Volume 76 Biographies 1: Empresses and Consorts 1

25%唐制：皇后而下，有貴妃、淑妃、德妃、賢妃，是為夫人。昭儀、昭容、昭媛、修儀、修容、修媛、充儀、充容、充媛，是為九嬪。婕妤、美人、才人各九，合二十七，是代世婦。寶林、御女、采女各二十七，合八十一，是代御妻。自餘六尚，分典乘輿服御，皆有員次。後世改復不常。開元時，以後下復有四妃非是，乃置惠、麗、華三妃，六儀，四美人，七才人，而尚宮、尚儀、尚服各二，參合前號，大抵踵《周官》相損益云，然則尚矣。

Under Tang institutions, ranking below the empress were the four consorts of highest grade—Noble, Pure, Virtuous, and Worthy—collectively termed Ladies. The nine ranks of concubine—Bright, Cultivated, and Fulfilling, each in Lady, Beauty, and Fair Maid grades—formed the Nine Concubines. There were nine each of Lady of Handsome Fairness, Beauty, and Talented Lady—twenty-seven in all—corresponding to the ritual office of shi fu in antiquity. Treasure Grove, Imperial Maid, and Selecting Maid, twenty-seven apiece—eighty-one altogether—served as counterparts to the ancient yu qi. The remaining Six Chief Offices of the inner palace, each overseeing imperial transport, dress, and household service, likewise had prescribed numbers and precedence. In later times the titles were altered and revived again and again without settled rule. During Kaiyuan, the court judged the revival of four consorts beneath the empress unsound and instead instituted the Hui, Li, and Hua consorts, six Ladies of Ceremony, four Beauties, and seven Talented Ladies, doubling the Chiefs of Palace, Ceremonies, and Apparel and blending earlier designations—largely adapting the model of the Rites of Zhou—so that the system at last attained its fullest form.

禮本夫婦，《詩》始后妃，治亂因之，興亡係焉。盛德之君，帷薄嚴奧，裏謁不忓於朝，外言不內諸閫，《關雎》之風行，彤史之化修，故淑範懿行，更為內助。若夫艷嬖之興，常在中主。笫裯既交，則情與愛遷；顏辭媚熟，則事為私奪。乘易昏之明，牽不斷之柔，險言似忠，故受而不詰，醜行已效，反狃而為好。左右附之，憸壬惎之，狡謀鉗其悟先，哀誓楗於寵初，天下之事已去，而恬不自覺，此武、韋所以遂篡弒而喪王室也。至於楊氏未死，玄亂厥謀；張后制中，肅幾斂衽。吁，可嘆哉！中葉以降，時多故矣，外有攻討之勤，內寡嬿溺之私，群閹朋進，外戚勢分，后妃無大善惡，取充職位而已，故列著於篇。高祖太穆順聖皇后高祖太穆順聖皇后竇氏，京兆平陵人。父毅，在周為上柱國，尚武帝姊襄陽長公主，入隋為定州總管、神武公。

Ritual grounds itself in the bond of husband and wife; the Odes open with empress and consort; through them governance turns to order or chaos, and dynasties rise or perish. A ruler of outstanding virtue keeps the inner palace austere and sealed: private audiences never disrupt the court, and outside talk never crosses the women's gate. Where the ethos of 'Guan Ju' flourishes and the annals of the inner court are kept with care, virtuous example becomes the emperor's true support within. The ascent of dazzling favorites, by contrast, usually belongs to rulers of merely average caliber. Once the bed is shared with another, feeling and favor drift away. When looks and words grow expert in charm, public business is taken for private gain. They exploit the hour when the mind grows dull, play on tenderness the ruler cannot cut off, and speak treachery in the guise of loyalty—so he accepts it without question. Once shameful conduct has already succeeded, he grows used to it and calls it virtue. Flatterers cling to them, villains stir them on, cunning plots forestall the ruler's second thoughts, and feigned grief locks him in at the dawn of favor. The realm is already lost while he rests easy and knows it not—thus Wu and Wei could usurp the throne, murder their sovereigns, and destroy the Tang house. In Lady Yang's case, rebellion broke out before her death and overturned her designs. While Empress Zhang held sway, Emperor Suzong all but shrank before her in the inner quarters. Ah—it is heartbreaking to recall! From the mid-Tang onward the age was full of troubles: wars pressed from without, and within there was scant leisure for royal dalliance. Eunuch factions rose together, and maternal kin lost their old dominance. Empresses and consorts neither greatly helped nor greatly harmed the state—they merely occupied their titles—so they are recorded here in sequence. Empress Taimu the Shunsheng, consort of Emperor Gaozu, was née Dou, of Pingling in Jingzhao commandery. Her father Dou Yi had been Supreme Pillar of State under Northern Zhou and had married Emperor Wu's elder sister, the Princess of Xiangyang. Under Sui he became regional commander of Dingzhou and Duke of Shenwu.

后生，髮垂過頸，三歲與身等。讀《女誡》、《列女》等傳，一過輒不忘。武帝愛之，養宮中，異它甥。時突厥女為后，無寵，后密諫曰：「吾國未靖，虜且強，願抑情撫接，以取合從，則江南、關東不吾梗。」武帝嘉納。及崩，哀毀同所生。聞隋高祖受禪，自投床下，曰：「恨我非男子，不能捄舅家禍。」毅遽掩其口，曰：「毋妄言，赤吾族！」常謂主曰：「此女有奇相，且識不凡，何可妄與人？」因畫二孔雀屏間，請昏者使射二矢，陰約中目則許之。射者閱數十，皆不合。高祖最後射，中各一目，遂歸於帝。

At birth her hair already reached below her neck; by age three it was as long as she was tall. She read the Admonitions for Women, the Biographies of Exemplary Women, and similar texts, and never forgot a passage after reading it once. Emperor Wu favored her, kept her in the palace, and singled her out among his kin. A Turkic woman then held the title of empress but had fallen from favor. The young Lady Dou privately urged Emperor Wu: 'The realm is not yet secure and the nomads remain strong. Please master your feelings and treat her with kindness to secure their alliance—then the south and the eastern provinces will not stand in our way. The emperor approved and followed her counsel. When he died she mourned with the grief of a daughter for her own father. When she learned that Yang Jian had taken the throne, she flung herself from her couch crying, 'I regret I am not a man—I cannot save my uncle's house from ruin! Her father clapped a hand over her mouth at once: 'Do not speak recklessly—you will bring death upon our whole clan!' He often told the princess, 'This girl has an extraordinary face and uncommon judgment—she must not be married off carelessly.' He therefore painted two peacocks on a screen and invited suitors to shoot two arrows, secretly resolving to accept only the man who struck both eyes. Dozens of suitors tried and failed. Gaozu shot last, struck each eye, and won her hand in marriage.

始，元貞太后羸老有疾，而性素嚴，諸姒娣皆畏，莫敢侍。后事之，獨怡謹盡孝，或淹月不釋衣履。工為篇章規誡，文有雅體。又善書，與高祖書相雜，人不辨也。崩於涿郡，年四十五。

At first Dowager Yuanzhen was frail, elderly, and ill, yet by nature severe. The other daughters-in-law all feared her and none dared nurse her. The empress alone attended her with cheerful reverence and complete devotion, sometimes going a full month without changing her clothes or shoes. She excelled at moral essays and admonitions written in a refined classical style. She was also accomplished in calligraphy—when her hand was set beside Gaozu's, no one could tell them apart. She died in Zhuo commandery at the age of forty-five.

帝在煬帝時，多畜善馬，后見曰：「上性樂此，盍以獻？徒留之速罪，無益也。」不聽，頃果坐譴。帝後見隋政亂，多妄誅殛，乃為自安計，數奏鷹犬異駒，煬帝果喜，擢位將軍。因泣謂諸子曰：「早用而母言，得此久矣！」帝有天下，詔即所葬園為壽安陵，謚曰穆。及祔獻陵，尊為太穆皇后。

While still a prince under Emperor Yang, he kept many fine horses. The empress said to him, 'The emperor loves such horses—why not present them to him? Keeping them will only bring punishment sooner. There is no gain in it. He refused—and soon was indeed punished for it. Later, seeing Sui politics in chaos and arbitrary executions multiplying, he adopted a plan of self-preservation and repeatedly sent rare hawks, hounds, and horses to the throne. Emperor Yang was delighted and promoted him to general. He wept and told his sons, 'Had I listened to your mother sooner, I would have enjoyed this rank long ago! After he won the empire, he ordered her burial garden renamed Shou'an Mausoleum and gave her the posthumous title Mu. When her spirit tablet was placed in Xian Mausoleum, she was honored as Empress Taimu.

始，太宗生，有二龍之符，后於諸子中愛視最篤。後即位，過慶善宮，覽觀梗欷，顧侍臣曰：「朕生於此，今母后永違，育我之德不可報。」因號慟，左右皆流涕。乃享后於正寢。它日幸九成宮，夢后若平生，既悟，潸然不自勝。明日，詔有司大發倉賑貧瘠，以為后報焉。上元中，益謚太穆神皇后。太宗文德長孫皇后太宗文德順聖皇后長孫氏，河南洛陽人。其先魏拓拔氏，後為宗室長，因號長孫。高祖稚，大丞相、馮翊王。曾祖裕，平原公。祖兕，左將軍。父晟，字季，涉書史，趫鷙曉兵，仕隋為右驍衛將軍。

When Taizong was born, an omen of two dragons appeared, and among all her sons the empress loved him most devotedly. After he took the throne he passed Qing Shan Palace, gazed upon it with choked sobs, and told his attendants, 'I was born here. Now my mother is gone forever—the debt of her nurture can never be repaid. He broke into loud lamentation, and all those beside him wept. He then performed a memorial offering to her in the main hall. On another day, while visiting Jiucheng Palace, he dreamed of her as though she were still alive. When he woke, he could not hold back his tears. The next day he ordered the granaries opened on a grand scale to relieve the poor, as an act of gratitude in her name. In the Shangyuan era her posthumous title was further elevated to Empress Taimu the Divine. Empress Wende the Shunsheng, consort of Emperor Taizong, was née Changsun, of Luoyang in Henan. Her clan descended from the Tuoba of Northern Wei; an ancestor became chief of the imperial lineage, whence the surname Changsun, 'chief of the long lineage.' Her great-grandfather Zhi was Grand Chancellor and Prince of Fengyi. Her great-great-grandfather Yu held the title Duke of Pingyuan. Her grandfather Si served as General of the Left. Her father Sheng, courtesy name Ji, was learned in history, bold and skilled in military affairs, and under Sui served as General of the Right Agile Cavalry Guard.

后喜圖傳，視古善惡以自鑒，矜尚禮法。晟兄熾，為周通道館學士。嘗聞太穆勸撫突厥女，心誌之。每語晟曰：「此明睿人，必有奇子，不可以不圖昏。」故晟以女太宗。后歸寧，舅高士廉妾見大馬二丈立后舍外，懼，占之，遇《坤》之《泰》。卜者曰：「《坤》順承天，載物無疆；馬，地類也；之《泰》，是天地交而萬物通也，又以輔相天地之宜。繇協《歸妹》，婦人事也。女處尊位，履中而居順，后妃象也。」時隱太子釁鬩已構，后內盡孝事高祖，謹承諸妃，消釋嫌猜。及帝授甲宮中，后親慰勉，士皆感奮。尋為皇太子妃，俄為皇后。

The empress loved illustrated histories, took ancient examples of good and evil as her mirror, and held fast to ritual propriety. Sheng's elder brother Chi had been a scholar of the Tongdao Hall under Northern Zhou. He had heard how Empress Taimu urged conciliation toward the Turkic empress and kept the lesson in mind. He often told Sheng, 'She is a woman of insight and will surely bear an extraordinary son. You must secure her for your house. For that reason Sheng gave his daughter in marriage to Taizong. On a visit home, a concubine of her uncle Gao Shilian saw a huge horse two zhang tall standing outside the empress's quarters. Terrified, she cast the hexagrams and received Kun changing to Tai. The diviner said, 'Kun submits to Heaven and bears all things without limit. The horse belongs to the creatures of earth. Tai means Heaven and Earth unite and all things prosper—she will aid in harmonizing their proper order. The judgment accords with Gui Mei—the work of a wife. A woman in the honored place, centered and yielding—this is the sign of empress and consort. By then the feud with the Crown Prince was already brewing. Within the palace the empress devoted herself to Gaozu in filial service, treated the other consorts with care, and eased mutual suspicion. When the emperor armed himself within the palace, the empress went among the soldiers to encourage them, and all were stirred to zeal. She soon became crown princess and shortly thereafter empress.

性約素，服御取給則止。益觀書，雖容櫛不少廢。與帝言，或及天下事，辭曰：「牝雞司晨，家之窮也，可乎？」帝固要之，訖不對。後廷有被罪者，必助帝怒請繩治，俟意解，徐為開治，終不令有冤；下嬪生豫章公主而死，后視如所生；媵侍疾病，輟所御飲藥資之。下懷其仁。兄無忌，於帝本布衣交，以佐命為元功，出入臥內，帝將引以輔政，后固謂不可，乘間曰：「妾托體紫宮，尊貴已極，不願私親更據權於朝。漢之呂、霍，可以為誡。」帝不聽，自用無忌為尚書僕射。后密諭令牢讓，帝不獲已，乃聽，后喜見顏間。異母兄安業無行，父喪，逐后、無忌還外家。后貴，未嘗以為言。擢位將軍。後與李孝常等謀反，將誅，后叩頭曰：「安業罪死無赦。然向遇妾不以慈，戶知之；今論如法，人必謂妾釋憾於兄，無乃為帝累乎！」遂得減流越巂。太子承乾乳媼請增東宮什器，后曰：「太子患無德與名，器何請為？」

By nature she was frugal and plain, taking only what sufficed for dress and daily use. She read all the more diligently, never setting her books aside even while attending to her hair. When the emperor spoke with her of state affairs, she refused, saying, 'When a hen crows for the dawn, the household is ruined—how could I do such a thing? The emperor pressed her again and again, but she would not reply. When someone in the inner palace fell under blame, she would first share the emperor's anger and urge strict punishment; when his temper cooled, she would gradually plead for leniency, and in the end no innocent person suffered; when a lesser consort bore the Princess of Yuzhang and died in childbirth, the empress raised the child as her own; when attendant maids fell ill, she gave them her own food and medicine. Those below were grateful for her kindness. Her brother Zhangsun Wuji had been the emperor's friend in humble days and, as a founder of the dynasty, ranked among its greatest servants, entering even the imperial bedchamber. When the emperor meant to bring him into the government, the empress firmly opposed it and said at an opportune moment, 'I already stand at the summit of honor in the Purple Palace. I do not wish my own kin to wield power at court again. The Lü clan and Huo Guang of Han should be our warning. The emperor would not heed her and appointed Wuji Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs. The empress secretly urged Wuji to decline firmly. Unable to refuse further, the emperor yielded, and her pleasure showed plainly in her face. Her half-brother Anye was a man of bad character. At their father's funeral he drove the empress and Wuji back to their mother's family. After she became empress she never mentioned the matter. He was nevertheless promoted to general. Later he joined Li Xiaochang and others in plotting rebellion. When execution was imminent, the empress kowtowed and said, 'Anye's crime deserves death without mercy. Yet in the past he treated me without kindness, as all the world knows. If he is punished by law now, people will surely say I settled an old score against my brother. Would that not burden Your Majesty? His sentence was reduced to exile in Yuexi. The wet nurse of Crown Prince Chengqian asked for more furnishings for the Eastern Palace. The empress said, 'The crown prince lacks virtue and a good name—why should he ask for more vessels?'

