Wei Zifu

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Wei Zifu came from a humble background. Her mother, known as Wei Ao, was a maidservant in the household of the Marquis of Pingyang, though one account calls her a concubine. Her father is unknown and the household used the surname Wei. Wei Zifu herself was a singer in the household of Cao Shi, Marquis of Pingyang, and Princess Pingyang. The Records of the Grand Historian: Hereditary Houses of the Imperial Relatives records that Empress Wei, courtesy name Zifu, was of humble birth and served as a singer for Princess Pingyang.

Wei Zifu had one elder brother and two elder sisters: Wei Changjun, Wei Junru, also called Wei Ru, and Wei Shao'er, mother of Huo Qubing. She also had three younger maternal half-brothers: Wei Qing, Wei Bu, and Wei Guang. Wei Qing's original paternal surname was Zheng. His father Zheng Ji, an official serving the Pingyang household, had a relationship with Wei Ao and fathered him. After Wei Zifu rose in imperial favor, he used the Wei surname.

Entry into the Palace

On the Shangsi festival in the third month of spring in 139 BCE, the second year of Jianyuan, Emperor Wu Liu Che went to Bashang for ritual observances and stopped on his return to visit his elder sister Princess Pingyang. Following the example of Princess Guantao, Princess Pingyang had selected more than ten young women from respectable families and prepared them as potential imperial consorts. Emperor Wu was not interested in them. During the banquet, however, singers performed and he singled out Wei Zifu. When he rose to change clothes, Wei Zifu attended him and received his first favor in the carriage used for changing garments. Emperor Wu returned to the banquet delighted and gave Princess Pingyang one thousand jin of gold. Princess Pingyang then asked that Wei Zifu be sent to the palace, and the emperor agreed. Before they parted, the princess touched Wei Zifu's back and urged her to eat well, exert herself, and not forget her if she became honored.

After entering the palace, Wei Zifu incurred the jealousy of Empress Chen and was not summoned again for more than a year. In 138 BCE, when Emperor Wu dismissed palace women judged unnecessary, Wei Zifu obtained an audience and tearfully asked to leave. The emperor took pity on her and favored her again; she became pregnant and her status rose. Empress Chen, enraged, repeatedly threatened self-harm, which further alienated Emperor Wu. Empress Chen's mother, Princess Guantao Liu Piao, had Wei Qing seized with the intention of killing him, but Wei Qing's friend Gongsun Ao led strong men who rescued him. On hearing of the incident, Emperor Wu appointed Wei Qing Supervisor of Jianzhang Palace and Palace Attendant and gave the Wei family rewards totaling thousands of jin in only a few days. During the following decade, Wei Zifu remained highly favored and gave birth to three daughters and one son, Liu Ju.

Installation as Empress and Height of the Wei Family

In 130 BCE, the fifth year of Yuanguang, Empress Chen was investigated after secretly employing magical and witchcraft practices in the hope of obtaining a son. Emperor Wu ordered Imperial Counselor Zhang Ou and Attending Censor Zhang Tang to investigate. More than three hundred people were implicated and executed, and Empress Chen was deposed and sent to Changmen Palace. Half a year later, Wei Zifu became pregnant again.

In the spring of 128 BCE, the first year of Yuanshuo, Wei Zifu gave birth to Emperor Wu's first son. The emperor was delighted, ordered Mei Gao and Dongfang Shuo to compose rhapsodies, and established a shrine to Gaomei with grand sacrificial rites. On a jiazi day in the third month of the same year, Emperor Wu formally installed Wei Zifu as empress and proclaimed a general amnesty, a practice the source says later became a Han convention. After her installation, a palace gentleman composed a Rhapsody on Guarding the End and presented it to her, urging her to maintain the same caution at the end as at the beginning.

During Wei Zifu's tenure as empress, her relatives became prominent. Her elder sister Wei Junru married the Chamberlain for the Imperial Carriages Gongsun He. Her second sister Wei Shao'er had a relationship with Chen Zhang, whom Emperor Wu then favored. Wei Qing rose to Grand Master of the Palace and, after repeated victories against the Xiongnu, became Marquis of Changping and Grand Marshal and General-in-Chief. Huo Qubing likewise rose through military achievement to Grand Marshal and General of Agile Cavalry and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Champion. Five members of the wider Wei family became marquises. A popular song declared: "Do not rejoice at the birth of a son, do not be angry at the birth of a daughter; have you not seen Wei Zifu dominate all under Heaven?" The source emphasizes that this was a satirical comment on the family's power rather than simple praise.

Declining Favor and Crisis

As Wei Zifu grew older, Emperor Wu's favor declined and he successively favored Lady Wang, Lady Li, Consort Yin, Consort Zhao, and others. Huo Qubing died in 117 BCE and Wei Qing in 106 BCE, depriving the Wei clan of its two most powerful military figures. Crown Prince Liu Ju remained heir, but the aging Emperor Wu became increasingly suspicious and relations between father and son deteriorated. In 92 BCE, the family of Gongsun He was destroyed in witchcraft accusations; Princess Zhuyi, Princess Yangshi, Wei Kang, and others were also killed, severely weakening the Wei clan.

