Mona--Wu

Mona Scheiber Word count: 554 Empress Wu Someone who is a leader, and possesses leadership can be seen as someone who is open, creative, fearless, and one who shows dedication to being a leader. Openness must be shown so she can accept outside values, creativity in ways of ruling, fearlessness to not be afraid of anything that gets in the way, and dedication to being a leader. A person who fits all of these traits is Empress Wu. Empress Wu showed her openness by practicing Buddhism, was creative in how she received power, was fearless enough to become ruler even though women were not shown respect, and showed dedication by making peace for her country. Empress Wu born in 624 and died in 705 grew up in the time of the Tang Dynasty, controlled by Taizong. She lived during a time when Confucian ideas were used to influence people.[1] When she was thirteen years old, she became a concubine for the emperor. When the emperor died in the year 649, his wife Gaozong relied on Empress Wu to run the country, which she did efficiently. When Gaozong died in the year 683, her son Zhonzong took control.2 Empress Wu had a child during that time and used her creativity to devise a plan to become empress. She killed her child, and blamed it on the wife of the emperor, thus fearlessly taking the throne for herself, and naming herself empress. During her reign, with her strong level of dedication to practicing Buddhism, she was able to receive the loyalty of a group of Buddhist monks, which allowed her to gain power.3 Buddhism later on became one of the most influential religions in China. Also during her reign she reduced the amount of military spendings, peace was gained for the country, agricultural production increased, and there was a promotion of Chinese arts. 4 Empress Wu was also important because she was a woman, and it was very rare for women to play important roles. Empress Wu only had one weakness in her rule, that being the tactics she used to gain the power that she did. Although she was creative in gaining the power, she did not let anyone or anything stand between her reign, and she was ruthless. She blamed those that were the best men for creating “government affairs” that occurred. 5 She also killed her own child, and blamed someone else for the incident. Although Empress Wu used harsh tactics to gain the power that she did, Empress Wu can be seen as one of the greatest leaders of all times, not only because of what she did but because she set a high standard later on for women. She was able to keep her power during a time in history when women had an absence of power, and a low status. 6 Empress Wu used openness, creativity, fearlessness and dedication to gain the respect she did as “the first and sole female emperor in Chinese history.” 7

Bibliography Ashby, Ruth, and Deborah G. Ohrn. //Women Who Changed the World//. (New York: Viking Press,) 1995.

//World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras,// s.v.”Wu Hou,” Accessed April 3, 2012. [] Internet Grade: 16

"Wu, Ze-tian (624-705)." //DISCovering World History//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. //Junior Reference Collection//. Gale. Seven Hills Upper School. Accessed April 3, 2010. Internet Grade: 14

[1] "Wu, Ze-tian (624-705)." //DISCovering World History//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. //Junior Reference Collection//. Gale. Seven Hills Upper School. Accessed April 3, 2010. Internet Grade: 14 2 //World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras,// s.v.”Wu Hou,” Accessed April 3, 2012. [] Internet Grade: 16

3 Ashby, Ruth, and Deborah G. Ohrn. //Women Who Changed the World//. (New York: Viking, 1995), 31-32. 4 //World History.// 5 Ashby, 31. 6 “Wu, Ze-tian. 7 Ibid.