Empress Wei

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Empress Wei came from the imperial-marriage branch of the Jingzhao Wei clan, a great aristocratic family of Guanzhong. Her father, Wei Xuanzhen, served in offices including prefect of Yu Prefecture, and her mother, Lady Cui, came from the Boling Cui clan. When Li Xian was crown prince between 680 and 683, Lady Wei was selected as crown princess because of her beauty and became Li Xian's second wife. In 682, the first year of the Yongchun era, she gave birth to his eldest legitimate son Li Chongrun. Over the following three years, she also bore four daughters: the princesses Yongtai, Yongshou, Changning, and Anle.

Exile with Her Husband

In 684, the first year of the Sisheng era, Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian ascended the throne and Lady Wei was made empress. Zhongzong wished to promote Empress Wei's father Wei Xuanzhen to the post of Shizhong, but Pei Yan firmly opposed the appointment. Zhongzong angrily declared, "Even if I gave the whole empire to Wei Xuanzhen, what would be wrong with that?" Pei Yan then joined Wu Zetian in arranging the emperor's deposition. In the second month, Wu Zetian assembled the officials in Qianyuan Hall and deposed Zhongzong as Prince of Luling, causing Lady Wei to lose her position as empress.

Lady Wei followed Li Xian into exile in Fangzhou, present-day Fang County in Hubei. During the journey she gave birth in a carriage to her youngest daughter, nicknamed Guo'er, who later became Princess Anle. During their confinement in Fangling, the couple endured repeated dangers and remained closely attached. Whenever Li Xian heard that Wu Zetian had sent an envoy, he panicked and wanted to kill himself. Lady Wei stopped him, saying, "Fortune and disaster do not remain fixed. At worst there is only death; why be so anxious?" Li Xian privately swore to her, "If one day I again see daylight, I will let you do whatever you wish and impose no restraint upon you."

Lady Wei's natal family suffered badly during this period. Her father Wei Xuanzhen died in exile in Qinzhou. Her mother, Lady Cui, was killed by the brothers Ning Cheng, local leaders in Qinzhou. Her brothers Wei Xun, Wei Hao, Wei Dong, and Wei Ci all died in Rongzhou, while two younger sisters escaped.

Return to the Eastern Palace

In 698, the first year of the Shengli era, Wu Zetian recalled Li Xian to the Eastern Capital. In 699 she restored him as crown prince. In 701, the first year of the Dazu era, Lady Wei's only son Li Chongrun, her daughter Li Xianhui, and her son-in-law Wu Yanji discussed the domination of Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong and were ordered to die by Wu Zetian. Li Chongrun was nineteen and Li Xianhui only seventeen. Lady Wei lost two children and was deeply grieved.

Restoration as Empress and Intervention in Government

In 705, the first year of the Shenlong era, Zhang Jianzhi, Cui Xuanwei, and three other senior officials launched the Shenlong Coup and forced Wu Zetian to abdicate, restoring Li Xian. Lady Wei was again installed as empress and in the eleventh month was honored as Empress Shuntian. Thereafter she imitated Wu Zetian's role during Emperor Gaozong's reign and intervened in government. Whenever Li Xian held court, Empress Wei sat behind a curtain in the hall and listened to political affairs. Huan Yanfan submitted a remonstrance citing the Book of Changes to argue that it was auspicious for a woman to manage household affairs and the Book of Documents to warn that when "a hen announces the dawn, the household is ruined." He urged Empress Wei to observe the proper limits of an empress, but Li Xian did not accept the advice.

Zhaorong Shangguan Wan'er repeatedly encouraged Empress Wei to follow Wu Zetian's precedent. She memorialized that commoners and officials should mourn for three years for mothers divorced by their fathers and also proposed institutional changes intended to win public support; Li Xian approved these measures. Shangguan Wan'er also recommended Wu Sansi to Empress Wei and brought him into the inner palace. Li Xian allowed Empress Wei and Wu Sansi to play the board game shuanglu while he counted the pieces beside them. Wu Sansi and Empress Wei then entered into an illicit relationship, and the political influence of the Wu clan revived.

Dominance at Court

Empress Wei and Wu Sansi repeatedly slandered Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, Zhang Jianzhi, and the other leaders of the 705 coup before Li Xian. The five princes were successively demoted and exiled and eventually killed. Empress Wei disliked Zhongzong's concubine-born son Li Chongfu, Prince of Qiao, and accused him of contributing to Li Chongrun's death, causing him to be demoted to prefect of Junzhou under strict surveillance.

