Empress Zhangde

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Lady Dou came from the Dou clan of Fufeng and was a great-granddaughter of Dou Rong, a founding meritorious official of the Eastern Han and Grand Minister of Works. The Dou family had been prominent during the reign of Emperor Guangwu, but its fortunes had gradually declined by the time of Dou Rong's son Dou Mu and Dou Xun. Both Dou Mu and Dou Xun died in prison after being convicted of offenses. Dou Xun married Princess Biyang, daughter of Liu Qiang, Prince Gong of Donghai, and they had the Dou sisters. When Lady Dou was young, her family regarded her striking appearance and unusual bearing as signs that she would one day attain high status. She was able to write characters at the age of six, which greatly surprised her family.

Entry into the Palace and Investiture as Empress

In 77 (the second year of Jianchu), Lady Dou and her younger sister were both selected to enter Changle Palace. She was composed in her conduct and considered very beautiful. Emperor Zhang had already heard of her talents and appearance and had repeatedly asked palace attendants about her. When she was presented to him, he found her graceful and beautiful, while Empress Dowager Ma also considered her exceptional. Lady Dou then took up residence in Zhangde Hall in the Northern Palace. In the following year, 78 (the third year of Jianchu), she was made empress, while her younger sister was made a Noble Lady.

Although Empress Dou enjoyed exclusive imperial favor, she never bore a child. At the time, Noble Lady Song gave birth to the imperial son Liu Qing, while Noble Lady Liang gave birth to Liu Zhao. In 79 (the fourth year of Jianchu), Liu Qing was made crown prince. Empress Dou became deeply resentful and repeatedly spoke ill of Noble Lady Song and Noble Lady Liang before Emperor Zhang, gradually causing them to lose his favor. Empress Dowager Ma died in the same year. Empress Dou adopted Liu Zhao as her own son and, together with members of her family, planned to depose Liu Qing as crown prince and replace him with Liu Zhao in order to secure her own position.

In 82 (the seventh year of Jianchu), Empress Dou falsely accused Noble Lady Song of practicing witchcraft. Emperor Zhang then demoted Crown Prince Liu Qing to Prince of Qinghe and made Liu Zhao crown prince instead. Noble Lady Song soon took her own life. In 83 (the eighth year of Jianchu), Empress Dou had someone write an anonymous letter to frame Liang Song, the father of Noble Lady Liang. Liang Song was killed, and the Liang sisters died in grief and anger. Thereafter, the women of the inner palace feared Empress Dou, whose position became secure.

Rule from Court

In 88 (the second year of Zhanghe), Emperor Zhang died. The ten-year-old Crown Prince Liu Zhao ascended the throne as Emperor He and honored Empress Dou as empress dowager. Because Emperor He was young, Empress Dowager Dou presided over court and issued imperial commands, becoming the effective highest ruler of the Eastern Han. She elevated her mother, Princess Biyang, to senior princess and granted her a tax estate of three thousand households. Her elder brother Dou Xian and younger brothers Dou Du and Dou Jing all occupied prominent positions and held real power. The Dou clan thereafter dominated the government and wielded enormous influence at court.

After Dou Xian gained power, he became overbearing and even sent men to assassinate the imperial clansman Liu Chang. When the matter came to light, he requested permission to campaign against the Xiongnu to atone for the crime. In 89 (the first year of Yongyuan), Dou Xian led an army to inflict a major defeat on the Northern Xiongnu and had an inscription carved on Mount Yanran to commemorate the achievement, greatly enhancing his prestige. Thereafter the Dou brothers became still more arrogant. Dou Jing allowed his household servants to seize the property of commoners, provoking widespread resentment. Empress Dowager Dou largely tolerated such conduct.

