Editing Wu Zetian (section)

== Literature ==
=== North Gate Scholars ===
Toward the end of Gaozong's life, Wu began engaging a number of mid-level officials who had literary talent, including Yuan Wanqing ({{lang|zh|元萬頃}}), [[Liu Yizhi]], [[Fan Lübing]], Miao Chuke ({{lang|zh|苗楚客}}), Zhou Simao ({{lang|zh|周思茂}}), and Han Chubin ({{lang|zh|韓楚賓}}), to write a number of works on her behalf, including the ''Biographies of Notable Women'' ({{lang|zh|列女傳}}), ''Guidelines for Imperial Subjects'' ({{lang|zh|臣軌}}), and ''New Teachings for Official Staff Members'' ({{lang|zh|百僚新誡}}). Collectively, they became known as the "North Gate Scholars" ({{lang|zh|北門學士}}), because they served inside the palace, which was north of the imperial government buildings, and Wu sought advice from them to divert the powers of the chancellors.<ref name="ZZTJ202" />

=== The "Twelve Suggestions" ===
On 28 January 675, Wu submitted 12 suggestions. The specific proposal has not survive in full, but at least 7 suggestions are known.<ref name=":4">{{cite journal |last1=Twitchett |first1=Denis |author1-link=Denis Twitchett |title=Chen gui and Other Works Attributed to Empress Wu Zetian |url=https://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/1471iwFGrCg.pdf |url-status=live |publisher=[[Academia Sinica]] |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=33–109 [62] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025104451/https://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/1471iwFGrCg.pdf |archive-date=25 October 2020 |access-date=29 August 2020 |work=Asia Major |place=Taipei}}</ref> One was that the work of [[Laozi]] (whose family name was Li and to whom the Tang imperial clan traced its ancestry), [[Tao Te Ching]], should be added to imperial university students' required reading. Another was that a three-year mourning period should be observed for a mother's death in all cases, not just in cases when the father was no longer alive. Emperor Gaozong praised her suggestions and adopted them.<ref name="ZZTJ202" />

=== Modified Chinese characters ===
[[File:则天文字之照一.SVG|thumb|right|upright=0.22|First version of modified character of "Zhao"]]
[[File:则天文字之照二.SVG|thumb|right|upright=0.22|Second version of modified character of "Zhao"]]

[[File:升仙太子碑拓片局部.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Text from Wu Zetian-era stele dedicated to Ji Jin ({{lang|zh|姬晉}}), the [[crown prince]] of [[King Ling of Zhou]], recorded in legends as having risen to heaven to become a god; under the cosmology of Wu Zetian's reign, her lover [[Zhang Changzong]] was a reincarnation of Ji Jin; the text of the stele uses [[Chinese characters of Empress Wu|modified Chinese characters]] that she promulgated.]]

In 690, Wu's cousin's son [[Zong Qinke]] submitted a number of [[Chinese characters of Empress Wu|modified Chinese characters]] intended to showcase Wu's greatness. She adopted them, and took one of the modified characters, Zhao ({{lang|zh|曌}}), to be her formal name (i.e., the name by which the people would exercise [[naming taboo]] on). {{lang|zh|曌}} was made from two other characters: Ming ({{lang|zh|明}}) on top, meaning "light" or "clarity", and Kong ({{lang|zh|空}}) on the bottom, meaning "sky". The implication appeared to be that she would be like the light shining from the sky. (Zhao ({{lang|zh|照}}), meaning "shine", from which {{lang|zh|曌}} was derived, might have been her original name, but evidence of that is inconclusive.){{NoteTag|Her cousin's son [[Zong Qinke]] created a number of new characters in December 689, and she chose {{lang|zh|曌}} as her given name, which became her [[Naming taboo|taboo name]] when she ascended the throne the next year. Some sources assert that this character was actually written {{lang|zh|瞾}}. Some sources (e.g., ''[[Bo Yang]] Edition of the Zizhi Tongjian'', vols. 47–49) also assert that her original given name was Zhao and that in 689 she only changed the written character, but this is confirmed by neither the ''Old Book of Tang'' nor the ''New Book of Tang'', neither of which stated her original given name. Her grandson [[Prince Yide|Li Chongzhao]], sometime after she became emperor, changed his name to Li Chongrun to observe naming taboo for her, and the character of "Zhao" in Li Chongzhao's name was {{lang|zh|照}}. See {{harvp|Old Book of Tang||loc= [[:zh:s:舊唐書/卷86|vol. 86]]}} and {{harvp|New Book of Tang||loc=[[:zh:s:新唐書/卷081|vol. 81]]}}.|name="name"}} Later that year, after successive petition drives started by the low-level official [[Fu Youyi]] began to occur in waves, asking her to take the throne, Emperor Ruizong offered to take the name of Wu as well. On 14 October 690,<ref>([天授元年]九月，....庚辰，太后可皇帝及群臣之请。壬午，御则天数，赦天下，以唐为周，改元。乙酉，上尊号曰圣神皇帝，以皇帝为皇嗣，赐姓武氏；以皇太子为皇孙。) ''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol.204</ref> she approved the requests. She changed the state's name to Zhou on 16 October, claiming ancestry from the [[Zhou dynasty]], and took the throne as Empress Regnant (with the title Empress Regnant Shengshen ({{lang|zh|聖神皇帝}}), literally "Divine and Sacred Emperor or Empress Regnant") on 19 October. Ruizong was deposed and made crown prince with the atypical title ''Huangsi'' ({{lang|zh|皇嗣}}).<ref name="ZZTJ204" /> This thus interrupted the Tang dynasty, and Wu became the first (and only) woman to reign over China as empress regnant.{{NoteTag|During Emperor Taizong's reign, a female agrarian rebel leader named [[Chen Shuozhen]] ({{lang|zh|陳碩眞}}) had declared herself "huangdi" with the title Empress Wenjia ({{lang|zh|文佳皇帝}}, ''Wénjiā huángdì''), but as Chen was quickly defeated and killed, she is typically not considered a true sovereign. See {{harvp|Zizhi Tongjian|1084|loc= [[:zh:s:資治通鑑/卷199|vol. 199]]}}. Earlier than that, during [[Northern Wei]] dynasty, [[Empress Dowager Hu (Northern Wei)|Empress Dowager Hu]], after her son [[Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei|Emperor Xiaoming]]'s death, falsely declared [[Daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei|Emperor Xiaoming's daughter]] to be a son and declared the daughter to be the new emperor, but almost immediately revealed that the child was in fact female, and thereafter declared [[Yuan Zhao]], the young son of Emperor Xiaoming's cousin Yuan Baohui ({{lang|zh|元寶暉}}) emperor. See {{harvp|Zizhi Tongjian|1084|loc= [[:zh:s:資治通鑑/卷152|vol. 152]]}}. Emperor Xiaoming's daughter is also therefore not usually considered a true emperor.}}

