Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty, reigning from 690 to 705 C.E., accumulated immense wealth estimated at 16 trillion USD. Born in 624 AD, she rose to power through astute and often ruthless actions. Her reign was marked by significant welfare measures and tax reductions, which boosted the Chinese empire’s prosperity.
When you picture the world’s richest people in the world, the names of Mukesh Ambani, Elon Musk, Jess Bezos, Bernard Arnault & family, and Mark Zuckerberg come to the mind. But long before, any of them existed a powerful Chinese Empress Wu Zetian of Tang dynasty, boasted of wealth of around 16 trillion USD, which could overshadow combined net worth of the wealthiest people across the globe.
Emperess Wu Zetian was someone whose political prowess is comparable to notable women, like Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, and Catherine the Great. Popularly known as Empress Wu, the richest-ever female monarch accumulated the unfathomable fortune, with her astute vision, shrewd techniques, and brutal decisions, that also included killing of her own children, it is said. While she was hailed for some of her decisions like reducing the taxes on peasants that helps in increasing agricultural productivity and thus state revenue, she also took some controversial decisions. The controversy surrounding her life was definitely exaggerated by historians who were prejudiced towards woman with strong ambitions. Nevertheless, there is substantial evidence of her cruelty towards the rich and affluent. She also was particularly ruthless towards her enemies real or imagined.
As per one of the accounts, her power hunger and paranoia led her to kill one of her own children – her daughter – and depose her sons who were emperors before her. She, however, helped expand the Chinese empire significantly in the 15 years of her reign from 690 C.E. to 705 C.E.
How Wu Zetian became empress Wu?
Wu Zetian was born in a wealthy family to a timber merchant in 624 AD in Shanxi province. Her father was close to Li Yuan, who eventually ascended to become Emperor Gaozong of Tang and this gave her an opportunity to forge close connections with the royal household.
Empress Wu was deeply passionate about literature from a very early age and at the age of 14, she was appointed as a secretary in the Tang Palace, getting an opportunity to work under Emperor Taizong.
Subsequently, the emperor’s death led her to a Buddhist monastery which was a common practice for all the women associated with the emperor during that time. However her affair with Emperor Gaozong, the deceased emperor’s son and successor, once against brought an unexpected twist in her journey as she once again made her way back to the palace as a concubine.
With her cunning ways, she soon ousted Empress Wang and ascended to the throne as an empress in the year 655. A major turning point for her was when Emperor Gaozong entrusted the empress with the governance of his empire after his health took a turn for the worse and he started having debilitating migraine-like headaches and vision loss.
Thus, started a historic reign that made her the first and only woman to rule China. Well-educated, visionary, and an excellent public speaker, Empress Wu is credited with a number of welfare measures that also boosted trade like reducing taxation to re-opening of silk road to trade.
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