Parts of a stele containing the Zetian characters, written by Empress Wu herself

Chinese characters of Empress Wu, or the Zetian characters (則天文字), are Chinese characters introduced by Empress Wu Zetian, the only reigning female in the history of China, to demonstrate her power. The characters were not created by the Empress herself, but were suggested by an official named Zong Qinke (宗秦客) in December 689 A.D. The number of these characters is controversial, but various sources say 12 to 19 characters. They were forcibly used by people during her reign but fell into disuse immediately after her death, so they help to determine dates of printed materials. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 576 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (586 × 610 pixel, file size: 68 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 576 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (586 × 610 pixel, file size: 68 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Japanese name Kanji: Kana: Korean name Hangul: Hanja: Vietnamese name Quoc Ngu: Hantu: A Chinese character (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ) is a logogram used in writing Chinese, Japanese, sometimes Korean, and formerly Vietnamese. ... Wu Zetian (武則天) (625 - December 16, 705), personal name Wu Zhao (武曌), was the only female emperor in the history of China, founding her own dynasty, the Zhou (周), and ruling under the name Emperor Shengshen (聖神皇帝) from 690 to 705. ... The history of China is told in traditional historical records that go back to the Three sovereigns and five emperors about 5,000 years ago, supplemented by archaeological records dating to the 16th century BC. China is one of the worlds oldest continuous civilizations. ... Events Battle of Coronate: The army of Cunincpert, king of the Lombards, defeat the followers of the usurper Alahis on the Adda River. ...

A few of the surviving characters are preserved in the written histories of Wu Zetian, and a few have found themselves incorporated into modern-day computer standards, classified as either variant or dialect-specific characters.

The form of the characters varies depending on where they are printed. For instance Empress Wu's own name zhào 照 was replaced with 瞾, but is erroneously thought to be 曌, and looking in the Kangxi Dictionary, one finds the description of the former having two 目 ("eye") characters being the proper character rather than the word míng 明 meaning "bright". Another form replaces the 明 above 空 with two 日 characters.

External links

• More detailed information on these characters

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