Empress Fang (Empress Xiaolie)

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Lady Fang was a native of Jiangning County, Yingtian Prefecture, Southern Zhili, and came from an official family. Her father was Fang Rui, though one account gives his name as Fang Tai. The historical sources do not clearly record her year of birth; it has been estimated at around 1510. In 1530, the ninth year of Jiajing, the Jiajing Emperor had been on the throne for nearly a decade but still had no imperial son. Grand Secretary Zhang Fujing submitted a memorial citing ancient institutions under which the Son of Heaven maintained an empress, six palaces, three ladies, and nine consorts, and recommended a broad selection of women to increase the prospect of heirs. The emperor accepted the proposal and ordered a selection. Lady Fang entered the palace through this process.

Creation as One of the Nine Consorts and Elevation to Empress

On the second day of the third lunar month in 1531, the 10th year of Jiajing, Lady Fang was created one of the Nine Consorts together with women from the Zheng, Wang, Yan, Wei, Shen, Lu, Shen, and Du families. The investiture was conducted on a high ceremonial level: the Nine Consorts wore crowns decorated with nine pheasants and richly colored ceremonial robes; their appointment documents were made of silver and decorated with gold, at a rank only one-fifth below that of imperial consorts. Lady Fang received the title Consort De. In the eighth lunar month of the same year, her father Fang Rui received a salaried appointment as a chief chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

In the first lunar month of 1534, the 13th year of Jiajing, Empress Zhang was deposed and Consort De Fang was established as empress. The ceremony was elaborate. The Jiajing Emperor ordered the Ministry of Rites to determine the rites for her temple audience. Officials examined prescriptions in the Classic of Rites and compared them with the Collected Rites of the Great Ming in drawing up the ceremonial regulations. On the 15th day of the first lunar month, the emperor appeared in Fengtian Hall and sent envoys bearing a gold appointment tablet and seal to invest Lady Fang as empress. After the investiture, the emperor led Empress Fang to pay respects at the imperial ancestral temple and the Shizong temple. Three days later an edict was issued throughout the empire, and on the following day the empress received congratulations from titled women. This procedure was more elaborate than earlier precedent and is presented in the source as evidence of her special standing with the emperor.

The Renyin Palace Incident and Rescue of the Emperor

On the 21st day of the 10th lunar month in 1542, the 21st year of Jiajing, the Renyin Palace Incident shocked the court. More than ten palace women led by Yang Jinying attempted to strangle the emperor with a cord while he was asleep in the quarters of Consort Duan Cao. Because the knot was tied incorrectly, the emperor was not killed. Zhang Jinlian, one of the conspirators, saw that the attempt was failing and went to inform Empress Fang. Fang rushed to the scene, loosened the cord, and saved the emperor. She then ordered eunuch Zhang Zuo and others to arrest and interrogate the palace women. During questioning, Consort Ning Wang stated that Consort Duan Cao had not directly participated but knew of the plan and failed to report it. The emperor was too shocked to speak, so Empress Fang transmitted orders in his name and had Consort Duan Cao, Consort Ning Wang, Yang Jinying, and the others executed by slow slicing; more than ten members of their families were also put to death. Consort Duan Cao, however, had in fact not known of the plot. When the emperor later learned of her innocence, a distance gradually developed between him and Empress Fang.

Later Years and Death

Empress Fang died on the 18th day of the 11th lunar month in 1547, the 26th year of Jiajing. Historical accounts differ over the cause of her death. The History of Ming and works such as Supplementary Records of Palace Women of the Fallen Dynasty state that a fire broke out in the palace and that the Jiajing Emperor, resentful because Fang had unjustly killed Consort Duan Cao, refused to rescue her. Modern research cited by the source argues that the fire actually occurred at the Great Gaoxuan Hall northwest of and outside the Forbidden City, rather than inside the palace, and that Fang’s death had no direct connection to it. The emperor mourned her deeply and issued an edict stating that “the empress recently saved me in mortal danger and, following Heaven, delivered me from calamity.” He ordered burial rites on the level of a principal empress, predesignated the burial site as Yongling, personally chose the posthumous title Empress Xiaolie, and arranged unusually elaborate funerary honors. After her death the Jiajing Emperor repeatedly pressed for her to be worshipped in the imperial ancestral temple, even entering repeated disputes with court officials, which the source presents as evidence of the importance he attached to her.

