Empress Wu

Im curious as to how an empire following confucian ways, as the Tang dynasty did, can ever put a female in office, especially when one of the Confucian analects is "a female ruler is like a hen cock-a-doodle-do-ing." O some form of that. Anyone?

Asoka

His revelations after the Battle of Kalinga astound me. How does someone go from being a militaristc ruler to a supporter of absoulute non-violence? If anyone has any insight on this please, feel free to post.