罗汉

　　（美国，北佛罗里达大学）

　　中文摘要

　　唐太宗把大禹、周公、周文王、周武王、孔子等历来享有盛名的政治人物，拉来作为自己的"政治祖宗"，通过对他们的尊崇，来显示自己能够成为他们道德的和政权的继承人。唐太宗与他们的这种联系，给太宗提供了一种威严、一种非凡的领导力。但武曌作为一位女性，这些男性"政治祖先"起不到提高和张扬武曌政治地位的作用，武曌因而不能充分利用他们的威望，于是不得不从其他的历史源寻找政治正统化的依据。她所找到的"政治祖宗"是一些中国历史神话中的显贵女性，包括烈女（如孟母、敬姜）和神女（如西王母、女娲）。这些显贵女性经常出现在女皇武曌的政治宣传中。为了设计一座女性"政治祖宗"的神庙而扩大武曌的政权，武曌还需要提高一些古代女性人物的历史地位。

　　在中国历史上，涂山女启母并不是一位事迹突出、大名鼎鼎的人物。可是在唐高宗逝世前的三四年间（680-683），以及此后武曌以皇太后身份临朝称制（684-690）和以女皇帝身份统治中国的时期（690-705），启母经常出现在武曌的政治宣传中。这一时期，通过文坛精英陈子昂、崔融、李峤等人的美化，启母变成中国神话中一位伟大古母，她对于宣扬武曌政权存在的合理性，起了相当大的政治作用。

　　启母成为理想的母亲、力气浩大的女神，成为武曌赞美嵩山的活动中的重要角色。如崔融撰写的《嵩山启母庙碑铭》、李峤撰写的《攀龙台碑铭》，都有意识地提高女皇武曌的政治地位，把她与古史传说中的女神联系在一起，强调这些母祖先（三皇五帝之母，而不是三皇五帝）所扮演的角色。

　　Story of a Stone: Wu Zhao and the Mother of Qi

　　N. Harry Rothschild, University of North Florida

　　Wu Zetian Research Association Conference Luoyang, China-July 2007

　　In his excellent work Offerings of Jade and Silk, Howard Wechsler argued persuasively that during the expansive early Tang a new, public-spirited ruling philosophy developed, an idea succinctly expressed in the concept "the empire is open to all," tianxia wei gong. Through public accession rites, sacrifices and tours of inspection, the celebrated Tang emperor Taizong (r. 626-649) re-shaped the conceptions of rulership and political legitimation. This marked a new era in which political validation depended more upon the ruler's link to a grand tradition of virtuous political ancestors than upon his position as blood successor in an eminent clan.[1]（[1] Howard Wechsler, Offerings of Jade and Silk: Ritual and Symbol in the Legitimization of the T'ang, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), ix-x, 95-104）To this end, male emperors like Taizong solemnly honored widely acknowledged paragons like Yu the Great, King Wen, King Wu, the Duke of Zhou, and even Confucius. Affiliation with these sovereigns and sages, in turn, conferred upon Taizong tremendous normative authority. By ceremoniously revering these exemplars, he became heir to their mantle of virtue.Though this vaunted collection of sages and worthies offered some political currency to Wu Zhao, the only female emperor in Chinese history, she necessarily sought alternative sources of legitimacy both within and beyond the confines of the Confucian tradition. While continuing to pay homage to the lineage of Confucian worthies from antiquity, she also associated herself with female divinities and paragons of every ideological persuasion-Buddhist devis, exemplary Confucian women like the Mother of Mencius and Daoist figures such as the Queen Mother of the West. The connections between Wu Zhao and these exalted women of the past were promulgated in carefully scripted political rhetoric, reinforced through poetry, celebrated theatrically in her court, and made manifest to all by engraving them upon monumental steles. This purposeful affiliation with past female luminaries, elegantly rendered with her characteristically deft aesthetic touch, significantly enhanced Wu Zhao's political authority, providing both a divine aura and tremendous normative charisma. This paper will examine the role of the mother of Qi in magnifying Wu Zhao's political profile. Qi's MotherIn the second chapter of Records of the Grand Historian, it is recorded that Qi was the son of Yu and a woman of the Tushan clan夏后帝启，禹之子，其母涂山氏之女也。[2]（[2] Shiji 2.84）Set along the Huai River in Fengyuan, Anhui, Tushan was a small ancient statelet.[3]（[3] Albert O'Hara, The Position of Women in Early China (Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1971), 20 fn 1）According to the Book of Documents, after marriage Yu remained with the Tushan Girl for a mere four days, and, criss-crossing the empire during his toils to quell the flood, ignored the wailing and weeping of his son Qi.[4]（[4] Clae Waltham trans. Shu Ching (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1971), 34. From juan 5, "Yi and Ji."）

　　A commentary on the History of the Han Dynasty by Yan Shigu contains a passage, purportedly from the Huainanzi, about the birth of Qi. As Yu the Great, legendary founder of the Xia dynasty and flood-queller who delivered China from eight cycles of rain, was digging through Huanyuan Pass, part of Mount Song, he changed into a bear. While bringing her hard-working husband food, the Tushan girl beheld her husband's ursine aspect and fled in terror. Pursued by Yu, she turned into a stone on one of the slopes of Mount Song. When Yu demanded his son, the stone into which the Tushan girl had metamorphosed split asunder and delivered Qi.[5]（[5] Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1993),  122-3）

