Gold Slip of Wu Zetian

Period: Tang Dynasty

Unearthed Place: Songshan Mountain in Dengfeng

时代：唐代

出土地点：登封嵩山峻极峰

This rectangular piece of gold is 36.2cm in length, 8 cm in width and 223.5 grams in weight.Made of gold with purity above 96%, it is without ornamentation overall, but engraved with an inscription of 63 words in 3 lines, meaning that Wu Zetian, the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, believed in Taoism and wished to live forever and associate with gods.

这件长方形金片长36.2、宽8厘米，重223.5克，整体无纹饰，其上双钩錾刻铭文3行63字，以纯度96%以上的黄金制成。其正面錾刻双钩铭文63字，意为大周皇帝武则天信奉真道，渴望长生，与诸神相往来。

There are five characters created by Wu Zetian, namely “ 圀(国), 瞾, 日, 月,臣。After wu Zetian became emperor, in order to show her unconvention and express her political intention, she created 19 self-created characters successively . These self-created characters by Wu Zetian are basically reformed on the basis of the original characters.

金简上有五个武则天自造字，为“圀”(国)、“瞾”、日、月、臣。武则天称帝以后为了彰显她的标新立异，表达她的政治意图，先后创造了19个自造文字。这些自造文字基本是在原有文字基础上加以改造。

The golden slip of Wu Zetian is the only movable cultural relic related to Wu Zetian, which is of great value to the historic study of Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian's political thought, calligraphy, the ancient system of slip casting, and ancient buddhist rites.

武则天金简是武则天所遗留的唯一一件与她本人有关的可移动文物，对于研究唐代历史、武则天的政治思想、武则天书法、古代投简制度、古代封禅等都有重要价值。（文图来源：河南博物院）