finds the passage, "From ancient times, the virtuous kings invariably had an upright wife as a mate. If their consorts were upright, then they flourished; if they were not upright, then there was chaos. The success of Xia stemmed from Tushan and its ruin from Moxi."[7]（[7] O'Hara trans of Lie nu zhuan chapter 3, "Biographies of the Benign and Wise," "Quwu of Wei," 3.14. Shiji 49.1967 contains a similar passage, which is translated in Lisa Raphals, Sharing the Light (Albany: SUNY Press), 19）Thus in the Han, the Tushan girl was transformed into the ideal Confucian mother, selflessly raising her son and molding his character. In The Flood Myths of Early China, Mark Edward Lewis remarked that sages of early antiquity were "bad fathers" who neglected or even sought to injure their offspring.[8]（[8] Mark Edward Lewis, The Flood Myths of Early China (Albany: State of New York Press, 2006), 79-82. He also notes that many of the offspring are, for their part, wicked sons. Citing Mozi jiangu and Chuci bu zhu, among other texts, Lewis comments (82) that Qi, indulging in excess drink and music, "is treated as a deviant or criminal, acting as a moral inversion to his father Yu." As a father Qi is at odds, and at war with his own son Wu Guan.）Naturally, this left the mother to play a greater role in shaping the child's character. Naturally, in styling herself as an "upright consort," a caring and benevolent matriarch, Wu Zhao naturally took women like the Mother of Qi, this perfect mother of antiquity, as part of her broad cult of political mothers and grandmothers.The Mother of Qi and the Music of HeavenQi was a powerful ruler in his own right, a rider of dragons who freely traveled between the terrestrial and celestial realms.[9]（[9] Birrell trans, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, 115 and 177. Also see David Hawkes trans. Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), 49-50）In the Mozi, it was Qi, rather than his father Yu the Great, who commissioned the casting of the Nine Tripods, the mythical vessels that symbolized a ruler's virtue and dynasty's legitimacy.[10]（[10] Mozi, Mei Yi-pao trans., Ethical and Political Works of Motse (Westport, CT: Hyperion, 1973), 212-3）Wu Zhao commissioned the casting of Nine Tripods in 694. They were completed in the spring of 697.[11]（[11] ZZTJ 205.6499 (order) and 206.6517 (completion). See also Ricardo Fracasso, "The Nine Tripods of Empress Wu," Antonino Forte ed., Tang China and Beyond (Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1988), 85-96）
Qi, who Anne Birrell refers to as a "god of music"[12]（[12] Birrell, 53）either stole the music of Heaven[13]（[13] Birrell, 83-4, c.f. residual fragments of The Storehouse of all Things, a Han text that is "no longer extant except in fragments."）or received it as a gift[14]（[14] Birrell, 85; c.f. Shanhaijing）from on High. Between 680 and 683, when Wu Zhao was still "Celestial Empress" (tianhou), Cui Rong wrote a memorial on behalf of the Crown Prince congratulating her on the discovery of an auspicious omen, a purple-stalked fungus (zhicao) beneath the reliquary stupa of Taiyuan temple in Luoyang.[15]（[15] For the dating of this memorial see Antonino Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century (Naples: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2006), 316n-317n. This portent was alluded to in the famous Commentary on the Meaning of the Prophecy about Shenhuang in the Great Cloud Sutra promulgated in 690. Forte remarks that "even this simple episode of the herb zhi shows us the connection among officials, relatives of Wu Zhao and Buddhist monks in finding and diligently interpreting the miracles and omens for the propaganda activity in favor of Wu Zhao.）The language is poignant:The Celestial Empress transforms and contains the myriad things,She instructs and rectifies all within the six imperial palaces (notes).The Empire is suffused with the strains of TushanAll within the oceans look upward to receive her teachings.[16]（[16] QTW 218.2201）伏惟天后化含万物，训正六宫，天下被涂山之音，海内仰河洲之教。The "strains of Tushan" (Tushan zhi yin) is a reference to Qi's music of Heaven. Clearly, the sound of Qi's music in Cui Rong's encomium announced the greater glory of mother, whether that of the Tushan Girl or Wu Zhao, rather than son. As Wu Zhao bore the title Celestial Empress at this juncture and as the portentous fungus for which Cui Rong offered congratulations grew in a temple that Wu Zhao had constructed for her mother in 675,[17]（[17] Forte, 162）it was clearly a token of her majesty. Perfect Spouse, Ideal Mother: Mother of Qi as ParagonDuring Gaozong's last years and early in Wu Zhao's role as Grand Dowager, the Mother of Qi often appears in political propaganda as a perfect spouse and ideal mother who upheld the Xia dynasty. This implied, of course, that Wu Zhao was a perfect spouse and ideal mother who help up the House of Tang. Yang Jiong, in an inscription for Lesser Room Temple drafted prior to