Wu Zetian: A Counterstereotype Who Changed the World
Wu Zetian: A Counterstereotype Who Changed the World
The world has seen few people who have had a more profound impact on it than Chinese Emperor Wu Zetian. Wu’s influence as Emperor laid the foundation for China (during that time) to become the most powerful nation on earth. While accomplishing much, the ruler was also notorious for their rise to power using good looks, cunning, and intellect in ways that at the time were the opposite of propriety, a central tenant of Confucian values. Almost any modern-day sympathizer of Confucian teachings would agree that what most rulers did in ancient times was contrary to what would be considered humanistic to a Confucianist.1 Yet, the oft-vilified Wu Zetian stands out in contrast.
Suppose you have been in an unconscious bias or introductory social psychology course. In that case, you have learned that stereotypes are what we believe about people with various identities (e.g., [all] tall people play basketball). These beliefs create mental models and behavioral expectations of these particular groups.
In terms of a character like the first (last and most likely the only) Empress of China, one can surmise that her history of being a relatively young woman of Chinese descent and living in a period when Confucian hierarchy (as socially interpreted) regarded women as little more than vessels for making babies and serving men translated into women like her being passive and subservient. For some folks (predominantly those living outside of current-day Confucian Asia), the stereotype of the docile, demure, diminutive damsel persists. Wu Zetian, for sure, played this role when needed. However, she was the opposite of the stereotype and was raised to be this way by her father.
Counterstereotypes are ideas or objects that go against fixed beliefs about particular groups. They generally arise in opposition to labels we associate with a group, gender, or race. Counterstereotypes reactively projected can reinforce, rather than counter, a stereotype, thus becoming a stereotype of their own.
Emperor Wu Zetian was a significant character on the Silk Road, and how she lived her life was far from the stereotypical Chinese woman of her time. She was China’s de facto leader from 624-690 CE and then the official leader from 690-705 CE. Wu was China’s first and last ruling Empress. Her ways of governing, consolidating, and guarding her power are considered questionable in the annals of Chinese history and perhaps unappealing to other’s interpretation of her behaviors.
My reason for singling out the Empress is to illustrate that difference shaped public sentiment even before mass media and its scrutiny. Empress Wu was one of history’s ultimate counterstereotypes. What she accomplished is unprecedented in recorded history. Yet, after she died in 705, her descendants chose to leave her tomb without inscription.
How frequently in organizational life are those who counter expected ways of thinking and being questioned due to their identity? They could accomplish a great deal and benefit many people, yet they were perpetually scrutinized because of their inherent differences from the majority holding similar roles and power.
Counterstereotypes can come from the fantasy world of comic books, like the world-renowned astrophysicist Hank McCoy, also known as The Beast, in the X-Men comic series. Or they can come in the real world in the form of an icon like Mohandas “Mahatma” K. Gandhi, who was trained as a South African lawyer2 (think British barrister-like three-piece suits and wigs) and later became known for his non-violent approach to protest along with dawning a dhoti (loincloth) and chaddar (shawl). Or they can be people who don’t “look like” an engineer, like Bobak Ferdowsi, a mohawk-wearing NASA flight engineer of Persian descent who helped successfully land the Mars Science Laboratory in 2012. Counter-stereotypical characters have always been world changers.
For about 14 years during her reign, Empress Wu enacted numerous reforms. She started with a surveillance system that allowed any of her subjects to report things they saw as problematic to her directly. She was an early pioneer of the “suggestion box,” establishing a direct line of communication that gave her information about local practices that added to her theory of governance and simultaneously provided her with new ideas directly from the people. The ideas gathered allowed her to attenuate news filtered by government officials who would have expected profit from those ideas.
Wu improved education, including the refinement of teaching methods. She hired the most qualified officials for the government, weeding out the inefficient and less qualified ones. Agricultural production more than doubled under her rule. In part, she did so by rewarding those officials who produced the most crops and taxed the people proportionally less as a reward for their high productivity. Notably, she reopened the Silk Road in 682 after it was closed due to the Bubonic Plague. Given our recent experiences of a global pandemic predicament, the significance of the latter act is relatable.
If we look at the history of the Silk Road, what happened after 682 influenced the broader proliferation and exchange between the East and West. The use of paper and printing became more widespread. Western inhabitants began industrializing Eastern technologies, such as silk production and the spinning wheel. Traders extended new Silk Road routes as far as the Horn of Africa. Religions and philosophies expanded from the East and West. Empress Wu Zetian was a crucial node in the Silk Road's proliferation, and due to her actions, the world would never be the same.
