Empress Dugu Qieluo (獨孤伽羅) (544 – September 10, 602), formally Empress Wenxian (文獻皇后), was an empress of the Chinese dynasty Sui Dynasty. She was the wife of Emperor Wen, who, on account of his love and respect for her, as well as an oath they made while they were young, did not have any concubines for at least most of their marriage and might not have had any concubines while she was alive, an extreme rarity among Chinese emperors. She was powerful and influential during her husband's reign, and she was heavily involved in his decision to divert the order of succession from their oldest son Yang Yong to the second son Yang Guang (later Emperor Yang), often blamed by traditional historians to be the reason for Sui's downfall.
Read more about Empress Dugu Qieluo: Background, Early in Emperor Wen's Reign, Late in Emperor Wen's Reign, Family
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)