Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God - Hardcover

Clements, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0750939613 ISBN 13: 9780750939614

Publisher: History Pr Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

Wu was the first and only woman in Chinese history to become a reigning empress. Jonathan Clements tells the dramatic and colourful story of the seventh-century daughter of a lumber merchant who used her looks, cunning and connections to rule one of the largest empires of the world.

Before Wu was born, prophecies predicted that she would become an emperor. It was thus a source of disappointment to her family when she turned out to be a girl. But they underestimated Wu's steely determination to succeed. At the age of 13 she took the first steps on her path to power when she was selected as a concubine to the 40-year-old Supreme Emperor (Taizong).

When the emperor fell ill, the ambitious Wu committed a capital crime by seducing his heir. Her gamble paid off, and when the emperor died, his besotted heir, now the High Emperor (Gaozong), rescued Wu from life in a convent. Back in the palace, Wu wasted no time in framing and executing her opposition, the empress and the beautiful Pure Concubine. Her ruthlessness even extended to her own family. After her husband had died, she poisoned her strong-willed eldest son, tried to rule through his two more malleable brothers but eventually took the throne herself.

Coloured by intrigue, murder, incest and seduction, Wu's incredible true story is a rich and fascinating tale. Drawing on the original Chinese sources, Jonathan Clements reveals the life of this extraordinary woman who proclaimed herself a living god, founded a new dynasty and was only deposed, aged 79, after jealous courtiers had murdered her two young lovers.

About this title

About the Author:

Jonathan Clements is the author of Pirate King, Confucius and The First Emperor of China, as well as children's books on Chinese history and religion. He is a contributing editor to Newtype USA magazine, and the recipient of a Japan Festival Award for outstanding contributions to the understanding of Japanese culture.

From Publishers Weekly:

Empress Wu (625-705), the only woman in Chinese history to rule in her own name during the golden age of the Tang Dynasty, began her career as a low-ranking concubine in the palace of Emperor Taizong. Here, historian and author Clements (The First Emporer) tells the story of her improbable rise to power and her 30-plus years as Empress. Aside from his subtitle, Clements is even-handed in his depiction. Wu was a feminist who argued for the equality of women, upset the long established Confucian orthodoxy by appointing new bureaucrats according to their merit, and courted the commoners by lowering taxes and developing new farmlands. She also started her own secret police force, had eleven branches of the imperial family exterminated-entirely-during two years of purges, and made her cosmetics-dealing lover a Buddhist priest so that he could proclaim her divinity. Clements' only misstep is in his parade of minor historical characters, introduced every few pages to distracting effect. Otherwise, Clements' skillful narrative leaves it to the reader to decide whether Wu was a tyrant or a dutiful stateswoman maligned by the patriarchs of history; students of Chinese history will find this illuminating and enjoyable. Illustrations.
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About this edition

• Publisher: History Pr Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0750939613
• ISBN 13: 9780750939614
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 239