Wu Zetian

Wu Zetian was a woman of ambitions. She was a concubine of Tang Taizong and bore him a child. After the death of Taizong, she became one of the concubines of the son of Taizong, who was named Tang Gaozong. Her goal was to become the first female-emperor of China. To achieve her goals, Wu Zetian became extremely ruthless, murdering her relatives who tried to take advantage of her position. She horrifically killed off other favourite concubines of the emperor, and to get rid of the empress, she murdered her own infant daughter and blamed it on the empress. Of all of these crimes, the emperor knew nothing off. Since the emperor was physically very weak, Wu Zetian took care of many duties that were meant for the emperor alone. Slowly, she came in power. AD 690, after the death of Gaozong, she became the only female-emperor in Chinese history and changed the name of the dynasty to Zhou.

Wu Zetian was in power for half a centruy. Although she was a ruthless woman, she was also a very compotent woman. During her rein, quality of life improved, economy adn national power were both on an upscale. She wanted tofind talents to help her rule the country, so she came up with a "self-recommend" rule. With this rule, many political talents were found and employed in the government.Such people included the famous prime minister, Di Renjie. Despite her success, many officers did not want to be ruled by a woman. AFter many oppositions, Wu Zetian was forced to descend the throne and let her son be proclaimed emperor. The dynasty of Zhou thus ended.