Editing Wu Zetian (section)

== Evaluation ==
=== Quotes ===
[[File:Wuhou (2).jpg|thumb|18th-century [[Qing dynasty]] illustration of Wu Zetian]]
The traditional Chinese historical view of Wu Zetian generally was mixed—admiring her for her abilities in governing the state, but vilifying her for her actions in seizing imperial power. [[Luo Binwang]] even wrote along these lines in a declaration during her lifetime, in support of Li Jingye's rebellion. Typical was a commentary by the [[Later Jin (Five Dynasties)|Later Jin dynasty]] historian [[Liu Xu]], the lead editor of the ''[[Old Book of Tang]]'':<ref>{{harvp|Old Book of Tang|loc= [[:zh:s:舊唐書/卷6|vol. 6]]}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The year that Lady Wu declared herself regent, heroic individuals were all mournful of the unfortunate turn of events, worried that the dynasty would fall, and concerned that they could not repay the grace of the deceased emperor [i.e., Emperor Gaozong] and protect his sons. Soon thereafter, great accusations arose, and many innocent people were falsely accused and stuck their necks out in waiting for execution. Heaven and earth became like a huge cage, and even if one could escape it, where could he go? That was lamentable. In the past, the trick of covering the nose{{NoteTag|This was a reference to a story relayed in the ''[[Han Feizi (book)|Han Feizi]]''. In the story, it was mentioned that the king of [[Qi (state)|Qi]] gave a beautiful woman to [[King Huai of Chu]] as a gift, to be his concubine. King Huai's jealous wife Queen Zheng Xiu ({{lang|zh|鄭袖}}) told her, "The King loves you greatly, but dislikes your nose. If you cover your nose whenever you see him, you can ensure that he will continue to be loved by him." She accepted Queen Zheng's suggestion. When King Huai asked Queen Zheng, "Why does she cover her nose when she sees me?" Queen Zheng responded, "She often said that Your Majesty had a stench to you." King Huai, in anger, yelled, "Cut off her nose!"}} surprised the realm in its poisonousness, and the disaster of the human pig{{NoteTag|This is a reference to the torture that [[Emperor Gao of Han]]'s wife [[Empress Lü Zhi]] carried out against Emperor Gao's favorite concubine [[Consort Qi (Han dynasty)|Consort Qi]] after Emperor Gao's death, once Empress Lü became empress dowager—by cutting her limbs off, blinding her, deafening her, and referring to her as the human pig ({{lang|zh|人彘}}).}} caused the entire state to mourn. In order to take over as empress, Empress Wu strangled her own infant daughter; her willingness to crush her own flesh and blood showed how great her viciousness and vile nature was, although this is nothing more than what jealous individuals and evil women might do. However, she accepted the words of righteousness and honored the upright. Although she was like a hen that crowed, she eventually returned the rightful rule to her son. She quickly dispelled the accusation against Wei Yuanzhong, comforted Di Renjie with kind words, respected the will of the times and suppressed her favorites, and listened to honest words and ended the terror of the secret police officials. This was good, this was good.}}

Some of the diversity in terms of points of agreement and even outright divergences in modern evaluations of Wu can be seen in the following quotes by modern non-Chinese authors:

{{blockquote|Wu Zetian (690–705) was an extraordinary woman, attractive, exceptionally gifted, politically astute and an excellent judge of men. With single minded determination, she overcame the opposition of the Confucian establishment through her own efforts, unique among palace women by not using her own family. Her rise to power was steeped in blood.<ref>{{harvp|Paludan|1998|p= 98}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|"To the horror of traditional Chinese historians, all members of the ''shih'' class, the continued success of the T'ang was in large measure due to an ex-concubine who finally usurped the throne itself....Though she was ruthless towards her enemies, the period of her ascendency was a good one for China. Government was sound, no rebellions occurred, abuses in the army and administration were stamped out and Korea was annexed, an achievement no previous Chinese had ever managed."<ref name="Cotterell and Cotterell, 144" />}}

{{blockquote|"China's only woman ruler, Empress Wu was a remarkably skilled and able politician, but her murderous and illicit methods of maintaining power gave her a bad reputation among male bureaucrats. It also fostered overstaffing and many kinds of corruption."<ref name="Fairbank, 82" />}}

=== Confucian viewpoints ===
Wu Zetian's rise and reign was criticized harshly by [[Confucian]] historians like [[Liu Xu]]<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Rothschild |first=N. Harry |title=Wu Zhao: China's Only Woman Emperor |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2008 |edition=1st |pages=38-39, 183}}</ref> and Yuan Shu,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rothschild |first=N. Harry |title=Wu Zhao: China's Only Woman Emperor |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2008 |edition=1st |pages=210}}</ref> But, some of those had praises for Wu Zetian like Liu Xu (in Quotes section), Sima Guang<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rothschild |first=N. Harry |title=Wu Zhao: China's Only Woman Emperor |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2008 |pages=209–20=10}}</ref>

In the early period of the Tang dynasty, because all the emperors were her direct descendants, Wu was evaluated favorably. But commentary in subsequent periods, especially the book ''[[Zizhi Tongjian]]'' compiled by [[Sima Guang]], harshly criticized her. By the period of Southern [[Song dynasty]], when [[Neo-Confucianism]] was firmly established as China's mainstream political ideology, it determined the evaluation of Wu.{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}}