Queen Bian (; personal name unknown) was an empress of the
Xianbei
The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into the ...
-led Chinese
Western Qin dynasty. Her husband was
Qifu Gangui
Qifu Gangui or Qifu Qiangui (; died 412), formally Prince Wuyuan of Qin (秦武元王), was a prince of the Xianbei-led Chinese Western Qin dynasty. He was a brother of the founding prince, Qifu Guoren (Prince Xuanlie), who became prince after Qi ...
(King Wuyuan).
Shortly after Qifu Gangui became king in 388, after the death of his brother, the founding king
Qifu Guoren
Qifu Guoren (; died 388), formally the Prince Xuanlie of Yuanchuan (苑川宣烈王), was the founding monarch of the Xianbei-led Western Qin dynasty of China.
Qifu Guoren's father Qifu Sifan (乞伏司繁) was a Xianbei tribal chief in the mode ...
(King Xuanlie), he created her empress. Qifu Guoren was not mentioned as having created an empress, but could have. At that point, she was already described of as his wife. However, nothing more is known about her, including whether she was the mother of his eventual successor, his son
Qifu Chipan
Qifu Chipan (; died 428), formally Prince Wenzhao of (Western) Qin ((西)秦文昭王), was a prince of the Xianbei-led Chinese Western Qin dynasty. During his reign, Western Qin reached its prime after he destroyed and seized the territory of th ...
(King Wenzhao). In 394, Qifu Gangui, in a political marriage, married the sister of the
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 ...
emperor
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 ...
, the
Empress Dongping, as queen, although presumably Empress Fu was deposed and Empress Bian restored after Former Qin's destruction by
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 ...
later in 394, for after Qifu Gangui lost his state but restored it in 409, he again created Empress Bian empress. (The succession table below assumes as such.)
, -
, -
Western Qin queens
4th-century Chinese women
4th-century Chinese people
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