If there is one thing an adolecent boy can tell you about from his experiences is that women can be real bitches. In my opinion the biggest-meanest-craziest-two faced bitch of the ancient China was none other than Empress Wu. Now i can tell you about my girl problems leading into heart break, and you can tell me about yours but how many guys who are reading this can honostly say "hey my wife is insane and killed our children"? Ever heard of a Succubus? Well it is a mythlogical, i hope, female demon that want to suck the life out of a man and drag them to hell. She is kind of like that, accept for her, Hell is being in a relationship. So she came into play as a concubine, who killed her own baby and blamed the current empress so the empror would kick her out leaving Wu to become empress. Bitch move number 1. The emperor got a stroke and Wu was using him as a pupet so she had the true power. The first heir to the thrown "died" meanwhile the second was banished from the empire for "plotting a rebellion". After the emperor, Gaozong, had died, his son Zhongzong took over but was swiftly kicked out because her wife wanted to make her dad a chancelor. The next son, Ruizong, was empror but lived far away and was rarely involved in imperial actions. Bitch move number, i lost count. As a ruler she was quite good becuase she thought about the people. I think she was two faced because she used religion (Bhuddism) as her alyby for ruling; admitting to the idea of the Great Cloud Sutra which was a proficy that said Bhuda reincarnated into a women ruler and would make the world much better. After a rebellion, she built a Bright Hall and invited all her princes and subjects. Those who did not come, she presumed against her and destroyed them. Another way of using religion to her advantage. She started a new Zhou Dynasty and proclaimed her self the first women empror of China. She was the first and only, and did not give up power until her early 80's and abdicated to her son Zhongzong.
Info from Ebrey Handout
Empress Wu
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