Furen Ding

Background

Ding Furen was born in 160, but nothing is known about the place of her birth and her parents.

Career

It is not known when or where Cao Cao took Ding Furen as his principal wife. Lady Ding raised two of Cao Cao’s children after the death of their mother, Lady Liu, who was one of Cao Cao’s secondary consorts. These children - Cao Ang, also known as Zixiu, and his sister Princess Qinghe - were as dear to Lady Ding as if she had borne them herself, and when Zixiu was killed in battle she was inconsolable and accused Cao Cao of heartlessness.

Unable to tolerate this behavior, Cao Cao sent her back to her family in the hope that time would heal her grief. When he visited her later, he found her kneeling at her loom, refusing to acknowledge him. He asked her to turn back at him but she would not face him or speak. Standing by the door he asked one last time if she would go with him but again she would not reply, so he broke with her and told her family to marry her to someone else. The story goes that they did not dare marry her off, but she must have been in her forties by this time and it would have been difficult to find a suitable match after her years as the principal wife of the powerful Cao Cao.

During her time as a principal wife, Lady Ding had not respected Cao Cao’s second wife Lady Bian or her children. However, after Lady Bian was given the title Queen in 219, she courted Lady Ding, sending her presents appropriate to the season, meeting with her privately, greeting her in person when she arrived, ceding the seat of honor to her, and seeing her off when she departed. Moved by this courtesy to a “cast-off,” as she termed herself, Lady Ding apologized to Lady Bian for her previous behavior. Then, when Lady Ding died, Lady Bian asked Cao Cao to hold a funeral for her. It is said that during his last illness Cao Cao expressed regret for having cast Lady Ding aside.

Achievements

• Ding Furen was known in Chinese history as a brave woman, who didn't afraid to accuse her husband of his son's death though she lost her status as a consort because of that.

Personality

Ding Furen was known as kind but stubborn woman.

Connections

Ding Furen was the wife and consort of Cao Cao. She had no children.

husband:

Cao Cao

Cao Cao was a Chinese warlord and the penultimate Chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty who rose to great power in the final years of the dynasty.

References

• Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E. - 618 C.E This new volume of the "Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women" spans more than 2,000 years from antiquity to the early seventh century. It recovers the stories of more than 200 women, nearly all of them unknown in the West.
  1998
• The Cambridge History of China This volume begins the historical coverage of The Cambridge History of China with the establishment of the Ch'in empire in 221 BC and ends with the abdication of the last Han emperor in AD 220.
  1986
• Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States With Pei Songzhi's Commentary By Chen Shou. Translated by Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell.
  1999
• A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
  1898