In the days not long after the pharaohs in Egypt, there lived a woman in China. Leizu (say lee - zhoo) was an empress. She lived in a beautiful palace in China. The palace had a huge garden filled with many trees and flowers. Leizu and her husband, Hoangti loved to walk through their gardens. The emperor and his wife loved their people and always thought of their happiness. One morning Hoangti and his wife were in the beautiful palace garden. They walked up and down, up and down, talking of their people. They needed to find a way to make their people happy. If they did not, the people might follow a different leader. The emperor talked on and on of how to help his people. They needed money and things they could trade. They also needed a new way to make clothes. Find out about this empress who discovered how to unwind the cocoon of the silkworm and weave the threads into cloth in this 15-minute biography. Ages 8 and up. This Educational Version includes activities designed to reinforce Common Core Curriculum Standards. LearningIsland.com believes in the value of children practicing reading for 15 minutes every day. Our 15-Minute Books give children lots of fun, exciting choices to read, from classic stories, to mysteries, to books of knowledge. Many books are appropriate for hi-lo readers. Open the world of reading to a child by having them read for 15 minutes a day.

Almost five thousand years ago, a young Chinese empress was having tea in the garden. A cocoon from a mulberry tree fell into her cup. Through a dream and her persistence, the first silk cloth was made.

"Literature-based -- across the curriculum -- cooperative learning"--Cover.

Wu Zhao (624–705), better known as Wu Zetian or Empress Wu, is the only woman to have ruled China as emperor over the course of its 5,000-year history. How did she—in a predominantly patriarchal and androcentric society—ascend the dragon throne? Exploring a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries, this multifaceted history suggests that China's rich pantheon of female divinities and eminent women played an integral part in the construction of Wu Zhao's sovereignty. Wu Zhao deftly deployed language, symbol, and ideology to harness the cultural resonance, maternal force, divine energy, and historical weight of Buddhist devis, Confucian exemplars, Daoist immortals, and mythic goddesses, establishing legitimacy within and beyond the confines of Confucian ideology. Tapping into powerful subterranean reservoirs of female power, Wu Zhao built a pantheon of female divinities carefully calibrated to meet her needs at court. Her pageant was promoted in scripted rhetoric, reinforced through poetry, celebrated in theatrical productions, and inscribed on steles. Rendered with deft political acumen and aesthetic flair, these affiliations significantly enhanced Wu Zhao's authority and cast her as the human vessel through which the pantheon's divine energy flowed. Her strategy is a model of political brilliance and proof that medieval Chinese women enjoyed a more complex social status than previously known.