Wu Zetian武则天（附）

Style & Daoist names

Wu Zhao, Empress Zetian, Sacred and Divine Emperor

Period

Tang – Wu Zhou

Dates

624 — 705

Role

Emperors

Birthplace

Wenshui, Bingzhou (alternatively Chang'an)

Places of activity

Mount Song (Songshan)

Life

Wu Zetian was the empress of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and proclaimed herself emperor, founding the Zhou dynasty, from 690 to 705. Her relationship with Daoism was two-sided: in her youth she had been a nun at Ganye Temple, and on becoming emperor she used the Buddhist Great Cloud Sutra to manufacture prophetic legitimacy, decreeing that "the Buddhist teaching ranks above the Daoist Way," suppressing Daoism in favor of Buddhism, abolishing the examination on the Laozi, and revoking Laozi's title "Xuanyuan Huangdi" (according to one account, only during the Zhou interregnum) — Daoism's standing declined for a time as a result. On the other hand, she continued to honor Daoist priests such as Pan Shizheng, Sima Chengzhen, and Ye Fashan, visited Mount Song repeatedly, and in the first year of Jiushi (700) sent the Daoist priest Hu Chao to cast a gold tablet into Mount Song to pray for blessings (excavated in 1982); during the Wansui Tongtian era she conferred on the god of Mount Song the title "King of the Center of Heaven" (Tianzhong Wang), and in her later years she also inclined toward Daoist techniques of longevity. After Zhongzong was restored to the throne in the first year of Shenlong (705), the former Daoist institutions were reinstated. This entry is included as an appendix, to illustrate the shifting standing of Buddhism and Daoism during the Zhou interregnum.

Contributions & Influence

• Suppressed Daoism in favor of Buddhism during the Zhou interregnum, reversing the early Tang order of precedence between the two religions
• Her gold tablet cast into Mount Song is an important physical witness to the Tang-dynasty rite of casting dragon tablets (tou long)