26. The Empress Who Smothered Her Daughter and Deposed Her Son
Wu Hou (624 – 705), who combined beauty with brains and utter ruthlessness, was taken into Chinese Emperor Taizong’s harem as a concubine at age 14. However, the aging emperor was not into intelligent women, so he did not favor Wu Hou. Being an intelligent woman, she looked ahead, and had an affair with the emperor’s son and eventual successor. The son was not intimidated by smart women, and when he became Emperor Gaozong after his father’s death, he made Wu Hou his favorite concubine. He eventually elevated her to his second wife – a huge jump in the imperial harem’s rankings. Not content to remain second fiddle, however, Wu Hou reportedly strangled her own infant daughter, and framed the emperor’s first wife for the death. The intrigue worked, and Wu Hou became the emperor’s official consort.
Wu Hou then set out to enhance her power, and methodically went about eliminating her opponents. When Emperor Gaozong died in 683, she became empress dowager and regent, running the empire in the name of her son, Emperor Zhongzong. When Zhongzong ascended the throne in his own right in 684, he tried to buck his mother and get out from under her thumb. He lasted only six weeks on the throne, before Wu Hou had him deposed, exiled, and replaced with her youngest son, whom she made Emperor Ruizong. She maintained all power in her own hands, and six years later, she tired of bothering with any pretense about who actually ran China, and made Ruizong relinquish the throne. Wu Hou then officially proclaimed herself empress regnant, and ruled in that capacity until she was overthrown in 705.