Yan Zhang

Background

Zhang Yan was born in 210 B.C., but there is no information about the place of her birth. She was the daughter of Princess Yuan of Lu and her husband Zhang Ao.

Career

In 192 B.C., at the insistence of then-Empress Dowager Lu, Zhang Yan married her uncle Emperor Hui and became an Empress. Although the traditional rites did not forbid marriage between a man and his maternal niece, this was indeed verging on incest. However, nobody dared raise this objection to Empress Dowager Lu.

The histories give no insight into this imperial marriage that lasted only three years. As Lady Yan didn't produce a son Empress Dowager Lu ordered Empress Zhang to adopt a boy and to kill the boy’s mother. Zhang Yan did so and when Emperor Hui died, the infant heir apparent, Liu Hong (Emperor Qianshao), ascended the throne and Empress Dowager Lü remained de facto ruler, taking complete charge of affairs of state.

Empress Zhang continued to live in the imperial palace but remained aloof from court politics. When Emperor Qianshao found out in 184 B.C. that he was not actually her child, he made a careless comment that he would take vengeance on her. Empress Dowager Lu had him deposed and executed and replaced him with his brother Liu Hong, who was also adopted by Empress Zhang.

After Empress Dowager Lu died in 180 B.C., and the Lu clan overthrown and slaughtered by the officials opposed to the Lüs in the Lu Clan Disturbance, Emperor Houshao was deposed and killed. Empress Zhang was not killed, but she was put under house arrest in a palace to the north after being deposed from her position as empress and henceforth referred to as Empress Hui. After this, no records exist of her later life until her death. Empress Zhang died in 163 B.C. and was buried with her husband.

Achievements

• Zhang Yan was notoriously known as a cruel empress who killed a lot of women in order to stay at the position of an Empress and please her mother-in-law.

Connections

Zhang Yan was a wife of Emperor Hui, who was her uncle. She had no children, but she took several male children as her own and killed their mothers.

Father:

Zhang Ao

Zhang Ao was one of the feudal lords after the end of the Qin dynasty in 206 B.C.

Mother:

Princess Yuan

Princess Yuan, also known as Princess Luyuan, was a princess of the Han Dynasty.

husband:

Liu Ying

Liu Ying, also known as Emperor Hui, was the second emperor of the Han Dynasty in China.

Brother:

Zhang Yan

Zhang Yan was a Prince Yuan of Lu and Marquis of Nangong.

Brother:

Zhang Shou

Zhang Shou was a Marquis of Lechang.

adopted son:

Liu Gong

Liu Gong, also known as Emperor Qianshao, was the third emperor of the Han Dynasty in China.

adopted son:

Liu Qiang

Liu Qiang was a Prince Huai of Huaiyang.

adopted son:

Liu Buyi

Liu Buyi was a Prince Ai of Hengshan.

adopted son:

Liu Hong

Liu Hong, also known as Emperor Houshao, was the fourth emperor of the Han Dynasty in China.

adopted son:

Liu Zhao

Liu Zhao was a Prince of Hengshan.

adopted son:

Liu Wu

Liu Wu was a Prince of Huaiyang.

adopted son:

Liu Tai

Liu Tai was a Prince of Liang.

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