Ultimately, she was undone by the corrupting effects of ultimate power - as was true of so many other emperors - and in 705 her current favourites - the decadent flatterer Chang brothers - were murdered in an outbreak of widespread public hostility. Unable to protect her favourites, Wu Hou abdicated the next day and returned to her bed to die.
Wu Hou's Policies
During the period of Wu Hou's ascendancy, China was ruled by the T'ang Dynasty. The T'ang Dynasty period for China was one of considerable expansion and development of cultural and governmental institutions. Wu Hou was an integral part of these developments. China made conquests against Korea in the east and the Arabs in the west. This expansion increased imperial revenues and power internationally and this was supplemented by measures taken by Wu Hou to strengthen imperial power internally and to satisfy popular needs.
In part, her reforms reflected the need she had to support her own particular position: for example, her movement of the imperial capital to the "Holy City" of Loyang resulted from the desire to wrest power from the historical military aristocracy of northwestern China and transfer it to the southern regions from which she had risen. Similarly, her sponsorship of Buddhism and her increasing reliance on Buddhist mysticism resulted from the greater status accorded to women by Buddhism, especially compared to that of the Confucianists who opposed her right as a woman to rule.
Wu Hou's Qualities and Achievement
It is clear that Wu Hou was a woman of her time: the acts of violence that she employed are typical of contemporary imperial intrigues, even if she seems to have brought a certain gusto and inventiveness to the process which has distinguished her efforts.
More positively, she is characterised by her determination to succeed in the face of considerable difficulties and the excellence of her judgment of the characters of individuals who were to serve her. The formalisation of the examination system helped in the promotion of meritocracy in the country and in expanding the economic and social opportunities available to people throughout China. It is no coincidence that the Tang Dynasty enjoyed a golden period during the reigns of her successors, in which the flowering of culture and the arts represents one of the great achievements of humanity.
Sources
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, China: Cambridge Illustrated History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Gernet, Jacques, A History of Chinese Civilisation, second edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
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