Princess Changning, Empress Wei's sister Lady of Chengguo, Shangguan Wan'er and her mother Lady Zheng, the palace women Chai and Helou, the shaman Diwu Ying'er, Lady of Longxi Zhao, and others relied on their influence to interfere in politics, accepting bribes and selling offices and titles. A bribe of 300,000 cash could secure an office issued by irregular sealed appointment, while 30,000 cash could purchase ordination as a monk or nun. Thousands of extra, probationary, and acting offices were distributed in this way.

In 707, the first year of the Jinglong era, Empress Wei disliked Crown Prince Li Chongjun because he was not her son. Princess Anle and her husband Wu Chongxun often humiliated the crown prince, even calling him a "slave," and Princess Anle asked that he be deposed so that she herself could become female crown prince. Li Chongjun, unable to bear the humiliation, led General Li Duozuo of the Left Yulin Guard in the Chongjun Coup in the seventh month, killing Wu Sansi and Wu Chongxun. He intended to kill Empress Wei but was blocked at the Xuanwu Gate. His soldiers defected and he was killed after the coup failed.

Poisoning of Zhongzong and Downfall

On the Renwu day of the sixth month of the fourth year of Jinglong, July 3, 710, Empress Wei and Princess Anle conspired to administer poison, and Emperor Zhongzong died in Shenlong Hall at age fifty-five. Empress Wei concealed his death, took charge of government herself, and mobilized 50,000 troops from the various commands to garrison Chang'an. She assigned Wei Jie, Wei Guan, Wei Xuan, Wei Qi, Wei Bo, Gao Song, and others to separate commands and ordered Wei Yuan to patrol the six streets in order to guard against Li Chongfu, Prince of Qiao and prefect of Junzhou. She appointed Pei Tan and Zhang Xi as Tong Zhongshu Menxia Sanpin and Zhang Jiafu, Cen Xi, and Cui Shi as Participant in Determining Government Matters. Political authority thus fell into the hands of the Wei clan.

Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Taiping drafted a testamentary edict making Li Chongmao crown prince, assigning Li Dan, Prince of Xiang, to assist government, and naming Empress Wei as empress dowager and regent. Chancellor Zong Chuke, together with Wu Yanxiu, Zhao Lüwen, Ye Jingneng, and members of the Wei clan, urged Empress Wei to imitate Wu Zetian and take the throne as emperor. On the twentieth day of the sixth month, July 21, 710, Li Longji, Prince of Linzi, joined Princess Taiping in launching the Coup of the Prince of Linzi and entered the palace. Empress Wei fled in panic toward the Feiqi barracks but was killed by soldiers. Her head was displayed publicly, she was posthumously reduced to commoner status, and she was buried with rites appropriate to a first-rank official. Princess Anle was killed at the same time.

Consort of the Heir, the Deposition of Zhongzong, and the Years at Fangling

When Li Xian was crown prince (680-683) Wei, famed for her beauty, was made his consort; she bore Li Chongrun, Zhongzong's eldest son, and afterwards four daughters — the princesses Yongtai, Yongshou, Changning and Anle. On Li Xian's accession in 683 he wished to make Wei Xuanzhen a chancellor and to give the son of his wet-nurse a fifth-rank office, and when Pei Yan strongly opposed it Li Xian said in anger: "If I gave the empire to Wei Xuanzhen, what of it? Should I grudge him a chancellorship?" Pei Yan "was afraid, told the empress dowager, and secretly plotted his deposition"; on the wuwu day of the second month the empress dowager assembled the officials in the Qianyuan hall, and Pei Yan with Liu Yizhi, vice-minister of the secretariat, and the guard generals Cheng Wuting and Zhang Qianxu brought troops into the palace and proclaimed her order deposing Zhongzong as prince of Luling and leading him from the hall; asked what his crime was, she answered that "you would give the empire to Wei Xuanzhen — how should that be no crime," and he was confined elsewhere, while the prince of Yu, Dan, was made emperor and "government was decided by the empress dowager."