　　Following Liu An's Biographies of Exemplary Women, because Yu was so deeply preoccupied with saving the empire from the ceaseless deluge, the Tushan girl-fashioned in the Confucian idiom-was effectively a single parent, capably raising her son and "bringing about his transformation" so that Qi was "fashioned by her virtue and followed her teachings." The eulogy to her biography reads: "Tushan was wedded to Lord Yu, but after four days he went to manage the floods. Qi wailed and cried. His mother alone taught him the right order and precedence in human relationships. She instructed him to be good and in the end he succeeded his father."[6]（[6] O'Hara, The Position of Women in Early China, (Taipei, Meiya Publications, 1971), 20-1. Translation of Lie nüzhuan from chapter 1, "Biographies Illustrating Correct Deportment of Mothers," "Tushan, Mother of Qi" 1.4. Another story in the Dengfang xianzhi (82) also illustrates the lofty character of the Tushan Girl. At one juncture, Yu the Great reputedly offered to bequeath his sovereignty not to his son Qi, but to his minister Bo Yi. Bo Yi declined and decided to lead a reclusive life on Jishan (near Mount Song). As a result, kingship was passed from father to son and the Xia dynasty began. When Bo Yi died, Qi's mother offered sacrifices on his behalf.）

　　Also in Biographies of Exemplary Women, in "Biographies of the Benign and Wise", one finds the passage, "From ancient times, the virtuous kings invariably had an upright wife as a mate. If their consorts were upright, then they flourished; if they were not upright, then there was chaos. The success of Xia stemmed from Tushan and its ruin from Moxi."[7]（[7] O'Hara trans of Lie nu zhuan chapter 3, "Biographies of the Benign and Wise," "Quwu of Wei," 3.14. Shiji 49.1967 contains a similar passage, which is translated in Lisa Raphals, Sharing the Light (Albany: SUNY Press), 19）Thus in the Han, the Tushan girl was transformed into the ideal Confucian mother, selflessly raising her son and molding his character. In The Flood Myths of Early China, Mark Edward Lewis remarked that sages of early antiquity were "bad fathers" who neglected or even sought to injure their offspring.[8]（[8] Mark Edward Lewis, The Flood Myths of Early China (Albany: State of New York Press, 2006), 79-82. He also notes that many of the offspring are, for their part, wicked sons. Citing Mozi jiangu and Chuci bu zhu, among other texts, Lewis comments (82) that Qi, indulging in excess drink and music, "is treated as a deviant or criminal, acting as a moral inversion to his father Yu." As a father Qi is at odds, and at war with his own son Wu Guan.）Naturally, this left the mother to play a greater role in shaping the child's character. Naturally, in styling herself as an "upright consort," a caring and benevolent matriarch, Wu Zhao naturally took women like the Mother of Qi, this perfect mother of antiquity, as part of her broad cult of political mothers and grandmothers.The Mother of Qi and the Music of HeavenQi was a powerful ruler in his own right, a rider of dragons who freely traveled between the terrestrial and celestial realms.[9]（[9] Birrell trans, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, 115 and 177. Also see David Hawkes trans. Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), 49-50）In the Mozi, it was Qi, rather than his father Yu the Great, who commissioned the casting of the Nine Tripods, the mythical vessels that symbolized a ruler's virtue and dynasty's legitimacy.[10]（[10] Mozi, Mei Yi-pao trans., Ethical and Political Works of Motse (Westport, CT: Hyperion, 1973), 212-3）Wu Zhao commissioned the casting of Nine Tripods in 694. They were completed in the spring of 697.[11]（[11] ZZTJ 205.6499 (order) and 206.6517 (completion). See also Ricardo Fracasso, "The Nine Tripods of Empress Wu," Antonino Forte ed., Tang China and Beyond (Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1988), 85-96）