Loss of Power and Death

In 92 (the fourth year of Yongyuan), Emperor He, now fourteen, was deeply dissatisfied with the Dou clan's domination. He secretly planned with the eunuch Zheng Zhong and, after Dou Xian returned to the capital, suddenly moved against the Dou faction and arrested its supporters. Dou Xian, Dou Du, Dou Jing, and others were demoted and subsequently forced to take their own lives. Empress Dowager Dou was not stripped of her title, but she lost all power and was confined within the palace.

Empress Dowager Dou died on October 8, 97 (the ninth year of Yongyuan). Before her burial, Liang Yi, elder sister of Noble Lady Liang, submitted a memorial describing the injustice by which Noble Lady Liang had been framed and driven to death. Grand Commandant Zhang Pu, Minister of Education Liu Fang, and Minister of Works Zhang Fen submitted a memorial citing Emperor Guangwu's removal of Empress Lü's status as precedent. They requested that Empress Dowager Dou's rank as empress be revoked and that she not be buried with Emperor Zhang. Many officials supported the proposal. Emperor He personally rejected it by edict, stating that he remembered her role in raising him and did not wish to pursue the matter further. On October 23, Empress Dowager Dou was buried with Emperor Zhang at Jingling Mausoleum.

Her Birthplace, the Physiognomists' Words, and Her Entry into the Palace as Empress

The empress Zhangde was born about 59. Her father Dou Xun's family lived in Luoyang, the eastern capital; later her grandfather Dou Mu's grumbling caused the Dou clan to be sent back to its native commandery, and only Dou Xun, being the husband of the princess of Biyang, was allowed to remain in Luoyang, so that she was in fact born there and not, as the old registers say, at Pingling in Fufeng. The Dou family being by then in decline, her mother the princess of Biyang had physiognomists look at her, and all who saw her said she would certainly be greatly honoured and would not have the looks of an ordinary official's wife or concubine; and she could read and write at six, to the astonishment of her connexions by marriage. Because she had beauty and talent her mother wished to send her into the palace; and in the eighth month of 77 she and her younger sister entered the Changluo palace with their mother, "her coming and going orderly, her bearing and beauty excellent." Emperor Zhang had heard of her literary talent and beauty and had several times inquired about her of the female officer who taught the consorts their ceremonial, and on meeting her he found her extremely beautiful, and the empress dowager Ma thought her extraordinary, so that she entered the ranks of the consorts and was received in the Zhangde hall of the northern palace. Being quick by nature and exerting herself to please those about her, she conducted herself well with high and low and before and behind, so that her good name spread from day to day. On the second day of the third month of 78 Emperor Zhang made her empress, known as the empress Zhangde, and enfeoffed her sister as a consort.

The Case of Consort Song and the Case of the Liang

The empress dowager Ma favoured the kin of Consort Song and in the fourth month of 79 had Consort Song's son Liu Qing made heir apparent, a heavy blow to the childless empress Zhangde. She therefore with her mother the princess of Biyang plotted Consort Song's destruction, "without, having her brothers collect the faults of the Song family, and within, having attendants watch Consort Song's movements": when Consort Song fell ill and wished to eat raw rabbit and wrote to her family to look for some, the empress Zhangde intercepted at the gate of the private apartments the letter saying that in illness she longed for raw rabbit and asked her family to seek it, and on that accused Consort Song of intending to use sorcery to do harm, slandering her day and night; and after some months she hinted to her confidants to fabricate charges and denounce Consort Song to the emperor, asking that they be verified. In the sixth month of the summer of 82 Emperor Zhang deposed the heir apparent Liu Qing and put in his place the empress Zhangde's adopted son Liu Zhao, moving Consort Song and her sister to the bing quarters and having a minor eunuch investigate, who under the empress's hint "verified" the charges, so that the two sisters were sent to the women's prison and both drank poison and died; and the emperor, grieving greatly, had their bodies buried by the palace warden at Fanzhuo village north of Luoyang. In the same year he posthumously honoured her father Dou Xun as marquis Anchengsi, after which she was "specially favoured and firmly held the palace." She then turned on the Liang: having adopted the son of the younger Consort Liang, Liu Zhao, and wishing thereafter to employ only her own kinsmen, she spoke often against the Liang sisters to the emperor, so that they were gradually estranged and slighted; and in 83 she slandered the two consorts to death and with an anonymous letter accused their father Liang Song of treason, having the governor of Hanyang, Zheng Ju, torture him until he died in prison and his household deported, her words also touching the consorts' foster mother the princess of Wuyin, who was moved away under guard. She further made the palace attendants keep the secret, so that within the palace no one any longer knew who Liu Zhao's mother was, and all in the women's quarters held their breath for fear. Scholars have pointed out that her plots succeeded because she had a mother both overbearing and ruthless: the empress was then barely in her twenties and had not yet the calculation and craft to arrange every plot, and the prime mover and the real director behind them was her mother the princess of Biyang.

