Nah fam your hand was forced Mulan was shit.

I bet you cant talk about the first chinese emperor because you will not make a video just to prove a comment their wrong

How time Flys

LOVE YOUR CONTENT

*closes door going to throne room*

Me playing tick tack toe would be dead pretty fast 😁

It makes Game of Thrones look like Checkers.

This is why we can't let wealth consolidate... Too much money, power, and time then people just sit around thinking about how to start drama. Working people don't have time to think of all those creative ways to torture and kill their enemies. Nobody has time for that

@@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight LOL exactly. The West was shook with ONE Cersei. Imagine your harem with 100 Cerseis ALL plotting against each other to get their son(s) to become Emperor so that they can be Empress Dowager. #RetirementPlans

@@Jumpoable Sultanate of women came pretty close to that lol.

The equivalent of the "i made you" rhetoric

Story starts at 31:30 :3

Lol

I'm fucking wheezing 😂👩‍🦽

Ha, I was thinking about the reputation white MInnesotans have for being passive aggressive, like danngggg, those "helpful" reading lists?! 😂 But also the way so many cultures have various face-saving customs is really interesting.

Or receiving money from your grandma at new year's

This like paying the bill in Asian families too lol 😂 (idk if it’s common in other cultures too)

@@kpopmuzikk I'm asian and it's definitely a thing with my family and friends, we will literally fight each other to pay the bill until one backs down

Similar rule applies to converting to Judaism

It's also what my philosophy professor said once during his lecture, with a completely serious tone, which is not characteristic to him. Not even a full year after, our (Polish) government took our remaining abortion rights. A few decades ago Poland has had practically no restrictions in this department. I'm also painfully aware that the same thing has happened and is about to happen in several American states.

Truly sad...

@Ventricosa The King unfortunately many countries, especially in the west, are falling to fascism again. misogyny is the first and most core component to a fascist takeover, as it instills the idea that hierarchy is not just natural, but sometimes ‘for the best’ of those being oppressed. Dark times we live in.

@@bobsaget121 bro? I literally thought you were dead.😳

Seeing this the day after Roe got struck down is straight up chilling.

Wu Zetian was basically Chinese Cersi Lannister

I mean, I'm pretty sure literal gas lights didn't exist in 7th-century China. So more like... ...hm, this joke was funnier when I assumed I could find a period-appropriate fuel source that started with 'G'.

Actually kinda the opposite of gatekeep since she allowed all those commoners to get promoted lol

@@jasondaveries9716 well she could kick your out if you wanted too....she have the key after all

Wu Zetian could have inspired Azula from ATLA. I see the parallels.

WARNING! Nerd rant about a similar figure to Wu Zetian in european ancient history below. I mean, if I may bring a Roman Empress into the discussion, Agrippina the Younger was like a less successful Wu Zetian. She was the granddaughter of Augustus (i think, she might have actually been the great granddaughter i don't quite remember), and as such she was an imperial princess and had a lot of power, influence, and connections to the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (aka the first dynasty of the roman empire). Similarly to Wu Zetian, after Agrippina the Younger enjoyed massive amounts of power during her (second) husband's reign, she and her son struggled for power. After Agrippina's death, no woman in Rome ever wielded quite as much power or freedom. Actually, i'm pretty sure there were laws established in the Roman Empire specifically to prevent situations such as that of Wu Zetian or Agrippina the Younger from happening again.

Thank you for sharing this! Fascinating stuff. So ironic when men were the messiest in history 🙄

This is definitely quotable. "Oppressors will always try to oppress, and if we drop our guard for even one second, we could lose the rights our ancestors fought so hard for.'" Tshirts, mugs, memes... Go!

@@lindareed8265 i will buy one of those!

This aged interestingly....

Shangguan Wan'er legit pulled a "ok boomer" act back then.

@@edenia9080 the origin of 'ok boomer'

@@edenia9080 Oh snap, you're right! lol

They found the tomb of Shangguan Wan’er a few years ago.

She really said: haha ok boomer. *becomes Zetians sectary after she became Emperor*

Wu Zetian takes a page out of Sun Wukong's book and invades heaven.

