In her new position, she was constantly involved in affairs of state at the highest level and must have performed her duties well because she became a favorite of Taizong. Click for Author Information. Omens were extremely important to the people of ancient China and played a significant role in Tang politics. Ho-shen (1750-1799) was a high Manchu official in the government of the Ch'ing dynasty in China and a close associate of Emperor Ch'ien-lung.. Having been raised by her father to believe she was the equal of men, Wu saw no reason why women could not carry out the same practices and hold the same positions men could. Wang was the last person seen in the room and had no alibi. If it does not yield, I'll hit it with the iron hammer. Wu Zetian's SteleI, (GJGY.com) (CC BY-SA). If Wu Zetian is judged by the traditional female virtues of chastity and modesty, then she falls short of expectations. Wu was now raised to the position of first wife of Gaozong and empress of China. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Wu Zhao embarked on religious life as a nun in a convent after Li Shimins death in 649. Her courtiers, however, hatched a plot and afterward forced her to abdicate in 705; she died later that year. Cambridge History of China. Nationality/Culture This particular minister was silenced but that did not silence the rest; they just were more careful not to speak their mind in front of her. Empress Lu Zhi (241-180 B.C.) Born ne Wu (first name at birth not known) in 624 in Taiyuan, Shanxi province; died in 705 in Luoyang, Henan province; daughter of a high-ranking official, Wu Shihuo, and his aristocratic wife; married Emperor Taizong (r. 626649), in 640 (died 649); married Emperor Gaozong (r. 650683), in 654; children: (second marriage) Crown Prince Li Hong; Crown Prince Li Xian; Emperor Zhongzong; Emperor Ruizong; Princess Taiping ; another daughter (died in infancy). 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Of all these female rulers, though, none has aroused so much controversy, or wielded such great power, as a monarch whose real achievements and characterremain obscured behind layers of obloquy. To consolidate her power, in 657 Wu designated Luoyang as a second capital. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1989, pp. "Wu Zetian (624705) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Guisso, Richard W.L. World History Encyclopedia. The scholar N. Henry Rothschild writes, "The message was clear: A woman in a position of paramount power was an abomination, an aberration of natural and human order" (108). But in 705, when she was 81 years old, the combined forces of the Li-Tang family took advantage of her weakening grip on the state and removed her from power. Wuplayed here by Li Lihuawas depicted as powerful and sexually assertive in the Shaw Brothers 1963 Hong Kong movie Empress Wu Tse-Tien. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. Thus Wu Zetian's experience might have caused some redefinition of gender in her time, but this direction has not translated into enduring gains in the society and political organization that she left behind. In 690, she declared herself emperor after deposing her sons and founding her own dynastyZhou. Carved in limestone, the colossal statue is reputed to have been carved in Wus own likeness. Princess Taiping had shielded Li Longji from her mother when he was young and supported him in his efforts to take the throne. She wanted to make it clear that a new kind of ruler had taken the throne of China and a new order had arrived. When she was an infant dressed in boy's clothes, Wu Zetian's potential for emperorship was predicted by an official. Cookie Policy In 605 the Qidan, who lived in Manchuria in the marginal areas between the open steppe and settled areas, invaded the Tang empire and gained a dramatic victory over Wus armies near the site of modern Beijing. Encyclopedia.com. These characters were supposed to replace between 10 and 30 of the older characters and were Wu's attempt to change the way her people thought and wrote. In promoting Buddhism over Confucianism and Daoism as the favored state religion, the Empress countered strongly held Confucian beliefs against female rule. She maintained a stable economy and a moderate taxation for the peasantry. Charlemagne (or Charles the Great) was king of the franks from 768 to 814, king of the lombards from 774 to 814, and emperor from 800 to, FOUNDED: c. 1050256 b.c.e. A woman in the most powerful position in government threatened the traditional patriarchy and the court counselors, ministers, and historians claimed Wu had upset the balance of nature by assuming a power which belonged to a man. Wu disposed of her enemies, first the former empress and then the high-ranking officials, who had strongly opposed her rise. Taizong was so impressed at her intellectual abilities, he took her out of the laundry and made her his secretary. Tang China during the 7th century was a period of military strength and cultural attainments, its empire stretching into Central Asia and Southwest Asia and ruled by the Li-Tang imperial family from the capital city of Xi'an (Xian), Shanxi province. If so, their hopes were in vain; Empress Wu Zetian is remembered today as one of the greatest rulers in China's history. Our publication has been reviewed for educational use by Common Sense Education, Internet Scout (University of Wisconsin), Merlot (California State University), OER Commons and the School Library Journal. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. After Gaozongs death, in 683, she remained the power behind the throne as dowager empress, manipulating a succession of her sons before, in 690, ordering the last of them to abdicate and taking power herself. I always think that's the most interesting things about primary sources - the bias. Naples: Institute Universitario Orientale, 1976. Pomacanthus imperator (emperor angelfish) See CHAETODONTIDAE. published on 22 February 2016. