Empress Wu Zetian

The Legend of Mulan During the Tang Dynasty. (618-907AD)

An overview of the person and who they are:

Empress Wu Zetian rose to power shortly after the formation of the Tang Dynasty. She had sovereign reign over all of China and had a profound impact on the society’s opinion of women, but it was sadly after her death that the slow culture started to adapt, and authors began portraying women in a more positive light.

Why you think they are a good leader:

I think she is a good leader because she manged to rule all of China back in 618, something that would be a struggle for women to do now and she did it for 15 years.

What are their achievements:

She was the only female emperor in China’s history.

She started off as Emperor Taizong’s concubine in which after his death she married his son, Gaozong (around 649-683) and became the empress consort but was the power behind the Emperor.

When her husband Gaozong died in 683, Wu took control over the government as empress dowager, she then placed her two sons on the throne, but they did not last long before she took them off. After Gaozong’s death in 683 she waited 7 years before she openly proclaimed herself as emperor in 690 and she ruled over china until a year before her death in 705 at the age of 81.

What good leadership skills & behaviours they have?

She known what she wanted and went after it and did what ever it took to get it.

She eliminated any other proposition to the court and had Lady Wang and Lady Xiao killed after she had them exiled. Emperor Wu claims that Lady Wang murdered Wu’s daughter, it was later agreed by historians that Wu had killed her own daughter to frame Lady Wang.