Whilst this list of sources is short currently, it continues to be expanded and developed.

Updated on the first Monday of Every Month

Essay Compendiums 

Bose, Melia Belli, ed. Women, Gender and Art in Asia c.1500-1900. London: Routledge, 2016.

Ko, Dorothy, JaHyun Kim Haboush, and Joan R. Piggott, eds. Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan, 1st ed. Oakland: University of California Press, 2003.

Walthall, Anne, ed. Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History. London: University of California Press Ltd, 2008.

Woodacre, Elena and Carey Fleiner, eds. Royal Mothers and Their Ruling Children: Wielding Political Authority from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Woodacre, Elena, ed. A Companion to Global Queenship. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2018.

Monographs, Journal Articles & Essays in Edited Volumes

Anand, Sugam. History of Begum Nurjahan. New Delhi: Radha Publications, 1992.

Aoki, Michiko Y. “Jitō Tennō: The Female Sovereign.” In Heroic with Grace: Legendary Women of Japan. Edited by Chieko Irie Mulhern, 40-76.Oxon: Routledge, 1991.

Balkwill, Stephanie. The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Centuries. Oakland: University of California, 2024.

Bender, Ross. “Auspicious Omens in the Reign of the Last Empress of Nara Japan, 749-770.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 40, no. 1 (2013): 45–76. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41955530. 

Bender, Ross. Mother of Nara: Female Emperor Genmei 705-715: A Translation from Shoku-Nihongi. 2023

Bender, Ross. The Last Female Emperor of Nara Japan, 749-770. 2021.

Bender, Ross. Virgin Queen: Female Emperor Genshō: 715-724: A Translation from Shoku-Nihongi. 2023.

Bilgrami, Fatima Z. “Economic Status of Ladies of The Mughal Court (Summary).” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 54 (1993): 359–60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44142976.

Chaffee, John. “The Rise and Regency of Empress Liu (969—1033).” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, no. 31 (2001): 1–25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23496088

Chang, Jung. Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. Vintage, 2014.

Clements, Jonathan. Wu: The Chinese Empress who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered her way to become a living God. Sutton: Albert Bridge Books, 2014. 

Dien, Dora Shu-Fang. Empress Wu Zetian in Fiction and in History: Female Defiance in Confucian China. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2003. 

Dong, Lihui. “The Way to be Modern: Empress Dowager Cixi’s Portraits of the late Qing Dynasty.” PhD Diss University of Pittsburgh, 2017.

Duindam, Jeroen Frans Jozef. Dynasties: a Global History of Power, 1300-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Eraly, Abraham. The Mughal Throne. London: Phoenix, 2004.

Findly, Ellison Banks. Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Fitzgerald, C.P. The Empress Wu. London: The Cresset Press, 1955.

Forte, Antonino. “A Symposium on Longmen Studies Luoyang, 1993.” East and West 44, no. 2/4 (1994): 507–16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29757172.

Forte, Antonino. “On the Origins of the Great Fuxian Monastery 大福先寺 in Luoyang.” Studies in Chinese Religions 1 (1) (2015): 46–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/23729988.2015.1028202.

Forte, Antonino. Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the end of the seventh century. Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1976. 

Frydman, Joshua. The Japanese Myths: A Guide to Gods, Heroes and Spirits. London: Thames & Hudson, 2022.

Geun-jik, Lee. “The Development of Royal Tombs in Silla.” International Journal of Korean History, Vol 14 (Aug 2009): 91-124. https://ijkh.khistory.org/upload/pdf/14-04.pdf.  

Grießler, Margareta T. J. “The Last Dynastic Funeral: Ritual Sequence at the Demise of the Empress Dowager Cixi.” Oriens Extremus 34, no. 1/2 (1991): 7–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24047167.

Guo Nan, Heidi. “Analysis of the Image of Wu Zetian in Junior Middle School Teaching Materials.” Chinese Education & Society 36, no. 3 (May 2003): 34–42. https://doi.org/10.2753/CED1061-1932360334.

Hickman, Brian. “A Note on the Hyakumantō Dhāranī.” Monumenta Nipponica 30, no. 1 (1975): 87–93. https://doi.org/10.2307/2383697. 

Hinsch Bret. Women in Tang China. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. 

Hwang, Kyung Moon. A History of Korea: An Episodic Narrative. 3^rd ed. London: Red Globe Press, 2021.

Idema, Wilt and Beata Grant. The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China. London: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Jay, Jennifer W. “Imagining Matriarchy: ‘Kingdoms of Women’ in Tang China.” Journal of the American Oriental Society116, no. 2 (1996): 220–29. https://doi.org/10.2307/605697.