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Throughout 15 dismal years in exile, her sons consort had talked him out of committing suicide and kept him ready to return to power. Empress Dowager. Bellingham, WA: Center for Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1978. Emily Mark studied history and philosophy at Tianjin University, China and English at SUNY New Paltz, NY. We care about our planet! Sima, Guang. No contemporary image of the empress exists. First emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Quin Shi Huang-di (259 B.C.-210 B.C.) Empress Theodora. When the Turkic ruler asked for a marriage arrangement, she sent her nephew's son to become the groom to the chieftain's daughter. Even though there were many important and influential women throughout China's history, only one ever became the most powerful political figure in the country. When Gaozong died in 683 CE, Wu took control of the government as empress dowager, placing two of her sons on the throne and removing them almost as quickly. The most spectacular are the stone temples and statues chiseled into grottoes at Longmen, near her capital. Mike Dash is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. Wu Zetian. Yet contemporaries thought that there was more to her than this. Amherst : Prometheus Books, 1990; T.H. Appears In The Tang empire in 700, at the end of Wus reign. The answer was to proclaim another dynasty, not by military conquest, but by interpreting omens that favored her to carry out a change of dynasties and become enthroned as a woman emperor. Lady Wu played the role of the shy, respectable emperor's wife well in public but, behind the scenes, she was the actual power. Quin Shi Huang-Di Wu either read him whatever she felt like and then made her own decisions or read him the real reports and then still acted on her own. Examination System. When her mother was distressed about losing her to an uncertain life fraught with intrigues in the emperor's harem, she firmly reassured her: "Isn't it a fortune to attend the emperor! Wus later life was one long illustration of the exceptional influence she had come to wield. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Long a supporter of Buddhism through her mother's devotion and her own refuge in the nunnery after her first husband Taizong's death, Wu Zetian counted on Buddhist ideology to legitimize her reign and her dynasty. In preparing for the legitimacy of her emperorship, she claimed the Zhou Dynasty (1045256 bce) and its founders among her own ancestors. She whispered slander from behind her sleeves, and swayed her master with vixen flirting and insisted that she was the arch manipulator of an unprecedented series of scandals that, over two reigns and many years, cleared her path to the throne. The political success of Wu Zetian indicates that the attributes needed in diplomacy and rulership were not restricted to men. An active imagination produced pornographic novels in the 16th century focusing on her alleged sexual practices. Privacy Statement Her usurpation marked a significant social revolution, the rise of a new class, which the empress tried to use in her struggle against the traditionalist, northwest nobility. Encyclopedia.com. Each dynasty was considered a new beginning and when Wu changed the name from Tang to Zhou she was following this tradition but went further to make it clear that she was the beginning of a completely new era by calling her reign Tianzhou ('granted by heaven'). disadvantages of food transportation. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Thank you! She kept Ruizong under a kind of house arrest confining him to the Inner Palace. souls of those who died in the atomic bomb attacks, Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). To recruit a new class of administrators through competition, the examinations that had played only a secondary role in the recruitment and promotion of civil servants in Han times (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Empress Wu Zetian (Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, l. 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor of Imperial China. Gaozong divorced his wife, barred her mother from the palace, and exiled Lady Xiao. Explaining why the empress was so reviled, then, means acknowledging the double standard that existedand still existswhen it comes to assessing male and female rulers. $1.99. The spirit road causeway to Wus still-unopened tomb lies between two low rises, tipped by watchtowers, known as the nipple hills.. ." The story of Wu's murder of her daughter and the framing of Lady Wang to gain power is the most infamous and most often repeated incident of her life but actually there is no way of knowing if it happened as the historians recorded it. This is very similar to the story of the Empress Lu Zhi (l. 241-180 BCE) of the Han Dynasty who got rid of her rival Qizi in the same way (although Qizi was drowned in a pigsty and had her eyes gouged out as well). Her paranoia resulted in a purge of her administration. She killed her sister, butchered her elder brothers, murdered the ruler, poisoned her mother, the chronicles say. ." RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 0.1 percent Originally published/produced in China, 18th century. One critic, the poet Luo Binwang, portrayed Wu as little short of an enchantressAll fell before her moth brows. "Wu Zetian (624705) Wu also took back lands which had been invaded by the Goturks under the reign of Taizong and distributed them so that they were not all held by the aristocrats. At the end of this spirit road, the tomb itself lies in a remarkably inaccessible spot, set