Wu Zetian
Taoism, Buddhism
Away from the Abrahamic faiths, this golden age for women was shaping another belief system, driving one nation to become the greatest civilisation
on Earth.
Qianling, China. Thanks to religion and the written word, one woman would secure her place as its supreme ruler.
Wu Zetian
I've come here to trace a story of what has to be one of the most extraordinary characters in the whole of human history. She ruled China from
inner Mongolia to the south of Korea and she demanded to be called, not Empress, but Emperor. Her name was Wu Zetian and she is buried somewhere
deep in this holy mountain.
Like Theodora and Aisha, her legacy is deeply controversial. The stone army that guards Wu's burial site has been vandalised and contemporary
writers were even more brutal. With the heart of a serpent and the nature of the Wolf, she slew her sister, butchered her brothers, killed her
prince and poisoned her mother. She is hated by men and gods alike. Even her memorial stone was left unmarked.
Liu Yang "This is really a unique case, actually. The memorial stone remained blank because her successors found her to controversial."
I'm meeting historian Professor Liu Yang, of the University of Peking, to try to uncover the story of this remarkable, elusive woman, who is
huge in China, but barely known in the West.
Wu Zetian was born into a noble family in 624 A.D. Her society was dominated by an ancient religion called Taoism that believed in many gods and
the ideas of the philosopher Confucius.
Liu Yang "In terms of a religious and spiritual aspect, this is really a very dynamic and diverse period. There are many traditions around and
people can adapt them to their own needs and sometimes they simply mix them together, which emphasises everyone has its proper place in society and
there is very little chance for them to change their status. And women, in particular, are very much restricted by those aspects."
Liu Yang
But there was an alternative, in the form of the Buddhism, a philosophy gaining ground in China.
Liu Yang "She was brought up in a family heavily influenced by Buddhism. That has a lot to do with her later choices in life. It gave her,
probably, inspirations as well."
Great Pagoda
During Wu's childhood, the emperors had begun to build great Buddhist pagodas, like this in the capital Xi'an.
When Wu arrived here, aged 13, this was the biggest city in the world, dominated by the Royal Palace, which would become her new home. Recently,
archaeologists have uncovered new evidence of the palace's sheer scale.
So what exactly are we looking at here?
Liu Yang "We're looking at the foundation of the southern gate. The so-called Vermilion Bird Gate overlooked the city in the past."
How big would the gate originally have been?
Liu Yang "Oh, this entire building is built to match the original dimensional of the gate. It is huge. But still, this is just one of a dozen
gates of the palace."
And there's more rich evidence of the palace culture underground in the tomb of an emperor's daughter.
Guardsman
Liu Yang "Look at these majestic-looking guardsman."
Here, you get a snapshot of some of the 30,000 courtiers like Wu, who once lived in the vast palace complex.
Do we know exactly what kind of day-to-day tasks she'd have been responsible for?
Liu Yang "Most historical records seem to give us the impression that she started with a very low rank, almost like a chambermaid. So prepared
the beds for the Emperor Taizong and even served in the toilet."
One day the Emperor's health began to fail. His son and heir, Gaozong came to his father's sickbed and it was now, according to some accounts,
that Wu began a passionate affair with the Crown Prince. Wu was using the oldest trick in the book to turn the situation to her advantage, but
her meteoric rise came to an abrupt end when the old Emperor succumbed.
Buddhist Nunnery
The old Emperor was dead but Wu was still considered his property and as a childless concubine, she no longer had a place at court. So, instead,
she was sent to live out her life as a nun in a Buddhist nunnery.
It's hard to imagine what it would have been like for Wu Zetian in a place like this. It could not have been more different to the edgy splendour
of the palace that she was used to. And here her days would have been dominated by prayers and chanting. She might well have had her head shaved and
she would have vowed to deny all the pleasures of the flesh. She was just 22, so this would have been like a life sentence.
After just a year in the nunnery, Wu got an unexpected reprieve. The new Empress Wang summoned her to the palace.
Liu Yang "The Empress, certainly at this time, feels a bit insecure, because she hasn't really produced an heir for the Emperor and she is facing
a new rival, who is a favourite consort of the new Emperor."
But how is it going to help to have Wu here?
Liu Yang "I think she thinks that she can bring Wu as a tool to distract the Emperor, to get attention away from that favourite concubine."
It's quite a risky strategy, isn't it?
Liu Yang "It is, it is and she never really thought that Wu would ever really rival her in the palace. And she certainly underestimated Wu's ability."
Wu was back in the palace with her eye on the main chance, but now she wasn't satisfied just to hold her place in the Emperor's bed, she wanted to
share his throne.
Wu quickly produced an heir for the Emperor and staked a claim to the old Empress's throne. It wasn't long before she made it clear that she was
in charge. The Empress Wang was locked away in a filthy room at the very edge of the palace and left to die a painful, lonely death.
Holy Mountain
Wu was now the most powerful woman in China and she made religion her greatest weapon. She showed her true colours at an ancient festival in
China's Holy Mountains. Traditionally, this was a man-only affair, but Wu was having none of it. Wu argued that the deity in charge of the Holy
Mountain was a goddess and that the Earth herself was female and so, naturally, she should have a presence. She must have been very persuasive
because she won her case. The Emperor led the ceremony to the gods of the sky and the top of the mountain and she officiated on behalf of the
earth goddesses at the bottom. It was the first time in Chinese history that a woman was present at this most sacred of ceremonies.
Wu had used religion to promote herself, but the old gods only offered so much for a woman in mediaeval China. So when the emperor died, she
looked to the beliefs of her childhood, to help her reach the pinnacle of power. She embarked on a massive propaganda campaign right through her
empire that had Buddhism at its heart.
Previous Tang rulers had been generous patrons of Buddhism, but Wu took this to a whole new level. No, you don't get a statement much bigger
than this. We know that Wu Zetian used her own money, 20,000 strings of silver coin, to have this enormous image carved out of the rock face.
Buddha
Originally, the Buddha had carved on one shoulder the sun and on the other the moon. And these are symbols of the Buddha as a universal leader.
But they are also images that Wu Zetian used to create a new Chinese character to write her own name, implying that she was the sun and the moon
combined. The elimination of all the world.
Once this was built, rumours also started to circulate that this buddha's face was actually modelled on Wu Zetian's own.
It's clear that Wu saw Buddhism as a means to consolidate her grip on power, but why was it such a useful tool?
Valerie Hansen
Professor Valerie Hansen from Princeton is an expert on religion in the Tang Dynasty. "Buddhism is much more flexible in the options it
offers and there is a specific Buddhist idea called the 'Wheel-turning King', who contributes money or land or food to Buddhist monasteries.
And that idea was so flexible that there was a place for a woman. And Empress Wu takes that 'Wheel-turning King' name for herself and 693."
Just the first step in Wu's master plan to harness Buddhism was the power of the word. She sent monks to India to scour the country for sacred
texts, called sutras, until they found what she needed to cement her position as ruler in heaven and on earth.
Professor Hansen "The Great Cloud sutra tells of a prophesy that a woman ruler will govern in a small Indian, not Chinese, a small Indian kingdom.
She attains nirvana. She has the option to become a man and she rejects that option so she can stay on earth and be a woman ruler. And when she was
the ruler of the kingdom, the kingdom flourished. So it was the perfect text for a woman who saw herself as a wheel-turning patron of Buddhism."
Buttressed by texts like the Great Cloud sutra, Wu declared herself Emperor of China. Founding a new dynasty in her family's name.
