181. The Dragon Empress: China’s Game of Thrones

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0:58Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnon. And me, William Durimple. This is all going to be spotlight on Willie today, isn't it? It's all so exciting because I am actually really learning every time we do these things. You've been subsumed by this topic for years and years and we're just getting the fruits of your label. For over five years. Yeah, I know, I know. And we're going to continue this series now talking about India's empire of ideas. Just remind us, first of all, where we got to last time because it's been some time since we've talked about this. Sure. So the central idea of my new book, The Golden Road, How Ancient India Transformed the World, which is published on the 5th of September.

1:42I'm not getting a plug-in at all, Anita. No, no, listen. No, no. You plug away and you should be proud to plug in. Can I plug as your very proud friend? Very, very proud friend. It is one of those books that you will not be able to put down, even though it is a hefty tome. I've got it in hardback. And apart from being an entirely beautiful piece of production. You've written beautifully. I think it's some of your best writing, may I say? No, I really mean it. I really mean it. You humanize things. And also these great strides across epochs of history. You not only draw together time, but also geographical space in a way that I don't think anyone else can.

2:18So I think it's brilliant. I think it's your best work. You're very sweet. So the central idea of this book is that India's importance to world civilization, but specifically also India's place in the early classical world, has been greatly underrated. In the West, we obsess rightly with the amazing civilization that came out of Greece and how our ideas of mathematics and politics and philosophy came much of it from the foundations laid in ancient Greece. But almost all that is equally true of the place of India in Asia. And this is something that I think people in the West are far less familiar with.

2:59People in India know about it, but often don't have the specifics and certainly don't know the effects of India, outside India's boundaries, other than the few little sort of pages in Indian textbooks. I mean, we've talked about that before, and it's a very important point to make. The spread of those ideas, though, is perhaps, I mean, maybe one of the reasons people in the West don't talk about it. We're going to talk about the spread now because we did speak about Buddhism spreading to China before when we did that excellent Xuanzhang episode of the monk who wants to come back to India, to come back to the seat of learning, to find the scrolls, to bring back these cartloads of learning.

3:39But we want to know today the person or the people who take Buddhism, if we say the slipstream of this learning is Buddhism, which we've established in previous episodes to the next level in China? And who is it who takes the spotlight today? So this is a story that I think is completely unknown, not only in the West, but also in India. It's a moment when there's effectively a coup d 'etat in China. And for a generation, China is ruled by its only woman emperor, whose name is Wu Zetian. And not only is she the only emperor, In order to be a woman emperor in a patriarchal world, when women were not taken seriously in Confucian society, they were regarded as lower class beings, according to Confucius, inferior to men.

4:29She took refuge in the power of Buddhism as an alternate philosophy. and not just Buddhism in general, but specifically a strand of Buddhism, which Xuanzang had brought back to China, this Mahayana tradition, which is full of powerful goddesses. Yes. And the climax of this moment is when she gets a whole series of Indian-trained monks, many of whom are ethnically from India, who have been imported into Xi 'an, the capital, to present her as the longed-for saviour Maitreya in the form of a goddess who will come back to Earth. And therefore, she is not only justified to be an empress, she's actually a goddess that has been prophesied she's divine.

5:21So the version we're going to give in the next couple of episodes of Wu Zetian's life is one that's full of bloodshed, full of sexuality, full of fun and games, frankly. It's Game of Thrones. It is Game of Thrones level. It is Game of Thrones. It's the nearest this book gets to Game of Thrones. But we should put at the beginning a large red alert symbol that the sources for Wizzetti are almost all hostile men who lost power during her reign. I mean, she clearly was bloodthirsty. There's no question that, you know, lots of the previous ruling dynasty are wiped out in her reign. and she goes through something like 30 ministers in the course of her reign, all of whom are either killed or exiled or take their own lives.