　　Qi, who Anne Birrell refers to as a "god of music"[12]（[12] Birrell, 53）either stole the music of Heaven[13]（[13] Birrell, 83-4, c.f. residual fragments of The Storehouse of all Things, a Han text that is "no longer extant except in fragments."）or received it as a gift[14]（[14] Birrell, 85; c.f. Shanhaijing）from on High. Between 680 and 683, when Wu Zhao was still "Celestial Empress" (tianhou), Cui Rong wrote a memorial on behalf of the Crown Prince congratulating her on the discovery of an auspicious omen, a purple-stalked fungus (zhicao) beneath the reliquary stupa of Taiyuan temple in Luoyang.[15]（[15] For the dating of this memorial see Antonino Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century (Naples: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2006), 316n-317n. This portent was alluded to in the famous Commentary on the Meaning of the Prophecy about Shenhuang in the Great Cloud Sutra promulgated in 690. Forte remarks that "even this simple episode of the herb zhi shows us the connection among officials, relatives of Wu Zhao and Buddhist monks in finding and diligently interpreting the miracles and omens for the propaganda activity in favor of Wu Zhao.）The language is poignant:The Celestial Empress transforms and contains the myriad things,She instructs and rectifies all within the six imperial palaces (notes).The Empire is suffused with the strains of TushanAll within the oceans look upward to receive her teachings.[16]（[16] QTW 218.2201）伏惟天后化含万物，训正六宫，天下被涂山之音，海内仰河洲之教。The "strains of Tushan" (Tushan zhi yin) is a reference to Qi's music of Heaven. Clearly, the sound of Qi's music in Cui Rong's encomium announced the greater glory of mother, whether that of the Tushan Girl or Wu Zhao, rather than son. As Wu Zhao bore the title Celestial Empress at this juncture and as the portentous fungus for which Cui Rong offered congratulations grew in a temple that Wu Zhao had constructed for her mother in 675,[17]（[17] Forte, 162）it was clearly a token of her majesty. Perfect Spouse, Ideal Mother: Mother of Qi as ParagonDuring Gaozong's last years and early in Wu Zhao's role as Grand Dowager, the Mother of Qi often appears in political propaganda as a perfect spouse and ideal mother who upheld the Xia dynasty. This implied, of course, that Wu Zhao was a perfect spouse and ideal mother who help up the House of Tang. Yang Jiong, in an inscription for Lesser Room Temple drafted prior to Gaozong's death (Wu Zhao is still called Celestial Empress (tian hou), indicating Gaozong was still alive), wrote, "In marrying Tushan, the virtue of his [Yu's] clan was thereupon completed"[18]（[18] QTW 192.1944. See below for more on Yang Jiong's inscription）Consistent with the depictions in Biographies of Exemplary Women of the Mother of Qi as the perfect dutiful spouse, he emphasized the central role played by women both in continuing the ancestral line and enhancing the virtue of the Xia.  The Mother of Qi also appears in a memorial that Cui Rong drafted on behalf of one General Wei, who petitioned Wu Zhao (as Grand Dowager) to present sacrificial offerings. "The virtue of earth supports Heaven, and thus the myriad sorts [of flora and fauna] are complete. The moon complements the sun, and therefore the Four Quarters are illumined. Formerly, [the Girl of] Guishui assisted Yu [Emperor Shun] and Tushan helped elevate the Xia."[19]（[19] QTW 219.2209. General Wei likely is Wei Daijia, who rose to eminence briefly during Wu Zhao's regency, largely due to his help in overseeing the construction of Qianling, serving as a prime minister from 685-689. It is not surprising that he asked Cui Rong to draft the edict, for it is recorded in his biography (JTS 77.2671-2; XTS 98. 3904) that because of his lack of talent in the civil arts, he was mocked and ridiculed. See also Richard Guisso's Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China (Bellingham: Western Washington University Press, 1978), 186, where Wei Daijia is listed in a catalogue of early Tang prime ministers.）臣闻坤德承天，所以曲成万类；阴灵配日，所以兼烛四方。故妫水佐虞，涂山翼夏。One might readily compare Wu Zhao's support for the House of Tang to the Tushan Girl's great contribution to the establishment and continuity of the Xia. Also during Wu Zhao's regency, the Wet-nurse of Wu Zhao's daughter, the Taiping Princess, elevated to Lady of the State of Feng, offered a memorial, written by literary master Chen Zi'ang, to congratulate Wu Zhao on the birth of her Grandson Successor Li Longji. Citing the blessings of being a maternal relative, the "The good fortunes of Tushan were due to the bountiful offerings made at Xia Tower."[20]（[20] QTW 209.2114）涂山之庆，既裕于夏台；高禖之祠，未陪于殷荐。In both cases, she is cast as an ideal of motherly deportment, rather than as an independent female sovereign. The time was not yet right. Not surprisingly, once Wu Zhao moved to establish her own Zhou dynasty, the Mother of Qi was no longer utilized to present Wu Zhao as "good wife, dutiful mother" for her affinal House of Tang.The Tushan Girl also appeared on the lengthy Coiling Dragon Tower Inscription (Panlongtaibei), written by aesthetic master Li Qiao on behalf of Wu Zhao to honor her deceased parents-to reinvent and exalt her family background-in 699.[21]（[21] The 600 line inscription can found in the Quan Tangwen 219.2515-2523. Richard Guisso's Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China (Bellingham: Western Washington University Press, 1978), 11-16 contains a lengthy description of the content of the inscription. In Antonino Forte's excellent annotated translation of the Commentary on the Great Cloud Sutra (Dunhuang document S6502), it expressly states that "Coiling Dragon Tower" was another name for Wu Zhao's mingtang. See Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology at the End of the Seventh Century (Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2005) 269-70; Forte, Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock: The Tower, the Statue and the Armillary Sphere Constructed by Empress Wu, (Rome, 1988), 180, 194n. In Wu Zhao's Mingtang complex, her five-floor Tower of Heaven was topped by a crowning ornament, a pearl held aloft by several dragons (Forte 1988, 157; cf ZZTJ 205.6505). Nine coiling dragons also supported the roof of the Mingtang (Forte 1988, 155 c.f. THY 11.279, JTS 22.867).）This time it is not Wu Zhao herself, but her mother Yang, who was associated with the Tushan Girl. "The Filial and Enlightened Exalted August Empress[22]（[22] This honorific posthumous name was bestowed upon Wu Zhao's mother (nee Yang) on 20 October 690, just days after she inaugurated her Zhou dynasty. See ZZTJ 204.6468 and XTS 4.91. Also Forte 2005, 304 fn233）: in the beginning she equaled the troth of the [Woman of the] Gui River; to the end she proceeded from the achievements of Tushan."