Empress Dugu Qieluo - Early in Emperor Wen's Reign

Early in Emperor Wen's Reign

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. It was not infrequent that when he hosted imperial meetings that she would accompany him almost all the way into the meeting hall before turning back, and she often asked eunuchs to listen in on the meeting. When she believed that he made wrnog decisions, she would advise him to change. She would also usually wait near the meeting hall for the meeting to be done, and then return with him to the palace. As she lost her parents early in her life, she was particularly touched when she saw officials with both parents, and she would pay due respect to the officials' parents when she saw them. When officials suggested that, in accordance with rules set in Zhou Dynasty, that the officials' marriages must be approved by the empress, she declined, believing that it was inappropriate for her to overly interfere in political matters. She also lived frugally, and once, when Emperor Wen needed a medicine for diarrhea that required ground pepper—then an exceedingly expensive spice that was more expensive than gold and which ladies of the court used for cosmetic purposes—he sought the ground pepper from her and found that she did not use it, on account of its overly expensive cost. Also once, when he wanted to reward the wife of his official Liu Song (劉嵩) with a gold-decorated dress, she also had none to give. When her cousin Cui Changren (崔長仁) committed crimes that called for the death penalty, Emperor Wen was initially considering pardoning Cui on her account, but she stated that she could not, based on familial relations, break the laws, and Cui was executed. She respected the official Gao Jiong, as Gao Jiong's father Gao Bin (高賓) served on her father's staff and was a trusted advisor for him. She had, however, a poor relationship with her sister-in-law, the wife of Emperor Wen's brother Yang Zan (楊瓚) the Prince of Teng—Northern Zhou's Princess Shunyang (daughter of Yuwen Tai, the father of the first three Northern Zhou emperors) – and Princess Shunyang used witchcraft to curse her. When Emperor Wen ordered Yang Zan to divorce Princess Shunyang, Yang Zan refused, and when Yang Zan died in 591, it was commonly believed that Emperor Wen poisoned Yang Zan.