Empress Xiao was the last Empress of the Sui Dynasty. She was the empress consort of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. She was originally a princess of the Western Liang Dynasty.[1] After Emperor Yang’s death, she spent fourteen years in exile. Empress Xiao has recently garnered some attention when archaeologists unearthed her crown in 2012.[2]
In circa 570 C.E., Empress Xiao was born in Nanlanling (modern-day Changzhou in Jiangsu Province).[3] She was a princess of the Western Liang Dynasty.[4] Her personal name remains unrecorded.[5] Her father was Emperor Ming of the Western Liang Dynasty, and her mother was Empress Zhang.[6] Because Princess Xiao was born in the second month of the lunar year, she was considered unlucky.[7] Her father banished her and gave her to her uncle, Xiao Ji (the Prince of Dongping).[8] Prince Xiao Ji died shortly afterwards.[9] Princess Xiao was then given to her impoverished maternal uncle, Zhang Ke.[10] He forced her to do all the housework.[11]
In 583 C.E., Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty and Empress Dugu Qieluo decided to look for a wife for their son, Prince Yang Guang.[12] Because they were allies with Emperor Ming, they asked if he had any suitable daughters.[13] However, none of the astrologers deemed Emperor Ming’s daughters at his imperial palace to be suitable wives for Prince Yang Guang.[14] Emperor Ming then remembered his abandoned daughter, Princess Xiao, and summoned her to his imperial palace.[15] The royal astrologers examined her and found that she was worthy to be Prince Yang Guang’s wife.[16] Princess Xiao married Prince Yang Guang.[17] She was bestowed the title of Princess of Jin.[18]
Princess Xiao was known to be “gentle, obliging, and sensible.”[19]. She loved knowledge and excelled in “literary composition.”[20] Both Emperor Wen and Empress Dugu were pleased with Princess Xiao.[21] In 600 C.E., Yang Guang was made the Crown Prince, and Xiao became the Crown Princess.[22] Crown Princess Xiao had four children. They were Prince Yang Zhao (who would later become Crown Prince Yuande), Prince Yang Jian (the Prince of Qi), an unnamed prince, Princess Nanyang, and Princess Yang (who would later become an imperial consort of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty).
On 13 August 604 C.E., Emperor Wen lay mortally ill in his bed.[23] Crown Prince Yang Guang sent a guard to murder his father so that he could finally become Emperor.[24] Yang Guang was then crowned Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. In 605 C.E., Xiao was invested as Empress. It was said that Emperor Yang “led a dissipated and extravagant life.”[25] He had many grand-scale projects, including the Grand Canal, which extended north and south throughout the entire Sui Empire.[26] He heavily taxed and levied his own people to pay for his building projects.[27]
Emperor Yang loved taking his Empress and imperial consorts on pleasure excursions throughout the country.[28] They had three pleasure excursions from the Grand Canal to Jiangdu (present-day Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province).[29] During those excursions, they had massive and luxurious ships that were several stories high and were rowed by ten thousand men who wore silk clothes.[30] They also made a trip northwest to the Turkic people’s kingdom of Tujue (located in modern-day Gansu Province).[31] It was during that trip that Empress Xiao struck up a friendship with Princess Yicheng (a Sui princess who married Khan Yami Qagkan).[32]
Empress Xiao repeatedly tried to inform Emperor Yang of his failures.[33] However, he never listened to her.[34] She eventually wrote a rhapsody to her husband titled On My Aspirations.[35] The poem expressed her worries about the growing political tensions that constantly plagued the late Sui Dynasty.[36] An excerpt from the poem went:
“When one is in a high position,
the situation is surely fraught with danger;
When the water is too full;
one has to prevent it from overflowing.”[37]
Fourteen years after Emperor Yang ascended the Sui throne, his empire was in shambles.[38] There were many peasant uprisings and rebellions.[39] Yet, Emperor Yang continued to neglect state affairs and indulged himself in his own pleasures.[40] When one of Empress Xiao’s servants told her that there were people plotting rebellion, she told her to tell the Emperor.[41] Once her servant told the Emperor, he executed her.[42] When Empress Xiao learned about her servant’s execution, she said, “The whole country has come to pass that nothing can be done. There is no need to tell the Emperor, it would only increase his worries”[43]. She then ordered everyone in the palace to remain silent and never mention the troubles occurring throughout the country.[44]