[23]（[23] QTW 249.2519）始同妫水之聘，终启涂山之业。By framing mother, like daughter, as heir to a glorious lineage of eminent women of distant antiquity, Li Qiao's clever rhetoric deftly fused heredity and political tradition, situating Wu Zhao at the lofty and politically potent convergence of these twin apexes.Wu Zhao re-established Qi's mother as a significant figure, as one of the mothers of antiquity. After her death, the Mother of Qi continued to appear in political rhetoric. When Wu Zhao's youngest son Emperor Ruizong (Li Dan) died in 716, officials debated whether or not the spirit tablets of the Solemn and Brilliant August Empress and the Luminous and Successful August Empress (Empress Dou, Wu Zhao's daughter-in-law) should be set alongside his. Arguing that precedent would only allow one spirit tablet in the ancestral temple, minister Chen Zhenjie memorialized, "In my humble consideration, the Luminous and Successful August Empress possesses the virtue of Taisi, and already receives ancestral offerings along with Ruizong. However the Solemn and Brilliant Empress is not the equal of Qi's mother and therefore should be honored in another temple."伏惟昭成皇后，有太姒之德，已配食于睿宗；则肃明皇后，无启母之尊，自应别立一庙。[24]（[24] JTS 25.951）Later in Xuanzong's reign, the family of Empress Dou (Wu Zhao's daughter-in-law) confirmed the exalted historical reputation of their eminent kinsmen in Advisor to the Heir Apparent Pei Yaoqing's (681-743) epitaph inscribed for the stele marking the spirit path of Empress Dou's younger brother. A section of the inscription reads: "My elder sister equaled the virtue of Tushan; she was the 'King Wen's mother' of her time."[25]（[25] QTW 297.3016）吾姊合涂山之德，时维文母。The Apotheosis of the Mother of Qi: Two Sisters and Wu Zhao's Sacred GeographyAccording to the Shanhaijing, "The Great Room of Mount Songgao is to the west of Chengyang. This is where the Mother of Qi transformed into a stone."[26]（[26] Taiping yulan 887.3943, referring to Shanhaijing）Qi was born on the site of Yu the Great's enfeoffment at Xia near modern-day Dengfeng, at the very foot of Mount Song.[27]（[27] Dengfeng xianzhi, (Dengfeng: Dengfeng geming weiyuanhui wenhuaju, 1979), 81. According to Legends of the Five Marchmounts [Wu yue shihua] (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1982), 107, Yu's father Gun was also known as Earl Chong (chong bo), and chong (  )and the song (   ) of Mount Song, share a common linguistic origin.）More than thirty feet tall and 150 feet in perimeter, the Stone of Qi's Mother can still be found today at the foot of Mount Song's Ten Thousand Years Peak of the Great Room (Taishi). In antiquity, wives were also known as "rooms" (shi). According to the Annals of Dengfeng, the two main ridges of Mount Song, the Greater Room and Lesser Room (Xiaoshi) were named for the two consorts of Yu the Great, the Mother of Qi and her younger sister.[28]（[28] Dengfeng xianzhi, (Dengfeng: Dengfeng geming weiyuanhui wenhuaju, 1979), 13n, 171-2. In chapter 26 0f the Rizhilu, Gu Yanwu commented that the younger sister did not originally exist and was added by later generations of historians (hou ren).）Huanyuan Pass, the great furrow cutting through Mount Song, links Greater Room and Lesser Room ridges.[29]（[29] Cefu yuangui 2. Also see Legends of the Five Marchmounts [Wu yue shihua] (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1982), 106-7）In Han Wudi's time (141-86 BC), a Lesser Room Temple was erected near the base of the Lesser Room ridges. In the Eastern Han, it was refurbished in 123 AD, during the reign of Han Andi.[30]（[30] Dengfeng xianzhi, (Dengfeng: Dengfeng geming weiyuanhui wenhuaju, 1979), 171-2）Three sets of stone que gates set up during the Eastern Han reconstruction--dedicated to the Mother of Qi, to Greater Room, and to Lesser Room--still survive.From the Eastern Han until the Tang, there appears to have been little interest in the Mother of Qi and her younger sister. However, inscriptions from Wu Zhao's era testify that during the late seventh century the female emperor and her rhetoricians resuscitated the cults of these two sisters. Her effort to apotheosize these sisters began in earnest during the final years of her husband Gaozong's life. In the second lunar month of 680, escaping the tribulations of court life, an ailing Gaozong and Wu Zhao retreated to the mountains south of Luoyang, visiting the Ruzhou hot springs and a series of Daoist monasteries and temples on Mount Song. After meeting celebrated Shangqing Daoist master Pan Shizheng, on the ji-wei day of the second lunar month, the vernal equinox (19 March 680), they visited Songyang monastery and the Temple of Qi's Mother, and ordered steles erected on both sites.[31]（[31] JTS 5.105-6）This outing marked the beginning of the elevation of the Tushan sisters.In his "Preface to the Stele Inscription for Little Auntie Temple of the Lesser Room," likely written at this juncture, Yang Jiong (650-693) cleverly crafted rhetoric that both connected Wu Zhao to the Tushan sisters and established greater Mount Song as part of her sacred geography. The talented young propagandist described the connection between the Spirit of Lesser Room and the culture hero, flood-queller Yu:Lesser Auntie Temple, according to the "Treatise on Geography" in the History of the Han Dynasty, is Lesser Room Temple of Mount Song. The temple idol is the image of a woman. Following the lore of antiquity, she is the younger sister of the Mother of Qi, the Tushan Girl--she who in antiquity gave birth through a stone fissure so that water and earth therefore brought forth her achievement.[32]（[32] QTW 192.1944. It is very difficult to know precisely when Yang Jiong wrote this inscription. The most plausible guess would be between 680 and 683, during Gaozong's final years, when temples to the Mother of Qi and other divinities in the vicinity of Greater Mount Song were established.）

