Recommended listening: Chinese Ancient Music Vol. 3: Dance Music of Imperial Palace
Story
Three different women, three different paths to the title of empress. Deep in the heart of the Forbidden City, in the inner palace of Emperor Zhenzong, lived the three women pictured here. There was Lady Li, a preteen maid from a minor military family; Lady Liu, the emperor's favourite concubine who rose from poverty and prostitution to a powerful empress regent; and Lady Yang, a teenager who looked up to Liu like her own mother. Their lives were deeply intertwined, and the relationships between them would change the history of the Song Dynasty forever.
Lady Liu began her life in obscurity. Orphaned as a child, she first came to the attention of history when she gained a reputation as an excellent hand drum player and singer. The official histories of the Song Dynasty later attempted to give her a more respectable origin story, but she was probably a prostitute. A silversmith named Gong Mei was her owner or procurer, so when he was low on money, he came upon the idea of selling her to the palace. Other accounts say that Prince Zhao Yuanxiu, the future Emperor Zhenzong, had heard that Gong Mei knew beautiful women from Sichuan and wanted to see one for himself. Either way, in the year 983, Liu was brought to the capital of Kaifeng and introduced to the prince. The two were both teenagers, just a year apart in age, and the prince fell madly in love with her. Her beauty and musical skills are said to have instantly enchanted him.
Not everyone in the prince's household was pleased with his new paramour. His wet nurse was a woman who still held great sway in the palace. When Emperor Taizong asked why his son had become so thin and listless, the prince's wet nurse was quick to blame Lady Liu. Chinese medicine taught that too much sex would drain a man of his energy. Aside from this, the wet nurse was displeased that the prince was giving so much attention to a woman from such a lowly background. After all, entertainers were considered to be of such a debased social status that it was legally impossible for them to marry respectable commoners, let alone the Son of Heaven. Taizong accepted the wet nurse's judgement and ordered Liu to be expelled from the palace.
But the prince had other plans. He secretly paid an official to build an extra wing in his house to keep Liu. And for fourteen years, that is where she stayed. It wasn't until 997 that Taizong died and the prince ascended to the throne as Emperor Zhenzong. Only then was Liu welcome back into the palace. Zhenzong had an official empress, Empress Guo, but Liu was his true love. When Guo died in 1007, Zhenzong wanted to immediately install Liu as empress, but his advisors offered great resistance. Proper empresses were from prominent families in good standing with the empire, not orphans who'd worked as musicians and prostitutes. "Because she had risen from poor and lowly origins," they said, "she could not be mother of the world." But in 1012, he finally got his wish, and Liu was made his official imperial wife.
Meanwhile, other women had been entering the palace. There were two main ways that women came to live in the inner palace. Some were married to the emperor specifically as his concubines, while others were recruited to work in palace service. The inner palace was staffed almost entirely by women - the Song government had a deep distrust of eunuchs, so their power was kept to an absolute minimum. Palace women workers were ranked in a system of six bureaus parallel to the six boards of civil service staffed by male officials in the outer palace. These were the Bureau of General Affairs; the Bureau of Rites and Etiquette; the Bureau of Clothing; the Bureau of Food and Wine; the Bureau of Apartments; and the Bureau of Work. The hundreds, sometimes thousands, of women who worked in these bureaus kept the inner palace running. They took care of everything from cleaning the rooms to sorting the imperial concubines' mail. Girls usually entered palace service around the age of 12 or 13. In addition to any training needed for the job, they received an education that ensured they were literate and well-versed in important Chinese classics considered necessary for a respectable woman. If the emperor did not choose them as his concubines, they were eventually retired with a generous pension and often married into well-to-do families.
Lady Li was one such girl who entered palace service around the year 1000. The granddaughter of a minor military official, she served in the Bureau of Apartments with about three dozen other women and girls. The staff of this bureau had a wide range of duties. They were in charge of the inner palace's chariots, gardens, lanterns, lamps, furniture, parks, gardens, and cleaning. In the gardens, they oversaw the growing of fruits and vegetables as well as general landscaping and upkeep. By the time Lady Li entered service, Lady Liu had made her triumphant return to the palace. Li quickly became one of her favourite maids. At some point during her career, Li even became Director of Apartments, running the entire bureau.
