In Ezra Pound’s account of the T’ang dynasty, in the China Cantos, the first emperor of T’ang is treated with great respect, largely on account of his military achievements. However, the Empress Wu, who follows him, is treated with disdain, and dismissed with one line saying she led the empire to ruin. This seems typical of Pound’s reactionary reading of history. Pound’s source, the Histoire Generale de la Chine, speaks of the Empress Wu at great length. The source does complain that she “upset the traditional social order.” Yet it is quite clear to any modern reader, that the complaint was against her many innovations, the implementation of reforms which reflect many modern values. Among these: RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE Under the Empress, The Tao te ching was made a compulsory text on the for the state examinations on the same footing as the Confucian canonical works. This signified an end in education to discrimination against Taoists, who (along with Buddhists) represented large numbers of people who belonged to the disempowered social classes. She also revoked the edicts giving precedence to Taoists over Buddhists in religious ceremonies. State patronage was extended to all Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian scholars all equally ARTISTIC PATRONAGE. Images and statues at the cave temples at Lung men. Pound thought that the “replacing the statue at Terracina” was worth more than any metaphysical argument. In China, the statuary art of the T’ang is among the most highly valued. The patronage of such statuary work, and the greatly prized cave paintings occurred under Wu. Yet Pound seems uninterested in such works, perhaps because they were done by Buddhists. WOMENS RIGHTS. Wu was one of the few empresses to rule in China, and was therefore very conscious of the opportunity she had to improve the rights of women. In the scholarly field she sponsored the first large scale project to write biographies of famous women in Chinese history. My female Chinese students (in China, and in the US) are still grateful to Wu for her efforts in this area, which went strongly against the grain of Confucian tradition. Confucianism, unlike Buddhist tradition, preaches the inferiority of women. In traditional Chinese culture there was a lengthy period of mourning required for the death of the father in any family. Wu declared equal periods of mourning for the death of a father and a mother. EDUCATION Wu sponsored the Translation into Chinese of the mass of Sanskrit scriptures brought back from India. This was not done at the expense of Confucian texts, which were also kept as standard canonical works. PEACE Wu proposed to Cease military operations, and transform the empire by the virtue of the Way (the Tao). Pound should have been interested in this, though the founder of the T’ang is praised for the number of wars he waged, as far away as Korea, and for attempts to extend the empire. FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Wu offered Increased opportunities for expression of opinions to the throne. LABOR AND TAX POLICY. Reduce taxes and labor services. EQUALIZING ACCESS TO POWER. Appointment of officials based MORE on exam results and LESS on social class or clan rank. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com