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i A COMPANION TO GLOBAL QUEENSHIP ii FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY iii A COMPANION TO GLOBAL QUEENSHIP Edited by ELENA WOODACRE iv British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library © 2018, Arc Humanities Press, Leeds The authors assert their moral right to be identi ied as the authors of their part of this work. Permission to use brief excerpts from this work in scholarly and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is an exception or limitation covered by Article 5 of the European Union’s Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC) or would be determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 page 2 or that satis ies the conditions speci ied inPRIVATE Section 108 of AND the U.S. CopyFOR right Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94–553) does not NON-COMMERCIAL require the Publisher’s permission. USE ONLY ISBN: 9781942401469 e-ISBN: 9781942401476 arc-humanities.org Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY v CONTENTS List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Chapter 1. Introduction: Placing Queenship into a Global Context ELENA WOODACRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part I Perceptions of Regnant Queenship Chapter 2. When the Emperor Is a Woman: The Case of Wu Zetian 武則天 (624–705), the “Emulator of Heaven” ELISABETTA COLLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chapter 3. Tamar of Georgia (1184–1213) and the Language of Female Power LOIS HUNEYCUTT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Chapter 4. Regnant Queenship and Royal Marriage between the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Nobility of Western Europe HAYLEY BASSETT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Chapter 5. Queenship and Female Authority in the Sultanate of Delhi (1206–1526) JYOTI PHULERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Chapter 6. Anna Jagiellon: A Female Political Figure in the Early Modern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth KATARZYNA KOSIOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Chapter 7. Female Rule in Imperial Russia: Is Gender a Useful Category of Historical Analysis? OREL BEILINSON. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 vi vi Chapter 8. The Transformation of an Island Queen: Queen Béti of Madagascar JANE HOOPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Chapter 9. Female Rangatira in Aotearoa New Zealand AIDAN NORRIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Part II Practising Co-Rulership Chapter 10. The Social–Political Roles of the Princess in Kyivan Rus’, ca. 945–1240 TALIA ZAJAC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Chapter 11. Impressions of Welsh Queenship in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries DANNA R. MESSER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Chapter 12. Queen Zaynab al-Nafzawiyya and the Building of a Mediterranean Empire in the Eleventh-Century Maghreb INÊS LOURINHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Chapter 13. Al-Dalfa’ and the Political Role of the umm al-walad in the Late Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus ANA MIRANDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Chapter 14. The Khitan Empress Dowagers Yingtian and Chengtian in Liao China, 907–1125 HANG LIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Chapter 15. Dowager Queens and Royal Succession in Premodern Korea SEOKYUNG HAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Chapter 16. The Ambiguities of Female Rule in Nayaka South India, Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries LENNART BES . . . . . . . . .FOR . . . . . . PRIVATE . . . . . . . . . . . .AND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY Part III Breaking Down Boundaries: Comparative Studies of Queenship Chapter 17. Helena’s Heirs: Two Eighth-Century Queens STEFANY WRAGG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 vi vii Chapter 18. The Hohenstaufen Women and the Differences between Aragonese and Greek Queenship Models LLEDÓ RUIZ DOMINGO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Chapter 19. The “Honourable Ladies” of Nasrid Granada: Female Power and Agency in the Alhambra (1400–1450) ANA ECHEVARRÍA and ROSER SALICRÚ I LLUCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Chapter 20. Comparing the French Queen Regent and the Ottoman Validé Sultan during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries RENEÉ LANGLOIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Chapter 21. Queens and Courtesans in Japan and Early Modern France TRACY ADAMS and IAN FOOKES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Chapter 22. The Figure of the Queen Mother in the European and African Monarchies, 1400–1800 DIANA PELAZ FLORES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 4.1 8.1 15.1 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 19.1 Family tree of the queens of Jerusalem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Eighteenth-century southwestern Indian Ocean.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 The queens and kings of the Koryŏ (918–1392) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Geographical locations in early modern south India mentioned in the main text or footnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Genealogical chart of the Nayakas of Ikkeri showing the (probable) family relations of Queens Chennammaji and Virammaji, with rulers in capitals and dotted lines indicating adoptions.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Genealogical chart of the Nayakas of Madurai showing the (probable) family relations of Queens Mangammal and Minakshi, with rulers in capitals and dotted lines indicating adoptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Details of murals depicting Queen Mangammal of Madurai receiving the royal sceptre from the local goddess, Minakshi, through a priest (left) and attending a divine wedding with her grandson, Vijayaranga Chokkanatha Nayaka (right); Unjal Mandapa (central ceiling), Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Statues thought by some scholars to depict Queen Virammaji of Ikkeri and her adopted son, Somashekara Nayaka III; Rameshvara Temple, Keladi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Book covers of (from left to right) Mahādēvi, Vīra śirōmaṇi keḷadi cannamma rāṇi (in Kannada); Gayatri Madan Dutt and Souren Roy, Chennamma of Keladi: The Queen Who De ied Aurangazeb (in the Amar Chitra Katha series); Nāka Caṇmukam, Rāṇi maṇkammā (in Tamil). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Genealogical chart of the Nasrid dynasty in late medieval Granada. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Tables 15.1 Queen dowagers of the Chosŏn (1392–1910). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 15.2 Queen mothers of the Chosŏn (1392–1910). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge, irst and foremost, the scholastic efforts and good-natured cooperation of the fantastic group of contributors to this collection. I am very grateful to have such delightful colleagues to work with and I thank them for contributing their insightful research to this project. I would also like to thank Dymphna Evans at ARC for her assistance and support throughout; her advice and help have been crucial to the success of this collection, and she has been a real joy to work with. Thanks also to Erika Gaffney, who has ably stepped into Dymphna’s shoes, as well as to Tom and Kennedy at ARC for their assistance with maps and genealogical trees for various chapters of the collection, which is very much appreciated. Elena Woodacre CONTRIBUTORS Tracy Adams received a PhD in French from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1998. Associate Professor in European languages and literatures at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, she has also taught at the University of Maryland, the University of Miami, and the University of Lyon III. She was a Eurias Senior Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies from 2011 to 2012 and an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions Distinguished International Visiting Fellow in 2014. She is the author of Violent Passions: Managing Love in the Old French Verse Romance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010) and Christine de Pizan and the Fight for France (Penn State University Press, 2014). With Christine Adams, she has just edited Female Beauty Systems: Beauty as Social Capital in Western Europe and the US, Middle Ages to the Present (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015). Also with Christine Adams, The French Royal Mistress and the Creation of the State, under contract with Penn State University Press, is scheduled to appear in 2018. Hayley Bassett is a postgraduate student of medieval history at Cardiff University. Her research interests include AngloNorman politics and diplomacy, particularly royal succession, regnant queenship, and gender authority. More speci ically, her current work examines inter-dynastic marriage alliances as a tool of diplomacy in the twelfth century. Orel Beilinson is a historian of imperial and post-imperial, but mainly socialist, eastern Europe. He is interested in the relationships between ideologies and between ideologies and social, political, and legal structures and practices. As such, his current researches investigate the relationship between socialism, modernity, and