從幸九成宮，方屬疾，會柴紹等急變聞，帝甲而起，后輿疾以從，宮司諫止，后曰：「上震驚，吾可自安？」疾稍亟，太子欲請大赦，汎度道人，祓塞災會。后曰：「死生有命，非人力所支。若修福可延，吾不為惡；使善無效，我尚何求？且赦令，國大事，佛、老異方教耳，皆上所不為，豈宜以吾亂天下法！」太子不敢奏，以告房玄齡，玄齡以聞，帝嗟美。而群臣請遂赦，帝既許，后固爭止。及大漸，與帝決，時玄齡小譴就第，后曰：「玄齡久事陛下，預奇計秘謀，非大故，願勿置也。妾家以恩澤進，無德而祿，易以取禍，無屬樞柄，以外戚奉朝請足矣。妾生無益於時，死不可以厚葬，願因山為壟，無起墳，無用棺槨，器以瓦木，約費送終，是妾不見忘也。」又請帝納忠容諫，勿受讒，省遊畋作役，死無恨。崩，年三十六。

While accompanying the emperor to Jiucheng Palace she fell ill. When urgent news arrived of the uprising involving Chai Shao and others, the emperor rose and armed himself. Though ill, the empress had herself carried along. Palace officials urged her to stop, but she said, 'The emperor is in alarm—how can I seek my own ease? As her illness worsened, the crown prince wished to request a general amnesty, ordain Daoist priests, and perform rites to avert calamity. The empress said, 'Life and death are ordained—it is not for human effort to decide. If merit could prolong life, I have done no evil. If goodness avails nothing, what more should I ask? Besides, amnesty is a grave matter of state, and Buddhism and Daoism are foreign teachings that the emperor does not practice. How could my illness justify overturning the laws of the realm! The crown prince dared not memorialize the request and told Fang Xuanling instead. When Xuanling reported her words, the emperor sighed in admiration. When the ministers nevertheless pressed for an amnesty and the emperor had already consented, the empress firmly objected until he withdrew his promise. As her illness turned grave, she bade the emperor farewell. Fang Xuanling had just been lightly censured and sent home. The empress urged him: "Fang Xuanling has served you for years and helped shape your boldest plans. Unless he has committed a serious wrong, please do not remove him from office. My clan advanced only through your grace; we enjoy rank without deserving it and court ruin. We should not hold the levers of government—it is enough that your wife's kin appear at court as honored guests. I have done the times little good in life; do not honor me with a costly funeral. Bury me in a mound along the hillside—no tomb mound, no coffin, only simple vessels of tile and wood, and keep the rites frugal. That is how I would know I am remembered. She went on to ask him to heed loyal advisers, reject slander, and cut back on hunting, travel, and forced labor—then she could die content. She died at the age of thirty-six.

后嘗采古婦人事著《女則》十篇，又為論斥漢之馬后不能檢抑外家，使與政事，乃戒其車馬之侈，此謂開本源，恤末事。常誡守者：「吾以自檢，故書無條理，勿令至尊見之。」及崩，宮司以聞，帝為之慟，示近臣曰：「后此書可用垂後，我豈不通天命而割情乎！顧內失吾良佐，哀不可已已！」謚曰文德，葬昭陵，因九嵕山，以成后志。帝自著表序始末，揭陵左。上元中，益謚文德聖皇后。太宗賢妃徐惠太宗賢妃徐惠，湖州長城人。生五月能言，四歲通《論語》、《詩》，八歲自曉屬文。父孝德，嘗試使擬《離騷》為《小山篇》曰：「仰幽巖而流盼，撫桂枝以凝想。將千齡兮此遇，荃何為兮獨往？」孝德大驚，知不可掩，於是所論著遂盛傳。太宗聞之，召為才人。手未嘗廢卷，而辭致贍蔚，文無淹思。帝益禮顧，擢孝德水部員外郎，惠再遷充容。

She had collected stories of exemplary women from antiquity and written ten chapters called Standards for Women. She also argued that Empress Ma of the Han failed to restrain her family and let them meddle in politics, and warned against lavish carriages and horses—what the text calls tending the root and minding the branches. She often told the keeper of the manuscript, "I wrote this only to examine myself, so it is disorderly—do not let the emperor see it. After her death the palace staff informed him. He grieved deeply, showed the work to his closest ministers, and said, "This book of hers can guide future generations—am I so blind to fate that I would deny my love? Yet I have lost my finest counselor within the palace—my sorrow will not end!" She was given the posthumous title Wende and buried at Zhaoling along Jiuzong Mountain, in keeping with her wishes. The emperor wrote a preface recounting her life and had it inscribed on the left side of the tomb. During the Shangyuan reign her title was elevated to Sagely Empress Wende. Virtuous Consort Xu Hui of Emperor Taizong was from Changcheng in Huzhou prefecture. She spoke at five months, knew the Analects and Book of Odes at four, and by eight could compose essays on her own. Her father Xu Xiaode once asked her to rework the "Li Sao" into a piece called "Little Mountain," which begins: "I lift my eyes to shadowed cliffs and gaze; I touch cassia boughs and lose myself in thought. Here we might meet for a thousand years—why must the orchid spirit walk on alone? Xiaode was astonished and knew her gift could not be concealed; from then on her writings spread widely. When Taizong heard of her, he summoned her to the palace as a Talented Lady. She never set aside her books; her style was lush and fluent, and she wrote without laboring over each line. The emperor treated her with growing regard, promoted her father to vice director in the Ministry of Waterways, and twice advanced Hui to the rank of Fulfilling Fair Maid.

貞觀末，數調兵討定四夷，稍稍治宮室，百姓勞怨。惠上疏極諫，且言：「東戍遼海，西討崑丘，士馬罷耗，漕饟漂沒。捐有盡之農，趨無窮之壑；圖未獲之眾，喪已成之軍。故地廣者，非常安之術也；人勞者，為易亂之符也。」又言：「翠微、玉華等宮，雖因山藉水，無築構之苦，而工力和僦，不謂無煩。有道之君，以逸逸人；無道之君，以樂樂身。」又言：「伎巧為喪國斧斤，珠玉為蕩心酖毒，侈麗纖美，不可以不遏。志驕於業泰，體逸於時安。」其剴切精詣，大略如此。帝善其言，優賜之。帝崩，哀慕成疾，不肯進藥，曰：「帝遇我厚，得先狗馬侍園寢，吾志也。」復為詩、連珠以見意。永徽元年卒，年二十四，贈賢妃，陪葬昭陵石室。

Late in the Zhenguan era the court repeatedly sent armies against the frontier peoples and slowly expanded the palaces; the people grew exhausted and bitter. Hui submitted a forceful memorial of remonstrance, writing in part: "We garrison Liaodong in the east and campaign toward Kunlun in the west; men and horses are spent, and grain shipped by water is sunk and wasted. We sacrifice finite harvests to chase an endless abyss; we pursue peoples we have not yet won and destroy armies we have already built. Vast territory, then, is no recipe for lasting peace; and a worn-out populace is a sign that chaos will come easily. She added: "Palaces such as Cuicui and Yuhua may follow the contours of hills and streams and avoid heavy construction, yet they still demand labor and hired workers—they are hardly free of burden. A ruler who holds the Way rests so that his people may rest; a ruler without the Way seeks pleasure only for himself." She also wrote: "Ingenuity is the axe that fells a kingdom; pearls and jade are poison for the mind; luxury and delicate ornament must not be allowed to run unchecked. Ambition swells when success is great; the body slackens when the age is calm." Her remonstrance was pointed and precise, and its tenor was much like this throughout. The emperor praised her counsel and lavished gifts upon her. After Taizong's death she fell ill from grief and refused medicine, saying, "He treated me with great kindness. To go before him and serve in his tomb garden with his hounds and horses is what I desire. She also wrote poems and linked-verse pieces to voice her feelings. In the first year of Yonghui she died at twenty-four, was posthumously named Virtuous Consort, and was buried in a stone chamber at Zhaoling.

惠之弟齊聃，齊聃子堅，皆以學聞，女弟為高宗婕妤，亦有文藻，世以擬漢班氏。高宗廢后王氏高宗廢后王氏，并州祁人，魏尚書左僕射思政之孫。從祖母同安長公主以后婉淑，白太宗以為晉王妃。王居東宮，妃亦進冊，擢父仁祐陳州刺史。帝即位，立為皇后。仁祐以特進封魏國公；母柳，本國夫人。仁祐卒，贈司空。

Hui's younger brother Qi Dian and Qi's son Jian were both famed scholars. A younger sister became a Lady of Handsome Fairness under Gaozong and was likewise accomplished in letters; contemporaries likened the family to the Ban clan of Han. Deposed Empress Wang of Emperor Gaozong came from Qi in Bingzhou and was the granddaughter of Wei Zuosi, left vice director of the Department of State Affairs. Her grandaunt, Princess Chang'an of Tong'an, praised the girl's gentle beauty and recommended her to Taizong as consort to the Prince of Jin. When the prince lived in the Eastern Palace she was formally invested as his consort, and her father Wang Renyou was made prefect of Chenzhou. After Gaozong ascended the throne, she was enthroned as empress. Renyou was granted the honorary title of Grand Mentor and enfeoffed as Duke of Wei; her mother, of the Liu clan, was made Lady of the State. When Renyou died he was posthumously appointed Minister of Works.

初，蕭良娣有寵，而武才人貞觀末以先帝宮人召為昭儀，俄與后、良娣爭寵，更相毀短。而昭儀詭險，即誣后與母挾媚道蠱上，帝信之，解魏國夫人門籍，罷后舅柳奭中書令。李義府等陰佐昭儀，以偏言怒帝，遂下詔廢后、良娣皆為庶人，囚宮中。后母兄、良娣宗族悉流嶺南。許敬宗又奏：「仁祐無他功，以宮掖故，超列三事，今庶人謀亂宗社，罪宜夷宗，仁祐應斫棺，陛下不窮其誅，家止流竄，仁祐不宜引庇廕宥逆子孫。」有詔盡奪仁祐官爵。而後及良娣俄為武后所殺，改后姓為「蟒」，良娣為「梟」。

At first Concubine Xiao held the emperor's favor. Wu, a former woman of Taizong's harem, was recalled late in Zhenguan and made Bright Consort; she soon competed with the empress and Xiao for favor, and the three traded accusations. Wu was cunning and ruthless. She accused the empress and her mother of sorcery and enchantment, and the emperor believed her. He struck the Wang clan from the register of the Duke of Wei and dismissed the empress's uncle Liu Shi from the chancellorship. Li Yifu and others secretly supported Wu; with one-sided reports they inflamed the emperor until he issued an edict deposing both the empress and Xiao to commoner status and imprisoning them within the palace. The empress's mother and brother and all of Xiao's kin were banished to Lingnan. Xu Jingzong further argued: "Renyou had no merit beyond his daughter's place in the harem, yet he rose to one of the three highest offices. Now his daughter is accused of treason against the dynasty—the whole clan should be destroyed and Renyou's coffin opened. Your Majesty stops short of full punishment and merely exiles the family; Renyou should not be allowed to shield rebellious descendants. An edict stripped Renyou of every office and title. Soon afterward both women were killed on Wu's orders; Wang's clan name was changed to "python" and Xiao's to "owl."

初，帝念后，間行至囚所，見門禁錮嚴，進飲食竇中，惻然傷之，呼曰：「皇后、良娣無恙乎？今安在？」二人同辭曰：「妾等以罪棄為婢，安得尊稱耶？」流淚嗚咽。又曰：「陛下幸念疇日，使妾死更生，復見日月，乞署此為『回心院』。」帝曰：「朕即有處置。」武后知之，促詔杖二人百，剔其手足，反接投釀甕中，曰：「令二嫗骨醉！」數日死，殊其屍。初，詔旨到，后再拜曰：「陛下萬年！昭儀承恩，死吾分也。」至良娣，罵曰：「武氏狐媚，翻覆至此！我後為貓，使武氏為鼠，吾當扼其喉以報。」后聞，詔六宮毋畜貓。武后頻見二人被髮瀝血為厲，惡之，以巫祝解謝，即徙蓬萊宮，厲復見，故多駐東都。中宗即位，皆復其姓。高宗則天武皇后高宗則天順聖皇后武氏，并州文水人。父士彠，見《外戚傳》。文德皇后崩，久之，太宗聞士彟女美，召為才人，方十四。母楊，慟泣與訣，后獨自如，曰：「見天子庸知非福，何兒女悲乎？」母韙其意，止泣。既見帝，賜號武媚。及帝崩，與嬪御皆為比丘尼。高宗為太子時，入侍，悅之。王后後久無子，蕭淑妃方幸，后陰不悅。它日，帝過佛廬，才人見且泣，帝感動。后廉知狀，引內後宮，以撓妃寵。

The emperor still thought of Wang and slipped away to the place where they were held. Finding the gates heavily barred, he sent food and drink through a small opening and was moved to pity, calling out, "Empress, Concubine—are you well? Where are you now? Both answered together, "We have been cast down as guilty servants—how can we still be called by those titles? They broke down in tears and sobbing. They added, "If Your Majesty remembers our past and restores us to life and daylight, we beg that this dwelling be named the Court of Returning Hearts." The emperor said, "I will see to your release." When Wu learned of the visit she immediately ordered both women beaten a hundred strokes, had their limbs cut off, bound them hand to foot, and threw them into a wine vat, saying, "Let the two hags soak until their bones are drunk!" They died within days, and their bodies were disfigured beyond recognition. When the deposition edict arrived, Wang bowed twice and said, "May Your Majesty live ten thousand years! Wu enjoys your favor now—death is only what I deserve. Xiao cursed, "The Wu woman's sorcery has overturned everything! In my next life I will be a cat and the Wu clan will be mice—I will seize them by the throat and repay this debt. When Wu heard this she forbade cats throughout the six palaces. Wu repeatedly dreamed she saw the two women, hair loose and dripping blood, as vengeful ghosts. Horrified, she had shamans perform rites of appeasement and moved to Penglai Palace, but the visions returned, so she spent much of her time in the eastern capital. When Zhongzong came to the throne, both women's original surnames were restored. Empress Wu Zetian of Emperor Gaozong—formally the Sagely Empress Zetian of the Wu clan—was born in Wenshui, Bingzhou. Her father Wu Shiyi is treated in the biography of imperial affines. Long after Empress Wende's death, Taizong heard that Shiyi's daughter was beautiful and summoned her to the palace as a Talented Lady. She was fourteen. Her mother Yang wept as they parted, but the girl herself was calm and said, "Who knows that meeting the Son of Heaven may not be a blessing? Why weep like an ordinary daughter? Her mother took her point and dried her tears. When she was presented to the emperor he gave her the name Wu Mei. After Taizong's death she and the other palace women were sent to a convent as Buddhist nuns. While still crown prince, Gaozong visited her and became infatuated. Empress Wang had long been childless, while Concubine Xiao Shuji now held the emperor's favor; the empress resented this in secret. One day, as the emperor passed the convent, Wu saw him and wept; he was deeply moved. Wang learned what had happened and brought Wu back into the inner palace, intending to use her to undercut Xiao's influence.

