Empress Xie Fanjing (謝梵境) was an empress of the Chinese dynasty Liu Song. Her husband was the last emperor of the dynasty Emperor Shun.
Xie Fanjing came from a noble family—her father Xie Yang (謝颺) was a mid-low level official in the imperial administration, but her grandfather Xie Zhuang (謝莊) was a highly-ranked, albeit not particularly powerful, official in the administrations of Emperor Xiaowu and Emperor Ming, and was a descendant of Xie Wan (謝萬), the younger brother of the famed Jin prime minister Xie An. (Xie Zhuang's father Xie Hongwei (謝弘微) was adopted into Xie An's line, and so could also be considered a descendant of Xie An.) She married Emperor Shun as his empress in 478, when he was 11 and effectively a puppet emperor under the general Xiao Daocheng; her age at that time was not known. Emperor Shun was forced to yield the throne to Xiao in 479, ending Liu Song and starting Southern Qi. As Xiao created Emperor Shun the Prince of Ruyin, she carried the title of Princess of Ruyin. Later that year, Emperor Shun was killed by soldiers who were supposed to protect him, and Xiao followed by ordering the execution of the Liu clan. It appears probable that she survived the slaughter, as the slaughter targeted male members of the clan, although it is not known conclusively. It is also not known when she died, and there was no record of a posthumous name given to her. This resulted in her children's execution.
| Chinese royalty | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Empress Jiang Jiangui |
Empress of Liu Song 478–479 |
Dynasty ended |
| Empress of China (Southern) 478–479 |
Succeeded by Empress He Jingying of Southern Qi |
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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)