Wu: The Chinese Empress who schemed, seduced and murdered her way to become a living God

by Jonathan Clements

They were, she observed, just about to get everything wrong and call disaster down upon her dynasty. Wu argued, first to Gaozong, and, once he acquiesced, to Gaozong's ministers, that the Feng-Shan ceremony had never been correctly held before. Court protocol had missed one vital aspect, which was that the Emperor and his officials were physically qualified to perform only half of it – the sacrifice to Heaven from the mountaintop. This, Wu argued, was fine, because Heaven was masculine: a yang element attended by male spirits. Earth, however, was unquestionably yin, a female element attended by female spirits, and, for the Feng-Shan sacrifice truly to work, the Earth sacrifice at the bottom of the mountain would have to be carried out by women.14 Said Wu: In previous Supreme Sacrifices, the spirits that partook of the offerings were those of former empresses, but the ceremonial duties were performed by male ministers. In the humble opinion of your spouse, this would seem to be an error. Why would we expect the spirits of empresses to manifest before the presence of a male? It seems both improper, and contrary to the nature of the sacred ceremony.