jckerrychen: The Empress of China Starring Zhang Tong, Kathy Chow, Zhang Ding Han, Janine Chang, Zha
jckerrychen:The Empress of ChinaStarring Zhang Tong, Kathy Chow, Zhang Ding Han, Janine Chang, Zhang Ting, Viann ZhangThis upcoming TV drama is about the 7th century Tang dynasty Chinese Empress 武则天 Wu Zetian, who ruled China from 690 to 705 CE. She started out in a convent, became an imperial concubine, and eventually maneuvered her way – through unimaginable political intrigue – all the way to the top of the wealthiest, most powerful empire in the world at that time. During her rule, Empress Wu expanded the Chinese empire militarily, conquering areas of Central Asia and the upper Korean peninsula. Renowned for her use of secret police, she had hundreds of her enemies exiled or executed, posthumously stripping them of their titles, sometimes employing incredible cruelty to make examples of those who opposed her – e.g. “the human pig” referred to her method of cutting off a person’s tongue, eyes, and limbs, yet keeping them alive for as long as possible to live in their own excrement while being fed scraps. In one instance in 684, Wu crushed an attempt to remove her from power by massacring 12 entire branches of the imperial family.She also elevated Buddhism as China’s official religion and built a number of large temples. She had a longtime affair with the fiery Buddhist monk 懷義 Huaiyi, but he eventually became arrogant and jealous of her other lover, so she had him beaten to death. After her death in 705, her direct descendants continued to rule the Tang dynasty for more than a century. -- source link
#wu zetian#tang dynasty#china