Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and erin Manki. Listener discretion is advised. On the day
Speaker 1: of Wu Zetian's coronation, the day the woman who had
Speaker 1: ruled by proxy for decades behind her husband and then
Speaker 1: her son, would finally take the throne in her own right,
Speaker 1: an earthquake hit China. It roared through the province, leveling
Speaker 1: homes and raising the already jagged edges of the mountain
Speaker 1: range north of the Yangzi River. The earthquake's meaning seemed
Speaker 1: obvious to any brave enough to allow the thought to
Speaker 1: enter their head. A woman becoming the emperor upset the
Speaker 1: natural order of things. The earth itself was rejecting Wu Zetien,
Speaker 1: her manipulations, her power, hungry assent. But Wu had not
Speaker 1: become the Emperor of China by accepting things as they were.
Speaker 1: The earthquake was not a bad omen, she remarked to
Speaker 1: the nobleman who surrounded her that afternoon, but a blessing.
Speaker 1: Those jagged mountain ranges that had been thrust into the
Speaker 1: sky with the shaking of the earth where a symbol
Speaker 1: of the Buddhist Mountain of Paradise. As she was becoming
Speaker 1: China's ruler su Marou was coming to earth. But that night,
Speaker 1: when she went to bed, wuz A Tiene didn't think
Speaker 1: of mountains or paradise. Instead, in her dreams, she was
Speaker 1: visited once again by the ghosts of a concubine named
Speaker 1: Jiao and a former empress named Lady Wang. The two
Speaker 1: of them never said anything. They hadn't since they first
Speaker 1: began coming to woo Za Tienne's dreams decades ago, when
Speaker 1: she was still just the wife of an emperor. The
Speaker 1: ghosts had no hands and no feet. Their limbs were
Speaker 1: left bloody, but they didn't seem to be in pain.
Speaker 1: They just floated in the night, looking at Wu asking
Speaker 1: her with their eyes what she had done and whether
Speaker 1: it had been worth it. I'm Danis Schwartz, and this
Speaker 1: is noble blood. Woza Tan had needed to be incredibly
Speaker 1: beautiful to be selected to be a concubine for Emperor
Speaker 1: tai Zong. She was only fourteen at the time, plucked
Speaker 1: from her well to do family in the year six
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty six a d she would stay at
Speaker 1: the palace and serve in the imperial household, But still
Speaker 1: it was just a junior position, and being a third
Speaker 1: or fourth or fifth tier concubine, as Wu was, was
Speaker 1: more of an honorary title than anything else. In this case.
Speaker 1: Young women at that level would be lucky to get
Speaker 1: even a few minutes of face time with the Emperor,
Speaker 1: the man who could raise their station and allow them
Speaker 1: any sorts of social advancement with the flick of arrest.
Speaker 1: But Wu was assigned to work as a laundress. That
Speaker 1: was her first advantage. She changed the emperor's bed sheets.
Speaker 1: That was where he first noticed her. A girl with bright,
Speaker 1: inquisitive eyes and clear skin and a well practiced guilelessness.
Speaker 1: Wu came from a wealthy family. Her father had encouraged
Speaker 1: her to read and to study, and so she charmed
Speaker 1: the emperor not just with her beauty but with her mind,
Speaker 1: the two of them discussing books and ideas, with Wu
Speaker 1: acting more as a secretary than as an object of pleasure.
Speaker 1: Living at the palace, Wu befriended the emperor's son, the
Speaker 1: boy who would go on to become Emperor Gaujong. She
Speaker 1: was only a few years older than him, and she
Speaker 1: often caught him looking at her when she went about
Speaker 1: her daily chores. It was he one day, who interrupted
Speaker 1: her while she was folding sheets to tell her that
Speaker 1: the entire court was gathered outside to watch a new
Speaker 1: stallion in the courtyard that refused is to be broken.
Speaker 1: The horse was called Lion Stallion, and it seemed that
Speaker 1: no one was up to the task of riding him.
Speaker 1: The pair of them raced downstairs to watch the show.
