Comments by "Stephen Jenkins" (@stephenjenkins7971) on "Wu Zetian: Boy-Toys and Buddhas - Chinese History - Part 5 - Extra History" video.

@nov9925 Well, tbh, most of her life was spent on becoming emperor. So its kinda impossible to NOT focus on her life before being emperor. It'd be a different story if her life prior to becoming emperor was boring or has no historical bearing, but it does.
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EH literally does that all the time, though. Just only against European/Western nations and peoples.
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@badmashdogesh3939 Literally nobody defends these men, though. Also, compared to Wu Zetian, they accomplished waaaaay more to contrast with their cruelty. Qin Shi Huang is literally credited for uniting China to begin with. But no, Wu Zetian is nowhere near the best rulers in Chinese history. She was an effective ruler, and one of the better ones, but compared to many Chinese rulers she was decent at best. Her call to fame was her being a woman while becoming emperor, not being an excellent emperor. She was no Catherine the Great.
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@sheepketchup9059 Wu did a LOT more than just kill or screw over her children, tbh. She very much staffed much of her administration with loyalists and sycophants as well as caused a lot of issues in the royal family. Of course, tbf to her, a lot of those issues could've been avoided if her gender wasn't a literal restriction to getting power.
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