#history files
Shangguan Wan'er 上官婉兒 (664-710) was Empress Wu Zetian’s secretary, and came to be known as the “female prime minister.”
Her father and grandfather were killed because of their opposition to Empress Wu Zetian’s rise, and Shangguan Wan'er herself was forced into slavery. However, she became proficient at poetry and statecraft, and eventually impressed the empress so much that she was appointed secretary.
After a series of political intrigues and romantic liaisons, Shangguan Wan'er was implicated in a coup against one of Empress Wu Zetian’s successors - and beheaded as a result.
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