Wu Zetian 武则天
The Sovereign
You don't want a seat at the table. You want the table.
- Ambitious
- Decisive
- A spotter of talent
Wu Zhao entered Emperor Taizong's palace at fourteen. Asked how she would handle a horse nobody could break, she named three tools: an iron whip, an iron mace and a dagger. Half a century later she became the only woman in three thousand years of Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own name, with a dynasty of her own — the Zhou.
Like her, you back yourself, and you look for ability wherever it hides. She widened the imperial examinations and promoted men from nowhere on merit, and several of the ministers she found went on to run the Tang at its height. Her shadow side was as large as her talent: she ran a terror as efficiently as she ran the granaries. In front of her tomb stands a stone tablet nearly seven metres high. It is blank.
