Empress Liu (劉皇后, personal name unknown) (died 333) 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

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 ...

/ Jie state

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 ...

. Her husband was the founder of the empire,

Shi Le Shi Le (274–17 August 333), courtesy name Shilong, formally Emperor Ming of (Later) Zhao, was the founding emperor of the Jie-led Later Zhao dynasty of China. At a young age he was sold as a slave by Jin officials, but he later helped start a ...

Life

During the time that Shi Le was a

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 ...

general and later as the ruler of his own independent state, she was described as having both bravery and wisdom, often participating in Shi Le's military decisions and helpful to him. She was therefore compared to the

Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

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

, who provided similar assistance her husband

Emperor Gao of Han Emperor Gaozu of Han (256 – 1 June 195 BC), born Liu Bang () with courtesy name Ji (季), was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty, reigning in 202–195 BC. His temple name was "Taizu" while his posthumous name was Emper ...

, but traditional historians praised Empress Liu for not being jealous as Empress Lü was. In 330, after Shi Le declared himself heavenly prince (''

Tian Wang Heavenly King or Tian Wang () is a Chinese title for various religious deities and divine leaders throughout history, as well as an alternate form of the term ''Son of Heaven'', referring to the emperor. The Chinese term for Heavenly King consist ...

''), he created her princess, and later that year, after he declared himself emperor, she was created empress. In 333, after Shi Le's death, his nephew

Shi Hu Shi Hu (; 295–349), courtesy name Jilong (季龍), formally Emperor Wu of (Later) Zhao ((後)趙武帝), was an emperor of the Jie-led Chinese Later Zhao dynasty. He was the founding emperor Shi Le's distant nephew, who took power in a coup ...

the Prince of Zhongshan quickly seized power in a coup d'état and controlled the government in the name of Shi Le's son and heir

Shi Hong Shi Hong (石弘) (313–334), courtesy name Daya (大雅), was briefly an emperor of the Jie-led Later Zhao dynasty of China after the death of his father Shi Le, Later Zhao's founder. Because after his cousin Shi Hu deposed him, he was created ...

. Empress Dowager Liu, seeing how quickly Shi Hu appeared to be intent on usurping the throne, conspired with Shi Le's adopted son Shi Kan (石堪) the Prince of Pengcheng to start a rebellion to overthrow Shi Hu. In fall 333, Shi Kan escaped outside of the capital Xiangguo (襄國, in modern

Xintai Xintai () is a county-level city in the central part of Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It is the easternmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Tai'an and is located about to the southeast of downtown Tai'an. H ...

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 ...

) and tried to seize Linqiu (廩丘, in modern

Puyang Puyang is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China. Located on the northern shore of the Yellow River, it borders Anyang in the west, Xinxiang in the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Hebei ...

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 ...

) but was unable to. He was then captured by Shi Hu's forces and burned to death. Soon, Empress Dowager Liu's involvement was discovered, and she was deposed and executed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Empress Ming 333 deaths Later Zhao empresses 4th-century Chinese women 4th-century Chinese people Executed royalty Year of birth unknown Women in ancient Chinese warfare