Angela Merkel's victory in the German elections last month gave her a third term in charge of Europe's largest economy. Shortly before that, Chinese archaeologists reported that they had found the tomb of Shangguan Waner (664-710), a powerful female politician of the Tang dynasty. Her life coincided with that period of unprecedented (and subsequently unrivalled) female power in China, during which a woman - Wu Zetian - occupied the throne.
In positions of power, the women proved just as capable of cruelty, venality and depravity as men. As consort to Emperor Gaozong, Wu killed her own newborn daughter to frame the then empress (Empress Wang), whom she subsequently replaced. Wu's politically astute daughter Princess Taiping, Shangguan and other princesses and powerful women openly accepted bribes, selling imperial titles and official posts.
And then there was the sex. Tang society was relatively permissive in its sexual mores, but the things these women got up to would be considered shocking even today. Wu and Taiping, for example, swapped male lovers, and mother and daughter would compare notes on the sexual merits of the men they shared. It was gender equality at a sordid level, for both men and women were - and, I believe, still are - equally susceptible to the corrupting influence of power.