Losing her place as empress, Wei went with Li Xian to Fangzhou, and on the way bore a daughter whose childhood name was "Guo'er" — the princess Anle having been born in the carriage on the road to Fangzhou and wrapped in Li Xian's clothes, whence the name; "it was because of what he owed her from her infancy that Li Xian, once emperor, treated her with such special favour." In their confinement at Fangling "they went through every kind of hardship and danger together, and so their affection was very deep": whenever Li Xian heard that Wu Zetian had sent an envoy he would panic and wish to kill himself, and Wei restrained him, saying that "fortune and calamity are not constant, and at worst it is one death — why be in such haste?" Li Xian privately swore to her that "if I ever see daylight again, I shall let you do as you please and place no restraint on you." By contrast the fate of her kin after the deposition was bitter: her father Wei Xuanzhen was exiled to Qinzhou and died there, and her mother Lady Cui was (killed) by the chief of Qinzhou. This shared suffering and that vow were the ground of her later meddling in government.

Empress Again, Her Interference in Government, and the Revival of the Wu

In 699 Wu Zetian restored Li Xian as crown prince, and thereafter his son Li Chongrun (with Wu Yanji and the daughter Li Xianhui) was put to death in turn. In 705 Zhang Jianzhi and four others launched their coup, forced Wu Zetian to abdicate and restored Li Xian; and "once empress again, Wei began to take part in government as Wu Zetian had in Gaozong's reign." Huan Yanfan therefore memorialized, citing the Changes that "she has no course of her own; in the inner apartments, perseverance brings good fortune" and the Documents that "when the hen crows at dawn, the house is ruined," remonstrating that "I observe that whenever Your Majesty holds court the empress must sit behind a curtain in the hall and hear the business of state. I have seen no emperor in history who shared the government with a woman and did not ruin his state and destroy himself... let the empress keep wholly to the inner palace and the teaching of women's virtue, and not come out to the outer court to meddle in state affairs." The memorial was not adopted. The palace consort Shangguan Wan'er "constantly urged the empress to follow Wu Zetian's example," and so memorialized that "all subjects of the empire should wear mourning three years for a mother repudiated by the father," and that "the people should come of age at twenty-three and be freed of corvée at fifty-nine, and the institutions be changed to win men's hopes," all of which "the edicts granted." Shangguan Wan'er, granddaughter of Shangguan Yi, "was eloquent, good at composition and versed in administrative business," and Wu Zetian from 699 had let her decide many of the memorials of the offices; after Zhongzong's accession she was given "sole charge of drafting the orders," and being in illicit relations with Wu Sansi she sided with the Wu and recommended him to the empress, bringing him into the palace, so that Li Xian came to discuss government with Wu Sansi and "Zhang Jianzhi and the rest were all under Sansi's control." Li Xian even had Wei play backgammon with Wu Sansi, "sitting by himself to keep the score," and "Sansi thereupon had relations with the empress, so that the Wu rose again."

Toward the imperial clan she was equally active in exclusion: the consort of Li Chongfu, Zhongzong's son by a concubine, was a niece of Zhang Yizhi, and Wei detested him, slandering him with the words that "Chongrun's death was Chongfu's doing," so that he was degraded to nominal prefect of Puzhou and then of Junzhou, "with orders to the prefectural officers to keep watch on him." Against the men of the Shenlong coup she and Wu Sansi "slandered Jing Hui and the rest day and night," saying that they "trusted to their services and monopolized the government, to the harm of the altars of state"; and Wu Sansi advised Li Xian that "it would be better to enfeoff Hui and the others as princes and take away their offices, so that outwardly the meritorious are honoured and inwardly their power is taken away." Li Xian thought it good, and enfeoffed Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, Zhang Jianzhi, Yuan Shuji and Cui Xuan as five princes while stripping them of office, "even granting Huan Yanfan the surname Wei, to share the empress's register," and presently degrading the five to distant prefectures, "all who had won merit with Hui being counted his partisans and degraded with him"; and Wu Sansi had all the officials "restore the government of Zetian," so that all who would not join the Wu were dismissed, "and the great power went wholly to Sansi."

Major Activities

Political Activities

Empress Wei served twice as empress across a period of more than twenty years. Her first tenure lasted only a few months before she followed her deposed husband into exile. Her second tenure lasted from 705 to 710, slightly more than five years. During this period, she imitated Wu Zetian by sitting behind a curtain in the audience hall to listen to state affairs. She allied with Wu Sansi in what became a Wei–Wu political grouping and helped drive the five leading participants in the Shenlong Coup into exile and death. She also permitted relatives and associates to sell offices and titles through irregular appointments, contributing to political disorder. After Zhongzong's sudden death in 710, she acted as regent, assumed control of government, and attempted to establish a court dominated by the Wei clan. She was ultimately killed during the Coup of the Prince of Linzi.

