Liu Fang () was an

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

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...

-led Han Zhao dynasty of China. She was

Liu Yao Liu Yao (died 329), courtesy name Yongming, was the final emperor of the Xiongnu-led Han Zhao dynasty of China. He became emperor in 318 after most other members of the imperial Liu clan were massacred by Jin Zhun in a coup. However, the empir ...

's third empress. It was likely that she was ethnically Han, because if she were Xiongnu, Liu Yao would not likely have married her due to the prohibition against endogamy given that they had the same family name. Liu Fang was the cousin of Liu Yao's second empress, also named Liu. When the older Empress Liu neared her death in 326, she recommended Liu Fang to Liu Yao as his next empress, praising her as beautiful and virtuous. After her death, Liu Yao married Liu Fang and created her empress. Nothing further is said about her in historical records, and it is not known whether she survived to, or survived, Han Zhao's destruction by 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 ...

in 329.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Empress Former Zhao empresses 4th-century Chinese women 4th-century Chinese people