This map indicates trading routes used around the 1st century CE centred on the Silk Road. The routes remain largely valid for the period 500 BCE to 500 CE. (Original image by Whole World Land And Oceans.)
James Millward said, “Humanity has thrived most when connected across its far-flung habitats by exchanges of goods, ideas, arts, and people themselves. This understanding of our common world history stresses communication and interactions among peoples rather than differentiation and conflicts between them.”
The eloquence of the statement above reflects a common refrain of DEI practitioners, and there is quite a bit of evidence to substantiate it. We hear from people who support and manage diversity offices in organizations that “diversity drives innovation.” They often cite studies about organizational representation that indicate that organizations with greater gender or other identity diversity have higher profit margins. Others (mainly in the United States) have used the often-cited data and statements about diversity to determine what makes the country and companies great. It is easy to agree. It is also essential to realize that differences between people don’t automatically equate to better outcomes and are more likely to disrupt homogenous harmony. The greatness resulting from the interactions between our inherent and acquired distinctions doesn’t come without struggle. Homophily and heterophily in teams both come with challenges. Defaulting to the perception that similarities are easier to work through than differences is incomplete and can foster bias in the perception of the group with which one has the strongest affinity.3
American abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass accurately described the Silk Road: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Making inclusion accessible, actionable, and sustainable in organizations and institutions is a struggle. One that pits the incomplete anchors of our preferences against the aspirations to create more profound results than the limits of our current contexts.
Interdependently Purposeful
Empress Wu’s path was one of conflict and struggle. While deftly exercising power during her over-fifty-year reign, she was also a skilled politician and diplomat. For example, she provided a portal for people to communicate with and influence her thinking with their ideas and insights. Most relevant to a core thesis of Reconstructing Inclusion and Inclusion System Design and Development--interdependence--she reopened the Silk Road after a period of it being closed due to disease and traffic posing a potential threat to the capital of Chang’an (after the reopening of the passage, Empress Wu moved the capitol).4 Without her doing so, the advances that emerged from Silk Road technology might have been delayed or muted in their influence on modernity's evolution. She was willing to be influenced and saw that influence as beneficial in maintaining her power. Inclusion is not always charitable. Empress Wu illustrated its relational leverage as a strategic advantage.
I like to think of inclusion in many ways. One is that a mindset of inclusivity entails that one has a willingness to be influenced (i.e., decisions, inspiration, motivation, perspective, reciprocal sharing) by the so-called other. The Silk Road was a bastion of such willingness.
For many, including Wu Zetian, diplomacy resulted from being clear that intersecting and exchanging with people across different cultures, languages, and values brought something they otherwise would not be able to garner. The parties practiced conflict management based on knowing that the discipline of mitigating and working to understand the stance and motivations of the other produced desired outcomes.
Actors on the Road were incentivized for inclusion and interdependence without knowing modern connotations. They acted, with personal interest, in a matter that accounted for the perspectives of others they related with (some friendly, some considerably less so) without the necessity of reminders that the concept of inclusion was reasonable, necessary, or even something to consider. Over time, implicitly designed Silk Road rules of engagement fostered workability. Such a functional design where people understood the backgrounds and motivations of their colleagues and adjusted approaches toward mutual benefit has a great deal of overlap with what DEI practitioners would call an inclusive culture. If inclusion is being “asked to dance,” as oft-quoted, everybody danced on the Silk Road.5
The Silk Road and its subsequent contributions to commerce, culture, transportation, communication, religion, language, and humanity are unmatched in human history. Indeed, we can find few more remarkable examples of cultures and societies interdependently thriving than those of the Silk Road. Its success resulted from diverse multidimensional intersections and exchanges expanding across three continents, influencing what was then (and is now) the Global Majority.
Li Ling (2010) Confucius's Discussions of Propriety, Contemporary Chinese Thought, 41:2, 66-78, DOI: 10.2753/CSP1097-1467410206
Nelson Mandela was also a lawyer trained in South Africa.
Apfelbaum, E. P., Phillips, K. W., & Richeson, J. A. (2014). Rethinking the baseline in diversity research: Should we be explaining the effects of homogeneity? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 235-244.
Note on moving of Chinese capital from Chang’an
Myers, V., American Bar Association., & American Bar Association. (2011). Moving diversity forward: How to go from well-meaning to well-doing. Chicago, Ill: ABA Center for Racial & Ethnic Diversity.
In this episode of the ‘Reconstructing Inclusion’ podcast, we explore the current state of DEI, both within the United States and its global impact. While the U.S. has long been a significant influencer in DEI practices, recent developments have sparked debates about the direction and impact of these efforts. Some argue that the U.S. has been influential to a fault, while others believe there is room for more positive change.