religion (Islam and Judaism) in this region during the turn of the nineteenth century. Lennart Bes is a historian and Indologist studying political culture at Indic courts. He recently submitted his PhD x x dissertation at the Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands), which concerns court politics in the south Indian Vijayanagara successor states. In the past he was employed at the Netherlands National Archives, where he worked on the records of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Currently he is teaching at Leiden University on the history of India and Southeast Asia, European expansion, and the VOC and its archives. He has published on early modern south Indian kingdoms, their contacts with the VOC, and Dutch records concerning South Asia. Elisabetta Colla holds the following degrees: MA ( Laurea) degree in Oriental languages and literatures, Ca’Foscari University of Venice; diploma in Chinese language and culture, former Beijing Languages Institute; MA degree in Asian studies, Faculty of Human Sciences of Oporto; and a PhD in Cultural Studies from the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Portuguese Catholic University, Lisbon. She is currently Assistant Professor at FLUL (School of Arts and Humanities, Lisbon University) and has written various articles and a dissertation on Macau. SeoKyung Han (PhD, philosophy, State University of New York at Binghampton) explores the book culture and history of antiquity through premodern East Asia. She focuses on how the Buddhist sutras and the (Neo-)Confucian classics were secularized and popularized across eras and regions and how women engaged in reproducing those authorial texts, not only as narrative object but also as author and/or as audience (reader and listener) of the texts. Jane Hooper received her PhD from Emory University, Atlanta, in 2010 and she is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Her book Feeding Globalization: Madagascar and the Provisioning Trade, 1600–1800 was published in 2017 by Ohio University Press as part of its Indian Ocean Studies series. She has also written articles about pirates, the slave trade from the Indian Ocean to the Americas, and teaching the trans-Atlantic slave trade. She is currently studying American commerce and whaling in the Indian Ocean during the irst half of the nineteenth century. Lois Huneycutt is Associate Professor of History at the Ana Echevarría is Reader (Profesora Titular) of Medieval University of Missouri, Columbia, and has worked extensively History at the National University of Distance Education in on Anglo-Norman queenship. She is currently at work on a Madrid. She holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. project reassessing the role of women in Europe’s conversion She has been a Visiting Professor in NYU Madrid and has to Christianity, and her most recent publication is an artconducted research work in universities and libraries in sevicle on women and power in volume two of Bloomsbury’s A eral countries. Recently she has been a Visiting Fellow at the Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages, edited by Kim Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Dynamics in the History of Religions M. Phillips. between Asia and Europe” (Ruhr University, Bochum, Katarzyna Kosior is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Germany) and at the Institute for Advanced Study at the the Department of Humanities at Northumbria University, Excellence Cluster “Kulturellen Grundlagen von Integration” researching early modern Polish-Lithuanian kingship, in Constance University (Germany). Her research interests elective monarchy, and masculinity. Her forthcoming book, include the relations between Christianity and Islam in the Becoming a Queen in Early Modern Europe: East and West, will Iberian Peninsula, and queenship in the Mediterranean. She be published by Palgrave in 2019. is the author of a book and several articles on Catherine of Lancaster and the coordinator, together with Prof. Nikolas Reneé Langlois recently inished her MA at the University of Jaspert (University of Heidelberg), of a monographic issue Nevada, Las Vegas, and completed her thesis on a wider comof the journal Anuario de Estudios Medievales (Barcelona) on parison of the rule of the Ottoman validé sultans and the “Power and Agency of Medieval Iberian Queens.” FOR PRIVATE French queens regent during the early modern period that AND NON-COMMERCIAL juxtaposes the means by which both sets of women accessed Ian Fookes is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Asian Studies at ONLY USE great political agency. She has presented stages of her work the University of Auckland, School of Cultures, Languages and at the 2015 “Kings & Queens” conference IV and at the 2016 Linguistics. With a background in French and philosophy, he is Western Ottomanists’ Workshop. She also had the oppora specialist in the writings of poet Victor Segalen (1878–1919) tunity to present at the “Kings & Queens” V and VI, in 2016 and the aesthetics of diversity. Research interests include and 2017, and at the 2017 Sixteenth Century Society and exoticism, postcolonial approaches to literature, Paci ic Conference. While her primary research focuses on royal writing, travel writing, and Western representations of Asia. women and sovereignty in France and the Ottoman Empire, xi xi Reneé also explores the ways that climate can be used as a lens to re-examine history. Her forthcoming article “Dynastic Loyalty and Allegiances: Ottoman Resilience during the Seventeenth Century Crisis” discerns the ways that the royal women of the imperial harem fought for Ottoman survival, and became major contributors to the empire’s resilience during a century of dramatic climate change that was witnessed throughout the world. Hang Lin is currently Assistant Professor at Hangzhou Normal University, China. He has completed his MA and PhD in Chinese history at the University of Würzburg, Germany, and a postdoctoral project at the University of Hamburg. His major research interest focuses on the history of the Khitan and the Jurchen, the archaeology and material culture of the non- Han peoples in Chinese history, and manuscript culture and the history of the book in late imperial China. His recent publications include: “Nomadic Mothers as Rulers in China: Female Regents of the Khitan Liao (907– 1125),” in Royal Mothers and Their Ruling Children: Wielding Political Authority from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era , edited by Ellie Woodacre and Carey Fleiner (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 105– 25; and “Re- envisioning the Manchu and Qing History: A Question of Sinicization,” Archiv Orientalni 85 (2017): 141–54. Inês Lourinho has been a journalist since 1992; she has completed her licence (bachelor’s degree) in communication in 1998 at the New University of Lisbon. In 2007 she enrolled in the master’s program in medieval history at the University of Lisbon, which she concluded in 2010 with a thesis, “1147: A Conjuncture Analysed from the Muslim Sources Perspective,” under the supervision of Professor Hermenegildo Fernandes. She has recently inished her PhD thesis, “The Frontier of Gharb al-Andalus: Confrontation Ground between Almoravids and Christians (1093–1147),” with the same supervisor. Currently she is a researcher at the Centre for History of the University of Lisbon, with al- Andalus, Maghreb, Christian– Muslim relations, frontier cultures, Mozarabs, warfare, and medieval leets among her ields of interest. She is mentioned in the book The Historiography of Medieval Portugal (c. 1950–2010), edited by José Mattoso and published in 2011 by the Institute for Medieval Studies (New University of Lisbon), due to her research on Islamic and Mozarabic studies. Danna R. Messer is an independent historian who received her PhD in medieval Welsh history from Bangor University. Her general research interest is women living in native Wales before the Edwardian conquest of 1282 and, speci ically, the wives of the native Welsh rulers. She is the Medieval History Series Editor for Pen and Sword Books, the Layout Editor for the Royal Studies Journal, a contributor to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, and a member of the Royal Historical Society. Ana Miranda is a researcher at the Centre for History of the University of Lisbon and at the Centre for Archaeology of the same institution. She is a PhD candidate on medieval history, currently working on her thesis: “Circulation Networks in the 11th Century: Gharb al-Andalus between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.” Her research domains are the history of al-Andalus and the history of Mediterranean societies, with a special focus on topics such as learned men, minorities, border societies, circulation, and cultural transfer. She has presented several papers at both national and international conferences throughout Europe and has submitted articles, most of which are awaiting publication. Aidan Norrie is a historian of monarchy. He is a Chancellor’s International Scholar in the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick, and an Honorary Associate of the Department of English and Linguistics at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Aidan is the editor of Women on the Edge in Early Modern Europe (with Lisa Hopkins) and of From Medievalism to Early-Modernism: Adapting the English Past (with Marina Gerzic). Diana Pelaz Flores is an Assistant Professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She