Wu Zetian
624–705
Wu Zetian rose from a concubine of Emperor Taizong to become, in 690, the only woman in Chinese history to rule in her own right as emperor, founding the short-lived Zhou dynasty after decades of steadily consolidating power under and then alongside Emperor Gaozong. Her fifteen-year reign expanded merit-based civil examinations, patronised Buddhism and coincided with a period of Tang cultural and political strength, though it was also marked by a secret-police apparatus that pursued rivals through denunciation and torture. She was deposed in 705 and died the same year, and traditional Confucian historians condemned her far more severely than modern scholars, who have reassessed several of the era's darker accusations against her.
