Liu Fang () (fl. c. early 4th century CE) was an

empress The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

of the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...

-led Han-Zhao dynasty of China. She was

Liu Yao Liu Yao (died 329), courtesy name Yongming, was the final emperor of the Xiongnu-led Han-Zhao dynasty of China. He became emperor in 318 after most other members of the imperial Liu clan were massacred by Jin Zhun in a coup. However, the empi ...

's third empress. It was likely that she was ethnically Han, because if she were Xiongnu, Liu Yao would not likely have married her due to the prohibition against

endogamy Endogamy is the cultural practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting any from outside of the group or belief structure as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relatio ...

given that they had the same family name. Liu Fang was the cousin of Liu Yao's second empress, also named Liu. When the older Empress Liu neared her death in 326, she recommended Liu Fang to Liu Yao as his next empress, praising her as beautiful and virtuous. After her death, Liu Yao married Liu Fang and created her empress. Nothing further is said about her in historical records, and it is not known whether she survived to, or survived, Han-Zhao's destruction by the

Later Zhao Zhao, briefly known officially as Wei (衛) in 350 AD, known in historiography as the Later Zhao (; 319–351) or Shi Zhao (石趙), was a dynasty of China ruled by the Shi family of Jie ethnicity during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. Among the ...

led by

Shi Le Shi Le (; 274 –17 August 333), courtesy name Shilong, also known by his posthumous name as the Emperor Ming of Later Zhao, was the founding emperor of the Jie-led Later Zhao dynasty of China. He was initially sold as a slave by Western Jin ...

in 329.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Empress Former Zhao empresses 4th-century Chinese women 4th-century Chinese people