In China, there are plentiful emperor’s mausoleums, and Qian Mausoleum is just one of them. However, Qian Mausoleum is unique and special because it buries two monarchs – husband and wife. It is well-known in ancient China that women had low social status. They were not allowed to receive education let alone to become the ruler of the whole country. Yet there was a famous woman in Tang Dynasty who became the unique empress in feudal China due to her own efforts. She is Wu Zetian, whose husband is Emperor Tang Gaozhong, the ninth son of Emperor Tang Taizhong. And Qian Mausoleum is the tomb of Emperor Tang Gaozhong and Empress Wu Zetian.

Stories go that Wu Zetian became Emperor Tang Taizhong’s concubine when she was only 14 years old. And when Emperor Tang Taizhong was terribly sick, she attended him. And Li Zhi, the ninth son of the emperor, who later became Emperor Tang Gaozhong, frequently came over to visit his father. The two met and fell in love with each other. Yet according to the will of Emperor Tang Taizhong, Wu Zetian was sent to a nunnery after his death. When Li Zhi came to the throne and became Emperor Tang Gaozhong, he sent for Wu Zetian and made her be his concubine. Wu Zetian was quite a shrewd woman who would try all means to reach her goal. She was not satisfied to be a concubine and she wanted to be the queen. Yet it was not easy for her to become the queen for Emperor Tang Gaozhong had already got a queen, and the queen was born of a big family. To reach her goal, she killed her newly born baby girl and shifted the responsibility onto the queen. The queen was robbed of her title and imprisoned. And soon Wu Zetian was crowned to be the new queen of the country. However, she was so ambitious that she wanted more power. Because she was wise and farsighted, and had good ideas about how to govern the country, Emperor Tang Gaozhong allowed her to participate in the management of state affairs. Gradually, Wu Zetian stripped her husband of his power. After Emperor Tang Gaozhong died, his sons were to succeed to his throne. Yet Wu Zetian took tough measures to clear away all obstacles and finally became the first and also the last empress in China. In order to become the empress, she killed many people. Some of them were her relatives. However, the country under her rule was fairly prosperous. It is difficult to make a comment on whether she was right or wrong. So there are two stone tablets in front of the mausoleum. The one engraved with characters is for Emperor Tang Gaozhong. It tells the people the contributions made by the emperor. And the other stele has no character on it. It is for Empress Wu Zetian. It is said that Empress Wu Zetian deliberately set a wordless stele, for she wanted those living behind to make a fair comment on her.

The mausoleum is located in Mountain Liang, 6 kilometers away from Qian County. As one of the 18 Tang’s mausoleums, it was constructed in 684 and is well preserved.