obtained her PhD from the University of Valladolid with a dissertation titled “ ‘Reynante(s) en vno’: Poder y representación de la reina en la Corona de Castilla durante el siglo XV,” written under the supervision of Professor María Isabel del Val Valdivieso, for which she was awarded the “VIII Premio a Tesis Doctorales” by the Asociación Española de Investigación en Historia de las Mujeres. She has worked on several research projects and has published several articles and book chapters in prestigious journals and publishing houses. She has also published three books, titled Rituales Líquidos: El signi icado del agua en el ceremonial de la Corte de Castilla (ss. XIV–XV) (Ediciones de la Universidad de Murcia, 2017), La Casa de la reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418–1496) (Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid, 2017) and Poder y representación de la reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418–1496) (Junta de Castilla y León, 2017). Jyoti Phulera is currently pursuing PhD research at the Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Having majored in history xi xii from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, she pursued her master’s in medieval Indian history from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her M.Phil. research looked at “Religion, State and Gender Relations in the Delhi Sultanate.” Her research interests include a history of gender relations in medieval north India, with special reference to the Su ic traditions ca. 1100–1500. Lledó Ruiz Domingo is a PhD student at the University of Valencia, where she is developing her doctoral project “Queenship in the Late Middle Ages: Construction and Signi ication of Queen Consorts in the Crown of Aragon (XIV– XV Centuries)” under the supervision of Professor Antoni Furió i Diego. Her more recent publications include “ ‘Del qual tenim loch’: Leonor de Sicilia y el origen de la lugartenencia femenina en la Corona de Aragón,” for the 2017 issue of Medievalismo: Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales. Also in press are The Strategies of Legitimacy of the Trastámara Dynasty in the Crown of Aragon and Power, Piety and Patronage: Maria of Navarre as Queen of the Crown of Aragon (1338–1347), both for Routledge. Roser Salicrú i Lluch is a Senior Researcher (Investigadora Cientí ica) in medieval studies at the Department for Historical Sciences, Milà i Fontanals Institution, of the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientí icas, CSIC) in Barcelona. She holds a PhD from the University of Barcelona (1996) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Genoa from 1996 to 1997. She has been Editor- in- Chief of the journal Anuario de Estudios Medievales since 2010 and the Group Manager of the consolidated research group of the Generalitat de Catalunya CAIMMed (the Crown of Aragon, Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean) since 2009. Her research interests include the relations between Christianity and Islam in the Iberian Peninsula and the western Mediterranean in the late Middle Ages, with speci ic attention on the former Crown of Aragon; trade, navigation, and shipbuilding in the medieval Mediterranean; travel and travellers in the Middle Ages; and medieval slavery in the Mediterranean. She is a specialist in ifteenth-century Nasrid Granada. Elena (Ellie) Woodacre is a specialist in medieval and early modern queenship and a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern European history at the University of Winchester. She obtained an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Reading and her PhD from Bath Spa University. Her publications include her monograph The Queens Regnant of Navarre: Succession, Politics, and Partnership, 1274–1512 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and she has edited/ co- edited several collections on queenship and royal studies. Elena is the organizer of the “Kings & Queens” conference series and the founder of the international Royal Studies Network ( www.royalstudiesnetwork.org ). She is also the Editorin- Chief of the Royal Studies Journal (www.rsj.winchester. ac.uk or www.royalstudiesjournal.com), an academic, peerreviewed, multilingual, and fully open-access publication. Stefany Wragg completed her D.Phil. on eighth- and ninthcentury Mercian literature at the University of Oxford in 2017. She is currently teaching full time at secondary school. Talia Zajac is currently the Eugene and Daymel Shklar Research Fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. She holds a PhD from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto (2017) and has previously served as a course instructor at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). Her research, which focuses on the political activities and religious–cultural patronage of Latin Christian brides who came to Rus’, and vice versa, Rus’-born consorts of western medieval rulers has appeared in the Royal Studies Journal (2016) and the Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2016). In addition, a chapter on the circulation of material objects by Rus’ princesses in Western Europe is forthcoming in the volume Moving Women, Moving Objects (400–1500). Maps, Spaces, Cultures , eds. Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proctor-Tiffany (Brill, 2018). FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY 1 Part I PERCEPTIONS OF REGNANT QUEENSHIP 26 FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY 13 2 WHEN THE EMPEROR IS A WOMAN: THE CASE OF WU ZETIAN 武則天 (624–705), THE “EMULATOR OF HEAVEN” ELISABETTA COLLA 男不言內女不言外 Men do not speak of internal matters; women do not speak of external affairs1 Introduction This chapter analyzes the speci ic case of the most controversial sovereign ruler in Chinese imperial history: Wu Zetian, and her founding of the Zhou2 dynasty (690–705). Wu Zetian’s reign (690–705)3 occurred during the Tang dynasty (618–906) and was regarded as a milestone in the history of Chinese dynastic changes and legitimacy processes, for she was a woman and the sole female emperor (Huangdi 皇帝)4 in Chinese history. After a short biographical introduction, this 1 From the Book of Rites (Liji 禮記); see neize 內則 (Principle of Inner Realm), in Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 1462, and translated by Legge, Li Chi: Book of Rites, 454–70; see also McMahon, Women Shall Not Rule, 35. 2 Zhou 舟 was the name of her father’s ief and was a homophone of Zhou 周, the name of the dynasty considered the “Golden Age” of Chinese history by Confucian sources. Wu Zetian not only took the name of this emblematic dynasty, but reshaped the bureaucracy according to the nomenclature from the Zhouli 周禮 (Rites of Zhou), reintroduced the Zhou calendar and followed the Zhou ceremonials. See Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 10. 3 As can actually be read below, the complete title was Zetian dasheng huanghou 則天 大聖 皇 后 , or “Zetian 則天 ” (“Emulator of Heaven”), the posthumous name given to her in 705. Although she changed her title many times during her reign, “Wu Zetian” is how she is commonly remembered, and therefore this will be the name used throughout this chapter. Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 323. 4 The title Huangdi was coined by the irst emperor of imperial China in 221 BCE, Qin shi huangdi 秦始皇帝, who considered himself not simply a new ruler but the supreme one. Starting from this date, and up to the foundation of the Republic of China in 1912, this title was used to identify the emperor. Emperors generally lived chapter delineates how Wu Zetian faced the problem of legitimacy. She was aware of being a woman claiming the power destined, by Chinese tradition, to men, and her greatest innovation was to look to the ancient Chinese past as a model, as well as her use of religion, magic, and symbolism to legitimize her swift rise to the dragon throne, where she remained for almost ifty years.5 Women Shall Not Rule is the provocative title of Keith McMahon’s book, reminding the reader how dif icult it was for any woman to aim to ascend the throne in imperial China. The Chinese traditional bureaucratic structure was not conceived for women, and they could not participate directly in the political, economic, and social leadership of the empire. within a walled compound, constituted by different buildings or halls within the imperial capital. Between the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties, it was also known as the “Forbidden City” (jincheng 禁城). Besides the emperor and his immediate family, such as the heir apparent (taizi 太子), the empress (Huanghou 皇后) and the various consorts (fei 妃) were admitted to the palace, together with personal attendants (among which were the eunuchs). Hucker, A Dictionary of Of icial Titles, 3. For a more speci ic description of the female actors and their connection to central power between the seventh and ninth centuries, see Silvia Ebner von Eschenbach, in Kralle and Schilling, Schreiben über Frauen in China, 253–84. At the end of her essay, the author provides a highly detailed map of Chang’an, the imperial capital (today’s Xi’an in Henan province), with the distribution of the princesses’ residences. 5 Wu Zetian was heavily criticized by traditionalists and considered a usurper. As Denis Twitchett and Edwin Pulleyblank point out, there were some Confucian scholars and historians who already questioned her legitimacy to rule during the compilation of the standard histories. Among these historians, Liu Zhiji 劉知幾 (661– 721) was extremely critical along these lines in his “History of Tang” (Tangshu 唐書). Twitchett, The Writing of Of icial History, 168, note 28; Pulleyblank, “The Tzyjyh Tongjiann Kaoyih.” 