武则天WZeTian.doc

Empress Wu ZeTian came from a wealthy family. Her father participated in the early stages of Li Shimins empire building and later served as minister of public works in the new dynasty. In her early teens Wu Zetian was selected to be one of the talented women in the emperors quarters. Technically, this means that as a chambermaid she had the status of an unranked concubine. Her great beauty, cited by some historians, cannot be established from the extant portrait. But there is no doubt that she was very gifted, very well-read, and above all very self-willed. Upon Li Shimins death in 649, Wu Zetian entered a Buddhist temple to become a nun. When the next emperor, Shimins son Li Zhi, toured the place she caught his attention. In 654 she became a concubine of a lower rank. A year later Li Zhi discarded his empress to make room for her. By this time she was probably close to thirty. Subsequently she gave Li Zhi four sons and one daughter. Thus of the three early Tang emperors, two were her husbands. Without exception, all seventeen remaining emperors that make up the imperial Tang genealogy were her descendants. The empress gained access to power because Li Zhi, who reigned for thirty-four years, was troubled by hypertension, which affected his vision. Wu Zetian was not only interested in state affairs but also, with her wide reading, well equipped to deal with them. By 674 she had already confirmed her position as co-sovereign. When Li Zhi died a decade later, she lost no time in making herself de facto ruler. Her first son had died earlier. Her second son, apparently uncooperative, was commanded to commit suicide. She removed her third son one month after his accession and put him under house arrest for the next fourteen years. Her fourth son was so intimidated by this sequence of events that he repeatedly petitioned to decline the vacant throne. Wu Zetians daughters first husband was also executed on her orders, although she continued to be fond of her daughter