Wu Tse-t’ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China by R.W.L. Guisso is an attempt to examine and to describe the career of China's only female "emperor" and an attempt also, by using a particular frame of reference, to place in perspective her very controversial regime. The author did not set out consciously to write a biography but could not avoid, of course, the inclusion of a good deal of biographical detail. In general, the life of the Empress Wu has been subordinated to larger themes, and it is for this reason that we can see her remarkable force of character and virtuosity of mind only through the darkest of glasses.

This study has three emphases. The first is the question of legitimation, the nature of the Empress Wu's position and power. How did she win recognition as the legitimate sovereign of a state and a culture which had never before permitted a woman to be Son of Heaven? And why, after this unique achievement, did she fail to preserve her position until her death? What influence did her unorthodox rise and her anomalous position have upon her times, and what does her career tell us of the process of legitimation in T'ang China?

R. W. L. Guisso was born in 19^3 in Galt, Ontario. He received his B.A. in Honors History at the University of Toronto in 1966. A Rhodes scholarship enabled him to spend the years 1966-68 at Wadham College, Oxford where, after a year of doing research at the University of Kyoto, he received his doctorate in Oriental Studies. He is presently teaching at the University of Toronto.