Religion and Construction

Empress Wei was devoted to Buddhism and sponsored extensive construction of Buddhist and Daoist temples. Imitating Wu Zetian's creation of the Tianshu monument on Luoyang's ceremonial avenue, she also had an enormous stone platform several zhang high built there to celebrate her own merits. In 714, the second year of the Kaiyuan era, Emperor Xuanzong ordered the Tianshu destroyed, and the stone platform associated with Empress Wei was demolished at the same time.

Family Tragedies

Empress Wei's children met repeated tragedy. Her only son Li Chongrun was ordered to die by Wu Zetian in 701 at age nineteen. Her daughter Princess Yongtai, Li Xianhui, died the same day or the following day at only seventeen. Her youngest daughter Princess Anle, though indulged by Zhongzong and Empress Wei, was ultimately killed together with her mother during the Coup of the Prince of Linzi. Empress Wei's natal family also suffered heavily, as her parents and brothers died during exile.

Contemporary Associations

Empress Wei was close to Shangguan Wan'er, who encouraged her to follow Wu Zetian's precedent, recommended Wu Sansi, and advised her politically. Empress Wei had an illicit relationship and political alliance with Wu Sansi. Her relationship with Princess Taiping, by contrast, became a struggle for power, and Princess Taiping eventually sided with Li Longji in the coup. Empress Wei also had a hostile relationship with Crown Prince Li Chongjun; treating him as a political obstacle helped provoke the Chongjun Coup.

The Height of Her Power, the Heir's Rising, and the Poisoning of Zhongzong

The court politics of the Jinglong years turned almost on Wei alone. The crown prince Li Chongjun was not her son and she "hated him," while "the specially advanced prince of Dejing, Wu Sansi, was especially jealous of the crown prince"; Shangguan Wan'er, "because she was in illicit relations with Wu Sansi, promoted the Wu in every edict and order she drafted"; and the princess Anle with her husband Wu Chongxun, general of the left guard, "constantly insulted the crown prince, sometimes calling him a slave," Chongxun further teaching her to "speak to the emperor, asking that the crown prince be deposed and herself made princess imperial," until "the crown prince's accumulated anger could not be pacified." Li Chongjun then rose; he had meant to kill Wei, but failed at the Xuanwu gate, where his soldiers turned against him, and he was soon killed by his own attendants. Afterwards Wei and the princes memorialized to give Li Xian the title "Emperor Responding to Heaven and the Divine Dragon," changing the Xuanwu gate to the Shenwu gate and its tower to the ZHisheng tower, and Zong Chuke with all the civil and military officials asked that Wei's title be raised to "Empress Shuntian Yisheng," all of which Li Xian granted. The sale of office reached its extreme in these years: Wei's sister the lady of the state, the palace consort Shangguan and her mother Lady Zheng, the palace mistresses Chai and Helou, the sorceress Diwu Ying'er and the lady of Longxi "all relied on their power to monopolize the government and take heavy bribes, asking offices for those who paid them"; whether a butcher or a wine-seller or another man's slave, "whoever bribed these people with three hundred thousand coins could obtain an office directly by the emperor's own autograph order," and because such orders "were delivered to the secretariat with the seal affixed sideways," the officials were called "side-sealed" officials; a bribe of thirty thousand coins bought ordination as a monk or nun; the supernumerary offices, nominal posts and commissions they sold "numbered several thousands," while the two capitals each had two vice-ministers of personnel holding four selections a year, "with officials appointed to the number of tens of thousands." She also followed Wu Zetian's practice "in building a great stone terrace on the Tianjie at Luoyang, several tens of feet high, to celebrate her own merit and virtue."