Speaker 1: The horse trainer yanked at the reins, while the horse
Speaker 1: snorted and whipped its head back and forth in defiance.
Speaker 1: Before long, a new rider came forth, walking with a
Speaker 1: swagger that hid any hint of fear. He had the
Speaker 1: trainer step aside, and he took the horse's reins in
Speaker 1: his own hand. In one fluid motion, he swung a
Speaker 1: leg over the horse and pulled himself onto its back.
Speaker 1: In another fluid motion, the horse bucked and flung the
Speaker 1: man into the dirt. There was silence for a few seconds,
Speaker 1: as the crowd considered whether anyone was going to try again,
Speaker 1: or whether they should just disperse and go about their day.
Speaker 1: The emperor looked around. I'll break the horse, said a
Speaker 1: small voice from the crowd. It was Woo, standing next
Speaker 1: to the prince. The Emperor looked over at the girl
Speaker 1: and smiled, Will you now, Wu stepped forward and lowered
Speaker 1: her shoulders. I will, I only need three tools, the
Speaker 1: emperor laughed, and the rest of the crowd joined him.
Speaker 1: And what tools might those be? When Wu spoke, her
Speaker 1: voice never shook, her lips never lifted, and even the
Speaker 1: hint of a smile. I will need an iron whip,
Speaker 1: an iron hammer, and a dagger. I will whip the
Speaker 1: horse with the iron whip. If it doesn't submit, I'll
Speaker 1: hammer its head with the iron hammer. And if it
Speaker 1: still refuses to submit, I'll cut its throat with a dagger.
Speaker 1: That will break the horse. The emperor's eyes gleamed. It
Speaker 1: was only after he started laughing that Wo Zatienne smiled too,
Speaker 1: just a little bit. She had caught the emperor's attention
Speaker 1: yet again with her bravery, and he wouldn't forget her now.
Speaker 1: But service to an emperor is a short term job prospect.
Speaker 1: When Emperor Taizong died, all of his concubines, or rather
Speaker 1: the concubines who hadn't borne him any children, were forced
Speaker 1: to shave their heads and retreat to a temple to
Speaker 1: live the rest of their lives as Buddhist nuns. It
Speaker 1: was the greatest disrespect for a woman who had served
Speaker 1: the emperor to be touched by any other man. Wu
Speaker 1: had no choice, and she knew that life has rules
Speaker 1: and paths for people to follow. Even witty, beautiful, charming
Speaker 1: young girls who had once dazzled all of court with
Speaker 1: a glistening moment of bravery must retire to a countryside
Speaker 1: life and let other younger dazzling girls try their hands
Speaker 1: at the game of court. Resent it, fight it, cry
Speaker 1: about it. The future still happened. We don't know if
Speaker 1: we cried when she shaved her beautiful, thick hair, when
Speaker 1: she gave away her things when she arrived at the
Speaker 1: modest Gante Temple where she was supposed to spend the
Speaker 1: rest of her life. What we do know is that
Speaker 1: even if she did cry, she never would have let
Speaker 1: anyone see it. Even with her head shaved, she was
Speaker 1: still beautiful, but no one noticed in the temple. The
Speaker 1: wife of Emperor Gauzong had a problem. Well, she had
Speaker 1: several problems. Her husband was sickly, prone to bouts of disease,
Speaker 1: and he was young, only twenty one when his father,
Speaker 1: Emperor Taizong died, and he Gaujong had been given the throne.
