{"id":634,"date":"2016-12-17T03:33:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-17T03:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2016\/12\/17\/todayinhistory-december-16th-705-empress-wu\/"},"modified":"2020-08-06T15:52:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T20:52:41","slug":"todayinhistory-december-16th-705-empress-wu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2016\/12\/17\/todayinhistory-december-16th-705-empress-wu\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – The Death Of Empress Wu"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

todayinhistory<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>

December 16th 705: Empress Wu Zetian dies<\/b><\/h2>\n

On
\nthis day in 705, Wu Zetian, the only sovereign empress of China, died
\naged 81. Born during the Tang dynasty, she entered the court of Emperor
\nTaizong as a concubine when she was 14 years old. After Taizong\u2019s death,
\nthe new emperor Gaozong defied custom and chose the well-educated Wu to
\nremain as his favourite concubine. She rose to become Gaozong\u2019s empress
\nin 655, after eliminating the current empress by allegedly killing her
\nown child and framing the empress. The new empress quickly silenced the
\nelder statesmen who opposed her position on the grounds that she did not
\nhail from the established aristocracy, with critics exiled and, often,
\nexecuted. Emperor Gaozong was a sickly man, and frequently entrusted
\naffairs of state to Wu, who managed imperial business essentially
\nsingle-handedly. Wu was a capable leader, known for her sound
\nmanagement, her decisiveness, and her ruthlessness; these attributes won
\nher the respect, and fear, of the Chinese imperial court. Her greatest
\naccomplishments included agricultural and education reform,
\nstabilisation of the imperial bureaucracy, and imperial expansion. Upon
\nGaozong\u2019s death in 683, his son by Wu ascended to the throne, but,
\nconcerned by the machinations of his ambitious wife, Wu had him exiled
\nand installed her other son as emperor. In 690, when she was 65 years
\nold, the empress claimed the throne for herself, and ruled as a
\nsovereign empress for 15 years. The question of succession led Wu to
\ndesignate her exiled son as heir, rather than choosing a member of her
\nown family, thus ensuring the continuation of the Tang dynasty. In 705,
\nsenior officials conspired to compel the aging Wu to yield power to her
\nson. She accepted their demands and retired from the throne, dying in
\nDecember of that year. Despite decades of condemnation as a vicious
\nusurper, the achievements of Empress Wu Zetian, who defied the gender
\nconventions of her day, are increasingly being acknowledged. <\/small><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

todayinhistory: December 16th 705: Empress Wu Zetian dies On this day in 705, Wu Zetian, the only sovereign empress of China, died aged 81. Born during the Tang dynasty, she entered the court of Emperor Taizong as a concubine when she was 14 years old. After Taizong\u2019s death, the new emperor Gaozong defied custom and … Continue reading “Today in History – The Death Of Empress Wu”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[251,228],"tags":[73,559],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eTPU-ae","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":967,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}