Empress Dowager Zhang (張太后, personal name unknown) (died 426) was an

empress dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother) () is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultural sphere. The title was also g ...

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 ...

dynasty

Liu Song Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. ...

. She was the mother of Emperor Shao (Liu Yifu) and a

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 ...

of Emperor Wu (Liu Yu). In 406, she gave birth to Liu Yifu, the oldest son of Liu Yu, who was then already a paramount general of Jin. She later also gave birth to a daughter, Liu Huiyuan (劉惠媛, the later Princess Yixing). In 420, after Liu Yu seized the throne from

Emperor Gong of Jin Emperor Gong of Jin (; 386 – October or November 421), personal name Sima Dewen (), was the last emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (266–420) in China. He became emperor in 419 after his developmentally disabled brother Emperor An was killed ...

and established Liu Song as its emperor, he created her an imperial consort, but not an empress, as she was not his wife. He created her son Liu Yifu as

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 Emperor Wu died in 422, Liu Yifu succeeded him as Emperor Shao, and Emperor Shao honored her as empress dowager on 30 August 423.''guiyou'' day of the 7th month of the 1st year of the ''Jingping'' era, per Emperor Shao's biography in ''Book of Song'' In 424, Emperor Shao was deposed by officials that Emperor Wu had left in charge of the government, who believed that he was unfit to be emperor, and soon they killed him. They made his capable younger brother Liu Yilong, by a different mother, emperor (as Emperor Wen) instead. Initially, Empress Dowager Zhang returned her empress dowager seal and moved to

Wu Commandery Wu Commandery was a commandery of imperial China. It covers parts of the contemporary Northern Zhejiang and Southern Jiangsu. The capital of Wu commandery was Wu (today's Suzhou). Major counties of Wu commandery include Wu (county), Yuhang county, ...

(around present-day

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

), where her son was exiled and killed. After Emperor Wen arrived in

Jiankang Jiankang (), or Jianye (), as it was originally called, was capital city of the Eastern Wu (229–265 and 266–280 CE), the Jin dynasty (317–420 CE) and the Southern Dynasties (420–552), including the Chen dynasty (557–589 CE). Its walls ...

and assumed the throne, he honored her as Princess Dowager of Yingyang (as Emperor Shao carried the title Prince of Yingyang between his removal and his death). She died in 426, after having seen her son's killers largely killed by Emperor Wen earlier that year.

References

* ''

Book of Song The ''Book of Song'' (''Sòng Shū'') is a historical text of the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties of China. It covers history from 420 to 479, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories, a traditional collection of historical records. I ...

'', vol. 41. * ''

History of the Southern Dynasties The ''History of the Southern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. It contain 80 volumes and covers the period from 420 to 589, the histories of Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang dyn ...

'', vol. 11. * ''

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. 119, 120. Liu Song empresses dowager 4th-century births 426 deaths {{China-royal-stub