Johnson, Linda Cooke. Women of the Conquest Dynasties: Gender and Identity in Liao and Jin China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2011.

Jo-Shui, Chen. ‘Empress Wu and Proto-Feminist Sentiment in T’ang China.’ In Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, ed. Fredrick P. Brandauer and Chun-Chieh Huang. 77-116. University of Washington Press, 1994.

Karetzky, Patricia E. “Wu Zetian and Buddhist Art of the Tang Dynasty.” Tang Studies 20 (2002): 113-150. 10.1353/tan.2002.0003. 

Kaori, Chino. “The Emergence and Development of Famous Place Painting as a Genre.” Review of Japanese Culture and Society 15 (2003): 39–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42801159.

Kornicki, Peter. “Empress Shōtoku as a Sponsor of Printing.” In Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change. edited by Peter Kornicki, Hildegard Diemberger, and Franz-Karl Ehrhard, 45–50. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Kornicki, Peter. “The Hyakumantō Darani and The Origins of Printing in Eighth-Century Japan.” International Journal of Asian Studies 9, No. 1 (2012), 43-70. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591411000180.

Lal, Ruby. Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2020.

Lee, Yuan Ting. “Wu Zhao: Ruler of Tang Dynasty China.” Association for Asian Studies Vol. 20:2 (2015): 14-18.

Lepekhova, Elena. “Two Asian Empresses and Their Influence on the History and Religion in Tang China and Nara Japan.” Studies in Asian Social Sciences, Vol 4, No 2, 2017, 20-25. https://doi.org/10.5430/sass.v4n2p20.

Liu, Heping. “Empress Liu’s ‘Icon of Maitreya’: Portraiture and Privacy at the Early Song Court.” Artibus Asiae 63, no. 2 (2003): 129–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3249683. 

Liu, Tao Tao. The Chinese Myths: A Guide to Gods and Legends. London: Thames & Hudson, 2022.

McMahon, Keith. Celestial Women: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Song to Qing. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.

McMahon, Keith. “The Polyandrous Empress: Imperial Women and their Male Favorites.” In Wanton Women in Late-Imperial Chinese Literature. Edited by Mark Stevenson and Cuncun Wu, 27-53. Danvers: Brill, 2017. 

McMahon, Keith. “Women Rulers in Imperial China.” NAN NU — Men, Women & Gender in Early & Imperial China 15, no. 2 (September 2013): 179–218. 10.1163/15685268-0152P0001.

McMahon, Keith. Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. 

Mehmood, Zoya. “Beauty and the Mughals – Nur Jahan.” Bachelor’s Dissertation, Presidency University, 2016.

Miller, Alison J. Envisioning the Empress: The Lives and Images of Japanese Imperial Women, 1868-1952. Oxon: Routledge, 2025.

Nelson, Sarah Milledge. “The Queens of Silla: Power and Connections to the Spirit World.” In Ancient Queens: Archaeological Explorations.” Edited by Sarah Milledge Nelson, 77-92. Oxford: Altamira Press, 2003. 

Ni, Yun. “The Queen’s Fantastic Body: A Comparative Study of the Mythologization of Empress Wu Zetian and Eleanor of Aquitaine.” Journal of Medieval Worlds, Vol 2, Issue 3-4 (2021): 96-114. https://doi.org/10.1525/jmw.2020.2.3-4.96. 

Peng, Ying-Chen. “Lingering between Tradition and innovation: Photographic Portraits of Empress Dowager Cixi.” Ars Orientalis 43 (2013): 157–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43490316.

Peng, Ying-Chen. “Staging Sovereignty: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and Late Qing Court Art Production.” PhD Thesis, University of California, 2014.

Piggott, Joan R. The Emergence of Japanese Kingship. Redwood: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Pokhriyal, Divya. “Evolution of Queenship as an Institution in Imperial China.” Institute of Chinese Studies Occasional Paper No.97 (2023): 1-27.

Roberts, Claire. “The Empress Dowagers Birthday: The Photographs of Cixi’s Long Life Without End.” Ars Orientalis 43 (2013): 176–95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43490317.

Rothschild, N. Harry. Emperor Wu Zhao and her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities and Dynastic Mothers. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.

Rothschild, N. Harry. The World of Wu Zhao: Annotated Selections from Zhang Zhuo’s Court and Country. London: Anthem Press, 2023. 

Rothschild, N. Harry. Wu Zhao: China’s Only Woman Emperor. New York: Pearson, 2008.