The Witchcraft Calamity and Suicide

In 91 BCE, the second year of Zhenghe, the harsh official Jiang Chong was ordered to investigate witchcraft and used the inquiry to frame Crown Prince Liu Ju. Driven into a corner, Liu Ju raised troops and killed Jiang Chong. Wei Zifu supported the crown prince inside the palace and transferred palace guards to him. Emperor Wu mistakenly believed that the prince was rebelling and sent troops to suppress him. Liu Ju was defeated, fled, and later killed himself. Emperor Wu issued a formal order confiscating the empress's seal and ribbon. Before the envoy arrived, Wei Zifu died by suicide. Palace attendants Su Wen and Yao Dinghan placed her body on a small cart in a small coffin and buried her at Tongbai outside Chang'an.

Posthumous Rehabilitation

After Emperor Wu's death, Wei Zifu's reputation was restored. Her only surviving great-grandson Liu Xun became Emperor Xuan of Han and posthumously honored his great-grandmother as Empress Si. He established a funerary park with guards to maintain it and had her reburied at Tongbai, which became known as the Garden of Empress Si.

Origins and the Singer of the Pingyang Household

The Records of the Grand Historian say of Wei Zifu that she was "of humble birth; her family was known as the Wei, and Zifu was a singer of the Princess of Pingyang"; her father, by the account in the same work's lives of the generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, was Zheng Ji, "a clerk who served in the household of the marquis of Pingyang and had relations with the marquis's concubine, old Lady Wei", so that Wei Qing and his brothers were originally of the Zheng surname and "falsely took the Wei name" after Wei Zifu found favour with the emperor. The Han History's life of Huo Guang records likewise that Huo Qubing's father Huo Zhongru was "a man of Pingyang in Hedong, who as a county clerk served the marquis of Pingyang's household and had illicit relations with the attendant Wei Shao'er, and she bore Huo Qubing", so that the origins of old Lady Wei's children were not secret at the time. The order of the siblings is plainly recorded: "Qing's elder brother by the same mother was Wei Zhangzi, and his sister Wei Zifu found favour with the Son of Heaven from the Princess of Pingyang's house", "the elder daughter was Wei Ru, the second Wei Shao'er, the third Wei Zifu", and afterwards "the younger brothers by the same mother, Bu and Guang, all falsely bore the Wei name". The unofficial Tales of the Han Emperor Wu describes her accomplishment before entering the palace: "At first the emperor visited the Princess of Pingyang's house and set out wine and music. Zifu, being a singer and good at song and able to compose melodies, moved the emperor with every song, and he, pleased and stirred, rose to change his clothes." The Han History's life of the empresses records the scene in a single curt line: "The emperor, having sacrificed at Bashang, returned by way of the Princess of Pingyang; the princess brought out the beauties she had collected, and the emperor was not pleased; when the drinking had begun and the singers came forward, the emperor took pleasure in Zifu alone." Cui Lingqin of the Tang, reviewing the origin of court musicians, wrote that "reaching the Han house there were such as Wei Zifu who advanced by song and Zhao Feiyan who was favoured for her dancing, and from that time the fashion grew ever more luxuriant", seeing Wei Zifu as the first of the Han to rise by song.

The Favouring and the Entry into the Palace

The Records of the Grand Historian tells the manner of her favours: "That day the emperor rose to change his clothes, and Zifu attended him in the clothing carriage and was favoured. The emperor returned to his seat in high spirits, gave the Princess of Pingyang a thousand catties of gold, and the princess asked that Zifu be sent into the palace, to which he gladly agreed. As Zifu mounted the carriage the princess patted her back and said: 'Go, eat well, and strive; if you come to honour, do not forget me.'" From this comes the later phrase "attending at the changing of clothes"; Liu Yuxi wrote a song on the scene. The Tales of the Han Emperor Wu adds that "her hair came down and the emperor saw its beauty, and was pleased, and took his joy", and the Imperial Digest for the Taiping Era simplifies it to "the empress Wei, styled Zifu, was favoured while attending the emperor's clothing; her hair came loose, the emperor saw her locks, was pleased, and therefore made her empress", though the standard histories say nothing of her hair, and later poets used the image for women's hair, as in Li He's line that "the Wei girl's hair is thin, too scant for the comb" and Jiang Kui's "where is the Wei girl, and where has Song Yu returned?". Of her life in the palace, the Records says that "for more than a year after entering the palace she was not favoured again; the emperor chose the useless among the palace women and dismissed them home, and Zifu, seeing the Son of Heaven, wept and begged to be dismissed; the emperor pitied her, favoured her again, and she conceived, and her honour and favour grew daily", a background that joins with the old practice by which, in the Han History's record of Emperor Jing, Wendi's testamentary edict granted that "palace women be sent out to their families and their taxes remitted for life". The Tales of the Han Emperor Wu adds a detail to the reunion: the emperor said that "last night I dreamt that several catalpa trees grew in Zifu's courtyard; is this not the will of Heaven?", and favoured her that day, and afterwards "three favours produced three daughters, and later a son, who was the Heir Apparent Li".