Gaozong's death (Wu Zhao is still called Celestial Empress (tian hou), indicating Gaozong was still alive), wrote, "In marrying Tushan, the virtue of his [Yu's] clan was thereupon completed"[18]（[18] QTW 192.1944. See below for more on Yang Jiong's inscription）Consistent with the depictions in Biographies of Exemplary Women of the Mother of Qi as the perfect dutiful spouse, he emphasized the central role played by women both in continuing the ancestral line and enhancing the virtue of the Xia. The Mother of Qi also appears in a memorial that Cui Rong drafted on behalf of one General Wei, who petitioned Wu Zhao (as Grand Dowager) to present sacrificial offerings. "The virtue of earth supports Heaven, and thus the myriad sorts [of flora and fauna] are complete. The moon complements the sun, and therefore the Four Quarters are illumined. Formerly, [the Girl of] Guishui assisted Yu [Emperor Shun] and Tushan helped elevate the Xia."[19]（[19] QTW 219.2209. General Wei likely is Wei Daijia, who rose to eminence briefly during Wu Zhao's regency, largely due to his help in overseeing the construction of Qianling, serving as a prime minister from 685-689. It is not surprising that he asked Cui Rong to draft the edict, for it is recorded in his biography (JTS 77.2671-2; XTS 98. 3904) that because of his lack of talent in the civil arts, he was mocked and ridiculed. See also Richard Guisso's Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China (Bellingham: Western Washington University Press, 1978), 186, where Wei Daijia is listed in a catalogue of early Tang prime ministers.）臣闻坤德承天，所以曲成万类；阴灵配日，所以兼烛四方。故妫水佐虞，涂山翼夏。One might readily compare Wu Zhao's support for the House of Tang to the Tushan Girl's great contribution to the establishment and continuity of the Xia. Also during Wu Zhao's regency, the Wet-nurse of Wu Zhao's daughter, the Taiping Princess, elevated to Lady of the State of Feng, offered a memorial, written by literary master Chen Zi'ang, to congratulate Wu Zhao on the birth of her Grandson Successor Li Longji. Citing the blessings of being a maternal relative, the "The good fortunes of Tushan were due to the bountiful offerings made at Xia Tower."[20]（[20] QTW 209.2114）涂山之庆，既裕于夏台；高禖之祠，未陪于殷荐。In both cases, she is cast as an ideal of motherly deportment, rather than as an independent female sovereign. The time was not yet right. Not surprisingly, once Wu Zhao moved to establish her own Zhou dynasty, the Mother of Qi was no longer utilized to present Wu Zhao as "good wife, dutiful mother" for her affinal House of Tang.The Tushan Girl also appeared on the lengthy Coiling Dragon Tower Inscription (Panlongtaibei), written by aesthetic master Li Qiao on behalf of Wu Zhao to honor her deceased parents-to reinvent and exalt her family background-in 699.[21]（[21] The 600 line inscription can found in the Quan Tangwen 219.2515-2523. Richard Guisso's Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China (Bellingham: Western Washington University Press, 1978), 11-16 contains a lengthy description of the content of the inscription. In Antonino Forte's excellent annotated translation of the Commentary on the Great Cloud Sutra (Dunhuang document S6502), it expressly states that "Coiling Dragon Tower" was another name for Wu Zhao's mingtang. See Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology at the End of the Seventh Century (Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2005) 269-70; Forte, Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock: The Tower, the Statue and the Armillary Sphere Constructed by Empress Wu, (Rome, 1988), 180, 194n. In Wu Zhao's Mingtang complex, her five-floor Tower of Heaven was topped by a crowning ornament, a pearl held aloft by several dragons (Forte 1988, 157; cf ZZTJ 205.6505). Nine coiling dragons also supported the roof of the Mingtang (Forte 1988, 155 c.f. THY 11.279, JTS 22.867).）This time it is not Wu Zhao herself, but her mother Yang, who was associated with the Tushan Girl. "The Filial and Enlightened Exalted August Empress[22]（[22] This honorific posthumous name was bestowed upon Wu Zhao's mother (nee Yang) on 20 October 690, just days after she inaugurated her Zhou dynasty. See ZZTJ 204.6468 and XTS 4.91. Also Forte 2005, 304 fn233）: in the beginning she equaled the troth of the [Woman of the] Gui River; to the end she proceeded from the achievements of Tushan."[23]（[23] QTW 249.2519）始同妫水之聘，终启涂山之业。By framing mother, like daughter, as heir to a glorious lineage of eminent women of distant antiquity, Li Qiao's clever rhetoric deftly fused heredity and political tradition, situating Wu Zhao at the lofty and politically potent convergence of these twin apexes.Wu Zhao re-established Qi's mother as a significant figure, as one of the mothers of antiquity. After her death, the Mother of Qi continued to appear in political rhetoric. When Wu Zhao's youngest son Emperor Ruizong (Li Dan) died in 716, officials
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