The Rise & Fall of Empress Wu Zetian- Chinas Only Female Emperor - History Documentary

Hey, have you ever hear of a woman being in charge of all China? Not merely a queen by the side of a king, not simply the wife of the emperor who smiles and waves. I mean the real ruler. The number one guy in the whole country, the guy that sits on the throne, gives instructions, writes laws, like something out of a fairy tale, huh? But that truly did happen. And how she got there is more crazy, more scary, and more jaw-dropping than anything you've seen in movies or read in books. Get ready for the narrative of Wu Zetian, the only woman who ever ruled China as emperor. Okay, so some big picture stuff first. China had 558 emperors over a period of 3,000 years. That's a lot of emperors. And each and every one of them was a man. They battled, they cheated, they were thrown out, and they replaced each other again and again. But of all those hundreds of guys, only one lady made it up to the very top. And trust me, she didn't climb nicely. She clawed and scratched and shoved Wu Zetian was born in 624 at a little city in the heart of China. Then it was China, Tang Dynasty. Now you might know a little bit about American history where everything started on the east coast and steadily expanded west and the country evolved kind of nicely. But China's past isn't like that. Its borders are always changing and things are a chaos. But don't worry. All you really need to know about this story is Wu was living in the Tang Dynasty and things got complicated. Wu as a teenager had a life like most other girls in China at the time. She cleans the house every day. She learned to cook. She was being educated to be a housewife for some man considerably older than herself. That's just the way life was back then. And in those days, to be ready for marriage was to be about 14 years old. So Wu was one of many hopefuls sent to the emperor's court to become a concubine when she was 14 years old. A concubine is like a wife but not the main wife. And you know what? She was picked by the emperor himself along with a dozen or so other girls. Now let's be clear about what being a concubine entailed. You were pretty much there to keep the emperor company in the very intimate sense. And for most concubines that was the beginning and end of their story. They never grew up to be anything else. But Wu was no ordinary concubine. She had a plan. A bold, smart, long-term plan to be more than just one of the emperor's women. And that plan began to come to fruition when the emperor at that time, Emperor Taizong, become very ill and died. In those days, people said that he was poisoned by the Buddhists. It seems weird but that's what they thought. When Taizong died, one of his sons had to succeed him as emperor. He has nine boys altogether. But the one who landed on the throne was his youngest son named Lai Zhai. And Wu viewed this as her golden ticket. But to see why that was such a big issue, you need to know a little bit about Li Zhai, who later became known as, well, Emperor Gaozong. But you might be saying, wait a minute, this is how the youngest son becomes the emperor. Oldest is supposed to get the job, isn't it? Yes, that was the usual process. But Li Zhai's case was different, even sort of lucky. You see, his father, Emperor Taizong, had numerous wives and the Chinese had a very rigid way of ordering them. Empress Zhangsun was the top wife, the highest ranking and the favorite. Of the nine sons, she had three. This put the other six sons out of the running for the throne. There were now just three lads left. Li Changquian, the eldest, Li Tai, the middle, and Li Zhai, the youngest. If only everyone had been kind and acted fair, the oldest of all nine, Changquian, would have been the next emperor. The end of the narrative. But Li Tai genuinely desired the throne. It was a long shot, he knew, but he fought very hard to win his father's support. He had appeal. He did good work. He wanted to be the favorite boy. Changquian was worried when he learned his younger brother, Li Tai, had become dad's new favorite. Very frightened. He feared he was about to lose it all. So he had a big hidden plan with some strong family members and military leaders to throw his own father off the throne. But regrettably for Changquian, his plan was discovered out before he could act. First, the emperor heard of it and was outraged. He had sent his eldest son to the country. Changquian died soon after at the age of only 26. One less rival. Only Li Tai and Li Qi remained. Li Tai was the oldest hence according to the regulations he was next on the throne. Li Zhai did not fight against. Honestly, he appeared very okay with his brother being emperor and their father was all right with it at first too. But then the emperor began to have misgivings. Is it Li Tai's fault for all this trouble? He thought. Did he fear his big brother so much that he tried to betray me? Soon even the emperor's brother-in-law began to say that Li Zhai would make a better emperor. Li Tai was quite frightened about that. He didn't want to lose his chance. So he started threatening his younger brother Li Zhai. He stated he would lie to their father that Li Zhai was part of the unsuccessful scheme. When Emperor Taizong saw that Li Zhai was frightened and distressed and learned of what Li Tai had been up to, he made up his mind at last. He put Li Tai into exile. And so Li Zhai was made crown prince, future emperor. Li Zhai was a caring good son. He liked his father a lot. As crown prince he'd had all his time to try to please his father. That went to the