Editing Wu Zetian (section)

=== Names ===
In Wu's time, women's birth names were rarely recorded. She changed her name to Wu Zhao after rising to power,<ref name="Paludan, 100">{{harvp|Paludan|1998|p=100}}</ref> often written as {{lang|zh|武曌}}, ({{lang|zh|曌}} has also been written as {{lang|zh|瞾}} on occasion, and both are derivatives of {{lang|zh|照}}, which may be her original name), with 瞾 being one of the invented characters by Wu. Wu was her patronymic surname, which she retained, according to traditional Chinese practice, after marriage to Gaozong, of the Li family. Emperor Taizong gave her the [[art name]] Wu Mei ({{lang|zh|武媚}}), meaning "glamorous".<ref name="NBT76" /> Thus, Chinese people often refer to her as Wu Mei or Wu Meiniang ({{lang|zh|武媚娘}}) when they write about her youth, as Wu Hou ({{lang|zh|武后}}) when referring to her as empress consort and empress dowager, and as Wu Zetian ({{lang|zh|武則天}}) as her posthumous title, given only after her death.<ref name=":3" />

Because her family name, Wu (武), is a homophone for the second character in parrot (鹦鹉), there are many stories and jokes that make use of imagery of a parrot to communicate about Wu and her clan.<ref name=":3" /> In particular, Emperor Gaozong's family name, Li (唐), is a homophone with a type of cat -- so a story circulated about a cat eating a parrot at court.<ref name=":3" />