14 14 This did not mean that women were not powerful, of course. In this sense, McMahon’s book presents many examples of court ladies (imperial wives and concubines, among others) and demonstrates how they were not mere “wantons” 6 but actually played a key role in Chinese imperial politics. Women were powerful in China and treated political affairs as if they were playing chess, manipulating and in luencing heirs apparent or weak emperors, most of the time hidden behind the curtain of their seraglio. Chinese history contains plenty of stories about arriviste concubines, malicious empress dowagers, and female status seekers, in general depicted as orchestrators of intricate plots aimed to in luence the imperial power in their favour. 7 Women’s actions were planned “from within,” never overtly acted, developing a kind of “shadow power.” Stories about women who tried to take over the government were mostly part of the of icial rhetoric aimed at promoting the maintenance of a speci ic “natural” order of things largely based on the Confucian ideology, which—as it was structured—inevitably encouraged gender inequality. In the mainstream of Chinese imperial history, both the patriarchal system and the polygamous marital institution were considered means of reproducing the family while maintaining the social hierarchy imposed by Confucianism. Although one cannot assume that imperial China was characterized by a homogeneous history, 8 historiography has tended to show coherence in the exegetical arguments. According to these arguments, as Richard Guisso has stressed in his research, Chinese women were depicted in of icial texts by Chinese authors as “inferior by nature” and as the “ruination of the states.”9 The case of Wu Zetian was 6 Chinese women were depicted in Confucius’s rhetoric as malicious, promiscuous, lascivious, and wicked. McMahon, Women Shall Not Rule, 77. somewhat different. In fact, due to her aptitude, some of the sources emphasize her charisma and capability in surviving at the top of the empire for half a century.10 Women were not outlawed from rule; nevertheless, as Zhao Fengjie 趙鳳喈 (1896– 1969) pointed out, there was a silently observed prohibition of a woman becoming emperor.11 The ground to justify this attitude resulted from multiple causes, most of which were in existence before the foundation of the empire during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE). At least from the Zhou dynasty onwards (1054– 221 BCE), patriarchy was the base of the state organization,12 and family lineage sacri ices to the ancestors 13 were performed by male descendants. From the Han dynasty onwards, with the canonization of Confucius, as one can read in the Analects [LY 17.25],14 a Confucian- in luenced misogynous position was also promoted. Women symbolized calamity, such as Yang Yuhuan 楊玉環 (719–756), who succumbed to her tragic fate, being considered the paradigm of the cataclysm that gradually brought the Tang dynasty to an end.15 10 Richard Guisso, although aware that Chinese historiography is full of negative examples of female rule, and that this will die hard, has always tried in his research, at least when analyzing Wu Zetian’s rise to power and rulership, to contradict this trend; see also Twitchett and Wechsler, “Kao-tsung,” 246n8. 11 Zhao, Zhongguo funü zai falüshang zhi diwei , 111; see also Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 1. 12 Loewe and Shaughnessy, The Cambridge History of Ancient China, 557. 13 In general terms, there was constant contact between the human and divine spheres. Sacri ices, rituals, and divination aimed to control and keep the balance between these two worlds. Ancestors, who were linked to a speci ic temple, were placed within a ritual system designed by the living from the late Shang dynasty onwards. 7 Extending this privilege to their clan. The interrelation within 14 The Master said, “Women and mean people are particularly hard the network of clans linked to the imperial family (via maternal or to manage: if you are too familiar with them, they grow insolent, but paternal lines, or thanks to marriage policies) was crucial and helps if you are too distant they grow resentful” 子曰:「唯女子與小人為 in the understanding of the equilibrium of forces at the top level of 難 養也 ,近 之則 不 孫, 遠之 則怨 。」 [LY 17.25]. A similarly misthe imperial bureaucracy. The in luence of families directly affected ogynistic position can be found in the Analects for Women (Nü lunyu FOR PRIVATE AND the decision making. During Wu Zetian’s reign, the clans of Wu, Li, 女論語 ) by Song Ruozhao 宋若照 (d. ca. 820) and Song Ruoxin 宋若 NON-COMMERCIAL and Wei were among the families constantly struggling for power. 新: “Listen carefully to and obey whatever your husband tells you.” USE ONLY 8 It is important to stress that, although, both during the Sui (589–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, the Yang and Li families claimed to be legitimate successors of the Han imperial line, they were actually the result of the long-lasting interaction between the pastoral nomads of the steppe and the sedentary Chinese people. Wu Zetian’s mother belonged to the Yang clan. 9 Guisso and Johannesen, Women in China, 59; see also Kelleher, “Confucianism,” 135. For more on the Analects for Women, see De Bary and Bloom, Sources of Chinese Tradition, 827–31. 15 The “Song of Lasting Pain” ( Changhen ge 長恨 歌 ), written by Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846), about the tragic love between Emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 (685–762) and his favourite concubine. This ballad is generally interpreted by Confucian-in luenced readership as the paradigm of Yang Guifei’s fate. Considered to be at the origin of the An Lushan 安祿山 rebellion, she was inally forced to commit suicide. 15 15 The Chinese cosmological view emerged from a complex set of discursive relationships, among which were those based on the yin 陰–yang 陽,16 or female and male, dichotomy. The yin–yang relation, with its cyclical alternation, grounded on correlative thinking,17 had a strong impact on individuals, their environment, and the cosmos. Since ancient times, and throughout the imperial period, Chinese society was organized according to a strict gender hierarchy regulated by a speci ic rituality, which in the case of women was based on the “threefold following” (sancong 三從 ). A woman was generally con ined to the domestic realm ( nei 內 ) and was dependent on man18 in the following order: irst, in following her father; then, in following her husband; and, inally, in following her son.19 This order of things was perceived as the emanation of the cosmic order, and, according to the tianren heyi 天人合一 formula, human beings were an integral part of nature. The emperor and the empress, who represented the Sun and the Moon respectively, had to keep a perfect balance of yang and yin within the imperial court; in this way they were respecting the heavenly patterns on Earth. When this order of things was unattended to then, the emperor, who was considered the “Son of Heaven” ( tianzi 天子), lost his mandate (tianming 天命)20 to rule. In this complex set of relations, which was anthropocentric of a kind, both man and woman played codi ied roles. Wu Zetian not only succeeded in subverting these roles but also challenged male authority in various respects: irst, as a simple concubine; then, as a mother of the heir apparent, as empress dowager and, inally, in 690, as emperor. In half a century she succeeded in questioning the traditional A translation of the ballad can be found in Owen, An Anthology of Chinese Literature, 442– 47. On Yang Guifei, see McMahon, Women Shall Not Rule , 211; and Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, 14. 16 Isabel Robinet has de ined yin and yang as “lines of force, directions whose nature is to cross and mingle, to play against and with each other, both self- generating and self- propelling, disappearing and alternating”: Robinet, Taoism, 9. 17 See Graham, Yin–Yang. 18 Who belong to the outer realm (wai 外 ). On the duality neiwai 內外, see Watson and Ebrey, Marriage and Inequality; and Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women. 19 This concept appears in the Liji or “Book of Rites.” Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women, 70, 92. 