Empress Murong (慕容皇后, personal name unknown), formally Empress Daowu (道武皇后), 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 Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. Her husband was the founding emperor Emperor Daowu (Tuoba Gui). She was the youngest daughter of the Later Yan emperor

Murong Bao Murong Bao (; 355–398), courtesy name Daoyou (道佑), Xianbei name Kugou (庫勾), formally Emperor Huimin of (Later) Yan ((後)燕惠愍帝), temple name Liezong (烈宗) or Liezu (烈祖), was an emperor of the Xianbei-led Chinese Later Yan ...

(Emperor Huimin). When Northern Wei launched a major attack against Later Yan in 396, causing Murong Bao to abandon the capital Zhongshan (中山, in modern Baoding,

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 ...

) in 397, she was unable to follow her father in flight, and when Zhongshan fell to Northern Wei later that year, she was captured by Tuoba Gui and made one of his consorts. In 400, after he had declared imperial title, he considered whom to create empress. He had favored Consort Liu, the daughter 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 20 ...

chief Liu Toujuan (劉頭眷) the most, and she also bore his oldest son Tuoba Si. However, the Tuoba Tribe's traditions dictated that when the ruler were to consider whom to make his wife, he was to make the candidates try to forge golden statues by hand, as a way of discerning divine favor. Consort Liu was unable to forge a golden statue, while Consort Murong was able to, and so was created empress. Her mother Lady Meng, also captured by Northern Wei, was created the Lady of Piaoyang. Nothing more is known about Empress Murong. She was implied to be still alive in 402, when Later Qin's emperor Yao Xing rejected Emperor Daowu's overture to marry one of his daughters, because Yao Xing's refusal was based on his information that Emperor Daowu already had Empress Murong as empress.

References

* ''

Book of Wei The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to 5 ...

'', vol. 13. * '' History of the Northern Dynasties'', vol. 13. * ''

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. 111,

112 112 may refer to: *112 (number), the natural number following 111 and preceding 113 *112 (band), an American R&B quartet from Atlanta, Georgia **112 (album), ''112'' (album), album from the band of the same name *112 (emergency telephone number), t ...

. , - style="text-align: center;" , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Murong, Empress Northern Wei empresses Later Yan people 4th-century births 5th-century deaths