Empress Fu (符皇后; given name unknown) ( 931 – 29 August 956), posthumously Empress Xuanyi (宣懿皇后) was an empress consort of

imperial China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...

's short-lived

Later Zhou Zhou, known as the Later Zhou (; ) in historiography, was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty and the last of the Five Dynasties that controlled most of northern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Founded by Guo Wei (E ...

during the

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...

. She was invested the empress in 954 when her husband Guo Rong (Chai Rong) became the second Later Zhou

emperor 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), ...

. Three years after her death, Guo Rong married her younger sister when he fell critically ill. Originally the wife of Li Chongxun (李崇訓), she was widowed in 949 following a narrow escape from death. After Chai was also widowed in 950, they married through the arrangement of Chai's adoptive father and Later Zhou's founding emperor

Guo Wei Guo Wei () (10 September 904 – 22 February 954According to Guo Wei's biography in "Old Histories of the Five Dynasties", he died between 9am and 11 am on the ''renchen'' day of the 1st month of the 1st year of the ''Xiande'' era of his reign ...

First marriage to Li Chongxun

When Lady Fu was a teenager, her father

Fu Yanqing Fu Yanqing () (898'' History of Song'', vol. 251.-July 31, 975'' Xu Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 8.Academia Sinicabr>Chinese-Western Calendar Converter), né Li Yanqing (), courtesy name Guanhou (), formally the Prince of Wei (), nicknamed Fu Disi ( ...

was a

military governor A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

for the

Later Han Later Han (後漢) may refer to two dynastic states in imperial China: *Eastern Han (25–220), the second period of the Han dynasty, also called Later Han * Later Han (947–951), a dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period See al ...

. He arranged for her to marry fellow military governor

Li Shouzhen Li Shouzhen (; died August 17, 949''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 288. Academia Sinicabr>Chinese-Western Calendar Converter) was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period states Later Jin ...

's son Li Chongxun (李崇訓). In 948, Li Shouzhen and Li Chongxun rebelled against the Later Han government, and another military governor,

, was tasked to suppress the mutiny. After months of battles, in 949 Li Shouzhen was defeated and committed suicide. Following suit, Li Chongxun first killed his siblings, but as he prepared to kill his wife, she hid under the curtains of her bedroom. Unable to find her in a hurry, Li Chongxun killed himself. When Guo Wei's soldiers stormed into the house, they saw a young girl (Lady Fu was only 18) calmly sitting in the reception hall. She declared, "The gentleman Guo Wei is an old acquaintance of my father's. Your sort would be wise not to violate me!" It proved to be effective as no Later Han soldier dared to approach her. Later, Guo personally assured her that he would not harm her and would return her to her family safely. The young girl was so grateful that from then on she regarded the senior commander as her godfather.

Second marriage to Chai Rong

In 951, Guo Wei and his nephew-in-law Chai Rong were station at Weizhou (魏州; today's

Linzhang County Linzhang County () is a county of far southern Hebei province, China, named after the Zhang River within its borders. It is under the administration of Handan City, and, , it had a population of 590,000 residing in an area of . Administrative div ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

) when the Later Han emperor

Liu Chengyou Liu Chengyou () (28 March 931Academia Sinicabr>Chinese-Western Calendar Converter – 2 January 951), also known by his posthumous name Emperor Yin (), was the second and last emperor of imperial China's short-lived Later Han dynasty, during t ...

killed their entire families left behind in the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

Bianzhou (汴州; today's

Kaifeng Kaifeng () is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, China. It is one of the Eight Ancient Capitals of China, having been the capital eight times in history, and is best known for having been the Chinese capital during the Nort ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

). Guo led his troops to attack the capital, and after the death of Liu Chengyou, declared himself the emperor of the new

. Having lost his wife and children to the senseless killing, Chai Rong was looking for another mate. He had been quite impressed by Lady Fu's story, presumably having also met her due to their close associations with Guo Wei. Lady Fu was also looking for a second marriage. Her mother had advised her to shave her head and become a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

following her miraculous escape from death, but she refused, stating, "Why should I deform my own body and hair?" At the arrangement of Guo, she married Chai, 10 years her senior.

Notes and references

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fu, Empress Later Zhou empresses 930s births 956 deaths Year of birth uncertain