Wu Zetian Becomes China's Only Female Emperor
A former concubine seizes the throne outright and rules for fifteen years
Quick facts
- Proclaimed emperor
- 690 CE
- Reign ended
- 705 CE (palace coup)
- Dynasty founded
- Zhou (replacing Tang, temporarily)
- Status
- Only woman to rule China in her own name
What happened
Wu Zetian entered the Tang palace as a low-ranking concubine to Emperor Taizong, then maneuvered her way to power under his son Emperor Gaozong, becoming empress consort and effectively ruling alongside him. After Gaozong died in 683 CE, Wu ruled as empress dowager through two of her sons in succession, placing each on the throne and removing him when he proved uncooperative, including forcing her son Ruizong to abdicate in 690 CE. In 690 CE she took the unprecedented step of proclaiming herself emperor in her own right, ending the Tang dynasty's line for the moment and founding her own short-lived Zhou dynasty, becoming the only woman ever to rule China under her own name and authority.
Why it matters
Wu Zetian ruled as the recognized emperor of China for fifteen years, employing feared Legalist-style law officers to suppress opposition while also patronizing Buddhism, literature, and the arts and reforming the civil service to reward merit over birth. No other woman in more than two thousand years of Chinese imperial history repeated her feat of ruling in her own name, though later powerful women, including the Qing dynasty's Empress Dowager Cixi, were compared to her.
How we know
Wu Zetian's reign is documented in Tang-era court records and later official histories, though several were compiled under rulers with reason to portray her negatively; her death in 705 CE, at 81, followed a palace coup that restored Tang rule.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Wu Zetian · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Victor Xiong, Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, Ohio State University. Wu Zetian: The Only Woman Emperor in Chinese History · Reputable sourceorigins.osu.edu · The domain "origins.osu.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineHistory of China30 events · From Neolithic river villages to dynasties that lasted for centuries, then a revolution that ended imperial ruleView all →