Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 
Wishing all my friends, readers, fans and random blog visitors a wonderful and magical Christmas.

I hope your new year will be a great one, with lots of great things to read! 


Books coming up in 2014...
'The Sworn Virgin'
&
'Big Girl' 

...I'll keep you posted.


Saturday, December 14, 2013

Warrior Women II - Wu Chao

 
Child Concubine to self-proclaimed Supreme Ruler
 
This week, in the second in our Warrior Women series, I'm focussing on the infamous;
 WU CHAO
(WU ZETIAN)
625-705 AD

 
And readers... she seriously was quite a piece of work.

China's First and Only Female Emperor.
 
Name: Wu Chao was known by several names throughout her fascinating life including Wu Zetian , Wu Hou (武后) and Tian Hou (天后)
 
Childhood: Wu Chao was the daughter of a Chinese General Wu Shi Huo, and supported Li Yuan who eventually became the First Tang Dynasty Emperor Gaozu. As a result, her father became the Emperor's Minister which resulted in Wu Chao being given an excellent education. She was highly literate, clever and well read. She did not have much interest in sewing and other traditionally feminine pursuits. She travelled extensively with her parents and as a result had a greater understanding of the world and its mechinations than many girls of her time. Much of her warlike temperament and skills as a tactician are said to have been inherited from her father.
 
Adolescence: Due to her talent, beauty and privileged position, she caught the eye of her mother's cousin, an Imperial Concubine who supplied 'the little lotus blossoms' (child concubines) to the then Emperor Taizong.  She spoke to the Emperor about Wu Chao,  and naturally he insisted she become his concubine. Thus, at the age of thirteen, Wu became one of the Emperor's Consorts and he refered to her as Mei (媚) - which meant pretty. She was given the title Cairen which meant 5th ranking concubine. 

 
Wu Chao's mother was apparently unhappy with her young daughter joining the concubines, however and wept when her daughter left. As testament to her inner strength and political ambitions, Wu Chao responded "How do you know that it is not my fortune to meet the Son of Heaven?" - and with that, her mother understood that her daughter had ambitions beyond those of an ordinary child concubine.
 
It appears that the Emperor did have sexual relations with Wu Chao, but he wasn't particularly interested in her.
There is an interesting story however, that tells of the Emperor's particularly wild and untameable stallion. He jokingly suggested that perhaps he get a concubine to try and train the beast. To this, Wu Chao responded that she could tame the horse, but she would need three things...
 
"I only need three things to subordinate it: an iron whip, an iron hammer, and a sharp dagger. I will whip it with the iron whip. If it does not submit, I will hammer its head with the iron hammer. If it still does not submit, I will cut its throat with the dagger." Emperor Taizong praised my bravery. Do you really believe that you are qualified to dirty my dagger?
 
From these words, it became apparent that the Emperor's little 'Mei' wasn't so little or gentle after all - and she was one to keep an eye on. They also foreshadowed some of the brutal and disturbing incidents that would take place later in her life.
 
Young Adulthood: Little of note happened for several years until Emperor Taizong died in 649, when Wu Chao was 26.  He left behind 14 sons (though none to Wu Chao). As was custom the concubines of deceased Emperors were sent to monasteries to live out their lives as nuns. Wu Chao was no different, and thus became a nun at the Ganye Temple.
 
Wu Chao was very unhappy with this quiet dull life, and one day, Emperor Taizong's son, the 2nd Emperor of Tang - Gaozong came to pray for his father at the temple.
Wu Chao saw him, and started crying - and for whatever reason (I think you can guess) he took pity on her and brought her back to the Palace. This is really quite scandalous because having relations with your father's concubines was considered incest... However, this didn't seem to both Wu Chao or her Emperor - but it did bother some other people.
 
Back at the Palace, the Empress Wang and another concubine Lady Xiao were at war trying to oust each other. Empress Wang thought that Wu Chao may be an ally for her and together they could oust Lady Xiao. However,  Wu Chao had the Emperor on her mind, and made sure he was madly in love with her. Empress Wang realised then, that they had perhaps brought a viper into the nest, and so she then allied herself with her previous nemesis Lady Xiao and tried to sabotage Wu Chao's position in the palace.
Emperor Gaozong was having none of this. He was in love. He would hear no nonsense being spoken about his beloved Wu Chao.
 
