Empress Wu Research Paper

The first and only reigning Hawaiian queen and the last Hawaiian sovereign to govern the islands, her name is Queen Liliuokalani. In the childhood of Queen Liliuokalani, there were lot’s interesting facts about her childhood to her adult life. I thought she was just a great Queen of Hawai’i and had a great life. But, after I read this, this was not true. She had lots of a hard time to defend the Hawai’i as the last Hawaiian queen.

Empress Wu climbed the political and social ladders from being a member of Emperor Taizong’s harem to ruling the empire of Gaozong from “behind the curtain” several years later. When Gaozong died in 683 she maintained control of the throne as regent to her sons before claiming the throne for herself in 690. Being a singular female empress was an extremely foreign thought in this time and Empress Wu tactfully employed acts of patronage to legitimize her right to the throne.

The Tang was a very aristocratic society that is known for being the “Golden Age” in Chinese history, with some of the greatest developments in the society occurring, (CD Benn, 2002). The dynasty made the unheard-of move of allowing women to sit for the Imperial examination and serve as government officials, with women enjoying the unprecedented power in politics (CD Benn, 2002). Charles Benn’s book, “China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang dynasty”, is a secondary source in the form of a book, published in 2002. He is a professor studying Chinese history, in particular, the Tang dynasty, and in his publication, details the lives of Chinese people in this dynasty. Women had much more freedom than seen in any dynasty before it and it gave women a voice and saw women with almost as equal rights in society, with women finally being able to enjoy the privilege of education and marriage

Under pressure of her court Zetian relinquished her crown to her son Li Xian3 (Empress Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty). In the same month of November Zetian died peacefully at age eighty (FitzGerald, Charles Patrick). Zetian marked the beginning of women’s rights because Zetian ruled when women were not a source of power.

She accused several officials of treason leading to demotion, exile, forced suicide and execution. In 660, Emperor Gaozong began to suffer from an illness that carried symptoms of painful headaches and loss of vision, which several historians thought may have been the result of slow poisoning by Empress Wu. Due to his ill health, Emperor Gaozong began to have Empress Wu making rulings and soon, her authority rivalled that of the Emperors. However, in 664, Empress Wu was said to be interfering so much in governance that she began to anger Emperor Gaozong. She had also engaged a Taoist sorcerer who was allegedly using witchcraft, which was prohibited by regulations and had also been a major part of Empress Wang’s deposition.

Empress Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty. She was one of the concubines of Emperor Taizong; she was the empress of Emperor Gaozong; she was the mother of Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong; she was once a nun in the temple. But her most glorious title was that

While China culturally remained the same from the 600s to the late 1400s, the country hardly changed politically either. A monarchy completely dominated China’s government during these years. Under the Tang dynasty, the rulers constantly changed and new policies were thought of, but the overall government did not change. The Tang Code, the criminal or penal code, was established in 624. It synthesised Legalist and Confucian of law, and it has constantly been considered one of the greatest achievemnts of traditional Chinese law. This code became the basis of later codes in both China and other parts of Asia. During the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhanged began the draft of a new Confucian law code, the Daming Lu, which repeated various clauses that were found in the Tang Code years ago. Specific aspects in the Tang dynasty were revived during the Ming dynasty, resulting in a very slight amount of change for the lives of Chinese citizens for almost 800 years. Women’s status remained lower than that of

With this the Tang Dynasty was formed to rule the next 300 years. After a series of killing Taizong became the emperor from 626-649. Taizong’s was an excellent military strategist and tried to establish chinese and barbarians as equals to rule over both. In 630 he acquired the name “Heavenly Khan” from the mongolian turks, becoming the first emperor to gain power outside the walls of China. By combining his new powers he dramatically extended the control of the Tang.

