A WOODBLOCK PRINT OF Wu Zhao crowned with an elaborate imperial phoenix headdress appears in the section on “historical personages” in the early seventeenth-century Ming dynasty Illustrated Encyclopedia of Heaven, Earth, and Man (Sancai tuhui 三彩圖會; see Figure 1). While the broad forehead and square face of the grand dame depicted fit earlier descriptions of Wu Zhao appearing in standard histories, this conventionalized depiction of a cinch-lipped matron clad in ceremonial imperial regalia—and sporting an expression between irked and dour beneath her long, arched brows and above her rounded chin—does little to capture the robust personality and idiosyncratic character of China’s only female emperor.

Predominantly negative in tenor, standard historical accounts of Wu Zhao nonetheless reflect a grudging appreciation of her far-reaching intellect and enormous capacity for subtle machinations. The Old Tang History characterizes her as “intelligent and tactful, possessing vast literary and historical learning.” Attesting to her weiqi master’s ability to calculate and strategize, the New Tang History remarks that she “possessed a diverse repertoire of means for wielding power and was capable of countless tactical changes and permutations.”

Though Zhang Zhuo spent much of his career outside of the capitals, he served as a Censor in Wu Zhao’s court. As mentioned in the Introduction, his characterization of the female emperor and her close adherents is congruent with a wider Confucian historiography that systematically demonizes her person and denigrates her reign. While passages in Court and Country offer glimpses of her character and personality, they also emphasize Wu Zhao’s volatile swings between delight and rage, her uncritical acceptance of auspicious omens, and her penchant for luxury and excess. Most of these anecdotes lack the idiosyncrasies and nuance of Zhang’s other stories. It is likely they were altered and flattened, retrofitted to Confucian precepts at some point between Zhang’s death and the reappearance of an abridged Court and Country in the Ming, 800 years later.

OMENS AND SYMBOLS

Symbols and omens exercised an inordinate power in the world of Wu Zhao. Take, for example, this story from Court and Country of a staged cat-and-parrot show gone terribly awry: