Empress Wu, only reigning female in the History of China, created several unique Chinese characters to demonstrate her power. The characters were not created by the Empress herself, they were suggested by an official named Zong Qin-ke (宗秦客 pinyin zong1 qin2 ke4) in the year 689 A.D. The number of these characters is controversial. There remain only 17 characters. They were forcibly used by people during her reign but fell into disuse immediately after her death, so they help to determine dates of printed materials.