才人有權數，詭變不窮。始，下辭降體事后，后喜，數譽於帝，故進為昭儀。一旦顧幸在蕭右，寖與后不協。后性簡重，不曲事上下，而母柳見內人尚宮無浮禮，故昭儀伺后所薄，必款結之，得賜予，盡以分遺。由是后及妃所為必得，得輒以聞，然未有以中也。昭儀生女，后就顧弄，去，昭儀潛斃兒衾下，伺帝至，陽為歡言，發衾視兒，死矣。又驚問左右，皆曰：「后適來。」昭儀即悲涕，帝不能察，怒曰：「后殺吾女，往與妃相讒媢，今又爾邪！」由是昭儀得入其訾，后無以自解，而帝愈信愛，始有廢后意。久之，欲進號「宸妃」，侍中韓瑗、中書令來濟言：「妃嬪有數，今別立號，不可。」昭儀乃誣后與母厭勝，帝挾前憾，實其言，將遂廢之。長孫無忌、褚遂良、韓瑗及濟瀕死固爭，帝猶豫；而中書舍人李義府、衛尉卿許敬宗素險側，狙勢即表請昭儀為后，帝意決，下詔廢后。詔李勣、于志寧奉璽綬進昭儀為皇后，命群臣及四夷酋長朝后肅義門，內外命婦入謁。朝皇后自此始。

Wu was resourceful and treacherous, with stratagems that never ran dry. At first she spoke humbly and deferred to the empress, who was delighted and praised her often to the emperor, so Wu was promoted to Bright Consort. Once the emperor's favor shifted toward Xiao, Wu slowly turned against the empress. Wang was reserved and upright and did not court those above or below her. Her mother Liu noticed that senior palace women such as the Chief of Palace disliked empty flattery, so Wu befriended everyone the empress neglected and shared every gift she received among them. Thus Wu learned everything Wang and Xiao did and reported it at once, yet she still lacked proof that would bring them down. When Wu bore a daughter, Wang came to visit and played with the infant, then left. Wu secretly smothered the child under the bedding. When the emperor arrived she spoke cheerfully, then lifted the covers—the baby was dead. She feigned horror and questioned the attendants; all said, "The empress had just been here. Wu burst into tears. Unable to see through the ruse, the emperor raged, "The empress killed my child! She and Xiao have slandered each other before, and now this again! From then on Wu could press her accusations unchecked. Wang could not defend herself, and the emperor trusted Wu all the more—he first began to consider deposing the empress. After some time he wished to create for her the new title "Consort of the Inner Court." Han Yuan, attendant-in-waiting, and Chancellor Lai Ji objected: "The ranks of consorts are fixed by statute; you cannot invent a new title." Wu then accused Wang and her mother of witchcraft. The emperor, still angry over the child's death, believed her and prepared to depose Wang. Changsun Wuji, Chu Suiliang, Han Yuan, and Lai Ji argued fiercely against the move, even at the risk of their lives, and the emperor hesitated. But Li Yifu, a secretariat drafter, and Xu Jingzong, commandant of the guard—both unscrupulous men—sensed which way power was moving and immediately petitioned to make Wu empress. The emperor's resolve hardened, and he issued an edict deposing Wang. He ordered Li Ji and Yu Zhining to present the seal and sash and invest Wu as empress, commanded civil and military officials and the chiefs of the four frontier peoples to attend her at Suoyi Gate, and required all titled women inside and outside the palace to pay homage. Formal court audiences for the empress began from that day.

后見宗廟，再贈士彠至司徒，爵周國公，謚忠孝，配食高祖廟。母楊，再封代國夫人，家食魏千戶。后乃製《外戚誡》獻諸朝，解釋譏譟。於是逐無忌、遂良，踵死徙，寵煽赫然。后城宇深，痛柔屈不恥，以就大事，帝謂能奉己，故扳公議立之。已得志，即盜威福，施施無憚避，帝亦懦昏，舉能鉗勒，使不得專，久稍不平。麟德初，后召方士郭行真入禁中為蠱祝，宦人王伏勝發之，帝怒，因是召西臺侍郎上官儀，儀指言后專恣，失海內望，不可承宗廟，與帝意合，乃趣使草詔廢之。左右馳告，后遽從帝自訴，帝羞縮，待之如初，猶意其恚，且曰：「是皆上官儀教我！」后諷許敬宗構儀，殺之。

When Wu was presented at the ancestral temple, her father Shiyi was posthumously raised to Minister of Works, enfeoffed as Duke of Zhou with the posthumous title Loyal and Filial, and granted a place in the shrine of Emperor Gaozu. Her mother Yang was again enfeoffed as Lady of Dai, with a household stipend of a thousand households drawn from Wei. Wu then wrote Admonitions for Imperial Kin and presented them to the court to answer the public mockery. Thereafter Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang were driven from power; executions and exiles followed one after another, and Wu's influence burned bright. Wu was inwardly shrewd and felt no shame in bending low to reach her goal. The emperor believed she would defer to him, and so he overcame opposition to make her empress. Once enthroned she seized power openly and acted without restraint. Gaozong was weak and indecisive; only when he and his ministers worked together could they check her, and in time he grew quietly resentful. Early in the Linde era Wu summoned the magician Guo Xingzhen into the inner palace to perform sorcery. The eunuch Wang Fusheng reported it, and the enraged emperor summoned Shangguan Yi, vice director of the Secretariat. Yi declared that the empress was domineering, had forfeited the people's trust, and was unfit to receive the ancestral rites. The emperor agreed and ordered him to draft a deposition edict at once. Servants rushed to warn her. Wu ran after the emperor and pleaded her case in person. Ashamed, he relented and treated her as before, still fearing her anger, and said, "Shangguan Yi put me up to this!" Wu then had Xu Jingzong fabricate charges against Shangguan Yi, and Yi was executed.

初，元舅大臣怫旨，不閱歲屠覆，道路目語，及儀見誅，則政歸房帷，天子拱手矣。群臣朝、四方奏章，皆曰「二聖」。每視朝，殿中垂簾，帝與后偶坐，生殺賞罰惟所命。當其忍斷，雖甚愛，不少隱也。帝晚益病風不支，天下事一付后。后乃更為太平文治事，大集諸儒內禁殿，撰定《列女傳》、《臣軌》、《百僚新誡》、《樂書》等，大氐千餘篇。因令學士密裁可奏議，分宰相權。

Earlier, any maternal uncle or senior minister who crossed her was ruined within the year, and the streets buzzed with whispered fear. Once Shangguan Yi was killed, power passed behind the curtain, and the emperor stood idle with folded hands. At court and in memorials from every province, officials now addressed them as the Two Sages. Whenever they held court, curtains were drawn in the hall while emperor and empress sat side by side; who lived, who died, who was honored or punished—all was theirs to decide. Once she set her mind to cruelty, not even those she cherished were spared. Gaozong grew weaker with age, crippled by recurring strokes, until every matter of state was left in Wu's hands. She now styled herself a patron of peaceful rule, summoning scholars into the inner palace to produce Biographies of Exemplary Women, Tracks of Ministers, New Admonitions for Officials, treatises on music, and the like—well over a thousand chapters in all. She also had palace scholars secretly vet and draft policy memorials, carving away the chancellors' authority.

始，士彠娶相里氏，生子元慶、元爽。又娶楊氏，生三女：伯嫁賀蘭越石，蚤寡，封韓國夫人；仲即后；季嫁郭孝慎，前死。楊以后故，寵日盛，徙封榮國。始，兄子惟良、懷運與元慶等遇楊及后禮薄，后銜不置。及是，元慶為宗正少卿，元爽少府少監，惟良司衛少卿，懷運淄州刺史。它日，夫人置酒，酣，謂惟良曰：「若等記疇日事乎？今謂何？」對曰：「幸以功臣子位朝廷，晚緣戚屬進，憂而不榮也。」夫人怒，諷后偽為退讓，請惟良等外遷，無示天下私。繇是，惟良為始州刺史；元慶，龍州；元爽，濠州，俄坐事死振州。元慶至州，憂死。韓國出入禁中，一女國姝，帝皆寵之。韓國卒，女封魏國夫人，欲以備嬪職，難於后，未決。后內忌甚，會封泰山，惟良、懷運以嶽牧來集，從還京師，后毒殺魏國，歸罪惟良等，盡殺之，氏曰「蝮」，以韓國子敏之奉士彠祀。初，魏國卒，敏之入弔，帝為慟，敏之哭不對。后曰：「兒疑我！」惡之。俄貶死。楊氏徙酇、衛二國，咸亨元年卒，追封魯國，謚忠烈，詔文武九品以上及五等親與外命婦赴弔，以王禮葬咸陽，給班劍、葆杖、鼓吹。時天下旱，后偽表求避位，不許。俄又贈士彠太尉兼太子太師、太原郡王，魯國忠烈夫人為妃。

Shi Shi had first married into the Xiangli family and fathered Yuangqing and Yuanshuang. He later married Lady Yang, who bore three daughters. The eldest wed Helan Yueshi, was widowed young, and received the title Lady of Han; the second was Wu herself; the youngest married Guo Xiaoshen and predeceased him. Thanks to Wu, the Yang family's influence swelled day by day, and their fief was raised to the state of Rong. Her cousins Weiliang and Huaiyun, along with Yuangqing and his brothers, had once shown the Yang women scant courtesy, and Wu never forgave it. By then Yuangqing served as vice director of the imperial clan office, Yuanshuang in the palace stores, Weiliang in the guard bureau, and Huaiyun as prefect of Zi. One evening Lady Yang held a banquet, and when the wine had gone deep she asked Weiliang, "Do you remember how you treated us in the old days? What do you say to that now?" He answered, "I am lucky to hold office as a hero's son, but to rise so late only through kinship fills me with dread, not pride." Lady Yang flew into a rage and urged Wu to play at modesty, asking that Weiliang and the others be sent to distant posts so the court would not look partial. Weiliang was made prefect of Shi; Yuangqing was sent to Long; Yuanshuang to Hao, and soon he was condemned and died in exile at Zhen. Yuangqing reached his post and died of despair. The Lady of Han moved freely in the inner palace; her daughter was famed as the empire's fairest, and the emperor favored them both. After the Lady of Han's death her daughter was titled Lady of Wei. The emperor meant to bring her into the harem, but Wu stood in the way, and he hesitated. Wu burned with jealousy. During the Mount Tai fengshan, Weiliang and Huaiyun arrived as attending governors and followed the court back to Chang'an. She poisoned the Lady of Wei, pinned the crime on her cousins, and wiped out the line, branding the clan Viper. Only Minzhi, son of the Lady of Han, survived to keep Shi Shi's ancestral rites. At the Lady of Wei's funeral Minzhi came to mourn while the emperor wept openly, yet Minzhi's grief rang hollow. Wu said, "The boy thinks I killed her!" She came to despise him. Soon he was disgraced and died in exile. The Yang women were raised to the states of Zan and Wei. Lady Yang died in the first year of Xianheng and was posthumously made Princess of Lu with the epithet Loyal and Fierce. Officials of the ninth rank and above, close kin of the fifth degree, and titled ladies were ordered to mourn her. She was buried at Xianyang with princely honors, escorted by ceremonial arms, staffs, and music. A drought gripped the empire, and Wu sent a show memorial offering to step down; the court refused. Shi Shi was soon posthumously made grand commander, grand preceptor of the crown prince, and Prince of Taiyuan, while his wife became princess consort of Lu with the epithet Loyal and Fierce.

上元元年，進號天后，建言十二事：一、勸農桑，薄賦徭；二、給復三輔地；三、息兵，以道德化天下；四、南北中尚禁浮巧；五、省功費力役；六、廣言路；七、杜讒口；八、王公以降皆習《老子》；九、父在為母服齊衰三年；十、上元前勛官已給告身者無追核；十一、京官八品以上益稟入；十二、百官任事久，材高位下者得進階申滯。帝皆下詔略施行之。

In the first year of Shangyuan she took the title Tianhou and offered twelve reforms: first, encourage farming and sericulture and reduce taxes and labor levies; second, grant tax relief in the capital region; third, halt warfare and govern the realm through moral example; fourth, ban extravagant crafts in the inner palaces; fifth, cut public works, spending, and corvée; sixth, widen channels for candid memorials; seventh, suppress malicious rumor; eighth, require princes and officials alike to study the Daodejing; ninth, mandate three years of mourning for one's mother even while the father still lives; tenth, stop investigating merit offices whose patents were issued before Shangyuan; eleventh, raise stipends for capital officials of the eighth rank and above; twelfth, promote long-serving officials whose ability outran their rank. The emperor promulgated edicts and put most of them into effect.

蕭妃女義陽、宣城公主幽掖廷，幾四十不嫁，太子弘言於帝，后怒，酖殺弘。帝將下詔遜位於后，宰相郝處俊固諫，乃止。后欲外示寬裕，劫人心使歸已，即奏言：「今群臣納半俸、百姓計口錢以贍邊兵，恐四方妄商虛實，請一罷之。」詔可。

Consort Xiao's daughters, the princesses of Yiyang and Xuancheng, languished in the palace women's quarters, unmarried for nearly forty years. When Crown Prince Hong pleaded their case to the emperor, Wu flew into a rage and poisoned him. Gaozong nearly issued an edict abdicating in Wu's favor, but Chancellor Hao Chujun protested so fiercely that he abandoned the plan. Seeking to look generous while binding men's loyalty to herself, she memorialized, "Officials now surrender half their salaries and commoners pay head taxes to fund the border armies. Such burdens invite false boasting about our strength. I ask that both be abolished." The edict approved her request.

儀鳳三年，群臣、蕃夷長朝後於光順門。即并州建太原郡王廟。帝頭眩不能視，侍醫張文仲、秦鳴鶴曰：「風上逆，砭頭血可愈。」后內幸帝殆，得自專，怒曰：「是可斬，帝體寧刺血處邪？」醫頓首請命。帝曰：「醫議疾，烏可罪？且吾眩不可堪，聽為之！」醫一再刺，帝曰：「吾目明矣！」言未畢，后簾中再拜謝，曰：「天賜我師！」身負繒寶以賜。

In the third year of Yifeng, ministers and foreign chiefs paid court to Wu at Guangshun Gate. A shrine to the Prince of Taiyuan was erected in Bingzhou. The emperor suffered dizzy blindness, and his physicians Zhang Wenzong and Qin Minghe said, "Wind is rising into the head. Lancing the scalp to draw blood should restore his sight." Wu secretly hoped the emperor would die so she could rule alone, and she raged, "They deserve death! Would you pierce the Son of Heaven's flesh?" The doctors kowtowed and begged for mercy. The emperor said, "They speak as healers must. How can that be a crime? Besides, this dizziness is unbearable. Let them treat me!" They lanced him again and again until he cried, "I can see!" Before he finished, Wu bowed from behind the curtain and exclaimed, "Heaven sent me these physicians!" She loaded them with silk and jewels.

帝崩，中宗即位，天后稱皇太后，遺詔軍國大務聽參決。嗣聖元年，太后廢帝為廬陵王，自臨朝，以睿宗即帝位。后坐武成殿，帝率群臣上號冊。越三日，太后臨軒，命禮部尚書攝太尉武承嗣、太常卿攝司空王德真冊嗣皇帝。自是太后常御紫宸殿，施慘紫帳臨朝。追贈五世祖後魏散騎常侍克己為魯國公，妣裴即其國為夫人；高祖齊殷州司馬居常為太尉、北平郡王，妣劉為王妃；曾祖永昌王諮議參軍、贈齊州刺史儉為太尉、金城郡王，妣宋為王妃；祖隋東郡丞、贈并州刺史、大都督華為太尉、太原郡王，妣趙為王妃。皆置園邑，戶五十。考為太師、魏王，加實戶滿五千，妣為王妃，王園邑守戶百。時睿宗雖立，實囚之，而諸武擅命。又謚魯國公曰靖，裴為靖夫人；北平郡王曰恭肅，金城郡王曰義康，太原郡王曰安成，妃從夫謚。太后遣冊武成殿使者告五世廟室。

When Gaozong died, Zhongzong took the throne while Wu styled herself empress dowager. The late emperor's edict left military and civil affairs to her joint decision. In the first year of Sisheng she deposed Zhongzong as Prince of Luling, ruled in person, and installed Ruizong as emperor. Wu took her seat in Wucheng Hall while Ruizong led the ministers in presenting her honorific titles. Three days later she held court and had Wu Chengsi, minister of rites acting as grand commander, and Wang Dezhen, director of the ancestral temple acting as minister of works, perform Ruizong's enthronement rites. Thereafter she habitually held court in Zichen Hall behind a purple curtain. She posthumously enfeoffed her fifth-generation ancestor Keji, a Northern Wei attendant, as Duke of Lu, with Lady Pei as his consort; her great-grandfather Juchang, a Qi military aide, as grand commander and Prince of Beiping, with Lady Liu as princess consort; her great-great-grandfather Jian, once an adviser to the Prince of Yongchang and posthumous prefect of Qi, as grand commander and Prince of Jincheng, with Lady Song as princess consort; her grandfather Hua, a Sui eastern commandery aide later honored as prefect of Bing, as grand commander and Prince of Taiyuan, with Lady Zhao as princess consort. Each received a tomb estate staffed with fifty households. Her father became grand preceptor and Prince of Wei with five thousand taxable households added to his fief; her mother became princess consort, and his tomb estate was granted a hundred guardian households. Ruizong sat on the throne in name only, kept under house arrest while the Wu clan ruled unchecked. The Duke of Lu was posthumously titled Jing, and Lady Pei became Lady Jing; the Prince of Beiping was titled Respectful and Solemn, the Prince of Jincheng Righteous and Tranquil, and the Prince of Taiyuan Secure and Accomplished, their consorts taking matching epithets. She dispatched envoys from Wucheng Hall to announce the honors at the five-generation ancestral shrines.

