Empress Peiman

Biography

Imperial Elevation and Ascendance to Empress

Lady Peiman belonged to the prominent Peiman clan, one of the foremost Jurchen aristocratic families intermarried with the imperial Wanyan line. In 1135, Wanyan Dan succeeded to the throne as Emperor Xizong. Lady Peiman was chosen for the palace due to her regal elegance and astute intelligence, quickly gaining Xizong's passionate favor and being named Noble Consort. In December 1138, she was formally proclaimed Empress of the Jin Empire. Her male relatives were immediately awarded supreme ministerial titles, consolidating the Peiman family's prominence at court. ### Bearing the Imperial Heir and Political Intervention Empress Peiman possessed exceptional acumen and sharp political instincts. Emperor Xizong, volatile and suspicious, held her in both immense affection and profound reverence. In 1142, Empress Peiman gave birth to Wanyan Ji'an; Emperor Xizong was overjoyed and proclaimed the infant Crown Prince before he was a month old. However, the infant prince died the following year, plunging both parents into grief. In the ensuing years, Empress Peiman increasingly asserted herself in government administration, managing ministerial appointments and mediating between inner palace factions and imperial ministers. ### Violent Fall and Posthumous Vindication In his final years, Emperor Xizong descended into chronic alcoholism, paranoia, and indiscriminate bloodshed, executing high officials and close royal relatives. Distressed by the collapse of imperial governance, Empress Peiman repeatedly admonished him. Rather than reforming, Xizong grew intensely resentful, viewing her interventions as intolerable usurpation. In December 1149, while severely intoxicated, Xizong flew into a violent fury and personally executed Empress Peiman with his sword. Within months, Wanyan Liang assassinated Xizong and seized power, conferring upon her the posthumous name Empress Dao. In 1179, Emperor Shizong rectified her memory with the honorable title Empress Daoping and re-interred her in Siling.

The lady Peiman married Wanyan Dan, the future Emperor Xizong of the Jin, before he took the throne. On the twenty-seventh day of the fourth month of 1138 Xizong made her noble consort, and on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the same year made her empress, appointing her father Huda grand commandant and conferring posthumous offices on her great-grandfather Xieye as minister of works and her grandfather Gusha as minister of education. On the tenth day of the first month of 1141, when Xizong received the honorific title of emperor of Heaven-honouring and Way-embracing, she was invested as empress under the style Ciming Gongxiao Shunde.

On the twenty-fourth day of the second month of 1142 she gave birth to a prince, Ji'an, in the Tiankai hall. Xizong, who at twenty-four had his first son, was overjoyed, sent messengers posting to the Mingde palace to tell the grand empress dowager, named the child five days later and proclaimed a general amnesty. On the twenty-fifth day of the third month he made Ji'an heir apparent and enfeoffed the empress's father, the grand commandant Huda, as a prince, with gifts of people, five hundred head of cattle and horses, fifty camels and five thousand sheep. On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth month of the same year Ji'an grew worse; the emperor and empress went to a Buddhist temple to burn incense and pray with tears, and remitted the punishments of prisoners within five hundred li, but the child, not yet a year old, died that night. He was given the posthumous name Yingdao and buried beside the Xingling tomb, the emperor escorting the coffin as far as the Wuzhihei river. In the years that followed Xizong had no further son, and the succession became one of the central questions of palace politics.

In Xizong's reign Zonghan, Zonggan and Zongbi held the government in turn, and the emperor sat silent in court. Though the early years were full of trouble, the decisions of the court were enough to win: the puppet Qi was abolished, the men of Song asked to be subjects, officials were clean, offices few, and the people at peace. After Zongbi's death in 1148, when most of the old ministers were gone, the empress began to meddle in government without scruple, and courtiers often rose to the chancellorship by her favour, as Liu Kuo did, who from being a master of ceremonies climbed to the chancellorship by pleasing her.

After the heir apparent's death Xizong went years without another son, and the empress held him in much restraint. Resentful and listless, the emperor took to drink, flew into rages and killed men with his own hand. On the birthday of the left chancellor Wanyan Liang, Xizong sent Daxing Guo to bring him a portrait of Sima Guang, a jade falcon and a horse from the imperial stables, and the empress sent gifts of her own as well. Hearing of it, the emperor was furious, had Daxing Guo flogged and took back the gifts. Wanyan Liang, who already coveted the throne, grew the more fearful and suspicious, and from that time hatched his plan for a palace coup. When the attendant Gao Shouxing, who by regulation was to be moved south of Yanjing to garrison duty, complained to the empress, she provoked the emperor to put to death the left bureau director Sanhe and flog the chief minister Bingde, while Gao Shouxing after all was not moved; and the designs of Bingde and Tangkuo Bian took their rise from this.

Wanyan Liang and Tangkuo Bian then plotted together morning and night. The guard commander Tesi, finding it suspicious, told the empress that Tangkuo Bian and the others were always whispering together off duty, and she passed it on to Xizong. On the fifth day of the eleventh month of 1149 Xizong's long-accumulated anger broke out and he killed the empress, taking into the palace the same day Sa Mao, wife of the prince of Zuoxian Changsheng. On the ninth day of the twelfth month Wanyan Liang carried out his coup and murdered Xizong, then thirty-one. The lady Peiman appears in the Jin history among the empresses as Empress Daoping, and her career reflects the palace politics of the early Jin, in which empresses took part in government through the emperor's trust and the question of an heir, while ministers sought advancement through the inner palace.

Major Activities

Consort Governance and Court Administration

Empress Peiman governed the imperial palace for over a decade, playing a central role during the early consolidation of Jin institutional reforms and sinicization policies. ### Confronting Imperial Tyranny When Emperor Xizong spiraled into irrational violence and self-destruction, Empress Peiman risked her life to admonish him and maintain imperial stability, ultimately falling victim to his tyranny.

Personal Relations

• Husband: Emperor Xizong of Jin (Wanyan Dan)
• Son: Wanyan Ji'an (Crown Prince of Jin, died in infancy)
• Executioner: Emperor Xizong of Jin (personally slew her during a drunken rage)
• Posthumous Patrons: Prince of Hailing (Wanyan Liang), Emperor Shizong of Jin (Wanyan Yong)

Historical Assessment

• History of Jin (Jin Shi): "Empress Daoping of the Peiman clan was perceptive and astute, fond of participating in court affairs, and Xizong held her in awe. However, the emperor grew increasingly violent in his later years, and she ultimately succumbed to catastrophe."
• Emperor Shizong of Jin: "The tragic demise of Empress Daoping was due to royal madness, not her own fault; she deserves full ancestral honors."