Yuan Qigui (袁齊媯) (405 – 8 September 440), formally Empress Yuan (元皇后, literally "the discerning empress") 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 ...

Liu Song Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. ...

dynasty. Her husband was Emperor Wen (Liu Yilong). Yuan Qigui was the daughter of the official Yuan Dan (袁湛) and his concubine, Concubine Wang, but her mother was of such low status that Yuan Dan did not let others know of Yuan Qigui's existence until she was four or five. She married Liu Yilong when he was still the Prince of Yidu, and she bore him his oldest son Liu Shao and a daughter, Liu Ying'e (劉英娥), later the Princess Dongyang. After key imperial officials concluded that his brother Emperor Shao was unfit to be emperor, they deposed and killed Emperor Shao in 424 and offered the throne to Liu Yilong. Liu Yilong accepted and took the throne as Emperor Wen. Later that year, on 26 October, he created her empress. It was around this time, either right before or right after Emperor Wen became emperor, that Empress Yuan bore him Liu Shao. According to traditional histories, when she observed her son's face, she remarked that this child would bring disaster on the house and was ready to kill her child. Emperor Wen, hearing this, rushed to her bedchambers and forced her to spare the child. (Some later historians, including

Bo Yang Bo Yang (; 7 March 1920 – 29 April 2008), sometimes also erroneously called Bai Yang, was a Chinese historian, novelist, philosopher, poet, and politician based in Taiwan. He is also regarded as a social critic. According to his own memoir, t ...

, doubted this account.) However, because he was still within the three-year mourning period for his father Emperor Wu and supposed to abstain from sexual relations, he hid Liu Shao's birth from the public and only announced it in 426. Emperor Wen initially favored Empress Yuan greatly. Because the Yuan clan was a poor one, she often requested him to give her money so that she could give them to her clan. Emperor Wen, who was known to be thrifty, refused to give her much. Later on, he began to favor Consort Pan more than her. In order to test Emperor Wen's affection for her, Empress Yuan asked Consort Pan to request an amount of money six to 10 times greater than what Emperor Wen had been giving her. Emperor Wen approved Consort Pan's request; from this point on, Empress Yuan was filled with anger.(袁氏贫薄，后每就上求钱帛以赡与之，上性节俭，所得不过三五万、三五十匹。后潘淑妃有宠，爱倾后宫，咸言所求无不得，后闻之，欲知信否，乃因潘求三十万钱与家，以观上意，信宿便得。因此恚恨甚深，称疾不复见上。) ''Song Shu'', vol.41 Whenever Emperor Wen wished to see her, she would try to hide from him, and she also refused to see her stepchildren. She grew ill in her anger, and in 440 she grew very ill. Emperor Wen went to her chambers to see her and, crying, held her hands to ask what request she had. She looked at him for a long time and then, without saying anything, covered her face with a blanket and refused to look at him again. She soon died. Emperor Wen mourned her greatly and had the talented writer Yan Yanzhi (顏延之) write a beautiful ode dedicated to her.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuan Qigui, Empress Liu Song empresses 405 births 440 deaths