Li was not the only girl in the palace who caught Liu's eye. Another one was Consort Yang. Her father and grandfather were both military officials, so she came from a similar background to Li. Yang entered the palace one year before Zhenzong became emperor, at the age of 13. When Liu met her, Yang was the same age Liu had been when she had first entered the palace. Liu took an immediate liking to Yang and soon took the teenager under her wing. Every time Zhenzong promoted Liu to a higher rank of consort, she convinced him to promote Yang at the same time. The concubines were ranked just like the palace women and court officials. When Zhenzong promoted Liu, he promoted Yang to one rank below her. By the time Liu was made empress in 1012, Yang was second only to her. Liu's high esteem of Yang would be a recurring theme throughout her career in the palace.
As much as Zhenzong was enamoured with Liu, there was one thing she couldn't provide him: an heir. In the decades since they'd first fallen in love, Liu had given birth to no children. He had no surviving children from Empress Guo either, and so he turned to the wider pool of palace women available to him to seek an heir. It was Lady Li who finally gave birth to Zhenzong's son when she was 23 years old, ten years after this illustration is set. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Prince Zhouyi, the future Emperor Renzong. At this time, Liu had not yet been made Zhenzong's official empress, but as One of Cultivated Countenance, she held a much higher rank than Lady Li. Because of this, there was nothing Li could do when Zhenzong's favourite concubine came to her and demanded her son be handed over to be raised by Liu instead. Liu's crucial ally in this bold political move? Consort Yang. Liu's temper was feared throughout the palace, so everyone was too afraid to go against her wishes. And so Liu adopted Prince Shouyi, pushing Li into a life in the shadows of the palace, unable to claim her own son. Yang, for her part, was said by later historians to be very wise in her decision to support Liu. Rather than getting in the way of the tempestuous Liu by pursuing her own ambitions, she secured her own position at court by remaining loyal to the woman who was said to love her dearly.
As the prince grew up, no one dared tell him that Li was his birth mother. Instead, Liu and Yang raised the boy together with no input from Li. Liu was the harsher of the two, always enforcing discipline when necessary, although she was known to show Shouyi great tenderness at times. The official histories wrote of her that "whenever the Crown Prince sighed, the empress personally nursed him, abruptly dismissing all attendants and making her inquiries of him". Still, it was Yang that he preferred. She would indulge him behind Liu's back. Once the prince was sick with phlegm and Liu forbade him eating any shellfish. Taking pity on the boy, Yang smuggled him shrimp and crabs to eat in secret. Yang became his near-constant companion. But Shouyi came to resent his mother Liu's meddling in his private life once he became a young man. He was deeply in love with a palace woman called Zhang and wanted to marry her. But Liu insisted on choosing him a wife from the Guo clan, the same clan Zhenzong's late empress had come from. Shouyi never accepted Guo as his wife, and it was only Liu's favour at court that gave her any protection - indeed, after Liu died, he had Guo promptly expelled.
Liu was involved in far more than the political machinations of motherhood, however. Around the year 1020, Emperor Zhenzong fell very ill. When he became too weak to rule the government on his own, he turned to Liu to run it for him. Although she came from a poor background, she had studied voraciously since coming to his harem, no doubt taking advantage of the education system offered to girls training for palace service. Consequently, by the time Zhenzong became ill, she was well-versed in politics and history as well as being considered a capable manager of the inner palace's affairs. She became the main point of contact for government ministers and issued decisions in Zhenzong's name. Although this was Zhenzong's will, his male ministers were not happy that Liu was being given so much power. They resented her for being a woman and for being low-born. They also were unhappy at how she gave positions to her "family". Once Liu had entered the palace as an imperial consort, she adopted her former patron Gong Mei as her brother. He changed his surname to Liu, and she began bestowing official honours on members of his family. In previous dynasties, aspiring empresses had built up power bases of their own kin to help them overcome the objections of male court officials. Since Liu had no family of her own, she had to make one.
Zhenzong died in 1022. His son was only twelve years old, too young to handle the throne. While Shouyi was installed as Emperor Renzong, Zhenzong's final testament decreed that Liu would be elevated to Empress Dowager and rule in his stead. Yang was also mentioned in the emperor's will, being promoted to a new position of Supreme Consort which Liu is thought to have created just for her. Upon the emperor's death, Liu had a private chapel built for herself. She commissioned an artist to create a portrait of her and Zhenzong making offerings to Maitreya, the future Buddha. Every morning when she woke up, she lit incense and prayed before the icon. Then she got to work running the Northern Song Dynasty as Empress Zhangxian Mingsu. It was agreed that she would not take on the imperial pronoun zhen and that she would sit behind a curtain next to her son's throne. Nevertheless, she was adamant that she would be present for all royal audiences, and she made all political and military decisions on her son's behalf.