於是柳州司馬李敬業、括蒼令唐之奇、臨海丞駱賓王疾太后脅逐天子，不勝憤，乃募兵殺揚州大都督府長史陳敬之，據州欲迎廬陵王，眾至十萬。楚州司馬李崇福連和。盱眙人劉行舉嬰城不肯從，敬業攻之，不克。太后拜行舉遊擊將軍，擢其弟行實楚州刺史。敬業南度江取潤州，殺刺史李思文，曲阿令尹元貞拒戰死。太后詔左玉鈐衛大將軍李孝逸為揚州道行軍大總管，率兵三十萬討之，戰於高郵，前鋒左豹韜果毅成三朗為唐之奇所殺。又以左鷹揚衛大將軍黑齒常之為江南道行軍大總管，並力。敬業興三月敗，傳首東都，三州平。

Li Jingye of Liuzhou, Tang Zhiqi of Kuocang, and Luo Binwang of Linhai, outraged that the dowager had bullied the emperor from his throne, raised an army. They killed Chen Jingzhi, chief administrator of Yangzhou, seized the prefecture to restore the Prince of Luling, and gathered a force of one hundred thousand. Li Chongfu, military aide of Chuzhou, joined their cause. Liu Xingju of Xuyi barred his gates and refused to submit. Jingye besieged him without success. Wu rewarded Xingju with the title Mobile Strike General and made his brother Xingshi prefect of Chuzhou. Jingye crossed the Yangzi, seized Runzhou, and killed its prefect Li Siwen. Yin Yuanzhen, magistrate of Qu'e, resisted and fell in battle. She appointed Li Xiaoyi of the Left Jade Bell Guard grand commander of the Yangzhou campaign with three hundred thousand men. At Gaoyou the rebel Tang Zhiqi slew her vanguard commander Cheng Sanlang. She also named Heichi Changzhi of the Left Eagle Yang Guard grand commander of the Jiangnan front to strike in concert. The rebellion lasted three months before Jingye was crushed. His head was sent to Luoyang, and the three prefectures were pacified.

始，武承嗣請太后立七廟，中書令裴炎沮止，及敬業之興，下炎獄，殺之，並殺左威衛大將軍程務挺。太后方怫恚，一日，召群臣廷讓曰：「朕於天下無負，若等知之乎？」群臣唯唯。太后曰：「朕輔先帝逾三十年，憂勞天下。爵位富貴，朕所與也；天下安佚，朕所養也。先帝棄群臣，以社稷為托，朕不敢愛身，而知愛人。今為戎首者皆將相，何見負之遽？且受遺老臣伉扈難制有若裴炎乎？世將種能合亡命若徐敬業乎？宿將善戰若程務挺乎？彼皆人豪，不利於朕，朕能戮之。公等才有過彼，蚤為之。不然，謹以事朕，無詒天下笑。」群臣頓首，不敢仰視，曰：「惟陛下命。」

Earlier Wu Chengsi had urged her to erect a seven-temple ancestral line, but Chancellor Pei Yan blocked it. After Jingye's revolt she imprisoned and executed Yan, and killed Cheng Wuting of the Left Majestic Guard as well. Still seething, she one day summoned the court and demanded, "I have wronged the empire in nothing. Do you understand that?" The ministers murmured agreement. She continued, "I aided the late emperor for more than thirty years and bore the empire's burdens. Your ranks and riches came from my hand; the peace you enjoy, I preserved. When the late emperor entrusted me with the state, I did not spare myself, and I have cared for you. Yet the rebels were your own ministers and generals. How can you claim I wronged you? Was Pei Yan, that arrogant survivor of the late emperor's council, not impossible to govern? Could any hereditary general but Xu Jingye rally desperate men as he did? Was Cheng Wuting, that seasoned warrior, not dangerous in his own right? They were formidable men, and I destroyed them when they threatened me. If any of you think yourselves their betters, try it now. Otherwise serve me faithfully, and do not make the empire laugh at your folly." The ministers kowtowed without raising their eyes and said, "We obey Your Majesty's command alone." They spoke no further.

久之，下詔陽若復辟者。睿宗揣非情，固請臨朝，制可。乃冶銅匭為一室，署東曰「延恩」，受干賞自言；南曰「招諫」，受時政失得；西曰「申冤」，受抑枉所欲言；北曰「通玄」，受讖步秘策。詔中書門下一官典領。

Some time later she issued an edict that pretended to restore imperial rule. Ruizong saw through the pretense and urgently petitioned to rule in person; the decree approved his request. She had a copper casket cast as a single unit. The eastern slot, titled "Extended Grace," took submissions seeking rewards and self-promotion; the southern, "Summoning Remonstrance," for criticism of policy successes and failures; the western, "Pleading Wrongs," for the grievances of the oppressed; the northern, "Penetrating Mystery," for omens, divination, and secret plots. A Secretariat-Chancellery official was appointed to administer it.

太后不惜爵位，以籠四方豪傑自為助，雖妄男子，言有所合，輒不次官之，至不稱職，尋亦廢誅不少縱，務取實材真賢。又畏天下有謀反逆者，詔許上變，在所給輕傳，供五品食，送京師，即日召見，厚餌爵賞歆動之。凡言變，吏不得何詰，雖耘夫蕘子必親延見，稟之客館。敢稽若不送者，以所告罪之。故上變者遍天下，人人屏息，無敢議。

The empress dowager lavished titles to win adventurers from every quarter. Even unscrupulous men won swift promotion if their counsel pleased her; the incompetent were soon removed or killed without mercy. She sought only proven ability and genuine talent. Fearful of conspiracy, she invited secret denunciation. Informers received relay transport, fifth-rank rations, escort to the capital, and same-day audience, with rank and bounty to inflame their zeal. No official might interrogate an informer. Even a farmer or woodcutter had to be received in person and lodged at the guesthouse. Delay or failure to forward a report was punished as the crime alleged. Informers spread everywhere. The realm fell silent; none dared speak.

新豐有山因震突出，太后以為美祥，赦其縣，更名慶山。荊人俞文俊上言：「人不和，疣贅生；地不和，堆阜出。今陛下以女主處陽位，山變為災，非慶也。」太后怒，投嶺外。

At Xinfeng an earthquake thrust up a mountain. The empress took it as a blessing, amnestied the county, and renamed it Qingshan, "Celebratory Mountain." Yu Wenjun of Jing submitted a memorial: "When people fall out of harmony, warts and growths appear; when earth falls out of harmony, mounds rise up. Your Majesty rules as a woman in the yang station. This mountain is a calamity, not a blessing." In fury she banished him beyond the Ling ranges.

詔毀乾元殿為明堂，以浮屠薛懷義為使督作。懷義，鄠人，本馮氏，名小寶，偉岸淫毒，佯狂洛陽市，千金公主嬖之。主上言：「小寶可入侍。」后召與私，悅之。欲掩跡，得通籍出入，使祝髮為浮屠，拜白馬寺主。詔與太平公主婿薛紹通昭穆，紹父事之。給廄馬，中官為騶侍，雖承嗣、三思皆尊事惟謹。至是護作，士數萬，巨木率一章千人乃能引。又度明堂後為天堂，鴻麗巖奧次之。堂成，拜左威衛大將軍、梁國公。

She decreed the Qianyuan Hall torn down for a Bright Hall and appointed the monk Xue Huaiyi commissioner of works. Huaiyi came from E, born Feng Xiaobao—a towering, vicious libertine who played the madman in Luoyang until the Princess of a Thousand Gold took him as her lover. The princess told her, "Xiaobao is fit to attend upon you." Wu summoned him privately and was delighted. To hide the affair she secured him palace registry rights, had him tonsured, and made him abbot of White Horse Temple. An edict made him generational kin to Princess Taiping's husband Xue Shao, who was required to treat him as a father. He received stable horses and eunuch outriders; even Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi deferred to him with scrupulous respect. Now overseeing the project, he commanded tens of thousands of workers; each great timber needed a thousand men to haul it. Behind the Bright Hall he also laid out a Hall of Paradise, magnificent and second only to that hall in scale. When the hall was finished she made him Left Weiwu Guard grand general and Duke of Liang.

始作崇先廟於西京，享武氏。承嗣偽款洛水石，導使為帝，遣雍人唐同泰獻之，后號為「寶圖」，擢同泰遊擊將軍。於是汜人又上瑞石，太后乃郊上帝謝況，自號聖母神皇，作神皇璽，改寶圖曰「天授聖圖」，號洛水曰永昌水，圖所曰聖圖泉，勒石洛壇左曰「天授聖圖之表」，改汜水曰廣武。時柄去王室，大臣重將皆撓不得逞，宗室孤外無寄足地。於是，韓王元嘉等謀舉兵唱天下，迎還中宗。瑯邪王沖、越王貞先發，諸王倉卒無應者，遂敗。元嘉與魯王靈夔等皆自殺，餘悉坐誅，諸王牽連死滅殆盡，子孫雖嬰褓亦投嶺南。太后身拜洛受圖，天子率太子、群臣、蠻夷以次列，大陳珍禽、奇獸、貢物、鹵簿壇下，禮成去。

She built the Venerating Ancestors Temple in the western capital for Wu clan sacrifices. Chengsi forged an inscription on a Luo River stone prophesying imperial rule and had Tang Tongtai of Yong present it. Wu named it the "Treasure Chart" and made Tongtai Mobile Strike General. Then a man of Si offered another auspicious stone. She sacrificed to Heaven on the outskirts, thanked divine favor, styled herself Holy Mother and Divine Sovereign, created a divine seal, renamed the chart "Heaven-Bestowed Holy Chart," the Luo "Ever-Flourishing Water," its site "Holy Chart Spring," and engraved "Table of the Heaven-Bestowed Holy Chart" beside the Luo altar, while Si River became Broad Martial. Power had passed from the Li house. Great ministers and leading generals were paralyzed, and the imperial clan, cut off outside court, had nowhere to stand. Prince of Han Yuang Jia and others then plotted to raise armies and rally the realm to restore Zhongzong. Prince of Langye Chong and Prince of Yue Zhen rose first, but the other princes could not rally in time and the revolt collapsed. Yuang Jia, Prince of Lu Lingqi, and others took their own lives; the rest were executed. The princely line was nearly annihilated, and even infants were exiled to Lingnan. The empress herself bowed at the Luo to receive the chart while the emperor led crown prince, ministers, and foreign chiefs in order below. Rare birds, exotic beasts, tribute, and imperial guards filled the altar precinct until the rites ended.

永昌元年，享萬象神宮，改服袞冕，裯大圭，執鎮圭，睿宗亞獻，太子終獻。合祭天地，五方帝、百神從，以高祖、太宗、高宗配，引魏王士彠從配。班九條，訓百官。遂大饗群臣。號士彠周忠孝太皇，楊忠孝太后。以文水墓為章德陵，咸陽墓為明義陵。太原安成王為周安成王，金城郡王為魏義康王，北平郡王為趙肅恭王，魯國公為太原靖王。

In the first year of Yongchang she sacrificed at the Hall of Myriad Images, donned imperial robes and cap, bore the great jade tablet and held the quelling jade, with Ruizong as secondary offerer and the crown prince as final offerer. Heaven and Earth were sacrificed to together, with the Five-Direction Emperors and myriad spirits in attendance, Gaozu, Taizong, and Gaozong as chief matches, and Prince of Wei Shi Yue added as secondary match. She issued nine injunctions to instruct the bureaucracy. Then she held a great feast for the court. She styled Shi Yue Grand August Loyal and Filial of Zhou and Yang Empress Dowager Loyal and Filial. The tomb at Wenshui became Zhangde Mausoleum and the tomb at Xianyang Mingyi Mausoleum. The Prince of Taiyuan Secure and Accomplished became Zhou Prince Secure and Accomplished; the Prince of Jincheng became Wei Prince Righteous and Tranquil; the Prince of Beiping became Zhao Prince Respectful and Solemn; and the Duke of Lu became Taiyuan Prince Serene.

載初中，又享萬象神宮，以太穆、文德二皇后配皇地祗，引周忠孝太后從配。作曌、𠀑、埊、𡆠、囝、〇、𠺞、𢘑、𡕀、𡔈、𠡦、𠙺十有二文。太后自名曌。改詔書為制書。以周、漢為二王後，虞、夏、殷後為三恪，除唐屬籍。拜薛懷義輔國大將軍，封鄂國公，令與群浮屠作《大雲經》，言神皇受命事。春官尚書李思文詭言：「《周書·武成》為篇，辭有『垂拱天下治』，為受命之符。」后喜，皆班示天下，稍圖革命。然畏人心不肯附，乃陰忍鷙害，肆斬殺怖天下。內縱酷吏周興、來俊臣等數十人為爪吻，有不慊若素疑憚者，必危法中之。宗姓侯王及它骨鯁臣將相駢頸就鈇，血丹狴戶，家不能自保。太后操奩具坐重幃，而國命移矣。

Early in the Zaiwu era she again sacrificed at the Hall of Myriad Images, matching Empresses Great Serenity and Cultured Virtue to Earth Queen and adding the Zhou Loyal and Filial Empress Dowager as secondary match. She devised twelve new characters, including Zhao and eleven other invented forms. The empress dowager adopted Zhao as her personal name. Edicts were renamed decrees. Zhou and Han were named the two successor dynasties, Yu, Xia, and Yin the three withdrawn lines of respect, and the Tang house was struck from the registers. Xue Huaiyi was made assistant state grand general and Duke of E and ordered, with other monks, to compose the Great Cloud Sutra proclaiming the divine sovereign's mandate. Minister of Rites Li Siwen argued deceitfully, "The Zhou Documents chapter 'Completion of the Martial' contains the phrase 'drooping arch, all under Heaven governed'—a token of the received mandate." She rejoiced, had the texts posted throughout the realm, and began plotting the dynastic change in earnest. Yet fearing the people would not follow, she hid her cruelty while unleashing executions to terrify the realm. She set loose dozens of cruel officials such as Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen as her claws; anyone who displeased her or whom she had long mistrusted was trapped by deadly law. Imperial kin, marquises, princes, and stubborn ministers and generals went to the block in ranks; blood stained the prison gates, and no household could protect itself. The empress dowager painted her face and sat behind heavy curtains while the fate of the realm changed hands.

