Empress Wu Socks

Description: Empress Wu Zetian, The only woman in over 3,000 years of Chinese history to rule China in her own right At the age of 14 she entered the palace as a junior concubine of Emperor Taizong. After his death in 649 she married his son, Emperor Gaozong, instead of retiring to a nunnery as was the custom. She removed her rivals within the palace, Empress Wang and the Pure Concubine, gained the position of empress for herself and eventually established herself as her husbands equal sitting in audience with him behind a screen but on a throne that was equal in elevation to his own. After Gaozong’s death she retained power as the dowager empress until in 690 when, at the age of 65, she ordered the last of her sons to abdicate and took the thr...