Her Grudge against the Ma, What the Han Ritual Records, and Her First Measures as Regent

Having ruined the Song and the Liang, the empress Zhangde nursed a grudge against the empress dowager Ma of bright virtue, and seeing the Ma brothers in high office wished to take the occasion to remove them, and so with her brothers within and without accused them. The Ma brothers, having lost their support at court, still did not restrain themselves, building great mansions and keeping several hundred retainers and countless slaves, behaviour that could hardly escape remark; and with the Dou stirring the matter it reached the emperor's ear. He could not bear to punish them and warned them again and again, restraining them as he could, after which the Ma lost much of their authority and their guests grew fewer. When Ma Liao's son wrote to a friend complaining, it happened to be heard by a partisan of the Dou, who memorialized impeaching them and asking that the offices of Ma Fang and his brothers be taken away; the emperor agreed, keeping only Ma Guang in the capital without any important office. The Han Ritual records that in the Yuanhe years (84–87) the empress Zhangde had relations with a palace attendant, and being discovered drew a sword and threatened Emperor Zhang. In 88 Emperor Zhang died and the He emperor came to the throne, honouring her as empress dowager, known as the empress dowager Zhangde. She took the government in her own hands, honoured her mother the princess of Biyang as a grand princess with three thousand additional households, and placed the late emperor's old servants in confidential and important posts, the Dou brothers among them. On the geng-xu day of the third month she decreed that as the emperor was young she would for the present assist in hearing government, and that with the great princes guarding the borders abroad and the ministers governing at home she had nothing to fear. On the wu-yin day of the fourth month she further declared, in the name of Emperor Zhang's testament, the abolition of the salt and iron prohibition in the commanderies and kingdoms, allowing the people to boil salt and cast iron. In the seventh month of that year, when the southern chanyu who had submitted to Han memorialized asking to attack the northern Xiongnu, she showed the memorial to Geng Bing, who knew military affairs, and he held that to use one barbarian against another was good for the state and should be granted, adding that having received grace he ought to give his life in the state's service; and she decided to take his advice.

Dou Xian's Campaign against the Xiongnu, the Western Regions, the Fall of the Dou, and Her Burial