御史傅遊藝率關內父老請革命，改帝氏為武。又脅群臣固請，妄言鳳集上陽宮，赤雀見朝堂。天子不自安，亦請氏武，示一尊。太后知威柄在己，因大赦天下，改國號周，自稱聖神皇帝，旗幟尚赤，以皇帝為皇嗣。立武氏七廟於神都。尊周文王為文皇帝，號始祖，妣姒曰文定皇后；武王為康皇帝，號睿祖，妣姜曰康惠皇后；太原靖王為成皇帝，號嚴祖，妣曰成莊皇后；趙肅恭王為章敬皇帝，號肅祖，妣曰章敬皇后；魏義康王為昭安皇帝，號烈祖，妣曰昭安皇后；祖周安成王為文穆皇帝，號顯祖，妣曰文穆皇后；考忠孝太皇為孝明高皇帝，號太祖，妣曰孝明高皇后。罷唐廟為享德廟，四時祠高祖以下三室，餘廢不享。至日，祀上帝萬象神宮，以始祖及考妣配，以百神從祀。盡王諸武。詔并州文水縣為武興，比漢豐、沛，百姓世給復。以始祖冢為德陵，睿祖為喬陵，嚴祖為節陵，肅祖為簡陵，烈祖為靖陵，顯祖為永陵，章德陵為昊陵，明義陵為順陵。

Censor Fu Youyi led elders of the Guanzhong region to petition for revolution and a change of the imperial surname to Wu. She again coerced the ministers to press the demand, fabricating reports that phoenixes had gathered at Shangyang Palace and red sparrows appeared in the audience hall. The emperor, ill at ease himself, also petitioned for the Wu surname to signal a single center of authority. Knowing power rested with her, she proclaimed a great amnesty, changed the dynastic name to Zhou, styled herself Holy Spirit Emperor, favored red banners, and made the emperor her imperial heir. She established seven Wu ancestral temples in the divine capital. King Wen of Zhou was honored as Cultured Emperor and Founding Ancestor, with Lady Si as Cultured and Settled Empress; King Wu as Tranquil Emperor and Sagacious Ancestor, with Lady Jiang as Tranquil and Gracious Empress; Taiyuan Prince Serene as Accomplished Emperor and Stern Ancestor, with his consort as Accomplished and Solemn Empress; Zhao Prince Respectful and Solemn as Manifest and Reverent Emperor and Solemn Ancestor, with his consort as Manifest and Reverent Empress; Wei Prince Righteous and Tranquil as Manifest and Secure Emperor and Fierce Ancestor, with his consort as Manifest and Secure Empress; Her grandfather Zhou Prince Secure and Accomplished as Cultured and Solemn Emperor and Illustrious Ancestor, with his consort as Cultured and Solemn Empress; Her father, the Loyal and Filial Grand August, as Filial and Illustrious High Emperor and Grand Ancestor, with her mother as Filial and Illustrious High Empress. Tang ancestral temples were reduced to the Enjoying Virtue Temple, with seasonal sacrifice limited to three chambers from Gaozu downward; the rest ceased to receive offerings. On the solstice she sacrificed to Heaven at the Hall of Myriad Images, with the founding ancestor and her parents as chief matches and the myriad spirits in attendance. Every member of the Wu clan was ennobled as prince. She decreed Wenshui county in Bingzhou renamed Wuxing, ranked with Han Feng and Pei, its people exempt from taxes in perpetuity. The founding ancestor's tomb became Virtue Mausoleum; the Sagacious Ancestor's, Lofty Mausoleum; the Stern Ancestor's, Festival Mausoleum; the Solemn Ancestor's, Simple Mausoleum; the Fierce Ancestor's, Serene Mausoleum; the Illustrious Ancestor's, Everlasting Mausoleum; Zhangde Mausoleum became Vast Mausoleum; and Mingyi Mausoleum became Compliance Mausoleum.

太皇雖春秋高，善自塗澤，雖左右不悟其衰。俄而二齒生，下詔改元為長壽。明年，享神宮，自製大樂，舞工用九百人，以武承嗣為亞獻，三思為終獻。帝之為皇嗣，公卿往往見之，會尚方監裴匪躬、左衛大將軍阿史那元慶、白澗府果毅薛大信、監門衛大將軍范雲仙潛謁帝，皆腰斬都市，自是公卿不復上謁。

Though advanced in years, the Grand August was expert at cosmetics; even those at her side did not notice her frailty. Soon two new teeth appeared, and she changed the era name to Longevity. The following year she sacrificed at the spirit palace with music of her own composition and nine hundred dancers, Wu Chengsi as secondary offerer and Wu Sansi as final offerer. As imperial heir the emperor was still visited by senior officials until Pei Feigong of the Palace Workshops, Ashina Yuanqing of the Left Guard, Xue Daxin of Baigou commandery, and Fan Yunxian of the Gate Guard secretly called on him. All were executed by waist-cutting in the marketplace, and thereafter no minister dared visit him.

有上封事言嶺南流人謀反者，太后遣攝右臺監察御史萬國俊就按，得實即論決。國俊至廣州，盡召流人，矯詔賜自盡，皆號哭不服，國俊驅之水曲，使不得逃，一日戮三百餘人。乃誣奏流人怨望，請悉除之。於是太后遣右衛翊府兵曹參軍劉光業、司刑評事王德壽、苑南面監丞鮑思恭、尚輦直長王大貞、右武衛兵曹參軍屈貞筠，皆攝監察御史，分往劍南、黔中、安南等六道訊鞫，而擢國俊左臺侍御史。光業等亦希功於上，惟恐殺人之少。光業殺者九百人，德壽殺七百人，其餘亦不減五百人。太后久乃知其冤，詔六道使所殺者還其家。國俊等亦相踵而死，皆見有物為厲云。

A sealed memorial claimed exiles in Lingnan were plotting rebellion. The empress sent Acting Right Platform censor Wan Guojun to investigate and execute the guilty on the spot. At Guangzhou Guojun summoned every exile and, by forged edict, ordered them to take their own lives. When they wept and refused, he drove them to a river bend where none could flee and killed more than three hundred in a single day. He then falsely reported that the exiles nursed resentment and asked that they all be eliminated. She then dispatched Liu Guangye, Wang Deshou, Bao Sigong, Wang Dazhen, and Qu Zhenyun, each acting as investigating censor, to six circuits including Jiannan, Qianzhong, and Annan to conduct inquiries, while promoting Guojun to attending censor of the Left Platform. Guangye and his fellows likewise courted favor above and feared only that their body counts were too low. Guangye killed nine hundred, Deshou seven hundred, and the others no fewer than five hundred apiece. Only later did she learn of the injustice and decree that the victims of the six envoys be returned to their families. Guojun and the others likewise died in succession, each claiming to see vengeful spirits.

太后又自加號金輪聖神皇帝，置七寶於廷：曰金輪寶，曰白象寶，曰女寶，曰馬寶，曰珠寶，曰主兵臣寶，曰主藏臣寶，率大朝會則陳之。又尊其顯祖為立極文穆皇帝，太祖為無上孝明皇帝。延載二年，武三思率蕃夷諸酋及耆老請作天樞，紀太后功德，以黜唐興周，制可。使納言姚璹護作。乃大裒銅鐵合冶之，署曰「大周萬國頌德天樞」，置端門外。其制若柱，度高一百五尺，八面，面別五尺，冶鐵象山為之趾，負以銅龍，石鑱怪獸環之。柱顛為雲蓋，出大珠，高丈，圍三之。作四蛟，度丈二尺，以承珠。其趾山周百七十尺，度二丈。無慮用銅鐵二百萬斤。乃悉鏤群臣、蕃酋名氏其上。

She further styled herself Golden Wheel Holy Spirit Emperor and placed seven treasures in court—the golden wheel, white elephant, woman, horse, pearl, minister of arms, and minister of treasury—which were displayed at every great assembly. She further elevated her Illustrious Ancestor to Establishing-the-Pole Cultured and Solemn Emperor and her Grand Ancestor to Supreme Filial and Illustrious Emperor. In the second year of Yanzai, Wu Sansi led foreign chiefs and elders to petition for a Heaven Pivot commemorating her merit, supplanting Tang and exalting Zhou. The decree approved. She appointed Secretariat Director Yao Shuang commissioner of the work. Vast stores of copper and iron were gathered and cast into the "Great Zhou Ten Thousand States Praise-of-Virtue Heaven Pivot," erected outside Duan Gate. Shaped like a pillar one hundred fifty feet high with eight faces five feet wide each, it stood on an iron mountain-base borne by copper dragons, ringed with carved stone monsters. Its summit bore a cloud canopy and a great pearl one zhang high, three zhang in girth. Four flood-dragons twelve feet long supported the pearl. The mountain-base measured one hundred seventy feet around and two zhang high. It consumed no less than two million jin of copper and iron. Every minister and foreign chief was inscribed upon it.

薛懷義寵稍衰，而御醫沈南璆進，懷義大望，因火明堂，太后羞之，掩不發。懷義愈很恣怏怏。乃密詔太平公主擇健婦縛之殿中，命建昌王武攸寧、將作大匠宗晉卿率壯士擊殺之，以畚車載屍還白馬寺。懷義負幸昵，氣蓋一時，出百官上，其徒多犯法。御史馮思勖劾其姦，懷義怒，遇諸道，命左右歐之，幾死，弗敢言。默啜犯塞，拜新平、伐逆、朔方道大總管，提十八將軍兵擊胡，宰相李昭德、蘇味道至為之長史、司馬。後猒入禁中，陰募力少年千人為浮屠，有逆謀。侍御史周矩劾狀請治驗，太后曰：「第出，朕將使詣獄。」矩坐臺，少選，懷義怒馬造廷，直往坐大榻上，矩召吏受辭，懷義即乘馬去。矩以聞，太后曰：「是道人素狂，不足治，力少年聽窮劾。」矩悉投放醜裔。懷義構矩，俄免官。

As Xue Huaiyi's favor faded and court physician Shen Nanqiong rose, Huaiyi, bitterly disappointed, burned the Bright Hall. The empress, ashamed, suppressed the news. Huaiyi grew ever more violent and sullen. By secret edict Princess Taiping chose strong women to bind him in the hall while Prince of Jianchang Wu Youning and Director of Works Zong Jinqing led brawny men to beat him to death; his body was hauled back to White Horse Temple in a dustpan cart. Favored and intimate, Huaiyi's arrogance eclipsed his age; he ranked above the bureaucracy, and his followers routinely broke the law. When Censor Feng Sixu impeached his debauchery, Huaiyi had his men beat Feng nearly to death in the street, and Feng dared not speak of it. When Mohechuo raided the frontier she made him grand commander of the Xinping, Punish-Rebellion, and Shuofang circuits with eighteen generals under him; chancellors Li Zhaode and Su Weidao even served as his chief administrator and aide-de-camp. Later, loathing the inner palace, he secretly recruited a thousand strong young men as monks and plotted rebellion. Censor Zhou Ju filed an impeachment demanding a formal inquiry. The empress dowager said, "Leave now—I will have him brought to prison. Ju took his seat at the censorate. Shortly afterward Huaiyi rode in angrily, entered the hall, and seated himself on the great couch. Ju called clerks to take his confession, but Huaiyi mounted his horse and rode off at once. Ju reported the incident. The empress dowager said, "That monk has always been reckless—he is not worth prosecuting. Young Li, hear out his full indictment. Ju had every accused party banished to distant border regions. Huaiyi engineered charges against Ju, and within little time Ju was removed from office.

太后祀天南郊，以文王、武王、士彠與唐高祖並配。太后加號天冊金輪聖神皇帝。遂封嵩山，禪少室，冊山之神為帝，配為后。封壇南有大槲，赦日置雞其杪，賜號「金雞樹」。自制《升中述志》，刻石示後。改明堂為通天宮，鑄九州鼎，各位其方，列廷中。又斂天下黃金作大儀鐘，不克。久之，以崇先廟為崇尊廟，禮視太廟，旋復崇尊廟為太廟。

The empress dowager offered sacrifice to Heaven at the southern suburb, with King Wen, King Wu, Shi Le, and Tang Gaozu as joint spirit-matches. She added the title Heaven-Proclaiming Golden-Wheel Holy Spirit Emperor. She then performed the feng rite on Mount Song and the chan rite at Lesser Chamber, enfeoffing the mountain spirit as emperor and pairing a spirit-consort as empress. South of the feng altar stood a great oak. On the day of the amnesty a rooster was set atop it, and the tree was given the name Golden Cock Tree. She herself composed Ascent to the Middle: Statement of Intent and had it carved in stone for posterity. She renamed Bright Hall as Palace Reaching Heaven, cast the Nine Cauldrons of the regions, set each in its proper direction, and lined them up in the audience hall. She again levied gold from across the realm to cast a great ceremonial bell, but the project failed. After some time she made the Venerating Ancestors Temple into the Venerating and Honored Temple with rites equal to the Grand Temple, then soon restored the Venerating and Honored Temple to the Grand Temple.

自懷義死，張易之、昌宗得幸，乃置控鶴府，有監，有丞及主簿、錄事等，監三品，以易之為之。太后自見諸武王非天下意，前此中宗自房州還，復為皇太子，恐百歲後為唐宗室躪藉無死所，即引諸武及相王、太平公主誓明堂，告天地，為鐵券使藏史館。改昊陵署為攀龍臺。久視初，以控鶴監為天驥府，又改奉宸府，罷監為令，以左右控鶴為奉宸大夫，易之復為令。

After Huaiyi died, Zhang Yizhi and Changzong won her favor. She established the Crane-Controlling Office with a director, vice-director, chief clerk, recorder, and other posts; the director was third rank, and Yizhi was appointed to it. The empress dowager knew enthroning the Wu princes did not match the people's will. Earlier Zhongzong had returned from Fang Prefecture and been restored as crown prince. Fearing that after her death the Tang imperial house would be crushed with no refuge, she summoned the Wu clan together with the Prince of Xiang and Princess Taiping to swear an oath in Bright Hall before Heaven and Earth, and had iron contracts drawn up for deposit in the History Office. The Vast Mausoleum Office was renamed Dragon-Scaling Terrace. At the beginning of the Long Vision era the Crane-Controlling Directorate became the Heaven's Steed Office, then was changed again to the Serving-the-Inner Office; the directorate was abolished for a commandant, the left and right Crane-Controllers became Serving-the-Inner Grand Masters, and Yizhi again held the commandancy.

神龍元年，太后有疾，久不平，居迎仙院。宰相張柬之與崔玄暐等建策，請中宗以兵入誅易之、昌宗，於是羽林將軍李多祚等帥兵自玄武門入，斬二張於院左。太后聞變而起，桓彥範進請傳位，太后返臥，不復語。中宗於是復即位。徙太后上陽宮，帝率百官詣觀風殿問起居，後率十日一詣宮，俄朝朔、望。廢奉宸府官，選東都武氏廟於崇尊廟，更號崇恩，復唐宗廟。諸武王者咸降爵。是歲，后崩，年八十一。遺制稱則天大聖皇太后，去帝號。謚曰則天大聖后，祔乾陵。

In the first year of Divine Dragon the empress dowager fell ill and for a long time did not recover, living in Welcome-the-Immortals Court. Chancellor Zhang Jianzhi, Cui Xuanwei, and others devised a plan and asked Zhongzong to enter with troops to kill Yizhi and Changzong. Imperial Guard general Li Duozuo and others then led soldiers in through the Xuanwu Gate and beheaded the two Zhangs beside the court. When the empress dowager heard of the coup she rose. Huan Yanfan stepped forward to request abdication; she lay down again and said nothing more. Zhongzong thereupon resumed the throne. The empress dowager was moved to Shangyang Palace. The emperor led the hundred officials to Wind-Viewing Hall to inquire after her health; afterward he visited once every ten days, and soon came on the new and full moon. Serving-the-Inner offices were abolished; the Eastern Capital Wu clan temple was preferred to the Venerating and Honored Temple, renamed Venerating Grace, and the Tang ancestral temples were restored. Every Wu prince had his rank lowered. That year the empress dowager died, aged eighty-one. Her testament styled her Zetian Great Sage Empress Dowager and stripped the imperial title. She was given the posthumous title Zetian Great Sage Empress and enshrined at Qian Mausoleum.

