Background
Jia Nanfeng was a native of Xiangling District, Pingyang Commandery. She was born in 257. Jia Nanfeng was a daughter of Jia Chong and Guo Huai. Her grandfather and her father had both served the Wei dynasty in a variety of official posts.
賈南風
Jia Nanfeng was a native of Xiangling District, Pingyang Commandery. She was born in 257. Jia Nanfeng was a daughter of Jia Chong and Guo Huai. Her grandfather and her father had both served the Wei dynasty in a variety of official posts.
In 271, Jia Nanfeng's father desperately wanted to avoid an assignment to lead an army against the Xianbei rebel Tufa Shujineng, so he decided to have either Jia or her younger sister marry the developmentally disabled crown prince, Sima Zhong. The emperor initially rejected the idea, as he preferred Wei Guan's daughter as a bride for the crown prince. Eventually, Emperor Wu agreed but selected Jia Wu to marry Crown Prince Zhong. When Wu was to wear formal dress to be examined, however, she was too young and too short for the dress, so Jia Nanfeng was chosen. They married in 272, and she was created crown princess.
Consort Jia was reportedly both jealous and violent toward her female rivals in the heir’s palace. She is said to have strangled several women with her bare hands and to have thrown halberds at pregnant rivals. Hearing these gruesome reports, Emperor Wu sought to remove her from her position and imprison her in the Metal-Walled Compound, a maximum-security detention facility outside the capital of Luoyang. Several important officials rushed to her aid, however, convincing the emperor to stay. With the death of Emperor Wu in 290, Sima Zhong assumed the throne and Consort Jia Nanfeng was officially named Empress.
As empress, Jia Nanfeng set about consolidating her own power to combat Yang Jun and his daughter Yang Zhi, now Empress Dowager Yang, gathering about her members of the Jia and Guo clans, as well as various members of her husband’s family and a group of loyal civil officials. In mid-291, citing reports of a planned coup by Yang Jun, Empress Jia ordered the arrest of Yang Jun. Yang Jun refused to surrender, his residence was set ablaze, and he was killed trying to escape the inferno. Empress Jia ensured that his daughter, Empress Dowager Yang, was also implicated in the conspiracy and had her arrested. After stripping the empress dowager of her rank and titles, Empress Jia ordered that she be imprisoned in the Metal-Walled Compound and had her starved to death. Shortly afterward, the empress invited her husband’s kinsman Sima Liang to return to the capital to take up a government post, summoning Wei Guan to court under a similar pretext. Then, conspiring with Sima Wei, another imperial kinsman, she had Sima Liang and Wei Guan arrested and executed.
Empress Jia was now in control in close association with several advisors that she trusted—the capable official Zhang Hua, her cousins Pei Wei and Jia Mo, and her nephew Jia Mi. They discussed her removal from the throne and replacing her with another palace lady. Although these plans were abandoned, the fact that her closest allies debated this issue indicates that while it was acceptable for an empress to manipulate and to murder challengers to her husband’s position, any efforts to void the emperor’s wishes with regard to imperial succession could not be tolerated.
As word of Empress Jia’s efforts to manipulate the succession spread, members of the Sima clan again plotted against her and against the throne itself. Sima Lun, a half-brother to Emperor Hui, and their cousin Sima Jiong entered the capital in early 300 and presented orders to the empress demanding her arrest. Empress Jia was deposed and later forced to commit suicide by drinking "jinxiaojiu" 金屑酒 "wine with gold fragments".
Jia Nanfeng was known as a cruel and jealous woman.
Jia Nanfeng was the first wife of Emperor Hui. Jia bore her husband four daughters.
Jia Chong was an official who lived during the late Three Kingdoms period and early Jin dynasty of China.
Guo Huai was an ambitious and ruthless noblewoman who lived during the Western Jin dynasty.
Sima Zhong, also known as Emperor Hui, was the second emperor of the Jin Dynasty (265-420).
Sima Xuanhua was known as Princess Hedong.
Sima Nüyan was known as Princess Shiping.
