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

Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God by Jonathan Clements is a well written, entirely readable and fully informative narration of Empress Wu Zeiten of the Tang Dynasty. Other well written book about Empress Wu: Empress by Shan Sa. Who is Empress......more

Walau detail dengan data dan full note tapi narasi dan puisi-puisi ini cepat membuat bosan pembaca yang tidak terbiasa dengan non fiksi sejarah dan menimbulkan banyak tanda tanya. Kenapa? Karena si penulis jelas ragu untuk berspekulasi dan mlancarkan beberapa "tuduhan dan motivasi tindakan" yang tip......more

Wu was an incredibly strategic and entrepreneurial person who worked her way up from chambermaid to become Emporer of all China (the first and only woman to be Emporer.) One distinction I hadn’t understood is that while English has only one word for both “female Emporer” and “wife of Emporer” (i.e.......more

Overall, just about the only comprehensive book about Empress Wu. Very well done. Used this to help me research a lengthy paper in class.......more

Much of what is recorded about Wu was either very praiseful, or hateful, and given that Wu lived over a thousand years ago, all these conflicting sources paint a confusing picture of this woman who was China's one and only female who ruled this patriarchal empire under her own power. The author ackno......more