Wu Zetian was the first and only woman to hold the title of "Huangdi", or Emperor, in her own right. Classical Chinese sources tended to paint her in a bad light, but is this reputation really deserved? Twitter: / somas_academy
"Omg, she was so ruthless." Literally, at the same time there was Justinian II Rhinotmetos and a bunch of soldier emperors mutilating and killing each other while their little slice of Rome, or what was left of it, was crumbling around them.
I think that the proto-collectivist and meritocratic aspects of her reign are kinda overstated for the sake of embellishment of her rule. Not to say they weren't a significant part of it, but whatever. Her brutality is surely something not to gloss over and you certainly did do an adequate job with it. It kind of reminds me of Mulan, if Mulan was a sadistic tyrannical theocrat and dictator.
For clarity, the vibrating Communist Wu was just a joke; Wu was a fairly typical monarch, just one of the better ones. I don't think the meritocratic elements are overstated, as they really stand out compared to most of the rulers that surrounded her; I briefly mentioned in the video, the Tang Dynasty that Wu was sandwiched in the middle of has been characterized as a very aristocratic society. An example I saw given in one of my sources, comparing the Tang to the Song, iirc, was that in the latter, the Emperor could bathe with commoners in a public bathhouse, while in the former, that would be unheard of. The fact that Wu allowed commoners to hold positions of power was really a break from the norm.
@@SomasAcademy I think they were talking about the upper lip and how it sort of resembles a mustache that would be likely observed in early post-adolescence.