@Crow but at that point she wouldn't have gone by zetian yet

That’s not how Buddhism and the Buddha works

I'd read that book

Wu Zetian would definitely storm through heaven like Sun Wukong if she felt like it, but she'd probably do it via a long-term plan whereas he just does everything because he's bored/grumpy/over-enthusiastic, at least at the beginning of the story.

Haha yessss

Both of these PLEASE!!!!

"HOLY QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WEST AND HER IMMORTALITY PEACHES!" "OH MY GODS OF KITCHENS AND TEA IRRIGATION!" - inaccurate english-to-mandarin-to-english mythological figure usage

Please make this happen!!!

I would sooooo by that shirt, hoody and beeny

lol

Famous last words: I could give the empire to my father in law if I wanted to

My favorite thing about it is it's definitely in the hot gossip style but there's a lot of historical, psychological and political insight. They integrate analysis really well while still conveying how absolutely coconuts this story is.

I love it. It’s exactly what I want over my morning coffee.

I was excited about the books but now I hear there's mecha art inspired by the mythological beings too. I am here for it all 🤤🤤

right? if all history teachers taught their students like that, the world would be a better place

There’s a reason why stories are often passed down via gossip and word-of-mouth

Would highly recommend--Iron Widow is fantastic!!

Xiran is NB?

Yeah!! They don’t mind any pronouns but prefer they/them, says so on their website

@@dariang4725 yes

I HAVE ONE BESTIE IM SO EXCITED

Should have said " Oh my Chinese gods" lol

Missed the opportunity to say "Oh my Chinese gods"

i mean back then that man had been willing to risk it all to have a fling with his father’s concubine. i’d understand zetian doing that to use him as a safety net (which ended up being true) but he literally had no gain with fooling around with his father’s concubine. so yeah, i’d say it’s always been zetian who was in charge.

he was a soft boi, it was clearly stated. Let him cry on his throne. :p

That question practically answers itself.

Makes me wonder if Zetian ever actually loved him, or was he always just her ticket to becoming emperor?

I would think that if not for the way he had manipulated the corruption investigation just to depose and kill his uncle without it looking bad on him. He really plays up that "soft boy" persona to make himself look good. I like to think he was manipulative, not as much as zetian, but enough that she may have been impressed by him at some point early in their marriage.

These are the words of a smart man to his wife.

I mean... he was right

While may think his pants sometimes, he sure knew Wu 's power in the relationship.

2:57 7:40 22:56

Gaozongs catchphrase

THEY ARE BACC BACC AGAIN

Yasss

omg they're back again

Calm down! Calm down! It’s not a drill theyre here

WOOOOOO

She was smart . She seduced gao zhong before his fathers death. She knew gao zhong is gonna be emperor soon so she seduces him before she was sent to nunnery

Even if they know she’s the sus, they can’t do a thing

Wu Zeitan *EMERGENCY MEETING* "Li Zhe is sus. Throw him out." *Li Zhe gets thrown out* Pei Yan "Proof?" Wu Zeitan "That's kinda sus..." *Pei Yan gets thrown out*

lmao

4:30

@@cloe412 Consort Xiao's words in my opinion are so much better.

@@gemmalow6515 Hell yea, Consort Xiao supremacy

@@timotheysan3605 Well I am just saying if I was in that situation I definitely relate more to Consort Xiao's reaction.

@@gemmalow6515 Empress Wang: “Power is temporary, honour is permanent” Consort Xiao: “REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE“

Also had a native American VP, who then preceded to author a law which gave the federal government the power to break up tribally held lands. Just cause you are part of a minority doesn't mean you will necessarily help said minority

And that black president was followed-up with an openly white supremacist president and sweeping voter suppression laws targeting people of color. We truly never learn and get way too complacent every time we make a little progress.