20 “Revolution” in Chinese uses the characters geming 革命, which literally means “dismiss the mandate.” On the Mandate of Heaven and the cosmic order of things, see Puett, To Become a God, 54–61. Confucian social order of things. In titling herself as emperor, Wu Zetian was challenging not just the tradition but also the cosmic order of things, and therefore she was not legitimate to rule; neither could she be recognized as supreme leader of “everything below heaven” ( tianxia 天下 ). In this context, and to be legitimized, she had to propose an alternative model, which could be de ined as a kind of “parallel universe.” In the words of N. Harry Rothschild, “Even if she continued to honour this canonical lineage of ideal rulers, sages, and worthies, she constructed a parallel pantheon of female divinities and paragons drawn from every ideological persuasion—including Buddhist devis, Confucian exemplars (like the mother of Mencius), and Daoist goddesses, such as the Queen Mother of the West.”21 Wu Zetian: “One, No One and One Hundred Thousand” Nobody knows who Wu Zetian really was. She was described in different ways, and even a careful and deep analysis of all the historical sources available would not be enough to challenge or deconstruct the popular myth that presents her as being a cruel woman. One, No One and One Hundred Thousand,22 the title of the famous Luigi Pirandello novel, has been borrowed in order to stress that the image we have of Wu Zetian is the result of multifaceted descriptions, most of which have come from mere speculation. Although the story proposed by Pirandello has nothing to do with China, nevertheless the message conveyed by his main character is very interesting. In Pirandello’s novel, the main character is alternatively characterized by others as the embodiment of one, no one and a hundred thousand different people. Similarly, the way Wu Zetian was perceived could result in different stories, changing over time: she was “one” before the eyes of the emperor, but, at the same time, “a hundred thousand” 21 Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 2. 22 Uno, nessuno e centomila was published in 1926 and is considered a classic work of Italian literature. Through this masterpiece, Luigi Pirandello aimed speci ically to understand the dynamics that lie behind relationships between human beings with different personalities. More speci ically, Pirandello magisterially pinpointed that the perception that one has of oneself is different from the image conveyed to the other. “One” represents the perception that one has of oneself; “no one” is the character that the protagonist of the story chooses to become; and, inally, “one hundred thousand” represents the different perceptions that others have of us. Pirandello, Uno, nessuno e centomila. 16 16 before her court ladies and scholars, and “no one” when she was wiped out of some sources by Confucian historians. Many authors have tried to reconstruct her biography, and have had trouble successfully delineating a clear border between speculation and reality. As a result, she has appeared and disappeared in Chinese history, and her biography has been written, rewritten, censored, imagined, and adapted for centuries. Today most people would remember her as proposed by the famous TV drama Wu meiniang chuanqi 武媚 娘传奇,23 in which Fan Bingbing 范冰冰 (b. 1981), the main actress, created a charming and powerful Wu Zetian, quite different from the depiction proposed by S. K. Chang in 1939. Other representations include the “true story” of “Madame Wu” presented by Lin Yutang 林語 堂 (1895– 1976),24 or as proposed by Guo Moruo 郭沫若 (1892– 1978) in a drama directed by Jiao Juyin 焦菊隐 (1905– 1975),25 in which Wu Zetian appeared much more as an incarnation of Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing 江青 (1914– 1991). The historical novel on Wu Zetian’s life by Su Tong 苏童 (b. 1963) was also very intriguing, with the author presenting a sort of Bildungsroman with Chinese characteristics, having “adapted the genres of the historical novel and the family saga.” 26 The well-known avant-garde novelist tried to leave the reader a description of Wu Zetian, relying on her real story and not overemphasizing her desires and ambitions.27 When one approaches Wu Zetian’s life, it is important to understand that she cannot be reduced simply to a single character, but that she played “one, no one and a hundred thousand” roles, exactly as Moscarda, the main character of Pirandello’s novel, did. There was, apparently, no trace of Wu Zetian’s birth name. Written records attested that she was known as Wu Zhao 武曌 28 and Wu Meiniang 武媚娘 [“Wu, the Charming Maid”]. During her life she was addressed by different names and titles, which she has been accumulating post mortem. According to Rothschild, she “was reputedly born in Lizhou 利州 ”29 (Sichuan province), where she is still adored as a goddess.30 Her father, Wu Shiyue 武 士彠 (577– 635), who during the Sui dynasty (581–618) resided in Shanxi province, was a merchant31 and rapidly became an eminent igure of his time when he joined the army. At the end of the Sui dynasty he took part in the foundation of the Tang dynasty (618–907) process, which was headed by the future Tang emperor [Tang] Gaozu [唐]高祖 (r. 618–626), née Li Yuan 李淵.32 The improvement of Wu Shiyue’s social status was very bene icial for his family, which steadily became closer to the imperial entourage. Wu Zetian’s mother, Lady Yang (579– 670), was the daughter of Yang Da 楊達, cousin of [Sui] Yangdi [隋]煬帝 (569–618), also known as Emperor Ming明帝 (r. 604–618). Wu Zetian was the second of three daughters. She also had two half-brothers, who both died in exile, where they were sent by their father, Wu Shiyue. As a result, Wu Zetian grew up in a family with powerful political connections on both the father’s and the mother’s side. Wu Zetian was a teenager when, during the 640s, she irst entered the imperial palace. She joined the Taizong’s seraglio as a concubine of the ifth rank ( cairen 才人 ) or “Lady of Talents.” 33 Emperor [Tang] Taizong [ 唐 ] 太 宗 (r. 626–649), né Li Shimin 李 世民 , was considered one of the ind Zhao 瞾, “illumination above emptiness,” the name she chose for herself. Rothschild, Wu Zhao, 1–10; Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 304. On the coinage of this name, see also Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 307n41; compare with Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China, 357. 29 Other authors claim that Wu Zetian was born in Wenshui (Shanxi), 23 It is worth noting that the title of this series was changed from Wu which actually was Wu’s family ancestral homeland. Rothschild, Wu Zetian to the Legend of Wu Zetian, and inally changed into the current Zhao, 17; Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 38. Compare also with The Legend of Wu Meiniang, as required by the State Administration Wechsler, “The Founding,” 178. of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s 30 Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 39. See also Republic of China (SAPPRFT). These variations show that Wu Zetian Rothschild, FOR PRIVATE ANDWu Zhao, 19. In 1954 a stele (dated to the tenth century?) was and remains a sensitive topic in Chinese culture. was found that proves that Wu Zetian was worshipped by locals as NON-COMMERCIAL 24 See Lin, Wu Zetian zhuan; and Lady Wu. a deity protecting the place from any kind of [natural] disasters. USE ONLY 25 Performed for the irst time in the famous Beijing People’s Art Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 331. Theatre. 31 According to the four classes of traditional Chinese society, 26 Li, Contemporary Chinese Fiction by Su Tong and Yu Hua, 73. 27 Su, Wu Zetian. 28 Neography was part of Wu Zetian’s process towards the legitimization and acceptance of her rulership. For instance, she decided to introduce new, very complicated characters, among which one can merchants were considered further down the social ladder, preceded by artisans, farmers, and scholars. 32 For the historical precondition that helped the rise of Wu Zhao, see Rothschild, Wu Zhao. 33 Twitchett and Wechsler, “Kao-tsung,” 245. 17 17 paradigmatic emperors of the cosmopolitan Tang Empire, his fame reverberating around the “four corners” ( sifang 四 方) of the world: westward, reaching the Byzantine Empire, but also eastward, towards Korea and Japan.34 When Emperor Taizong died, in 649, Wu Zetian shaved her hair and became a nun (nigu 尼姑 ) of the Buddhist Ganye temple ( 感業寺 ) in Chang’an (actual Xi’an, Henan province), where she was supposed to spend the rest of her life. 35 [Tang] Gaozong [唐]高宗 (r. 649–683), born Li Zhi 李治, succeeded Taizong on the throne. Before Taizong’s death he may have already been intimate with Wu Zetian. 36 Since Gaozong was an ardent supporter and in love with Wu Zetian, while she was still resident in the temple he paid visits to her as many times as he could. In 654, breaking the ful ilment of the Confucian funerary obligations, thanks to a favourable conjuncture of facts, Wu Zetian was allowed to come back to the imperial palace. One of the reasons she did not spend the rest of her life in the nunnery was the fact that the empress in charge, Madame Wang, who was very jealous of one of Gaozong’s favourite concubines, Xiao Shufei 蕭淑 妃 (d. 655), hoped that she could more easily control Xiao Shufei’s in luence if Wu Zetian came back to the imperial palace. Xiao Shufei actually bore the emperor a son and two daughters, therefore giving Gaozong a male descendant, and, for this reason, she became the emperor’s favourite. In this position, Xiao Shufei could easily be promoted and become empress. Since Empress Wang was not able to bear children, she persuaded Emperor Gaozong to let Wu Zetian come back to the palace. Empress Wang’s plan did not work, and her position was completely undermined by Wu Zetian’s intrigues. In a very short time both Empress Wang and the concubine Xiao were deposed, while Wu Zetian was promoted to the status of chenfei 屒妃, 34 On Emperor Taizong and his reign, see Wechsler, “T’ai- tsung,” 188–241. The Tang period was characterized by a remarkable maritime expansion; China was receiving merchants, emissaries (on tributary missions) and missionaries throughout maritime Asia. It was an interesting period of cultural interchange, and the main cities of the empire became multicultural centres. Islam was introduced into China in this period and Christian missionaries were travelling in the country. See Twitchett, The Cambridge History of China; Schottenhammer and Ptak. The Perception of Maritime Space; and Zheng, China on the Sea. 35 Twitchett and Wechsler, “Kao-tsung,” 247; Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 304. 