Wu Zhao belonged to the Tang Empire, which according to the author which “…was a true empire, encompassing many lands, many peoples, and many ideologies. Multi ethnic and cosmopolitan, Tang China was perfectly suited for the ascent of a historical anomaly like Wu Zhao…” (Rothschild, 2008, p. 11) In a sense, there was a conflict of traditional Confucian values which promoted a patriarchal society and the liberal Steppe culture which gave women more freedom and rights. China at that time was a cocktail of these cultures which led to a significant impact on the lifestyle and values of peoples in that era. Women were bold and tough, and unlike earlier societies, were no longer confined socially and sexually (Rothschild, 2008, p. 12). While did not exist a perfect equality between men and women, women of that era were allowed to live without hiding under the dominance of the male Yang. As the author talks of the Silk Road, it is mentioned that,”…In this free-wheeling milieu, women donned men’s attire and rode horses…” (Rothschild, 2008, p. 15) .This “cosmopolitan” (Rothschild, 2008, p. 16) society was the foundation for the Tang Empire. Another important factor was the prevalence of Buddhism as a religion of the masses. Buddhism, in itself, helped united much of Asia, and was a common platform for men and women, unlike in Confucianism where

Our Story begins with Liu Chenweng, an intellectual and spiritual leader of the Chinese Confucian community for the Song Dynasty. However,his life changed when the Mongol invasions occurred. Before the invasion, Liu Chenweng had to to pass the palace exam that was based on Confucism for him to secure a high-ranking job. He was accepted to be the headmaster job at Leanxi Academy that was close to his own home. When the Mongol invasions occur and ruled the the region of China, establishing the Yuan Dynasty by Kublai Khan after Genghis Khan's death.

The Han dynasty was a golden era for China. It saw the greatest land confiscation of the nation’s history and economic success. In this paper I will be focusing on the structure of the national government, the monopolizing of iron and salt, the Yumen Pass and the Yellow Turban rebellion. Join me as we take a trip back in time to visit a time in Chinas history that is highly revered.

The Qianlong Emperor is one of the most notable emperors in Chinese history due to the complexity of his reign. Qianlong was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty from 1735 to 1796. This is one of the longest in Chinese History. The first 40 years were some of his greatest achievements, however the last 20 years were met with fraud, corruption, and a declining popularity. In this essay, I will argue that despite having a major blemish to his reign, the Qianlong Emperor was a successful emperor. I am defining and measuring successfulness based on 1) the ability to grow the empire 2) whether or not they have good intentions for empire and 3) control and security over the empire. The Qianlong Emperor’s greatest successes shine through his militaristic campaigns, foreign relations, and his protection and his advocating for art. However, it is also stained by corruption and bad management.

Many people argued that Empress Dowager Cixi accelerated the speed of the demise of the Qing dynasty. Cixi might be a blasting fuse but she was not accounted for the final fall of the dynasty. The actions Cixi took had profoundly changed the foundation of feudal China so as to push China forward into a modern stage. Although many historical data suggested that whatever Cixi had done were to consolidate her authority and personal status. But no matter what, the impact on the country was obvious. Cixi broke the previous traditions from Confucianism that had been lasted for centuries. Tensions between the Manchus and Han Chinese had been greatly improved, which made a great contribution to China for later unification. Under the reign of the Empress Dowager, the social structure had undergone a series of changes. Qing 's demise is doomed, this was resulted from issues that had stacked up from previous generations. Moreover, Cixi did her best to secure China’s status in the world in such a chaotic period in history. She made undeniable contributions to China.

Empress Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule China, ruled during the Tang dynasty, but exerted cruel and malicious methods to gain power. She was born with the name Wu Zhao into a wealthy family and learned to write, read, and play music. Because of her beauty and intelligence, Wu became Emperor Tsung’s fifth favorite concubine, or

Qin Shi Huang was born in 259 BC and eventually ascended to the throne of the kingdom of Qin at the age of 21 creating a war and declaring himself China’s first emperor (Source 1). Although he did bring unification to China, Qin Shi Huang was a forbidding and brutal dictator who abused his power and dishonoured his people and country. This assignment will clearly highlight the negative aspects of Qin Shi Huang, including: the banning of Confucius, how he enforced of unnecessarily strict laws and how his arrogance and ignorance eventually took over.