Rothstein-Safra, Rachael. ‘The Rhetoric of Transgression: Reconstructing Female Authority through Wu Zetian’s Legacy.’ Undergraduate Thesis., University of Central Florida, 2017. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses/253. 

Saunders Jr, Frank P., and Richard J. Sage, eds. Histories of Spiritual Traditions in China. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2024.

Schmid, Alban. The Institutional Power of Chosǒn Korea’s Queen Dowager. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2024.

Seagrave, Sterling. Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.

Seth, Michael J. A History of Korea from Antiquity to the Present. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.

Sevillano-López, David. “The construction and use of the Mingtang by Empress Wu Zetian.” Antesteria No7 (2018): 301-321. 

Shillony, Ben-Ami. Enigma of the Emperors: Sacred Subservience in Japanese History. Kent: Global Oriental, 2005.

Soyoung, Lee, and Denise Patry Leidy, eds. “Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom.” Google Books, 2003. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mpanKmU_ckYC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Takagi, Kiyoko. The Eight Female Emperors of Japan: A Brief Introduction to the Lives and Legacies. Tokyo: Fuzambo International, 2018.

Tanaka, Akira. “Leisure Activities at the Kawara Imperial Villa of Retired Empress Meishō: Through Comparison with the Shugakuin Imperial Villa.” Intercultural Understanding, Vol.1 (2011): 73-77.

Tezel, Aybike Şeyma. ‘A Study on China’s Only Female Ruler Wu Ze’tian.’ MA Thesis., Middle East Technical University, 2009.

Tsurumi, E. Patricia. “Japan’s Early Female Emperors.” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 8, no. 1 (1981): 41–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41298739.

Tsurumi, E. Patricia. 1982. “The Male Present Versus the Female Past: Historians and Japan’s Ancient Female Emperors.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 14 (4): 71–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1982.10412671. 

Wang, Cheng-hua. “‘Going Public’: Portraits of the Empress Dowager Cixi, Circa 1904.” Nan nü: men, women, and Gender in Early and Imperial China 14, no. 1 (2012): 119–176.

Wang, Rui. “Wu Zetian’s Contribution to the cultural development of the Tang Dynasty.” Master’s Thesis, University of Toronto, 2008.

Wang, Wensi. “Gender Identity and Literati Identity in Late Imperial China.” Master’s Thesis, University of Chicago.

Warner, Marina. The Dragon Empress: Life and Times of Tz’u-Hsi, 1835-1908, Empress Dowager of China. London, UK: Vintage, 1993.

Wills, John E. Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Wong, Dorothy C. “Empress Wu’s Impact Beyond China: Kingship and Female Sovereigns.” In Transmission of Buddhism in Asia and Beyond: Essays in Memory of Antonino Forte (1940-2006). Edited by Jinhua Chen, 199-237. Singapore: World Scholastic Publishers, 2022.

Wong, Dorothy C. “The Art of Avatamsaka Buddhism at the Courts of Empress Wu and Emperor Shōmu/Empress Kōmyo.” In Avatamsaka Buddhism in East Asia: Huayan, Kegon, Flower Ornament Buddhism Origin and Adaptation of a Visual Culture. Edited by Robert Gimello, Frédéric Girard and Imre Hamar, 223-260. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012.

Woodacre, Elena. Queens and Queenship. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2021.

Woodacre, Elena. ‘Saints or Sinners? Sexuality and Representation of Queens from Contemporary Sources to modern Media’. De Medio Aevo, 10(2) (2021): 371-385. 10.5209/dmae.76266.

Yang, Lien-sheng. “Female Rulers in Imperial China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 23 (1960): 47–61. https://doi.org/10.2307/2718567.

Yiengpruksawan, Mimi Hall. “One Millionth of a Buddha: The ‘Hyakumantō Darani’ in the Scheide Library.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 48, no. 3 (1987): 224–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/26410044.

Yǒsǒng-sa, Han’guk. Women of Korea: A History from Ancient Times to 1945. Translated by Yung-Chung Kim. Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, 1977.

Yuhang, Li, and Harriet T. Zurndorfer. “Rethinking Empress Dowager Cixi through the Production of Art.” NAN NÜ 14, 1 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1163/156853212X651960.

Zhiwen W, Songyuan W, Shujun Y. “Phoenix Tree, Phoenix and Empress: Empress Historical-Cultural Symbol of Phoenix Tree and its Good Environmental Civilized Value.” Aquac Fish Stud Volume 3 No 4 (2021): 1-7. DOI: 10.31038/AFS.2021342.