So begins a vicious and bloody battle for power behind the silk veiled walls of the Palace.
In 651 and 652 Wu Chao gives birth to two sons, who are not in direct line to the throne due to an arrangement the childless Empress Wang had made with her uncle (Liu Shi).
The backstabbing and intrigue continues and heightens in 654 when Wu Chao gives birth to a daughter who mysteriously dies of strangulation shortly after. Wu Chao alleges to the Emperor that it was Empress Wang and Lady Xiao who had organised the murder of their newborn daughter (though... horribly many historians suspect that Wu Chao may indeed have committed the crime herself to frame her rivals.) However, Empress Wang and Lady Xiao were not deposed due to complicated political arrangements.
 
The following year however, Wu Chao alleged that Empress Wang was using witchcraft with her mother. A lot of political bickering followed, but eventually the Emperor placed Empress Wang and Lady Xiao under arrest. Amidst much scandle, Wu Chao was made Empress!
 Eventually, Empress Wu had Empress Wang and Lady Xiao killed - and quite horribly too. They were whipped over a hundred times and had their hands and feet chopped off. When Lady Xiao was dying she cursed Wu Chao 'When I am reincarnated, I'll come back as a cat - and you will be a rat! Subject to my torture!'. Allegedly she was haunted by these words the rest of her life - and refused to allow cats in court.
 
Adulthood as the Empress Consort: Empress Wu had work to do. Her first thing done was to place her son as heir apparent and depose the man Empress Wang and her uncle had chosen.
 
A man called Chu Suiliang went to the Emperor to try and talk some sense into him. He wanted to warn the Emperor that Wu Chao was wicked, and that it was wrong to have the former Empress deposed and then killed, not to mention the amorality of having relations with one's father's concubine - and while he ranted, the Empress Wu was listening.
The Emperor was angry that Chu Suiliang was defaming his love, and had him punished. Empress Wu didn't think this was good enough, and said that Chu Suiliang should die for his slander - he was not killed, but demoted and sent away. Eventually and suspiciously however, he  later commited suicide.
 
Empress Wu starts getting nasty....
During the next few years, the majority of the Emperor's supportive ministers died or were killed. A state of fear hung over the palace and during her young adulthood has six children.

Empress Wu appears to have completely dominated the Emperor, who seemed completely unable to
defy her. He also was becoming increasingly sick. Some historians suggest that Empress Wu was slowly poisoning him. She even hired a sorcerer to help her gain power. The Emperor was horrified by the use of sorcery, and told her to stop it, but she refused. One day, the Emperor was lamenting his lack of power to one of his few living counsels - Shangguan Yi - who said that Empress Wu should be deposed.
Of course, Wu Chao found out and was very cross indeed. Only a few days later Shangguan Yi was accused of plotting a rebellion and put to death with his two sons. The remainder of his family and decendants were forced into slavery at the palace.
 
Now Empress Wu had even MORE power and she wasn't afraid to use it. Eventually she became regent, and ruled in lieu of her husband.
When her ailing husband eventually died, she placed her son as Emperor, but retained her position as Empress Doweger.
Although she was utterly brutal against her rivals, Empress Wu did some fascinating things.
  • She recruited talented individuals from around China to come to the palace and take places amongst her staff. These individuals were not necessarily from high ranking families, but people with genuine talent whether it be for literature of military tactics. As she chose from those who were not traditionally chosen for positions of prestige she gathered very loyal people around her.
  • She promoted Buddhism to the dominant religion. Her type of Buddhism was a tolerant one and it encouraged people of different religions to come and trade with China. It also gave her the support of a lot of Buddhist who saw her as the legitimate ruler.
  • She encouraged agriculture: by reclaiming land to set up a system that rewarded areas that were able to produce surplus crops. The officials who governed regions that had too many people or little food would be punished. She also re-distributed land  and offered able-bodied people more so they could enhance production. The officials who governed productive areas were rewarded and thus it was encouragement to grow enough food for trade, and the people of the region too.
  • She made allies. Unlike most Emperors of the time, Empress Wu was more interested in trade than conquering. So instead of battling for territory she sent out traders to makes allies of the neighbours which resulted in an enormous boost of wealth to the Tang Dynasty.

For a time, Empress Wu reigned from behind her sons - and this was not a tidy system either. Ultimately she ends up using her son's against each other - and she forces at least one of them to commit suicide...

Emperor Wu - till death:Then finally sick of ruling from behind a man, she names herself Emperor and was Supreme Ruler for fifteen years until her death. During this time she had a team of secret police who would brutally suppress any who spoke against her.



As the Emperor she also had quite a number of lovers, one of whom allegedly had quite a spectacular appendage 'which was worth more than the kingdom' to her.

Eventually, the Emperor became sick and died in 705.

There is a lot of contention about Wu Chao, she is alternately praised and vilified by historians world wide.