會武三思蒸韋庶人，復用事。於是大旱，祈陵輒雨。三思訹帝詔崇恩廟祠如太廟，齋郎用五品子。博士楊孚言：「太廟諸郎取七品子，今崇恩取五品，不可。」帝曰：「太廟如崇恩可乎？」孚曰：「崇恩太廟之私，以臣準君則僭，以君準臣則惑。」乃止。及韋、武黨誅，詔則天大聖皇后復號天后，廢崇恩廟及陵。景雲元年，號大聖天后。太平公主奸政，請復二陵官，又尊后曰天后聖帝，俄號聖后。太平誅，詔黜周孝明皇帝號，復為太原郡王，后為妃，罷昊、順等陵。開元四年，追號則天皇后。太常卿姜晈建言：「則天皇后配高宗廟，主題天后聖帝，非是，請易題為則天皇后武氏。」制可。中宗和思趙皇后中宗和思順聖皇后趙氏，京兆長安人。祖綽，武德中，戰有功，終右領軍將軍。父瓌，尚高祖常樂公主。

When Wu Sansi took up an illicit affair with Consort Wei, he again held power. A great drought followed; prayers at the mausoleum promptly brought rain. Sansi induced the emperor to decree sacrifice at Venerating Grace Temple on the model of the Grand Temple, with ritual officers taken from sons of fifth-rank officials. Erudite Yang Fu said, "Grand Temple ritual officers are drawn from sons of seventh rank, yet Venerating Grace now takes fifth rank—that will not do. The emperor said, "Can the Grand Temple follow Venerating Grace instead?" Fu said, "Venerating Grace is a private adjunct to the Grand Temple. Judged as subject against ruler it is presumptuous; judged as ruler against subject it is muddled." The proposal was halted. After the Wei and Wu factions were executed, an edict restored the title Great Sage Empress to Zetian Great Sage Empress and abolished Venerating Grace Temple and its mausoleum. In the first year of Radiant Cloud she was titled Great Sage Empress. Princess Taiping interfered in government and asked to restore the two mausoleum offices; she again honored the empress as Great Sage Holy Emperor, and soon as Holy Empress. When Taiping was executed, an edict stripped the Zhou title Filial and Illustrious Emperor, restored Taiyuan Prince of the County, reduced the empress to consort, and abolished the Vast, Compliance, and other mausoleums. In the fourth year of Kaiyuan she was posthumously titled Empress Zetian. Director of Imperial Sacrifices Jiang Jiao proposed, "Empress Zetian's spirit tablet in Gaozong's temple, inscribed Great Sage Holy Emperor, is improper. Please change the inscription to Empress Zetian of the Wu clan. The edict approved. Empress He Si of Zhongzong—Empress Zhao, styled Harmonious in Thought and Submissive in Sagacity, a native of Chang'an in Jingzhao. Her grandfather Chuo won merit in battle during the Wude era and ended as Right Commander of the Imperial Guard. Her father Gui married Princess Changle, daughter of Gaozu.

帝為英王，聘后為妃。高宗於公主恩尤隆。武后不喜，乃幽妃內侍省。瓌自定州刺史、駙馬都尉貶括州，絕主朝謁，隨瓌之官。妃既囚，扃鍵牢謹，日給飼料。衛者候其突煙數日不出，披戶視之，死腐矣，瓌以壽州刺史與主預越王事，死。神龍元年，追謚妃曰恭皇后，贈瓌左衛大將軍。中宗崩，蕆陵事，韋庶人不臣，不得祔，有司加上尊謚，以后祔定陵。中宗韋皇后中宗庶人韋氏，京兆萬年人。祖弘表，貞觀中曹王府典軍。

When the emperor was Prince of Ying he took her as consort. Gaozong's favor toward the princess was especially great. Empress Wu disliked this and had the consort confined in the Palace Domestic Service. Gui was demoted from prefect of Dingzhou and Commandant of the Imperial Son-in-Law to Kuozhou; the princess ceased her court audiences, and the consort followed Gui to his post. Once imprisoned, the consort was held under strict bolts and locks; fodder was supplied each day. Guards waited until smoke from her cooking failed to rise for several days, then broke open the door and found her dead and decayed. Gui, as prefect of Shouzhou, and the princess were implicated in the Prince of Yue affair and were executed. In the first year of Divine Dragon the consort was posthumously titled Respectful Empress and Gui was granted Left Guard General. When Zhongzong died and burial affairs were arranged, Consort Wei was not a legitimate wife and could not be enshrined; the relevant offices added a lofty posthumous title and enshrined the empress at Ding Mausoleum. Empress Wei of Zhongzong—Consort Wei of Zhongzong, a native of Wannian in Jingzhao. Her grandfather Hongbiao served as a staff officer in Prince Cao's household during the Zhenguan era.

帝在東宮，后被選為妃。嗣聖初，立為皇后。俄與帝處房陵，每使至，帝輒恐，欲自殺。後止曰：「禍福何常，早晚等死耳，無遽！」及帝復即位，后居中宮。

When the emperor was crown prince she was chosen as consort. At the beginning of Restoration of the Sage she was installed as empress. Soon she and the emperor were confined at Fangling. Whenever an envoy arrived the emperor would grow fearful and wish to kill himself. The empress stopped him, saying, "Fortune and misfortune have no constancy—you will die sooner or later all the same. Do not hurry! When the emperor resumed the throne the empress held the central palace.

是時，上官昭容與政事，方敬暉等將盡誅諸武，武三思懼，乃因昭容入請，得幸於后，卒謀暉等誅之。初，帝幽廢，與后約：「一朝見天日，不相制。」至是與三思升御床博戲，帝從旁典籌，不為忤。三思諷群臣上后號為順天皇后。乃親謁宗廟，贈父玄貞上洛郡王。左拾遺賈虛己建言：「非李氏王者，盟書共棄之。今復國未幾，遽私后家，且先朝禍鑒未遠，甚可懼也。如今皇后固辭，使天下知後宮謙讓，不亦善乎？」不聽。神龍三年，節愍太子舉兵敗。宗楚客率群臣請加號「翊聖」，詔可。禁中謬傳有五色雲起后衣笥，帝圖以示諸朝，因大赦天下，賜百官母、妻封號。太史迦葉志忠表上《桑條歌》十二篇，言后當受命，曰：「昔高祖時，天下歌《桃李》；太宗時，歌《秦王破陣》；高宗歌《堂堂》；天后世，歌《武媚娘》；皇帝受命，歌《英王石州》；后今受命，歌《桑條韋》，蓋后妃之德專蠶桑，共宗廟事也。」乃賜志忠第一區，綵七百段。太常少卿鄭愔因之被樂府。楚客又諷補闕趙延禧離釋《桑條》為九十八代，帝大喜，擢延禧諫議大夫。

At that time Shangguan Zhaorong shared in government. Jing Hui and others were about to execute the entire Wu clan; Wu Sansi grew afraid and, through Zhaorong, entered to plead and won the empress's favor, finally plotting to kill Hui and his party. Earlier, while the emperor was in disgrace, he and the empress agreed, "Once we see the light of day again, we will not restrain each other. Now he and Sansi mounted the imperial couch to gamble, with the emperor standing beside them keeping score, unoffended. Sansi induced the ministers to petition that the empress be given the title Heaven-Compliant Empress. She thereupon personally visited the ancestral temple and enfeoffed her father Xuanzhen as Prince of Shangluo. Left Reminder Jia Xuji submitted a memorial: "Any king not of the Li clan—the covenant tablet jointly abandons him. The realm has barely been restored, yet you hasten to favor the empress's clan; moreover the recent disaster of the former court is not far off—this is deeply to be feared. If now the empress firmly declines, letting the realm know the inner palace is modest and yielding—would that not also be good? He was not heeded. In the third year of Divine Dragon the Exasperated and Grieved Crown Prince raised troops and was defeated. Zong Chuke led the ministers to petition adding the epithet Assisting in Sagacity; the edict approved. Within the palace it was falsely rumored that five-colored clouds had risen over the empress's clothes chest. The emperor had it painted and shown to the court, then proclaimed a great amnesty and granted noble titles to officials' mothers and wives. Grand Astrologer Ye Zhizhong submitted twelve chapters of Mulberry Branch Songs, saying the empress was destined to receive the mandate: "In Gaozu's time the realm sang Peach and Plum; in Taizong's time they sang Break the Enemy Array of the Prince of Qin; in Gaozong's time they sang Stately; in the empress's era they sang Lady Wu; when the emperor received the mandate they sang Prince of Ying's Stone Prefecture; now that the empress receives the mandate they sing Mulberry Branch Wei—the empress's virtue lies wholly in sericulture and mulberry, jointly serving the ancestral temple. He was granted a first-class residence and seven hundred bolts of colored silk. Director of Sacrifices Zheng Yin thereupon had it admitted to the Music Bureau. Chuke again induced Reminder Zhao Yanxi to expound Mulberry Branch as ninety-eight generations; the emperor was greatly pleased and promoted Yanxi to Remonstrating Censor.

於是昭容以武氏事動后。即表增出母服；民以二十三為丁，限五十九免；五品而上母、妻不繇夫、子封者，喪得用鼓吹。數改制度，陰儲人望。稍寵樹親屬，封拜之。昭容與母及尚宮賀婁等多受金錢。封巫趙隴西夫人，出入禁中，勢與上官埒。繇是墨敕斜封出矣。三年，帝親郊，引后亞獻。明年，正月望夜，帝與后微服過市，彷徉觀覽，縱宮女出遊，皆淫奔不還。國子祭酒葉靜能善禁架，常侍馬秦客高醫，光祿少卿楊均善烹調，皆引入後廷。均、秦客蒸於后，嘗喪免，不歷旬輒起。

Thereupon Zhaorong moved the empress with Wu clan affairs. She memorialized to extend mourning for mothers; commoners were registered as adult laborers at twenty-three, exempted at fifty-nine; for fifth rank and above, mothers and wives not ennobled through husband or son might use drums and pipes at funerals. Institutions were changed again and again, secretly storing up popular regard. She gradually favored and enfeoffed her kin. Zhaorong, her mother, Palace Attendant He Lou, and others received much gold and money. The shaman Zhao was enfeoffed as Lady of Longxi and went in and out of the inner palace, her power equal to Shangguan's. Henceforth came the slant-sealed edicts of illicit appointment. In the third year the emperor personally sacrificed at the suburban altar and led the empress as secondary offerer. The next year, on the night of the first full moon, the emperor and empress went in plain dress through the market, strolling to view sights; palace women were released to roam, and many ran off in debauchery and did not return. Director of the National University Ye Jingneng was skilled at occult confinement; Regular Attendant Ma Qinke was a fine physician; Vice Director of the Imperial Commissary Yang Jun was skilled at cookery—all were brought into the empress's rear apartments. Jun and Qinke had illicit relations with the empress; when they occasionally observed mourning they were restored within less than ten days.

帝遇弒，議者讙咎秦客及安樂公主。后大懼，引所親議計，乃以刑部尚書裴談、工部尚書張錫輔政，留守東都，詔將軍趙承福、薛簡以兵五百衛譙王重福，與兄溫定策，立溫王重茂為皇太子，列府兵五萬分二營屯京師，然後發喪。太子即位，是為殤帝。皇太后臨朝，溫總內外兵，檢護宮省。族弟濯、播，宗子捷、璿，璿甥高崇及武延秀，分領左右屯營、羽林、飛騎、萬騎。京師大恐，傳言且革命。播、璿入軍中，鞭督萬騎欲立威，士怨不為用。俄而臨淄王引兵夜披玄武門入羽林，殺璿、播、崇於寢，斧關叩太極殿，后遁入飛騎營，為亂兵所殺。斬延秀、安樂公主。分捕諸韋、諸武與其支黨，悉誅之，梟后及安樂首東市。翌日，追貶為庶人，葬以一品禮。上官昭容上官昭容者，名婉兒，西臺侍郎儀之孫。父廷芝，與儀死武后時。母鄭，太常少卿休遠之姊。

The emperor met assassination; opinion clamored against Qinke and Princess Anle. The empress was terrified and summoned her intimates to plot. She appointed Pei Tan, Minister of Justice, and Zhang Xi, Minister of Works, to assist in government while she remained to guard the Eastern Capital; she ordered generals Zhao Chenfu and Xue Jian with five hundred troops to guard Prince Chongfu of Qiao. With her brother Wen she resolved to make Prince Chongmao of Wen crown prince, mustered fifty thousand household troops in two camps around the capital, and only then announced the mourning. The crown prince ascended the throne—this was the Lamented Emperor. The empress dowager held court; Wen commanded inner and outer troops and inspected the palace precincts. Clansmen Zhuo and Bo, lineage kin Jie and Xuan, Xuan's nephew Gao Chong, and Wu Yanxiu each commanded the left and right encampment guards, Imperial Guard, Flying Cavalry, and Ten Thousand Riders. The capital was greatly afraid; rumor spread that a revolution was imminent. Bo and Xuan entered the army, lashing and urging the Ten Thousand Riders to establish authority; the soldiers resented it and would not obey. Soon afterward the Prince of Linzi led his men by night through the Xuanwu Gate into the Imperial Guard, slew Xuan, Bo, and Chong in their beds, hacked down the gate, and hammered on the Hall of Supreme Ultimate. The empress fled into the Flying Cavalry camp and was cut down by the mutineers. Yanxiu and Princess Anle were beheaded. The Wei and Wu clans and their partisans were hunted down in separate sweeps and put to death. The empress's head and Anle's were displayed at the Eastern Market. The next day she was posthumously stripped to commoner rank and buried with the rites due a first-rank consort. Shangguan Zhaorong—her name was Wan'er—was granddaughter of Shangguan Yi, vice director of the Western Terrace Secretariat. Her father Tingzhi had been executed with Yi in the time of Empress Wu. Her mother, surnamed Zheng, was elder sister to Xiuyuan, vice minister of imperial rites.

婉兒始生，與母配掖廷。天性韶警，善文章。年十四，武后召見，有所制作，若素構。自通天以來，內掌詔命，掞麗可觀。嘗忤旨當誅，後惜其才，止黥而不殺也。然群臣奏議及天下事皆與之。

At her birth Wan'er and her mother were assigned to the Palace Reclusion Bureau. Naturally gifted and quick-witted, she excelled at literary composition. At fourteen she was summoned by Empress Wu; whatever she wrote seemed as though it had been composed long before. From the Tongtian era onward she controlled edicts within the palace, and her polished prose was a pleasure to read. Once she offended the throne and was condemned to die, but the empress valued her talent and commuted the sentence to facial tattooing. Nevertheless she was consulted on every memorial from the ministers and on affairs throughout the realm.