The Fall of Empress Chen and the Rescue of Wei Qing

Her favour provoked sharp reaction from the empress and the grand princess. The Records says: "At first, when the emperor was heir apparent, he married the grand princess's daughter as his consort; when he became emperor the consort became empress, of the Chen surname, and had no son. That the emperor became heir had been much owing to the grand princess, and so Empress Chen was proud and arrogant. Hearing that Wei Zifu was greatly favoured, she was enraged and several times came near to death, and the emperor grew angrier." Empress Chen's mother, Princess Guantao Liu Piao, turned her anger on Wei Zifu's family: "the grand princess, hearing that Wei Zifu was favoured and with child, was jealous and sent men to seize Qing. Qing was then serving in the Jianzhang palace and not yet known; the grand princess seized and imprisoned him and would have killed him, and his friend the mounted guardsman Gongsun Ao with strong men went and took him by force, and so he escaped death. The emperor heard of it and summoned Qing as supervisor of Jianzhang and attendant, and his brothers by the same mother became noble, with gifts of a thousand catties of gold within a few days." The Former Han Annals records likewise that "when Zifu found favour with the emperor from the household of the Princess of Pingyang and was made a consort, Empress Chen was jealous and the grand princess seized and imprisoned Qing, meaning to kill him". Her sisters too rose: Wei Junru married the grand coachman Gongsun He, "who was favoured on that account"; Wei Shao'er had long had relations with Chen Zhang, and "the emperor summoned Chen Zhang and made him noble"; Gongsun Ao "grew nobler for this", and Wei Qing became grand master of the palace. Empress Chen's end is in the Han History's life of the empresses: "Afterwards she again practised the seductive arts of women, which came much to light. In the fifth year of Yuanguang the emperor had the matter thoroughly investigated, and the woman Chu Fu and others were charged with making sacrifices and imprecations to the empress, a great impiety, and more than three hundred were implicated and executed, Chu Fu being beheaded in the market." Envoys were sent with an edict to the empress saying that "the empress has lost her order, being deluded by shamans and sacrifices, and cannot receive the mandate of Heaven; let her surrender her seals and ribbons and retire to the Long Gate Palace". The case was handled by the attendant censor Zhang Tang, of whom the Han History says that "he managed the witchcraft case of Empress Chen, tracing the accomplices deeply, and the emperor thought him able". The Han History's annals of Emperor Wu records that in the seventh month of the fifth year of Yuanguang "on the day Yisi Empress Chen was deposed, and those who practised witchcraft were beheaded". By Huan Tan's New Discourses, the emperor before deposing her had already "secretly sought out Empress Chen's faults and misdeeds, and deposed her, and set up Zifu, and changed her son to heir apparent", and the Han History's life of Huan Tan records his words that "of old Emperor Wu, wishing to set up Wei Zifu, secretly sought Empress Chen's faults, and in the end she was deposed and Zifu was set up".

Becoming Empress and the Birth of the First Son

In the spring of the first year of Yuanshuo the empress bore the emperor's first son, and the court was stirred. The Han History's life of the Jia, Zou, Mei and Lu families records that "the emperor was twenty-nine before he had an heir, and the ministers rejoiced, so that Mei Gao and Dongfang Shuo composed the Fu on the Birth of the Heir Apparent and the Prayers for the Birth of the Imperial Son, being commanded to do so and not following the old forms, so greatly was the heir esteemed". The establishment of the shrine to the High Matchmaker dates from this: the Later Han History's rituals quote the scholar Shu Fang's answer that "Emperor Wu of the Han, obtaining an heir late, first established the shrine of the High Matchmaker; the High Matchmaker is the ancestor of men, and so a stone was set up as the seat and sacrifices offered with the great sacrifice". In the third month, on the day Jiazi, the emperor formally made Wei Zifu empress and proclaimed a general amnesty, whose text the Han History preserves: "I have heard that if heaven and earth do not change, their transforming work is not accomplished; if yin and yang do not change, things do not flourish. The Changes says that 'to follow change makes the people unwearied'; the Odes say that 'nine changes return to the constant, which is the choice of him who knows words'. I admire Tang and Yu and delight in Yin and Zhou, and, taking the old as a mirror for the new, grant a general amnesty and begin anew with the people; all debts and suits from before the third year of Emperor Jing shall not be heard." Zhufu Yan also had a part in the empress's elevation, the Records saying that "in establishing the Wei empress and in exposing the secret affairs of the king of Yan, Yan was of service". A palace official composed the Fu Admonishing the End for the empress, wishing her to preserve to the end the virtue with which she had begun, the Han History recording that "at first, when the Wei empress was established, Mei Gao presented a fu to admonish the end", with Yan Shigu's note that it was "to make her careful of the end as of the beginning". Her son Liu Ju was made heir apparent in the first year of Yuanshou at the age of seven, the Han History's life of the five sons of Wu recording that "the emperor was twenty-nine when he obtained the heir and was greatly pleased, establishing the shrine and having Dongfang Shuo and Mei Gao write the prayers; when the boy grew older he was commanded to study the Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn and then the Guliang with Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu; when he came of age and took his palace the emperor built the Bowang Garden for him, that he might receive guests and follow his own tastes, so that many brought in heterodox doctrines", while the Records notes that "in the first year of Yuanshou the emperor set up the heir apparent and chose from among the ministers one who could be his tutor, and Qing, from being governor of Pei, became tutor to the heir apparent".

