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This annotated translation of Zhang Zhuo’s collection of miscellany, Court and Country, offers a lively, folksy, and novel perspective on the empire of Wu Zhao, China’s first and only female emperor, that will amuse and shock readers, prompting them to recalibrate everything they think they know about medieval China. The World of Wu Zhao includes separate chapters on a number of different themes and topics: Buddhist and Daoist monks, the female emperor’s male favorites (who dressed up in rainbow feathered garments and pranced around her court astride wooden red-capped cranes), cruel officials (bloodthirsty henchmen who took an aesthetic delight in their vocation), as well as sections on flora and fauna, the common folk, artisans and craftsmen, the military, spirits and the supernatural, the borderlands, and local officials.
“With his usual panache, the late N. Harry Rothschild employs Zhang Zhuo’s eighth-century work to paint a vivid and all-encompassing picture of the times of China’s only female emperor, Wu Zetian. He helps us adroitly peer behind Confucian misogynism to envision Wu and her court in a balanced manner” — Keith N. Knapp, Professor of History, The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina
Acknowledgments; Figures; Map; Tables; Weights and Measures; Introduction; Chapter 1 Wu Zhao: her inner palace, her inner circle; Chapter 2 The culture of the court; Chapter 3 “Cruel officials”: Wu Zhao’s “teeth and horns”; Chapter 4 Beyond court and capital: local officials; Chapter 5 The common people; Chapter 6 Relationships: men, women, and family in the time of Wu Zhao; Chapter 7 Generals and military men; Chapter 8 The frontier and beyond: foreigners and others during Wu Zhao’s reign; Chapter 9 Religion and the supernatural world; Chapter 10 Flora, fauna, and the natural world; Afternote; Appendix: People and Places; Notes; Bibliography; Index