Ulja Krautwald Christine Li - Path of the Empress: How to Free Your Feminine Power

Over a thousand years ago, the concubine Wu Zhao set out on the fairytale journey to become Chinas most powerful woman. Her intelligence and erotic aura, combined with the strategies of Chinese arts of war, paved the way for her to become Empress. She was the only woman who ever officially ruled ancient China. Her faithful adviser was the wise shaman and doctor, Sun Simiao, guardian of the age-old secrets of feminine wisdom and power.

This book reveals what Sun Simiao taught the Empress and how women today can follow the Path of the Empress.

From previously untranslated classical Chinese sources, we learn how women can strengthen their erotic aura, bring determination and flexibility into harmony, use anger strategically, and create alliances. But an empress, according to the authors, also takes good care of herself, just as Wu Zhao did. Women who make room for their inner empress are strong and generous, open and yet mysterious. They know the inner source of their energy, which gives them power over themselves and others.

Christine Li studied sinology and medicine before going on to study traditional Chinese medicine for five years in Shanghai and Peking. This book was inspired by ancient Chinese classics, her work with hundreds of women as a doctor of Chinese medicine, and a special inner bond with the Empress. Today Christine Li works as a free-lance writer based in Hong Kong, Hamburg and Santa Fe. Her internet address: www.bodenschatz-li.de

Ulja Krautwald studied sociology before going into research for several years as a medical sociologist. For many years now she has worked in the field of Far Eastern healing and lifestyle. She is a free-lance author and lives in Hamburg. Her internet address: www.zinnoberfluss.com

Our internet address: www.path-of-the-empress.com

The information in this book cannot take the place of a doctors advice. In the case of serious health conditions, please consult a doctor at all times. The authors can accept no liability for any damages incurred through the use or misuse of the material presented in this book.

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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Li, Christine, author.
The path of the Empress : how to free your feminine power /
Christine Li; Ulja Krautwald.
1st ed.

9781925017519 (paperback)
Wu hou, Empress of China, 624-705--Psychology.
Self-actualization (Psychology) in women.
Medicine, Chinese.
Krautwald, Ulja, author.

First edition published 2012
Copyright 2012 by Krautwaldverlag Hamburg
www.krautwaldverlag.de

Cover design: Jessica Le

This edition published in 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

For our daughters
Jade and Jytte

Foreword

The Path of the Empress was published in German in 2000. Since then we have received countless letters and emails gratefully recounting how the book has been the catalyst for far-reaching and liberating changes in the lives of women from every walk of life.

The book was translated into Bulgarian and Croatian, and our readers repeatedly asked us when it would be available in English. They asked because they wanted to recommend it and give it as a gift to their friends and loved ones all over the world.

This book propagates itself in a magical and mysterious way, like a root system below the earth. This made a deep impression on us, for there was virtually no official advertisement of our book. Women gave it to their friends, mothers gave it to their daughters, nieces gave it to their aunts, clients gave it to their therapists.

There are few therapeutic practices where women will not find our book. It appears in bibliographies and on bookstalls relating to alternative womens health and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Many women therapists recommend it to their patients.

This book is the most beautiful gift a daughter can give to her mother, a great-aunt to her niece. Anywhere in the world. And because women have never stopped asking us when the book would finally be available in English, now they have it!

We hope that this English version propagates itself just as widely and independently as the German version, and that it will help many women to follow their own powerful and self-determined path.

To the Imperial Reader

Every woman can be an empress if she so decides, as long as she accepts all the consequences of her decision and is prepared to take control of her own life. At the moment of her birth, every woman is unique and complete. Everything she needs lies within her, as in the seed of a plant. If she succeeds in developing her hidden potential and living it out, she will become empress in her own empire, no matter how large or small that empire may be. Once she has freed herself from conventional views of how a woman should be, then pleasure and power, beauty and wisdom, lie in her hands alone. It is up to each individual woman to choose the imperial path for herself.

But beware: the life of an empress isnt easy. Instead of basing her life on predetermined models, an empress is independent and free. There are no conventions and well-worn paths for her to cling to. Each stage of her life presents problems and questions to which she must find her own solutions and answers. She follows her own visions, instincts and dreams, and thus realises her inner goals. She must roll out the red carpet for herself.

An Imperial Book

This is a book for empresses. Empresses choose their own path, so the book contains no ready answers or sure-fire tips. The ten chapters reflect ten important stages of development in a womans life, with their typical challenges and life-tasks. Exercises and magical herbal elixirs will help open up the mind and soul to new insights and solutions. But the book begins to take effect even as its being read, without the reader having to do very much about it. In the same way, large portions of the book virtually took shape with almost no help from us. We simply held our knowledge and experience at the ready, like a set of tools, and pooled our thoughts. In a mysterious way, we then began to encounter people and situations that shed light on our theme. The Chinese call this Wu Wei, when the Unknown moves of its own accord. This is how this book came about. This is how the words of the Empress came to us. The Empress in question is the Empress Wu, who ruled China in the seventh century, according to the Western calendar, and whose impact extends even to us and our time. Wu Zhao was a country girl, a simple concubine, who all by herself took on the whole of Chinese society and battled her way right to the top. She was the only woman who ever officially ruled in China. She was the mother of several children, a passionate lover, an artist and a scholar.