Among the more extravagant acts of her reign are some which are still
familiar to the people of to-day. Always, even while her husband was
alive, she was present, behind a curtain, at councils and audiences;
after his death she was accustomed to take her place openly among the
ministers of state, wearing a false beard. In 694 she gave herself the
title of Divine Empress, and in 696 she even went so far as to style
herself God Almighty. In her later years she became hopelessly arrogant
and overbearing. No one was allowed to say that the Empress was fair
as a lily or lovely as a rose, but that the lily was fair or the rose
lovely as Her Majesty. She tried to spread the belief that she was
really the Supreme Being by forcing flowers artificially and then in the
presence of her courtiers ordering them to bloom. On one occasion she
commanded some peonies to bloom; and because they did not instantly
obey, she caused every peony in the capital to be pulled up and burnt,
and prohibited the cultivation of peonies ever afterwards. She further
decided to place her sex once and for all on an equality with man. For
that purpose women were admitted to the public examinations, official
posts being conferred upon those who were successful; and among other
things they were excused from kneeling while giving evidence in courts
of justice. This innovation, however, did not fulfil its promise;
and with the disappearance of its vigorous foundress, the system also
disappeared. It was not actually the first time in Chinese history that
the experiment had been tried. An emperor of the third century A.D. had
already opened public life to women, and it is said that many of them
rose to high office; but here too the system was of short duration, and
the old order was soon restored.

Another striking picture of the T'ang dynasty is presented by the career
of an emperor who is usually spoken of as Ming Huang, and who, after
distinguishing himself at several critical junctures, mounted the throne