　　臣谨按少姨庙者，则《汉书·地理志》：'嵩高少室之庙也。其神为妇人像者，则古老相传，云启母涂山之妹也。'昔者生于石纽，水土所以致其功；娶于涂山，家室所以成其德。

　　Yang Jiong's inscription can also be understood as part of Wu Zhao's effort to exalt and sanctify greater Luoyang. As Chang'an was closely tied to the House of Tang (the Li family), Wu Zhao sought to create a separate sphere of power outside the political ambit of Li-Tang authority. In the Lesser Room inscription, he cited Qin Shihuang's act of engraving his name on Mount Tai, indicating that a ruler's connection with sacred marchmounts was an important part of fixing the boundaries and establishing his empire. He then exalted the peak: "Among mountains and peaks, Lesser Room is the embodiment of divine elegance. According to the Luo River Chart and the Kuodizhi, armor and bucklers were used to open up the mountains. The peak gives expression to the universe; spurting forth and gathering yin and yang essences….Carved and angular, they stand bolt upright, eight thousand feet."少室山者，山岳之神秀者也。凭河图而括地，用遁甲以开山。发挥宇宙之精，喷薄阴阳之气。壁立而千仞。Thus, even before Wu Zhao became Grand Dowager in 684, propagandists both associated her with female exemplars of distant antiquity like the Tushan sisters and sought to elevate greater Luoyang, particularly Mount Song. During her reign, Mount Song, so proximate to her Divine Capital Luoyang, emerged as the preeminent marchmount, a national center of ritual.Another stele inscription, written by Cui Rong in 680 when Gaozong and Wu Zhao ordered the erection of steles at the Temple of Qi's Mother on their equinoctial outing to Mount Song, similarly exalted the female emperor.  In Taoism under the T'ang, Timothy Barrett looked at the commemorative stele composed for the mother of Qi by Wu Zhao's "chief encomiast" Cui Rong in 680, as a tour de force of female power vested in Daoist lore, "a virtuoso demonstration of the amount of female imagery available in the less Confucian reaches of the Chinese tradition." He remarked that Tang Daoism (particularly the Shangqing school) had absorbed female deities from antiquity-divinities such as NüWa, The Queen Mother of the West, the Mysterious and Marvelous Jade Girl, the Mother of Laozi, and the Mother of Qi.[33]（[33] Barrett, Taoism under the T'ang (London: Wellsweep, 1986), 40-1）Though in 680 Wu Zhao still shared political authority with Gaozong, Stephen Bokenkamp describes Cui Rong's composition as a manifest effort to frame Wu Zhao as "mother of gods." The language of the inscription was "couched in elegant parallel prose and studded with classical allusions…while nominally dedicated to the ancient goddesses…[the] comparison is being drawn to Wu Zhao as mother and creator of a new heaven and earth."[34]（[34] Bokenkamp, "A Medieval Feminist Critique of the Chinese World Order: The Case of Wu Zhao (r. 690-705)," Religion 28 (1998): 387.）These figures offered Wu Zhao a great deal of political currency, and often appeared in her political propaganda. She took full advantage of this currency, reshaping these figures and the nature of their power to suit her needs.The following passage from Cui Rong's inscription for the showcases the compelling rhetoric of this gifted "encomiast" mustered on behalf of Wu Zhao: Your humble servant has carefully looked into the Temple of Qi's Mother. This means the mother of Lord of Xia, Qi. In the Han dynasty, to avoid the taboo name of Jingdi (r. 156-140), 'Qi' was changed to 'Kai.' Resultantly the name circulated, and some records call her 'Kai's mother.' And yet neither Gu Yewang's Yudizhi[35]（[35] Gu Yewang (519-583) was a writer and commentator of the Northern dynasties.）or Lu Yuanming's Records of Mount Songgao followed the taboo order. Both referred to her as the Lady of Yangdi.[36]（[36] The commentary of Tongdian (179.4737) indicates that "some people claim that capital of Yu of Xia was established in Henan's Yangdi. The "Treatise on Geography" in the Hanshu (chapter 28) corroborates the claim that Yangdi was the location of the state of Yu of Xia. Following the Chinese Historical Atlas (Zhongguo lishi dituji), volume 2 Tan Qixiang ed. (Beijing: Zhongguo ditu chubanshe, 1996), vol. 2, 44-5, Yangdi, set along the Ying River, is about 35 km southeast of Mount Song. Tellingly, Yangdi is situated in Yu County-the Yu of Yu the Great.）This name was not drawn from the classics and apparently comes from nowhere. Examining the Northern Dipper with the armillary sphere, the residence of the Mother of Li[37]（[37] This is likely a reference to the mother of Laozi.）is near the Northern Culmen[38]（[38] Translation of Beiji as "Northern Culmen" is drawn from Schafer, Pacing the Void (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 44）; in the Stone Chamber of the Golden Terrace[39]（[39] The Golden Terrace (jin tai) is associated with the Queen Mother of the West and Mount Kunlun. According to the Tang huiyao (50.869), in the third year of Chuigong (687), Wu Zhao as Grand Dowager changed the Longxing Observatory to Golden Terrace Observatory. According to Taiping yulan 1.1 and 38.182, citing Records of the Ten Continents (Shizhou ji) atop Mount Kunlun there are "Golden Terrace and the Jade Pillars, where the primal pneumas are harmonized-this is the locale from which the Heavenly Emperor ruled." Taiping Yulan 811.3605, citing the Guanling neizhuan, in which Laozi himself climbs Mount Kunlun and ascends the Golden Terrace.）, the residence of the Queen Mother is on the Western Mount.[40]（[40] The Western Mount is Kunlun.）

