How Does Empress Lü Use Too Much Power?

From the primary source about Empress Lü, readers can learn that a system without checks and balances is unlikely to work because too much power can cause people to be afraid of their leader and without outside influence, rulers aren’t picked properly which can lead to the downfall of an empire
Firstly, too much power can cause people to be afraid of their leader. Throughout The Basic Annals of Empress Lü by Sima Qian, readers can see Empress Lü’s power become an unstoppable force. Because her husband was the emperor, when he died, the power was transferred to Empress Lü. According to the source, one of the first things Empress Lü did was torture and kill Lady Qi. Lady Qi was Emperor Gaozu’s (Empress Lü’s husband) mistress that Empress Lü dispised.

Many people including her own son were astonished by this act and did not see how a human could do this to another human. The text reads, “‘No human being could have done such a deed as this! Since I am your son, I will never be fit to rule the empire’” (Qian 269). Empress Lü’s son said this to her right after he found out what she had done to Lady Qi. His viewpoint was that if this is how Empress Lü was going to rule the empire, then he didn’t want to be associated with it. The story of her and her son is interesting because her son actually did end up becoming emperor. Even though he didn’t want to, because he knew what she was capable of, he felt forced to rule. This is crucial to the story of Empress Lü because it shows how people would follow orders because they were terrified of her even if they didn’t agree with what she wanted. This cycle created a bad dynamic where Empress

Throughout her reign, Empress Lü’s main goal was to keep her family in power. In order to reach this goal, she had to sacrifice many people even if it wasn’t justified. After her son and husband died, she concentrated on lining up power in the hands of her bloodline. The text states, “As a first step toward making kings of the members of the Lü family[,]the empress dowager awarded Lü Tai’s deceased father Lü Ze the posthumous title of Daowu” (Qian 272). What this means is that when there was a position open, the Empress would award it to her family without thinking twice. This became a problem because her family members weren’t always qualified to rule. In a society with checks and balances, people would not let this happen or replace Empress Lü or the person unfit. But because there were no checks and balances, this kept happening over and over. Even after she died, her family members decided to keep themselves in power because it was what she wanted. What ended up happening was her family line lost power. Her tactics had failed because she was not told otherwise. If there had been rules or guidelines set in place, her system may have