biography
| name: |
Wu, Empress
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in full Wu Zhao
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (?625–?706)
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| biography:
| Empress of China, the only woman ever to rule China in her own name. A concubine of Emperor Taizong, she married his son, Emperor Gaozong, whom she dominated after his stroke (660). After his death (683) she first ruled through her own sons, then following a reign of bloody terror she seized the title emperor in 690 with the dynastic name Zhou (Chou). To establish legitimacy, she claimed to be Maitreya, a supposed Buddhist ‘messiah’, ordered public prophecy of a female monarch 700 years after Buddha, and rewrote genealogies. Highly capable, she expanded the bureaucracy and examination system, set up a personal secretariat, and dominated both Korea and Tibet. She was forced to abdicate in 705, and her family were assassinated in 710. |
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