　　When the pneumas act as mother, the myriad things all sprout forth. When the moon acts as mother, her glowing countenance shines down on all. When the Earth element acts as mother, above and below will merge and produce greatness. When the Empress acts as mother, state and family are successfully formed.[41]（[41] Translation of this paragraph draws heavily on Bokenkamp's translation in "A Medieval Feminist Critique of the Chinese World Order: The Case of Wu Zhao (r. 690-705)," Religion 28 (1998): 388）

　　Formerly Huaxu trod in a footprint and became pregnant with a male child. Nu Deng responded to numinous spirits and the Red Emperor was made. Comet passed by Huazhu and the White Emperor was birthed. The moon penetrated Youfang and the Black Spirit descended.[42]（[42] Following Cefu yuangui 2, Huaxu is both the birthplace of Fuxi's mother and the name by which she is known. Nu Deng is the mother of Divine Farmer, Shen Nong. Youfang is the mother of Zhuanxu.）

　　So scintillating the Xia! So marvelous the Tushan Girl! She married Yu on the very morn he began make the survey of the earth. She was joined in matrimony at Mulberry Terrace….The stone split open on the northern side, a sign of his birth. This is what Guo Pu referred to as the "Stone of Qi's mother to the west of Yangcheng." This is what Li Rong called the "Shrine of Qi's Mother on the southern slope of Mount Song."臣谨按启母庙者，盖夏后启之母也。汉避景帝讳，改启之字曰开，厥后相传，或为开母。而顾野王《舆地志》，卢元明《嵩高记》，并不寻避讳之旨，以为阳翟妇人，事不经见，谅无所取。粤若玉斗璇玑，李母之居邻北极；金台石室，王母之宅在西山。气为母则群物以萌，月为母则容光必照，坤为母则上下交泰，后为母则邦家有成。故华胥履迹而雄氏孕，女登感神而炎运作，星流华渚而白帝生，月贯幽房而黑精降。明明有夏，穆穆涂山，予娶于度土之辰，女婚于台桑之地。……石破北方，终见生余之兆。则郭璞所谓阳城西启母石，李肜所谓嵩山南启母祠。

　　Though Gaozong was still alive, Cui Rong's inscription clearly was crafted to honor Wu Zhao, affiliating her with an array of female divinities from antiquity. In both Tang histories it is recorded that almost two decades later when Wu Zhao, as Emperor, visited the Temple of Qi's mother on an imperial progress to Mount Song, she beheld the stele that she and Gaozong had ordered erected back in 680, with Cui Rong's marvelous inscription. Deeply admiring the elegance of his prose, she ordered him to compose a commemorative inscription for her feng and shan rites.[43]（[43] XTS 114.4195, JTS 94.2996. The timing of the progress in question is unclear. In the Old Tang History, it is recorded that it was "during the Shengli era" (Shengli zhong), 20 December 697-28 May 700. In both histories, it is recorded that when the feng and shan rites were completed, Cui Rong was commissioned to write the inscription for the Altar of Audiences (Chaojin), the closing ceremony of the grand rites held at Mount Song performed on 25 January 696. Cui Rong's biography in the Old Tang History indicates that Wu Zhao heaped praise upon the inscription when she visited Mount Song during the Shengli era (20 December 697-27 May 700).）

　　In the first lunar month of 683, on an outing to their mountain retreat Fengtian Palace on Mount Song, Wu Zhao and Gaozong sent emissaries to perform sacrifices at shrines for the various divinities of the Central Peak, including the Temple of Qi's Mother.[44]（[44] JTS 5.110; THY 7.102, TPYL 110.529. A Daoist observatory was established inside of Fengtian palace in 684, see THY 50.878）Shortly after Gaozong's death, in the ninth month of 684, when Wu Zhao, as Grand Dowager, made Luoyang her Divine Capital, changed titles, colors of court banners, names of offices, and inaugurated a new reign era,[45]（[45] ZZTJ 203.6421. In the ninth lunar month of 684, at the outset of Wu Zhao's regency, the official designation of Luoyang was changed from "Eastern Capital" to "Divine Capital."）she also designated Laozi's mother as Grand Dowager of Anterior Heaven (xiantian taihou).[46]（[46] Barrett, 41-2. THY 50.878, perhaps erroneously, records that the female divinity honored is Laozi's wife, rather than Laozi's mother. This is repeated in Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3, p. 292）

