Empress Mao (毛皇后, personal name unknown) (died 389) 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 ...

/ Di state

Former Qin The Former Qin, also called Fu Qin (苻秦), (351–394) was a dynastic state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in Chinese history ruled by the Di ethnicity. Founded by Fu Jian (posthumously Emperor Jingming) who originally served under the Later ...

. Her husband was

Fu Deng Fu Deng (; 343–394) was an emperor of the Di-led Chinese Former Qin dynasty. He assumed the throne in 386 after the deaths of Fu Jiān (Emperor Xuanzhao) and Fu Jiān's son Fu Pi (Emperor Aiping), even though he was only a distant relative of t ...

(Emperor Gao).

Life

She was the daughter of the general Mao Xing (毛興), who served as the governor of He Province (河州, modern southwestern

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

and eastern

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

) during the reign of

Fu Jiān Fu or FU may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Fool Us, Penn & Teller's magic-competition television show *Fǔ, a type of ancient Chinese Chinese ritual bronzes, vessel *Fu (poetry) (赋), a Chinese genre of rhymed prose *''FU: Friendship Unli ...

(Emperor Xuanzhao). After Former Qin began to disintegrate in 384 following the defeat at the

Battle of Fei River The Battle of Fei River, also known as the Battle of Feishui (), was a battle in AD 383 in China, where forces of the Di-led Former Qin dynasty was decisively defeated by the outnumbered army of the Eastern Jin dynasty. The location of the bat ...

, the generals in the western empire began to turn on each other, and in 386, Mao Xing was attacked by the generals Wang Guang (王廣) and Wang Tong (王統), who were brothers. He defeated Wang Guang, but when he was about to attack Wang Tong, his soldiers, worn out by the wars, assassinated him. After an interim command by Wei Ping (衛平), eventually, Fu Deng, a distant relative of Fu Jiān, took over the command of his forces, and was created the Prince of Nan'an by Fu Jiān's son

Fu Pi Fu Pi (; died 386), courtesy name Yongshu (永叔), formally Emperor Aiping of (Former) Qin ((前)秦哀平帝), was an emperor of the Di-led Former Qin dynasty of China. He was Fu Jiān's oldest son, although not his crown prince, and after Fu ...

(Emperor Aiping). It might have been at this time that Fu Deng married her, or the marriage might have taken place earlier. After Fu Pi was killed by Jin forces in 386, Fu Deng assumed imperial title. In 387, he created her, who at that time carried the title of Princess of Nan'an, empress. She was described to be beautiful and mighty in battle, capable in horsemanship and

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

. In 389, however, when Fu Deng was attacking the

Later Qin The Later Qin (; 384–417), also known as Yao Qin (), was a state ruled by the Qiang ethnicity of the Sixteen Kingdoms during the Jin dynasty (266–420) in China. The Later Qin is entirely distinct from the Qin dynasty, the Former Qin and the We ...

emperor

Yao Chang Yao Chang (; 331–394), courtesy name Jingmao (景茂), formally Emperor Wuzhao of (Later) Qin ((後)秦武昭帝), was the founding emperor of the Qiang-led Chinese Later Qin dynasty. His father Yao Yizhong (姚弋仲) had been a powerful gene ...

, Yao Chang made a surprise attack against his base Dajie (大界, in modern

Xianyang Xianyang () is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an. Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now integrated into the Xi'an metrop ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

), where Empress Mao had remained, and she, after making a desperate attempt to fight Yao Chang's forces off with her guards, was captured after killing 700 Later Qin soldiers. Yao Chang wanted to make her his

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 ...

, but she, in anger, cried out: :"Yao Chang, you murdered the

Son of Heaven Son of Heaven, or ''Tianzi'' (), was the sacred monarchical title of the Chinese sovereign. It originated with the Zhou dynasty and was founded on the political and spiritual doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. Since the Qin dynasty, the secula ...

(referring to Yao Chang's killing of Fu Jiān in 385), and now you want to humiliate the empress. How can heaven and earth still tolerate you?" Yao Chang therefore executed her, along with Fu Deng's sons Fu Bian (苻弁) the Prince of Nan'an and Fu Shang (苻尚) the Prince of Beihai. (It is unclear whether they were her sons.)

References

* ''

Book of Jin The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang X ...

'', vol. 115. * ''

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 ...

'', vol. 107. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mao, Empress Former Qin empresses Former Qin generals 389 deaths Year of birth unknown People from Northwest China Executed Former Qin people People executed by Later Qin 4th-century Chinese women 4th-century Chinese people Executed royalty Women in ancient Chinese warfare Women in 4th-century warfare