As Grand Empress Dowager
After Cao Pi died in 226, his son Cao Rui became emperor, and he honoured his grandmother as grand empress dowager. In 227, she was inadvertently insulted by her granddaughter-in-law Princess Yu—Princess Yu had been Cao Rui's wife when he was Prince of Pingyuan, but after he became emperor, he did not create her empress, but created his concubine Lady Mao as empress. She was upset, and Empress Dowager Bian tried to console her, and her response was, "the Caos have a tradition for favouring dishonourable women," forgetting that Empress Dowager Bian was formerly a courtesan. Empress Dowager Bian was greatly offended, but did not punish her further than having her sent back to Cao Rui's princely manor house.
Empress Dowager Bian died in 230, and she was buried with honors due an empress dowager, with her husband Cao Cao.
Read more about this topic: Empress Dowager Bian
Famous quotes containing the words grand and/or empress:
“It has been said that the immortality of the soul is a “grand peut-être”Mbut still it is a grand one. Everybody clings to it—the stupidest, and dullest, and wickedest of human bipeds is still persuaded that he is immortal.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“We never really are the adults we pretend to be. We wear the mask and perhaps the clothes and posture of grown-ups, but inside our skin we are never as wise or as sure or as strong as we want to convince ourselves and others we are. We may fool all the rest of the people all of the time, but we never fool our parents. They can see behind the mask of adulthood. To her mommy and daddy, the empress never has on any clothes—and knows it.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)