Transgressive Typologies: Construction of Gender and Power in Early Tang China by Rebecca Doran (review)

Transgressive Typologies takes a deep dive into the sources surrounding the history of female rule during the early Tang dynasty. As Rebecca Doran's layered discussion of these records makes clear, even though the Tang dynasty is recognized as one of the more tolerant eras for female autonomy in Chinese history, the writings about the figures at the center of the power struggles during Wu Zhao's 武曌 (better known to history as Wu Zetian 武則天;624–705) short-lived Zhou dynasty (609–705) say as much as or more about gender anxieties and discursive spin than present historical facts. A great deal of English-language research on Wu Zetian's rise to political power already exists.¹ Unlike these other works that focus on the political and ritual mechanics of how Empress Wu legitimated her rule, Doran's interest is in discourse and the gendered mechanics of representing women who stepped outside the ritually defined roles for women in order to rule. Since the writing of history is intimately intertwined with the reaffirming of the Confucian cosmological and moral order in which yang and therefore men are dominant, successful female rule represents an epistemic threat. As Doran writes, "Wu Zhao ruled competently, first jointly with Gaozong and then on her own, for about fifty years, quelling internal and foreign rebellion and generally fostering stability. Yet, in most later sources, her rule is remembered primarily in terms of excess, cruelty, and dalliance with much younger male consorts" (7). One need only compare Empress Wu's historical record to that of her grandson Tang Xuanzong 玄宗 (r. 713–56) to realize the difference gender makes. Despite the deaths of millions during the An Lushan 安祿山 rebellion (756–63) that followed from Xuanzong's unchecked infatuation with Yang Guifei 楊貴妃 (719–56), his love for her became the stuff of the collective romantic fantasy that came to define his reign. In contrast, Wu Zhao, whose sexual relations with a variety of men in the court are a favorite theme of pornography, knew when to sacrifice her personal pleasures (and her lovers) for the sake of political power and the stability of the throne. Wu Zetian's appetites for pleasure and ruthlessness were in no way unusual for Chinese rulers; what sets her apart is the need of later historians to denigrate her for being a woman who dared to rule and assume the gendered prerogatives of a man.

The five chapters of Transgressive Typologies address the representation of female rule from a variety of perspectives. Chapter 1, "Female Rule and Its Representation: Gender, Paradigm, and Historical Narrative," analyzes Tang narratives about female rule within the context of the moral exemplars of Lienü zhuan 列女傳 (Arrayed Biographies of Women) and the "Inner Rules" (neize 內 則) chapter of the Liji 禮記 (Record of the Rites). As Doran shows, the historians' issue with Empress Wu was not so much that she ruled, since many women ruled in the name of a minor son, but the fact that Wu Zhao dispensed with the pretense of honoring the symbolic importance of women's subservient status in the parallel cosmological and social realms. Empresses Ma 馬 (39–79) and Deng 鄧 (81–121) of the Eastern Han both held long-term control of the throne but "retained the pretense of rule by proxy" (29) and were depicted as upholding the conventional feminine virtues of humility, frugality, and selflessness. The well-known biography of Empress Lü 呂 (241–180 BCE), as recorded in the Shiji 史記 (Records of the Historian) and Han shu 漢書 (History of the Han Dynasty), provides the most enduring narrative model of transgressive female rule. As Doran discusses, the Bei shi 北史 (History of the Northern Dynasties), written during the Tang between 643 and 659, documents the bloody Northern Wei practice of killing consorts who gave birth to the heir apparent, a practice that added to the power of empresses who served as regents. Although she tantalizingly refers to the theory that...