Empress Yang Xianrong - As Empress of Han Zhao

As Empress of Han Zhao

Little is known about Yang Xianrong's life with Liu Yao, other than that she was favored by him and bore him three sons — Liu Xī, Liu Xí (劉襲, note different tone), and Liu Chan (劉闡). (It was not clear whether she was his wife or concubine by this point — Liu Yao had an earlier wife, Princess Bu, who was described as having died and having been princess when her son Liu Yin was created the Prince of Yong'an in 323.) Liu Yao, as the trusted cousin of the Han Zhao emperor Liu Cong, had many military responsibilities and was in charge of the Chang'an region after he captured it and Emperor Huai's successor Emperor Min in 316. In 318, after the Han Zhao prime minister Jin Zhun massacred the Han Zhao imperial family and nobles in the capital Pingyang (平陽, in modern Linfen, Shanxi) after a coup, the officials who fled from the massacre offered the throne to Liu Yao, who accepted. After his and Shi Le's forces defeated Jin's, he moved the capital to Chang'an. In 319, he created Yang Xianrong his empress and her son Liu Xī crown prince. Once, Liu Yao asked her: "How do I compare to the Sima man?" Her response was:

How can there be a comparison? Your Imperial Majesty is an empire-building intelligent ruler, while he was an idiot who destroyed his empire. He only had one wife and one son and could protect neither. He was an honored emperor, but he allowed his wife and son to be dishonored at the hands of commoners. At that time, all I wanted was death, and I did not know that I would have today. I was born from a noble family, but I thought that all men were like he. Only after I married you have I found out what a true man is like.

Liu Yao greatly favored her, and she was involved in governmental matters. She died in 322. Her son Liu Xī would continue to be crown prince, but both Liu Yao and Liu Xī were killed by Shi Le's Later Zhao forces after Han Zhao fell to Later Zhao in 329.