36 Twitchett and Wechsler, “Kao-tsung,” 245. “Celestial Consort.” Soon afterwards Wu Zetian gave birth to a daughter, who died in mysterious circumstances. Empress Wang was charged with having murdered the baby princess, and Wu Zetian became Gaozong’s new empress. 37 Wu Zetian became very active in state affairs as Emperor Gaozong became increasingly sick and apathetic. Due to the fact that the emperor had been delegating much of his power to Wu Zetian, he was gradually losing control over his empire. Once in power, even as empress consort, Wu Zetian little by little eliminated any in luence the Li clan38 had, in order to enhance her position. Some thirty years before Wu Zetian proclaimed herself emperor she organized a secret secretariat. The team of scholars, known as Beimen xueshi 北門學士 (“Scholars of the Northern Gate”), became extremely close to the empress.39 This private group not only compiled many works in Wu Zetian’s name but also dedicated different political and economic memorials to the throne.40 However, Wu Zetian’s support was not con ined to scholars. In fact, she extended her patronage to religion, mainly Buddhism and Daoism, and surrounded herself with magicians. The empress was quite involved in religious ceremonials and superstition- based performances, which were considered a way to both gain power over her husband and, consequently, over the empire. Her rising career was characterized by auspicious omens, which she may have had a hand in arranging. For instance, in 688 there was the mysterious discovery of a “Precious Diagram” (baotu 寶圖); it was actually a sort of white stone stele with the following inscription: “A Sagacious Mother shall come to rule mankind, and her empire shall bring eternal prosperity.”41 This event was naturally regarded as a positive token, not only announcing the arrival of a new ruler but also 37 Rothschild, Wu Zhao, 34– 35; Twitchett and Wechsler, “Kaotsung,” 249–51. 38 This was just the beginning of a widespread massacre that involved the imperial clan and was part of Wu Zetian’s plan to rise to power. As Ebner von Eschenbach points out, the position of the imperial princesses resulted in the combined actions of different rival clans: the Li 李, the founding lineage of the Tang dynasty, and the Wu 武 and Wei 韋 families, which were bound to the imperial clan thanks to politically based marriages. See Kralle and Schilling, Schreiben über Frauen in China, 253. 39 Twitchett, The Writing of Of icial History, 43–52. 40 Twitchett, The Writing of Of icial History, 25; “ ‘Chen Gui.’ ” 41 Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 302; Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 51. 18 18 suggesting the gender of this new sovereign. The stone was named Tianshou shengtu 天授聖圖, “Heaven-bestowed holy stone,”42 and the name of the river Luo (close to Luoyang), where the stone was discovered, was changed to Yongchang jian 永昌江, “Eternal Prosperity.”43 For Wu Zetian’s life, this was the point of no return. Due to Gaozong’s weak health, the ambitious and devious Wu Zetian was ready to challenge 44 his heir for the throne. In 683 Gaozong died of an illness. Wu Zetian’s third son ascended the throne, but was soon deposed by his own mother and substituted by his younger brother, who became known as Emperor Ruizong (r. 684–690).45 In 690 a phoenix appeared above the imperial palace, Emperor Ruizong abdicated and Wu Zetian proclaimed herself “Holy and Divine Emperor” (Shengshen huangdi 聖神皇帝 ) of the new Zhou dynasty (690–705).46 How to Become a God(dess): Wu Zetian’s Use of Art and Omens to Legitimize Her Position When Wu Zetian became emperor of the “Zhou” dynasty, her strategic choice was purportedly to compare herself to the sage kings Wen and Wu, and to the duke of Zhou, and project herself into an idealized past. Although one cannot simplify the conception of rulership, grounding it in the Confucian tradition only for legitimization, these sage kings of the “Golden Age” were all considered by Confucius to be inspiring models for future generations, and “Zhou writings … pose[d] Heaven as acting with [these] king[s].” 47 The sage 42 Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 302; Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 51. 43 Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 302; Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheons, 51. kings’ words, cemented throughout the three dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou and conveyed by Confucius as blueprints for civilization, were considered the foundation of Chinese familial relationships, social structure, and political practice. However, this model was conceived for a patrilineal structure, whereas Wu Zetian was a woman, and female authority was considered aberrant by any supporter of the Confucian tradition. Throughout her more than sixty years in power 48 she worked tirelessly to propose an alternative model to the Confucian order of things in order to be recognized as a legitimate ruler. To ensure her power she had to propose a parallel pantheon of sage queens and become a god(dess) herself. Michael Puett 49 has made clear all the processes that turned the emperor into a divine being. Although his survey mainly focuses on the pre- imperial and early imperial periods, extending his research to the Qin and Han dynasties, the models he studies were paradigmatic in order to understand the theodicy of the Chinese state in general. According to his observations, the ruler— considered to be the “Son of Heaven”, or something akin to a god— played simultaneously the key role of ethical preserver and harmonizer of the relationship between Heaven and his liegemen. These two ideas—the “Mandate of Heaven” ( tianming), related to the fact that the emperor was considered the “Son of Heaven” (tianzi)—represented a solidi ied argument for a coherent legitimacy of rulership, supported by an ideal past that could serve as a pattern for present predicaments and a plan for the future. This system was then promoted by classicists (ru 儒) and supported by Confucianists. “Although women in the classical period were not downtrodden as modern stereotypes suggest,”50 one cannot therefore state that the bureaucratic architecture, mainly based on Confucian teachings, was female-friendly. As previously mentioned, women exerted their power internally, nei , while men exerted their power externally, wai; therefore, in becoming emperor, Wu Zetian was jumping from her inner 44 Before her, another woman, Chen Shuozhen 陳碩真 (d. 653), who also declared herself emperor with the name Wenjia 文佳 during the peasant uprising of 653, had tried to occupy the dragon throne, but without success. She was quickly killed by Wu Zetian. This fact was recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian 資治 通鑑, revealing thatFOR Wu Zetian PRIVATE AND 48 This calculation was based on the fact that, when Emperor was probably not the only woman who tried to become emperor, NON-COMMERCIAL Gaozong died in 683, although his seventh son ascended the throne and—in any event—showing how women were important during the ONLY USE (Wu Zetian’s third one), most of the power was delegated to the Tang dynasty. See Gao, Tang dai funü, 123. Empress Dowager Wu. Before his death Emperor Gaozong already 45 Both Zhongzong and Ruizong returned to the throne after their mother’s death, reigning between 705–710 and 710–712 respectively. Twitchett, The Cambridge History of China. relied so much on the empress that both Wu Zetian and Gaozong were considered ersheng 二聖 (“two sages”). Therefore counting from 684 to 705 in total, she was in power for more than sixty years. Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 51. 47 Puett, To Become a God, 60. 50 Nylan, The Five “Confucian” Classics, 21. 46 Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 306. The irst Zhou dynasty (1045–221 BCE) was considered the “Golden Age.” 49 Puett, To Become a God. 19 19 realm to the outer realm—invading a space reserved for men. How could she solve the question of legitimacy when the foundations of the cosmological order, the bureaucratic structure and rituals were all against her? In trying to legitimize her position, Wu Zetian, a master of masquerades, was alternately attracted by Buddhism 51 and Daoism.52 Buddhism and Daoism were already bound to central power but never succeeded in completely replacing the pre- eminent Confucian conventions. During the Tang dynasty, although representatives of educated elites, whether Daoist or Buddhist in nature, participated in the debates at court, most of the political legitimacy was still based on learning the Confucian classics, and writing about these texts was considered a symbolic political gesture of civil governance. The civil service examination, reintroduced by the Tang emperor Gaozu, together with the reopening of the main schools in Chang’an, was, in fact, mainly based on the Confucian classics.53 During this time a certain competition arose between Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism about commitment to the central power through elites. 