Lady Fang was a native of Jiangning. In the tenth month of 1530, when the Jiajing emperor had reigned for years without a son, the minister of rites Zhang Cong memorialized that in antiquity the Son of Heaven established an empress and six palaces with three consorts, nine concubines, twenty-seven lesser consorts and eighty-one attendants precisely in order to provide many heirs; that the empress had occupied the central palace for years without an heir appearing, and that with the emperor in his prime he should seek out virtuous women to fill the consort ranks. Shizong accepted and ordered the Board of Rites to conduct a careful selection.

In the third month of 1531 Lady Fang with the ladies Zheng, Wang, Yan, Wei, Shen, Lu and others were invested as the nine concubines. As proposed at the time, the Ming had no ceremony for investing nine concubines, and the board modeled it on the Tang system with reduced dignity: the nine concubines wore nine-pheasant crowns and great embroidered robes, their investiture tablet of jade one grade lower with grain patterns, the patent of silver ornamented with gold and about a fifth lower in rank than an imperial consort's. In 1534 Shizong deposed his second empress, Lady Zhang, and invested Lady Fang as empress.

She played a decisive part in the Renyin palace coup of 1542. More than a dozen palace women led by Yang Jinying, taking advantage of the emperor's sleeping in Consort Cao's quarters, tried to strangle him with a cord, failing because the knot was tied wrongly; the empress dowager Fang arrived on hearing of it, cut the cord and revived the emperor, then presided over the investigation: the women involved were executed, and Consort Cao and Consort Wang Ningpin were implicated and put to death. Afterward Shizong moved to the Western Park and for many years did not live in the inner palace again.

Lady Fang died in the eleventh month of 1547, receiving the posthumous name Xiaolie and burial at Yongling. Around her place in the ancestral temple a long dispute arose between the emperor, who wished to have her worshipped there, and the ritual officials, who held it improper, the argument continuing for years. The sources differ on the manner of her death: some say illness, others that the palace she occupied caught fire and the emperor failed to send help in time, the latter version widespread in Ming memoirs but without firm official record.

Empresses changed frequently in the Jiajing reign: the first, Lady Chen, was rebuked and died of fright; the second, Lady Zhang, was deposed in 1534; Lady Fang was the third. After her death Shizong named no further empress and the central palace long stood vacant, an unusual state in the Ming court. The reasons lie both in his late devotion to Daoist ritual and his move to the Western Park and in the fear of the inner palace left by the Renyin coup.

After the Renyin coup Shizong moved to the Western Park and for more than twenty years did not live in the inner palace again, and the conduct of government changed with it: he discussed affairs with the grand secretaries at the Western Park while devoting himself heavily to Daoist ritual, so that Empress Fang's sphere was further narrowed. Her death and the dispute over her place in the temple were in effect part of Shizong's late ritual activity, the controversy continuing until his death in the Longqing years settled it.

Whether she died by fire is not consistently recorded: Ming memoirs and the official record of the time differ, and later historians have generally left the question open. Her biography in the History of Ming centers on her investiture, her rescue of the emperor and the dispute over her temple placement, treating her death briefly. Such discrepancies are common in the sources on the Ming inner palace and should be checked against the official records.

In the thirteen years she was empress much changed in the Jiajing court's affairs at home and abroad: the Altan forces were rising in the north, Japanese piracy was appearing on the southeast coast, and fiscal and military pressure on the court increased. These have no direct bearing on her activity as empress, but the long instability of the central palace is itself one aspect of the court politics of the period.

Court ritual changed further after Empress Fang: Shizong named no further empress, palace business being divided among consorts and eunuchs; only in the Longqing years, when Muzong came to the throne, were the honors and sacrifices of the previous reign's consorts adjusted and the question of her place in the temple finally settled. Her case thus concerns Shizong personally and also the frequent ritual changes of the whole Jiajing reign.

