Empress Liu (Tang dynasty)
| Empress Liu | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Died | 8 January 693 | ||||
| Issue | Li Chengqi Princess Shouchang Li Hua, Princess Dai | ||||
| |||||
| Father | Liu Yanjing | ||||
Empress Liu (劉皇后, personal name unknown) (died 8 January 693[1]), formally Empress Sumingshunsheng (肅明順聖皇后, literally "the solemn, understanding, serene, and holy empress") or Empress Suming (肅明皇后) in short, was an empress of the Chinese Tang dynasty. She was the wife of Emperor Ruizong.
Background
It is not known when the future Empress Liu was born.[2] Her grandfather Liu Dewei (劉德威; 582 - 652[3]) had served as the minister of justice[4] and her father Liu Yanjing (劉延景; died 25 November 689[5]) as Prefect of Shǎn Prefecture. An aunt of hers (Liu Dewei's second daughter; 627 - 12 June 675[6]) was married to Prince of Guo Li Feng, the 15th son of Emperor Gaozu of Tang.[7][8] During the Emperor Gaozong's Yifeng era (676–679), Emperor Gaozong's son Li Dan, who was then an imperial prince, took her initially as a concubine, and then as his wife and princess. They had three children—a son named Li Chengqi, and two daughters (the later Princesses Shouchang and Dai).
As empress
As of 684, Emperor Gaozong had died and his son Li Zhe (Li Dan's older brother) had become emperor (as Emperor Zhongzong). In spring 684, Emperor Zhongzong showed signs of independence from his (and Li Dan's) mother Empress Dowager Wu (later known as Wu Zetian), who wielded most of the imperial power, and she deposed Emperor Zhongzong, replacing him with Li Dan (as Emperor Ruizong), but held power even more securely after that point. As Emperor Ruizong's wife, Princess Liu was created empress on 27 February 684,[9] and her son Li Chengqi was created crown prince earlier, on 20 February 684.[10]
In 690, Empress Dowager Wu forced Emperor Ruizong to yield the throne to her, and she took the throne as "emperor" of a new Zhou dynasty, interrupting the Tang dynasty. She created Li Dan crown prince instead (with the unconventional title Huangsi (皇嗣)), and further changed his name to Wu Dan. Empress Liu became crown princess.
Death
In January 693, one of Wu Zetian's trusted ladies in waiting, Wei Tuan'er (韋團兒), was, for reasons lost to history, said to be resentful of Wu Dan. To attack him, she decided to first falsely accuse Crown Princess Liu and one of Wu Dan's concubines, Consort Dou, of witchcraft. On an occasion when both Crown Princess Liu and Consort Dou were in the palace to greet Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian waited until they left her presence, and then sent assassins to kill them. Their bodies were buried inside the palace, and the location was kept secret. Wu Dan, fearful of what his mother might do next, said nothing of the loss of his wife and concubine. When Wei Tuan'er considered further falsely accusing Wu Dan, her plans were leaked to Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian executed her.
In 710, Wu Dan (whose name had been restored to Li Dan by that point after Tang dynasty's restoration in 705 under Emperor Zhongzong, who was restored that year) became emperor after Emperor Zhongzong's death. He honored Empress Liu as Empress Suming and Consort Dou (whose son Li Longji (the later Emperor Xuanzong) had been made the Prince of Shouchun) as Empress Zhaocheng, and he sought to locate their bodies for reburial, but could not locate them. He therefore carried out ceremonies where their spirits were summoned to caskets to be buried at an imperial tomb. After Emperor Ruizong's own death in 716, on account of Emperor Xuanzong's desire to honor his mother Consort Dou, Empress Liu was initially not worshipped together with Emperor Ruizong at the imperial ancestral temple, but eventually was, on 26 January 733.[11]
References
- ^ (户婢团儿为太后所宠信，有憾于皇嗣，乃谮皇嗣妃刘氏、德妃窦氏为厌咒。[长寿二年正月]癸巳，妃与德妃朝太后于嘉豫殿，既退，同时杀之，瘗于宫中，莫知所在。) Zizhi Tongjian, vol.205.
- ^ As her son Li Chengqi was born in 679, Lady Liu's birth year should be in or before 666.
- ^ (永徽三年卒，年七十一。) Jiu Tang Shu, vol.77
- ^ (睿宗肃明顺圣皇后刘氏，刑部尚书德威之孙也。) Jiu Tang Shu, vol.51. Liu Dewei also has his own biography in vol.77 of Old Book of Tang and vol.106 of New Book of Tang.
- ^ ([永昌元年十月]丁巳，杀陕州刺史刘延景。) Xin Tang Shu, vol.04.
- ^ Lady Liu's epitaph (大唐故贈司徒虢王妃劉氏墓誌銘) recorded that she died at her home in Chang'an on the 14th day of the 6th month of the 2nd year of the Shang'yuan era of the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, at the age of 49 (by East Asian reckoning). (以上元二年五月十四日薨於西京之邸第，春秋卌有九。)
- ^ (虢王凤，高祖第十五子也。...[贞观]十年，徙封虢王，...) Jiu Tang Shu, vol.64
- ^ (惟尔刑部尚书彭城县开国公刘威德第二女，....，是用命尔为虢王妃。) Quan Tang Wen, vol.09
- ^ ([光宅元年]二月，...己未，立雍州牧豫王旦为皇帝。政事决于太后，居睿宗于别殿，不得有所预。立豫王妃刘氏为皇后。) Zizhi Tongjian, vol.203
- ^ Vol.203 of Zizhi Tongjian indicate that Li Chengqi was made crown prince on the ren'zi day of the 2nd month of the 1st year of the Guang'zhai era ([光宅元年]二月...壬子，以永平郡王成器为皇太子，睿宗之长子。). While the nearest ren'zi days were in the 1st and 4th months of that year, the ren'zi day of the 1st month was the last day of that month and corresponds to 20 Feb 684 in the Julian calendar.
- ^ ([开元二十一年]春正月...乙巳，迁祔肃明皇后神主于庙，...) Jiu Tang Shu, vol.08; vol.213 of Zizhi Tongjian also recorded the same date for the event. Xuanzong's biography in New Book of Tang did not record this event, whereas Lady Liu's biography in Old Book of Tang dated the event to the 20th year of the Kai'yuan era, which ends on 20 Jan 733 in the Julian calendar.
- Old Book of Tang, vol.51.
- New Book of Tang, vol.76.
- Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 203, 205.