Huanghou Shangguan

Background

Empress Shangguan was born in 89 B.C. She was a granddaughter of Shangguan Jie, a gate guardsman of the palace guard, and a daughter of Shangguan An and Lady Huo.

Education

Shangguan was tutored in the Confucian classics. The scholar Xiahou Sheng taught her The Book of Documents.

Career

In 84 B.C., the young Shangguan became an imperial consort. In 83 B.C., she was created Empress. Empress Shangguan’s maternal grandfather, however, remained committed to his responsibility of assisting the young emperor and did not seek personal gain. This honorable stance of Huo Guang engendered considerable jealousy and antagonism on the part of Shangguan Jie and Shangguan An (the father and grandfather of Empress Shangguan) who were no longer able to abuse their position and influence the fourteen-year-old emperor.

The emperor’s older brother Liu Dan had long resented being passed over for the succession, and he joined Shangguan Jie and Shangguan An in an attempt to unseat Huo Guang. The young emperor was not deceived, however, when Shangguan Jie presented a memorial accusing Huo Guang of abusing his power and position, and he declared that anyone who dared speak ill of Huo Guang would be imprisoned and prosecuted. Later that year, the conspirators would try again. However, the conspiracy was revealed but Empress Shangguan was spared, because of her young age and her status as Huo's granddaughter.

Emperor Zhao died in 74 B.C. at the age of twenty-one, leaving Empress Shangguan, then fourteen or fifteen years old, a widow and childless. Huo Guang eventually decided to appoint as emperor Liu He, a son of the Prince of Changyi Liu Bo and a grandson of Emperor Wu and Consort Li. Within a short time, however, it became clear from his licentious and arrogant behavior that Liu He was unworthy of this honor. Huo Guang and Empress Shangguan worked out the plan and deposed Liu He.

The empress dowager was nominally in charge of state affairs until a new emperor was appointed. The search for the next emperor continued until Bing Ji, who had held the post of inspector of law enforcement during the reign of Emperor Wu, submitted a memorial to Huo Guang suggesting the nineteen-year-old great-grandson of Emperor Wu as an appropriate choice. To avoid having a mere commoner ascend the throne, Empress Shangguan first created him the Marquess of Yangwu, and on the same day, he ascended the throne as Emperor Xuan. Empress Dowager Shangguan was given the title of Grand Empress Dowager—the title she would hold the rest of her life.

After Emperor Xuan became emperor, Grand Empress Dowager Shangguan, still a teenager, faded from the public eye. She died in 37 B.C. and was buried in Pingling alongside Emperor Zhao.

Achievements

• Empress Shangguan was known in Chinese history as the earliest example of an imperial woman being required to rule on all important matters of state.

Connections

Empress Shangguan was the wife of Emperor Zhao. She had no children.

Father:

Shangguan An

Shangguan An was Marquess of Sangle.

Mother:

Lady Huo

husband:

Liu Fuling

Liu Fuling, also known as Emperor Zhao, was the emperor of the Western Han dynasty from 87 B.C. to 74 B.C.

Grandfather:

Shangguan Jie

Shangguan Jie a gate guardsman of the palace guard who rose to the influential court position of general of the left during the last days of Emperor Wu.

grandfarher:

Huo Guang

Huo Guang, courtesy name Zimeng, was a Western Han politician who was a rare example in Chinese history of a powerful official who deposed an emperor for the good of the state rather than to usurp the throne.

References

• Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China: Selections from the History of the Former Han by Pan Ku First edition by Gu Ban, Ku Pan Hardcover. Translated by Burton Watson.
  1977
• Crisis and Conflict in Han China This volume illustrates the growth of two attitudes towards government in China during the first century B.C., the one progressive, realist and forward-looking, the other conservative, idealist and harking back to the past. It demonstrates the close relationship that existed between political decisions, intellectual policy and the choice of religious observances of state, whilst showing how personal ambitions and the intrigues of the palace were intimately involved with the interplay of these two basis attitudes.
  1974
• 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