In the sixth month of 710 Zhongzong died in the Shenlong hall. According to the Old History of Tang, "the princess Anle, wishing the empress to hold the court and seeking to be made princess imperial, joined with her in a plot to administer poison," so that "the emperor was poisoned and died in the Shenlong hall at fifty-five." Wei kept the death secret, summoned the chancellors into the palace, and called out the troops of the several offices to the number of fifty thousand to camp in Chang'an, appointing her son-in-law Wei Jie and Wei Guan, the chief of the guards Wei Xuan, the left Qianniu general Wei Qi, the magistrate of Chang'an Wei Bo and the general Gao Song to command them in separate divisions; she ordered Wei Yuan, a secretary of the secretariat, to patrol the six streets of the city, and sent the left Jianmen general and eunuch Xue Sijian with five hundred soldiers in haste to Junzhou, to guard against the prince of Qiao, Li Chongfu, its prefect. But the prince of Linzi, Li Longji, and the princess Taiping at once launched a coup, destroyed the Wei faction and restored the prince of Xiang, Li Dan (Ruizong), so that her design of "holding the court" came to nothing; and her stone terrace was destroyed in 712 together with the Tianzhu that Wu Zetian had raised — "they destroyed the Tianzhu, and the smiths smelted down its copper and iron for a whole month without finishing... the empress Wei had also made a stone terrace on the Tianjie, several tens of feet high, to celebrate her merit, and it was destroyed at the same time."

Personal Relations

• Father: Wei Xuanzhen, prefect of Yu Prefecture; died in exile in Qinzhou and was later posthumously honored as Grand Preceptor and Prince Xianhui of Feng
• Mother: Lady Cui of Boling, killed by the brothers Ning Cheng, local leaders of Qinzhou
• Brothers: Wei Xun, Wei Hao, Wei Dong, and Wei Ci, all died in Rongzhou
• Husband: Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian
• Children: Crown Prince Yide Li Chongrun; Princess Changning; Princess Yongshou; Princess Yongtai Li Xianhui; Princess Anle Li Guo'er
• Wu Sansi: entered into an illicit relationship and political alliance with Empress Wei and wielded great influence at court
• Shangguan Wan'er: advised Empress Wei and encouraged her to follow Wu Zetian's precedent
• Zong Chuke: urged Empress Wei to take the throne as emperor
• Crown Prince Li Chongjun: disliked by Empress Wei because he was not her son; launched the Chongjun Coup and was killed
• Li Longji: launched the Coup of the Prince of Linzi and destroyed Empress Wei's regime
• Princess Taiping: joined Li Longji in the coup
• Zhang Jianzhi, Huan Yanfan, and the other Five Princes: displaced and persecuted by Empress Wei and Wu Sansi

Historical Assessment

Tang Dynasty / Contemporary

• Huan Yanfan memorialized: "Since antiquity there has never been a ruler who shared government with a woman without bringing ruin upon the state and death upon himself." He argued that Empress Wei's intervention violated proper political and familial order and would inevitably bring disaster. (Zizhi Tongjian)
• Li Xian's earlier promise to Empress Wei that "I will let you do whatever you wish and impose no restraint upon you" indirectly reflected the actual scope of her influence during his restored reign. (Zizhi Tongjian)
• After the 710 coup, Empress Wei was posthumously reduced to commoner status and buried with first-rank rites, demonstrating the official court's negative judgment.

Song–Yuan Period

• Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian systematically recorded Empress Wei's political intervention and compared it with Wu Zetian's precedent, treating it as a major factor in Tang political disorder.
• Fan Zuyu, in Tang Jian, criticized Empress Wei for allowing "yin to ride upon yang" and "a wife to dominate her husband," treating her as one of the principal causes of political turmoil.
• Song historians commonly treated Empress Wei as a classic example of the perceived danger of women in politics, often grouping her with Empress Lü and Wu Zetian.

Ming–Qing Period

• Wang Fuzhi, in Du Tongjian Lun, argued that Emperor Zhongzong's weakness and indulgence of Empress Wei brought about his own death.
• Zhao Yi, in Nian'ershi Zhaji, discussed female political participation in the Tang and regarded Empress Wei as another politically active woman after Wu Zetian, while arguing that she lacked Wu Zetian's political ability.
• Ming and Qing historians commonly treated the alleged poisoning of Zhongzong by Empress Wei and Princess Anle as an extreme example of Tang palace politics.

Modern Period

• Chen Yinke, in A Draft Discussion of Tang Political History, analyzed the Empress Wei disturbances in relation to Tang court politics and viewed the Wei–Wu political alliance as a continuation of the political legacy of Wu Zetian's period.
• Cen Zhongmian described Empress Wei as possessing mediocre ability but great ambition and argued that she lacked both Wu Zetian's political skill and an adequate power base.
• Modern scholars also reconsider Empress Wei within the broader context of women's political participation in the Tang, generally recognizing her ambition while emphasizing her limited political ability and her defeat by the more powerful Li Longji–Princess Taiping alliance.