Consort Dúgū, imperial consort rank Guìfēi (獨孤貴妃, personal name unknown) (died November 3, 775), formally Empress Zhēnyì (貞懿皇后, literally "the virtuous and kind empress"), was an imperial consort of the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, during the reign of Emperor Daizong (Li Chu). She was Emperor Daizong's favorite

concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

and, while she never became

empress An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

in her lifetime, she dominated inside the palace. He posthumously honored her as empress after her death in 775.

Background

It is not known when the future Consort Dugu was born, or where her family was from. Her father Dugu Ying (獨孤穎) was an officer in the imperial guard corps. She became a

of Li Chu, then the Prince of Guangping under his father Emperor Suzong, in or shortly after 757, when his then-dominant consort Consort Wei died. It was said that she was exceedingly beautiful and drew his favor to the exclusion of all other consorts, and that after her entry into the palace, the other consorts were rarely able to have sexual relations with him.

As imperial consort

After Li Chu, whose name had been changed to Li Yu by that point, became emperor in 762 (as Emperor Daizong), Consort Dugu was given the imperial consort rank of ''Guifei'' (貴妃, valuable concubine) in 768—the highest rank among imperial consorts, and ruling inside the palace gave her, but not the rank of empress, and it was said that it was for her that Emperor Daizong never made anyone else empress. The modern Chinese historian

Bo Yang Bo Yang (; 7 March 1920 – 29 April 2008), sometimes also erroneously called Bai Yang, was a Chinese historian, novelist, philosopher, poet, and politician based in Taiwan. He is also regarded as a social critic. According to his own memoir, t ...

suggested that the reason was that Emperor Daizong did not want to endanger the position of his oldest son Li Kuo, who was

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...

.) Consort Dugu bore Emperor Daizong two children—Li Jiong (李迥), who was created the Prince of Han in 762 due to the favor that Consort Dugu was enjoying while most of his other brothers were not created imperial princes until 775, and Princess Huayang, who was herself said to be favored by Emperor Daizong greatly due to her intelligence and her ability to discern his likes and dislikes. When Princess Huayang died in 774, he was so greatly saddened that he did not attend imperial meetings for several days until the chancellors asked the

eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...

Wu Chengqian (吳承倩) to persuade him to attend to government matters. It was later rumored that the important minister Liu Yan had tried to persuade Emperor Daizong to make Consort Dugu empress, but failed to convince Emperor Daizong. He honored her family greatly—posthumously honoring her father Dugu Ying, and also granting honorific offices to her uncle Dugu Zhuo (獨孤卓) and her brother Dugu Liangzuo (獨孤良佐).''Old Book of Tang''
vol. 52
.

Death

Consort Dugu died in 775. The day after her death, Emperor Daizong posthumously honored her as empress. Greatly saddened by her death, he placed her casket within the palace for years, until he finally buried her on September 19, 778, at the imperial tomb where he would eventually be buried himself. As Princess Huayang had previously been buried at a site that was considered to be too low-lying and wet, he also had Princess Huayang disinterred and reburied near Consort Dugu. He had the chancellor

Chang Gun Chang Gun (常袞) (729–783), formally the Duke of He'nei (河內公), was an official of the History of China, Chinese Tang dynasty, Tang Dynasty, serving as a chancellor of Tang Dynasty, chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Daizong of Tang, E ...

, known for his literary talent, write a lengthy text mourning her.

Media

*Consort Dugu is portrayed by

Wan Qian Wan Qian (, born 14 May 1982), also known as Regina Wan, is a Chinese actress and singer. She won Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 2014 Taiwanese film ''Paradise in Service'' and the Beijing College Student Film Festival fo ...

in the 2017 Chinese television series '' Glory of Tang Dynasty''. Her maiden name in the television series is Jingyao.

Notes and references

* ''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

''
vol. 52
* ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

''
vol. 77
* ''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...

'', vols. 224,

225 __NOTOC__ Year 225 ( CCXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Fuscus and Domitius (or, less frequently, year 978 ''Ab ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dugu, Consort 8th-century births 775 deaths Tang dynasty imperial consorts Tang dynasty posthumous empresses