Lady Cui (崔夫人), personal name might be Cui Lianshi (崔練師), was the wife of

Wang Yanhan Wang Yanhan ( zh, 王延翰) (died January 14, 927), courtesy name Ziyi (), was a ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Min. He ruled briefly after the death of his father Wang Shenzhi (Prince Zhongyi) without a regal ...

, a ruler 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 ...

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 ...

state

Min Min or MIN may refer to: Places * Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China ** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian * Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China * Min River (Fujian) * Min River (Sichuan) * Mineola (Am ...

. She was said to be cruel, and was suspected of having poisoned Wang Yanhan's father and predecessor

Wang Shenzhi Wang Shenzhi (; 862 – December 30, 925), courtesy name Xintong () or Xiangqing (), formally Prince Zhongyi of Min () and later further posthumously honored as Emperor Taizu of Min (), was the founder of Min Kingdom on the southeast coastal pro ...

(Prince Zhongyi).

Known life

Lady Cui was said to be of the prominent Cui clan of Boling.''

Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms The ''Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms'', also known by its Chinese title ''Shiguo Chunqiu'' (), is a history of the Ten Kingdoms that existed in southern China after the fall of the Tang Dynasty and before the reunification of China ...

'' (十國春秋)
vol. 94
It is not known when she married Wang Yanhan, but it was before Wang Shenzhi's death (upon which Wang Yanhan took control of the Min realm), for she was suspected to have poisoned Wang Shenzhi while being Wang Yanhan's wife.''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song (960–1127), Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959&n ...

'', vol. 275. She was said to be ugly, licentious, and jealous. However, she was also said to be a devout

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

who took, as her teacher in Buddhist doctrines, the monk Huileng (慧稜). (It was from her correspondence with Huileng, in which she referred to herself as "Lianshi," that one might believe that her name was Lianshi, although the historical accounts did not otherwise state a definitive name for her.) While Wang Yanhan was ruling — but it was not completely clear whether this referred before or after his claiming the title of King of Min — he gathered many beautiful women to fill his palace. Lady Cui reacted by taking the most beautiful among the women and imprisoning them, binding them with chains and crafting wooden hands to slap them with. She also often bound her servant girls with ropes, and then whipping them until the ropes would be blood-stained. She also was known for piercing people's faces or arms with iron picks, such that within a single year, 34 people died from her torture. It was said that because of her cruelty, her dreams became haunted by images of her victims, such that she died in distress. (An alternative version of her death had it that she was struck by lightning.) It thus appeared that she predeceased Wang Yanhan, for he was killed by his adoptive brother

Wang Yanbing Wang Yanbing () (died 931), né Zhou Yanchen (), formally Prince Weisu of Wuping (), was an adoptive son of Wang Shenzhi (commonly considered the founding ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Min). After Wang Shenzhi's ...

, who captured him after a rebellion and then publicly declared that he and Lady Cui were in concert in poisoning Wang Shenzhi. (The succession table below assumes that she survived past Wang Yanhan's declaration of himself as King of Min, but that she died before his death; perhaps due to the shortness of his reign, he was not recorded to have given her (whether while alive or posthumously) a title as queen.)

Notes and references

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cui, Lady Min Kingdom Buddhists 920s deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain