Wu Zetian (Civ6)/Civilopedia

The first and only woman to sit on China’s throne, Wu Zetian got to where she got to via assassinations, manipulation, and cunning court strategy. While she was focused on the court, she also altered the way that Chinese politics worked towards a more meritocratic system and away from noble patronage.
We are accustomed to speaking of the 600s as a dark age. But this is a perspective that only sees Europe. In the rest of the world, this is a time of expansion and interconnection, whether or not this be about the growth of the Islamic world, the consolidation of the Chola empires, etc. In China, Tang was the re-emergence of a large empire in the wake of Han. But Tang went further, building a multi-ethnic series of dependencies as well as a flourishing of the arts that would set the stage for later and greater Chinese empires.
Tang was an era of court culture. Porcelain, tea, and all the profits from the Silk Road contributed to the empire’s success, and its capital of Chang’an was the largest city in the world in its time. Tribute systems, while not at the level of later Ming systems, were established, as well as protectorates that reached as far as India and Iran. Most of all, poetry and the arts were at their height during Tang.
A court culture needs a court villain. And here enters Wu Zetian. The Wu family were wealthy timber merchants, and, like many powerful families, it was the custom to send a daughter to be a concubine of the Imperial court under Emperor Taizong. But Taizong died, and the sickly Gaozong took over.
Gaozong had a wife, the Empress Wang, but favored and had children with a concubine, Xiao. Wang sought to divert Gaozong’s attention from this rival and sought to promote Wu within the court. It backfired. Wu rose, and both Wang and Xiao fell – and fell so badly that Wang had Wu’s daughter strangled in her crib (or, according to others, Wu killed her own daughter and blamed Wang for it). After their deaths in relative obscurity, Wu claimed to be haunted by their spirits.
Wu’s influence over Gaozong grew, especially as his health failed. Her influence was primarily focused on palace intrigue, although she did caution against a conquest of Goguryeo (northern Korea). She began advising him behind a pearl screen, being present at all of his meetings. Upon his death, her son, Li Zhe (the Zhongzong Emperor), takes over, but quickly favors his own in-laws instead of his mother. This set up a clash between the two families and between Wu’s shadow rule and the standard workings of power, a clash that Wu was to win. She deposed her own son and replaced him with his younger, more pliable brother, Li Dan (Ruizhong), in 684.
Here, Wu’s power was more nakedly open. She openly gave orders and, in 690, declared herself Empress regnant and founded her own dynasty, Zhou. She was the first and only woman to ever sit on China’s throne. But as she herself declined in later years, she began to rely more and more on her councilors, especially two brothers, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong. With power came ambition, and the two Zhang brothers began to resent any other connections or appointments that Wu would make outside of their own. Eventually, rivals in the court plot the Zhang brothers’ death, and, for once, Wu was unable to stop her enemies. The Zhang brothers were killed, and Wu – finally – deposed.
Domestically, Wu initiated a number of reforms that both reflected her own – relatively – humble origins as well as set barriers to anyone who would seek to follow in her footsteps. She initiated public reforms curbing female performers and putting limits on women’s fashion but also opened administrative examinations to all men, regardless of status. Further, in a stunning display of power, she eliminated entire branches of the imperial family, shifting the focus of power in China away from powerful families and towards the centralized bureaucracy. Wu’s regime was enforced via her secret police and involved the threat of hidden violence against all who would oppose her. But this was violence largely directed at the court. For commoners, Wu’s reign would have been relatively enlightened – she cut the military, promoted skilled officials, and gave much of royal land to commoners.
Internationally, Wu promoted Buddhism, even declaring herself to be Maitreya, the Buddha-to-be, but openly clashed with Tibet as well as western Turkic tribes. While Tibet remained independent, the Tibetan Empire lost the ground that it had taken in years past. And while Wu made inroads into Turkic areas, the Western nomadic powers were to have their day several centuries hence.