6:06But this is the prosecution version we have and her own books and her own sources have almost all disappeared. Right. Stop teasing us now then. Let's talk about Empress Vuzetian's origin story. So first of all, nuts and bolts of this young lady. She was born in 624 AD to pious Buddhist parents. I mean, not poor, but not grand. They had money, but they were, I think you'd say, middle class these days. She's a timber merchant's daughter. So that doesn't strike me as being a very wealthy background. So her mum is posher than her dad. Her mum is related to the previous dynasty. Her father is not a sort of timber merchant in the sense of, you know, he's not wealthy middle-class capitalist who's controlling the logging of southwest China.

6:59He's based in Sichuan. It's very different to the woodcutter's daughter. Yeah, it's not a cabin in the woods. This guy is one of the richest people in southwest China. And he's clearly sassy because he backs the Tang dynasty as they're rising to power. There is a revolt going on. The previous dynasty is falling. And this is certainly the moment that Xuanzang is walking out of China into India through this anarchy. And the paths of Xuanzang and the Empress Wu Zetian will cross very soon in this story. But at this point, she's a little girl in the mountains of southwest China. Her dad is backing the right side in the civil war.

7:44And Xuanzang's off looking for lost Buddhist texts in India, the University Library of Nalanda. And we should say that the young Mouzetienne, she has a different nickname altogether, Flower Girl, because she's pretty and people do bang on about her sort of beautiful cuteness at this stage, don't they? Exactly that. And her extreme beauty is one of her sources of power. She's a remarkable girl, but she knows how to use her beauty and how to use her attractiveness. And when her father dies, leaving the family slightly in the lurch is not the right moment in history to be a fatherless family. and she manages to get a much coveted place at the age of 15 in the imperial harem.

8:28Now, of course, today we would regard anyone going into an old man's harem at the age of 15 as a disgusting and abusive thing. But at the time, it doesn't raise eyebrows. This is very much the age that women enter the imperial harem. And by the standards of the time, it's not exceptional. One of the most delicious stories, you've missed out about her origin story, which I only know from you anyway, which is this supernatural visitation that supposedly happens to her mother. So can I tell this story? Please tell the story. I mean, this story, it has to be said, is made up by the Empress to try and give herself a divine origin later in life.

9:03It's a good story. So, Wiesatien, looking back on her origin story, would rather you've heard it this way, that the Lady Yang, who is her mother, is boating on a river one day when a black dragon surges out of the water. and she swoons, poor Lady Yang, because you would, wouldn't you? Black dragon is searching out of the water. Kind of what you do. She swoons, she falls unconscious. And when she comes to, she's told of a vision in which she had made passionate love to the dragon. Aye, aye. And then nine months later, she gives birth to a heavenly daughter. And that daughter, ladies and gentlemen, is Wu Zetian.

9:43It will not surprise you that Wu Zetian put this story about quite a lot when her enemies were, you know, sort of snapping at her heels. But it's a good one. It is a good one. And we know that this is something that was current in her lifetime because there is actually a temple in her birth province of Sichuan where her statue is still in worship as a goddess. And you can go there today and see this picture of her. It does have dragon motifs and things around it. Even on her final epitaph-less Stella raised on her death, there are just dragons. I told you, man, it's Game of Thrones right from the get-go.

10:18All right, so she enters this harem at the age of only 13, which is kind of horrifying, as you say, for us. But it is a chance for her. What is it like in the harem? She is not necessarily and probably not at all actually the concubine of the emperor, not because she is too young, but because she's too junior. There's already a whole world of different ranks of concubines. The Emperor Taizong, who is incidentally one of the sort of great figures of Chinese history. The Tang Dynasty is regarded, I suppose, rather like we regard Charlemagne or the Emperor Augustus in the West. It's one of the sort of peak moments of civilizational achievement.

