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== Combining sentences ==
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{{ping|Friend505}} Combining small sentences into longer sentences may seem like an improvement, but research has consistently shown that sentence length is strongly tied to reader comprehension.[https://www.wyliecomm.com/2020/03/how-long-should-a-sentence-be/][https://www.wyliecomm.com/2019/01/top-2-ways-to-improve-your-readability-score/][https://www.wyliecomm.com/2014/09/write-for-the-world/] According to research by the American Press Institute:<br/>
| date = 5 December 2023
* With average sentences of 8 words or less, readers understood 100% of the information.
* At 14 words, they understood 90% of the information.
* At 43 words, they understood less than 10%.
So even though short sentences may seem awkward, they dramatically increase the chances that our readers will understand the content. [[User:Kaldari|Kaldari]] ([[User talk:Kaldari|talk]]) 14:31, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
:Yeah, but it seems repetitive, since it has already talked about the Wu family at that point. Thank you. [[User:Friend505|Friend505]] ([[User talk:Friend505|talk]]) 20:09, 4 August 2020 (UTC)|{{Vital article|level=4|topic=People|class=B}}
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== Posthumous name ==
''Tianhou'' is a "posthumous name". It is still my strong opinion that it qualifies. It was used, yes, in her lifetime (specifically, during the reign of her husband Emperor Gaozong) but ''not'' after during the reigns of her sons or herself. It was later, during the reign of her grandson Xuanzong that it was again used -- as the official way to address her, rather than Zetiandasheng Huanghou. That lasted through the rest of Tang Dynasty. I think it qualifies as a posthumous name. Please elaborate on why you disagree. --[[User:Nlu|Nlu]] 19:26, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

:As can be checked [http://www.guoxue.com/shibu/24shi/newtangsu/xts_004.htm here] and [http://www.guoxue.com/shibu/24shi/newtangsu/xts_005.htm here], Tianhou (天后) was the posthumous name of Empress Wu Zetian only between [[July 28]], [[710]] (景云元年六月丁未) and [[November 13]], [[710]] (景云元年十月乙未). Her posthumous name then changed many times, until eventually in [[749]] (天宝八载) the final version of her posthumous name was set as Empress Zetian Shunsheng (則天順聖皇后), which is the posthumous name that appears in the infobox. So please do not change that again. [[User:Hardouin|Hardouin]] 19:38, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't believe you are reading those passages correctly. Those refer to how she would be addressed in the temple with her husband -- not how she would be addressed in general. There were references throughout the rest of Tang dynasty documents of her as ''Tianhou'' -- not as ''Zetian Shunsheng Huanghou''. I do not dispute your chronology. What I do dispute is the overly narrow definition of what a "posthumous name" is; if ''Tianhou'' is not considered a posthumous name, why was it used throughout the rest of Tang Dynasty as a way of referring to her? --[[User:Nlu|Nlu]] 19:52, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Just to add to that: see [http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/ntan17.htm] (reference to ''Tianhou'' in Biography 57 of Xintangshu -- during Emperor Xuanzong's time; Biography 67 of Xintangshu); [http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/ntan18.htm] (Biography 77 -- the reference to which in Zizhi Tongjian was what alerted me to this usage in the first place), [http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/ntan19.htm] (Biography 88; Biography 99). Your assertion that ''Tianhou'' is not a "posthumous name" because it is not the one used for official long-term title would mean that, for example, ''Wendi'' is not a "posthumous name" for Emperor Wen of Han -- because the official long-term title is Xiaowen Huangdi. I disagree strongly. --[[User:Nlu|Nlu]] 20:04, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