@@ELeeHamm Indeed. And it's a favoured logical fallacy favoured by conservative groups, to say any amount of power or status one single person of a group obtains is somehow indicative of the whole. And as we see whenever there are strides made towards breaking the status quo, there's a very dangerous pushback from the group who favours the inequity to 'punish' or 'put back into place' the group that was represented. A woman ran for president and probably should have won, so now access to women's health has been a battleground setting back decades of autonomy and overall wellness achieved. Black Lives Matter movement happened, and white supremacy wasn't just not saying the quiet part out loud--they're loud and proud bigots now. The UK passed the gender recognition act, and now TERF radicalism is a huge movement, with JK Rowling winning an award on her very dangerous and bigoted, not to mention inaccurate, essay about how she should be allowed to say trans people suck or whatever. (That is obviously not the best summary of her essay and I encourage anyone who wants to form an opinion on it to read it, maybe on a day they hate themselves or what to feel angry at the world for a hot minute.) One could argue it's a type of, "For every action is an equal and opposite reaction," kind of deal, but I would like to think more optimistically. Like for every two steps forward, we have to take one back. Maybe one-and-a-half. But eventually, maybe the world won't suck quite as much for the majority while catering to a bigoted minority. Equality isn't a pie, letting someone have a slice isn't going to take away the one on your plate. And all that jazz.

Period. The USA was so racist to Obama. God the whites were HORRID and PRESSED AF.

@@ELeeHamm Yup. It’s so disgusting.

Tang Dynasty is called China's greatest Golden Age for a reason. Aside from the only female emperor, direct inspirations for Journey to the West, it also contained China's Poet Sage and Poet God (2 of China's greatest poets), Yang Guifei (over if the greatest beauties in Chinese history), Era of Crimson Rouge (post-Wu Zetian era where multiple women looked up to her and emulated her, vying for direct political power, including her daughter the Princess, her daughter in law the Empress, Her granddaughter the Princess, and her confidante the Prime Minister). It was honestly a glorious time.

@@conho4898 it really was a true golden age for artistic development as well! A lot of what we think of as the pinnacle of chinese art happened during the Tang dynasty era. Li Bai, Du Fu, the many poet-monks, all not only started a revolution in their era, but changed the way poetry and buddhism related to each other, and the way poetry as an art continued in later dynasties. On top of that, the pottery, featherwork, bookbinding, and even watercolour printing of future fame would be invented in this era. The Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian's dynasty held such incredible innovations in artistic mediums, poetry, philosophy, and calligraphy that even it's "lowest" later eras of art spawned poetry cults such as the one headed by the Four Lings. I did my semester paper on the artistic innovations in art and poetry in the Tang dynasty, and i have a few really good papers I could reccomend on the poetry of the era.

wait, i have a feeling that Wu Zetian was the inspiration for the Western Kingdom of Women from Journey to the West

​@@zenodotus-xxiv785其实宋的文化成就也非常有地位，尤其是绘画和文学上，而且宋最后一个皇帝的故事真的挺搞笑的😂。

Same

right? We demands a 3rd part!

I second this!!

Absolutely!

I really want to knpw about her reign!

It's old goss, but still so juicy!

it has major 'leaving the chat after sending the last message' vibes

She was an absolute badass.

I second that idea, we need Chinese Ancient Gossip merch!

Whenever I hear that, Paul Bettany pops into my head😂

This is appropriation at work

Well by the Tang dynasty, paper was already invented lol.

@@conho4898 I didn’t know scrolls weren’t paper lmao

@@yourmother9834 sorry I thought u meant bamboo scrolls 😅. Classical Chinese is very condensed information wise, so it wouldn't take that much tbh

@@conho4898 thats cool 😎 im mostly uneducated this channel is my only source for ancient Chinese history but I am enjoying it (:

Then Chu Suiliang becomes the first man on the moon because they ran out of places on earth for him to be banished to.

My thoughts too xD

can’t believe he was the first prisoner to be sent to Australia

I heard he's also the first man to discover North America

I heard they tried to send him to India but they failed

What are their pronouns? Saw you using they/them but idk if that's bc you also don't want to assume

@@ramadearbol99 In their "Stop Asian Hate Crimes" video, Xiran said that they use 'They/Them' pronouns but 'She/Her' is fine in casual conversations

@@punyapatil1993 thank you! I appreciate it

@@ramadearbol99 np !

Wait a min, what are xiran's pronouns??

@@bandagedballs9543 Xiran goes by they/them pronouns, according to their instagram! :)

@@katieb3172 gtk!

@@katieb3172 but I think she said she doesn’t really care.

