Despicable Laws Of Influence By China’s Only Female Emperor in 3000 Years.

In a never ending battles between China’s bloody history arose countable coups, betrayal and cold blooded murders, and after it was all set and done one Dynasty would become the absolute power — Tang dynasty, and from this dynasty rose a concubine who would come to being know as the only Emperor to rule China in 3000 years of history.

Empress Wu Zetian killed her sons, slaughtered friends and foes alike, poisoned the Emperor, and yet her most unique achievement, one that overshadows all others — she risen to power as the only woman to attain status of a ruling Empress in China’s 3000 year old history.

A literate, witty, and intelligent daughter of a military general, Wu Zetian, who at the age of 14 was recruited as a lowly concubine in the court of Emperor Taizong (637–649) of the great Tang Dynasty. In only a few short years, she managed to tactfully out maneuver the court of Tang, and became an Empress wielding power that extended from Japan to mediterranean to Korea and deep into India.

How did one concubine achieve such a great feet in a short period of time? Wu Zetian was a mother of manipulation and a ruthless tactician. As a newly concubine of Emperor Taizong, she wasted no time climbing the ranks among thirty other concubines. Wu’s routinely duties included changing the bed sheets of the Emperor, historians say she was unafraid to use her good looks and charm to her advantage, she’d fulfil the fillest desires of her Emperor, and over time, undoubtedly garnered his attention and she quickly became a 5th rank concubine.

While the emperor was alive she kept a secret affair with his son Gaozong the only heir to his father’s kingdom. Confucian philosophy dictates upon the death of an Emperor, his concubines are sent off to a monk monastery with their heads shaved off living celibate thereon never to engage in sexual activity with another man, as it was considered extreme disrespect to the dead Emperor. This was the inevitable case for Emperor Taizong’s concubines upon his death, however Wu Zetian now 27 years of age had escaped such a fate and reentered the court of her secret lover now new Emperor Gaozong as a 2nd ranked concubine.

Emperor Gaozong wife, empress Wang, worried that Gaozong was to enamoured with Consort Xiao, a concubine with whom he had three children. She thought the newly arrived Wu might distract her husband from Consort Xiao. To Wang’s misjudgement, Wu was too ambitious and her favours with the emperor only cemented her position even more. Giving emperor Gaozong two sons and shortly after a daughter, historians claim Wu suffocated her daughter and framed Empress Wang for the murder. The emperor’s trust had beguiled him to the point where he only believed Wu and imprisoned Wang along with Consort Xiao. After eliminating her competition she would quickly go on to marry Gaozong and become Empress Zetian Wu.

In the next 5 years, she enjoyed supreme power, sat on the same level as her husband in the court, albeit behind a curtain. During her first period as an Empress she tortured ex empress Wang and Consort Xiao, killing both women by amputating their limbs and throwing them in a bath of wine to die,, “let them die drunk to their bone”, she claimed.

Not long after, Emperor Gaozong died of poison, according to historians, it was at the hand of none other than Empress Wu. Soon after the demise of the Emperor, Wu’s eldest son took to the throne but was swiftly murdered and succeeded by another son who was conveniently exiled to die after standing up against his mother’s growing influence, and the throne was again took over by the youngest of her sons. Not six months had past when Zetian Wu forced the child Emperor to step down as she declared herself China’s first Emperor under her own dynasty Zhou between 690 to 705.

Zetian Wu became an empress in her own right. She reduced the size of military and killed off any threats within high ranking aristocrats. To ensue her pervasive control over her subjects she replaced courtiers with scholars by enforcing state officials to pass rigorous examinations to merit their positions in the government. The new empress introduced tax reforms, enforced farming manuals be distributed in the land popularizing the use of paper,, and reopened the infamous Silk Road after being closed due to an outbreak of plague.

Even during the glorious years of Tang Dynasty, there was one threat to her influence over the people more powerful than any other — a woman ruling over men. In the Confucian beliefs having a woman rule would be as unnatural as having a “hen crow like a rooster at daybreak”. Battling the threats of your enemies within the patriarchal bureaucracy is hard enough, how does she combat a deeply rooted ideology of her people?