It happened that Liu Chang, son of the late prince of Qi and marquis of Duxiang, came to mourn at the state funeral, and the empress dowager received him several times, so that Dou Xian, fearing to lose the palace business to him, had him murdered by an assassin. The empress dowager in a rage confined Dou Xian in the inner palace; and Dou Xian, fearing death, asked to go against the Xiongnu to expiate it, so that on the yi-hai day of the tenth month she made him general of the chariots and cavalry against the northern Xiongnu. In the sixth month of the summer of 89 Dou Xian heavily defeated the northern Xiongnu and, having cut his merit on the Yanran mountain and returned to Luoyang, the northern chanyu sent his brother the king of Youwenyudi to serve the empress dowager; but Dou Xian, objecting that the chanyu had not come in person, memorialized to send the brother back. On the geng-shen day of the ninth month the empress dowager advanced Dou Xian to general-in-chief, ranking above the three excellencies and second only to the grand tutor, and the Dou brothers grew daily more overbearing: their partisans filled the great cities and commands, they gathered wealth on every side and bribery became the fashion, the commanderies followed the wind and vied in oppressing the people, seizing goods, attacking post stations and driving out officers, and violating women, their cruelty growing worse so that the people suffered; and though the minister of education, Yuan An, the minister of works, Ren Kui, and the officers impeached them many times, nothing came of it. Her brother Dou Jing above all let his servants rob on the roads, so that merchants shut their doors when they saw them as if fleeing bandits, and the officers, weak with fear, none dared memorialize; and the empress dowager, hearing of it, had Dou Jing's office taken from him. In the fifth month of 90 Dou Xian sent his deputy to attack the northern Xiongnu troops at Yiwu and took that country, at which Cheshi in the Western Regions was much alarmed and both its kings sent their sons to serve the empress dowager; Dou Du was made marquis of Yan and Dou Gui marquis of Xiayang, only Dou Xian refusing enfeoffment. Afterwards, the northern chanyu having fled no one knew where, his brother Yuchujian made himself chanyu with eight divisions and more than twenty thousand men and sent envoys to submit, whereupon Dou Xian memorialized to set him up as the northern chanyu and the empress dowager agreed; and the next year she sent Geng Kui to confer the seals on him and to hold the staff of authority at Yiwu as protector of the northern Xiongnu, as in the case of the southern. In the tenth month of 91 the states of the Western Regions submitted together; and in the twelfth month the empress dowager restored the office of protector of the Western Regions, made Ban Chao protector, enfeoffed Bai Ba, the hostage prince of Qiuci who had accompanied him, as king, and sent the marshal Yao Guang to escort him home to the throne — Yao Guang on arrival joining Ban Chao in deposing the old king of Qiuci, Youliduo, and setting up Bai Ba, sending Youliduo under guard to Luoyang, while Ban Chao held the Qian city of Qiuci, only Yanqi, Weixu and Yuli remaining of two minds and the rest settled. Further, one who frequented the empress dowager's chamber and was much favoured by her conspired with the Dou partisans to murder the He emperor; and the emperor, knowing of it, took counsel with his attendants to kill them, but because Dou Xian was in the field with an army he feared that Dou Xian would rise if he heard, and endured it without acting. In the fourth month of 92 Dou Xian returned to the capital with his army; and on the wu-xu day of the sixth month there was an eclipse of the sun and the minister of education took the occasion to memorialize suggesting that the emperor destroy Dou Xian, whereupon the emperor had the Dou partisans Deng Die, Deng Lei, Guo Huang and Guo Ju all imprisoned and killed, took back Dou Xian's seal as general-in-chief and re-enfeoffed him as a marquis, and enfeoffed Dou Du, Dou Jing and Dou Gui as marquises and sent them to their fiefs; and the emperor, scrupling at the empress dowager, did not put Dou Xian to death openly but chose harsh and capable chancellors of fiefs to watch him, and having satisfied himself that all three had reached their fiefs ordered them to kill themselves. The empress dowager was not deposed but lost all power. On the ding-si day of the twelfth month of 96 the Xianshi hall caught fire, the empress dowager then being in the southern palace and the emperor in the northern. On the fourteenth day of the intercalary eighth month of 97 she died; and before the burial, Consort Liang's elder sister Liang Yi memorialized on the wrong done to Consort Liang, and the grand commandant, the minister of education and the minister of works memorialized citing precedents and asking that her title be reduced and that she not be buried with Emperor Zhang, and many officials at court and in the provinces agreed. The emperor decreed that though the Dou had not kept the law the empress dowager had always been self-effacing; that he had served her ten years and considered the great principles; that in the rites there was no record of a subject lowering his superior; that where there was kindness he could not bear to part and where there was righteousness he could not bear to wrong; and that as in the Western Han the Huo family's treason had been punished while their young empress dowager, granddaughter of Huo Guang, had not been degraded either, no one should discuss it further. On the twenty-ninth day of the intercalary eighth month he buried her with Emperor Zhang at Jingling. By the institutions of the Eastern Han the empresses' posthumous names all used the word "de," wise and foolish alike, so that the empress Dou and the empress dowager Ma of Emperor Ming both bore the name "de."

