Wu Zetian was China's only officially recognized empress

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Breaking the glass ceiling is impressive, but systematically usurping the Tang Dynasty is legendary. Wu Zetian started as a low-ranking concubine and ruthlessly manipulated, exiled, and likely murdered her way to become the ultimate ruler. She declared her own dynasty, expanded the empire, and was so fiercely competent that Chinese historians literally couldn't ignore her, despite their deep patriarchal resentment.

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Wu Zetian was China's only officially recognized empress — STACKY / History

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Wu Zetian was China's only officially recognized empress

A bigger world.One discoveryat a time.

Keep exploring

Wu Zetian’s terrifying ancient suggestion boxes

Hong Xiuquan failed his imperial civil service examinations so many times in nineteenth-century China that he had a nervous breakdown and hallucinated that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.

King Henry VIII employed an official known as the Groom of the Stool whose primary job was to assist the monarch with his bowel movements and wipe his royal backside.

Roman event organizers employed people dressed as Charon, the mythical ferryman of the dead, to walk around the Colosseum and smash dying gladiators in the head with heavy mallets to ensure they were actually dead.

During World War II, British citizens queued hours for a few ounces of butter.

The first mechanical clocks told time by sound

A bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.