, Wu Zetian can be considered as a shiny of women’s political empowerment. She is well-known as the first female ruler who ruled China from 690 AD to 705 AD, as Fairbank says, “China's only woman ruler, Empress Wu was a remarkably skilled and able politician, but her murderous and illicit methods of maintaining power gave her a bad reputation among male bureaucrats” (82). According to the Chinese royal linage, Wu Zetian belongs to the Tang dynasty. But she is also considered as the founder of her self-proclaimed “Zou Dynasty”. The history of Wu Zetian is important in Chinese for several reasons. First, she was the first female ruler in the history of Medieval China. Indeed, in a rigidly patriarchic Chinese society, the presence of a woman at the highest rank of power and influence in the country’s political system is not only challenging but also the reversion of the traditional Chinese patriarchic conventions and moral values. Secondly, Wu Zetian’s period experienced a rapid expansion of the Chinese Empire deep into Central Asia along an enormous economic boom (Paludan 99). But in the west, the Empire reached the Korean Peninsula. Thirdly, it was the empress’s administrative skill and military prowess which had been able to unite the warring territories of China under the national flag of the Zhou Dynasty. Within the country, she was successful not only in achieving supreme influence over the highly fragmentized political structures, but also in bringing socioeconomic reforms which resulted in the growth of an affluent middle class in the Chinese society (Fairbank 82). Historians often claim that the source of Wu Zetian’s political power and influence over the country was, more or less, the popular support of this affluent middle class people who rather worked as a deterrent to the rise of mass protest in any territory of China. During Wu Zetian’s period, the country also experienced the spread of Taoism as the state religion, mass education and the flourish of Imperial literature which rather depicted the common people from all walks of the Chinese society. Wu Zetian’s Importance in Chinese History Wu Zetian’s role as an empress played a crucial role in Chinese history. She may be ruthless and cruel; but she greatly contributed to the bureaucratic governmental structure of the state. She brought about a number of political and administrative innovations in the government. During her reign, she had been able to expand the Empire up to the Central Asian countries, while it reached the Korean Peninsula in the east. Due to her political and administrative prowess, she could include a large number of educated and meritorious commoners into her administration through the “Civil Service Examination” system (Cotterell & Cotterell 144). She understood that popular support is a great role-player in the stability of a state. So she significantly focused her efforts to earn public support. She started a convention to sponsor religious authorities in order to get their support for her rule. Moreover, she started the conventions of “juntian” and “equal field system” in order to ensure that farmers could contribute aptly to the country’s production (Paludan 100-103). Moreover, she used to run government-supported program to pacify the lower class people’s poverty. Despite these successes along with the innovations in governance during her reign, scholars primarily put emphasis on her political prowess as a woman who could outwit a large number of Chinese emperors in terms of political success. (Cotterell & Cotterell 54) Still she had negative qualities also. She was a ruthless killer who never hesitated to think whom she was killing. Some historians believe that she even killed her own daughter to gain power over the Royal palace. Referring to this nature of Wu Zetian, Paludan comments: Wu Zetian (690–705) was an extraordinary woman, attractive, exceptionally gifted, politically astute and an excellent judge of men. With single minded determination, she overcame the opposition of the Confucian establishment through her own efforts, unique among palace women by not using her own family. Her rise to power was steeped in blood...." (Paludan 89) A Brief Biography of Empress Wu Zetian Wu Zetian belonged to the Wu clan which lived in Wenshui, Bingzhou. She was born on the 17 February in 624 AD at the “seventh year of Emperor Gaozu of Tang’s reign” (Paludan 11). Her birth history is somehow related to the rise of the Tang Dynasty. Wu’s father Wu Shihuo was a successful timber dealer in Hedong and Taiyuan during the final years of the Sui Dynasty. Also her mother came from a powerful Yang family of that era. When Li Yuan (the future emperor of the Tang Dynasty) was appointed in Hedong and Taiyuan for official, Wu’s family became close to the Tang royal family. Historians claim that during his stay in Hedong and Taiyuan, Li Yuan had spent many nights in Wu’s household. After Li succeeded the royal throne by overthrowing Emperor Yang, he showed ample generosity to the Wu family by giving them wealth and ministerial posts in the cities of Jingzhou, Lizhou and Yangzhou. Wu was appointed