:Ok, I think the problem here is that you are confusing two things in English: a posthumous name on the one hand, and a [[Style (manner of address)|style]] on the other hand. A posthumous name was a formal name that appeared in the temple of the ancestors, and which was also used by historians in formal circumstances. So a posthumous name was never meant to be used by people living in imperial China. Instead people used styles, for instance the ruling emperor could be called ''huangshang'' (皇上), a retired emperor could be referred as ''taishanghuang'' (太上皇), and for dead emperors there were many ways to refer to them, and the way to refer to them changed along Chinese history. Remember that in ancient societies, people almost never referred to important people using their real name, or even their official name. Instead, they used styles. For example, the brother of King Louis XIV of France was Philippe, duc d'Orléans, but nobody called him "Philippe", and nobody even called him "duc d'Orléans". Instead, he was refered to by his style: "Monsieur". It doesn't mean "Monsieur" was a posthumous name. Closer to us, Empress [[Cixi]] was referred to by her style ''laofoye'' (老佛爷). It doesn't mean ''laofoye'' is her posthumous name. I think it is very important to understand that it is not because a name is used after the death of the person that it is automatically a posthumous name. Styles can be used long after the person is dead, yet they are not posthumous names.<br>
:In the case of Tianhou, it is obviously a style, whose litteral meaning is "Heavenly Empress". It was used after Wu Zetian's death, as the biographies that you linked are showing, but it doesn't mean that because it was used after her death it was a posthumous name. In the infoboxes of emperors and empresses, we only list official posthumous and temple names. We don't list styles. The reason for that is because styles changed a lot over time, an emperor or an empress could have many styles during their life, and after, depending on fashion, so it is too shaky ground to include in the infoboxes.
:On the other hand, you could mention the style Tianhou inside the article if you want. The story behind it is very interesting. When Wu Zetian became in control of her husband Emperor Gaozong in the 660s, she wanted to show her power to all, and so she managed to convince her weak husband to change her and his title. So it was decreed that the title (style) of the emperor would be changed from ''huangdi'' (皇帝, i.e. "Emperor") to ''tianhuang'' (天皇, i.e "Heavenly Emperor"), and the title (style) of the empress would be changed from ''huanghou'' (皇后, i.e "Empress") to ''tianhou'' (天后, i.e. "Heavenly Empress). This shocked a lot Confucian officials, because it was placing the emperor and the empress above their ancestors, who were only ''huangdi'' and ''huanghou''. Later after Wu Zetian's reign these titles were reverted to the traditional ''huangdi'' ("emperor") and ''huanghou'' ("empress"), so that there is only one Tianhou in Chinese history, Wu Zetian. Because this title of Tianhou was unprecedented, I believe this is the reason why she was referred to as Tianhou after her death. There could be no ambiguity when using this name. We can add all that in the article if you want. The exact date when the titles were changed can be found in the Book of Tang.
:Now an interesting codicile is this: at the time when the titles ''tianhuang'' and ''tiandi'' were given to the emperor and the empress, Japan was opening itself to Chinese culture. The ruler of Japan thought that it would be improper for him to be just an "emperor", so he had to be a "Heavenly Emperor" like the husband of Wu Zetian. Later in China this title "Heavenly Emperor" was abandonned as I said, but not in Japan, so today the emperor of Japan is still known as ''tianhuang'', pronounced ''[[tenno]]'' (天皇) in Japanese. We can also add this if you want. Hope this makes things clear. [[User:Hardouin|Hardouin]] 21:28, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
I checked in the Book of Tang, and I found the date when the titles ''tianhuang'' and ''tianhou'' were decreed: [[September 20]], [[674]] (上元元年八月壬辰). [[User:Hardouin|Hardouin]] 21:46, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

::{{ping|Hardouin]] Can you give us sources about your statement above? About Japan which adopted tianhuang. Sorry for my English. Thanks. [[User:Hafidh Wahyu P|Hafidh Wahyu P]] ([[User talk:Hafidh Wahyu P|talk]]) 09:10, 28 February 2017 (UTC)
　

I don't believe that tianhou was her posthumous name it was used in her lifetime as to legitimize her inserting herself in the empires politics while being a woman of the harem and when her husband was still alive for example the first emperor of the Sui dynasty Yang Jian and wife Dugu jialuo were called the two saints because she herself also participated in state matters without any legitimate reason [[User:Vuruvata|Vuruvata]] ([[User talk:Vuruvata|talk]]) 19:36, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

== Emperor or Empress? ==

When Wu Zetian be came the Chinese monarch, did she consider herself to be the Emperor or the Empress? People apparently were required to call her either 皇上 or 皇帝 when she was in full power. That would translate directly into Emperor. Empress would be the title of the female consort of the Emperor. Of course, Wu's husband wasn't around when she became emperor, so there wasn't the issue regarding the name of a male consort of the Emperor. Technically, 皇上 or 皇帝 is genderless and unsexist.

Calling Wu Zetian merely as Empress Wu would actually support the POV of the restored Tang Dynasty after the palace coup that disposed her of power. The restored Tang Dynasty apparently did not acknowledge that she actually served as the (female) Emperor.

The following [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1321689.stm BBC article] makes the case that historically in Japan, when the female becomes the 天皇 monarch, she is considered to be the emperor rather than the empress.