The Splendour of the Wei Kin and Its Decline

With Wei Zifu as empress the Wei family rose. The Records says that "her younger brother Wei Qing, styled Zhongqing, was made marquis of Changping as grand general; he had four sons, the eldest Kang being heir to the marquisate and often attendant in the palace, honoured and favoured, and the other three all made marquises with thirteen hundred households each, one marquis of Yin'an, one of Fagan, one of Yichun, so that their honour shook the world; and the world sang: 'Rejoice not when a son is born, be not angry when a daughter is born; do you not see Wei Zifu lording it over the world?'" The exploits of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing are summed in the Han History's postface in rhymed prose: "Changping, martial and stern, first of the generals, smote the Xianyun and restored our northern border; seven campaigns of chariots, the ramming wagons at ease, hemming in the Shanyu and climbing Mount Yanyan in the north. The champion of the swift cavalry, fierce and numerous, six long drives, swift as lightning and thunder, watering horses at the Han Sea and sacrificing at Mount Wolf, marking the great river on the west and setting commanderies at Qilian." The Suoyin's encomium says that "the gentleman changes as the leopard, and noble and base have no constancy; Qing was a slave and suddenly rose in the ranks of war; his sister was matched to the imperial pole and he himself wed the princess of Pingyang; such presumptuous honour brought disorder to the constants". Though Wei Qing was honoured, Ji An would not bow to him, and the Records says that when someone told Ji An that "of himself the Son of Heaven wishes the ministers to defer to the grand general, and as he grows more honoured you cannot but bow", Ji An answered that "for a grand general to have a guest who salutes him but does not bow, is he the less honoured for it?", and Wei Qing, hearing of it, "thought Ji An the worthier and repeatedly asked him about the doubts of the state and court, treating him better than ever before". After the campaign south of the desert, Wei Qing received a thousand catties of gold, and as Consort Wang was then in favour, Ning Cheng advised him to use the gift to congratulate her parents, whereupon Wei Qing "gave five hundred catties to congratulate them"; the emperor asked him about it and Wei Qing told him the truth, and he made Ning Cheng commandant of Donghai. When the Princess of Pingyang, widowed, chose a marquis to marry, all about her said the grand general; the princess laughed and said that "he came out of my own house and used to ride behind me; how should he be my husband?", and they answered that "now the grand general's sister is empress and his three sons are marquises, and his wealth and honour shake the world; how should you slight him?", and she consented, "spoke of it to the empress, and the empress told the emperor, and he decreed that the grand general should marry the Princess of Pingyang". After the height came decline: the Han History says that "seven years after the empress was established her son was made heir apparent; afterwards her beauty failed, and Consort Wang of Zhao and Consort Li of Zhongshan found favour, both dying young; afterwards Consort Yin and Consort Gouyi were favoured in turn". Though long without favour she still kept herself with care, and the Comprehensive Mirror says that "the empress also was good at guarding herself and avoiding suspicion, and though long without favour was still treated with courtesy", and that "whenever the emperor travelled he entrusted affairs to the heir apparent and the palace to the empress; and when there were decisions to be made, on his return she reported the most important of them, and the emperor never disagreed, sometimes not even looking at them". Her severity in law differed from his, the Mirror recording that "the emperor was strict in law and employed harsh officials, while the heir apparent was generous and righted many wrongs, gaining the hearts of the people though the officials of the law were displeased; the empress, fearing that he would come to be blamed, often warned him to keep to the emperor's mind and not to release men of himself; the emperor, hearing of it, thought the heir right and the empress wrong". The standing of the heir and empress was even a consideration for rebels, the Records recording that when Liu An, king of Huainan, asked Wu Bei whether the Han court was ordered or disordered, Wu Bei said that it was ordered, and that "looking secretly at the government of the court, the righteousness of ruler and minister, the affection of father and son, the distinction of husband and wife and the order of elder and younger are all as they should be".

