The Relationship Between Ruling By Wu Zetian And Auspicious

Auspicious sign, as a kind of traditiona l politica l culture, has a great effect on politics andculture in the ancient China. Its ma in function is to make the all-powerful monarchy lega l andauthoritative. The idea of auspicious sign comes into being in the primitive society. Gradually, itbecomes a theory after the genera lization and development by the ancient book Book ofExchange in the early Qin Dynasty. From the West and East Han Dynasties to Wei-Jin andSouthern and Northern Dynasty, it is improved and elevated. To Tang Dynasty, the theory ofauspicious sign is becoming mature, and it is used in the actual politica l life orderly at a largescale. Especia lly in the period when Wu Zetia n made herself to be an empress, it affects thepolitica l life deeply. This paper focuses on auspicious sign to re-expla in Wu Zetia n to be anempress, and to discuss the specific function the auspicious sign pla ys during the time when WuZetia n procla ims herself an empress, it makes it clear how the empress to control and lead thepublic opinion.The followings are the ma in details of this paper:In the first chapter, it gives us a genera l idea of the mass appearance of auspicious signs duringthe process of Wu Zetia n making herself to be an empress. It not only absorbs the former experts'achievements, but also classifies the auspicious signs on the basis of their location. On theanalysis of these auspicious signs, the author inspects the characteristics when the empress usesthese signs, what's more it gets in touch with one of the most sensitive problems of WuZetia n—the problem of gender. The policies in using these auspicious signs show that theempress takes the advantage of these signs flexibly, which embody her outsta nding politica l talentand charm. Form that, the author gets the most important characteristic of auspicious sign—subversiveness. On the surface, auspicious sign mea ns to change something bad into good, whiletaking to the socia l thought, it can overturn the traditiona l idea. All of these reflect the situationof public opinion before and after she became the empress.In the second chapter, by mea ns of analysis for the figure prophecies of the auspicious signswith the detail of Chinese character"Wu", it is clear that gender is one of the problems that makesit difficult for her to be the empress, besides that the problem of surname—namely changing thecountry's surname, hinders her plan of being the empress, too. Facing these problems, Wu Zetia nsolves these through mass discovery of auspicious signs. By analysis these auspicious signs, theauthor realizes that innovativeness is another characteristic of utilizing them during the process ofprocla iming herself to be the empress, mostly there are new types of auspicious signs, forexample, newly-created names of some places. In this chapter, the author pays much attention tothe analysis of the figure prophecies of the auspicious signs contained in the book Dayunjing Shu ,Tun-Huang Documents S.6502. From the analysis, the author believes that the purpose of thebook, which is referred above, is to solve the surname problem rather than the problem of gender.On this point of view, the author has new idea that is different form the former experts.At the same time, the author also makes a careful research on some details in the book, and corrects some faults made by the former learners. When writing this paper, the author tries toundersta nd the auspicious signs included in the Shazhoududufu Tujing , Tun-Huang DocumentsP.2005 in a different way, and gets a conclusion that this book also pla ys an important role whenWu Zetia n procla ims herself to be the emperess.