as the governors of these cities. Thus, Wu Zetian became involved with the fate of the Tang Dynasty (Scarpari 45). During her childhood, Wu Zetian was different from other girls. She was strong willed and did not like traditional women’s works. Rather she showed interests in reading which provided her an in-depth about the political systems and society of her country. Also because of her father’s career as governor in different cities of the country, she got the opportunity to travel to different parts of China. Thus, she “developed a cultured and knowledgeable personality” (Paludan 67-69). Despite her successful political career, Wu Zetian had been an ideal mother. Besides her political life she maintained an active family life. She was the mother of three children who later became the emperors. Wu’s Rise from a Concubine to an Empress Historians cannot identify the exact date when Wu Zetian became the concubine of Emperor Taizong of Tang. But they guess that she entered the Tang Royal family as a concubine of the emperor at the age of 13 between 636 AD and 638 AD. After her marriage with the Emperor, she was entitled “Cairen of the palace” (Paludan 16). Due to her authoritative nature, Wu did not have good relationship with the Emperor. But she kept him impressed with her manipulative power and administrative prowess. In an event from Wu’s life reveals much about her mentality in pursuing her political goal. When she was leaving her parents’ house for the Royal Palace, her mother Lady Yang was crying, but she replied, “How do you know that it is not my fortune to meet the Son of Heaven?” (Davis 207) Another event describes that though she did not have good relationship with the Emperor, she had impressed him with wisdom. In a conflict with Chancellor Xi Ju, she described the Emperor’s favor for her as following: Emperor Taizong had a horse with the name "Lion Stallion", and it was so large and strong that no one could get on its back. I was a lady in waiting attending Emperor Taizong, and I suggested to him, "I only need three things to subordinate it: an iron whip, an iron hammer, and a sharp dagger. I will whip it with the iron whip. If it does not submit, I will hammer its head with the iron hammer. If it still does not submit, I will cut its throat with the dagger." Emperor Taizong praised my bravery. Do you really believe that you are qualified to dirty my dagger? (Scarpari 45) However, after the Emperor Taizong of Tang had died, Wu Zetian did not have any child with the king. So, according to the custom, she was consigned to the Covent in the Ganye Temple from several days. But soon she was married to Emperor Gaozong of Tang who was the youngest son of the late Emperor Taizong and his wife Wende. After being the concubine of Emperor Gaozong, she gained more political influence by assisting him administrative issues. Since Emperor Gaozong was inexperienced because of his age (he rose to the throne at the age 21), he was heavily depended on Wu’s political and administrative advice. In the emperor’s absence, she would provide decisions to the courtiers. While taking any decision about the important administrative matters, she was decisively ruthless. Even she applied ruthless techniques to grab power and influence. Even some historians believe that she killed her own daughter to “killed her own daughter to frame Empress Wang and other competitors of the throne” (Scarpari 60-67) Wu Zetian’s Political Prowess and her Techniques of Ruling the Mobs Long before her ascendance to the throne of Chinese Royal power, she began to play her play role as an inevitable political figure in the country’s politics. Through successful disposal of Empress Wang and concubine Xiao, Wu Zetian had been able to marry Goazong and, thus she became the Empress of the Kingdom in 655. Her new status as the empress of the country provided her with more scopes to exert her influence on the existing political system. After achieving this status, she focused on removing the threats to the possibility being the Emperor or Huangdi of the country. In 660, she successfully convinced Gaozong to send Consort Liu's son Li Zhong on exile and to keep him under house-arrest. Like any farsighted emperor of human history, Wu Zetian had been able to eliminate the threats to her status. From 655 to 660, she could execute all of the rebel officials including chancellors Xu, Li Yifu, Han Yuan and Lai Ji, who opposed her ascension to the throne on the charge of planning treasons against the empire. This series of executions established her hold on the administration and, then, no official could dare to oppose the emperor’s decision. When Gaozong died in 685, she became the Emperor Dowager. Indeed, it was an honorary title of the wife of the deceased emperor according to the political tradition of the country. From 685 to 690, she actually ruled the country under the emperorship of her sons. In order to keep her control over the empire, she even overthrew her sons. But finally in 690, she declared herself as the Emperor of the country and assumed the title ‘Huandi’. She also proclaimed to be the founder