=== Poetry ===
Wu's court was a focus of literary creativity. Forty-six of Wu's poems are collected in the ''[[Complete Tang Poems]]'' and 61 essays under her name are recorded in the ''Quan Tangwen'' (''Collected Tang Essays'').<ref>{{Cite book |title = Women writers of traditional China: an anthology of poetry and criticism
 |author=[[Kang-i Sun Chang]] |author2=[[Haun Saussy]] |author3=Charles Yim-tze Kwong
 |year = 1999
 |publisher = Stanford University Press
 |page = 31
}}</ref> Many of those writings serve political ends, but there is one poem in which she laments her mother after she died and expresses her despair at not being able to see her again.

During Wu's reign, the imperial court produced various works of which she was a sponsor, such as the anthology of her court's poetry known as the ''[[Zhuying ji]]'' (''Collection of Precious Glories''), which contained poems by [[Cui Rong]], [[Li Jiao (Tang dynasty)|Li Jiao]], [[Zhang Yue (Tang dynasty)|Zhang Yue]], and others, arranged according to the poets' rank at court.<ref>{{harvp|Yu|2002|p= 56}}</ref> Among the literary developments that took place during Wu's time (and partly at her court) was the final stylistic development of the "new style" poetry of the [[Regulated verse|regulated verse (''jintishi'')]], by the poetic pair [[Song Zhiwen]] and [[Shen Quanqi]].

Wu also patronized scholars by founding an institute to produce the ''Collection of Biographies of Famous Women''.<ref name="Paludan, 99" /> The development of what is considered characteristic [[Tang poetry]] is traditionally ascribed to [[Chen Zi'ang]],<ref>{{harvp|Watson|1971|p= 115}}</ref> one of Wu's ministers.

=== Literary allusions ===
Literary allusions to Wu may carry several connotations: a woman who has inappropriately overstepped her bounds, the hypocrisy of preaching compassion while simultaneously engaging in a pattern of political corruption and vicious behavior. For many centuries, the establishment used Wu as an example of what can go wrong when a woman is in charge.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rothstein-Safra |first=Rachael |date=2017 |title=The Rhetoric of Transgression: Reconstructing Female Authority through Wu Zetian's Legacy |url=https://ucf.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A45986/datastream/OBJ/view/THE_RHETORIC_OF_TRANSGRESSION__RECONSTRUCTING_FEMALE_AUTHORITY_THROUGH_WU_ZETIAN_S_LEGACY.pdf |journal=[[University of Central Florida]]}}</ref>

[[Mao Zedong]]'s wife [[Jiang Qing]] rehabilitated Wu as part of a propaganda campaign to suggest she be considered as a successor to her ailing husband. [[Frank Dikötter|Frank Dikotter]] asserted that [[Jiang Qing]] "had started to compare herself to the only empress ever to have ruled in Chinese history, namely Wu Zetian. Articles praising the sixth-century empress as a great unifier of the nation appeared in the press, even though she was popularly reviled as a ruthless, wicked ruler who had mercilessly crushed her opponents."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dikotter |first=Frank |title=The Cultural Revolution: A People's History |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]] |year=2016 |location=New York |pages=304 |language=en}}</ref> However, Dikotter did not cite sources for his claim.

In his biography ''Wu'', [[Jonathan Clements]] writes that these wildly differing uses of a historical figure often led to contradictory and even hysterical characterizations. Many alleged poisonings and other incidents, such as her daughter's premature death, may have rational explanations that have been twisted by later opponents.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clements |first=Jonathan |url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/6991935 |title=Wu: the Chinese empress who schemed, seduced, and murdered her way to become a living god |date=2007 |publisher=Sutton |isbn=978-0-7509-3961-4 |location=Stroud, Gloucestershire}}</ref>