　　There were no further activities on Mount Song related to the Tushan sisters for more than a decade. The nature and timing of this ceremony to honor the mother of Qi and the various regional tutelary deities of Mount Song is detailed further in the "Treatise on Rites and Ceremonies" in the Old Tang History:[47]（[47] JTS 23.891）

　　In 695 (Zhengsheng 1), Zetian [Wu Zhao] was about to stage an event on Mount Song.[48]（[48] The above-mentioned feng and shan sacrifices.）Previously, she had sent emissaries to perform sacrifices [to mountain deities] in order to pray for blessings and assistance. She issued an edict designating Mount Song as Spirit Peak, honoring the spirit of Mount Song as King of the Central Heaven.[49]（[49] These titles were bestowed in the seventh lunar month of 688, see ZZTJ 204.6449）His spouse was honored as Numinous Consort. In the past, Mount Song had temples dedicated to Qi of Xia and Qi's mother, and to Aunt of the Lesser Room Peak.[50]（[50] Lesser Room (Xiaoshi) was the name of the peak where the shan rite was performed.）She ordered prayers and sacrifices prepared at each of these sites….Because during the feng and shan rites [in the hibernal la month[51]（[51] The hibernal la month was the 12th month according to Xia chronometry, Wu Zhao's Zhou dynasty followed the horological precedent of her namesake Zhou. Therefore the hibernal month was the second month instead of the twelfth. See JTS 22.864）of 696], she secured the protective blessings of the spirits of Mount Song, Zetian thereupon elevated Spirit Peak's King of Central Heaven to August Emperor of Central Heaven and his Numinous Consort was made August Empress of Central Heaven. Hou Qi of Xia was named Perspicacious and Sagacious August Emperor. The spirit of Qi's mother was invested as Grand Dowager of the Jade Capital. The spirit of the Aunt of the Lesser Room Peak was designated Lady Goldtower. And Prince Jin was named the Ascendant Immortal Crown Prince. A temple was established for each.则天证圣元年，将有事于嵩山，先遣使致祭以祈福助，下制，号嵩山为神岳，尊嵩山神为天中王，夫人为灵妃。嵩山旧有夏启及启母、少室阿姨神庙，咸令预祈祭。至天册万岁二年腊月甲申，亲行登封之礼。礼毕，便大赦，改元万岁登封，改嵩阳县为登封县，阳成县为告成县。粤三日丁亥，禅于少室山。又二日己丑，御朝觐坛朝群臣，咸如乾封之仪。则天以封禅日为嵩岳神祇所祐，遂尊神岳天中王为神岳天中皇帝，灵妃为天中皇后，夏后启为齐圣皇帝；封启母神为玉京太后，少室阿姨神为金阙夫人；王子晋为昇仙太子，别为立庙。

　　The titular elevation of the Tushan sisters occurred on the xin-yi day of the second lunar month (17 March 696), several months after Wu Zhao performed the feng and shan rites at Mount Song.[52]（[52] ZZTJ 205.6504 Also see JTS 6.124 and TPYL 110.）Mount Song became a Daoist paradise, the Central Heaven. The Jade Capital-associated in Wu Zhao's ceremony with the spirit of Qi's mother-was, in Daoist lore, at the very center of the highest Heaven where the supreme deity dwelled, presiding over a pantheon of Daoist divinities.[53]（[53] On Jade Capital (Yujing), see Paul Kroll, "Li Po's Transcendent Diction," Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986), 107. Kroll remarks that the Jade Capital might better be termed "the Jade Capitoline Mountain, "the exact center of the highest heaven" according to a sixth century Daoist manual, The Secret Cruces without Superior (wushang biyao). Also see Edward Schafer, "The Origin of an Era," Journal of the American Oriental Society 85.4 (1965), 545）Like "Jade Capital" in the title of Qi's mother, so Lady Goldtower, the title bestowed upon her younger sister's spirit, contained great Daoist resonance. In Shangqing Daoism, Lord Goldtower (Jinque dijun) was an intermediary between Heaven and humanity, a Latter-day Sage (housheng), a messianic incarnation of Laozi also known as Li Hong.[54]（[54] Livia Kohn, Daoism Handbook (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 213）A passage in the Taiping guangji records various titles of Laozi including "Imperial Ruler of Goldtower"金阙帝君.[55]（[55] Taiping guangji 1.1. The Tang Huiyao (50.865) records a title that Xuanzong bestowed upon Laozi in 754, Great Sage of the Exalted Great Dao, Emperor of the Primal Origin and Golden Tower. A similar title is recorded in XTS 5.149 and in ZZTJ 217.）

　　Indeed, Jade Capital and Goldtower, terms connoting both the sisters of Tushan and Daoist paradise, often appear linked in Wu Zhao's propaganda. Shangyang Palace, built in Luoyang in the Imperial Park during the Shangyuan era (20 September 674 to 18 December 676) contained both a Jade Capital Gate and within it a Goldtower Gate.[56]（[56] Tang liu dian 7）Liu Weizhi, one of Wu Zhao's famous Scholars of the Northern Gate, wrote a poem styling the Palace of Nine Perfections (Jiucheng gong), a summer retreat in the mountains west of Chang'an to which Wu Zhao and Gaozong occasionally adjourned in the latter's final years, as a Daoist paradise:The imperial orchard spreads before the Golden Tower;The Immortal Terrace stations the Jade Bells [imperial chariot].[57]（[57] QTS 44.540. XTS 3.74 and JTS 5.103 indicate, for instance, that in the fifth month of 678 Gaozong and Wu Zhao retreated from Chang'an to the mountain palace.）

