Page 73 - All About History - Issue 59-17

The Dragon Empress

A depiction of Wu from the
19th Century

distracted by a different kind of visitor entirely:
handsome young men.
Far into her 60s and beyond, there is evidence
that Wu did indeed take many young, handsome
men as her lovers. Her old age and the youth of
ther lovers caused scandal but, of course, this type
of thing had been going on for centuries — it was
unacceptable because of her gender. Two lovers in
particular, the Zhang brothers, irritated the court.
Flamboyant and possibly gay, they held raucous
parties with drugs. By 705, the court officials had Other women, like Empress Cixi (pictured),
enough and, with Wu in her 80s, they finally have sat on the Dragon Throne, but only
found themselves daring enough to go against her Wu ruled in her own right
— the Zhang brothers were executed.

Wu’s Blazing Trail

It is not unusual for women who have risen to the Inspired by their strong, female
highest stations to go against their gender. Many female leader, female poets and painters
leaders throughout history have even felt obliged to flourished. Many common women, who had been told
deny it, such as Elizabeth I with her “heart and stomach their path was already set, began to question this and
of a king”. However, Wu decided to use their newfound pursued careers that were previously closed to them.
power not to praise the strength of men but instead China benefited from this, establishing a vibrant culture
elevate the position of women. of diversity.
She instructed her scholars to write biographies of Unfortunately, this would not last forever. When Wu
famous and accomplished women and led a group of died and the criticisms began, a dark mark was placed
women to perform traditionally male rituals at Mount Tai. upon the name of women as rulers, or even people of
Most notably, she promoted women to roles of influence influence, and 1,200 females were excluded from the Wu appointed China’s first
within government, appointing the first female Chinese public world and foot binding returned. It was safer, female prime minister,
prime minister, Shangguan Wan’er. China decided, that women be quiet and look pretty. Shangguan Wan’er

73