Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

While I don't particularly agree with all the author's takes on Wu and the situations surrounding her, this book does lend a more objective view than most other written works about her life. The format within the book is not exactly of the most organized nature and some of the names may have been muddled for simplification's sake, but the writing itself is refreshingly straightforward. Anecdotes and rumors are stated as such. The author gives some pretty well-informed assessments of the kind of person Wu may have been. I like the speculative approach regarding Wu's actions and personality because most of the recorded history about her are in fact tainted by the agenda being pushed by those writing it. Very detailed and up to date research on the author's part about his subject. Overall, it reads like a historical text but with strong intrigue novel overtones.

Brilliant, academic work w notations, just what I was looking for. Very well written and engaging, at all time critical towards sources. Recommended!