Empress Dowager Zhang (張太后, personal name unknown) (died 426) was an empress dowager of the Chinese dynasty

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. ...

. She was the mother of Emperor Shao (Liu Yifu) and a

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 ...

of Emperor Wu (Liu Yu). In 406, she gave birth to Liu Yifu, the oldest son of Liu Yu, who was then already a paramount general of Jin. She later also gave birth to a daughter, Liu Huiyuan (劉惠媛, the later Princess Yixing). In 420, after Liu Yu seized the throne from Emperor Gong of Jin and established Liu Song as its emperor, he created her an imperial consort, but not an empress, as she was not his wife. He created her son Liu Yifu as

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wi ...

. After Emperor Wu died in 422, Liu Yifu succeeded him as Emperor Shao, and Emperor Shao honored her as empress dowager on 30 August 423.''guiyou'' day of the 7th month of the 1st year of the ''Jingping'' era, per Emperor Shao's biography in ''Book of Song'' In 424, Emperor Shao was deposed by officials that Emperor Wu had left in charge of the government, who believed that he was unfit to be emperor, and soon they killed him. They made his capable younger brother Liu Yilong, by a different mother, emperor (as Emperor Wen) instead. Initially, Empress Dowager Zhang returned her empress dowager seal and moved to Wu Commandery (around present-day Suzhou,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

), where her son was exiled and killed. After Emperor Wen arrived in Jiankang and assumed the throne, he honored her as Princess Dowager of Yingyang (as Emperor Shao carried the title Prince of Yingyang between his removal and his death). She died in 426, after having seen her son's killers largely killed by Emperor Wen earlier that year.

References

* '' Book of Song'', vol. 41. * ''

History of the Southern Dynasties The ''History of the Southern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. It contain 80 volumes and covers the period from 420 to 589, the histories of Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang dy ...

'', vol. 11. * ''

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 ...

'', vols.

119 119 may refer to: * 119 (number), a natural number * 119 (emergency telephone number) * AD 119, a year in the 2nd century AD * 119 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 119 (album), 2012 * 119 (NCT song) *119 (Show Me the Money song) * 119 (film), a ...

120 120 may refer to: *120 (number), the number * AD 120, a year in the 2nd century AD *120 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *120 film, a film format for still photography * ''120'' (film), a 2008 film * 120 (MBTA bus) * 120 (New Jersey bus) * 120 (Ken ...

. Liu Song empresses dowager 4th-century births 426 deaths {{China-royal-stub