China Had a Female Emperor Once: They Never Let It Happen Again.

Wu Zetian killed her own daughter to take the throne. She killed her son too. She ruled China for 15 years as Emperor — not Empress, Emperor — and the dynasty spent the next century making sure it never happened again. How does a low-ranking palace concubine become the only female emperor in 2,000 years of Chinese imperial history? And why did the system respond with a thousand years of institutional suppression?