帝即位，大被信任，進拜昭容，封鄭沛國夫人。婉兒通武三思，故詔書推右武氏，抑唐家，節愍太子不平。及舉兵，叩肅章門索婉兒，婉兒曰：「我死，當次索皇后、大家矣！」以激怒帝，帝與后挾婉兒登玄武門避之。會太子敗，乃免。婉兒勸帝侈大書館，增學士員，引大臣名儒充選。數賜宴賦詩，群臣賡和，婉兒常代帝及后、長寧安樂二主，眾篇並作，而采麗益新。又差第群臣所賦，賜金爵，故朝廷靡然成風。當時屬辭者，大抵雖浮靡，然所得皆有可觀，婉兒力也。鄭卒，謚節義夫人。婉兒請降秩行服，詔起為婕妤，俄還昭容。帝即婉兒居穿沼築巖，窮飾勝趣，即引侍臣宴其所。是時，左右內職皆聽出外，不何止。婉兒與近嬖至皆營外宅，衺人穢夫爭候門下，肆狎昵，因以求劇職要官。與崔湜亂，遂引知政事。湜開商山道，未半，因帝遺制，虛列其功，加甄賞。韋后之敗，斬闕下。

When Zhongzong took the throne she won his deep trust, was promoted to Zhaorong, and enfeoffed as Lady of Zheng and Peiguo. Wan'er was intimate with Wu Sansi, so edicts favored the Wu clan and slighted the Tang house, to Crown Prince Jiemin's outrage. When he raised troops and knocked at Suozhang Gate demanding Wan'er, she said, "If you kill me, you will next demand the empress and the Great One!" She meant to enrage the emperor; he and the empress took Wan'er up onto the Xuanwu Gate ramparts to escape him. When the crown prince was defeated, she was spared. Wan'er urged the emperor to enlarge the Hall of Literature, add academicians, and appoint leading ministers and famous scholars to the posts. The court held repeated banquets for poetry; ministers answered in verse; Wan'er often wrote for the emperor, the empress, and the princesses of Changning and Anle at once, and the anthology grew ever more brilliant. She also ranked the ministers' poems and bestowed gold cups, and the whole court fell into the fashion. Writers of the day, though often florid, still produced work worth reading, and that was Wan'er's influence. When her mother Zheng died, she was posthumously titled Lady of Chaste Righteousness. Wan'er asked to step down in rank to observe mourning; an edict recalled her as Jieyu, and soon restored her to Zhaorong. At Wan'er's residence the emperor had ponds dug and rockeries built, lavishing ornament on the scenery, and often led his attendant ministers to feast there. At that time inner attendants on left and right were allowed to leave the palace, and no one stopped them. Wan'er and her closest favorites all kept houses outside the palace; rogues and low companions crowded their gates, trading familiarity for high office. Through an affair with Cui Shi she brought him into the councils of state. Shi began the Shangshan road; before it was half finished, the dying edict credited him with merit he had not earned and heaped rewards upon him. When Empress Wei fell, Wan'er was beheaded below the palace gate.

初，鄭方妊，夢巨人畀大稱曰：「持此稱量天下。」婉兒生逾月，母戲曰：「稱量者豈爾邪？」輒啞然應。後內秉機政，符其夢云。景雲中，追復昭容，謚惠文。始，從母子王昱為拾遺，昱戒曰：「上往囚房陵，武氏得志矣，卒而中興，天命所在，不可幸也。三思雖乘釁，天下知必敗，今昭容上所信，而附之，且滅族！」鄭以責婉兒，不從。節愍誅三思，果索之，始憂懼。及草遺制，即引相王輔政。臨淄王兵起，被收。婉兒以詔草示劉幽求，幽求言之王，王不許，遂誅。開元初，裒次其文章，詔張說題篇。睿宗肅明劉皇后睿宗肅明順聖皇后劉氏，祖德威，自有傳。儀鳳中，帝在籓，納為孺人，俄為妃。生寧王、壽昌代國二公主。帝即位，為皇后。會帝降號皇嗣，復為妃。長壽二年，為戶婢誣與竇德妃挾蠱道祝詛武后，並殺之宮中，葬秘莫知。景雲元年，追謚肅明皇后。睿宗昭成竇皇后睿宗昭成順聖皇后竇氏，曾祖抗，父孝諶，自有傳。

Earlier, while Zheng was pregnant, she dreamed a giant handed her a great steelyard and said, "Take this and weigh all under Heaven." When Wan'er was barely a month old, her mother teased, "Can you be the one who weighs the realm?" The infant answered with a knowing murmur. Later she held power within the palace, fulfilling the dream. In the Jingyun era she was posthumously restored to Zhaorong and titled Huiven. At first her cousin's son Wang Yu served as Reminder. Yu warned her, "The emperor was once a prisoner at Fang; the Wu clan rose to power, yet the Tang was restored in the end. Where Heaven's mandate rests is not a thing to wager on. Sansi may seize his chance, but the realm knows he must fall. Zhaorong has the emperor's trust, yet you cling to her—you will destroy our clan!" Her mother Zheng rebuked Wan'er, but she would not listen. When Jiemin killed Sansi and came for her as well, fear seized her at last. When she drafted the dying edict, she named the Prince of Xiang to assist in government. When the Prince of Linzi rose in arms, she was taken. Wan'er showed the draft edict to Liu Youqiu; Youqiu urged it on the prince, but the prince refused, and she was put to death. Early in Kaiyuan her writings were collected and an edict commissioned Zhang Yue to write the preface. Empress Suoming of Ruizong—Empress Suoming Shunsheng, née Liu: her grandfather Dewei has his own biography. During Yifeng, while he was still a prince, she entered his household as Lady and soon became Consort. She bore the Prince of Ning and the princesses of Shouchang and Daiguo. When he took the throne she became empress. When he was reduced to heir apparent she again became consort. In the second year of Changshou a household maid accused her and Virtuous Consort Dou of sorcery against Empress Wu; both were killed in the palace and buried in secret, their graves unknown. In the first year of Jingyun she was posthumously titled Empress Suoming. Empress Zhaocheng of Ruizong—Empress Zhaocheng Shunsheng, née Dou: her great-grandfather was Kang; her father Xiaochen has his own biography.

后婉淑，尤循禮則。帝為相王，納為孺人；即位，進德妃。生玄宗及金仙、玉真二公主。與肅明同追謚，並招魂葬東都之南，肅明曰惠陵，後曰靖陵，立別廟曰儀坤以享云。帝崩，追稱皇太后，與肅明祔橋陵。後以子貴，故先祔睿宗室。肅明以開元二十年乃得祔廟。

Gentle and refined, she was especially strict in ritual propriety. When he was Prince of Xiang she entered his household as Lady; on his accession she was promoted to Virtuous Consort. She bore Xuanzong and the princesses Jinxian and Yuzhen. She and Suoming received posthumous titles together; both were given soul-summoning burials south of the Eastern Capital—Huiling for Suoming, Jingling for Dou—and a separate temple, Yikun, was built for their rites. At Ruizong's death she was posthumously styled empress dowager and enshrined with Suoming at Qiao Mausoleum. Because her son became emperor, she was enshrined in Ruizong's temple before Suoming. Suoming was not enshrined in the ancestral temple until the twentieth year of Kaiyuan.

初，太常加謚後曰「大昭成」。或言：「法宜引『聖真』冠謚，而曰『大昭成』，非也。以單言配之，應曰『聖昭』若『睿成』；以復言配之，應曰『大聖昭成』、『聖真昭成』。」又引太穆皇后始謚穆，及高祖崩，合帝謚曰太穆，追增太穆神皇后；文德皇后始謚文德，及太宗崩，合謚文德聖皇后。又援范曄著漢光烈等為比。太常謂：「曄以帝號標后謚，是史家記事體，婦人非必與夫同也。入廟稱后，繫夫；在朝稱太，繫子。『文母』，生號也；『文王』，既沒謚也。周公豈以夫從婦乎？漢法不可以為據。」制曰「可」。天寶八載制詔，自太穆而下六皇后，並增上「順聖」二謚云。玄宗王皇后玄宗皇后王氏，同州下邽人。梁冀州刺史神念之裔孫。帝為臨淄王，聘為妃。將清內難，預大計。先天元年，立為皇后。久無子，而武妃稍有寵，后不平，顯詆之。然撫下素有恩，終無肯譖短者。帝密欲廢后，以語姜晈。晈漏言，即死。后兄守一懼，為求厭勝，浮屠明悟教祭北斗，取霹靂木刻天地文及帝諱合佩之，曰：「後有子，與則天比。」開元十二年，事覺，帝自臨劾有狀，乃制詔有司：「皇后天命不祐，華而不實，有無將之心，不可以承宗廟、母儀天下，其廢為庶人。」賜守一死。

At first the Court of Imperial Sacrifices added the epithet "Great Zhaocheng" to her posthumous title. Someone objected, "By regulation the epithet should begin with 'Holy and True,' not 'Great Zhaocheng. With a single epithet it should read 'Holy Zhao' or 'Sagacious Cheng'; with a doubled epithet it should read 'Great Holy Zhaocheng' or 'Holy and True Zhaocheng.'" He cited Empress Taimu, first titled simply Mu; at Gaozu's death her title was joined with his as Taimu and she was advanced to Divine Empress Taimu; Empress Wende was first titled Wende alone; at Taizong's death she became Holy Empress Wende. He also cited Fan Ye's titles such as Han Guanglie as precedents. The Court of Imperial Sacrifices replied, "Fan Ye prefixed the emperor's title to the empress's epithet in the manner of historians; a wife need not share her husband's title. In the ancestral temple she is called empress and tied to her husband; at court she is styled Grand and tied to her son. 'Mother Wen' was her title in life; 'King Wen' was his posthumous title after death. Did the Duke of Zhou derive the husband's title from the wife? Han precedent cannot govern this case." The emperor decreed, "Approved." In the eighth year of Tianbao a decree added the epithet "Shunsheng" to the six empresses from Taimu onward. Empress Wang of Xuanzong—Empress Wang, a native of Xiaji in Tong Prefecture. She was a descendant of Liang's inspector general Wang Shennian. When he was Prince of Linzi she was betrothed as his consort. When he prepared to settle the palace crisis, she took part in the great plan. In the first year of Xiantian she was made empress. Childless for years while Consort Wu slowly won favor, the empress grew resentful and openly maligned her. Yet she had always treated her attendants with kindness, and in the end none would speak against her. The emperor secretly planned to depose her and confided in Jiang Jiao. Jiao leaked the plan and was executed at once. Her brother Shouyi, in fear, sought sorcery; the monk Mingwu taught rites to the Northern Dipper and fashioned a talisman from thunderbolt wood carved with the cosmic script and the emperor's taboo name, saying, "She will yet bear a son to rival Wu Zetian." In the twelfth year of Kaiyuan the plot was exposed; the emperor interrogated her himself and found proof. His decree to the ministries read, "The empress lacks Heaven's blessing, is splendid without substance, and harbors treasonous intent. She cannot receive the ancestral rites or mother the realm. Depose her as a commoner." Shouyi was sentenced to death.

始，后以愛弛，不自安。承閒泣曰：「陛下獨不念阿忠脫紫半臂易斗麵，為生日湯餅邪？」帝憫然動容。阿忠，后呼其父仁皎云。繇是久乃廢。當時王諲作《翠羽帳賦》諷帝。未幾卒，以一品禮葬。後宮思慕之，帝亦悔。寶應元年，追復后號。玄宗貞順武皇后玄宗貞順皇后武氏，恒安王攸止女，幼入宮。帝即位，寖得幸。時王皇后廢，故進冊惠妃，其禮秩比皇后。

From the time his affection waned, the empress lived in unease. Once, catching him at leisure, she wept, "Does Your Majesty not remember Loyal stripping off his purple half-sleeve to trade for flour so we could have birthday noodles?" The emperor's face softened with pity. "Loyal" was the empress's name for her father Renjiao. Because of that memory, her deposition was long delayed. Wang Ren then wrote "Rhapsody on the Green Feather Canopy" to admonish the emperor. She died soon after and was buried with first-rank rites. The inner palace mourned her, and the emperor regretted his act. In the first year of Baoying her empress title was posthumously restored. Empress Zhenshun Wu of Xuanzong—Empress Zhenshun Wu, daughter of Prince of Heng'an Youzhi, entered the palace as a girl. When he took the throne she gradually won his favor. With Empress Wang deposed, she was advanced to Huifei, her ceremonial rank equal to an empress.

初，帝在潞，趙麗妃以倡幸，有容止，善歌舞。開元初，父兄皆美官。及妃進，麗妃恩亦弛，以十四年卒，謚曰和。生太子瑛。而皇甫德儀生鄂王，劉才人生光王，皆藩邸之舊，後愛薄，而妃乃專寵。封所生母楊鄭國夫人，弟忠國子祭酒，信秘書監。將遂立皇后，御史潘好禮上疏曰：「《禮》，父母讎，不共天。《春秋》，子不復讎，不子也。陛下欲以武氏為后，何以見天下士！妃再從叔三思也，從父延秀也，皆干紀亂常，天下共疾。夫惡木垂蔭，志士不息；盜泉飛溢，廉夫不飲。匹夫匹婦尚相擇，況天子乎？願慎選華族，稱神祇之心。《春秋》：宋人夏父之會，無以妾為夫人；齊桓公誓葵丘曰：『無以妾為妻。』此聖人明嫡庶之分。分定，則窺競之心息矣。今人間咸言右丞相張說欲取立后功圖復相，今太子非惠妃所生，而妃有子，若一儷宸極，則儲位將不安。古人所以諫其漸者，有以也！」遂不果立。

Earlier, while he was at Lu, Consort Zhao Lihua, a singing girl, won his favor. Graceful in bearing, she excelled at song and dance. Early in Kaiyuan, her father and brothers all held distinguished posts. As Consort Wu rose, Zhao Lihua's favor waned as well; Zhao died in the fourteenth year and was given the posthumous name He. She bore the crown prince, later Prince Ying. Huangfu Deyi had borne the Prince of E and Liu Cairen the Prince of Guang, all veterans of his days as heir; their favor later faded, but Consort Wu held his affection alone. Her mother, Lady Yang, was made Lady of Zheng; her brother Zhong became Director of the National University and Xin Secretary Director. As the emperor was about to make her empress, Censor Pan Haoli memorialized: "The Rites teach that one cannot live under the same Heaven as one's parents' enemy. The Spring and Autumn Annals holds that a son who will not avenge his father is no son at all. If Your Majesty would raise a woman of the Wu clan to empress, how will you face the scholars and officials of the realm? Her kinsmen Wu Sansi and Wu Yanxiu had both violated law and upset custom, and the empire hated them alike. A noble heart will not rest in the shade of a wicked tree; nor will an honest man drink from a spring called Thieving. Even common folk choose their mates with care—how much more must the Son of Heaven? I beg Your Majesty to choose carefully from a noble house, that your choice may accord with Heaven's will. The Spring and Autumn Annals records that at the Assembly of Xiafu, the men of Song would not make a concubine a Lady; Duke Huan of Qi swore at Kuiqiu, 'Do not elevate a concubine to wife.' Thus did the sages mark the line between principal wife and concubine. Once rank is fixed, the impulse to scheme and contend dies away. Rumor says Chancellor Zhang Yue hopes to earn credit by helping make her empress and regain his post. The crown prince is not Consort Wu's son, yet she has sons of her own. If she sits beside the emperor, the heir's place will no longer be secure. The ancients warned against letting trouble grow by degrees—and they were right! The plan to make her empress was abandoned.

妃生子必秀嶷，凡二王、一主，皆不育。及生壽王，帝命寧王養外邸。又生盛王、咸宜太華二公主。後李林甫以壽王母愛，希妃意陷太子、鄂光二王，皆廢死。會妃薨，年四十餘，贈皇后及謚，葬敬陵。玄宗元獻楊皇后玄宗元獻皇后楊氏，華州華陰人。曾祖士達，為隋納言。天授中，以武后母黨，追封士達為鄭王，父知慶太尉。

Every son she bore was strikingly handsome; yet of two princes and one princess, none survived. When she bore the Prince of Shou, the emperor had Prince Ning raise him outside the palace. She later bore the Prince of Sheng and the Princesses Xianyi and Taihua. Later Li Linfu, playing on the favor shown the Prince of Shou's mother, did Consort Wu's bidding and destroyed the crown prince and the Princes of E and Guang; all were deposed and died. Soon after she died, in her forties; posthumous empress rank and an epithet were granted, and she was buried at Jingling. Empress Yuanyuan Yang of Xuanzong—Lady Yang of Huayin in Huazhou. Her great-grandfather Shida had been Receptionist under the Sui. During Tianshou, as kin of Empress Wu's mother's line, Shida was posthumously made Prince of Zheng and her father Zhiqing Grand Marshal.