At the time, Buddhism was the religion in practise by majority of her people. And as skillful tactician she knew how to use religion to promote her own status and subtly align the people’s beliefs in her best interest. She commissioned scholars to write biographies of famous historical female figures, disseminated and popularised religious texts that promoted a woman’s leadership in a positive light, and promoted women’s rights in the society. She ordered rebuilding of the Bigoto temple — possibly the tallest building at the time — an act that would highlight she supported her people’s religion, and thus stamped her authority and power in China.

From a lowly concubine who cleaned the Emperor’s bed sheets, she climbed the ranks with calculated moves and ruthless display of power when necessary, Zetian Wu became an influential empress that made china a global superpower. She was at the center of political trade, wealth and power that stretched from Japan to Mediterranean to Korea and India.

Keys to influence

1. Proximity to power garners influence. The rules of life dictate nobody starts out with power and influence in the workplace. When we enter the marketplace we all start from the bottom, a place of less significance and influence. Then with our talent, hard work and luck we climb the ladder of success. As we gain more success our roles and responsibility increases, thereby we gather more power and influence over others. But is there a quicker way to become influential when you’re still starting out in roles that implicate less power and influence? Is there a cheat code that allows you to bypass all the loops and hurdles? In the story of Wu, we learn that she started out as a concubine. Wu quickly built trust and rapport with the emperor by understanding his triggers. She quickly garnered favours from him and sharply by-passed her peers and ascended closer to power and influence. Become close to the source of power you will garner influence as by-product faster than your peers. Use your strengths to become a person of high value to the people of power and you will be able to gain their trust and even receive favours.
2. To influence people, figure out what already influences them. Everyone has a set of values and beliefs that shape their outlook of other people, places and ideas. These beliefs are rooted in their subconscious mind at an early age during childhood and adolescence. It is easier to root ideas in a developing brain of a child than once they have reached adulthood. A young mind is a newly fertile land which is underused and ready to produce the best crop. Overtime, the land has aged, and is incapable of producing the same quality of harvest as it did once before. The same can be said about humans. It is very productive to influence a human’s values and beliefs when they are younger with information. However when they reach the latter stageas of their lives they are too rigid, and their capacity to replace their old beliefs and cement new ones becomes an unlikely task.

3000 years ago, China was heavily influenced by the values and beliefs of the Confucian philosophy. The majority of people in Wu’s new state were Buddhists by religion. In this climate, the notion that a woman can rule of over men was reprehensible. So instead of bringing about a new religion to an already aged and infertile mind of her people or enforce extremely radical ideas by brute force — she did quite the opposite — she figured out to influence her people, she must use what already influences them. She popularised certain cherry picked parts of religious texts of the people to impose her argument as female emperor. She built several temples in the city square, and others carved in the mountain itself for the people to worship in. She used the beliefs and ideas of the people as a trigger to influence them; solidifying her position in power.

There is a great lesson here for all of us to apply in lives. Many times we want to bring new ideas and change in our personal lives or in the workplace but too often we are meet with scrupulous resentment. People around us are comfortable in their set ways and find displeasure in accepting new ideas and values. In such barren situations, rather then becoming a revolutionist of new ideas and compelling a complete 180 flip change in an organisation, it may be much more effective to wrap new ideas in a narrative that doesn’t radically alienate the people’s current belief system. Bringing about a behavioural change in people is difficult and being seen as a prophet of radical change is often met with conflict and collision.

Today Wu Zetian’s unmarked gravestone still stands tall in the valley of kongs. Her story of rise to power is not nearly as different than many Kings in history. It is full of betrayal, ambition, and ruthlessness. Although she used her stregnths in evil ways, Nevertheless, it is a packed with life lessons you and I can learn from, apply in our life to identify the deceptive people in our lifes and understand how influence can be gathered using the most basic tools of influence and power plays in life and work...

3. Stabilise potential threats to your influence — Reign control of

• She reduced the size of her army and employed scholars on merit and tests
• Secure people you trust in key positions but don’t be uncacious of backstabing
• SHe employed her mothers family in key ranks to solidy her family background and control to power… her son whom he banished would end up taking back the power entually