WHO WAS THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN CHINESE HISTORY, EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN OR DOWAGER EMPRESS CIXI?
THE GLORIAN POST (TGP)
ARTICLE SECTION : WOMEN AND POWER
CHAPTER ONE: LADIES OF IMPERIAL CHINA
EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN VS. DOWAGER CIXI
WHO WAS THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN THE RICH HISTORY OF IMPERIAL CHINA. (FACTS)
EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN
THE DEBATE
Over decades and centuries, one of the questions that still rules the mind of Historians is who exactly is the most powerful woman in Chinese History.
There are two women who stand out as being the most powerful the first being EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN and the other being DOWAGER EMPRESS CIXI.
As a person that has taken a very keen interest in studying the History of China I am going to present a verdict basing on what I can do best to argue out this fact weighing all the fields that I try to believe these women shared in common.
When I googled it I realised that above all else DOWAGER EMPRESS CIXI is considered the most powerful woman in the Chinese History which in my own sense I do believe that is not the case so let's go step by step right below and see if we can come to a reasonable verdict in my point of view on this matter.
THE LADIES AND THE DYNASTIES
Both Wu Ze Tian and Cixi were women that existed in what would have been the two very glorious dynasties of China as one perhaps from the Greatest and the other not really but very great.
Wu Ze Tian came to exist in the Tang Dynasty which by many historians is considered the most glorious age In Chinese civilzation.
To begin with during the Tang Dynasty, the Arts fluorished and it could have also been a Renaissance period within ancient China, that being the case we see that on a number of occasions the Tang state's Suzerainty was at the peak controlling the Korean peninsula and going to as far as Qara Hoja and some lands beyond the Takla Makhan.
Point blank, what I wish to say is in comparison to the size of the Tang Dynasty by the time that Wu Ze Tian died, she had left a much bigger Empire than one which she had initially found upon her rise to power.
Cixi in contrast to Wu Ze Tian she existed in the last Dynasty of Imperial China which was known as the Qing dynasty.
It was a time of foreign pressure that had totally amounted on the Chinese Empire first and foremost because of the constant rivalries amongst the Foreign powers of Japan, Britain, Russia and France along with internal divisions and constant warfare most notably the religious movements and the Opium wars.
At her time it can be asserted that it was the beginning of the collapse of public order as the insurgents were too many, revolutionaries numerous in number and collaborators with foreigners had instigated a number of revolts against the Imperial government.
To put it all briefly by the time Cixi came into power, what she inherited wasn't a glorious Empire, it was a crumbling and turbulent one which is why it is to no surprise that three years after her death, the Monarchy had long died upon her deposal all that was left was to bury Imperial China three years later.
However, considering the fact that throughout her reign she was able to hold the country together I can't say that she doomed it because as Wu Ze Tian was busy enlarging a very glorious Empire, Cixi was rather sustaining a very large crumbling one so by the mere fact that she never lived to see the China that she ruled behind the curtain collapse it implies that she had significant political skills so for the first round it goes to Dowager Empress Cixi.
ROUND ONE: DOWAGER EMPRESS CIXI
FOREIGN POLICY
Wu Ze Tian I must say left me quite amused as one of the biggest achievements during her era was to master the control of the silk road and she defended it almost monopolizing it, China became a centre of so much attention and it was in my opinion the treasures' chest for East Asia given that it's capital in Cháng'an attracted a series of the most expensive and precious treasures of the world it must have been that with the very many countries that surrounded the Tang Empire why is it that during her time I can't say that she was envied for power by other Countries.
Given the fact that trade was at its height and it fluorished and war came nowhere near it suggests that Wu Ze Tian had mastered a very glorious foreign policy in which Tang was more of an endeared entity by others rather than a hated one.
If I must give my individual point of view then I must say that Tang under Wu Zetian was ushered into a golden age because of the peace policy that she was able to maintain and the saintly appearance that she gave the state in contrast to the controlling one that Emperor Taizong had established.
Cixi on the other hand I can't say she boasts a remarkable foreign policy because firstly given the Japanese wars that she waged yet during Wu Ze Tian's time there was never such a thing to control the foreigners within Her Empire was something that she failed she instead accelerated resistance which is why many called her a villainess I believe, there was nothing valuable for China to get from other countries except that she was a victim of Opium smuggling and trade was totally paralyzed along with development given the constant instability which she failed to control but she rather participated actively in which further unpopularized the Imperial Dynasty the Republicans opted for a constitutional one upon the succession of a weak monarch that couldn't much up to her might.
In the end Wu Ze Tian boasting the most remarkable foreign policy in which all Courtiers looked to Cháng'an and All states worshipped Tang she is my winner in this round.
ROUND TWO: EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN
QUEEN OF VILLAINS
Wu Ze Tian in History is perhaps the most demonized woman as it is that she was held responsible for having turned the Emperor's Harem into a human butchery as she is said to have killed her own daughter Princess Anding and blaming it on Empress Wang who was as a result deposed and killed while she took the Empress title for herself, killing her own son Prince Hong'er, had Consort Xiao accused of witchcraft which ended her life as well and it is quite well known that to her she pursued power all her life until she lost every shred of humanity that she had left, she is made no different from the Evil Queen Ravena and perhaps she was even much worse, however as it is that her history dates back to more than one thousand three hundred years none of these allegations to her cruelty can be proven true entirely except giving the excuse that her ambition had the best of her and she so fervently possesed the desire of getting rid of all her enemies and potential hampers to her success although she is famous for having executed an entire family to get back at an enemy who died without being killed on her orders.
Don't get me wrong as she could have been portrayed as a bloodthirsty human but just because most of these facts were allegations in an age of no CCTV cameras just and all can't be proven it doesn't mean that some of them aren't true and to hold such immense power and authority she needn't have been a sage so benevolent Everytime, some times she needed to be a little tough to get every job she wanted done and cunning along with guise of they were the best alternatives, while I find the 2014 series EMPRESS OF CHINA to have Redeemed her a bit too much it doesn't alter the fact that her history being written by the very people who hated, defeated and outlived her notably Empress Wei and Li Clan scholars was tampered with due to bias, much of it could have been corrupted.
Dowager Empress Cixi existed at the time that ordinary people would keep their own records and also at a time that literacy was fighting to become dominant in the land.
She too was accused and demonized but not as much as Wu Ze Tian however had she lived during her time then her demonization wouldn't have been any different from Empress Wu's I guess???? Though since in her age people were not fools and they weren't as gullible to be manipulated, her image has survived positively because everyone in their own view can criticize her or praise her considering many of her achievements and the disasters of her opposers as she is a recent case that for this round I do believe both women were only living to survive the times and Empress Wu being a much more debated figure of villainy I choose to believe that they were equal in terms of sternness and resistance perhaps even cruelty as all are alleged victims of power hungry mothers that slaughtered their sons.
ROUND THREE: TIE
IMPERIAL POWER
Wu Ze Tian wielded so much more political power than Dowager Empress Cixi did, to begin with Empress Wu Ze Tian was able to not only draft edicts but she could pass decrees without the Emperor's consent throughout her term of regency even without having to go through the Emperor himself as she felt no need of it.
When people had resentment towards Wu Ze Tian then it was because throughout the Chinese History there had never been a woman who had come close to wielding as much power as she did at the time, there were predecessors like Empress Lu Zhi of Han whose influence in power spelt a very strong foundation for Her to gain an influence in politics but contrary to other women with the exception of the Song Dynasty Empress Regent Liu, Wu Ze Tian crossed over from not only possessing political power but also social, religious and economic power as well, even before her second husband Emperor Gaozong died she was already idolized as Heavenly Empress and she'd even presided over religious ceremonies that were in nature supposed to be led by the Emperor himself when she was just his wife.
Later even Buddhist temples that were erected had Budhhas with her face which clearly tells how she could have elevated herself to what was a goddess, something that no other woman in Chinese History did considering even from her name itself where she combined universal characters for heaven and Earth to possess it links us to what was a much more ambitious decision she took to make herself a heavenly figure and not a mortal one alone.
when it comes to Economic power as she turned Cháng'an into what was the capital market of the continent she passed taxes she wanted to and controlled the Silk road which she in a way even monopolized.
