Golden Tablet of Wu Zetian (624–705)

Abstract

One of the few items directly related to Empress Wu Zetian (Wu-hou; 624–705), “The Golden Tablet of Wu Zetian” (Wu Zetian jin jian; 武則天金簡) is extremely important for the study of this period in Chinese history for several reasons. Firstly, Wu Zetian was the only woman in the history of China to establish a new dynasty (Zhou; 周, 690–705) and obtain the male Emperor title Huangdi (皇帝). Naturally, this did not meet with approval among Confucian historians who authored the dynastic chronicles Jiu Tang shu (The Old Tang History; 舊唐書) and Xin Tang Shu (The New Tang History, 新唐書) – these being the main narrative sources for this period of Chinese history, informing our perceptions of it as a whole. The study of epigraphic data, and specifically The Golden Tablet, is therefore of particular interest to historians.