14. There’s Ruthless, and There’s Murdering Your Baby to Frame a Rival Ruthless
According to Confucian tenets, women are unfit to rule. Wu Zhao (624 – 705) did not care much for that bit of Confucian conventional wisdom and became the sole officially recognized empress during China’s two millennia of imperial rule. Her rise began at age 14, when she was taken into Emperor Taizong’s harem as a concubine. The emperor was not into intelligent women, and thus did not favor Wu, who had brains as well as beauty.
Being an intelligent woman, and looking ahead, Wu had an affair with the emperor’s son and eventual successor, who was not intimidated by smart women. When her lover became Emperor Gaozong after his father’s death, he made Wu his favorite concubine, and eventually elevated her to his second wife – a huge jump in the imperial harem’s rankings. Wu was not content to remain second fiddle, however. So she reportedly strangled her own infant daughter, and framed the emperor’s first wife for the death.
