Wu Ze-Tian 武则天
Wu Ze-Tian entered the palace while Taizong was still on the throne, and half a century later she herself bore the imperial title. She was forced to leave the palace, and later had to fight for power under her own sons. TV series often show her entire path to the throne, while in the films about Di Ren-Jie she already rules at court and decides for herself whom to entrust with an investigation.
Wu Ze-Tian (武則天) was born in 624. While still a teenager, she entered the palace of the Tang emperor Taizong. After his death she ended up in a Buddhist monastery, but returned to court under his son Gaozong and became his consort. Wu Ze-Tian gradually took part of state affairs into her own hands. After Gaozong's death, two of her sons occupied the throne in turn, while power remained in her hands. In 690 she assumed the imperial title and proclaimed the Zhou dynasty. In life she bore the name Zhao. Ze-Tian is part of the posthumous title under which she entered history.
Wu Ze-Tian persecuted possible rivals, but drew capable people close to her, even from families that had previously fallen into disgrace. Thus Shangguan Wan'er rose at court, entrusted with drafting imperial edicts. Wu Ze-Tian ruled until 705. Toward the end of her life, a palace coup returned the throne to her son and restored the Tang dynasty. Much was written about her reign after her death. For the chroniclers it also mattered that a woman had taken the imperial throne, though in their view it belonged to a man. That is why accounts of how she sought power are often read as cautionary tales about the violation of the customary order.
Wu Ze-Tian appeared on screen long before the big television series. In Empress Wu Zetian (1939) she was played by Violet Koo. In the 1995 series of the same name the role went to Liu Xiao-Qing, and in The Empress of China (2014) to Fan Bing-Bing. In Tsui Hark's Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010), the story begins before her accession to the throne. When courtiers die under strange circumstances, Wu Ze-Tian, played by Carina Lau, entrusts the investigation to a man she herself had previously ordered imprisoned.