帝在東宮，后以景雲初入宮為良媛。時太平公主忌帝，而宮中左右持兩端，纖悉必聞。媛方娠，帝不自安，密語侍讀張說曰：「用事者不欲吾多子，奈何？」命說挾劑以入，帝於曲室自煮之。夢若有介而戈者環鼎三，而三煮盡覆。以告說，說曰：「天命也！」乃止。生男，是為肅宗。

While he was heir apparent, she entered the palace as a Lady of Excellent Fairness in the first year of Jingyun. Princess Taiping was hostile to the heir, and palace attendants played both sides, so every whisper reached her. When she became pregnant he grew uneasy and confided to his tutor Zhang Yue, "Those in power do not want me to have many sons. What can I do? He had Yue bring in an abortifacient, and in a side chamber boiled it himself. He dreamed armored men with spears circling the cauldron three times, and three times the brew was overturned. He told Yue, who said, "It is Heaven's will! He abandoned the attempt. She bore a son who would become Emperor Suzong.

帝即位，為貴嬪。其姊，節愍太子妃也。初，肅宗生，卜云：「不宜養。」乃命王皇后舉之。后無子，撫肅宗如所生。後又生寧親公主，乃薨。說以舊恩，故子垍得尚寧親。肅宗即位，至德二載，太上皇自蜀誥有司「其議尊稱」，遂上冊謚。寶應末，祔泰陵。玄宗貴妃楊氏玄宗貴妃楊氏，隋梁郡通守汪四世孫。徙籍蒲州，遂為永樂人。幼孤，養叔父家。始為壽王妃。開元二十四年，武惠妃薨，後廷無當帝意者。或言妃姿質天挺，宜充掖廷，遂召內禁中，異之，即為自出妃意者，丐籍女官，號「太真」，更為壽王聘韋昭訓女，而太真得幸。善歌舞，邃曉音律，且智算警穎，迎意輒悟。帝大悅，遂專房宴，宮中號「娘子」，儀體與皇后等。

When he took the throne she was made Noble Lady of Excellence. Her elder sister had been consort to Crown Prince Jiemin. At Suzong's birth the diviners said he should not be raised in the palace. The emperor therefore entrusted him to Empress Wang. Childless herself, she reared Suzong as her own. She later bore Princess Ningqin, then died. Thanks to Zhang Yue's old favor, his son Yu was given Princess Ningqin in marriage. When Suzong ascended, in the second year of Zhide the retired emperor from Shu ordered the ministries to deliberate her honors, and she received enfeoffment and a posthumous name. Near the end of Baoying she was installed at Tailing. Noble Consort Yang of Xuanzong—Lady Yang, fourth-generation descendant of Wang, Tongshou of Liang under the Sui. Her household register was moved to Puzhou, and she became a subject of Yongle. Orphaned young, she was raised by her uncle. She was first married to the Prince of Shou. In the twenty-fourth year of Kaiyuan Consort Wu died, and none in the inner palace pleased him. Some said her beauty was heaven-sent and she ought to fill the inner quarters. Summoned into the palace, he found her extraordinary; at her wish she was registered as a female official under the name Taizhen, the Prince of Shou was given Wei Zhaoxun's daughter instead, and Taizhen won his favor. She excelled at song and dance and knew music deeply; quick-witted and sharp, she grasped his mood before he spoke. Delighted, he kept her to himself alone; the palace called her Niangzi, and her ceremonial rank equaled an empress.

天寶初，進冊貴妃。追贈父玄琰太尉、齊國公。擢叔玄珪光祿卿，宗兄銛鴻臚卿，錡侍御史，尚太華公主。主，惠妃所生，最見寵遇。而釗亦寖顯。釗，國忠也。三姊皆美劭，帝呼為姨，封韓、虢、秦三國，為夫人，出入宮掖，恩寵聲焰震天下。每命婦入班，持盈公主等皆讓不敢就位。臺省、州縣奉請托，奔走期會過詔敕。四方獻餉結納，門若市然。建平、信成二公主以與妃家忤，至追內封物，駙馬都尉獨孤明失官。

Early in Tianbao she was advanced to Noble Consort. Her father Xuanyan was posthumously made Grand Marshal and Duke of Qi. Her uncle Xuangui became Minister of the Imperial Clan; her cousin Xian Supervisor of Guests; Qi Attending Censor, who married Princess Taihua. The princess was Consort Wu's daughter and enjoyed the deepest favor. Her cousin Zhao likewise grew in influence. Zhao was Yang Guozhong. Her three sisters were renowned beauties; the emperor called them "aunt" and made them Ladies of Han, Guo, and Qin. Passing in and out of the palace, their favor and fame shook the realm. Whenever court ladies took their places, even Princess Chiying and others stepped aside, not daring to stand before them. Ministries and local officials hurried to do their bidding, outrunning imperial edicts. Gifts and clients streamed in from every quarter until their gates seemed a marketplace. Princesses Jianping and Xincheng, having offended the Yang clan, were made to return palace gifts; their husbands' consort Dugu Ming lost his post.

它日，妃以譴還銛第，比中仄，帝尚不御食，笞怒左右。高力士欲驗帝意，乃白以殿中供帳、司農酒餼百餘車送妃所，帝即以御膳分賜。力士知帝旨，是夕，請召妃還，下鑰安興坊門馳入。妃見帝，伏地謝，帝釋然，撫尉良渥。明日，諸姨上食，樂作，帝驟賜左右不可貲。由是愈見寵，賜諸姨錢歲百萬為脂粉費。銛以上柱國門列戟，與銛、國忠、諸姨五家第舍聯亙，擬憲宮禁，率一堂費緡千萬。見它第有勝者，輒壞復造，務以瓌侈相誇詡，土木工不息。帝所得奇珍及貢獻分賜之，使者相銜於道，五家如一。

Once, banished to Xian's house, she lingered past noon while the emperor refused his meal and beat his attendants in fury. Gao Lishi, testing the emperor's mood, had more than a hundred carts of palace provisions and Commissary stores sent to her; the emperor at once shared his own meal with her. Reading his intent, Lishi that night asked to bring her back; the Anxing Ward gate was unbolted and she rode in at speed. She prostrated herself before him; his anger lifted, and he comforted her with exceptional tenderness. The next day her sisters presented a feast with music, and he showered gifts on those around him beyond reckoning. Her favor only grew; each year he gave her sisters a million cash for cosmetics alone. Xian was made Upper Pillar of State with halberds at his gate; the five Yang households—Xian, Guozhong, and the sisters—built mansions in a row rivaling the palace, each hall costing ten million strings of cash. If another house outshone theirs, they tore it down and rebuilt, vying in outrageous luxury; builders never rested. Rare treasures and tribute were divided among them, with couriers crowding the roads—all five households alike.

妃每從遊幸，乘馬則力士授轡策。凡充錦繡官及冶瑑金玉者，大抵千人，奉須索，奇服秘玩，變化若神。四方爭為怪珍入貢，動駭耳目。於是嶺南節度使張九章、廣陵長史王翼以所獻最，進九章銀青階，擢翼戶部侍郎，天下風靡。妃嗜荔支，必欲生致之，乃置騎傳送，走數千里，味未變已至京師。

When she joined his outings on horseback, Lishi himself held her bridle and whip. Nearly a thousand artisans in brocades, gold, and jade served her whims; garments and curios appeared as if by sorcery. Every region vied to send bizarre tribute that astonished all who saw it. Zhang Jiuzhang of Lingnan and Wang Yi of Guangling, whose gifts were judged finest, were promoted—Jiuzhang given a Silver-Green grade and Yi made Vice Minister of Revenue—and the empire rushed to imitate them. She loved lychees fresh from the tree; relays were set up to gallop them thousands of li to the capital before the flavor changed.

天寶九載，妃復得譴還外第，國忠謀於吉溫。溫因見帝曰：「婦人過忤當死，然何惜宮中一席廣為鈇鑕地，更使外辱乎？」帝感動，輟食，詔中人張韜光賜之。妃因韜光謝帝曰：「妾有罪當萬誅，然膚髮外皆上所賜，今且死，無以報。」引刀斷一繚髮奏之，曰：「以此留訣。」帝見駭惋，遽召入，禮遇如初。因又幸秦國及國忠第，賜兩家鉅萬。

In the ninth year of Tianbao she was banished again to her family's house; Guozhong consulted Ji Wen. Wen told the emperor, "A woman who offends may deserve death, but why turn a palace chamber into an execution ground only to shame her before the world? Moved, the emperor left his meal and sent the eunuch Zhang Taoguang with gifts. Through Taoguang she told him, "I deserve ten thousand deaths, yet every hair on my body is Your Majesty's gift. About to die, I have no way to repay you. She cut a lock of her hair and sent it, saying, "Take this as my farewell." Stricken, he summoned her back at once and received her as before. He visited the households of Qin and Guozhong and gave each vast sums.

國忠既遙領劍南，每十月，帝幸華清宮，五宅車騎皆從，家別為隊，隊一色，俄五家隊合，爛若萬花，川谷成錦繡，國忠導以劍南旗節。遺鈿墮舄，瑟瑟璣琲，狼藉於道，香聞數十里。十載正月望夜，妃家與廣寧主僮騎爭闤門，鞭挺讙競，主墮馬，僅得去。主見帝泣，乃詔殺楊氏奴，貶駙馬都尉程昌裔官。國忠之輔政，其息昢尚萬春公主，暄尚延和郡主；弟鑑尚承榮郡主。又詔為玄琰立家廟，帝自書其碑。銛、秦國早死，故韓、虢與國忠貴最久。而虢國素與國忠亂，頗為人知，不恥也。每入謁，並驅道中，從監、侍姆百餘騎，炬蜜如盡，靚妝盈里，不施幃障，時人謂為「雄狐」。諸王子孫凡婚聘，必先因韓、虢以請，輒皆遂，至數百千金以謝。

With Guozhong holding remote command of Jiannan, each tenth month when the emperor went to Huaqing Palace all five Yang households followed in their own colored columns; when the columns merged, the procession blazed like ten thousand flowers and turned valleys to brocade, Guozhong leading with the banners of Jiannan. Hairpins and slippers fell along the way, sese gems and beads littering the road, their perfume drifting for miles. On the Lantern Festival of the tenth year, her household and Princess Guangning's retinue fought at the market gate with whips and cudgels; the princess was thrown from her horse but barely escaped. Weeping before the emperor, she secured an edict to execute a Yang servant and demote her husband's consort Cheng Changyi. Once Guozhong held power, his son Min married Princess Wanchun and Xuan Princess Yanhe; his brother Jian married Princess Chengrong. An edict also founded a clan temple for Xuanyan, and the emperor wrote the stele himself. Xian and Lady Qin had died young, so the Ladies of Han and Guo and Guozhong enjoyed favor longest. Lady Guo and Guozhong had long carried on an affair openly known, yet she felt no shame. When they went to court they drove abreast down the avenue, attended by more than a hundred stewards and nurses, torches blazing like day, splendid dress filling the street without carriage curtains; people called them the "male fox." Any prince or royal grandson seeking a marriage had first to petition through Han or Guo; they always succeeded and paid hundreds of thousands in gold in thanks.

初，安祿山有邊功，帝寵之，詔與諸姨約為兄弟，而祿山母事妃，來朝，必宴餞結歡。祿山反，以誅國忠為名，且指言妃及諸姨罪。帝欲以皇太子撫軍，因禪位，諸楊大懼，哭於廷。國忠入白妃，妃銜塊請死，帝意沮，乃止。及西幸至馬嵬，陳玄禮等以天下計誅國忠，已死，軍不解。帝遣力士問故，曰：「禍本尚在！」帝不得已，與妃訣，引而去，縊路祠下，裹屍以紫茵，瘞道側，年三十八。

Early on An Lushan had won merit on the frontier and earned the emperor's favor; he was made sworn brother to her sisters, treated the consort as mother, and was feasted whenever he came to court. When Lushan rebelled he named Guozhong as his target and denounced the consort and her sisters. The emperor planned to have the crown prince take command and then abdicate; the Yang clan panicked and wept in open court. Guozhong told the consort, who begged to die with a stone in her mouth; the emperor's resolve failed, and he abandoned the plan. When the flight west reached Mawei, Chen Xuanli and others put Yang Guozhong to death for the good of the empire. Even after he was dead, the troops would not stand down. The emperor sent a strongman to inquire why. They answered, 'The source of the disaster is still alive! The emperor could not refuse. He bade the consort farewell and led her away. She was strangled under a roadside shrine, her body wrapped in purple matting and buried by the road. She was thirty-eight.

帝至自蜀，道過其所，使祭之，且詔改葬。禮部侍郎李揆曰：「龍武將士以國忠負上速亂，為天下殺之。今葬妃，恐反仄自疑。」帝乃止。密遣中使者具棺槨它葬焉。啟瘞，故香囊猶在，中人以獻，帝視之，淒感流涕，命工貌妃於別殿，朝夕往，必為鯁欷。

On his return from Shu the emperor passed the spot, sent offerings, and ordered that she be reburied. Vice Minister of Rites Li Kui said, 'The Longwu troops killed Guozhong because he betrayed the emperor and brought rebellion on the empire. If we now give the consort a state burial, I fear the soldiers will grow suspicious and turn against us. The emperor therefore abandoned the plan. In secret he sent a palace envoy to provide a coffin and bury her elsewhere. When the grave was opened her old perfumed pouch was still inside. The envoy presented it; the emperor wept at the sight and ordered artists to paint her portrait in a side hall. He visited morning and evening and always broke into sobs.

馬嵬之難，虢國與國忠妻裴柔等奔陳倉，縣令率吏追之，意以為賊，棄馬走林。虢國先殺其二子，柔曰：「丐我死！」即並其女刺殺之，乃自剄，不殊，吏載置於獄，問曰：「國家乎？賊乎？」吏曰：「互有之。」乃死，瘞陳倉東郭外。

During the Mawei crisis the Guo state and Guozhong's wife Pei Rou fled to Chencang. The magistrate pursued them with his officers, mistaking them for rebels. They abandoned their horses and fled into the forest. The Guo state killed her two sons first. Rou cried, 'Let me die! She then stabbed her daughter as well and cut her own throat but did not die. The officers put her in a cart and took her to jail, asking, 'Was it for the state? Or for the rebels? They answered, 'A little of both.' She died and was buried outside the eastern gate of Chencang.

贊曰：或稱武、韋亂唐同一轍，武持久，韋亟滅，何哉？議者謂否。武后自高宗時挾天子威福，脅制四海，雖逐嗣帝，改國號，然賞罰己出，不假借群臣，僭於上而治於下，故能終天年，阽亂而不亡。韋氏乘夫，淫蒸於朝，斜封四出，政放不一，既鴆殺帝，引睿宗輔政，權去手不自知，戚地已疏，人心相挻，玄宗藉其事以撼豪英，故取若掇遺，不旋踵宗族夷丹，勢奪而事淺也。然二后遺後王戒，顧不厚哉！

The commentator writes: Some say the disorders wrought by Wu and Wei followed the same path—yet Wu's rule lasted while Wei's was swiftly destroyed. Why? Those who debate the question say this is wrong. From Gaozong's reign Wu Zetian held the emperor's power in her grasp and bent the realm to her will. Though she deposed heirs and changed the dynastic name, reward and punishment issued from her alone without relying on ministers. She ruled from above while governing below, and so lived out her years on the edge of chaos without the dynasty's fall. The Wei clan rose on her husband's back, debauchery filled the court, illicit appointments spread everywhere, and policy lacked coherence. After she poisoned the emperor and installed Ruizong as regent, power slipped from her hands before she knew it. Her kin had lost their footing and popular sentiment turned against her. Xuanzong seized the moment to strike down the powerful elite; victory came as easily as picking up something dropped. Within moments the clan was annihilated—her grasp on power was shallow, and her schemes shallow with it. Yet the warning these two empresses left for later rulers—how weighty it remains!

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