The Ming institution of investing nine concubines began in 1531 and became fixed thereafter, and Lady Fang's passage from concubine to empress is an example of how it worked. The nine concubines were invested below the rank of imperial consort, but could afterward rise to noble consort, imperial noble consort or even empress, a path of advancement recurring in the palaces after Jiajing.

Her age and birth year at her death in 1547 are not recorded; from her selection as concubine in 1531 to her death in 1547 was sixteen years, thirteen of them as empress. Her father, Fang Rui, rose through her to be a military commissioner, a grant to consort kin following Ming custom.

The dispute over her temple placement concerned the order of precedence in the Ming ancestral temple. By Ming rule an empress shared a chamber with the emperor, and Shizong, having entered the succession as a prince, was especially sensitive to ritual questions; he insisted on including Empress Fang, while the ritual officials held that the matter should be deliberated separately, and the argument ran for years. It belongs to the same class of question as the Great Ritual Controversy, both reflecting the ritual tensions of the Jiajing court.

Ming palace ranks grew more settled after Jiajing, the use of the nine concubines and the imperial noble consort becoming regular; Lady Fang's passage from one of the nine concubines to the central palace is one working of that system in a particular life.

Court upheavals were frequent under Jiajing and the central palace changed occupant three times, unusual among Ming reigns; Empress Fang is remembered for her rescue of the emperor, and the later dispute over her temple placement gives her a place in Ming ritual history as well.

Her investiture texts and related edicts are scattered through the veritable records of Shizong, the deliberations on the ceremony for the nine concubines providing concrete material for the evolution of Ming palace ritual.

Her activity in the palace is recorded chiefly in connection with the sacrifices and Daoist rites in which she accompanied Shizong; as empress she had to preside over rites such as the silkworm ceremony, and such ceremonial duties formed the main part of her days.

Palace fires are recorded repeatedly in the Jiajing years, and the building and repair of palace structures was a charge on the finances of the time.

The character lie, "martial and steadfast," in her posthumous name answers to her rescue of the emperor.

Her full posthumous title was Xiaolie Duanshun Minhui Gongcheng Zhitian Weisheng Huanghou, and she was buried with Shizong at Yongling.

Her joint burial and temple placement were settled at last in the Longqing years.

Major Activities

Rescue During the Renyin Palace Incident

In the 10th lunar month of 1542, Yang Jinying and other palace women launched the Renyin Palace Incident in an attempt to assassinate the Jiajing Emperor. Empress Fang hurried to the scene, removed the cord, and saved his life. This was the most important event of her career and the principal basis for the emperor’s later gratitude and honor toward her. Fang subsequently ordered a severe investigation of the palace women, had Consort Duan Cao, Consort Ning Wang, and the participating maids executed, and put more than ten of their relatives to death. The response was decisive, but because Consort Duan Cao was in fact innocent, it created later difficulties.

Favor to Her Family

After Fang became empress, her family received substantial honors. In the eighth lunar month of 1531 her father Fang Rui received a salaried appointment as a chief chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. In the sixth lunar month of 1538 her mother, Lady Sun, was posthumously granted the title Madam. In the first lunar month of 1540 Fang Rui was promoted to Earl of Anping with an annual stipend of one thousand shi of grain. After the Renyin Palace Incident, in gratitude for the empress’s rescue, the emperor promoted Fang Rui to Marquis of Anping. Fang’s younger brother Fang Chengyu later inherited the title Earl of Anping during the Jiajing era and was additionally granted the offices of Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and Junior Guardian.