into a mountain at the end of a winding forest path. World History Encyclopedia. Twitchett, Denis, and Howard J. Wechsler. She ordered farming manuals to be written and distributed. Your Privacy Rights A Japanese example: In the late 7th century, Japans Emperor Shomu and Empress Komyo both were involved in Buddhist buildings. When Taizong died, Wu and his other concubines had their heads shaved and were sent to Ganye Temple to begin their lives as nuns. 1, 1990, pp. Some historians have viewed her as blazing the trail for the women who came after her, and indeed her daughter, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter aspired to emulate her success, but they failed and even died violently in the process. She also dealt ruthlessly with a succession of rivals, promoted members of her own family to high office, succumbed repeatedly to favoritism, and, in her old age, maintained what amounted to a harem of virile young men. Although this system opened government positions to a wider group than ever before, in the final stages of the process candidates continued to be judged on their appearance and speech. Not only do we pay for our servers, but also for related services such as our content delivery network, Google Workspace, email, and much more. The Tang emperor Taizong was the first to promote Wu, whom he gave the nickname Fair Flatterera reference not to her personal qualities but to the lyrics of a popular song of the day. Wu Zetian's politics can be considered as feminist initiatives to reinforce the legitimacy of women in the political arena. She graduated from SUNY Delhi in 2018. How did a woman with such limited expectations as Wu emerge triumphant in the cutthroat world of the Tang court? It is a challenge to recover real people from this morass of bias. Pronunciation: Woo-jeh-ten. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. 1, 1993, pp. If it still won't be tamed, I'll cut its throat with the knife. To respond properly to Heaven's censure, it is suitable that you lead the quiet life of a widow and cultivate virtue, otherwise I fear further disasters will befall us. The first thing she did was change the name of the state from Tang to Zhou (actually Tianzhou or Tiansou). At the same time, another political faction formed around Wu's other son, Ruizong, who was supported by Wu's daughter, Taiping. In the largest cave there is a statue called the Grand Vairocana Buddha. "Wu Zetian." Wu decreed that the workmen sculpt the face of the largest of these statues to resemble her and also persuaded the monks of the sanctuary at Luoyang to forge the Big Cloud Book to substantiate her claim as Maitreya. Empress Wu Zetian and the Spread of Buddhism (625-705 C.E.) Her last two lovers were the young and handsome Zhang brothers who put on makeup and exploited the relationship by obtaining offices, honors, and gifts for themselves and their family. Having risen to be empress in Wangs stead, Wu ordered that both womens hands and feet be lopped off and had their mutilated bodies tossed into a vat of wine, leaving them to drown with the comment: Now these two witches can get drunk to their bones., As if infanticide, torture and murder were not scandalous enough, Wu was also believed to have ended her reign by enjoying a succession of erotic encounters which the historians of the day portrayed as all the more shocking for being the indulgences of a woman of advanced age. The area around Changan could not produce the amount of food required to feed the court and garri-sons, and the transportation of grain up the Yellow River, traversing the Sanmen rapids, was exceptionally expensive. Most historians believe Wu became intimate with the future Gaozong emperor before his fathers deatha scandalous breach of etiquette that could have cost her her head, but which in fact saved her from life in a Buddhist nunnery. To reinforce her legitimacy, Wu Zetian also invented about a dozen characters with a new script. Mutsuhito These monumental statues, like the one carved into the mountain at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which was destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, alerted the populous to the dominance of Buddhism. She replaced Zhongzong with her second son, who became Emperor Ruizong. . Wu Zetian came to the throne when she was 67, making her the oldest person ever be crowned. The primary and secondary sources on Wu Zetian are abundant and problematic, reflecting an almost exclusively male authorship that has portrayed her as a beautiful, calculating, brutal woman who ruled China as the only woman emperor in name and in fact. womeninworldhistory.com. We would much rather spend this money on producing more free history content for the world. Sources about Wu Zetian's life are a hodgepodge, which some condemning her as the devil himself and others testifying she was an absolute angel. Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) 627-705 First female monarch Sources Rise to Power. Though Wu was unusually well-read and self-willed for a mere concubine, she had only one real advantage over her higher-ranked rivals: Her duties included changing the imperial sheets, which potentially gave her bedroom access to Taizong. The reversal of gender roles was nowhere more objectionable than Wu Zetian's sexuality, in the eyes of the traditional historians. World History Encyclopedia. Last modified March 17, 2016. