Editing Wu Zetian (section)

=== 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.}}