Maybe we should change the name of the article into "Emperor Wu Zetian." Any comments?
[[User:Allentchang|Allentchang]] 16:07, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

* I don't think calling her "emperor" would be correct. In this case, "empress," in context, is simply the female counterpart to an emperor -- in other words, more explicitly, an empress regnant (as opposed to an empress consort). Queen Victoria of Great Britain, for example, also carried the title of Empress of India -- but she was not the wife of an emperor; indeed, her husband would be refused the title of king, which she wanted to give him, by parliament. She was an empress regnant, as was Wu. I don't think calling her empress is not NPOV, because it did not imply that she did not reign as a monarch; indeed, I think calling her "emperor" would be grammatically incorrect. --[[User:Nlu|Nlu]] 18:23, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

**How exactly would calling her emperor be grammatically in correct? These days, there have been plenty of English anti-sexist language rectification campaigns where the English grammar has effectively been changed to accomodate non-sexist language. In certain femminist circles, it would now be considered gramatically incorrect to use sexist language. Even if we ignore the modern English sexist language issue, the Chinese term for "Emperor" does not imply gender and somehow we need to make it very clear in English. When Wu Zetian was the monarch, no one dared to add any feminine indicator to her official title as Emperor. Only after she died did they dare to do so. Also consider the fact, that in the past, it would be considered illogical to think that the terms "senator," "justice," or "president" could imply a female office holder. [[User:Allentchang|Allentchang]] 09:57, 22 August 2005 (UTC)


Here's another thing to consider (taken from the Wikipedia article on sexist language):
The Chinese language is remarkably gender-neutral due to its underlying structure, even though China has a long history of male dominance. Critics of gender-neutral language modification in other languages see this as evidence of a lack of cause-and-effect relationship between a society's gender relations and the use of grammatical gender in its language.

Comprehension in Chinese is almost wholly dependent on word order as Chinese has no inflection for gender, tense, or case. There's also very little derivational inflection, instead the language relies heavily on compounding to create new words. A Chinese word is thus inherently gender-neutral unless it contains a root for man or woman. For example, the word for doctor is yīshēng (醫生) and can only be made gender-specific by adding the root for male or female to the front of it. Thus to specify a male doctor, one would need to say nányīshēng (男醫生). Under normal circumstances both male and female doctors would simply be referred to as yīshēng.

Spoken Chinese also has only one third-person pronoun, tā for all situations (though -men 們 / 们 can be added as a plural suffix). Tā can mean he, she, or it in any case. However it is written with three different characters: "他", containing the human radical "亻", for he, or a person of undetermined gender; "她", containing the female radical "女", for she; and "它" for it. Despite this, there is no "he/she" issue in Chinese, because pronouns are usually implied from context, and replacing "她" with "他" causes no grammatical conflict.
[[User:Allentchang|Allentchang]] 10:01, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

: ''Emperor'' over ''empress'' is not ungrammatical for me although it is a little unusual. But even if unusual, I would guess that many would prefer it due to the issues of sexist language. ''Emperor-empress'' would parallel ''king-queen'', but the ''-ess'' suffix is often used in a sexist way, as in ''tiger'' vs. ''tigress'', ''tempter'' vs. ''temptress''. The ''-ess'' often emphasizes (a perhaps improper) sexuality which is not really relevant to being a tiger or a ruler. So, this decision of whether to use ''empress'' or ''emperor'' will depend upon how much this sexual connotation is perceived. It does seem to be neutralized (for me) a little by the ''king-queen'' parallel. whatever happens in Chinese does not seem so relevant to what happens in English (although it is interesting to compare). peace &ndash; [[User:Ish_ishwar|ishwar]] &nbsp;[[User_talk:Ish_ishwar|<small>(speak)</small>]] 00:41, 2005 September 9 (UTC)

In English, we do not call women "Emperors" even if they are called by the word for Emperor in a foreign language. We should note in the article that she was referred to by the Chinese word for Emperor, rather than just by the word for Empress, but we should not pretend as though it is normal in English to refer to empress regnants as emperors. [[Maria Theresa of Austria|Maria Theresa]] was referred to in Hungarian as "King of Hungary," but we always call her "Queen of Hungary." We also do not call [[Hatshepsut]] "King of Egypt." Nor do we call the various women who were ''Tenno'' of Japan "Emeperor." Such strange instances should be ''noted,'' but we should not give the idiosyncratic usage as the primary one. [[User:John Kenney|john]] [[User_talk:John Kenney|k]] 01:08, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

