Luo River summer 688 CE a Wandering official strolls the banks looking for stones for this river is known for delivering prophecy and at very special times messages will appear from Heaven suddenly a flat white stone catches his eye picking it up he finds it has writing on it a sage mother shall come
To rule all mankind it says and eternal Prosperity will result soon The Dowager Empress woen brings the entire court to the river to offer thanks for the prophecy that she is sure refers to her after all there are already monks who are creating a new translation of the
Great Cloud Sutra with a passage about how a Celestial bodhisatwa will return in the body of a woman and rule the Earth so this Stone can not be a coincidence and it’s not because that translation is sponsored by woo herself and the man who found the stone just so happens to be her
Nephew thanks so much to incog for helping to keep people’s personal data personal most historians pin the revelation of the white stone as the moment that wuza Tien decided that she would usurp her son and rule in her own name upon its Discovery she adopted a new title of
Sage mother Divine Sovereign and not content with that she then started talking about opening a new ritual building or Ming Tong and called the extended Imperial family to the capital this was worrying see open a Ming Tong was often how you began a new Reign and this one was huge the largest wooden
Structure in the world at the time and Woo’s insistence that the imperial family attend sure looked like an attempt to gather possible Rivals together so they could all be executed at once as a result instead of a coronation woo suddenly had an aristocratic Riot on her hands one that
Turned into a full-on rebellion though she was able to stamp it out due to the powers of her surveillance Network dispatching the secret police to the provinces in search of Rebels that had gone to ground over the next few years her troops would root out denters through raids and torture supposedly
Sawing off nearly a dozen branches of her husband’s family tree by the next year her opponents were defeated and she inaugurated the Ming Tong with an elaborate series of sacrifices conducting the first ceremonies before her son the emperor rusong making it clear she ranked above him then the next
Year on October 16th 1690 it became official under his mother’s pressure rusong seated the Imperial title to her and accepted a new title as Imperial successor this woman who had begun merely as lady woo was now known as the female Emperor woo for such an unprecedented move there was Little
Resistance well except from the Earth itself supposedly the day she formally took the throne began with an earthquake when religious figures warned that this was an ill Omen Emperor woo said they were wrong this was the cosmos rejoicing making the mountains thrust upward towards the heavens and celebration and
What were they celebrating but the beginning of a new Dynasty for woo would not be ruling under the dynasty of Tong but rather found her own the woo Joe Dynasty hearkening back to the early Joe period that was seen as a golden age woo adopted the Joe calendar and the words
For days and months as well as change court terms and titles to bring it in line with the Joe and along with all of this came a new name for woo herself not woan that would be her postumus name no her name would be who Joe in fact she
Created a new character for Joe picturing the sun and moon shining over an endless sky this was one of a dozen new characters she created or modified in her Reign which is nuts because while making up new words is a normal thing in Western languages you just don’t do that
In Chinese even if you’re an international brand yet she didn’t stop at expanding language we was recruiting more than new characters after all she heavily staffed up strengthening the bureaucracy with men of ability using the examination system in this she employed both a book she personally wrote on government service and started
The tradition of examining Scholars herself there were after all a lot of officials to replace for Woo’s Reign would be a bloody one split with plots intrigues and a huge number of executions some were her political enemies the aristocratic fames she was trying to break While others were her
Own family for plotting against the throne or each other she killed a son her daughter-in-law her favorite secretary yet despite the Bloodshed Woo’s rule was generally characterized by stability able government and artistic achievement Tong writing flourished and despite the many wars she kept China’s sphere of influence her sponsorship of Buddhism heavily expanded
And legitimized the religion and she ordered the construction of the famous Wild Goose pagota meanwhile her Keen interests in Land Reform and expanding prosperity for the Common People meant she had a broad base of support so where did Things Fall Apart you ask well that would have started with her boy toys see
Who played with gender a lot doing a lot of things as male Emperors would do them and that included keeping a group of young men as an unofficial heram and no shade there the problem was she also kept appointing these boy toys to official positions like the one she made
A Buddhist priest so he could visit her in her Chambers where men weren’t allowed then put him in charge of both a monastery and a military campaign both of which he bungled so then she made him a chief overseer of the Ming Tong’s construction which he supposedly burned
Down along with an joining Temple after finding out wo had taken a new lover in retribution woo hired a group of stout women to Ambush him upon entering the palace wrestle him to the ground and strangle him to death but really that was nothing compared to The Saga of the
Jang Brothers a Duo of boy toys woo became enamored with at the age of 75 the jeang brothers had a few foibles that made them unpopular at court for example they frequently dressed and presented as women and may have been Unix wo gave them charge of a new literary apartment which they basically
Turned into a frat house then when one brother claimed to be a reincarnated Dost Immortal she staged an elaborate spectacle of him ascending to heaven where he mounted a large wooden Crane and played the flute as a mechanical device winched him to the ceiling but when a court official put the jangs on
Trial for corruption and beating a slave to death woo not only got them acquitted she appointed one of them to investigate the prosecutor who ended up being banished but that Kur fuffle was not the only rockness in the Empire for woo was getting old and the prospect of succession unsettled the country the
Years of executions and attempted coups began to take their toll woo tried to calm things down by recalling the formerly exiled Emperor Jean zong who remained popular and naming him Crown Prince meanwhile woo now 81 became ill and secluded herself speaking only to the jangs by 705 though many thought wo
Had lost a step and should finally retire and that the cruel xang Brothers needed to die February 20th 705 five Jean zong breaks into Woo’s private Chambers with 500 men at his back they have swords and armor no one’s seen the empress in months the Jong brothers are
In the inner Courtyard and they barely have time to raise their arms in defense before the mob is on them shouting and hitting forcing them to their knees then swords fall two heads Hit the Dirt of the courtyard then everything goes quiet Empress woo emerges from her bed chamber
The crowd bows in reverence as she looks down at her son so it’s you she says now that the two boys are dead you can return to your Palace she then chided the crowd for waking her and told them to quiet down and get out the next day
Jean zong took formal command of the empire under the banner of the restored Tong Dynasty and Wu moved into a different Palace she died 8 months later interred next to her husband in the enormous Mausoleum they’d built decades before yet despite that the gigantic Steely outside her tomb meant to record
The accomplishments of her life and Reign was left blank the tongue for their part revered her but then also tried to prevent later princesses from following her path tightening the Reigns on female power regardless of the blank Steely though China never quite forgot woo partially because of her exaggerated
Reputation for seduction and violence which did make her a compelling character in plays and stories in fact today Chinese consumers can buy woole tin inspired costumes and branded perfume or watch soap operas based on her life this young girl who came to court originally valued only for her
Beauty had ruled for around four decades expanded the Empire to its greatest extent and had changed both the administrative and religious Landscapes of China forever and while it is a shame that woo Legacy was not recorded on those steelies in her time not going to
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