Top 5 Chinese Empresses You Should Know About

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Top 5 Chinese Empresses You Should Know About



1. Empress Lü Zhi (吕雉)
Lü Zhi was the powerful empress consort of Han Dynasty founder Liu Bang. A capable albeit truly vicious woman, she was recognized as a competent administrator in the early years of the dynasty, during which she actively assisted with domestic affairs.To get more news about empress lus human swine, you can visit shine news official website.

Such political involvement established important connections for this notorious Chinese empress. Today, it is also agreed upon that she was the mastermind behind the assassinations of Han Xin and Peng Yue, two Han Dynasty founding generals whose influence Lü Zhi and Liu Bang had become wary of.
Following Liu Bang’s death and the coronation of her son as Emperor Hui, Lü Zhi further moved to exterminate rivals and consolidate power. From BC 195 to BC 180, she successfully controlled all imperial affairs with an iron fist. She also brutally executed several other sons of Liu Bang so as to secure her position.

Among her various acts of cruelty, Lü Zhi is most notorious for the torture and mutilation of Concubine Qi, one of Liu Bang’s favourite consorts. She ordered lackeys to remove Qi’s tongue and to blind her, before chopping off all the concubine’s limbs and imprisoning the mutilated woman in a pigsty.

2. Empress Wu Zetian (武則天)
Wu Zetian is, of course, most famous for being the only female emperor of China. However, this ambitious woman long controlled the imperial court before claiming the dragon throne for herself in AD 690. To a great extent, it could even be said that she was already the de facto ruler of Tang Dynasty China while still the empress consort of Emperor Tang Gaozong.
Simply put, Gaozong was meek and sickly, furthermore incapacitated by illness for most of his reign. From AD 665 till Gaozong’s passing, Wu Zetian dominated the Chinese court. She effectively ruled in place of her husband for near three decades.

Born in AD 624 as Wu Mei, the future empress and emperor entered the imperial court at age fourteen to be the Consort Wu of Emperor Taizong. Upon Taizong’s passing in AD 649, she was forced to become a nun at Ganye Temple as she has produced no heir. This was in accordance with Tang Dynasty laws.
3. Empress Liu (刘皇后)
The life of Northern Song Dynasty Empress Zhangxian Mingsu (章献明肃皇后), maiden name Liu Er, is the stuff of fairy tales. Indeed, her extraordinary life was the heart of a long television drama series in 2018.

An orphan raised as a singer, Liu was sold by her first husband to Zhang Qi, an official in the palace of Prince Zhao Yuanxiu. There, she earned the earnest love of the prince, who was just one year older than her.
After Zhao Yuanxiu ascended the throne in AD 997 as Song Zhenzong, Liu was conferred the title of “Beautiful Lady” consort in AD 1004. Down the road, she was also conferred higher-ranking titles before becoming empress. Most importantly, she adopted and cared for a young Zhao Zhen, the prince who would become the next Song emperor.

As empress, Liu was respected for her astute judgment and managerial abilities, and in the final two years of her husband’s reign, was the actual administrator of the Song Empire. Throughout much of her adoptive son’s reign, she remained a political force to be reckoned with too. As Zhao Zhen ascended the throne at age 12, Liu (as dowager) ruled in his place as regent. Defying protocol, Liu did not step down after Zhao Zhen reached adult age.
4. Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后)
More famous than even Wu Zutian, the Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty is the name that most often comes to mind when thinking of powerful female Chinese rulers.
An imperial concubine of Qing Emperor Xianfeng, and the dowager and regent of Emperors Tongzhi and Guangxu, Cixi is often blamed as the woman who brought down the Qing Empire. Many also regard her as the culprit for China’s repeated defeats at the hands of European colonial powers.

Born in 1835 to the Manchu Yehenara clan, Cixi was chosen in 1851 to be the Consort Yi of Xianfeng. After Xianfeng died in 1861 while fleeing invading European forces, she was conferred Empress Dowager status when her son ascended the throne as Emperor Tongzhi.
For the rest of Tongzhi’s reign, till his unexpected death at age 18, Cixi steadily consolidated power and executed rivals, to the extent she practically became the ruler of China. After Tongzhi’s passing, Cixi further tightened her hold on power during Emperor Guangxu’s subsequent 33-year reign. When the young Guangxu attempted to reform China in 1898, Cixi staged a coup d'état that resulted in the death of several activists and the emperor himself placed under house arrest.