Rothschild, N. Harry: "Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers."(Book review)

• Author: Yang, Shanshan

Rothschild, N. Harry. Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.

Harry N. Rothschild's Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers provides useful sources for readers who are interested in Chinese History, Chinese Philosophy, Women's Studies, or Feminist Studies. With his specialization in Tang history and the study of Women and Gender in China, the author is well qualified to write in the field of Women's Studies during the Tang dynasty. His previous book Wu Zhao, China's Only Female Emperor demonstrates that he is an outstanding expert of the study of Emperor Wu Zhao. In his new book, the author uncovers a sacred connection between Wu Zhao and the culturally revered female ancestors, goddesses, and paragons from different religious traditions. He finds that this sacred connection strongly bolsters Wu Zhao's authority and leadership in the spiritual and political realms.

From this book, readers who are interested in the history and development of Chinese thought will see how Wu Zhao broke the barrier of different religions in the Chinese tradition, deftly put Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism together, and created her discourse power and female worship by seeking agency from those female exemplars in various religious traditions. Readers who are interested in Women and Religion can find from this book how Wu Zhao glorified women's creativity, reproductive power, motherhood, leadership, and sovereignty through worshiping her female deities.

Wu Zhao's relationship with her female deities, however, is not passive. It is strategic. In a historian's perspective, the author finds that Wu Zhao decided who could be placed in her pantheon and how long the female divinity could stay. The relationship of Wu Zhao and her female deities actually changes at the different stages in her career. Driven by political purposes, Wu Zhao's worship of particular goddesses always serves her needs. For instance, in the early period of her political career, Wu Zhao performed rituals for worshiping the First Sericulturist Leizu for four times. The author not only narrates the process of the ritual vividly, but also interprets Wu Zhao's motivation and purpose of performing the ritual in depth.

Because the First Sericulturist Leizu symbolized the womanly vocation of silk weaving, Wu Zhao's worship of the silk goddess right after her tenure as empress helped...