Seeker's Thoughts: Wu Zetian: The Only Woman Who Ruled China as Emperor

Seeker's Thoughts: Wu Zetian: The Only Woman Who Ruled China as Emperor

Painted portrait of Empress Wu Zetian from a Tang dynasty scroll. Image: 唐后行從圖 (局部) - 武則天.png (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons Wu Zetian is the only woman in Chinese history to have ruled as emperor in her own right. She did it in the seventh century, in a court that held that women shouldn't govern, and she held power for roughly fifteen years under her own dynasty after decades of influence behind the throne. The men who wrote the offici…