Where did Wu Zetian grow up and live?

📍Tang Dynasty Imperial Palace, Xian, China

624 – 705

“I entered the imperial palace at Chang'an as a concubine of Emperor Taizong when I was fourteen years old, and I left it sixty years later as the only woman in Chinese history to rule as Emperor in her own name. The Tang Dynasty palace was a city within a city — vast complexes of pavilions, gardens and reception halls. I expanded the examination system to bring talented men of humble birth into government, patronised Buddhism, extended China's borders. They called me ruthless. I called it governance.”

👍 LovedThe extraordinary intellectual and cultural life of the Tang court — the poetry, the painting, the music. The power to shape a civilisation of hundreds of millions of people.

👎 DislikedThe necessity of being twice as capable as any man to be taken half as seriously. The constant threat from aristocratic clans who could not accept a woman's authority.

Map showing where Wu Zetian lived — Tang Dynasty Imperial Palace, Xian, China

🗺️ Approximate location today

📷 Location image · via Wikimedia Commons

Sources: Rothschild, N. Wu Zhao: China's Only Woman Emperor (2008), Pearson Longman; Guisso, R. Wu Tse-T'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China (1978)