Empress Wu In The Tang Dynasty

Throughout five thousand years of Chinese history, there was such a unique empress named Zetian Wu. She was the first and only female emperor in Chinese history. As an intelligent, decisive, brave, impartial, prudent, responsibility, calm, and cruel woman, she became the only empress in the male dominated society and established her own dynasty. Her courage and wisdom won people's respect. Even though she was rude, her own exclusively statecraft and unique method to develop the Tang dynasty, led her period became heyday in that century. Although Wu’s policies were not all frank and forthright, it was undeniable that she had made tremendous contributions in history. Empress Wu brought hope and confidence to the country under her reign. Wu Zetian’s

After Taizong was death, his son Gaozong became the Emperor. Two years after, Gaozong makes Zetian Wu to be his concubine because he likes her. Wu increased her knowledge and means during the time she strives for emperor's favor and for high honors. Thus, she beats Gaozong’s other wives who have more power than her which cause her to gain more power. Finally, she became Gaozong’s legitimacy wife when she was thirty-two years old. Emperor Gaozong did not expect Wu's talent in politic at first. She occasionally gives some good ideas when Gaozong handled the affairs of state. But she got more experience over time which unconsciously affected the emperor's decisions. GaoZong was a valetudinarianism person and suffered a stroke in 655. He knows Wu was a talented woman. He respected her judgement and entrusted the affairs of state to her during his bouts of illness in spite of Confucian strictures against female rule. So he gave the right to her to governed and makes many of his court decisions for him. She discussed affairs of state with his councilors, who took orders from her while she sat behind a screen. This gave her political experience and influence growth. After a while, Gaozong died by an illness. Wu’s son Ruizong became Emperor, but she was the one who control in the back. Her son was just a puppet emperors. However, Wu did not satisfy to stay in the

Wu took it as a major event to elect talented people. She even went to the examination room to conduct examinations. She wrote a book called Minister Criterion to reinforce their education by telling them the importance of unity, loyalty, observation, honesty, trust, impartiality, prudence and responsibility. The Imperial Examinations System mainly focused on testing politically critical problems. The qualities of the answers were the main criterion for admission. Admission conditions were not based on one's background, class, wealth or gender compared to examinations in other dynasties. The test only examined if one has a political ability. Wu tended to assign people succeeded in the examinations in higher positions. In this way, she could gain more power from the central government by avoiding noble members to raise political power. Therefore, most of the best scholars dominated the higher positions within the government. It had balanced the power between royal members and civilians. It had also stimulated the enthusiasm of poets to join the system test. A lot of people would like to serve Empress Wu due to her penetration and fairness. Furthermore, it encouraged ordinary people to concentration on learning and reading. The appointment of lower class people to be officials reduced corruption, stabilized the central government, developed production system, stroke down surrounding minority