　　In the second month of 684, Wu Zhao, as Grand Dowager, established a Daoist convent at Goldtower Pavilion (Jinque ting), and filled it with women formerly belonging to Gaozong's harem, who were tonsured as Daoist nuns.[58]（[58] Tang huiyao 50.878）

　　Zhang Changning, a sibling of the notorious Zhang brothers, hired Chen Zi'ang to write a commemorative inscription for Laozi's tomb, a eulogy directed more toward exalting Wu Zhao than honoring the Daoist founder:In this first year of Divine Achievement (697 AD)…

　　The Precious Tripods have been completed,The court is tranquil,And the empire is at peace.The emperor has received the way of the purple yang etherAnd been invited to the Jade Capital.[59]（[59] Quan Tangwen 214. Of course, the real reason for the memorial was to help elevate his brothers, Wu Zhao's favorites, Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi. It coincides neatly with the arrival of these two young men in Wu Zhao's court. They went on to found the Directorate for Reining Cranes in 699. Wu Zhao's nephews and other men in court touted Zhang Changzong as the reincarnation of Wang Zijin王子晉. For their biographies, see JTS 78.3337 and XTS 104.3921.）

　　Also, the Stele for the Ascended Immortal Crown Prince, purportedly Wu Zhao's own composition, reads, "The Jade Capital is a realm of deathlessness…the Gold Tower marks the ground of longevity."玉京为不死之乡……金阙乃长生之地。[60]（[60] Quan Tangwen (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1997), 98.1007）The Quan Tangwen includes a work of Wu Zhao, the final stanza of a twelve-verse poem for a sacrifice to supreme deity Haotian shangdi that makes further reference to "Golden Tower":Use the supernal path, Open the door to the heavens;Revolve around the solar chariot, moving vestments of cloudAscend the Golden Tower, enter Purple TenuityLook toward the immortal carriage, gaze up at the regal mercy seat式乾路，辟天扉。回日驭，动云衣。登金阙，入紫微。望仙驾，仰恩徽。[61]（[61] QTS 5.53. In Offerings of Jade and Silk, Howard Wechsler describes Haotian shangdi as an "all-embracing, universal  Heavenly deity who belonged not to one family but to all the empire" (x).）

　　Clearly, the names held by the two sisters of Tushan, Jade Capital and Golden Tower held a tremendous Daoist resonance. As Daoism was closely linked to the founding ancestor of the Tang, Laozi, Wu Zhao's attitude toward Daoism was decidedly tepid in the years immediately preceding and following the inauguration of her Zhou dynasty. However, during her waning years, Wu Zhao's thoughts turned to the promises of longevity and immortality offered by Daoist elixirs, and she looked to Daoism for inspiration.[62]（[62] Barrett, Taoism under the T'ang (London: Wellsweep, 1996), 44-5）And as Mount Song loomed larger in the wake of the feng and shan sacrifices, both the Mother of Qi and her younger sister developed into important divinities within the Daoist pantheon.

　　ConclusionsWu Zhao's connection with the Mother of Qi was but a single link in a wider web of associations, a calculated concatenation of links that affiliated her with many Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian women and divinities from the past. While the emergence of the cult of the Mother of Qi during Wu Zhao's reign was not, in itself, a pivotal, or even a particularly significant, part of the female emperor's political legitimation, the rise of this little known divinity was motivated by a series of complex and interrelated political and religious concerns. First, the Mother of Qi was part of Wu Zhao's conscious affiliation with a wider network of female deities, a strategy that helped buttress and validate her person in her unique role as female emperor. The roles of Jade Capital and Lady Goldtower, assigned to the Mother of Qi and her younger sister, respectively, marked the ascent of these Tushan sisters into a pantheon of Daoist divinities. This strategy, reinforced in rhetoric and propaganda, provided a normative sense that women always had been and always would be politically eminent. As Howard Wechsler argued in Offerings of Jade and Silk, political legitimacy was contingent "more upon the ruler being linked to a great tradition of virtuous political ancestors than being blood successor to a private familial birthright." Second, the Tushan Girl and her sister were associated with the Greater Room, the Lesser Room and Yangdi, sites on or proximate to Mount Song. Along with Divine Capital Luoyang, Mount Song was the sacred ground of her Zhou revolution. In addition to the summer palaces, the ceremonies and the Buddhist and Daoist temples that dotted greater Mount Song, her connection to these women helped make manifest her ties to this sacred landscape. Third, when Gaozong was still alive and in the years immediately following his death, exalting Qi's mother served to accentuate the role of the mother, of women, in continuing the ancestral line and enhancing a clan's virtue. Naturally, once Wu Zhao became Emperor, this aspect of Qi's mother was de-emphasized. Fourth, her manufactured connection with the mother of Qi can be understood as part of Wu Zhao's effort to reclaim tradition and antiquity, to define them as hers and recast them in her own image. Finally, in Wu Zhao's propaganda there are references to the music of Tushan. While in antiquity the son Qi was credited for possessing the Heavenly music, in Wu Zhao's propaganda the music resonated for mother rather than son.