Speaker 1: If his older brothers hadn't been disgraced, he wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been made emperor at all. That was one of Lady
Speaker 1: Wang's problems, her weak and ineffective husband, But by far
Speaker 1: her biggest worry, the thing that kept her pacing the
Speaker 1: palace walls and chewing at her fingernails was one of
Speaker 1: her husband's concubines, Consort Jao. Consort Jaw was beautiful, and
Speaker 1: that was fine. Concubines are supposed to be beautiful, but
Speaker 1: she was also charming, and worst of all, she had
Speaker 1: a son and two daughters with the Emperor. The Empress
Speaker 1: Lady Wang didn't have any sons, and she was having
Speaker 1: difficulty maintaining another pregnancy, and that became all the more
Speaker 1: difficult because her husband was spending all of his time
Speaker 1: with Joo. She had beguiled him and raptured him. He
Speaker 1: was a man obsessed. The Empress knew that the Emperor
Speaker 1: would have concubines, but why did he have to be
Speaker 1: so obvious in choosing a favorite. His attention diverted to
Speaker 1: a dozen concubines was no threat An individual woman was
Speaker 1: one afternoon before heading off to spend the rest of
Speaker 1: the day lounging in Zoo's chambers. Emburg Gauzong mentioned to
Speaker 1: his wife that he had been to the Buddhist temple
Speaker 1: and he had recognized one of the nuns there. It's
Speaker 1: so funny, he remarked, even with her shaved head, I
Speaker 1: would have recognized her anywhere. She was one of my
Speaker 1: father's concubines, but I had such a crush on her.
Speaker 1: I would follow her around like a puppy. He left,
Speaker 1: and Lady Wang left to go to the Buddhist temple.
Speaker 1: When she arrived, she asked for Woo. Zetienne, the nun,
Speaker 1: now seven, came to the Empress with her eyes downturned.
Speaker 1: The Empress informed Wu that the time had come for
Speaker 1: her to return to court and that she should stop
Speaker 1: shaving her head. Wou accepted, and so a former concubine
Speaker 1: turned Buddhist nun came to court with hair slowly growing out,
Speaker 1: under the watchful protection of the Empress. Lady Wang consort
Speaker 1: Joo knew what the Empress was doing, but still her
Speaker 1: legacy was secure. She had given the emperor's son, and
Speaker 1: she still his favorite, even if he found a new
Speaker 1: temporary plaything. Wu couldn't hold his attention for long. The
Speaker 1: tragedy of Zhao's life began when she underestimated wu Za
Speaker 1: Tien as for Empress Wang. She was making a calculated bargain,
Speaker 1: a gamble one woman for another. But the problem with
Speaker 1: gambling is people tend to lose. Before long, Ember Gaozong
Speaker 1: was gleeful at the return of wu Za Tiene to court.
Speaker 1: She was the manifestation of all of his childish fantasies.
Speaker 1: Hers was the face he had seen behind his closing
Speaker 1: eyes before he went to bed, back when he was
Speaker 1: young and everything was still new. Without a moment's thought
Speaker 1: to how it would look, he made her an official concubine,
Speaker 1: and it didn't look great. There was a reason concubines
Speaker 1: were sent to temples after their emperor died, and the
Speaker 1: new emperor bringing back an old concubine was even more
Speaker 1: troublesome when the new emperor was the old emperor's son.
Speaker 1: Whispering voices considered the situation incestuous, a son lying with
Speaker 1: the same woman as his father, but Gauzong didn't care.
Speaker 1: He was the emperor now and he had wu Zetien,
Speaker 1: and now as an adult woman, Wu better understood the
Speaker 1: mechanisms of court and power. She understood that she was
Speaker 1: a woman and that her access to power was restricted.
Speaker 1: But she would not be flung back to a temple
Speaker 1: disposed of as a dead man's property. Not again. And
Speaker 1: even as Emperor Gauzong's concubine, she was still disposable. The
Speaker 1: two sons should go on to bear him didn't mean
Speaker 1: anything if his wife, Empress Wang decided that she had
Speaker 1: enough social capital to get rid of her, and then
Speaker 1: there was still Jhaou, still the emperor's favorite. Even for
Speaker 1: all that though he spent less time with her, she
Speaker 1: still had a particular hold on him. Away that he
Speaker 1: responded to her quicker than he did with Wu Xiao
Speaker 1: was a threat, and Wu hated threats. Wu was particularly
Speaker 1: vulnerable after giving birth to her third child, a daughter.
Speaker 1: After delivery, Wu was confined to her chambers, and though
Speaker 1: the Emperor visited her, giving her little gifts and kisses
Speaker 1: on her head, he had fallen back into Chao's bed,
Speaker 1: and the baby made the Empress hate Wou even more.
