Meaning and history
From Chinese 武 (wǔ), meaning “military” or “martial” and generally used for males, or 务 (wù), meaning “affairs” or “business,” as well as other similarly pronounced characters. It was the name of several Chinese rulers, including the 2nd-century BC emperor Wu of Han, a posthumous name written 武, who expanded the empire and made Confucianism the state philosophy.