In all of Chinese history, only one woman has ruled in her own name as empress regnant. From A.D. 665, when she and her husband the Emperor Gaozong effectively took joint control of the imperial court ...

The tomb of Shangguan Wan'er(664–710), an influential female politician and poet during the regime of Empress Wu Zetian (690-705 ... an imperial concubine to Emperor Zhongzong. Shangguan's ...

That the final years of Shangguan Wan’er’s life were tumultuous was no secret. The seven years between Wu Zetian’s death in 705 and her grandson Li Longji’s ascension to the throne as Emperor Xuanzong ...

[Photo/Artron.net] Another frequently seen image of Wu Zetian is the block-painted edition of Images of Ancient People in History, created in 1498, during the reign of Emperor Hongzhi in the Ming ...

support for the exiled Emperor of Persia, and a dynamic religious landscape, Gaozong finds solace in the knowledge that the true power behind the throne, Empress Wu Zetian, will continue to shape ...

The original stone statue of Wu Zetian in Sichuan province. [Photo/Artron.net] There are also many stone statues of Empress Wu Zetian, and the most ancient one is now at her birthplace ...

However, her affair with Emperor Gaozong, the new emperor, brought her back to the palace as a concubine. Wu Zetian’s clever strategies helped her rise to power. She removed Empress Wang and ...

Here, series presenter Rana Mitter tells the story of Wu Zetian, the female Emperor. Only one woman has ever sat on China’s throne as Emperor in her own right. That woman was Wu Zetian (624-705 ...

Wu Zetian, China's only recorded empress, was initially a concubine to Emperor Taizong in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). When he died, Wu married his successor, Emperor Gaozong, and ruled the country in ...

She, however, helped expand the Chinese empire significantly in the 15 years of her reign from 690 C.E. to 705 C.E. It is also reported that after Emperor Gaozong's death, Wu Zetian effectively ...