:Agreed. One language cannot change to "suit" another. An English speaker can't force a Chinese person to use a single term for all his brothers/sisters regardless of comparative age because English only has the words brothers and sisters compared with Chinese jiejie/meimei/gege/didi...maybe a bad example but the point is, we must conform to native usage and not pursue superficial/literal translations. --[[User:Dpr|Dpr]] 16:37, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

In any case, there is no reason to fuss about translation, because in Chinese she is known as "Empress Consort Wu" (武后), she is not known as "Emperor Wu" (武帝). She was known as "emperor" (皇帝) only during her reign. Ever since she was deposed in 705 she has been called "Empress Consort" (皇后). Yes it was the POV of the Tang dynasty, but it's a POV that has turned into usage. [[User:Hardouin|Hardouin]] 01:17, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

COME ON PEOPLE THERE '''IS''' AN ENGLISH TERM FOR IT ALREADY, I KEEP ATTEMPTING TO USE IT BUT SOME IDIOT KEEPS REVERTING IT. IT IS CALLED '''''EMPRESS REGNANT''''' (HEAD OF STATE EMPRESS) AS OPPOSED TO '''''EMPRESS CONSORT''''' (WIFE OF EMPEROR). THIS TERM HAS AN ARTICLE ON HERE. JUST SEARCH '''''[[Empress Regnant|EMPRESS REGNANT]]''''' AND '''''[[Empress Consort|EMPRESS CONSORT]]''''' AND YOU'LL FIND IT! THEREFORE THERE SHOULDN'T BE A DISCUSSION ON THIS TOPIC FOR THIS SHOULDN'T BE AN ISSUE AND FOR THE LAST TIME '''DO NOT REVERT IT AGAIN'''! [[User:Staygyro|Staygyro]] ([[User talk:Staygyro|talk]]) 08:50, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

It has to be empress regnant as opposed to empress consort there is no need to call her emperor it's sexist [[User:Vuruvata|Vuruvata]] ([[User talk:Vuruvata|talk]]) 19:30, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

== Only female emperor? ==

It says in the article that Wu Zetian is the only female emperor in the history of China. What about the Empress Dowager?

You mean Cixi? She never officially sat on the Dragon Throne. She merely ruled as Regent. [[User:24.14.120.92|24.14.120.92]] 08:23, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

The difference between cixi and wu zetian rule is that cixi was ruling as regent and as the empress dowager wu zetian however ruled as emperor and established her own dynasty and changed the ruling family name from li to her maiden name wu cixi never changed the dynasty or changed the imperial clan name from aisin gioro to yehe nara or used the emperor's honorific "Zhen" like Wu Zetian did [[User:Vuruvata|Vuruvata]] ([[User talk:Vuruvata|talk]]) 19:42, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

== Biased Sources? ==

I think the article presents too strongly the viewpoint that Empress Wu was a heartless and depraved woman who gained power by sexually manipulating every man she could. This is likely the invention of classical Confucian historians, who hated her for two reasons: she was a usurper and a woman. Usurpers were never treated kindly by Confucian historians, and one who is a woman would be treated even more negatively. I think the reader should be made more aware of the biased nature of the traditional source materials. <small>—Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:Hasmidas|Hasmidas]] ([[User talk:Hasmidas|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Hasmidas|contribs]]) </small><!-- Template:Unsigned -->
:Perhaps, but it is confirmable that she killed many people -- including her own sons and grandchildren. Whitewashing should not be done in the name of removing bias. --[[User:Nlu|Nlu]] ([[User talk:Nlu|talk]]) 23:32, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
:I agree that she probably killed lots of people, I only meant that maybe we ought to make it more clear that classical Confucian histories about her are likely to be quite biased. (Thanks for showing me by example how to sign a post, by the way) --[[User:Hasmidas|Hasmidas]]
Not to mention Wu Zetian is far from being the only emperor(empress) of China that killed her own kins to secure the power. Tang Taizong killed his brothers, and so do many Ming emperors. Han founders killed off his trusted colleague and doesn't seem to mind when his parents' life were threatened. Most of it in the name of "stability" or "birth right". In case of Wu Zetian, heartless or not, it was double standard. [[User:Suredeath|Suredeath]] 11:53, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
:Agreed. A secondary consequence of the article's sources is an overwhelming emphasis on describing court intrigue; other characteristics of Wu's reign seem ignored. The article's intro mentions Chinese expansion into Central Asia and Korea; cultural achievements of officials under Wu receive passing mention; are we to understand that there is no comprehensive information about her reign other than the steps she took to seize power? [[User:hanlinyang92|hanlinyang92]] <span style="font-size: smaller;" class="autosigned">—Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|undated]] comment added 04:25, 20 August 2012 (UTC)</span><!--Template:Undated--> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->