In 616 C.E., Emperor Yang left the safety of his imperial palace and took another pleasure excursion to Jiangdu with his Empress and imperial consorts.[45] When grain ran out in Jiangdu, Emperor Yang decided to move south.[46] However, his soldiers deserted him and joined Yuwen Huaji’s rebellion.[47] On 11 April 618 C.E., Emperor Yang was killed by Yuwen Huaji.[48] After Emperor Yang died, Empress Xiao ordered her servants to “wrap his body in a mat from the bed and bury him,”[49] The servants made “a small coffin for him from bed boards.”[50]
Empress Xiao’s eldest son, Crown Prince Yuande, had already died in 604 C.E. and was posthumously made Emperor Xiaocheng.[51] Empress Xiao’s third son had also died at an unknown date. Yuwen Huaji killed Empress Xiao’s son, Yang Jian (the Prince of Qi).[52] However, Yuwen Huaji spared the Prince of Qi’s son, Prince Yang Zhengdao.[53] Yuwen Huaji took the former Empress Xiao and Prince Yang Zhengdao north.[54] Shortly afterwards, Yuwen Huaji was killed by Dou Jiande.[55] Princess Yicheng asked her second husband, Khan Shibi Qagkan of Tujue, to free the former Empress Xiao from Dou Jiande.[56] The former Empress Xiao was freed.[57] She and her grandson, Prince Yang Zhengdao, were sent to Tujue.[58] Once they arrived in Tujue, they decided to move north of the Great Wall, where they lived for fourteen years.[59]
In 630 C.E., Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty defeated the Tujue. Emperor Taizong ordered the former Empress Xiao and her grandson, Prince Yang Zhengdao, to be brought back to the Tang palace in Chang’an.[60] They were treated with “respect and kindness.”[61] The former Empress Xiao spent her remaining days in peace.[62] On 17 April 648 C.E., Empress Xiao died. She was buried in Yangzhou, in modern-day Jiangsu Province, with rites befitting an empress.[63] She was given the posthumous name of Empress Min.[64] In 2012, archaeologists unearthed the crown of Empress Xiao.[65]
As the astrologers predicted at her birth, Empress Xiao’s life was filled with tragedy.[66] She held the highest position in the land and lived a life of extravagance.[67] However, her crown was suddenly snatched away from her.[68] She was smart enough to sense the political tension throughout her husband’s reign, but she was too weak to stop it.[69] She became a hostage twice and was forced to live in exile for fourteen years.[70] Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty took pity on her and gave her the respect that she deserved.[71] Empress Xiao’s story illustrates an empress who was powerless and unable to control the events in her life.[72]
Sources:
Long, L. (2015). “Xiao, Empress of Emperor Yang of Sui”. Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E. – 618 C.E.. (L. X. H. Lee, Ed.; A. D. Stefanowska, Ed.; S. Wiles, Ed.). NY: Routledge. pp. 356-358.
Miller, M. (11 September 2016). “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”. Ancient Origins: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Past. Retrieved on September 9, 2024 from https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/6th-century-crown-chinese-empress-revealed-first-time-its-full-glory-006631.
[1] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[2] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[3] Long, 2015
[4] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[5] Long, 2015
[6] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[7] Long, 2015
[8] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[9] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[10] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[11] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”; Long, 2015
[12] Long, 2015
[13] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[14] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[15] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”; Long, 2015
[16] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”; Long, 2015
[17] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”; Long, 2015
[18] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[19] Long, 2015, p. 357
[20] Long, 2015, p. 357
[21] Long, 2015
[22] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[23] Long, 2015
[24] Long, 2015
[25] Long, 2015, p. 357
[26] Long, 2015
[27] Long, 2015
[28] Long, 2015
[29] Long, 2015
[30] Long, 2015
[31] Long, 2015
[32] Long, 2015
[33] Long, 2015
[34] Long, 2015
[35] Long, 2015
[36] Long, 2015
[37] Long, 2015, p. 357
[38] Long, 2015
[39] Long, 2015
[40] Long, 2015
[41] Long, 2015
[42] Long, 2015
[43] Long, 2015, p. 357
[44] Long, 2015
[45] Long, 2015
[46] Long, 2015
[47] Long, 2015
[48] Long, 2015
[49] Long, 2015, p. 358
[50] Long, 2015, p. 358
[51] Long, 2015
[52] Long, 2015
[53] Long, 2015
[54] Long, 2015
[55] Long, 2015
[56] Long, 2015
[57] Long, 2015
[58] Long, 2015
[59] Long, 2015
[60] Long, 2015
[61] Long, 2015, p. 358
[62] Long, 2015, p. 358
[63] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[64] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[65] Miller, 11 September 2016, “6th Century Crown of Chinese Empress Revealed for the First Time in its Glory”
[66] Long, 2015
[67] Long, 2015
[68] Long, 2015
[69] Long, 2015
[70] Long, 2015
[71] Long, 2015
[72] Long, 2015
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