Dispute over Ancestral-Temple Enshrinement

After Empress Fang’s death, the Jiajing Emperor insisted that she receive the burial treatment of a principal empress and sought to enshrine her spirit tablet in the imperial ancestral temple. At the time of her death in 1547, ritual officials proposed placing the tablet in the eastern side chamber of Fengxian Hall. The emperor considered a side chamber unsuitable and insisted on the imperial ancestral temple. Grand Secretary Yan Song and others proposed a place on the eastern side of the temple after Empress Xian, but the emperor rejected this, and the tablet was temporarily kept beside that of Empress Xian. In the 10th lunar month of 1550 the emperor again raised the question. Minister Xu Jie opposed the proposal and Supervising Secretary Yang Sizhong agreed with him. The emperor became furious. The dispute ultimately ended with the removal of Emperor Renzong’s tablet and the placement of Empress Fang’s in the ninth chamber of the imperial ancestral temple. The Jiajing Emperor later also disputed with officials over the scale of rites on Fang’s death anniversary, insisting on treatment appropriate to a principal empress. After the Longqing Emperor came to the throne, he did not follow his father’s arrangement; instead the first empress, Empress Xiaojie, was restored as the principal consort in ancestral worship, while Empress Fang’s tablet was moved to Hongxiao Hall.

Personal Relations

• Fang Rui (also given as Fang Tai): father of Empress Fang; enfeoffed through his daughter as Earl and later Marquis of Anping
• Fang Chengyu: younger brother of Empress Fang; inherited the title Earl of Anping and received the offices Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and Junior Guardian
• Lady Sun: mother of Empress Fang; posthumously granted the title Madam
• Zhu Houcong (the Jiajing Emperor): husband of Empress Fang
• Consort Duan Cao: favored consort of the emperor, executed by order of Empress Fang after the Renyin Palace Incident, though she was in fact innocent
• Consort Ning Wang: one of the principal participants in the Renyin Palace Incident, executed by Empress Fang
• Yang Jinying: palace maid who led the plot, executed by slow slicing
• Zhang Fujing (Zhang Cong): Grand Secretary who proposed the selection of the Nine Consorts and supervised Fang’s elevation
• Yan Song: Grand Secretary who participated in discussions over Fang’s ancestral-temple enshrinement
• Xu Jie: minister who opposed her ancestral-temple enshrinement
• Yang Sizhong: Supervising Secretary who supported Xu Jie’s opposition

Historical Assessment

Ming / Contemporary

The Veritable Records of the Jiajing Emperor preserves the emperor’s mourning edict, stating that “the empress recently saved me in mortal danger and, following Heaven, delivered me from calamity,” and records that she was buried with the rites of a principal empress. This indicates that the emperor regarded her rescue as a major service.

Shen Defu, author of Unofficial Gleanings of the Wanli Era, recorded a tradition among older people that Consort Cao was greatly favored by the emperor and that Empress Xiaolie, out of jealousy, implicated her even though she had not participated in the plot. The account therefore presents Fang as having falsely accused Consort Duan Cao because of jealousy.

Mao Qiling, author of Supplementary Records of Palace Women of the Fallen Dynasty, wrote that the Jiajing Emperor later suspected Consort Duan Cao had been wronged, reasoning that a consort he loved would not have harbored such intent. This account became an important source for later controversy over the cause of Empress Fang’s death.

Early to Mid-Qing

The “Biographies of Empresses and Consorts” in the History of Ming states that Consort Cao in fact knew nothing of the plot and that the emperor later discovered her innocence, thereby characterizing Fang’s handling of the case as mistaken.

The early-Qing writer Cheng Sizhang included a palace poem on Fang’s death that depicts flames illuminating the western palace while palace attendants reported the fire and implies that the Jiajing Emperor stood silent and failed to rescue her.

Late Qing and Republican Period

Republican-era scholar Xu Bingbin, in Twenty Beauties of the Ming Palace, examined the cause of Fang’s death in detail. He argued that the palace fire described in the History of Ming was actually a mistaken reference to the fire at the Great Gaoxuan Hall and that her death was not directly connected with that fire. He concluded that whether she died in a fire, from illness, or naturally had become an unresolved historical mystery.

Modern Period

Modern scholarship cited by the source generally holds that Empress Fang acted decisively and rendered important service by saving the emperor during the Renyin Palace Incident, but that the unjust execution of Consort Duan Cao was a major political error. On the cause of Fang’s death, scholars tend to believe that although the Jiajing Emperor had grievances against her, he did not deliberately leave her to die and that her death was more likely the result of ordinary illness.