Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705),[3][4] alternatively named Wu Zhao, Wu Hou, during the later Tang dynasty as Tian Hou, in English as Empress Consort Wu or by the deprecated term[5] "Empress Wu", was a Chinese sovereign who ruled unofficially as empress consort and empress dowager and officially as empress regnant (皇帝) during the brief Zhou dynasty (周, 690–705),[3] which interrupted the Tang dynasty. Wu was the sole officially recognized empress regnant of China in more than two millennia.