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Princess Taiping
Daughter of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian who helped bring down Empress Wei in 710, then lost a power struggle with her nephew Xuanzong and was ordered to die in 713
A mansion gate with a double blue-tiled roof stands on stone steps flanked by two stone lions, with a garden walkway, a lily pond and rockery at the left and lanterns under the eaves; at the right one person stands beside a saddled horse with a rider.
Also known as Princess Zhenguo Taiping
- Roles
- Royal Kin
Princess Taiping was the youngest daughter of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian; as a girl she was ordained a Daoist, nominally to pray for her late grandmother, and took the name Taiping from that vow. She married Xue Shao in 681, and after he died in prison over his brother's part in a princely revolt she married Wu Youji in 690. She joined the plot that killed the Zhang brothers in 705 and in 710 worked with her nephew Li Longji to destroy Empress Wei, after which her brother Ruizong gave her the title Zhenguo, her own staff, and a say in naming chief ministers. Once Li Longji was on the throne as Xuanzong the rivalry turned open, and in the seventh month of 713 he struck first and killed her partisans. She hid in a mountain temple for several days, then came home and was ordered to take her own life. The *New Tang History* records that her confiscated property was piled like hills and rivalled the imperial stores.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–713 CE