Major Activities

Inner-Palace Struggles

After entering the palace, Empress Dou attacked her rivals in the inner court in order to consolidate her own position. She successively engineered the deaths of Noble Lady Song, Noble Lady Liang, and members of their families, adopted Liu Zhao, the son of Noble Lady Liang, as her own child, and promoted the deposition and replacement of the crown prince, ultimately enabling Liu Zhao to become crown prince. These actions had a major effect on the political order of the mid-Eastern Han.

Rule as Empress Dowager

After Emperor Zhang died, Empress Dowager Dou presided over court and issued imperial commands in her capacity as empress dowager. She was another Eastern Han empress involved in government after Empress Guo of Emperor Guangwu and Empress Ma of Emperor Ming. During her period of rule, the power of the Dou in-law clan reached its peak. Dou Xian, Dou Du, Dou Jing, and other brothers all occupied important posts and dominated the government.

Tolerance of the In-Law Clan

Empress Dowager Dou generally tolerated the political domination of her elder brother Dou Xian. She did not restrain Dou Xian when he campaigned against the Xiongnu and commemorated his victory with the inscription at Mount Yanran, nor did she curb Dou Jing when he allowed household servants to commit abuses against commoners. This tolerance ultimately contributed to the fall of the Dou family.

Adoption of Emperor He

Empress Dou adopted Liu Zhao as her own son and strongly advocated before Emperor Zhang that Liu Zhao be made crown prince. After Emperor He ascended the throne, he honored her as empress dowager. Although the Dou clan was later destroyed, Emperor He continued to remember her role in raising him and personally rejected officials' request to strip her of her title after her death.

The Abolition of the Salt and Iron Prohibition and the Politics of Her Regency

The measure of the empress dowager Zhangde's regency with the greatest institutional effect was the abolition, on the wu-yin day of the fourth month of 88, in the name of Emperor Zhang's testament, of the salt and iron prohibition in the commanderies and kingdoms, allowing the people to boil salt and cast iron. The decree's reasoning was that since the founding of the Eastern Han the Xiongnu had not submitted and there had therefore been campaigns; that the late emperor, wishing to stop warlike expeditions and let the people rest, had examined the old institutions and restored the state monopoly of salt and iron under Emperor Wu to provide against the unforeseen and steady the frontier; but that the officers were often bad and lost the advantage of it, contrary to the late emperor's intention, which he had greatly regretted, so that on his deathbed he left a charge abolishing the prohibition and allowing the people to boil salt and cast iron and pay tax to the government as before; and that the local officers were accordingly to be ordered to obey the decree and proclaim it through the empire. Later writers have held that to "abolish the salt and iron prohibition and let the people boil and cast" was in fact for the court to surrender the great profits of salt and iron in exchange for the acquiescence of the powerful families in the Dou regime, after which their wealth greatly increased and their political ambition with it; that the lower families long kept out now refused to submit and demanded a share in government, though office remained hard for them; and that the abolition of the monopoly is therefore a landmark of the weakening of central power and the strengthening of the great families.

As to the politics of her regency, she placed the late emperor's old servants in confidential and important posts and made her brother Dou Xian director of the government, and had the princes of the imperial house already enfeoffed return to their fiefs to prevent disorder, maintaining comparative stability in the transition after Emperor Zhang's death; on the other hand she exceptionally raised Dou Xian to general-in-chief, ranking above the three excellencies and second only to the grand tutor, so that the Dou consort kin dominated Luoyang. Abroad she leaned on Geng Bing's doctrine of using one barbarian against another, supported Dou Xian's campaign north against the Xiongnu, and restored the protectorate of the Western Regions and appointed Ban Chao to manage it, so that the Eastern Han for a time regained an expansive posture; but the arrogance and rapacity of the Dou brothers accumulated quickly in the same period and brought on the reckoning of 92. The histories call her deeply versed in politics, shrewd, capable and ambitious; in her regency the Eastern Han reached a military high point and at the same time laid up the twin dangers of the great families' growth and the consort kin's monopoly of power.

