Empress Wu Zetian

The Legendary Women of World History, Book 5

By: Laurel A. Rockefeller

Narrated by: Richard Mann

Length: 1 hr and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

The most hated woman in Chinese history! 

Travel back in time over 1,000 years and meet the first and only female emperor of China. Born Wu Zhao and given the reign title "Zetian" just weeks before her death in 705 CE, Empress Wu was the unwanted daughter of Chancellor Wu Shihuo - too bright, too educated, and too politically focused to make a good wife according to contemporary interpretations of the "Analects of Confucius." 

Married off at age 14 as a low-ranking concubine to Emperor Taizong, Wu’s intelligence, beauty, and charm won her a place as his secretary and protégé, political experience that would empower her to transform the lives of countless billions. 

Explore the life of Empress Wu and discover why the world is a vastly different place because she dared what no woman in China before or since ever dreamed of.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

The most hated woman in Chinese history! Travel back in time over 1,000 years and meet the first and only female emperor of China. Born Wu Zhao and given the reign title "Zetian" just weeks before her death in 705 CE, Empress Wu was the unwanted daughter of Chancellor Wu Shihuo - too bright, too educated, and too politically focused to make a good wife according to contemporary interpretations of the "Analects of Confucius." Married off at age 14 as a low-ranking concubine to Emperor Taizong, Wu’s intelligence, beauty, and charm won her a place as his secretary and protégé, political experience that would empower her to transform the lives of countless billions. Explore the life of Empress Wu and discover why the world is a vastly different place because she dared what no woman in China before or since ever dreamed of.

©2016 Laurel A. Rockefeller (P)2018 Laurel A. Rockefeller

A great intro an empress we should know about

this was a short and fun story and serves a great introduction about an empresses I knew nothing about ! I gave it four stars cause am always very stingy when it comes to the fifth star . plus the performance was sometimes confusing as to which character was talking and I would would have liked a little more information about the events that took place . still its highly recommended and I look forward to following other stories in the series.
note: I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Empress Wu Zetian

Fascinating story of a woman way before her time.Richard Mann was a fine narrator.I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.

Simply amazing

It's hard to put into words how great this book is. The author has a gift, she can bring historical people to life in such a way that makes you feel apart of their story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys audio books. Laurel A. Rockefeller is now one of my go to authors! Richard Mann did an amazing job narrating the book. My children listened to this book with me and they really enjoyed it as well, they were quite sad when the story was over. Just take my advice and get this book!

Empress Wu Zetian

Loved this great story. The author, once again, was able to bring a historical character come to life by talking about accomplishments that changed women's role in history.

3.45

Summary:
Wu Zhao is the woman who went from low-level concubine to trusted confident of Emperor Taizong. Got that from the back cover copy. This is a very short history. It was not clear in the story that she was 14 at the time she was married off to the emperor. I think the back cover copy stretches the truth a bit from the presentation in the book. It didn’t seem like she climbed the ladder, the emperor was like “yo, you want to be my trusted confidante and secretary? These other shmucks only want power” and she was like “yup.”

Additional Comments:
• She’s presented in very favorable light here. The account kind of glosses over a few things like her ordering the death of pretty much anybody who didn’t agree with her utopian, very progressive ideals. And stealing power whenever she needed to because she could run the country better than anybody else.
• Lady’s got grit, gotta give her that.
• She also behaved exactly like those she fought against, having male concubines of a sort. Excuse: everybody else is doing it. Awesome, there’s who we should hold up as the moral paragon.
• The reforms she wanted were great. It probably moved the country many leaps and bounds forward, but the greater good theory of excusing bad behavior just doesn’t fly.
• I haven’t read many of these, but this was the better of the two.
• The author’s views definitely flavor the telling.
• The main message is twofold: positions should be given out based on merit not wealth and prestige already inherent to certain families and anything men can do, women can do.
• I think the point the author is semi-burying under a rug of heaping praises is that power corrupts. Even in the name of doing good, power corrupts.

Conclusion:
If you can get around the very heavy-handed slant of setting this woman up for sainthood, it’s a decent story of a strong lady.

*I received a free copy of the audiobook. I have freely chosen to review it. All thoughts are my own.

Empress

I love this story, I only wish it was longer and had more details. I’m struggling to find more books on this empress.

Pleasure to listen

Once again another strong woman that helped shape history when it wasn’t safe to do so.

It is amazing to learn of amazing women throughout history that led the way for modern women.

The Empress was smart, beautiful, and determined to help her people.

Richard Mann’s narration is spot on once again!

Gritty and engaging story

I love the nod to the narrator in the British officer's name. I love learning about history in story form. I makes it more engaging.

Highly Recommend!

This is a good, quick listen if you're into history. It is well written, well narrated, and provides a lot of information in a very short amount of time. A good introduction to Wu Zeitan.

I was provided this audiobook for free and have voluntarily left this review.

Empress Wu Zetian

I recommend this quick read. If you like 👍to learn about important people in history Empress Wu is very good😎

An independent concubine

As a young girl Jowell the daughter of a wealthy man is educated at a time when most women or not. At least not in history, math, writing ET see. Because of this it was hard for her father to find her a suitable match and that is why she found herself a lowly concubine to the The emperor of the sun and moon. Upon hearing of her level of education he summons her to the royal residence and it is here where he asked her what is her intentions on serving him and she says whatever you wish emperor and after a frank discussion about her education and willingness to do his bidding he makes her his top secretary and she quickly becomes a trusted person who he relies on. He has so much respect for her she never calls her to do her bedroom duties she is an A trusted member of the royal family, but upon the Emperor’s death is sent to a convent to live out the rest of her days. That is where she is with the son of the emperor sun and moon goes to see her and ask her the level of relationship she had with his father. Upon telling him that they were never intimate he quickly brings her back to the palace and makes her his number one concubine she eventually has many sons for him and a daughter that the current empress murdered due to jealousy of her being Baron. Here is where I will stop the story there is so much more to this story and it was really good. Although there’s a lot of opinion she had that I didn’t agree with ultimately it was about her life and not my opinion and I found it very entertaining and I loved that the author made the narrator Richard man a character in the book I thought that was so awesome! He does such a good job with these books!

Empress Wu Zetian

I know a little about Empress Wu Zetian, so when I saw this, I had to listen to it. I was hoping that I would learn more then what I already knew about this famous empress.
This is more of a story than a nonfiction (what I expected). This did surprise me, but it did not put me off.
It starts of when Empress Wu Zetian was young and the people who influenced her. The book progresses through her life.
Now what I know of this Empress is that she is a cold woman and she got what she wanted. In this audiobook she is made out to be a great woman with a heart.
That is not to say that she was not a nice person or intelligent but from what I understood from history was that she was a heartless woman and I did not feel this book portrayed it. She was power hunger and she did whatever it took to stay in power.
Maybe if it was written in a nonfiction book I could have understood and believed the things she did and why but because it is made into a story, I did wonder what is true and what part the author felt.
This is my opinion and others might think differently.

Short and Interesting story must listen

This is a very interesting history of Empress Wu which is in a story form. I enjoyed listening to this book, overall, a great source of knowledge on the life and accomplishments of Empress Wu. Short and sweet book.

A fantastic and educational listening experience

The story itself is excellent; it's well-written, moves at a nice pace, and is obviously well researched. Additionally, the narrator does a wonderful job of bringing the story and characters to life. These things combined make for a fantastic and educational listening experience, which will appeal to both children and adults who want to learn history in a fun way.