Wu Zetian Abdicates: Zhang Brothers Executed

A palace coup executed the Zhang brothers and forced Empress Wu Zetian to abdicate on February 22, 705, restoring the Tang dynasty after fifteen years of her Zhou interregnum. Wu Zetian remains the only woman in Chinese history to hold the title of emperor in her own right, a distinction that no subsequent woman achieved despite the vast sweep of imperial history. Born in 624, she entered Emperor Taizong's court as a concubine at fourteen and, after his death, maneuvered her way into the favor of his successor, Emperor Gaozong. She rose from concubine to empress consort by systematically eliminating her rivals, allegedly smothering her own infant daughter and blaming a competing consort for the death. She ruled effectively as regent after Gaozong suffered a stroke and then deposed her own sons to establish the Zhou dynasty in 690. Her reign was marked by ruthless political control, including an extensive secret police network and a system of copper boxes placed across the empire where citizens could submit anonymous accusations against officials and rivals. She also expanded the civil service examination system, opening government careers to men of talent regardless of aristocratic background, and her patronage of Buddhism produced some of the finest religious art in Chinese history. By 705, she was over eighty and seriously ill, and the Zhang brothers, her young male favorites, had accumulated so much power that senior officials feared they would attempt to seize the throne. The coup leaders killed the Zhangs and surrounded her residence. She accepted the inevitable and ceded the throne to her son, who restored the Tang dynasty. She died later that year. Her tomb marker, by her own instruction, was left blank.