Following a couple of hours among the New Year’s crowds and firecrackers in Leicester Square last Sunday, it was something of a relief to seek sanctuary in the National Portrait Gallery for a highly entertaining lecture on one of the most notorious figures in Chinese history. The person in question was the Empress Wu Zhao, who rose from the position of concubine to become the ruler of seventh century China, before proclaiming herself as a deity.

Wu’s route to the top sometimes involved an unpleasant death for anyone who stood in her way. Author and Wu biographer, Jonathan Clements, was keen to point out that the bloodier elements of her story have often been exaggerated, firstly by her enemies for their own aggrandisement, and then hundreds of years later by writers and film-makers hoping to cash in on her monstrous reputation.

By no means an apologist for Wu, a woman who had her lover’s wife declared a witch and drowned in wine as a punishment (I have yet to decide whether this is better or worse than drowning in plain water), Clements duly explained that a lack of accurate accounts of Wu’s life has done much to blur the truth. He also noted that Wu herself was not averse to a little twisting of the facts when it helped her cause, and she may well have been “the biggest liar of all.”

Clements is an extremely likeable presence behind the lectern, recounting Wu’s story with wit and style whilst adding a contemporary edge to history. His references to the likes of Big Brother did not seem shoehorned in just to keep the kids happy, but had genuine merit. Wu led a life full of such sleaze, scandal and infamy that were she alive today she would seldom be out of the tabloids.

A favourite in the harem of Emperor Taizong, Wu nursed him as he lay dying, whilst sleeping with his breast-fixated son by whom she later became pregnant. Possibly guilty of infanticide, and of murdering her own sister, Wu schemed and cheated her way to the throne where she took a lover whom she sneaked into the palace disguised as a Buddhist monk. Finally, after surviving two revolts against her, Wu reinterpreted Holy Scriptures to declare herself a living god. Now, controversial as it may be, Big Brother has a way to go to beat that.

Listen to Jonathan Clements talking about the Empress.