Empress Dong (董皇后, personal name unknown) was the only

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), ...

of the short-lived

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 ...

state Ran Wei. Her husband was its only emperor,

Ran Min Ran Min (; died 352), also known as Shi Min (石閔), posthumously honored by the Former Yan as Heavenly King Wudao of (Ran) Wei ((冉)魏武悼天王), courtesy name Yongzeng (永曾), nickname Jinu (棘奴), was a military leader during the er ...

. When he proclaimed the new state in 350 after overthrowing the

Later Zhao The Later Zhao (; 319–351) was a dynasty of the Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China. It was founded by the Shi family of the Jie ethnicity. The Jie were most likely a Yeniseian people and spoke next to Chinese one of the Yeniseian languages.Vov ...

emperor

Shi Jian Shi Jian (石鑒) (died 350) was briefly (for 103 days) an emperor of the Jie-led Later Zhao dynasty of China. He was the third of four short-lived Later Zhao emperors after the death of his father Shi Hu (Emperor Wu). He is sometimes referred t ...

and declared himself emperor, he created her empress and created her oldest son

Ran Zhi Ran Zhi (; died ) was the crown prince of the short-lived Chinese state Ran Wei. His father was the state's only emperor, Ran Min. Ran Zhi, as Ran Min's oldest son, was created crown prince when he proclaimed the new state in 350 after overthro ...

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 ...

. After he was captured and executed by

Former Yan The Former Yan (; 337–370) was a dynastic state ruled by the Xianbei during the era of Sixteen Kingdoms in China. Initially, Murong Huang and his son Murong Jun claimed the Jin dynasty-created title "Prince of Yan," but subsequently, in 352, ...

's prince

Murong Jun Murong Jun (; 319–360), courtesy name Xuanying (宣英), formally Emperor Jingzhao of (Former) Yan ((前)燕景昭帝), was an emperor of the Former Yan. He was the dynasty's second ruler, but after first using the Jin dynasty-created title o ...

in 352, Former Yan forces quickly arrived at the Ran Wei capital Yecheng. Empress Dong, Ran Zhi, and high-level officials led by the commander of armed forces Jiang Gan (蔣幹) tried to hold out and enlist Jin assistance (by sending Jin the imperial seals that had previously been Jin's, but had passed through the hands of

Han Zhao The Han Zhao (; 304–329 AD), or Former Zhao (), was a dynastic state of China ruled by the Xiongnu people during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of Chinese history. In Chinese historiography, it was given two conditional state titles, the Northern ...

and Later Zhao emperors), but even with (limited) assistance Jin provided, could not hold out. The city fell in late 352, and Empress Dong and Ran Zhi surrendered. Publicly claiming (falsely) that Empress Dong had surrendered the imperial seals, Murong Jun created her the Lady Fengxi (奉璽君, literally "the lady who offered the imperial seals") and Ran Zhi the Marquess of Haibin. No further record of them were mentioned (although officials named Ran in the later

Northern Wei Dynasty Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern dynasties, it ruled northern China from 386 to 535 during t ...

claimed descent from Ran Min, presumably through Ran Zhi), and it is not known when Empress Dong died.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dong, Empress (Ran Min) Ran Wei Sixteen Kingdoms empresses 4th-century Chinese women 4th-century Chinese people