11:02And so she's emerging into power, just as the civil war is ending, as a new dynasty is establishing itself. And the emperor Taizong, his emperor who welcomes back the monk Xuanzang when he's on his way back from Nolanda, is now firmly in power. And particularly, I think, historians of Chinese culture look on the early Tang as a period of great poetry, great art, beautiful porcelain. It's a classic period of early Chinese history, but it's also a period of great cosmopolitanism. And Xi 'an during this period is full of travellers coming in on camels from Central Asia and Western China. There are travellers from all over, and particularly there are many Buddhist monks now coming in over the mountains from India.

11:50But what is life like in the harem? She asks again, hopefully. Fair enough. Why won't you tell us about the harem, William? What was it like? I'm always happy to talk harems. I think her job initially is to be rather disappointing because I know where you're heading. No, no, no, I'm not. No, no. She's fifth grade. She's fifth grade. So her job is basically in charge of the laundry. So laundry, yeah, that's what I mean. And she changes the bed sheets and that sort of thing is her job. She's sort of a scut around, you know, pretty scut. But she's still, you know, even just being there is an elevated position.

12:24No, it's the most powerful position a woman could have in China at this time. Do we know what the politics of the harem was? Was it like Ottoman harems? Highly competitive, as always in these worlds. Competition between wives and concubines, between those that have had the emperor's children and those that haven't. Highly hierarchical grading. and she's entering it as Taizong, who has led this revolution, conquered back the whole of China, seen off armies of Turks and Tibetans, is one of the great heroes of Chinese history. He's now an old man. As she arrives in the harem, our favorite monk, Xuanzang, is on his way back from Nalanda with all these manuscripts, the ones that have not gone into the Indus River.

13:10And Xuanzang arrives in time to become, I think in the West, you'd say a sort of confessor to the emperor. He is the spiritual guide who takes Taizong into old age, telling him philosophical tales, telling him all about India and what he's seen on his travels all over the West, Xuanzang knows it. And the two meet. We know that the young Wu Zetian and the elderly Xuanzang become allies because they're both Buddhists. This is a period when there is a strong competition for influence between, on one hand, the Confucian elite, on the other hand, the Taoist religious hierarchy, and the outsiders who are the Buddhists.

13:58And Xuanzang is doing his very best to bring Taizong, who's previously shown more favor to the Taoists, from whom he's supposed to be descended. He's meant to be a descendant of one of the founders of Taoism. and Xuanzang is bringing him into the Buddhist world. He's teaching him all the Buddhist teachings. He's telling him about the texts. He's telling him about the incredible sophistication of the universities. I love this image of the old ailing emperor who is listening to the whisperings, sober whisperings of this monk who's been so well-traveled, and then does actually say, I wish I'd spend more of my life not doing warfare, but actually studying Buddhism.

14:41You Again, we have Buddhist sources for this. So, of course, he's going to say that. And Xuanzang certainly is under the impression that he's about to declare Buddhism as the religion of the emperor. But of course. But then he goes and dies. And he dies. He dies. So this is bad news for our two heroes. Xuanzang, who thinks that he's about to convert China to Buddhism, has lost his great ally. And it's particularly bad news for the flower child, for Wu Zetian. I mean, he does give her a nickname as well because he notices her, even though she's only fifth grade in the harem. And he calls her the charming Miss Wu.

15:19The charming Miss Wu, which again sort of elevates her status. But without him, she has lost her protector. Not only lost her protector, but what happens when an emperor dies is that the whole harem is shipped off to a nunnery. Oh, dear. This 13-year-old who has for two years been the center of everything and been busy coming into the imperial bedchamber and changing the sheets and the towels or whatever and smiling sweetly at the old emperor who sort of winks at her and thinks she's very charming. It's all over for her because her future is to give up her silks and fine clothes and to go off and wear Hessian robes in a nunnery.

