As Empress
Empress Liu was said to be beautiful, tall, and humble. Cognizant that Emperor Xuan had married Lady Qian as his wife prior to marrying her, but that Lady Qian had been subordinated to the lesser imperial consort title of Guifei (貴妃), she humbled herself when in Consort Qian's presence, often offering the better items to Consort Qian and taking the lesser items for herself.
In spring 582, Emperor Xuan became ill. Crown Prince Shubao, as well as his brothers Chen Shuling (陳叔陵) the Prince of Shixing and Chen Shujian (陳叔堅) the Prince of Changsha attended to Emperor Xuan. Chen Shuling, who wanted the throne for himself, secretly had a dull knife designed to cut medications sharpened. When Emperor Xuan died, Crown Prince Shubao, while mourning his father, placed himself over the casket. Chen Shuling stabbed him in the neck with the knife, and he fell to the ground. When Empress Liu saw this, she intervened, but she was also stabbed several times by Chen Shuling, who was however then hit by the lady in waiting Lady Wu and was unable to kill Chen Shubao. Subsequently, Chen Shuling fled out of the palace and staged a military coup, along with his cousin Chen Bogu (陳伯固) the Prince of Xin'an (Emperor Wen's son). Because Chen Shubao had been seriously wounded, Empress Liu, while also herself injured, took control of the situation, and the imperial troops were able to defeat Chen Shuling's and Chen Bogu's. Both were killed. Chen Shuling's sons were also killed, while Chen Bogu's sons were demoted to commoner status.
Read more about this topic: Empress Liu Jingyan
Famous quotes containing the word empress:
“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)
“The Empress is Legitimist, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte III (1808–1873)