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.

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

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.

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.

An Empress I had never heard of

I admit that I had never heard of Empress Wu Zetian before listening to this book. I have listened to two other of Laurel A Rockefella’s Legendary Women books and this one did not disappoint.
Although only just over an hour long this book iOS just the right length for a quick listen and to really get a feel for the lady in question. How the Empress made her mark in history and affected the people around her.
A well written book with suburb narration by Richard Mann. This is another great and informative book of women in history that will make you thirsty for more like it.
I was given this audiobook at no cost in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.

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 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.

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!

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.

Really great story!

This story is about one of the more controversial women in history. She was educated, ambitious, smart and was the opposite of what others thought a woman should be during that time period in China. She had strong beliefs that women were equal to men and made many contributions toward women society, including employing women in non-traditional roles.

She was a confident ruler and made many marks in history. This was a great listen and very quick. The author did a nice job sharing the story of this amazing woman.

I received this audiobook for free via audiobook boom and am leaving my honest opinion of the work.

Empress Wu Zetian

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