54 Their in luence was mostly limited to state interests, and, when these three teachings—or, more speci ically, when Buddhism (considered as a foreign religion/ philosophy) and Daoism (which was an autochthonous religion/philosophy)—were thought to threaten the interests of the empire, the emperor activated the mechanism of inspection and censorship. Wu Zetian knew all these mechanisms very well and was aware that it would be very hard to ight against the status quo. She was a learned woman, for her mother, Yang, conscientiously attended to the education of her children.55 Antonino Forte has stressed Empress Wu’s commitment to Buddhism very clearly.56 Wu Zetian’s mother was an ardent Buddhist supporter, and Wu Zetian, after Taizong’s death, was 51 It is important to stress that Buddhism entered China during the Eastern Han dynasty, when the religion/philosophy was still at a very early stage. It was not until the Tang dynasty that China developed its own schools and Buddhism became sinicized. See Silk, Buddhism in China; and Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism, 83. 52 See Barrett, Taoism under the T’ang. Since the 660s both Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu had been surrounded by Daoist adepts. After Gaozong’s death this continued under Wu Zetian’s reign, when she was also patronizing Buddhist monasteries and clergy. 53 Wechsler, “The Founding,” 179. 54 Ibid., 180. 55 Rothschild, Wu Zhao, 22. 56 Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China. sent to a Buddhist monastery, where she spent some time before being brought back to the imperial palace by Gaozong. When she came to power she ordered the translation of the Mahāmegha Sūtra, also known as the Dayun jing 大 雲經 (Great Cloud Sūtra),57 by Dharmakṣema (385–433?). Finally, among Wu Zetian’s lovers, such as the famous Xue Huaiyi 薛懷 義 (d. 694),58 there were also Buddhist monks who in luenced her policy making.59 Wu Zetian’s liaison with Buddhism has also been exhaustively studied by Guisso, and by Rothschild in his recent work Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers,60 and it was during Wu Zetian’s reign that Buddhism was no longer considered a foreign faith and was gradually elevated to a state religion.61 However, Wu Zetian was also very devoted to Daoism. The study proposed by Denis Twitchett is very elucidating in this respect. 62 Her relationship with Daoism was more complicated, for Daoism was directly linked to the Li clan, the legitimate imperial family, and therefore this association— and, more speci ically, the claim that Laozi was the ancestor of the Li family—presented Wu Zetian with something of a dilemma: how could she keep her devotion to 57 This sūtra is very important, because it contained a prophecy announcing the reincarnation of Maitreya (Future Buddha) and a female deity and monarch of the world. See Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 305; Wu Tse- t’ien, 306– 21. On the prophecy, see also the English translation by Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China. This sutra was identi ied as importantly esoteric and one of the primary sources for Indra worship; see Sorensen, Payne, and Orzech, Esoteric Buddhism, 270. 58 He was one of the irst known as Feng Xiaobao 馮小 寶 , from Shaanxi. In fact, Xue Huaiyi became a monk only after 690, when Wu Zetian rose to power. 59 Rothschild describes him as a “gifted Buddhist propagandist and skilled architect, who played a vital role in creating rhetoric and symbols to support Wu Zhao’s political ascent”: Rothschild, Wu Zhao, 100. He was substituted around 695 by Shen Nanqin, who Rothschild considers a “likely ictitious Confucian physician” and “supposedly Wu Zhao’s lover”; ibid., 228. 60 See part IV of Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 191–226. 61 Key dates are as follows. In 690 Wu Zetian promulgated an edict that elevated Buddhism over Daoism. Two years later, in 692, a prohibition on the butchering animals was also promulgated. In 694 the Court of State Ceremonial was put in charge of Buddhist rites. For more, see Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis; Wu Zhao; Twitchett, The Cambridge History of China; and Guisso, Wu Tse-t’ien. 62 Twitchett, “ ‘Chen Gui,’ ” 33–109. 20 20 Daoism and especially to Daoist practices without Laozi? The choice was made in promoting the Chengui 臣軌 (Rules for Of icials),63 composed by the “Scholars of the Northern Gate” in Wu Zetian’s name. This work was a sort of vademecum for ministers, with an entire section centred on the importance of studying Daoism.64 This new work attributed to Wu Zetian took the place of the Daode jing 道德經 (the Classic of the Way of Virtue) in the imperial exams in 693.65 During the Tang period there was a close relation between Daoism and alchemy.66 Many examples demonstrate how religion was instrumental to Wu Zetian’s power before and after becoming emperor of China. One such instance took place while Gaozong was still alive, when Wu Zetian decided to send her only daughter, Princess Taiping 太平公主 (?–713), to a Daoist temple in order to honour her grandmother, Empress Zhaocheng, who died in 670.67 Timothy Barrett has argued that, although this episode was more symbolic than real, it does show the involvement of the imperial family with Daoism68—and, in my opinion, Wu Zetian’s political strategy in making use of the malleability of the Buddhist faith, among others. Art and symbolism had been instrumental to Wu Zetian’s rise to power, underpinning and legitimizing her political discourse. She was a great patron of Buddhist art, and there is no doubt that this is one of the most studied aspects of her legitimization process, though there are also traces of her promotion of Daoist art.69 Throughout her reign she demonstrated a series of complex and interrelated political and religious concerns that were materialized by art. Images and statuary, with their theatrical style, their dimensions, and their 63 Twitchett, The Writing of Of icial History, 53–61. 64 Ibid., 102. 65 Guisso, “Empress Wu,” 311. location, were part of a speci ic design. They belonged, in fact, to a general message that aimed to persuade the viewer on a speci ic topic: the legitimization of a female ruler. What Wu Zetian aimed for in patronizing both Buddhist and Daoist art was not only to encourage the creation of images celebrating her igure but to convince her people that she had the right to rule. Art was a means to overthrow a given political order. Her visual propaganda, which occupied a large place in her reign, was intelligible not only to limited elites but to the great majority of her people. Art—and, more speci ically, religious art— could be “read” by literate and illiterate people alike, and Wu Zetian was aware of that. Images and sculptures were not just an opportunity to celebrate herself in a heroic manner but also a powerful device—or, paraphrasing Erwin Panofsky, a means to reveal the basic attitude of Wu Zetian’s empire, period, class, and religious or philosophical persuasion condensed into one work.70 Concluding Remarks More than twenty years ago I had the opportunity to visit the Longmen grottoes complex (Longmen shiku 龍門石窟 ), characterized by a huge amount of caves distributed all along the riverbank of a tributary watercourse of the river Luo, close to the “divine capital” (shendu 神都)71 in the presentday Henan province. The complex reverberates with the magnitude of Buddhist faith, not only of the Tang dynasty but also of previous dynasties, when this place was chosen as key site of worship.72 Because of their location between water and mountains, the visitor is overwhelmed by a myriad of small, medium- sized, and big caves, housing symbolic elements mostly from the Buddhist faith.73 70 Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts, 26–54. 71 This is how Luoyang was considered by Wu Zetian during her 66 Barrett, Taoism under the T’ang. reign. Luoyang became the permanent Eastern Capital in 657 and was considered the imperial temporary residence until 683, when 67 By 670 Princess Taiping was part of the complicated negotiWu Zetian permanently established her court there. In 701 the capations held by her father, Emperor Gaozong, in order to secure a FOR PRIVATE AND ital was transferred again when Wu Zetian returned to Chang’an. See peace treaty with the king of Turfan. After Gaozong died, Taiping Twitchett and Wechsler, “Kao-tsung,” 258. came back to the imperial court. As one can read in the NON-COMMERCIAL Tang hui yao USE 唐會要 (Institutional History of the Tang): “The princess Taiping was ONLY 72 The complex of Longmen 龍門 (lit. the Dragon Gate) was assigned as abbess (nü guan 女官) at the former Daoist Monastery considered an ideal mountain river model, crucial in terms of of the Empress Zhaocheng ( Zhaocheng guan 昭成觀 ), henceforth fengshui, and therefore it was an ideal place to build a temple. In fact, becoming the Monastery of Taiping ( Taiping guan 太 平觀 )” (the after the introduction of Buddhism into China this place, besides translation is slightly modi ied). See Ebner von Eschenbach, in Kralle being very close to one of the principal capitals of Chinese history, and Schilling, Schreiben über Frauen in China, 266. was chosen as an auspicious location for its cult. McNair, Donors of 68 Barrett, Taoism under the T’ang, 35. 69 See Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 255n87. Longmen, 111. 73 Ibid., 118. 