The Case of Gongsun He and the Outbreak of the Witchcraft Affair

The collapse of the Wei kin began with the case of Gongsun He and his son. The Han History records that He's son Jingsheng "replaced He as grand coachman, father and son both holding the offices of the highest ministers", and that Jingsheng, "being the son of the empress's sister, was extravagant and lawless, and in the Zhenghe period took nine million nine hundred thousand cash of the northern army's funds without authority; when it was discovered he was imprisoned". As an edict was then out for the arrest of the great swordsman Zhu Anshi of Yangling without success, Gongsun He "asked to hunt him down in exchange for his son's guilt", and the emperor agreed and he took him. Zhu Anshi, hearing that He meant to redeem his son, laughed and said that "the chancellor's ruin reaches his whole clan; the roads of Nanshan will not suffice to receive my testimony, nor the trees of Xiegu to make my fetters", and then memorialised from prison that Jingsheng had had illicit relations with the princess of Yangshi and "had caused men to sacrifice and imprecate against the emperor, and had buried dummies on the imperial road where he would pass to Sweet Spring", whereon the case was investigated and "father and son died in prison and the clan was destroyed". In the second year of Zhenghe the emperor issued an edict recounting Gongsun He's crimes, that he "leaned on old connections and high position for wicked ends, making fine fields for the profit of his sons and retainers, regardless of the common people", and that he had "falsely made an edict, wickedly handing over Zhu Anshi". In the spring of that year, when the iron officials of Zhuo prefecture cast iron, "the iron melted and all flew up", which later portent-scholarship took for a fire portent; the Han History's treatise on the five phases records that "in its third month the governor of Zhuo, Liu Quli, became chancellor, and in the month after the witchcraft affair arose, and the emperor's daughters the princesses of Zhuyi and Yangshi, the chancellor Gongsun He and his son the grand coachman Jingsheng and the marquis of Pingyang, Cao Zong, all went to prison and died". In the fourth month of that summer there was also "a great wind that unroofed houses and broke trees", and the Comprehensive Mirror adds at once that "in the intercalary month the princesses of Zhuyi and Yangshi and the empress's nephew Wei Kang, marquis of Changping, all died for witchcraft". Jiang Chong, the favoured minister, having quarrelled with the heir apparent and the Wei, "feared that after the emperor's death he would be killed by the heir", and so memorialised that the emperor's illness was caused by witchcraft, and was made commissioner to investigate it. By the Han History he "led the barbarian shamans to dig for dummies and arrested those who kept poisons or sacrificed by night, branding and burning them with irons to force confessions, so that the people accused one another of witchcraft and the officials charged them with great impiety, and some tens of thousands died in the case"; knowing the emperor's mind, he "declared that there was a witch-breath in the palace, and first dealt with the rarely favoured consorts, and by degrees reached the empress, and dug in the heir apparent's palace and found a tung-wood dummy", the emperor being then ill and taking the cool air at Sweet Spring, "so that only the empress and the heir were in the palace".

