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Given the introduction about historical records, I will be very interested for Lies and hearing where this series' source material came from.

Admittedly, managing to become an Empress when there was zero precedent alone shows the strength of her political skills.

I remember seeing a documentary on Wu. The researcher on the documentary said one of the best proofs that she was at least a decent if not a good empress was because they have public works that have been attributed to her and work to counter the stories of her terrible dictatorship

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This woman is proof that there is no such thing as "pure good" or "pure evil". She proves that the world is extremely complex, as are people.

Only one episode in, and I already like her more than Cleopatra.

Fun fact, Wu Zetian was the one who gave Japan its name. The English name Japan was derived from the Chinese word "日本", meaning "the home of the rising sun", because Japan is to the east of China. Even though this name had been used since Sui dynasty, but Wu Zetian was the ruler who made it official.

Correction on the word of "emperor" in Mandarin. There is a word for empress, but it's not related to gender. That's just how the word was translated by history because it's the role equivalent in European monarchy. The original words were not based on gender, but on hierarchy. You have "wang shang" which means the "higher emperor", and "wang hou" which means the lower/rear emperor. A backup emperor, if you prefer that was the wife. Some history sees it as a thing akin to vice presidents, where in the event the higher emperor goes down, it is up tot he lower emperor to maintain power until a new high emperor can be instated. But the hierarchy was still gender based, just that the nature of the words were not. The concept of a female emperor would later come to be known as 女王, or female emperor.

Wu Zetian is an amazing figure, all the more so because her story hasn’t inspired many stories or later figures who emulated her, due to the slander and historical editing to downplay her role, yet she seems to very accurately portray a complex archetype in history.

I enjoy how this isn’t small segments but nearly entire classes of histories

Amidst all the fame of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism-there are those people who fall into Fǎjiā getting forgotten. Enough of that though. Wu Zetian's been one of my more amusing favourite Chinese historical figures since I was in my early teens, so it's kind of amusing to see her getting mentioned more nowadays.

The last part introducing the sponsor fricking killed me, 10/10, I love the humour of the Extra History team.

Wu Zetian is an interesting historical figure because despite being a competent and capable leader, all the lies written about her make her the living embodiment of the quote "You will never find an unbiased source of history."

I love this episode and I LOVE the story of Wu Zetian, it is sad that she isn't talked about much in history. Could you possible do a series or an episode about the 1837 Rebellion in Upper and Lower Canada?

I just watched Xiran Jay Zhao do a two part on Wu Zetian, and it was a fantastic two hours of silly court intrigue and a badass woman.

This is so cool, seeing you do a seires on her. I read a book recently in which the protagonist was Zetian in a fantasy world, and have been interested in her since.

Another factor to consider as regards the expanding role of women during the Tang dynasty is that, over the several centuries of rule by Turkic nomads prior to the Tang, the Chinese aristocracy had absorbed a lot of cultural influences from steppe societies, which tended to be less strictly patriarchal than traditional Confucianism.

Right off the bat, her life already sounds like a drama show that goes off the rails more than once!

Great to see a series on her! I hope this series is good and well-researched, as they usually are.