Empress WuEssay Preview: Empress WuReport this essayWu Zhao ж¦Ð¶›ÐŠ (624-705), the only female emperor in Chinese history, was a pragmatist, painfully aware that to establish her sovereignty she needed to marshal every tool, symbolic or real, at her disposal. She emerged in the right place at the right time. Multi-ethnic, cosmopolitan and open, the early Tang dynasty (618-907) featured a lively commingling of nomadic, Central Asian steppe culture and traditional Confucian mores. Merchant caravans of laden Bactrian camels filled the Silk Road that linked Tang China to Central Asia and India, traveling to and from Chang’an and Luoyang, the grand twin capitals. Rather than being strictly confined to the inner quarters, women of this era were more visible, riding horses and donning male attire. Islamic mosques, Zoroastrian churches, Daoist abbeys and Buddhist monasteries all welcomed believers. Throngs heralding from all walks of life cheered at polo matches. Markets spilled over with Malayan patchouli, pepper from India, aromatic woods from Java, and Korean pine seeds, while in street stalls, Persians sold pilaf, figs and pistachios, and Turks hawked sesame buns and nang-bread.
Despite these fertile pre-conditions, the biological fact that Wu Zhao was a woman presented serious problems in her effort to assume the dragon throne. Even in these open times, the Confucian bureaucracy held great political sway just as patriarchal values, which held to the principle that “the male is venerated and the female is denigrated” (nan zun nu bei Ð*”*еoЉеÒÑ-еЌ), still exerted tremendous social influence. Thus, as Grand Dowager and during her first years as Emperor, Wu Zhao meticulously amassed evidence–a vast symbolic repertoire of auspicious portents, apocrypha, carefully crafted state ceremonies, widely propagated texts, and self-aggrandizing titles–geared to provide her warrant and legitimacy in her unprecedented ascent to the apex
Following the death of her current successor, Emperor Jiao Miao, Wu Zhao was promoted to emperor in April 2011, but was placed in the position of chief judge of the Supreme Court of China before the new emperor, Jiang Xingfeng.
Jiang held numerous positions in her family, including as a director of the High Court of Xingfeng and as a member of various national assembly committees. The family had become so deeply fractured that a small band of royal and aristocratic officials led by Wang Li and Luo Yingfeng formed the People’s War Movement, which eventually united to form the People’s Army of Xinjiang and the People’s Council for Peace and Justice.
After the demise of Jiang and the opening of a Chinese-Russian border with the border state of Tlingituria, Wu Zhao’s father, Hu, became the third eldest son. On February 12, 2005, a man in an estate in Zhaoxin, Shanxi Province, was killed during his work for the government and shortly afterwards was detained in a car that brought him to the scene of an attempted killing. His execution was set free following a protest in the same county by a group of about six members of Hu family.
The court convened during his tenures as chief judge to investigate the killing as a grave crime and to review the evidence on Wu Zhao, but no charges were ever brought against her parents. As a result, several of these defendants were never charged.
Ruling from the High Court
Wu Zhao was not a householder, according to her mother. In the family’s view, her maternal uncle was responsible for her death, and she had little time to devote to her own studies at the family’s academy.
Wu Zhao was so heavily involved with her father’s education that she used to attend two college classes at school while at the same time caring for her mother and sister. Following an intense childhood, she and her mother went abroad in search of a chance to study abroad. She attended a secondary school in Qinghai Province where she graduated late in high school.
Wu Zhao spent most of her time traveling in China, traveling more or less as a trainee on her way to the People’s Court by bus and train. At one point in 1997, she traveled from Beijing to Guizhou for a school visit and to the Western Province for a work trip, both involving the government’s military and private security forces. During her university career, Wu Zhao made various appearances as a trainee, at various times traveling to Xinjiang to teach in Beijing and Hong Kong. On May 31, 2001, China’s National People’s Congress approved Wu Zhao’s appointment by the National People’s Congress Committee, appointing her as vice
Following the death of her current successor, Emperor Jiao Miao, Wu Zhao was promoted to emperor in April 2011, but was placed in the position of chief judge of the Supreme Court of China before the new emperor, Jiang Xingfeng.
Jiang held numerous positions in her family, including as a director of the High Court of Xingfeng and as a member of various national assembly committees. The family had become so deeply fractured that a small band of royal and aristocratic officials led by Wang Li and Luo Yingfeng formed the People’s War Movement, which eventually united to form the People’s Army of Xinjiang and the People’s Council for Peace and Justice.
After the demise of Jiang and the opening of a Chinese-Russian border with the border state of Tlingituria, Wu Zhao’s father, Hu, became the third eldest son. On February 12, 2005, a man in an estate in Zhaoxin, Shanxi Province, was killed during his work for the government and shortly afterwards was detained in a car that brought him to the scene of an attempted killing. His execution was set free following a protest in the same county by a group of about six members of Hu family.
The court convened during his tenures as chief judge to investigate the killing as a grave crime and to review the evidence on Wu Zhao, but no charges were ever brought against her parents. As a result, several of these defendants were never charged.
Ruling from the High Court
Wu Zhao was not a householder, according to her mother. In the family’s view, her maternal uncle was responsible for her death, and she had little time to devote to her own studies at the family’s academy.
Wu Zhao was so heavily involved with her father’s education that she used to attend two college classes at school while at the same time caring for her mother and sister. Following an intense childhood, she and her mother went abroad in search of a chance to study abroad. She attended a secondary school in Qinghai Province where she graduated late in high school.
Wu Zhao spent most of her time traveling in China, traveling more or less as a trainee on her way to the People’s Court by bus and train. At one point in 1997, she traveled from Beijing to Guizhou for a school visit and to the Western Province for a work trip, both involving the government’s military and private security forces. During her university career, Wu Zhao made various appearances as a trainee, at various times traveling to Xinjiang to teach in Beijing and Hong Kong. On May 31, 2001, China’s National People’s Congress approved Wu Zhao’s appointment by the National People’s Congress Committee, appointing her as vice