Speaker 1: The woman that she had brought to the palace had
Speaker 1: turned into a walking reminder of her own failings. With
Speaker 1: each new baby that Wu gave the Emperor, Empress Wang
Speaker 1: became all the more painfully aware of what she couldn't do.
Speaker 1: One day, Empress Wang came to visit Wu and saw
Speaker 1: the new mother cooing over her baby in its cradle.
Speaker 1: You must be tired, Empress Wang said, We agreed. Wang
Speaker 1: held the baby, and the little girl giggled in her arms.
Speaker 1: Take a walk, Wang said, relax, I can take care
Speaker 1: of the baby for the night and put her to sleep.
Speaker 1: Wu wanted to protest, but she wasn't sure on what ground.
Speaker 1: Wang was the Empress after all, and truth be told,
Speaker 1: she did desperately need a moment to herself, and so
Speaker 1: she smiled, and Wang smiled back at her, and Wu
Speaker 1: kissed her baby girl goodbye and left the palace to
Speaker 1: walk the grounds where she could be alone with her thoughts.
Speaker 1: She spent the night with the Emperor, secretly pleased at
Speaker 1: the idea that Joo was somewhere fuming and the Empress
Speaker 1: was gazing at her baby with envy. The next morning,
Speaker 1: Wu returned to her baby's room to find the little
Speaker 1: girl sleeping peacefully in bed, so peaceful, in fact, that
Speaker 1: she didn't stir when Wu approached or Win, Woo placed
Speaker 1: a hand gently on the baby's back. The realization came
Speaker 1: through Woo's body like a slow drip of acid, a
Speaker 1: realization that curdled through her throat down into her belly
Speaker 1: and made her head spin and mouth taste like copper.
Speaker 1: She began to whale. Much later, when she had stopped wailing,
Speaker 1: when she was once again alone, she thought about what
Speaker 1: had happened. The Emperor's wife, Lady Wang, had murdered her baby.
Speaker 1: Had placed her hand on the mouth of the infant
Speaker 1: child and held it until the baby stopped moving. She
Speaker 1: had been so jealous of Woo, how easily she had
Speaker 1: gotten pregnant over and over again, and brus Wang wasn't
Speaker 1: capable of doing the murder on her own. No, she
Speaker 1: wasn't able to kill a child, but she had been
Speaker 1: goaded on by consort Joo. Joo was also jealous. She
Speaker 1: knew that the emperor had been spending more time with
Speaker 1: Wu and wanted to get back at her. She was
Speaker 1: so desperate to become the favorite again that she was
Speaker 1: willing to join Lady Wang and help her kill a child.
Speaker 1: At least that's the story Woo z Etienne told the
Speaker 1: Emperor Lady Wang had no alibi. She had been the
Speaker 1: last one to hold the baby, and she had been
Speaker 1: the one to put her to bed, And so, spurned
Speaker 1: on by Woo z Etienne's passion and rage, the Empress
Speaker 1: and the emperor's one time favorite consort were imprisoned. Wooz Etienne,
Speaker 1: victim of tragedy, became the Emperor's new wife, his empress
Speaker 1: one dead child for the throne of China, and it
Speaker 1: was the throne. Gazong was so sickly. It was Wu
Speaker 1: who truly ruled. She would never admit it out loud,
Speaker 1: only to herself in quiet moments when her heart beat
Speaker 1: slowed and she was alone. But it had been worth it.
Speaker 1: The former Empress Wang and Zoo, once despised enemies, were
Speaker 1: locked together in a tiny cell, a room with no
Speaker 1: windows and just a single narrow slot for food to
Speaker 1: be shoved through once a day. Six days after their imprisonment,
Speaker 1: the Emperor came to visit them through the wall. They
Speaker 1: threw themselves upon his mercy. Oh beloved husband, Wayne cried,
Speaker 1: if you ever had love for me, please ease this imprisonment.
