Volta
Politics690–705

Wu Zetian Takes the Throne

Also called: Wu Zhou dynasty

Wu Zetian, empress of Tang Gaozong, made herself emperor in 690 and renamed the dynasty Zhou. The only woman to reign as emperor in Chinese history, she promoted new officials chosen by examination.

The Vairocana Buddha of Fengxian Temple at Longmen, whose making Wu Zetian helped fund
The Vairocana Buddha of Fengxian Temple at Longmen, whose making Wu Zetian helped fund

Gary Todd · CC0 · Source

Once a consort of Taizong, Wu became Gaozong’s empress in 655 and governed in place of her sickly husband; in these years the Tang, allied with Silla, destroyed Baekje (660) and Goguryeo (668). After Gaozong’s death she enthroned and deposed her sons in turn, and in 690 took the throne herself, renaming the dynasty Zhou and making Luoyang the “Divine Capital”.

She curbed the Guanlong aristocracy and promoted new officials who had passed the examinations, and is said to have held the first palace examination in person. A devout patron of Buddhism, she helped fund the great Buddha of Fengxian Temple at Longmen. During her reign, amid a Khitan revolt, Dae Jo-yeong founded Balhae in 698. She was forced to abdicate in a coup in 705, and her son Zhongzong restored the Tang.

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The map in AD 690

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States and rulers at the time
Tang — Emperor Ruizong → Empress Wu Zetian
Places
Luoyang, Longmen Grottoes

People

  • Wu ZetianAD 624 – AD 705

    monarch · Empress of Tang Gaozong who in 690 made herself emperor of a new Zhou dynasty — the only woman to rule China as emperor in her own right (r. 690–705)

Before and after

Earlier
AD 670 Silla–Tang War and Unification
Later
AD 698 Founding of Balhae

Themes that include this event

  • Sui, Tang and the East Asian WorldAD 317 – AD 979

    From the divided Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Gupta age through the Sui and Tang empires to the founding of the Song — the age when an East Asian world sharing law codes, Buddhism, Confucianism and Chinese characters took shape, and Korea and Japan built their states on its model