The year that Lady Wu declared herself regent, heroic individuals were all mournful of the unfortunate turn of events, worried that the dynasty would fall, and concerned that they could not repay the grace of the deceased emperor [i.e., Emperor Gaozong] and protect his sons. Soon thereafter, great accusations arose, and many innocent people were falsely accused and stuck their necks out in waiting for execution. Heaven and earth became like a huge cage, and even if one could escape it, where could he go? That was lamentable. In the past, the trick of covering the nose surprised the realm in its poisonousness, and the disaster of the human pig caused the entire state to mourn. In order to take over as empress, Empress Wu strangled her own infant daughter; her willingness to crush her own flesh and blood showed how great her viciousness and vile nature was, although this is nothing more than what evil individuals and jealous women might do. However, she accepted the words of righteousness and honored the upright. Although she was like a hen that crowed, she eventually returned the rightful rule to her son. She quickly dispelled the accusation against Wei Yuanzhong, comforted Di Renjie with kind words, respected the will of the times and suppressed her favorites, and listened to honest words and ended the terror of the secret police officials. This was good, this was good. Liu Xu, the lead editor of the Book of Tang
"Wu Zetian (690–705) was an extraordinary woman, attractive, exceptionally gifted, politically astute and an excellent judge of men. With single minded determination, she overcame the opposition of the Confucian establishment through her own efforts, unique among palace women by not using her own family.
Her rise to power was steeped in blood...." Ann Paludan
"To the horror of traditional Chinese historians, all members of the shih class, the continued success of the T'ang was in large measure due to an ex-concubine who finally usurped the throne itself....Though she was ruthless towards her enemies, the period of her ascendency was a good one for China. Government was sound, no rebellions occurred, abuses in the army and administration were stamped out and Korea was annexed, an achievement no previous Chinese had ever managed." Yong Yap Cotterell and Arthur Cotterell.
"China's only woman ruler, Empress Wu was a remarkably skilled and able politician, but her murderous and illicit methods of maintaining power gave her a bad reputation among male bureaucrats. It also fostered overstaffing and many kinds of corruption." John King Fairbank.
I have obviously omitted massive portions of information about this amazing, horrifying and impressive woman - because otherwise I'd need to write a thesis.
If you'd like to read more about her here are some links and books that I've used in my research.

Cross, R., Miles, R., (2011) Warrior Women, Quercus Press, London.

http://www.amazon.com/Wu-Zhao-Chinas-Female-Emperor/dp/0321394267/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387007351&sr=8-1&keywords=Wu+Zetian

http://fuckyeahchinesemyths.tumblr.com/post/36858912447/empress-wu-zetian-7-relinquishing-power-after-shit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian


Next time on Warrior Women we'll be looking at
Mochizuki Chiyome - Ninja and Dark Heart of the Samurai
 
 
 
 

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Warrior Women I - The Amazons

I am starting a series of Warrior Women posts. I love a good kick-ass heroine in a book and thought that my readers might be interested in some of the 'real' kick-ass women of times past.

Today's Warrior women are those most iconic...

 AMAZONS

We've all heard of them to some degree - and I know you're all thinking Xena Warrior Princess - or maybe you're envisioning Hercules with Amazons? Either way, with very little variation the Amazons are known as group of ancient, tall, strong, powerful and fiercely independent warrior women...

 But did they really exist?

'Golden shielded, silver-sworded, man loving, male-child killing Amazons,' wrote the 5th Century BC Greek historian Hellanicus.

Bands of fierce female warriors are mentioned throughout the ages in various countries around the world - yet are most persistent in legend around the Mediterranean and Near East.

Herodotus (who should never be taken all too seriously) placed them as coming from the Slavic regions of Europe (Ukraine / Southern Russia / Kazakstan).



Described primarily as women warriors who took men only for the purpose of siring children, killed their male babies and kept their female ones - the original myth seems to have hailed from Libya[Cross & Miles, 2011, Warrior Women, Quercus, pp 8). Here rock drawing has been found that appear to depict women fighting with bow and arrow, and date to approximately 2000BC. From there, carvings and memorials are seen in Greece from 1600BC, yet their heyday appears to have been in the age of the Greek Heroes 1250BC.

According to myth and legend, Amazons were famous horse tamers and allegedly were the first people to actually fight from horseback.

Ironically however, the famous Amazon's during the Greek Heroic age seem to have met with rather dismal and brutal ends.

Also it pays to remember that there are multiple versions of these myths out there and today I am just retelling one.