21 21 Many scholars have speculated whether the seventeenmetre-high Buddha statue, which possesses evident female characteristics, or the crowned and jewelled Buddha performing the bhūmisparsa- mudrā really represent depictions of Wu Zetian herself.74 Whether this theory, based on stylistic and iconographical grounds, is valid or not, the Longmen complex and the huge Vairocana Buddha, “whose eyes appear to ix the viewer’s in their gaze,”75 not only express peculiar ties between esoteric Buddhism and Wu Zetian but also represent possibly the most striking of the many examples of how Wu Zetian’s complex political and religious strategy to deify herself and legitimize her rising power was crystal clear from the very beginning.76 In analyzing how she titled77 herself throughout her reign one can observe that, step by step, she assumed the title of “Divine Emperor” (690–693), then became cakravartin (693–694),78 and inally this process came to a crescendo when she decided to accumulate all the titles in one, becoming “Maitreya, Sagely and Divine Emperor, Cakravartin of the Golden Wheel Transcending Antiquity” (694– 695). In doing so, she not only became the “king of kings,” sage, and divine emperor, but also considered herself an incarnation of the Buddha of the Future, as described in the prophecy of the Mahāmegha Sūtra. We do not know what Wu Zetian looked like. One can imagine her like the ladies depicted by Zhang Xuan (710– after 748) in his scroll Lady Guoguo’s Spring Outing (Guoguo furen youchun tu 虢國夫人游春圖), or as she was depicted in the famous collection “Portrait and Eulogies of the Ancients” by the artist Zheng Zhenduo. 79 What writers such as Richard 74 This seated Buddha found in the Leigutai 鼓 台 South Cave (Longmen—East Side) presents similar features to those of the large Variocana Buddha. McNair, Donors of Longmen, 97. See also Sorensen, Payne, and Orzech, Esoteric Buddhism, 403. Guisso and Antonino Forte have argued is that she was particularly aware of how the adoption of speci ic texts and a cult of images were her major propaganda devices. 80 The Vairocana, for instance, which represents the mainstream of Mahayana Buddhism between 655 and 675, 81 not only represented the diffusion of the Buddhist faith worshipped by the imperial family but also implied a theomorphic claim of rulership itself. In this case, visual evidence, such as omens, statues, and palaces, together with the introduction of speci ic classics in the curricula of the future mandarins, such as Daoist texts, 82 were very powerful means that Wu Zetian employed in a masterly manner to propose a new order of things. Her use of religious images to convey secular power should not be seen as autonomous forces but interlinked objects that promoted the cult of her personality. Although one should not think that she was a donor only to Buddhism, a Daoist religion,83 there is no doubt that Longmeng was Wu Zetian’s greatest legacy in art. Longmen was the sacred place where Buddhism and Daoism met, the image of the “Queen Mother of the West” and the “King Father of the East” blending through the Buddhist iconography that had been growing through the centuries. 84 The same craftsmen, artisans, and anonymous artists were employed to build any kind of temple and different subjects, therefore creating a continuity in the stylistic narrative. Longmen was perhaps the perfect place to manifest queenship, political discourse, and power legitimization practices in the imperial Chinese context, which was essentially hostile to female rulership. 76 Ibid., 117; Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 4. 80 Such as performing the feng and shan rites. On these rites, see Chavanne, Le T’ai Chan; and Rothschild, Wu Zhao, 59–63; Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon. 78 In South Asia, during the reign of Aśoka (d. 232 BCE), the ideal concordance, or harmony, between the macrocosm (universe) and the political microcosm was granted by the cakravartin, a “king of kings” who detains the rcanum imperii of both the universe and its earthly counterpart. The concept of cakravartin symbolizes the paramount sovereign. On the importance of this title, see Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China. At Longmen, there is also a bas-relief of King Aśoka surrounded by a thousand Buddhas. See Karetzky, “Wu Zetian and Buddhist Art,” 132. 83 The title of Rothschild’s book is highly informative in this respect; in fact, her pantheon focused not only on Buddhist and Daoist divinities but also on dynastic mothers and goddesses of antiquity, such as Nüwa, the river Luo goddess; the silk goddess, Leizu; and Mother Qi and the ur-mother of the Zhou line, among others. For a complete study, read Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon. 75 McNair, Donors of Longmen, 111. 77 For a list of Wu Zetian’s titles, see Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, xvii–xx. 79 Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 4. 81 Sorensen, Payne, and Orzech, Esoteric Buddhism, 218. 82 As already stressed, although Wu Zetian was much inclined to Buddhism, she was the irst to propose the incorporation of Daoist texts— such as the Chengui — into the civil service examination system. 84 McNair, Donors of Longmen, 68. 2 22 Ad Fontes: A Glance at Sources Several writers interested in Wu Zetian’s biography, work, and world, most of whom have already been quoted in this short study, have made detailed lists available of both primary and secondary sources in their works. Reference works such as those written by Antonino Forte and Richard Guisso are the foundation for anyone who would like to study Wu Zhao. As N. Harry Rothschild points out, in the last century one could count more than ifty Wu Zhao biographies. 85 A great number of these biographies were based on primary sources resulting from long-lasting team works and produced between the tenth and thirteenth centuries: Liu Xu 劉昫 ’s “Old Standard History of the Tang History”, Jiu Tangshu 舊 唐書 (tenth century), Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 ’s “New Standard History of the Tang History,” Xin Tangshu 新唐書 (eleventh century), and Sima Guang 司馬光’s “Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government,” Zizhi tongjian 資治 通鑑 (eleventh century),86 and the “Outline of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government,” Zizhi tongjian gangmu zizhi 資治通 鑑 綱目 , which was less accurate but more popular than the Tongjian because it was planned by the eminent neoConfucian scholar Zhuxi 朱熹 . These sources were written in later periods, which marked a major turning point for women’s place in society. If one analyzes these sources chronologically, it is clear that there is a gradual growth in the intention by scholars to erase the Wu Zetian experience from history and to depict her as a calamity. Besides, it is evident that the message conveyed by these documents aims to prevent any female involvement in male affairs and politics. To get a more balanced representation of Wu Zetian’s biography, one should check other sources, such as the local histories, imperial edicts, memorials (such as the “Collected grand edicts and decrees of the Tang dynasty,” Tang da zhaoling 唐大詔零集), and essays, among others, but also poems (e.g. the “Complete compilation of the Tang verse,” Quan Tang shi 全唐詩 ) and Buddhist sūtras (e.g. “Commentary on the Meaning of the Prophecy About the Divine Sovereign in the Great Cloud Sūtra,” Dayun jing shenhuang shouji yishu 大雲 經神皇授記義疏 ). In his Wu Zhao biography, Rothschild provides a detailed description of both of icial histories and less orthodox sources, stressing that, “while the [four]87 main histories contain a negative bias against Wu Zhao, lowery praise written by literary masters to legitimate Wu Zhao’s political authority is just problematic.”88 There is a very important essay by Twitchett 89 that contributes an important analysis of sources attributed to Empress Wu Zetian. Most of these works are listed both in the “Old” and “New Standard History of the Tang,” as well as in Japanese sources, such as the “List of Writings Currently Held in the Nation of Japan,” Nihokoku genzai sho mokuroku 日本 國 現 在 書目録 , compiled during the ninth century by the Japanese aristocrat and scholar Fujiwara no Sukeyo 藤原 佐世, and the later (eleventh century) “Catalogue of the Transmission of the Torch to the East,” Tōiki dentō mokuroku 東域伝灯目録 by a Japanese monk, Eicho 永超. To conclude, as one can observe from the aforementioned sources, and quoting Harry Rothschild, a “biographer is left to weigh the con licting materials, blending the biased of icial histories, the Buddhist propaganda and prophecies, the fulsome memorials, and the tall tales from unof icial sources into a coherent narrative of Wu Zhao’s life and political career.”90 FOR AND 85 Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, 215. The PRIVATE “Old NON-COMMERCIAL Standard History of the Tang” is more accurate than the “New” one. USE ONLY However, the “New Standard History of the Tang” contains better 87 Actually, Rothschild quotes only three main histories: the “Old” monographs and tables than the “Old” one and is more readable; the and “New Standard History of the Tang” and the “Comprehensive “Old” and “New Standard History of the Tang” both cover the historMirror for Aid in Government”: Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her ical period between 618 and 906 and were reprinted by Zhonghua Pantheon, xiii. in 1975. The Zizhi tongjian was reprinted in 1995, also by Zhonghua. 88 Ibid. For more details, see Wilkinson, Chinese History; and Twitchett, The Cambridge History of China. 86 Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, x. 89 Twitchett, “ ‘Chen Gui.’ ” 90 Rothschild, Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon, xiv. 23 23 Bibliography Primary Sources De Bary, Theodore W., and Irene Bloom. Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Kong, Qiu. 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