The Modern Evolution And Gender Culture Illumination Of Wu Zetian's Image

Wu Zetian is a woman combining many legends and extremes, thereby a controversial figure in Chinese history during and after her life. Chinese Classical literature and unofficial historical legends are prone to defame her from moral perspective, treating her a typical character of wanton. This single and typical characterization also provides possibility for later rewritings. Twentieth century witness a special literary phenomenon formed by literary works with Wu Zetian as theme and material.This paper consists of three parts. Part one is an introduction, which offers a definition of the concept"gender culture"employed in this paper, introduces the situation and background of literary creation with Wu Zetian as theme and material, discusses the gender cultural circumstance the fundamental reason why writers in different epoch focus on and rewrite the image of Wu Zetian.Part two is body, which is divided into two chapters. Chapter one classifies the constant changing images of Wu Zetian since the twentieth century, pointing out that authors of different social gender identity adopt different narrative strategies, thereby laying bear their deep cultural psychology. The image of Wu Zetian by male authors could be classified into four types. The first type is"individualism heroine"under the pen of Song Zhidi, Ke Ling and Tian Han, who set to express the theme of the epoch—fight against feudalism tradition and advocate individuality. Their works also show their misreading of women liberation. The second type is"wise and virtuous empress"depicted by Guo Moro and Yang Shu'an, who erase Wu Zetian's female characteristics by only emphasizing her political identity. What is embedded is their affirmation of male advantage and prejudice against woman. The third type is"wanton and seductress"characterized by Lin Yutang, Su Tong and Bei Cun. These works show their criticism of totalitarianism and autocracy, but these works are still the...