The Unofficial History of Wu Zetian

The Outer History of Empress Wu Zetian, Second Collection, Twenty-Eight Chapters. The title page says “Written by Buqisheng.” Lithographic edition. The center of the cover reads “The Outer History of Empress Wu Zetian,” with “Erotic Tales of Past and Present” on the right and “Historical Novel” on the left. The preface is signed “Respectfully recorded by Wentian.” The second collection has four illustrations in each volume, with no commentary. The main text has thirteen lines per half-page, with thirty-two characters per line. The publisher and date of publication are unknown. [Held by the Tianjin Library] The Novel Miscellany records a work titled The Outer History of Zetian, saying: “It is based on historical sources, and the writing is elegant. It is comparable to The Erotic History of the Sui.” This may be the same book.

In the second year of the Yongchun era (683), Emperor Gaozong died and Zhongzong, Li Xian, ascended the throne. Wu became Empress Dowager. In the first year of the Sisheng era (684), Li Xian was deposed and made Prince of Luling, and Li Dan was installed as emperor. Empress Wu ruled from behind the curtain, beginning the era in which she truly held absolute power over the court. In September of that year, Xu Jingye, grandson of Li Ji, gathered an army of a hundred thousand in Yangzhou and launched a rebellion against Wu Zetian. She swiftly crushed it with an army of three hundred thousand. At the same time, she executed Pei Yan and other senior officials entrusted with the emperor’s care, largely eliminating opposition at court. She also plotted to provoke the Li imperial clan into rebellion, using the opportunity to launch a bloody purge and remove the obstacles to her becoming emperor. To suppress those who might resent her, Wu Zetian began rewarding informants and employing ruthless officials in the third month of the second year of the Chuigong era (686). While attacking her opponents, Wu Zetian also fabricated auspicious omens and built the Mingtang, or Hall of Ten Thousand Images. She found grounds for a woman to become emperor in the Buddhist scripture The Great Cloud Sutra, and built public support for her accession. On the eighteenth day of the fifth month in the fourth year of the Chuigong era (688), Empress Dowager Wu adopted the honorific title “Holy Mother, Divine Sovereign,” taking a tentative step toward becoming emperor. In the first year of the Zaichu era (690), Wu Zetian deposed Ruizong, declared herself Emperor Shengshen, changed the country’s name to Zhou, and designated the eastern capital, Luoyang, as the Divine Capital. This period is known as Wu Zhou. At the age of sixty-seven, Wu Zetian took the throne and became the only female emperor in Chinese history.