heart of the emperor. Li Zhai remained by Emperor Taizong's bedside when he was dying. He endured days without food. He wept incessantly for his father's illness and impending death. A few days after the emperor died and Li Zhai become Emperor Gaozong. So what do you think of the new emperor after hearing all this now? You think he was brave and heroic and powerful? Or do you think he was a soft mama's boy who just got lucky and made a wrong turn somewhere? This was just what Wu Zeshan was waiting for. She spotted a man on top who looked like he could be led easily and who could influence him better than one of his wives. Wu had charmed and sweet talked her way into marrying the new emperor. But it was still a hard one. This was old China, remember? The emperor had wives and everyone was continuously attempting to stab each other in the back to obtain greater power. Wu was caught in a battle between two powerful rivals. One was the emperor's first wife, Empress Wang. As the first wife, she had a higher status and Wu had to do something about that. The second rival was not a wife but a concubine called Xiaoshufei. All three women were vying for the emperor's attention. But Wu has a plan in place. First, she utilized all her years of experience sweet-talking men. Experience she had garnered back when she was her side. He began to like her better than the rest. And then she made sure no one would ever be able to trouble her again by framing Empress Wang for the death of Wu's own baby daughter. Now we don't know for sure if Wu killed her daughter only to accuse the empress. But she did, others say. It worked either way. The empress was overthrown. Finally, Wu persuaded the emperor to dispose of the other concubine, Xiaoshufei, as well. In terms of a Chinese dynasty that meant demoting their rank to commoner and locking them up in the royal palace for the remainder of their life. It never came out. Emperor Gaozong was such a mama's boy, or should we say Wu's boy, that she kept control of him for five more years. That sort of behavior was not even that unusual in Chinese history. So what happened then? Well, Gaozong suffered a stroke. He had a stroke. That implies some part of his body stopped working. He could no longer reign. This was Wu's opportunity. Now she had a very solid reason for taking over. Her spouse was too sick to complete the work. So she emerged from the shadows and controlled the Tang dynasty herself for 23 years. But then the emperor, unhappily for her, died in his sleep. So the whole eldest son inherits the throne business had to start all over again. Wu was on the brink of losing all the influence she had wielded for almost 30 years. And she wasn't about to let that happen, no way. Remember, in all those years she was in power, Wu had had a son. But he was not the eldest son, which means he wasn't the next up. Oops. Wu was a great planner. Over the years, she discreetly sent the other sons away, one by one. And last, she poisoned the legitimate royal prince. Gone. Now that he was gone, there was no one else remaining. The only option was for her own son to be the next emperor. Any normal youngster going to become emperor would be happy. He'd be tickled. But not this lad. His name was Li Zhi, with an E. How ironic. And he understood that the ascension to the throne under his mother's watch would be everything but pleasant. Wu had very much shut him up in the palace. Yes, she had locked up the emperor himself. For the following seven years, she ran everything. To be fair, he didn't protest too much as she kept delivering him excellent food and young concubines. But he knew his small utopia might vanish at any time. And sure enough, Wu decided she liked her younger kid more. So she cast out the first son and sent him away. Fired. In the year 690, Wu determined it was time for the last, largest step. She made her son give her the throne. There was nothing he could do. She established her own dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty, and was officially the first female emperor in the whole history of China. What was required? Murder, exile, manipulation, childbearing. That was her checklist and she ticked every box. Mission accomplished. You may be asking yourself now, what was it like to live under her rule? The more she was in the limelight, the more cruel she got. For normal daily folks, she was just about like any other emperor. Not much special. But for those inside the royal walls, the nobles, the bureaucrats, the family, life was frightening. You never knew when she would turn on you. But this video, or this story, is about the ascent asterisk and the collapse of China's only female ruler. So how did she fall down? As Wu got older and older, she became seriously ill for long periods of times. This is when the mighty men and the military generals sensed their chance. They intended to remove her so that someone else could enjoy becoming emperor in terms of Chinese dynasties. They played out their hands. But here's the surprising bit. In the end, Wu died quietly. Not by an enraged general's sword. Not by the poison of a jealous kinsman. And she just died in her bed of her sickness. And frankly, she received a fairly sweet finish compared to all the brothers and relatives she had betrayed and slain. This is the wild, bizarre, amazing story of how China got its first and only female emperor. And how it all went wrong. A lady who began life as a teenage concubine clawed her way through murder and deceit to become the most powerful person in the whole country. Love her or hate her, you has to admit. She knew how to win.