Personal Relations

• Dou Rong: Great-grandfather; Grand Minister of Works of the Eastern Han.
• Dou Mu: Grandfather; died in prison after conviction.
• Dou Xun: Father; married Princess Biyang and died in prison after conviction.
• Princess Biyang: Mother; daughter of Liu Qiang, Prince Gong of Donghai.
• Dou Xian: Elder brother; central figure in the Dou clan's domination of government, later destroyed by Emperor He.
• Dou Du and Dou Jing: Younger brothers; both destroyed by Emperor He.
• Younger sister: Entered the palace with her and was made a Noble Lady.
• Emperor Zhang of Han, Liu Da: Husband; made her empress in the third year of Jianchu.
• Emperor He of Han, Liu Zhao: Adoptive son; originally born to Noble Lady Liang, adopted by Empress Dou, and later ascended the throne.
• Noble Lady Song: Rival in the palace; falsely accused by Empress Dou of witchcraft and later took her own life.
• Noble Lady Liang: Rival in the palace; framed by Empress Dou and died in grief and anger.
• Liang Song: Father of Noble Lady Liang; framed by Empress Dou and killed.
• Zhang Pu, Liu Fang, and Zhang Fen: After Empress Dowager Dou's death, submitted a memorial requesting that her title be revoked.

Historical Assessment

Eastern Han and Contemporary Views

• The “Annals of Empresses” in the Book of the Later Han describes the empress dowager as enjoying flourishing inner-palace favor, a characterization associated with her exclusive favor and tolerance of the in-law clan.
• Grand Commandant Zhang Pu and others memorialized after her death that she “should not share the sacrifices of the supreme ruler,” requesting that her rank be removed. This reflects contemporary dissatisfaction with the Dou clan's domination.
• Emperor He referred to Empress Dowager Dou in an edict as possessing “the virtue of a mother-empress.” Although this defended her, it reflected gratitude for her role in raising him more than praise of her political record.

Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties

• Fan Ye recorded Empress Dowager Dou's life in the “Annals of Empresses” of the Book of the Later Han, describing her political domination and tolerance of the in-law clan in a manner that carries an implicit critical tone.
• Yuan Hong of the Eastern Jin recorded the power of the in-law clan and disorder at court during Empress Dowager Dou's period of rule in the Annals of the Later Han, treating it as a representative example of in-law interference in Eastern Han government.

Tang and Song Periods

• When Li Xian, Crown Prince Zhanghuai of Tang, annotated the Book of the Later Han, he commented extensively on Empress Dowager Dou's career, focusing on her relations with Emperors Zhang and He and on the historical lessons of in-law domination.
• Sima Guang of the Song recorded the full sequence of Empress Dowager Dou's rule, the Dou clan's domination, and its destruction in the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, presenting it as an important turning point in the political turmoil of the mid-Eastern Han.

Modern Views

• Lü Simian, in History of Qin and Han, analyzed the politics of the in-law clan during Empress Dowager Dou's rule and regarded the Dou clan's domination as a product of the Eastern Han system of in-law political intervention.
• Tian Yuqing and other scholars of Eastern Han political history have treated Empress Dowager Dou's rule as a key stage in the contest between imperial authority and the power of imperial in-laws, with Emperor He's destruction of the Dou clan marking a counterattack by imperial power.
• Modern scholarship has generally regarded Empress Dowager Dou as lacking major positive achievements in government and has interpreted her rule from court and tolerance of the in-law clan as factors that accelerated political corruption in the mid-Eastern Han and contributed to the dynasty's decline.