16:01And have their head shaved. I mean, it's that image that we certainly are familiar with, aren't we? So it looks like it's all over, but Wu has preempted this because in the last days of the emperor's decline, so the emperor has retired to the wonderfully named Jade Flower Palace in the mountains north of his capital. and the crown prince wants to be with his father in his last days so moves in and we don't know the degree to of intimacy which develops between the crown prince and the fifth grade the bed sheet girl it's quite possible that they become lovers but she certainly catches his eye so a year later when the new emperor comes to remember his father at the imperial nunnery.

16:55Wu is there weeping, saying, take me back. I miss you every day. She writes beautiful poems to the emperor saying, I remember you. And the fact that she dares to do that implies there's a real degree of intimacy between them, whether or not they were physically lovers. The suggestion in the sources is that they were lovers. And this is regarded by the old Confucians who write this all up as incest and completely beyond the bounds. Because she's in the harem, she's his father's woman, the son should not be taking an interest. Well, I'll tell you some of the poetry that's written and then we'll take a break.

17:30This is the poetry of which you speak. I look upon your disk of jade and my thoughts scatter in disarray as haggard from grief, sundered and separated. I so keenly miss my sovereign. If you don't believe this endless litany of tears, then open my chest, examine my tear-stained pomegranate dress. We'll take a break.

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19:22Welcome back. So just before the break, we were talking about these two young lovers reunited. We think they're lovers anyway. But this is now the fast track for our empress to be, isn't it? Because she was fifth grade, which is bedsheets. She gets promoted to second grade. Now, what can you do when you're a second grade concubine? Well, whatever she does, she gets pregnant pretty quick. I think that explains that. It's quite clear what's going on now. What the job description is there? She has gone straight into the new emperor's bed. And she is making no bones about this. And in fact, she gets pregnant twice in the next three years.

20:02Now, there is, as we said, a very established hierarchy of warring concubines and wives. And the theory is, according to one of the Confucian sources, again, we shouldn't necessarily believe them. But the theory is that Wu Zetian is allowed into the palace and the emperor is encouraged to bring her back from the nunnery by the wife who wants to displace the first concubine. Oh, I see. So there's competition. It's politics. As the Confucian source says, she didn't realise that she had loosed a tiger upon the mountain. Well, quite, because the title that she's given when she's promoted to second grade is Lady of Luminous Demeanour, which is hardly threatening.

20:43And so, of course, you bring back this woman to catch your husband's eye and then kick out the number one concubine, all is fine. But not if the Lady of Luminous Demeanour has other intentions. So, the Empress Wang is the empress who has let loose the tiger on the mountain. And she is coming to see Wu Zetian, who is obviously spending more and more time in the emperor's bedroom. And it seems that the empress doesn't mind this because what she particularly objects to is the favorite concubine, who's called Xiao Liang Di. And on one of these visits, the empress plays with Wu's new baby son. and within minutes of her leaving, the baby is found dead.

21:35This is so grim. Wu Zetian's child is dead. And the accusation in the Confucian sources is that Wu herself strangled her son in order to frame the Empress. So she kills her boy and says, look, the Empress was so jealous of our love. She killed your son. She killed your beautiful boy and is weeping and wailing. So, of course, you know, the emperor, it's such an unnatural act that people are going to believe. You know, a new mother wouldn't do this to her baby. A new mother would never do this, they say. And so she is believed. And both the empress and the chief concubine are blamed for this death.

22:18Blimey. And removed into a sort of prison wing of the palace. Initially, they are alive and well, but Wu now is the chief concubine. She's risen to the top of the tree. All the opposition is removed. And she chooses her time. She ingratiates herself even more with the new emperor, Gaizong. And when the moment comes, she formally demands a trial of these two women. and they are tried for witchcraft, a whole range of false accusations. Why witchcraft and not murder? Murder and witchcraft. I think the two together. It's depicted as a plot and the two are somehow in alliance, which is extremely unlikely because they're rivals.