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Wu_Zetian/. After Mount Felicity appeared, and Wu claimed it as an omen favoring her, one of her ministers wrote: Your Majesty, a female ruler improperly has occupied a male position, which has inverted and altered the hard and soft, therefore the earth's emanations are obstructed and separated. Add to . Why should you weep for me?" According to the histories of the period, Wu smothered her own week-old daughter by Gaozong and blamed the babys death on Wang, who was the last person to have held her. McMullen, David. On a similar tone, she ordered that the mother of the Daoist sage Laozi (Lao Tzu, c. 600 bce) be honored. Territorial Expansion. Changing the dynasty was the easier task and was accomplished by securing the approval of the Confucian establishment. Jay, Jennifer W. "Vignettes of Chinese Women in Tang Xi'an (618906): Individualism in Wu Zetian, Yang Guifei, Yu Xuanji and Li Wa," in Chinese Culture. Woodbridge Bingham, The Founding of the Tang Dynasty: The Fall of Sui and Rise ofTang, a Preliminary Survey (New York: Octagon, 1975). Submitted by Emily Mark, published on 17 March 2016. . In defiance of convention Emperor Gaozong started an affair with her, and she bore him a son in 652. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. At these pilgrimage sites, rituals were performed which established a link between the standing Buddha and the ruler. Theodora. Under Wus rule the government was expanded, and many of the new positions were filled through the examination system. Empress Wu Zetian (Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, l. 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor of Imperial China. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. She shocked the Chinese officialdom by arranging to send male grooms to the daughters and aunts of the tribal chieftains at the empire's borders, although it was customary to send female brides. The China that Wu Zetian was born in was the Tang Dynasty (618906), a strong and unified empire after four centuries of political discord and foreign interaction. The Fall of Kaifeng [ edit] In 1126, Emperor Huizong abdicated in favor of his son, Emperor Qinzong, the elder brother of Gaozong. Buddhism was carried into East Asia by merchants and Buddhist monks traveling the Silk Road from Northern India, Persia, Kashmir and Inner Asia. Nevertheless, court intrigues still greatly influenced the recruiting of civil servants. She was also the most important early supporter of the alien religion of Buddhism, which during her rule surpassed the native Confucian and Daoist faiths in influence within the Tang realm. Empress Wu, or Wu Zhao, challenged the patriarchal system by advocating womens intellectual development and sexual freedom. June 2, 2022 by by Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Gaozong fell for it and the Empress Wang was put to death. They ruled as divine monarchs until Gaozong's death in 683 CE. After the latter died in 684, she took on four or five lovers, including a monk whom she ordered executed when weary of his greed and abuse of power. According to Anderson, servants. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. 7789. When Taizong died, Gaozong became emperor, and Wu Zetian joined a Buddhist nunnery, as required of concubines of deceased emperors. Wu Zetian's father was a successful merchant and military official who reached ministerial ranks. In 705, Wu Zetian's grandson, the later Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712756), slaughtered the Zhang brothers in spite of Wu Zetian's protest and forced her to return the Li-Tang imperial family to power. In 697 CE, Wu's hold on power began to slip when she became more paranoid and began spending more time with her young lovers than on ruling China. At the time of the murder, it was Lady Wu's word against Lady Wang's, and later historians decided to side with Lady Wang against Wu; but this does not mean they chose the right side. This page titled 4.16: Links to Primary Sources is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by George Israel (University System of Georgia via GALILEO Open Learning Materials) . Our publication has been reviewed for educational use by Common Sense Education, Internet Scout (University of Wisconsin), Merlot (California State University), OER Commons and the School Library Journal. The horrible deaths of empress Wang and the Pure Concubine, for example, are nowhere mentioned in Luo Binwangs fearless contemporary denunciation, which suggests that Wu was not blamed for them during her lifetime. This mountain, so born of the sudden convulsion of earth, represents a calamity. Buddhism was carried into East Asia by merchants and Buddhist monks traveling the Silk Road from Northern India, Persia, Kashmir and Inner Asia. Her success in the campaigns against Korea inspired confidence in her generals and Wu's decisions on military defense or expeditions were never challenged. Ruthless and decisive, she stabilized and consolidated the Tang dynasty at a time when it appeared to be crumblinga significant achievement, since the Tang period is reckoned the golden age of Chinese civilization. The most serious charges against Wu are handily summarized in Mary Andersons collection of imperial scuttlebutt, Hidden Power, which reports that she wiped out twelve collateral branches of the Tang clan and had the heads of two rebellious princes hacked off and brought to her in her palace. Empress Wu (died September or October 245), [a] personal name Wu Xian ( Chinese: ), formally known as Empress Mu (literally "the Just Empress"), was an empress of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. Historical Significance: Empress Wu was very significant in the Tang Dynasty. Recent revisionist reappraisals have focused on the feminist slant of her rule and her record as an emperor rather than a woman, but no new primary sources have appeared to resolve conflicting information and gaps in her biography. Image taken from An 18th-century album of portraits of 86 emperors of China, with Chinese historical notes. Illustration. is held up in Chinese histories as the prototype of all that is wicked in a female ruler. And while Chinas imperial chronicles were too rigidly run and too highly developed for Wus name to be simply wiped from their pages, the stern disapproval of the Confucian mandarins who compiled the records can still be read 1,500 years later. C.P. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. ." At one point, to the horror of her generals, Wu proposed raising a military corps from among Chinas numerous eunuchs. Empress Lu Zhi (241-180 B.C.) World History Encyclopedia, 22 Feb 2016. She did not ask any man's permission to lead these women to Mount Tai; she felt she knew what was best and did it. Agricultural production under Wu's reign increased to an all-time high. She changed the compulsory mourning period for mothers who predeceased fathers from the traditional one year to three yearsthe same length as the mourning for fathers who predeceased mothers. Not until 705, when she was more than 80 years old, was Wu finally overthrown by yet another sonone whom she had banished years before. 1 minutes de lecture . 21/11/2022. Edward Schafer, The Divine Women: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in Tang Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973). Functioning in a male-oriented patriarchy, Wu Zetian was painstakingly aware of the gender taboos she had to break in political ideology and social norm. In her last years Wu lost influence, although she remained energetic and cruel. Under the older regimes, a suggestion or complaint had to go through a number of different offices before it ever reached anyone who could do something about it. Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. But already in 666 when Wu Zetian was empress to the reigning Gaozong, she had prepared for her imperial ambitions by defying tradition and mockery as she led the unprecedented procession of imperial ladies to sacrifice to earth, believed to be a female deity. Reign of Terror. She ruled for 15 years during the Tang Dynasty and was one of China's most impactful and divisive emperors. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Although she gave political clout to some women, such as her capable secretary, she did not go as far as challenging the Confucian tradition of excluding women from participating in the civil service examinations. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Wu Zetian is the only legitimatized Empress in Chinese history. Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty (The Greenwood Press Wu: The Chinese Empress who schemed, seduced and murdered her way to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. However, the date of retrieval is often important. There are abundant signs that Wu was viewed with deep suspicion by later generations of Chinese. Determining the truth about this welter of innuendo is all but impossible, and matters are complicated by the fact that little is known of Wus earliest years. The development of the examination system during her reign was a critical step in the eventual transformation of the aristocracy to a meritocracy in the government. Map: Wikicommons. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Hong Kong: Cosmos, 1994. "Empress Wu Zetian." Traders from the Mediterranean and Persia also came from both the overland and maritime trade routes, where Buddhism and Central Asian culture, dress, and music reached China. To ensure the security of her new reign she had any members of the Tang Dynasty royal family imprisoned (including the future emperor Xuanzong) and proclaimed herself an incarnation of the Maitreya Buddha, calling herself Empress Shengsen which means 'Holy Spirit'. This spy system served her well in giving her early warning of any plots in the making and enabled her to take care of threats to her reign before they became actual problems. As early as 660 CE, Wu had organized a secret police force and spies in the court and throughout the country. Her extravagant construction projects and expensive frontier campaigns had exhausted the treasury, which led to a financial crisis. Lu Zhi was an instantly recognizable villain to the people of China, and linking Wu with her through the murders worked to destroy Wu's reputation. No-one knows what secrets it holds, for like many of the tombs of the most celebrated Chinese rulers, including that of the First Emperor himself, it has never been plundered or opened by archaeologists. The earliest sources on Wu Zetian already contained rumors of sex scandals in her court. This was considered scandalous because of her advanced age and how young the Zhang brothers were but would not have even been commented on if Wu had been a man sleeping with much younger women. Guisso says, that empowered informers of any social class to travel at public expense. She also maintained an efficient secret police and instituted a reign of terror among the imperial bureaucracy. Cookie Settings, I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too., as we have already had cause to note in this blog, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, 5,000-Year-Old Tavern With Food Still Inside Discovered in Iraq, The Surprisingly Scientific Roots of Monkey Bars. Mike Dash She also organized military campaigns against Korea in 668 CE which were so effective that they reduced Korea to the status of a vassal state. Founder of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuang-yin (927-976) ended the practice of frequent military coups, which had exhausted China for mor, https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wu-zetian-624-705, Mandate from Heaven: The Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. Carlton further notes, "While ostensibly for her great concern over the condition of her people, the box mainly served the purpose of obtaining information on seditious subjects (3)."
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