Empress Wu: The Becoming Emperor Of China

Emperor Wudi’s greatest achievement was his vast territorial expansion, taking over other empires and tribes, but that success came at the expense of his country’s welfare because he abused his power to protect himself and fund his military. His perspective on a great dynasty is a dynasty with a lot of power and a thriving economy. Wudi was somewhat successful because he conquered a lot of lands and boosted the economy. In the long run and along the process, however, he hurt his economy and people along the way and in the long run. Emperor Wudi’s powerful authority combined with a rich government to fund the strong military led to extensive campaigns at the expense of his country’s welfare.

In both the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire, women were seen as delicate figures and had limited political freedom. Women in Han China were required to be accompanied and led by a male, whether

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

In the people’s eyes, Empress Wu Zhao and Genghis Khan were viewed as vicious, cold-hearted, and bloodthirsty rulers, because of their chief purpose in gaining sole power that would allow them to rule their empire. During Empress Wu Zhao’s reign, she committed immoral acts such as going to the extent of executing her opponents and blaming the deaths of her poisoned nieces on her troublesome nephews. During Genghis Khan’s reign, there were several acts of conquests, invasions, and warrior-like behavior that resulted in several wars, which caused the non-Mongolians to consider him as a cruel ruler due to the destruction of his expeditions. For instance, in the battle against the Tatars, majority of the people were slaughtered and children were captured to become his loyal subjects when matured. Through these acts of cruelty, the rulers were seen as evil. The rulers were always prepared to eliminate any rivals that would interfere with their power or become a hindrance to them. For example, Empress Wu Zhao eliminated the existing empress of China and the leading concubines, which were blocking her path in rising into power, enabling her to obtain the position of Empress of China herself in the year of 655. Empress Wu Zhao went ahead and imprisoned all members of the Tang Dynasty royal bloodline in order to ensure her reign’s security. For Genghis Khan, he eliminated all his existing rivals that consisted of Jamuka, the Tatars, Toghril, Kereit, and the Naiman ruler, which led him to proclaim

Empress Wu Zetian (originally called Wu Zhao) was the only female in Chinese history to rule as Emperor. Although for centuries, she was painted as a brutal and remorseless person due to her inhumane actions, Empress Wu remains as the most influential and mysterious woman in Chinese history. Born into a wealthy family in 624 A.D., Empress Wu was taught how to write, read Chinese classics and to play music. At the age of fourteen, she became a concubine to Emperor Taizong who favoured her knowledge of literature and history.

During the Tang dynasty, women had achieved some semblance of equality with men that had not been seen in prior dynasties. Of course, men were still the dominant of the two genders, but women were given similar opportunities. Depending on social status, they could conduct business, own properties of land, and receive an education. The Tang dynasty even saw the rise of a female emperor, Empress Wu, who reigned for most of her life until old age forced her to pass on her throne (116 cambridge ebrey tang). However, the Song dynasty was very different. Unlike the other cultural shifts presented, this change does not stem from outside social factors, but rather from the changes themselves. For example, women were believed to belong inside of the home and out of sight, where they could manage the household, while men belonged outside, where they could conduct business or receive an education (ebrey separating the genders 21). This view reflects the Confucian values that had been reintroduced during the Song dynasty. This Confucian viewpoint takes the inner and outer spheres and relates them to yin and yang (s.t.g 23). Because of Confucian ideals, yang is believed to be superior to yin, meaning the man and his outer sphere are superior to the woman and her inner sphere. Furthermore, these ideals enforced the belief that men and women should generally avoid each other, and

Despite Tang empress of china, Wu Zetian, and Egypt’s Pharaoh Hatshepsut leadership being underrated and infamous, these two hero women had their similarities and differences during the ear, beginning from striving to achieve leadership and power and later ruling the empires. Wu Zetian was a non-nonsense lady who strived to get what she desired and even used manipulation and violence for anyone who would cross her way. With stunning beauty and an excellent talent, Wu, managed her way top into emperor. Hatshepsut became emperor upon the death of her father claiming that, her father wanted her pharaoh. These two notorious women brought out the best in themselves and making their reign glorious.