The Rising, the Death, and After

The heir asked his junior tutor Shi De, who, fearing to be executed with him, said: "Before this the chancellor and his son, the two princesses and the Wei all suffered for this; now the shamans and envoys dig the ground and find evidence, and who knows whether the shamans put it there or it was truly there, and there is no way to clear yourself. You may falsely use the tally to arrest Jiang Chong and his fellows and put them in prison and search out their villainy to the end. Moreover, the emperor is ill at Sweet Spring, and the empress and the household officials are not answered when they inquire, so that it is not known whether he lives; and with wicked ministers like these, will you not think of the case of Fusu of Qin?" The heir did as he said. On the day Renwu of the seventh month of the second year of Zhenghe the heir "sent retainers as envoys to arrest Jiang Chong and his fellows"; the marquis of Andao, Han Yue, suspecting fraud, refused the edict and was killed, and the censor Zhang Gan, wounded, escaped to Sweet Spring; the heir also "sent his retainer Wuju with the tally by night into the Changqiu gate of the Weiyang palace, and through the senior attendant Yihua told the empress fully, and brought out the horses and chariots of the imperial stables with archers, took arms from the arsenal and called out the guards of the Changle palace, declaring to all the officials that Jiang Chong had rebelled", and so beheaded Jiang Chong and burned the barbarian shaman in the Shanglin park. The Former Han Annals records likewise that "the heir, falsely making retainers envoys, arrested Jiang Chong and his fellows; Han Yue was killed resisting; Su Wen fled to Sweet Spring; the heir sent word to the empress, and the empress brought out the arms of the arsenal and the guards of the Changle palace". The emperor at first thought that "the heir must be afraid and angry with Jiang Chong and his fellows, and so has made this disturbance", and sent an envoy to summon him; the envoy, not daring to enter the city, reported that "the heir's rebellion is accomplished and he would kill me, and I fled back", and the emperor was enraged, moved from Sweet Spring to the Jianzhang palace west of the wall, and "decreed the raising of the troops of the three metropolitan commanderies, all officials below the two-thousand-picul rank being under the chancellor". The heir "sent envoys with forged authority to pardon the prisoners of the metropolitan offices of Chang'an and brought out arms from the arsenal", appointing Shi De and the retainer Zhang Guang to command them, and sent the prisoner Ru Hou with the tally to call out the barbarian horsemen of Changshui and Xuanqu; but the attendant Mang Tong pursued and killed Ru Hou, and told the barbarians that "the tally is false; do not obey", so that their cavalry entered Chang'an. Ren An, the protector of the northern army, accepted the heir's tally but shut his gates and did not come out, and the emperor, hearing of it, said that he "saw the business of arms arise and wished to sit and watch who would win, meaning to join the victor, and had two hearts", and had him imprisoned and executed; the director Tian Ren, who commanded the city gate, and let the heir out, was also executed. The heir's men and the chancellor's "fought for five days, and some tens of thousands died, so that the blood flowed into the ditches", and as "the chancellor's adherents grew ever more numerous" the heir's army was defeated and he fled south through the Fuyang gate. The emperor then "sent the imperial clan official Liu Changle and the chief of the capital guard Liu Gan with an edict to take back the empress's seals and ribbons, and she killed herself", the Han History adding that afterwards "the yellow gate attendants Su Wen and Yao Dinghan carried her in a cart to the empty quarters of the master of the carriage office, laid her in a small coffin and buried her at Tongbo south of the city, and the Wei were wholly destroyed". Under Emperor Xuan her name was restored: "Xuan made her reburial, gave her the posthumous name Empress Si, and established a tomb estate of three hundred households with wardens to guard and sacrifice to her". The Han History's life of Wei Xian describes the arrangement: "in the gardens there were each a bed-chamber and a convenience hall, with daily sacrifice in the chamber, monthly in the temple and seasonal in the hall", and among the thirty such gardens were those of "Empress Zhao Ling, the king of Wu'ai, Empress Zhao'ai, the grand empress of Wen, the grand empress of Zhao, Empress Si Wei, the Heir Apparent Li and Empress Li". Because Wei Zifu had excelled in music, Emperor Xuan had singers and musicians entertain her spirit, and Li Daoyuan's Commentary on the Waterways records that "north of the old canal are the White Pavilion and the Bowang Garden, built by Emperor Wu for the heir apparent that he might receive noble guests; when the witchcraft affair broke out he cut his way east through the Du gate; Lady Shi died and was buried north of the garden, and Emperor Xuan made it the Li garden; because a thousand singers and musicians entertained the temple of Empress Si, it was also called the Thousand Villages". Yan Shigu's note says that she was "buried east of the great road outside the Du gate, with a thousand singers and jugglers to entertain the garden, and so it was called the Thousand Gathering, in what is now the northwest corner of Jincheng ward within the city of Chang'an". The site of the Empress Si garden is now near the Labour Park of Xi'an, north toward the ruins of the Han city, its surface remains no longer existing. Huan Tan's New Discourses adds that "in the empress's garden there were ten horses of the funeral carriage, tended by the guards, which drank well but could not be ridden, and all lived to sixty years". In Wang Mang's time, when the world longed for the Han, Lu Fang of Anding pretended to be Liu Wenbo, the emperor's great-grandson, inventing a pedigree in which "his great-grandmother, the elder sister of the Hun prince of Guli Hunxie, was empress to Emperor Wu and bore three sons; in the troubles of Jiang Chong the heir was killed and the empress died with him", the Later Han History recording his words at length.

The Dispute over Sacrificial Association and Her Posthumous Standing

Wei Zifu died four years before Emperor Wu; Huo Guang, presiding over the sacrifices, associated Consort Li with the emperor's offerings and honoured her as Empress Xiaowu, a step debated from the Eastern Han onward. The Han History records that "four years after Empress Si Wei was deposed, Emperor Wu died, and the grand general Huo Guang, following the emperor's long-standing intention, associated Consort Li with the sacrifices and honoured her with the title Empress Xiaowu". The Comprehensive Mirror, in the fifty-seventh chapter, records that under Emperor Ling of the Han, Cao Jie and Wang Fu opposed the burial of the Dou consort with the former emperor on the ground that "the Liang empress's family committed great impiety and was buried apart at Yi ling, and Emperor Wu deposed the Wei empress and associated Consort Li with the sacrifices; how then should the Dou, deeper in guilt, be buried with the former emperor?", and the Later Han History's textual notes carry the same words. Later historians disputed the deposition itself: the textual notes to the Song History hold that "the Wei empress being deposed, Huo Guang posthumously honoured Consort Li as empress and associated her with the temple of Emperor Wu, which is not a case of the mother honoured through the son, but simply because the temples of Gaozu and Wu had no associated consort", and the Southern History repeats the view, holding that Huo Guang's act was due to the lack of a consort for those two temples and not to any guilt of Wei Zifu. As to the source of her posthumous name, the Song compendium of rites observes that the empresses of the former Han were given none but "were called by the emperor's name", and that only the Wei, "because she was posthumously honoured, was named Si", so that "the rules not then being settled, empresses' names were sometimes given and sometimes not". Emperor Xuan reburied his great-grandmother and built her garden: the Han History records that "Xuan made her reburial, gave her the posthumous name Empress Si, and established a garden estate of three hundred households with wardens to guard and sacrifice to her", the chambers and halls having daily, monthly and seasonal sacrifices, among some thirty such small gardens. Because she had excelled in music, he had a thousand singers and musicians sing and dance daily in the garden to entertain her spirit, so that it was also called the Thousand Gathering or Thousand Villages, Yan Shigu noting that she was "buried east of the great road outside the Du gate, with a thousand singers and jugglers to entertain the garden, and so it was called the Thousand Gathering, in what is now the northwest corner of Jincheng ward within the city of Chang'an".