@@torilan2672 It's still better off to use Xiran's correct pronouns

Agreed. Though I was thinking that Wu Zetian's rise to Empress was akin to how Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon and married Anne Boleyn

Her politicking with her husband and sons, and the closeness with the palace eunuchs is also remniscient of Empress Irene (although Irene's method of overthrowing her son was a fair bit more violent)

I doubt Elizabeth would be too fond of Wu's familicide, especially given how she likely feels about her father's eagerness to kill her mother and his in-laws

​@@angelitabecerra Complete with her sister also being his lover.

Lucky that bloodletting can somewhat help high blood pressure at least temporarily, since that was their cure for everything

Probably shouldn't confuse Byzantine medicine with the rest of mediaeval Europe. It directly descended from the Greco-Roman tradition and heavily influenced Islamic medicine. Probably some of the best care you could get at the time.

Yeah, uhh Byzantines were skilled with Medicine, remember they didn't loose the knowledge from the Roman empire, and who knows really, blood letting could have helped the Emperor's excessive strokes.

Don't disrespect my bois the byzantines Or what Basilius II did to the bulgarians will seem light

@@eyes4095 Basil the based. Still not as based as Hadrian, though.

Oh my Vietnamese gods the pun 😂

ikr this explains so much

I think it’s kinda similar to kosem though

I'm fairly sure the same could be said for Genghis Khan. I remember reading that he really got around.

@@ThinlyCut90 I mean, the man had quite a few wifes and legitimate children, so just based on that alone, his tree is massive!

@@lampekartoffel his tree..??? 👀👀

@@yas7689 Family tree, yes😂

@@lampekartoffel omg my mind im sorry

Lucky you, it's not in China yet

Yes it's amazing!

I feel so seen...

Oh definitely. This stands true for almost all women who come to power in ancient monarchies. For them to rise to power they needed to murder, manipulate, and be conniving. While for men it's a much more straight forward process, for women there always needed to be an element of manipulation or else there would never be a way up the ranks. Now a days we say "women supporting women" but ngl in the eras of the patriarchy and monarchy women had to tear and fight each other down to even have a little bit of power. It's really fascinating if u think about it and all the powerful women we learn about in history. They all needed to be to a degree, ruthless.

She only did things a male emperor does on a regular basis. Had she been a man, her accomplishments as an emperor would have been held in high regards by everyone with no opposition from her constituents and all the way to the historians.

@@hershey395 exactly 💯

@@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072 What to your what? Xiran is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. (They don't mind feminine ones, but they prefer they/them more.)

@@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072 i think they are talking about something Xiran quoting Wu Zetian" s quote and their ability to explain the quote, and for them it means that Xiran is a great writer and storyteller. Hope that helps!

I agree

😭yass Xiran's so thoughtful abt dumbasses like me

@@vanessameow1902 *they, Xiran is Non-binary

@@youhashiccupinabbitipsy3815 but someome mentioned in another comment that Xiran goes by both her/she and they/them pronouns?👉👈

@@vanessameow1902 is that so? but Xiran has mention they are Non-Binary, so it would be more appropriate to address them they/them.

Same!! The first time I learned was by a white guy that just focused on the fact that she was a bad mom. Only female empress of China sounds much better

Hong Kong education is still greatly manipulated by the Anglo Saxons

@@supahsmashbro LOL nah literally there are 'National Security' and 'Patriotism' as subjects in education courses ranging from Primary School all the way to Secondary School.

@@KidWithGlassesON Let's not pretend Hong Kongers are not mentally colonized and worship whites/the west. They've no idea how their value as a human being plummets in the West and largely ignorant to anything about Western governments. Still many based people, however. But they had to wake up from indoctrination.

Just like the real thing

Iconic

What's the name of the webtoon?

@@koori9739 Phantom Paradise by Rurisen on Webtoon originals.

@@aptalsandvic5355 thanks

Aha Türk buldum!! :0

Hi, Chinese born Australian here with an interest in ancient chinese history but not modern chinese history. I am not an expert on cixi, however, I will briefly mention a bit of historical context. As Xiran mentioned in this video, Wu Ze Tian's rise to power killed a lot of aristocratic families. For women who were born in less turbulent times, and maybe even born of aristocratic families themselves, becoming an emperor was much harder. So instead, these women would rule from behind the scenes, as the regent, usually putting a child puppet emperor on the throne. Cixi consolidated her power this way. The last emperor was 2 when he was crowned, Cixi was the real ruler during the final decades of the Qing dynasty. (Feel free to correct me if I got things wrong, I'm not particularly interested in Qing history so i haven't read a lot about it)

Yess she's so hardworking and pays attention to details!!

