Louyang – Overall, Empress Wu's climb to power has been a relatively notable one. While ruling China this past year, she has done many things to help the country.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Empress Wu’s reign over China, which began when her son, Emperor Ruizong, resigned from power to allow his mother to take the throne. She is the very first woman in history to rule China under her own name, and even changed the name of the dynasty to the Zhou.
Now, during possibly one of China’s most peaceful and prosperous eras, Wu has taken China to its full potential. She has done this in many ways, such as lowering taxes for the peasants, which has greatly improved the economy and raised the agricultural production, and diminishing the influence of aristocrats, allowing only scholars to enter the government through the civil service exam.
Scholar-official Xouxang stated, “The new Empress is already leading China down a great path. By lowering taxes peasants have been able to spend more on what they need for their crops, which has helped improve agricultural production. This has helped the economy prosper, since farmers have had more crops to sell and more money to buy things with. Overall, Empress Wu is expected to continue to improve China to a great extent.”
Wu’s journey to this point has been long and devious, but definitely worth it. She was a favorite concubine of both Emperor Tiazong and his son Emperor Gaozong, soon working her way up to his wife, most likely by cleverly framing his first wife of murder. When Gaozong had an unfortunate stoke, Wu took over his duties, effectively running the government until he died and their son, Zhongzong took over. She continued to control him, overthrowing him after some time and placing her weakest son, Ruizong, in power so she could run things more easily. Eventually, she assisted him in resigning and declared herself Empress in 689.
The Empress has not exactly gained power in a normal or fair way, most likely by killing her own daughter to frame the Emperor's wife of murder, along with killing off the majority of the imperial family when the Tang princes attempted to revolt. There are even suspicions that she created fake Buddhist texts and cauldrons to boast her rule.
But even though the texts and cauldrons were falsely created, they are still right to boast about the Empress's rule. She has done many great things for China, immensely improving the lives of all Chinese people. From lowering taxes to creating a government that treats everyone fairly, life in China for everyone, especially peasants, has been greatly enhanced.
I gave this a quick skim and it looks good. You do need to change the headline to show that it is an editorial. Also, I would suggest adding a bit more to your first sentence. Maybe just the idea she's been in charge for a year.
ReplyDeleteThis is really excellent writing. You truly have the voice of an editorialist, including a concession but arguments and facts to support.
ReplyDeleteA few suggestions...
Get rid of the last sentence by combining it into the one before:
"She has done this in many ways, such as lowering taxes for the peasants and diminishing the influence of aristocrats, allowing only scholars to enter the government through the civil service exam. Lowering the taxes has improved the economy greatly, as well as raised the agricultural production." So just after the word "peasants," put a comma and start with the words "which has greatly..." and then put a comma after and continue on with "and diminishing."
Also, the first sentence of your last paragraph is confusing because you use the pronoun "they" to refer to two different things. Usually when you start a new paragraph you don't want to use pronouns even if you were just talking about something specific in your last paragraph. So be sure to be explicit about who the two "theys" are.