Strongly I can say that politics itself wasn't the only sphere that contributed to her power as she even appointed officials that were loyal to herself alone and not the Emperor she was already too powerful that the men of her Generation on top of hating her it could have been because they feared her growing power which was much more than that any other Emperor had exercised.
Cixi however powerful she was at a point she was limited to only the political sphere and indications in history rather show that in contrast to Wu Ze Tian when it come to her influence she was threatened.
Firstly she was a co-regent with Empress Cian who well she was lucky that she had a very vague or no influence and interest in state affairs or perhaps she wouldn't dare to go up against Cixi in the first place, Cixi once seeing that it was impossible for the Emperor to yield to her demands even had to rebel by putting him under house arrest when Wu Ze Tian didn't have conditions to feel that her power was restrained. Cixi when it came to religion she was never iconized and additionally economically on top of surviving on money from the state there wasn't a commercial Empire for her to control or boast about as in a way or more, it seemed that the foreigners took charge of trade and even put restrictions on her commercial might.
One can as well say that her image endured as long as the political sphere did whereas Wu Ze Tian who was playing an all rounded role exerted influence in all the designs of the Tang Dynasty organization she wielded much more Imperial power than Dowager Empress Cixi she takes over this round.
ROUND FOUR: EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN
THE BLOODED HAREM: WAR OF THE FLOWERS
Wu Ze Tian to survive 68 years within the palace was something that couldn't have been easy as she entered at the age of 14 years what was considered to be the most turbulent period of the Inner Palace.
In the Tang Dynasty the Emperor's Harem comprised hundreds of beautiful girls which means that in competition for the Emperor's heart Wu Ze Tian had a rather stiff one compared to Empress Cixi in the Qing Dynasty harem.
The Harem in Wu Ze Tian's time was blooded as it had never been automatically women miscarried and schemed every now and then killed and poisoned one another along with framing themselves, for some even the Emperor never got to know when they died because the numbers of his wives weren't things that he'd take into consideration.
Wu Ze Tian given the favours of Emperor Taizong much more than any other woman with the Exception of Empress Zhangsun who had perished earlier means that she was very remarkable and beautiful however it created enemies for her.
Consorts Wei, Yang and Yin to begin with as the superiors would have hoped to be Empresses which in the end could have propelled them to tortured the young and fairer Wu at the time, as if that alone was not enough as she rose from being a cocubine of Emperor Taizong and upon his death was returned from a nunnery as a concubine to his son Emperor Gaozong who was charmed by her, her rivals Empress Wang and Consort Xiao worsened the game for her until she toppled them and rose to Emperor Gaozong's Empress Consort.
From closely spectating and going through everything I can assert she must have been a mastermind at scheming and for her talent came along with favour and not just Beauty for herself to rise to power she having to maneuver all these other Imperial Consorts and concubines means she was a genius.
Cixi On the other hand couldn't have seen what a very bloody Harem really was and her husband being young narrowed the competition that she had as he was easily swayed by beauty and perhaps no other talents that she was known for.
Though becoming a favorite and at lightening speed bearing the Emperor a son, the fact that her pregnancy endured all those nine months was a miracle and perhaps could have shown how her competitors were either very humble and not ambitious as she was or they couldn't be good at scheming as she might have been, the fact that she gained power because of the very son that she had with the Emperor means that without such luck a woman like her wouldn't have controlled China throughout the whole of her life.
If Cixi had seen worse then Wu Ze Tian had perhaps seen the very worst which makes me put her at a much higher level than her Later successor, all were loving wives maybe but for Wu Ze Tian to be close to the man she loved she fought a much more bloody war than Cixi ever had.
ROUND FIVE: EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN
LEGACY
Wu Ze Tian boasts something that Dowager Empress Cixi doesn't because to begin with it had never been in history for a father to marry the same wife as his son and though not related by blood to Confucian scholars it was one of the most unacceptable forms of incest but even with that Wu Ze Tian surpassed all the odds that were before her.
