| Unique in China's long history as the sole female emperor, Wu Zhao (r. 690--705), often called Wu Zetian or Empress Wu, deposed her two sons, Zhongzong and Ruizong, established Luoyang as her Divine Capital in place of Chang'an, and changed the dynastic name from Tang to Zhou. To legitimize her sovereignty, she necessarily devised a creative series of persuasive strategies. This dissertation analyzes the construction of Wu Zhao's imperial power and legitimation through examining her manipulation of language, her appropriation of traditional political concepts, her public performance of rituals, and the contributions of different constituencies to her authority.; With an aesthetic flair, Wu Zhao deftly manipulated language, creating a series of ornate new characters, frequently changing reign eras, revising bureaucratic titles, and altering place names. Texts like Regulations for Ministers created a culture of loyalty among the bureaucrats in her court. Rhetoricians cast her as a Sage Mother, to whom the common people gravitated as sons. In the cosmopolitan late 7th century, she assembled a diverse array of political supporters, humble and eminent, Chinese and non-Chinese, Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian.; With tremendous fanfare and publicity, ceremonies like the sacrosanct feng and shan sacrifices and ritual monuments from Confucian tradition were brought to life. In her capable hands, tradition was a plastic medium: Her rites and monuments were not Confucian, but ideological hybrids. She invested language and ritual with her own character, molding flamboyant carnival and a garish aesthetic into an artistic mandate that centralized power must be revered.; Wu Zhao's true ideological affiliation remained opaque. This ideological blankness enabled her to cover more symbolic and ideological space, a vital political skill administering the diverse, multi-ethnic empire.; In addition to the Tang dynastic histories and the Comprehensive Mirror, this study draws on the Quan Tangwen, the Taiping guangji, the Tang huiyao and the Song gaoseng zhuan, among other primary sources. |
