Empress Wu Zhao, son of Heaven: Uses of religious patronage and propaganda to secure support and quell dissension during the Tang dynasty.

摘要

Wu Zhao was the only woman to become emperor of China, although she faced many adversities due to her gender. In overcoming these adversities, she engaged in a wide array of religious patronage and propaganda, thus shoring up support and appeasing malcontents. Her acts of patronage and propaganda allowing in-depth analysis of her system of religious manipulation are the performances of the feng and shan sacrifices as well as the construction of her two mingtang complexes along with the completion of the "Commentary on the Meaning of the Prophecy about the Divine August in the Great Cloud Sutra" (Dayun jing shenhuang shouji yishu). This thesis analyzes the motivations behind and developments of these acts of patronage in the historical and political context from which they emerged in order to establish her pattern of patronage and propaganda as well as her motivations for engaging in religious manipulations.