Background
Dugu Qieluo was born in 544 in Henan province. She was the seventh daughter of the Dugu Xin and Lady Cui.
獨孤伽羅
Dugu Qieluo was born in 544 in Henan province. She was the seventh daughter of the Dugu Xin and Lady Cui.
In 557, when Dugu Qieluo was 13, she was married to Yang Jian by her father. After Yang Jian's father died, Yang Jian inherited the title of Duke of Sui, and Lady Dugu thereafter presumably carried the title of Duchess of Sui. Despite her honored status, however, she was said to be humble.
Dugu Qieluo's daughter Yang Lihua was the wife and empress of Emperor Xuan. When in 580 Emperor Xuan died, his young son Yuwen Yan (Yang Jian’s grandson) became Emperor Jing. However, as counselor-in-chief, Yang Jian was in complete control of the court and the following year, with the support and consent of some ministers and his wife, he accepted the throne yielded to him by his eight-year-old grandson and renamed the dynasty Sui; history knows him by his posthumous title of Emperor Wen. Lady Dugu was named Empress.
Empress Dugu was said to be studious, and she and Emperor Wen often conferred with each other the important matters of state. Emperor Wen favored and respected her, and they became known as "the Two Holy Ones" by the officials. The Empress Dugu would often keep her husband company while he worked late into the night and would accompany him to court in the imperial carriage every day.
In 598, Empress Dugu and her younger brother Dugu Tuo, born of different mothers, were embroiled in a mysterious scandal. It was said that Dugu Tuo, whose wife was a sister of Yang Su's, had a female servant named Xu Ani who worshipped cat spirits and was capable to have those spirits kill people for her. At this time, both Empress Dugu and Yang Su's wife Lady Zheng were seriously ill, and it was suspected that they were afflicted by cat spirits. Emperor Wen suspected Dugu Tuo, and had the official Gao Jiong investigate, and Gao reported that it was indeed Dugu Tuo who instigated the matter. Emperor Wen ordered Dugu Tuo and Lady Yang to commit suicide, but Empress Dugu went on a three-day hunger strike to try to save them. His sentence was therefore reduced by one degree and his life was spared.
However, the Empress Dugu was not without faults. Traditional historians criticized her on two main grounds. One was that she was very jealous. At a time when commoner males could have three or four wives and concubines and emperors could have a harem of 3,000, the Empress Dugu held her husband to his word, demanding that he remain faithful to her alone.
Another person who began to draw Empress Dugu's ire was her son, Yang Yong the Crown Prince. When Yang Yong was young, Emperor Wen and Empress Dugu had selected for him a wife from the honored Yuan clan, Northern Wei's imperial clan - the daughter of the official Yuan Xiaoju. However, Yang Yong did not favor Crown Princess Yuan, and instead had many concubines, including his favorite Consort Yun, and he did not have any sons with Crown Princess Yuan. When Crown Princess Yuan died in 591 after a brief illness, Empress Dugu suspected Yang Yong and/or Consort Yun of poisoning her, and rebuked Yang Yong. By 599, both Emperor Wen and Empress Dugu were considering replacing Yang Yong with Yang Guang. Emperor Wen deposed Yang Yong and put him under house arrest, replacing him with Yang Guang.
In 602, at age fifty, the Empress Dugu died in the palace. After her death, Emperor Wen favored two palace women, becoming so obsessed with them that he became ill. He apparently told his attendants, when he was critically ill, that if the empress were still alive it would not have come to that. Yang Guang revealed his real character at his father’s deathbed: he raped his father’s favorite concubines when ostensibly he was going there to care for his father. There are even suggestions that he killed his father in order to gain the throne.
Dugu Qieluo was one of the most famous characters in Chinese history. She was known as powerful and influential Empress, who had a great impact on Emperor decision.
Dugu Qieluo helped her husband, Emperor Wen, to start a trend of noncorruption in Sui politics and together they contributed to the recovery of the economy.
The Empress Dugu was a modest and frugal woman who was eager to learn. She worked hard alongside her husband and supported him in governing the country well. However, in the process, she won the dubious honor of being described as an extremely jealous woman.
Dugu Qieluo was the wife of Emperor Wen. Yang Jian and Lady Dugu loved each other dearly, and it was when they were both young that he swore an oath that he would never let another woman have his children. She bore him all his 10 children.
Dugu Xin was a Xianbei military general and official during the chaotic Northern and Southern Dynasties period.
Yang Jian, also known as Emperor Wen, was the founder and first emperor of China's Sui dynasty.
Yang Lihua was an empress of the Chinese dynasty Northern Zhou, and later a princess of Sui Dynasty.
Yang Yong, also known by his posthumous title of Prince of Fangling, was a crown prince of the Chinese Sui dynasty.
Yang Guang, also known as Emperor Yang, was the second son of Emperor Wen of Sui, and the second emperor of China's Sui dynasty.
Yang Jun was an imperial prince of the Chinese dynasty Sui Dynasty.
Yang Xiu was an imperial prince of the Chinese dynasty Sui Dynasty.
Yang Liang was an imperial prince of the Chinese dynasty Sui Dynasty.