Hippolyta
 Meaning: Stampeding Horse
 (many of the Amazon's have 'hippos' (Greek: Horse) in their name)
 
 

Hippolyta was an Amazon Queen who caught the notice of the famous Greek Hero Heracles somewhere around 1250BC. (FYI, Heracles is the Greek version of the Roman Hercules... as if you didn't know!)
Heracles quested for Hypolyta's girdle (it was one of his labors)  - the girdle being a symbol of sacred feminine sexual power and symbolic of Amazon royalty. Typically, he initially simply demands she hand over her girdle to him  The Amazons were incensed by this sleight and rose up against him. Hippolyta fought him in a pitched battle. Alas, she was thrown from her horse - landing most unfortunately at the 'hero's' feet. Naturally a gentleman, Heracles offered to spare her life if she had sex and submitted to him.
Hippolyta was no fool, she knew such submission would be rape and result in a lifetime of slavery to the man. She declared she would rather die than submit to him.
Enraged, Heracles killed her immediately, stripped her girdle and began to slaughter her Amazon bretheren.

When almost all the best warrior women were killed, Hippolyta's commander Melanippe (meaning: Black Mare), sought a truce with Heracles.
True to form, Heracles demanded her girdle. Knowing to refuse meant death, Melanippe handed over her girdle. Heracles then raped her and let her go - to continue a life a humiliation until her natural death.


(There are other versions of Hippolyta's death; where it is Hippolyta's sister Penthesilea who accidently kills her - which leads Penthesilea to quest later on.)

The Greeks however, lead many more such assaults upon the Amazons - in a brutal attempt to impose their patriarchal systems over them.

Penthesilea
(meaning: compelling men to mourn)
 
 
 
Penthesilea was one of Hippolyta's sisters, who for varying reasons (depending on which myth you read) caused her to travel to battle at Troy soon after Hippolyta's death.
 
Here she fights with great distinction on the Trojan side against the Greeks. It is here, on a number of occasions she fought against the hero Achilles. (Penthesilea it is important to remember is the one who ultimately stabbed Achilles in the heel eventually resulting in his death.)
 
In Achilles' final horrific encounter with Penthesilea at Troy, he stabs the Amazon and kills her. Then, surprisingly, and most of all disturbingly, it is alleged he strips her dying body of its armour. He then discovers that his long time adversary was actually... a woman.
 
In most accounts, it is noted that Achilles falls in love with her corpse...  and then has sex with it while it was still warm. He then continued to grieve and fixate on the dead Amazon. For many years after, Achilles was taunted for his sexual perversion (necrophilia) particularly by his fellow Greek Thersites.
 
There are other versions of the this tale that suggest that Thersites gouged out Penthesilea's eyes whilst she was alive... to which Achille's then killed Thersites for the insult.
 
Yet another version suggests that Diomedes (a relative of Thersites) mutilated Penthesilea's body and tied it to his horse and proceeded to drag it around the battlefield.  Achilles came to the body's rescue an gave her a proper burial - all because he was in love the corpse.
 
It is said that Penthesilea was the last true Amazon.
 
 
So, are these just stories? Or is there a grain of truth here?
(let's hope not for Penthesilea's corpse anyway)
 
The actual term Amazon, some say comes from the Greek a (without) and mazos (breast), and this fits in the myth that Amazon women sliced off a breast to allow greater ease in shooting arrows and throwing javelins - though this is hotly contested.
 
Many historians throughout the ages have dismissed these tales for what they appear to be - myths.
 
However, it has been suggested that due to the prolific nature of Amazon mythology there may well be grains of truth to the stories. Famous ancient historians such as Plutarch, Aeschylus, Strabo, Pliny all take the Amazon's existence as fact.
 
In later Roman times, Roman commanders record encountering women in the ranks of their enemies especially the Scythians whose women regularly fought along side their men. Were these the real Amazons perhaps?
Who knows...
But one thing is certain, equality for women has been a tricky path ever since.
 
 In fact the Athenians, who coined the term democracy - deliberately omitted women and slaves from its definition. There was, from this time forth, a notable move towards the subjugation of women in society.  Where once, in the early days of ancient Greece and Sparta, girls were free, fit and trained in the arts of war, they slowly became property, cossetted pretty things to be protected as they became socially and physically less able to protect themselves.
 
As civilization grew, the fixation on the masculine grew too, and it left no place for the free, powerful independent Amazons. Thus, they have faded into myth - their very existence now questioned. 
 
Whether you believe in them or not, it cannot be understated that they are a poignant reminder to the women of today - not to take for granted the freedoms we have, and not to fall into the highly sexualised world that has we now live in (particularly in the West). Where once the world was masculinised, now it is sexualised, and this, in my humble opinion is just as damaging - but not just for women but men too.
 
NEXT WARRIOR WOMEN POST: 
WU CHAO - from child concubine to self proclaimed ''Supreme God"
 
 
Have a great day.