Remains and Later Transmission

The Record of the Three Capital Districts notes that "the Bowang Garden was five li outside the Du gate south of Chang'an, where ruins remain; the Han Bowang Garden lay southeast of the Li garden in Jincheng ward, and in the southwest corner of Jincheng ward, at the Kuangdao garrison, was the Han garden of Empress Si, with the Han Li garden at its north gate", a location agreeing with the Commentary on the Waterways. The site of the garden is now near the Labour Park of Xi'an, north toward the ruins of the Han city, its surface traces gone. It was also said that the ten horses of her funeral carriage were kept in her garden, and that the guards found them "good at drinking but unable to be ridden", all living to sixty years, as Huan Tan records. In Wang Mang's time Lu Fang of Anding pretended to be the emperor's great-grandson Liu Wenbo, inventing a pedigree in which his great-grandmother "the elder sister of the Hun prince of Guli Hunxie was empress to Emperor Wu and bore three sons; in the troubles of Jiang Chong the heir was killed and the empress died with him", the Later Han History recording his words, so that the empress and the witchcraft affair were still current among the people in the early Eastern Han.

Major Activities

Birth of the Crown Prince and Installation as Empress

Wei Zifu gave Emperor Wu his first son, Liu Ju. In 128 BCE she was installed as empress, ending a period in which the imperial household had no male heir. Emperor Wu proclaimed an amnesty on her installation; the source states that this subsequently became a Han practice.

Rise of the Wei Affinal Clan

After Wei Zifu gained imperial favor, her younger brother Wei Qing and nephew Huo Qubing also rose. Through military accomplishments they became leading commanders, and five members of the Wei family were made marquises. Wei Qing led seven campaigns against the Xiongnu and Huo Qubing made six deep expeditions, according to the source, greatly weakening Xiongnu power on the northern frontier.

The Witchcraft Calamity

In 91 BCE, the Witchcraft Calamity erupted. Wei Zifu supported Crown Prince Liu Ju when he raised forces and killed Jiang Chong. After the prince's defeat, she committed suicide. The crisis became a major turning point in Western Han politics, destroyed much of the Wei clan's political position, and, according to the source, contributed to Emperor Wu's later reconsideration of events before he selected his young son Liu Fuling as heir.

The Beginning of Posthumous Names and Points of Historical Doubt

Wei Zifu's posthumous standing and whether she was deposed have long been debated. As to the name itself, Han empresses normally had none of their own but were called by the emperor's posthumous name, as with Empress Dou of Wen and the Lady Ban of Cheng; the Song institutional compendium notes that "the empresses of the former Han were given no posthumous names but were called by the emperor's name", and that "only the Wei, because she was posthumously honoured, was named Si, and the Xu, dying early, was named Gong'ai, the rules not yet being settled, so that empresses' names were sometimes given and sometimes not, and the institutions of the Han house were not yet complete". Emperor Xuan's honouring of his great-grandmother was thus the first posthumous name given to an empress since Qin, after which empresses, until the end of the Qing, were regularly named or posthumously named, only the deposed receiving none. Because Wei Zifu received a name, later writers have generally held that she was never formally deposed: the Han History's annals record every deposition plainly, as with Empress Chen, of whom it is written that "Empress Chen was deposed", whereas in Wei Zifu's case it is only recorded that "the imperial clan official Liu Changle and the chief of the capital guard Liu Gan were sent with an edict to take back the empress's seals and ribbons", the seals and ribbons being taken with no word of deposition; the Han History's life of the five sons of Wu opens by saying that "Emperor Wu had six sons; the Wei empress bore the Heir Apparent Li", still calling her empress and treating the Heir Apparent as the eldest legitimate son; and Huo Guang's later association of Consort Li with the emperor's sacrifices, honouring her as Empress Xiaowu, was because the temple of Emperor Wu had no consort, and did not constitute a formal removal of Wei Zifu's rank.

