Empress Feng (Wencheng) - Between Regencies

Between Regencies

While Empress Dowager Feng was no longer regent, she appeared to remain fairly influential during the reign of her stepson Emperor Xianwen. However, in 470, an event occurred that would damage their relationship. Empress Dowager Feng had taken the official Li Yi (李奕) as her lover. In 470, the official Li Xin (李訢), who was a close friend of Li Yi's brother Li Fu (李敷), was accused of corruption, and Emperor Xianwen became aware of the accusations even though Li Fu tried to suppress the reports. He had known about his stepmother's relationship with Li Yi and, while he had not taken any actions against it at that point, disapproved of it. He sentenced Li Xin to death, but then informed Li Xin that if he could report on crimes that Li Fu and Li Yi had committed, he would be spared. After initial reluctance, Li Xin did so, and another man named Fan Biao (范標) also did so. Emperor Xianwen then executed Li Fu and Li Xin. Empress Dowager Feng became resentful of Emperor Xianwen after that point.

In 471, Emperor Xianwen yielded imperial title to his four-year-old son Tuoba Hong (who took the throne as Emperor Xiaowen), and he himself took the title of Taishang Huang (retired emperor). However, he continued to have actual power in the imperial government. In 476, still resentful of Emperor Xianwen, Empress Dowager Feng killed him. (Most historians, including Sima Guang, believed that she poisoned him, but another version indicated that Empress Dowager Feng readied assassins who, when Emperor Xianwen came to her palace to greet her, seized and smothered him.) Empress Dowager Feng took on the title of grand empress dowager and re-assumed regency, over the nine-year-old Emperor Xiaowen.