It is indeed biased because they only write of Wu Zetian's heartlesnesswhen almost all emperors were the same all rulers for that fact emperor Taizong was not meant to be emperor like Wu but siezed power and also it does not mention the achievements of Wu's administration and effectiveness to rule and how she stabilized the government for future generations of the li clan
They just did not want to admit that a woman could rule just as good if not better than a man [[User:Vuruvata|Vuruvata]] ([[User talk:Vuruvata|talk]]) 19:50, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

== Chen Shuozhen ==

Wasn't she the first female emperor? <small>—The preceding [[Wikipedia:Sign your posts on talk pages|unsigned]] comment was added by [[User:71.235.83.132|71.235.83.132]] ([[User talk:71.235.83.132|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/71.235.83.132|contribs]]){{#if:04:31, 3 December 2006 (UTC)|&#32;04:31, 3 December 2006 (UTC)|}}.</small><!-- Template:Unsigned -->

Wu wasn't the first woman to declare herself emperor but she was the first woman to become the ruler of her own dynasty in her own right and legitimately [[User:Vuruvata|Vuruvata]] ([[User talk:Vuruvata|talk]]) 19:53, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

== Shangguan Wan'er ==

i wonder how there could be no mention of the women premier,"Shangguan Wan'er" during her reign. i think it will add depth to the [[User:Realdan|Realdan]] 18:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)article

Yes it will add depth since to show how Wu inspired women not to be ordinary but to go after their ambitions for example her daughter in law empress Wei, her granddaughter princess anle and her own daughter princess Taiping [[User:Vuruvata|Vuruvata]] ([[User talk:Vuruvata|talk]]) 19:56, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

== Literary allusions ==

Can someone who knows the subject of the article find a better word for the casually misapplied 'schizophrenic'?
[[User:Notreallydavid|Notreallydavid]] ([[User talk:Notreallydavid|talk]]) 00:29, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
:I changed it to "contradictory". [[User:Kaldari|Kaldari]] ([[User talk:Kaldari|talk]]) 14:38, 4 August 2020 (UTC)


== Too Long, Too Many Sections ==
== She gave Chinese a numeral for 0. ==


Given how important the concept of 0 is and how much easier it is to do mathematics with a symbol for 0, we should include this.
This article is very long compared to pages for other historical sovereigns with reigns of similar length/ephocacy. Far too much space is taken up detailing the intricacies of Wu's court, and many sections have repeated/overlapping information. A wikipedia article is meant to relay the importance of a topic and connect readers to sources for further research, not comprehensively describe all known details on a subject. Based on wiki guidelines, experienced editors and Chinese history experts should create an abbreviated section of Wu Zeitan's de facto reign for the main article, and expand the details to a new, independent article titled "Reign of Wu Zeitan", or ideally separate articles for each distinct de jur regime. See articles such as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar for reference. [[User:DarthBrawn|DarthBrawn]] ([[User talk:DarthBrawn|talk]]) 03:16, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
:I do not agree with you, DarthBrawn. I don't think so. The article's length is almost the same as that of [[Emperor Taizong of Tang]], unless you're saying that both this article and the article that I just mentioned both need to be shortened. Thank you. [[User:Friend505|Friend505]] ([[User talk:Friend505|talk]]) 22:24, 3 August 2020 (UTC)


In Unicode, the Chinese numeral for 0 is "〇". The character for the word "zero" is "零". <!-- Template:Unsigned IP --><small class="autosigned">—&nbsp;Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[Special:Contributions/76.103.109.31|76.103.109.31]] ([[User talk:76.103.109.31#top|talk]]) 19:46, 9 December 2021 (UTC)</small> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->
== Internal contradiction ==


