As Empress
Remembering the lesson of Empress Bo's and Consort Li's fate, despite her honored position as empress, Empress Wang did not try to assert as much influence on her husband as her mother-in-law, Empress Dowager Dou, had asserted over her father-in-law, Emperor Wen. She bore her husband three daughters, Princess Pingyang (平陽公主), Princess Nangong (南宮公主), and Princess Longlü (隆慮公主). She and her ally Princess Liu Piao probably had a hand in Consort Li's son and former crown prince, Liu Rong, being forced to commit suicide in 148 BC on charges that he intruded into the grounds of Emperor Wen's temple while building walls to his palace.
Empress Wang had good relations with her mother-in-law, and both she and her brother Wang Xin were key in calming Emperor Jing from his anger against his brother Liu Wu (劉武), the Prince of Liang and the favored young son of Empress Dowager Dou, when Liu Wu assassinated a number of court officials in 148 BC. It was because of this that Empress Dowager Dou wanted to create Wang Xin a marquess, a move initially blocked by his prime minister Zhou Yafu (周亞夫), although Emperor Jing eventually carried out the creation anyway. She was probably pleased when Zhou committed suicide in 143 BC after being falsely accused of treason and arrested. When Emperor Jing died in 141 BC, Crown Prince Che succeeded to the throne as Emperor Wu, and Empress Wang became empress dowager.
Read more about this topic: Empress Wang Zhi
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)