Speaker 1: Please just let us see sunlight. The Emperor had always
Speaker 1: been easily swayed, and it broke his heart to know
Speaker 1: that two women he had loved were so despondent, even
Speaker 1: if they had murdered his daughter. He came to his
Speaker 1: new empress, woo Ze ten and asked her if they
Speaker 1: might grant at least small mercies so the women she
Speaker 1: had posted. Wu saw what her feeble husband couldn't. How
Speaker 1: easily mercy became forgiveness became love again, became anger towards
Speaker 1: her wou for locking them up in the first place.
Speaker 1: She had sacrificed so much to reach where she was,
Speaker 1: She had lost a daughter for it, and so she
Speaker 1: insisted to her husband that the women be killed. He acquiesced.
Speaker 1: According to rumors and brass, wos A Tienne had their
Speaker 1: hands lopped off at the rest and their feet cut
Speaker 1: off at the ankles, and both women tossed into vats
Speaker 1: of wine where they would drown. Slowly. Let those bitches
Speaker 1: get drunk to their bones, they say. Woza Tienne remarked,
Speaker 1: colorful as it is. It isn't true wa Tienne just
Speaker 1: had her rivals hanged, but even in death they tormented her.
Speaker 1: They visited her every night, silently, staring sentinels and judgment,
Speaker 1: with blood dripping like tears from their eyes. It became
Speaker 1: so miserable, so tortuous, that Woo had the entire court
Speaker 1: moved to a different palace miles away, where she thought
Speaker 1: the ghosts of her past wouldn't be able to find her.
Speaker 1: Woo is buried beneath a massive stone slab that looks
Speaker 1: all the more massive because there's nothing written on it.
Speaker 1: It's completely blank. The Tang dynasty emperors were meant to
Speaker 1: be buried under blank tablets so that later the full
Speaker 1: scope of their accomplishments could be written down. No one
Speaker 1: wrote about what Woo had achieved during her reign, nor
Speaker 1: would she had achieved during the proxy reign when she
Speaker 1: ruled behind her husband, or when she had ruled behind
Speaker 1: her son, and then when she overthrew her son and
Speaker 1: eventually became emperor in her own right. There were many
Speaker 1: accomplishments she made. Buddhism the official state religion, stabilized power,
Speaker 1: we did out corruption, allowed commoners to hold political positions
Speaker 1: that had previously been restricted to them. But she was
Speaker 1: also brutal, executing nobles who threatened her powers, letting gossip
Speaker 1: in word of mouth, serve as death sentence to people
Speaker 1: around her in the government. The story of her initial
Speaker 1: rise to power the death of her infant child became
Speaker 1: a story of her cold bloodedness. They say that Wou
Speaker 1: had been the one to suffocate her daughter herself, that
Speaker 1: she saw the opportunity to frame and dispatch her rivals,
Speaker 1: and she took it. There's no way to know for sure,
Speaker 1: or to know if maybe the infant had just died
Speaker 1: in her sleep. Unfortunately, unlike Noble Blood episodes that focus
Speaker 1: on more recent royal figures, there are very few primary
Speaker 1: sources about the life of wou x Etienne in the
Speaker 1: seventh century. Writings about her tend to be either political
Speaker 1: propaganda written to bolster her reputation or slander's accusations of
Speaker 1: out and out villainy from those who resented the amount
Speaker 1: of power held by a woman. Even the story of
Speaker 1: the earthquake from her coronation is unconfirmed. Even mountains can't
Speaker 1: be set in stone when it comes to woo z Etienne.
Speaker 1: I have tried to find a human story in the
Speaker 1: facts I could find, and I told a version of
Speaker 1: her story that makes sense to me. But in this case,
Speaker 1: I can't promise at all entirely true, and I don't
Speaker 1: know what the genuine version of the truth is. They
Speaker 1: didn't carve her legacy on her funeral slab because they
Speaker 1: couldn't figure out what it was. It was a decision
Speaker 1: of scorn and fusion, but a decision that's still made
Speaker 1: about women today. When we can't fully understand a woman,
Speaker 1: we choose instead to leave her blank. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Mankey. The
Speaker 1: show is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced
Speaker 1: by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales,
Speaker 1: and you can learn more about the show over at
Speaker 1: Noble blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.