Chinese Buddhism

During the time where Empress Wu Zetian was in power, there was a lot of development of Buddhism. She made it the favored religion over Taoism. The Buddhist Church believed that Empress Wu Zetian was the reincarnation of the Buddhist savior Buddhisattva Maitreya. Buddhists' belief was the men and women were equal. Wu Zetian proved that to everyone when she was appointed Empress. She had Buddhist monasteries built to draw people into her religion. Many of the most beautiful pieces artwork from Buddhist cave sculptures were composed during that time. Empress Wu Zetian thought it was very important that women be seen as equal to men to she hired them to do jobs that men would normally do and had biographies written about hard working women to show off their strengths.