Remembering China’s Only Female Emperor

 

by Alison T. Smith

 

College of Charleston

 

 

Impératrice by Shan Sa.  Paris: Albin Michel, 2003.  440 pages.  22€.

 

            At the young age of 32, author Shan Sa’s list of accomplishments is already impressive.  Born in Beijing in 1972, she left China in 1990 in the aftermath of the tragedy at Tiananmen Square.  Shan Sa moved to France, where she studied philosophy and launched a successful career as a writer.  In 1997 she was awarded the Prix Goncourt du premier roman for Porte de la paix céleste.  This initial success was immediately followed by the Prix Cazes in 1999 for Les quatre vies du saule and the Prix Goncourt des lycéens for La Joueuse de go.  Shan Sa’s most recent novel, Impératrice, is a work of historical fiction based on the life of Empress Wu Zetian, the only female in China’s history to rule as Emperor.

            History has depicted Empress Wu Zetian as a successful but ruthless ruler of the Tang Dynasty in the 7^th century.  During her reign, China experienced a rich cultural development, especially in the area of Buddhist temples, carvings, and sculptures, as she successfully elevated Buddhism over the previously dominant Daoism.  Wu has been portrayed as shrewd and cruel in her climb to power, eliminating rivals through intrigue and murder.  Daughter of a noble, she caught first the Emperor’s eye then that of his son when she was appointed as court concubine at the age of fourteen.  When she gave birth to the son designated as future Emperor, her climb to power began.  Wu married the Emperor’s son, who in turn became Emperor upon his father’s death.  Following the death of her husband, Wu ultimately was named Emperor herself when her youngest son proved to be an ineffective ruler and stepped aside in her favor.  She is the only female to ever achieve the status of Emperor in China’s history.

            Shan Sa’s account of the Empress Wu’s life is a sympathetic one, narrated in the first person by a child known as Lumière, who is in fact the young Wu.  Lumière tells us her own story of her rise to power, and we come to understand that if she behaves ruthlessly it is only because she lives in a world in which one is often presented with a choice between destroying or being destroyed.  She tells us of her sense of despair and isolation when her father dies during her childhood, followed by the brutal sexuality and constant competition among the concubines during adolescence.  Her tale is also a love story of the devotion that exists between Lumière and the one she calls Petit Faisan, the man who is the father of her children and ultimately becomes Emperor.  Though Lumière and Petit Faisan have other lovers, their relationship is built on mutual respect and trust.  It is this bond that allows Lumière to gradually assume the reins of power, as she has a true gift for leadership.

            The events of her life teach Lumière that with the responsibility of power also comes tremendous personal sacrifice.  At the death of Petit Faisan, one son after the other proves unsuited for leadership.  When Lumière is ultimately named Emperor, she realizes that her hold on power is tenuous despite the universal proclamation that she is immortal.  As family members plot to overthrow her and each subsequent intrigue leads to a purge, she finds herself in a situation in which Lai, her most trusted advisor, appears to have betrayed her.  He pleads that she listen to him one final time, telling her that she is a goddess who will live as long as the Luo River and the Song Mountain.  She rejects his overtures, sending him to a certain death: “Dans cette existence, je ne suis qu’une simple mortelle.  Comme tous les empereurs qui reposent dans leurs sépultures, je finirai moi aussi dans la Terre Jaune.  Vivante, je suis le Maître du Monde.  Morte, je ne possède plus que l’espace étroit d’un cercueil !  Seigneur Lai, retirez-vous.  La famille est une maladie de naissance.  La mienne est mon infirmité.  Je ne l’ai pas choisie, les dieux me l’ont imposée.  Moi et ma dynastie sommes condamnées à disparaître” (386).

            Unlike the power thirsty image of Empress Wu Zetian offered by traditional historical accounts, Shan Sa’s Lumière is an intelligent, capable woman who accepts the situation into which she has been thrust and brings her vast array of talents forth as she accepts the leadership of her country.  The novel tells the unusual story of a woman who attains the highest possible position of power despite the extreme repression of women in imperial China.  The reader sees Lumière not as a goddess but as a human being who despite her position of power must, as all human beings, grow old and ultimately die.  The story of her life as she tells it is one of loss: that of her father, her children, her husband, and finally of her own mortal attachment to this life.  Her earthly demise does not bring the narration to a conclusion, for she continues her story beyond her own death to tell of her entombment and the ensuing struggle for power.  She concludes, “Je suis le sourire énigmatique de Celui qui fait tourner la Roue de l’Éternité” (440).  Shan Sa’s Lumière shows us the human side of one of the most powerful women in Chinese history.