of Zhou Dynasty (Paludan 34-56; Scarpari 60-67). Wu Zetian’s Sociopolitical Conventions and its Relevance to Modern Day Wu Zetian’s sociopolitical conventions were, to a great extent, modern. During Wu Zetian’s reign, the Chinese Empire included a vast area from Central Asia to Korean Peninsula. Historians claimed that Wu could rule over this vast area because of her ruthless ability to thwart rebellions at home by her loyal administration. Because of her childhood and adolescent experience of viewing the mobs’ nature very close, she understood the importance of having a loyal administration which was supposed to execute any of her commands without question. As a result, she adopted the tradition of ‘civil service examination’ in order to find out the loyal but intelligent manpower to run her administration. The main goal of the state-arranged “civil service examination” was to recruit those people who were proved to be the best in terms with particular administrative position (Cotterell & Cotterell 144). Through the custom of the Imperial Examination had been practiced by her preceding emperors, such practice was comparatively low. With this system, she had been able to develop an efficient bureaucratic structure of the empire. In the system of “civil service examination”, Wu brought another noteworthy innovation which is similar to the examination system of modern states. It was democratic also. Though the earlier emperor would not allow the commoners or gentry to take part in the examination, she repealed the rule and permitted them to take part in the administration of the state after successfully passing the requirements of the civil service examination (Cotterell & Cotterell 140). The system required specific knowledge, skills and Confucian which were necessary for particular administrative positions. Such opportunity of the commoners to take part in the state-affairs rather decreased the gap between the state and the common people. Even her government would prioritize the people of less developed area such as the North China Plain to take part in the administration increasingly (Paludan 69-72). Secret Police, Elimination of rivals and Exploitation of Religion to Support the State Wu Zetian had started the system to sponsor scholars and religious figure talk in support of the state. She manipulated various religious authorities such as Confucians Buddhists and Daoists to promote and spread the idea, among common people, that she was ruling the country by the Mandate of Heaven. Furthermore, she as a successful empress was highly able to eliminate any rebellion or rivals in the state. In this regard she would greatly depend on the state’s secret police. By using the state’s secret police, she could detect and eliminate any threat against her rule. She consolidated her power by demoting and executing rebellious aristocratic families and also by seizing their power to perform normally within the state (Paludan 69-72). She started a convention of using copper mailboxes outside the royal palace as well as outside the government offices in any possibly threatening area. These boxes remained sealed and only the empress-assigned persons could open them. She started this convention to allow the people to inform her secretly about any conspiracy. Conclusion WU Zetian is still remembered today for her power, wit and influence in Chinese history. Though she was a woman, she successfully retained her power in a patriarchal society where it is often difficult for a woman to live decently. Indeed, her contribution to the Tang Dynasty was enormous, as Cotterell and Cotterell comment, “To the horror of traditional Chinese historians, all members of the shih class, the continued success of the T'ang was in large measure due to an ex-concubine who finally usurped the throne itself” (143). Empress Wu Zetian is also important for modern people also. Indeed, Wu’s history can be read as the falsification of traditional patriarchal notion that women are intellectually inferior to men. But even being a woman, she showed a greater capability to rule and run a country successfully. During her time she could successfully outwit her male counterparts. As a ruler, she was cruel, manipulative and ruthless. But no can deny that she was intelligent and strategic. For modern people, she can be considered as the glaring example of wit, intellect and power. Furthermore, she can be considered as a shiny of women political empowerment in modern feminist discourses. Works Cited Cotterell, Yong Yap and Arthur Cotterell. The Early Civilization of China. New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons. 1975 Davis, Richard. "Chaste and Filial Women in Chinese Historical Writings of the Eleventh Century". Journal of the American Oriental Society 121 (2): 204–218. 2001 Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press. 1992 Paludan, Ann. Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial China. New York, New York: Thames and Hudson. 1998 Scarpari, Maurizio. Ancient China: Chinese Civilization from the Origins to the Tang Dynasty. Vercelli: VMB Publishers. 2006 Read More