The Three Daughters, the Name, and Later Allusions

That Wei Zifu bore three daughters is recorded, though their titles are disputed. The Records says only that she bore three daughters, without names. Yan Shigu's note on the Han History holds that the princesses of Zhuyi and Yangshi "were both daughters of the Wei empress", and so takes the three to be the Princess Wei Zhang, the Princess of Zhuyi and the Princess of Yangshi; Sima Zhen's Suoyin commentary, on the other hand, names them the princesses of Zhuyi and Shiyi and the Princess Wei Zhang, the two accounts contradicting each other, so that the question remains open. As to the meaning of the name Zifu, the usual reading takes it as a personal name, while some hold that "fu" is a mere particle, or that the phrase "he praised the virtue of such as she" at the end of the Records' life of the empresses refers to the Han empresses generally and not to the name. Later ages chiefly recall Wei Zifu in poetry and song and in the allusions "the Pingyang house" and "the Wei girl": Liu Yuxi writes of "presently the palace women bring word that he is at the Princess of Pingyang's house" and of "poor Pingyang's house, its song and dance charming in youth"; Wang Changling of "the song and dance of Pingyang newly favoured, and through the cold of the curtained door a brocade robe granted"; Du Mu of "Pingyang patting her back as she crossed the imperial road"; and Li Dou of "where the Wei girl sang, youth becomes her". Cui Lingqin called this "the beginning of indulgence in music and beauty, which reaching the Han house had such as Wei Zifu advancing by song and Zhao Feiyan favoured for dance"; and the History of the Jin, in its preface to the lives of empresses, cites "the Zhen and Wei houses, whose glory was not raised by virtue" in tracing a line of women exalted for beauty rather than merit.

Length of Her Tenure and the Influence of the Consort Clan System

Made empress in the first year of Yuanshuo and dying by her own hand in the second year of Zhenghe, Wei Zifu held the position for thirty-eight years, one of the longest tenures of any empress in Chinese history; she was also the first empress to receive an independent posthumous name, her title Empress Si beginning the practice by which, until the end of the Qing, empresses were named or posthumously named, only the deposed receiving none. As to the consort-clan system, her favour raised five marquises of the Wei house, and Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, rising from consort kin to command, proved themselves by military merit and came to be grand general and swift cavalry general, so that the path of "winning military merit on the strength of consort kinship" became a characteristic form of consort participation in government in the middle Western Han.

Personal Relations

• Mother: Wei Ao, maidservant in the household of the Marquis of Pingyang
• Brothers: Wei Changjun, Wei Qing, Wei Bu, Wei Guang
• Sisters: Wei Junru and Wei Shao'er
• Children: Liu Ju; Princess Wei the Elder; Princess Shiyi; Princess Zhuyi (the exact record of the daughters is disputed)
• Nephew: Huo Qubing, son of Wei Shao'er
• Great-grandson: Liu Xun, Emperor Xuan of Han
• Gongsun Ao: Friend of Wei Qing who helped rescue him
• Mei Gao and Dongfang Shuo: Ordered to compose rhapsodies celebrating the birth of the imperial son
• Liu Che, Emperor Wu of Han: Husband
• Empress Chen: Previous empress, later deposed
• Jiang Chong: Political enemy and central figure in the Witchcraft Calamity
• Princess Guantao Liu Piao: Mother of Empress Chen, who had Wei Qing seized
• Su Wen: Palace eunuch involved in the Witchcraft Calamity

Historical Assessment

Han Period and Contemporary Sources

• Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian: Hereditary Houses of the Imperial Relatives notes that Empress Wei, courtesy name Zifu, was of humble birth. The source also cites Sima Qian's self-preface as praising her virtue.
• Ban Gu's Book of Han: Traditions of the Imperial Relatives preserves the popular verse about "Wei Zifu dominating all under Heaven," presenting it as satire of the power of the Wei family.
• The same song, preserved in the Records of the Grand Historian, says that one should neither rejoice at sons nor resent daughters because of Wei Zifu's rise.

Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties

• Sima Zhen's commentary Suoyin on the Records of the Grand Historian reflects on the rapid change of fortune within the Wei family and criticizes excessive favor and privilege.
• Xun Yue's Annals of the Former Han records Wei Zifu's installation as empress without offering a direct moral assessment.

Tang and Song Periods

• Yan Shigu's commentary on the Book of Han discusses Wei Zifu's family background without a moral judgment.
• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance recounts the Witchcraft Calamity and treats Wei Zifu's death sympathetically, placing responsibility on the accusations engineered by Jiang Chong and others.

Modern Period

• Modern scholars have often studied Wei Zifu through the lens of women's history, treating her rise from a palace singer to empress as one example of social mobility in the Han period.
• Some scholars emphasize that Wei Zifu's rise and the military achievements of the Wei affinal clan significantly affected the political order of Emperor Wu's reign.
• The identity and number of her daughters remain disputed; because the Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han do not provide an entirely clear account, modern researchers generally treat the "three daughters" tradition cautiously.