Xiran uses they/them pronouns

@@itsme7336 thanks for the correction 💝

@@itsme7336 whoops sorry, maybe Ruler Xiran???

@@selenium3447 the term emperor in chinese mean both genders !

Me too! I checked her channel a few days ago just in case I missed the notification.

omg an orbit

I was about to watch something then saw this vid and dropped what I was gonna watch right away lol, I rewatched part 1 so much hehe

I know right? I kept checking their channel to to see when they were going to upload. I was eager to watch this new video!

That's what I thought, too... Cersei is a mean school bully in comparison...

Not really, there are better comparison. If this was Game of Thrones then it was only at the revolt and battle. Game of Thrones have a lot of battle. So I would said the less than 30 years period between 230 BC to 202 BC. That is game of Thrones. We got 7 kingdoms unified into one (Qin). Then Qin falter within 15 years. From one split into 18 kingdoms, which then eliminate down to 2 (Chu-Han contention). With Han emerged as the victor. You got the Mad King (China's first emperor). You got the wall (the great wall is build around this time). You got Littlefinger (Lu Buwei). You got Rob Stark/Robert Baratheon, Xiang Yu. You got Cersei, Queen Dowager Zhao and Empress Lu. You got Varys, Zhao Gao. I would say Liu Bang is sort of a Daenerys/Tyrion (charisma) but mediocre in every stats outside of knowing how to delegate. Tywin can be Li Si or Wang Jian. Han Xin can be Tyrion. Hill tribes can be Min Yue, Nan Yue, and various barbarians all over the place. The Dorathki can be the Xiongnu (prototype of Mongolians). Tommen Baratheon can be a bunch of people including the second emperor of Qin. Ned Stark can be the crown prince of Qin and or Meng Tian.

@@sibyllah.7703 In fact, Wu Zeitan noted Empress Lu of Han because that what she told her son to study. So yeah.

Wu sounds like Hurrem. I feel Hurrem read the Wu playbook at some point in her life.

JRRM has gone on to state that ASOIAF was inspired very heavily by I, Claudius and the histories of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which had its own climbing, controlling and powerful matriarch In Livia. So these kind of Dynastic powerplays happen all throughout history and they're just as wild and gripping everytime

I heard that most of the people (at least Eastern and Middle Europe) are descendants of Chengis Chan.

@@ololo518 actually, it’s half of the entire population are Chenghis Khan’s descendants because he rape a lot of women everywhere he goes....and he took a lot of concubines too.

@@ataventurine7515 I didn't say it was nice.

So true. The Charlemagne thing is, I believe down to probability. Relatively small population of Europe at the time, plus the fact that your pool of direct ancestors doubles every generation you go back. So, if you have European ancestry, your probability of being related to anyone in Europe at the time who survived to have children approaches 100%. People always pick Charlemagne because he's a famous figure so it just sounds more impressive than Rural Peasant # 374. Statistics are amazing.

@@sonjahalicki4775 Wait what? Are you telling me that I am related to Rural Peasant 374 and nobody told me? : D

Them* they*

I JUST NOTICED

I feel like all they're missing is some snacks.

Because then the new emperor will kill all of his brother because they are also fit to rule as well, and that would threaten the position of the emperor.

I think it depends if they're trained equally. But historically, if the other sons are capable and competitive for ruling, it will actually drive up the chances of them killing each other for the throne. Countless bloodbaths in Chinese history over the throne had stemmed from that, whether it's between royal family members or generals. If someone's capabality is competitive enough, they'll be a potential threat to the throne.

Su-

Red sus!

Omg yes, I’ve always found Empress Lu’s story to be so interesting. Please cover it!

Empress Lü had extremely tough early years and was treated very cruelly by her husband. In some ways she was even more misunderstood than Wu Zetian. I can really empathise with why she would become so merciless in her pursuit of revenge and power later on. She would be such an interesting controversial female historical figure for Xiran to talk about.

Agreed! Ive read about her a bit but I would love to see her talk about Empress Lü