Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God [Hardcover]

Jonathan Clements (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007

Wu was the first and only woman in Chinese history to become a reigning empress. Jonathan Clements tells the dramatic and colourful story of the seventh-century daughter of a lumber merchant who used her looks, cunning and connections to rule one of the largest empires of the world.

Before Wu was born, prophecies predicted that she would become an emperor. It was thus a source of disappointment to her family when she turned out to be a girl. But they underestimated Wu's steely determination to succeed. At the age of 13 she took the first steps on her path to power when she was selected as a concubine to the 40-year-old Supreme Emperor (Taizong).

When the emperor fell ill, the ambitious Wu committed a capital crime by seducing his heir. Her gamble paid off, and when the emperor died, his besotted heir, now the High Emperor (Gaozong), rescued Wu from life in a convent. Back in the palace, Wu wasted no time in framing and executing her opposition, the empress and the beautiful Pure Concubine. Her ruthlessness even extended to her own family. After her husband had died, she poisoned her strong-willed eldest son, tried to rule through his two more malleable brothers but eventually took the throne herself.

Coloured by intrigue, murder, incest and seduction, Wu's incredible true story is a rich and fascinating tale. Drawing on the original Chinese sources, Jonathan Clements reveals the life of this extraordinary woman who proclaimed herself a living god, founded a new dynasty and was only deposed, aged 79, after jealous courtiers had murdered her two young lovers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Empress Wu (625-705), the only woman in Chinese history to rule in her own name during the golden age of the Tang Dynasty, began her career as a low-ranking concubine in the palace of Emperor Taizong. Here, historian and author Clements (The First Emporer) tells the story of her improbable rise to power and her 30-plus years as Empress. Aside from his subtitle, Clements is even-handed in his depiction. Wu was a feminist who argued for the equality of women, upset the long established Confucian orthodoxy by appointing new bureaucrats according to their merit, and courted the commoners by lowering taxes and developing new farmlands. She also started her own secret police force, had eleven branches of the imperial family exterminated-entirely-during two years of purges, and made her cosmetics-dealing lover a Buddhist priest so that he could proclaim her divinity. Clements' only misstep is in his parade of minor historical characters, introduced every few pages to distracting effect. Otherwise, Clements' skillful narrative leaves it to the reader to decide whether Wu was a tyrant or a dutiful stateswoman maligned by the patriarchs of history; students of Chinese history will find this illuminating and enjoyable. Illustrations.
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About the Author

Jonathan Clements is the author of Pirate King, Confucius and The First Emperor of China, as well as children's books on Chinese history and religion. He is a contributing editor to Newtype USA magazine, and the recipient of a Japan Festival Award for outstanding contributions to the understanding of Japanese culture.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750939613
• ISBN-13: 978-0750939614
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #950,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jonathan Clements is the author of many books on East Asian history, including biographies of emperors and empresses, statesmen and warriors, foreign visitors and outcast rebels. His works have been translated into over a dozen languages, including French, Spanish, Korean and Dutch, and he achieved a rare distinction when his book on the First Emperor of China was itself published in Chinese.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chinese story whose lightest word will freeze thy blood, November 11, 2007

By 

César González Rouco (Madrid, Madrid Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful biography. I was somehow worried it would be boring. However, the author manages to narrate Wu's life and times in such a way that I could not put it down, and read it in less than a week's time.

Starting as a 13-year-old concubine favorite in the harem of Emperor Taizong, Wu seduced his son by whom she later became pregnant and murdered her rivals - including the empress - to become empress herself. Possibly guilty of infanticide, and of murdering her own sister, once she became the 'power behind the curtain Wu schemed and cheated her way to the throne and ruled personally under the name Emperor Shengshen from 690 to 705 (the first woman ever to use the title emperor which had been created 900 years before by the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang). After surviving two revolts against her, in her early 80s ailing Empress Wu was unable to thwart a coup. While considering her frequent portrayal as a despot, one must bear in mind the traditional Confucian idea widely held in her day that women in general, and especially influential women, caused trouble and were not to be trusted.

For a better understanding of China, I would recommend reading: 1 and 2) two books by S.A.M Adshead: "China in World History" and "T'ang China: The Rise of the East in World History"; and 3) "Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World" by Beatrice K Otto, which is full of information on witty Chinese jesters.

Additionally, another excellent biography of a much maligned queen worth reading is "Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman" by Stephen Zweig.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Adventure!, January 4, 2008

By 

Ruth Wherland (Walla Walla, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God (Hardcover)

Jonathan Clements has managed to take the story of the controversial Empress Wu and make it extremely entertaining, while still maintaining historical accuracy. He keeps the narrative going at a quick pace, but provides enough details to keep the reader from becoming lost or confused.

Empress Wu is a really difficult historical figure. She is neither a good guy or a bad guy. She is a woman who did some amazing things, and some really terrible things. So many biographies of Wu have an agenda, either to make her look like a martyr or a villain, and the truth is far more complicated than that.

Clements provides both what is known about Empress Wu, and various opinions and constructs of her made by those who came later. He shows how the image of Empress Wu is often twisted to meet the needs of political fads, and that all of these perspectives should be taken with a grain of salt.

Even if you know nothing about Chinese history, you will find this book a fascinating and lively read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, An Evenhanded Biography!, July 31, 2009

By 

Sara Petersen (Vancouver, Washington, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God (Hardcover)

So many purported biographies of Empress Wu's life portray her as either an innocent woman who was later slandered in the official histories for the crime of being a woman who dared to rule (a crime against Confucianism) or an evil monster who really did commit all the murders and various crimes attributed to her. This book admits that she was an ambitious woman who may have commited SOME of the crimes but also that some of them were probably fabricated later and gives solid historical reasons for saying so. It also delves into her motivations and manages to question whether blind ambition and pure evil was not the only motivation she had, something I have not come across before. This book reveals that the ancient Chinese court was often cutthroat, kill or be killed. This book is a much more nuanced view of Empress Wu, her lifetime, her motivations, and admits that in some places the whole truth can never be known. It also includes photographs of actual geographical sites in China and some Chinese artifacts. I intend to read more books by Jonathan Clements, as he seems to be a thoughtful and objective author.