== Semi-protected edit request on 17 April 2022 ==
There is a contradiction about Li Zhi reportedly having an affair with Wu Zetian when Emperor Taizong was still alive. In one part, the article basically simply states that. In another part, it says that "(Some modern historians dispute this traditional account, and some think that Consort Wu never had left the imperial palace and might have had an affair with Emperor Gaozong while Emperor Taizong was still alive.)" Also, there is a "citation needed" tag for the latter statement. Could someone please give me advice on the subject? I am an editor with a wide range of topics; I am currently focusing on Chinese dynastic history. This contradiction may have been caused in part by the fact that Wikipedia is a collaborative project, and is not produced by the work of a single person. Thank you. [[User:Friend505|Friend505]] ([[User talk:Friend505|talk]]) 22:28, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
:I think that I should only leave the latter statement. [[User:Friend505|Friend505]] ([[User talk:Friend505|talk]]) 22:29, 3 August 2020 (UTC)


{{edit semi-protected|Wu Zetian|answered=yes}}
== Combining sentences ==
From this event onwards, whenever the emperor attended to business, the
empress then hung a curtain [and listened] from behind it. There was no
matter of government, great or small, which she did not hear. The whole
power of the empire passed into her hands; reward and punishment, life
and death, she decided. The emperor just folded his hands and that is all.
In court and country, they were called the “Two Sages” [[Special:Contributions/5.31.228.200|5.31.228.200]] ([[User talk:5.31.228.200|talk]]) 10:32, 17 April 2022 (UTC)
:[[File:Red question icon with gradient background.svg|20px|link=|alt=]] '''Not done:''' it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a [[Wikipedia:Reliable sources|reliable source]] if appropriate.<!-- Template:ESp --> [[User:ScottishFinnishRadish|ScottishFinnishRadish]] ([[User talk:ScottishFinnishRadish|talk]]) 10:51, 17 April 2022 (UTC)


== Surname linking ==
{{ping|Friend505}} Combining small sentences into longer sentences may seem like an improvement, but research has consistently shown that sentence length is strongly tied to reader comprehension.[https://www.wyliecomm.com/2020/03/how-long-should-a-sentence-be/][https://www.wyliecomm.com/2019/01/top-2-ways-to-improve-your-readability-score/][https://www.wyliecomm.com/2014/09/write-for-the-world/] According to research by the American Press Institute:<br/>
* With average sentences of 8 words or less, readers understood 100% of the information.
* At 14 words, they understood 90% of the information.
* At 43 words, they understood less than 10%.
So even though short sentences may seem awkward, they dramatically increase the chances that our readers will understand the content. [[User:Kaldari|Kaldari]] ([[User talk:Kaldari|talk]]) 14:31, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
:Yeah, but it seems repetitive, since it has already talked about the Wu family at that point. Thank you. [[User:Friend505|Friend505]] ([[User talk:Friend505|talk]]) 20:09, 4 August 2020 (UTC)}}


The first note, stating that her surname is Wu, should link to [[Wu (surname 武)]]. [[Special:Contributions/72.82.43.12|72.82.43.12]] ([[User talk:72.82.43.12|talk]]) 19:17, 29 January 2023 (UTC)
== Guilt-ridden Nightmares? ==
The article states, ''"Empress Wang and Consort Xiao were killed on orders by the new Empress Wu. '''After their deaths, Empress Wu was often haunted by them in her dreams."''''' Since there's no citations for this I assume it just vandalism and should be removed but if there is any evidence that she had guilt-ridden nightmares, kinda like that Macbeth chap, we can keep it if someone can provide the citations. Cheers! [[User:Xenomorph erotica|Xenomorph erotica]] ([[User talk:Xenomorph erotica|talk]]) 19:03, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 04:50, 9 December 2024

Former good article nomineeWu Zetian was a good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
February 21, 2008Peer reviewReviewed
April 17, 2008Good article nomineeNot listed
On this day...A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on February 22, 2014.
Current status: Former good article nominee

She gave Chinese a numeral for 0.

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Given how important the concept of 0 is and how much easier it is to do mathematics with a symbol for 0, we should include this.

In Unicode, the Chinese numeral for 0 is "〇". The character for the word "zero" is "零". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.103.109.31 (talk) 19:46, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 17 April 2022

[edit]

From this event onwards, whenever the emperor attended to business, the empress then hung a curtain [and listened] from behind it. There was no matter of government, great or small, which she did not hear. The whole power of the empire passed into her hands; reward and punishment, life and death, she decided. The emperor just folded his hands and that is all. In court and country, they were called the “Two Sages” 5.31.228.200 (talk) 10:32, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 10:51, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Surname linking

[edit]

The first note, stating that her surname is Wu, should link to Wu (surname 武). 72.82.43.12 (talk) 19:17, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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