Additionally it had never been for female Empress Regents to rule except with the incompetence or ill health of their husbands additionally the Emperor himself being very young, where the latter was the case, an Empress Regent ruled as long as the Emperor hadn't reached eighteen years though in a break with that tradition Wu Ze Tian deposed her son Zhongzhong and replaced him with Ruizong whom she also deposed as incompetent before she restored her son Zhongzhong to the position of Crown Prince.
Wu Ze Tian exerted her power so much that her own sons feared her for it and perhaps that is not the main point that I wish to stretch out here.
Wu Ze Tian marked the beginning and the end of a thought to be frivolous policy and she was a climax that was never reached in the whole of Chinese History even with strong successors especially in the Song and Yuan dynasties.
She first like Empress Lu of Han deserted the Curtain, struck it and tore it down which was an implication that she was no longer going to administer her rule virtually like other Dowager Empresses, she was going to do it directly.
But even that alone was not enough as there was no contentment in her soul and perhaps she still had the ambition burning within her she went ahead to give the Imperial world in all its rich History the biggest surprise that it had never seen or conjured.
In 690 with a plebiscite, she announced and Crowned herself Emperor and not Empress as she established the Zhou dynasty which she took for fifteen years up to 705, it had never been for a woman to sit on the dragon throne as an Emperor in her own right and wear the Imperial Dragon robes yet she was never from the Li Clan which ruled the Dynasty but she succeeded to posses the 'Mandate of Heaven' and became a 'Daughter of Heaven' as other Emperors had been 'sons of Heaven' with a rather mild resistance from the Courtiers who were more of her own people.
She assumed the honorary regnal title 'BIXIA' which was given to Emperors and 'ZHEN' for I she did this.
She brought numerous wealth and she enriched the Imperial treasury and while consolidating her power she accumulated wealth for those that succeeded her as it is that the Tang Court during her regime was extravagant not at the expense of the common people but wealth in her regime became nearly as common as dust it wasn't a big deal for women who weren't even Court ladies or Nobles to wear some of the most expensive jewels and precious stones.
Beyond revolution she possesed the courage that no other woman ever did and possessing a title that only men possesed and no woman in Chinese History either before or after her ever dared.
As it still stands today she is the only Exception that History could never alter to have reigned in her own right despite being a woman and analysing it In a personal opinion I can say she went against everything from norms and traditions until she became everything itself and with a far reaching effect she was the reason that all other women in Imperial China were greatly prohibited from participating in politics, the reason why other Tang Dynasty Emperor's never enthroned Empresses and those who did it it so happened it was during the final hours of their wives.
Wu Ze Tian was the reason that Tang Emperors feard to marry both her distant and close relatives, others married from low families, favourites of the Emperor were eternally feared because as it had never been for men to bow to a woman even when Emperor Taizong refused to recognize female Sovereigns Seondeok and Jindeok in Shilla and Kogyoku/Saimei who was the second Female Emperor of Wa(Japan) after Suiko.
She mothered a golden age because she even had women stand as politicians most notably when she appointed the first female Prime Minister in perhaps the whole Imperial world and her usurpation became the revolution that Chinese Royals, Aristocrats and scholars feared though even accusers like Sima Guang admitted she was a competent ruler.
Cixi on the other hand though effectively ruling the Chinese Empire never went beyond the curtain as perhaps she didn't possess that much ambition to take on the mould of Empress Wu Ze Tian she was a Dowager Empress all her political life, the curtain and her titles still make her the most effective virtual monarch that China ever had but the fact that given a similar equation and perhaps ambition at which Empress Wu Ze Tian succeeded to become an Emperor herself, Cixi automatically failed to achieve the Highest title that her predeccessor did which means that for her she ruled the country but never gained possession of it like Ze Tian did.
With that I can finally say that as Dowager Empress Cixi boasts a legacy of being China's last effective monarch to rule but however, the annals of History consigned Wu Ze Tian the most luminous legacy of being the only female Emperor to rule China.
ROUND SIX: EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN.
THE FALL
Wu Ze Tian in 705 let go of the reigns of power eventually tired and an old woman who was 81 years old, she didn't abdicate in the mould of being overthrown but rather her time had come she quietly passed on a couple of months later because of an illness.
