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Remembering China’s Empress Dowager Ling, a Buddhist who paved the way for future female rulers

  • Written by Stephanie Balkwill, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles

In sixth-century China, a woman known to history as Empress Dowager Ling ruled over an empire called the Northern Wei. Historians do not know her birth name or in what year she was born, but they do know that she served as empress dowager between 515 and 528. As the spouse of a ruling emperor prior to his death, she retained the title of empress...

Read more: Remembering China’s Empress Dowager Ling, a Buddhist who paved the way for future female rulers

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