23:02Is that because it is such a heinous crime that they will be hated and vilified and she will be seen in contrast as being goodness personified? I think that's exactly it. Either way, the most gruesome series of events begin to unfold. So what happens next is that Wu bribes servants and other rival concubines to spy on the empress and the chief concubine. Within a few months, both the empress and the chief concubine have been deposed, degraded to the status of commoners, and imprisoned in the inner palace. and the coffin of the emperor's father is unearthed and broken into bits and her family are executed and driven into exile.

23:47Bloody hell, they dug up her dad? Her dad. I mean, it's serious stuff. Wow, I mean, he didn't, God, right, okay. Basically, Wu manages to persuade the emperor that this woman is a psychopath. It's an evil family from an evil witchcrafty family. Murdering imperial heirs. and she is lobbying to be made the empress in the stead of this poor woman in prison and all the old confucian ministers are strongly opposing it because she was the former concubine of the last emperor and it's effectively incest it goes against all the rules of the palace but she gets her way. And on the 19th day of the 10th month of 655, Wu is formally enthroned as empress at the age now of 31.

24:33And on the following year, her position is entrenched when her son is recognized as the heir apparent. And this is the first time when she begins to really bring in Buddhists into the palace. 5 ,000 Buddhist monks are given a vegetarian feast in the palace. And the following year, and this is the really gruesome bit, in November 655, the new empress moves on her former rivals. Who are still locked up in the palace somewhere. Locked up in the palace, waiting their fate. And at this point, now that Wu is the empress, both are sentenced to death for having murdered her child, as well as for a supposed plot to poison the emperor and kill him through black magic.

25:15That was where the black magic came from. She bribed other concubines to say that the chief concubine was planning to kill the emperor. And when the sentence is read out to both of them, the former empress bows several times and says, long life to his majesty. But the former chief concubine is less forbearable. She's not having it. She's not going to take it. She screams curses at Wu and says, Woo is a treacherous fox who has brought me to this. I pray that in my future lives I shall return as a cat and Woo will be a mouse. And from then, from life to life, I shall tear her throat out. And the Empress immediately orders that no cat should ever be admitted to any of her policies.

25:59That's very funny. But whether or not we believe this speech about the chief concubine threatening to come back as a cat in future lives and terrorize the Empress Woo. The Empress Wu, it's very clear, was extremely guilty about what she'd done to her predecessors. And we have from several sources the fact that she has nightmares and sees bloody apparitions of the chief concubine and the former empress in the palace. and she bullies the emperor the next year to move the entire court from Xi 'an to Luoyang, allegedly to sort of free herself of these bloody apparitions in what is a kind of striking echo or precursor to Lady Macbeth's nightmares in Macbeth, which is written, you know, a thousand years later almost.

26:50This is happening in 7th century China. Shakespeare comes up with Lady Macbeth's apparitions in the 1590s. So it's an extraordinary moment. But instantly, the empress creates what is like a kind of reign of terror. Within, I think, four years, five ministers who've attempted to block Wu's rise to power have been driven to disgrace in the provinces, while one, the chief councillor, has actually taken his own life. And from this point, you get this pattern of ministerial purges beginning. Of the, I think it's 46 chief ministers who are in power between about 684 and 694, a decade later, half end their life or execution, and around three quarters have their careers terminated either by violence or by exile.

27:50And by the end of her reign, Wu had forcibly removed no less than 80 % of the chief ministers who are ruling with her. And according to one contemporary source, frank speech was avoided at court. No one dared to oppose the imperial will or to strongly demonstrate. For almost 20 years, it was like this. But here is the really gruesome bit. The punishment for witchcraft in imperial China is incredibly brutal. So first, the two women were severely beaten by executioners. their hands and feet are cut off and they're then thrown bound into a half-filled vat of wine and the exultant new empress wu remarks now these witches can get drunk to their bones and after several days of agony the two victims die their corpses are decapitated and cut into pieces i have questions we've got quite a lot of questions i have questions A lot of questions.