Empress Wu was married to an emperor named Emperor Gaozong of Tang, who got very sick, and died. Although she had many sons after that, she thought that they were unworthy of the throne, and killed most of her sons(mostly her oldest sons). This widow had a secret police force look-out for anyone to question her. If they did, they would risk jail time, or even death. This Iron fist style of ruling was not well liked, but it did help the tang dynasty drastically improve. She was also the first female empress in Chinese history, and also one of the first to chose advisors based on ability or merit, rather than their rank. Because she was the first important women, she tried to make a new dynasty composing of women, and men equally mixed in a government

With the conclusion of the Arrow War (1860), China realized that her position was challenged by new forces from the West. Her supreme power was shattered, her material resources were limited and her territories were exposed to foreign aggression. Moreover, China at the same time suffered from government disintegration, financial chaos, corruption, natural disasters and peasant revolts. Some conscientious officials came to realize immediate measures had to be taken to strengthen the country and to adjust her to the modern world. Therefore a series of reform movements were carried out for the sake of internal re-construction and national defense.

Wu Zetian is known to be the first empress in China to have ruled in her own right. However, to get to the position of an empress, Wu Zetian did many unpleasant things but nonetheless, I still believe that she ended up did many good things for China that made up for all the bad she did. As an empress,Wu did a lot to help China. Some things she did was she stabilized and consolidated the Tang Dynasty, she began a campaign to elevate the position of a woman, she found the best people to run the government, she lowered oppressive taxes, raised agricultural production, and strengthen public works. Empress Wu did many great things but she was also very cruel at times. For instance, Wu arranged series of murders within her own family, smothered

the Ming’s Capital at Nanjing , along the Yangzi river. Hung wu also restablished Confucianism in China to obtain educated officials. The Ming led by Hung wu and later emperors focused highly on absolute obedience by the people. They obtained this through both Mandarins and Eunuchs. Hung wu also pushed for removal of all Nomadic Mongol culture from China and the revival of traditional Chinese culture. In a true rags to riches story Hung wu ,a bagger as a boy, moved up the ranks and became the emperor of an empire known as the “brilliant”.

Within China’s history, women in China did indeed live under constraints but they were not as the modern world would perceive. Through China’s literature, the woman’s position is one that was changing as the cultural and values changed during the dynasties. A woman in China also maintains their sense of power though that changed as well. Overall women adopted under the constraints that they lived in but at times used their own strength and voice.

For years, it has been debated on whether or not women in China were weak or strong. In China, women were regarded as the lesser gender. Yet, does that necessarily mean that women in China are weak? There are facts supporting both opinions, but I believe there are more signs pointing towards how resilient and strong women actually are. Women in China were exceptionally strong despite being persecuted for their gender; Although these women were required by tradition to serve their husbands or bind their feet, they still lived and conquered on. The three main points I believe that show how strong women from China are is that women are respected, even though their gender is, “lesser, women still live their life

When Emperor Taizong died, his youngest son Li Zhi ascended the throne as Emperor Gaozong of Tang. As Wu had not bore any children with Emperor Taizong before his death, according to custom, she was permanently confined to a monastic institution. However, Wu did not adhere to the custom and instead Emperor Gaozong who was enamoured by her beauty and intellect visited her after his father’s death. Due to the Emperor already having three children with Consort Xiao, also known as the Pure Concubine, and none with his wife, Empress Wang, Wang hoped that Wu would distract the Emperor from his favoured concubine and so, Wu once again became a Consort to the Emperor of China. However, modern historians dispute this believing that Wu never left the

If she lived in ancient China, the outcome was very different.In traditional Chinese society, the status of women was very low, in other words,they were even the accessories of men without any freedom. Neo-Confucianism has developed in Song Dynasty and those scholars emphasized the three obediences and the four virtues(the three obediences obey her father before marriage, her husband when married, and her sons in widowhood and the four virtues (morality, proper speech, modest manner and diligent work) of women in ancientChina;spiritual fetters of wifely