Cixi could have been the same as she was already a victim of stroke and all that pressure of forty seven years only four years less than Wu Ze Tian's time in power had had a toll on her health she too was deposed in a similar mould to that of Wu Ze Tian as she made it impossible for them to sustain resistance with their health they were all tired women.
ROUND SEVEN: TIE
NAME OF AN ERA
Wu Ze Tian also known as Wu Zhào or Wu Hou established the short lived Zhou dynasty and after herself she became the best example that in a world where men ruled, a woman could also take the stand.
She is the perfect example that women weren't as weak as they were thought to be and like men as well their minds would conjure ambition and demand respect, wield power and rule much better than some of the men while bringing glory she wasn't the doom but rather the precious jewelled glory of Tang.
All in all Wu Ze Tian was perhaps one of the most important justifications to women rulers in Eastern Asia during the latter centuries.
Cixi however leading a prosperous age can be attributed to the efforts of Wu Ze Tian, it is unclear if to her Wu would have even been a role model but for ushering women into education and seeing China go into the modern age she ushered for it was what made her a dustinguished woman and perhaps she really did inspire women to take on a very positive role alongside men and proved that women could do the same while Wu Ze Tian asserted that they could perhaps even do much better.
All in all personally I give this round to Wu Ze Tian.
ROUND EIGHT: EMPRESS WU ZE TIAN
DISCREDIT
Wu Ze Tian was hated for having taken the Mandate of Heaven into her hands, having suppressed the Li Clan and Guanlong aristocracy while she gave common scholars a chance to compete, she was assumed to have once considered passing the throne over to her nephew to continue the Zhou dynasty and perhaps for how cold she is alleged to have been which gives most of the people a negative image about her as he haters had the advantage of her death to manipulate her nature however much they liked and with her nameless stele at the Qianling Mausoleum where she was entombed right next to her husband Emperor Gaozong there is not much to say about the things she did and public accusations.
Cixi on the other hand with her extravagance she drained the Imperial treasury which her successors suffered from as a result, she was accused for enough murders the most believable one being of the Crown Prince who died a day before her.
She took power for herself and declined the Emperor's relatives from places of influence, she was greatly seen to have led a corrupt government they cared mostly about personal gains than state welfare she in a way by appointing them doomed the Imperial Dynasty but I don't think it is right for one to be responsible for people's actions after their death.
All in all Wu Ze Tian being the most discredited and her influence having a long lasting impact of loathsomeness and hate towards women and her supposed cruelty thought to be unmatched she brought glory aside personal feelings of bias the winner is Cixi the most discredited figure who is indebted for her heavy extravagant lifestyle, can you believe she paid Opera singers so much????
ROUND NINE: DOWAGER EMPRESS CIXI
FINAL VERDICT (ROUND TEN)
After a very careful examination of the two women, both had what it takes both possesed power and both were perhaps the greatest women that ever graced the annals of Chinese History all in all portraying similar strengths Wu Ze Tian possesed a bit more when it came to talent wit and diplomacy when compared to Cixi who had comforts and luck coupled with charm on her side.
Cixi in governing the country had limits which her predeccessor Wu Ze Tian surpassed to centralize power and authority to herself.
All in all I should say that Cixi wielded and possesed much less than Wu Ze Tian from a personal opinion the debate sealed here I believe 'the most powerful woman in the History of Imperial China is not Cixi, it was, it is, and it shall always be Emperor Wu Ze Tian.'
ROUND TEN (FINAL ROUND)
REIGN: 690-705
DYNASTY: TANG (BY MARRIAGE)
: ZHOU (BY ESTABLISHMENT)
*************************************************
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE SUPPORTED ME I AM VERY GRATEFUL FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE LOVED MY WORK KEEP DOING SO AND THOSE WHO DESIRE TO CONTACT ME YOU CAN CALL DIRECTLY ON +256 752 779 116 OR YOU CAN EMAIL ME AT benjaminglorianrubanga@gmail.com.
We can debate about all my blogs and you can keep supporting my work
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
THE GLORIAN POST
Comments
Post a Comment