Many of the male court officials were not happy that Liu was running the government. In fact, a coup attempt had even been staged shortly before the emperor's death. But Liu had built many alliances in the palace, including with the men of her adopted family and the court women. Renzong adored Yang, so Yang's support was also crucial to ensuring Liu's ability to rule without being turned into a puppet by government ministers. She was the first female regent the Song Dynasty had ever seen. Government officials were always uneasy about the rule of women, but especially so after the example of Tang Dynasty empress Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian was the only woman in China's history to take the title of emperor and rule in her own right. She was roundly condemned for this and had become a spectre warning against female power by the time of the Song. An ancient adage said, "Hens should not announce the dawn", and this was doubly reinforced after Wu Zetian's example. Liu is known to have been curious about Wu Zetian's legacy, once asking a minister what kind of woman she had been. His negative assessment of Wu Zetian as a traitor was also a warning to Liu not to overstep the boundaries of her role as empress dowager, the role which Wu Zetian had held before usurping power for herself. It's said that Liu was once presented with a painting of Wu Zetian, which she threw angrily to the floor.
Given her own undistinguished background and the shadow of Wu Zetian, Liu had to work harder than most regents to maintain her power. One of the ways she did this was by strictly enforcing rules of propriety and etiquette, especially as they concerned rank. She forbade anyone except the emperor's own concubines to wear green jade earrings and hairpins. She refused to let the imperial family eat from wooden plates. She snubbed women who had married into the imperial family in favour of Zhenzong's blood relatives. This was on the one hand hypocritical - Liu herself had come from a lowlier background than all of Zhenzong's in-laws. But in the context of her precarious political situation, it made perfect sense: She had to prove to the government ministers that she was not going to open the floodgates to let more commoners into the palace. Once she came through that door, she needed them to know that it was firmly closed behind her.
Her rule itself was mostly uneventful, which was a sign of her success. She presided over a period of relative peace and stability for the Song. Officials wrote of her tenure as empress dowager that she was "alert and perceptive" and that "although governance issued from the women's quarters, still her words of command were strict and clear, and her grace and majesty reached the world." But in 1033, in the final year of her reign, her most controversial decision occurred. In normal times, the emperor presided over sacrifices to his ancestors at the Imperial Ancestral Temple. As empress dowager, however, it was Liu and not Renzong who would be performing the important ceremony. She spent months seeking the advice of ritual specialists about what would be appropriate for her to do. While some advised her that she should wear the robes of an empress, others said that the ritual had to be done by someone wearing the robes of an emperor. These men argued that it would be insulting to approach the ancestors in the mere robes of an empress, so she must dress as a man. Liu therefore decided to wear the imperial robe and crown.
The male officials at court were deeply disturbed at this development. One asked her provocatively, "On the day of Your Majesty's great visit to the Imperial Temple, will you be acting as a son or a daughter?" The queen did not answer. When the day for the ceremony finally came, she first appeared in the ceremonial robes of a queen. But when it came time to make the sacrifices to the ancestors, she changed into the imperial robes of an emperor. In all of China's history, she is the only woman other than Wu Zetian to do so. Historians ever since have been arguing about whether she intended to claim power solely for herself after that as Wu Zetian had done. But even if she did, this was never realized. Only a few months after the ancestral sacrifice, Liu fell ill and died.
But even in death, Liu still had a few surprises up her sleeve. To the shock of everyone at court, she declared in her final testament that the 23-year-old Renzong was still not fit to rule on his own. Instead she named as her heir none other than Consort Yang. Yang, she said, should be promoted to Empress Dowager and continue the regency in her place. Renzong was outraged. As much as he loved Consort Yang, he was fully grown now and was tired of Liu trying to shape his future. His fury only grew when it was finally revealed to him that Liu had not given birth to him. Consort Li had died only a year before, after living out her days quietly out of the way in the palace. In a flurry of grief and rage, Renzong flew to her tomb and had it opened. To his surprise, he found that Li had been buried in the robes of an empress. It later came out that while Liu had wanted to give her a much less distinguished burial, her advisors had convinced her it would be better for her in the long run if she gave Li honour in death.
Although seeing the honour Liu had paid to Li slightly mollified him, Renzong still fired many of Liu's allies at court. He posthumously elevated Consort Li to the rank of Empress Dowager Zhangyi and built a palace in her memory. Whispers that Liu had ordered Li to be murdered circulated at court, but Renzong refused to believe them. As much as he resented Liu and the complicated legacy she'd left him, he said that burying Li in an empress's robes proved she couldn't have murdered her. As for Consort Yang, he promoted her to an imperial rank too as Empress Dowager Baoquin. While she therefore received the rank Liu had wished for her in her will, Renzong refused to share power with her. Yang seems to have accepted this without issue. She made no attempts to interfere in the government of his kingdom, although she did still hold some sway over the young emperor. After three of his sons died young, Yang was instrumental in persuading him to adopt an heir. He followed her advice, and this was her last recorded act in history before she died in 1036.
Why did Liu name Yang as her successor in her will? Mustn't she have known that Renzong and the men of court would refuse to accept another woman ruler? They said the kingdom could not tolerate being "mothered" again so soon after a long regency - why didn't she anticipate this? Some scholars have speculated that she was imitating Wu Zetian, who had hoped her daughter would succeed her in the new dynasty she'd founded, the Zhou Dynasty. This explanation does seem more likely than the accusation that as a woman whose power base was rooted in the inner palace, Liu had a naïve misunderstanding of gender and power relations. It's hard to imagine that someone who ruled as deftly as Liu did would be so ignorant. Her nomination of Yang as successor is also a testament to the deep trust between the women. In a world so different than the one she'd grown up in, Liu counted on allies like Yang to secure her position. Because of the strong bond between these two women, Yang was the only woman in Song Dynasty history to advance to the rank of empress through the patronage of another woman.
The illustration here is set in the year 1000. The rivalry between Li and Liu is far in the future: For now, Li is just one of her favourite palace maids. Li holds a container of makeup for Liu containing purple powder made from coloured silk threads. Liu revived a style that had been popular among some palace women in the Tang Dynasty. The makeup created the impression of a gauze veil and emphasized the intensity of the eyes. This signature style would later be used in her own imperial portrait. As imperial concubines, she and Yang both wear jade earrings. They also wear silver phoenix hairpins. Yang's overly long sleeves indicate her youth. Li is dressed in the ringlets and robe of a maid like the one seen fanning the fire in this 11th century painting of palace women by Emperor Huizong. Butterflies, symbols of men in Chinese paintings, flutter around them. Li is slightly distracted by the butterfly flying near her face, while Yang ignores hers, focusing her attention on Liu instead. An incense burner in the shape of intertwined mandarin ducks represents an ancient symbol for marital bliss on the table in front of them.
In Song Dynasty paintings of women in gardens, male artists loved to depict women staring into mirrors while pining for their lovers. Surrounded by the signs of autumn that indicate their fading beauty, these fictional women were left to languish in the inner palace without a man to pay them attention. The mirror in these paintings was an opportunity for women to scrutinize their face for flaws that might have driven their man away while also revealing their deep, inner feelings for him. Younger women typically ignore them as they gaze into their own isolated reflections. But in this illustration, Liu is surrounded by attentive younger women in a garden full of spring blooms. Contrary to Song stereotypes about a woman in her 30s, Liu was just entering into her prime. She was finally reunited with the emperor who had loved her since she was a teenager. With her newfound position of influence in the palace, she took it upon herself to take younger women like Li and Yang as her mentees. While she looks confidently into the mirror, her true feelings are hidden to us, a reversal of the usual trope of illustrated Song women baring their souls to male voyeurs. History leaves us only the smallest clues to her thoughts: Enough to paint a picture of a clever and strong-willed woman who ruled over China, but not enough to give us a full picture of her inner world.
Lady Liu began her life in obscurity. Orphaned as a child, she first came to the attention of history when she gained a reputation as an excellent hand drum player and singer. The official histories of the Song Dynasty later attempted to give her a more respectable origin story, but she was probably a prostitute. A silversmith named Gong Mei was her owner or procurer, so when he was low on money, he came upon the idea of selling her to the palace. Other accounts say that Prince Zhao Yuanxiu, the future Emperor Zhenzong, had heard that Gong Mei knew beautiful women from Sichuan and wanted to see one for himself. Either way, in the year 983, Liu was brought to the capital of Kaifeng and introduced to the prince. The two were both teenagers, just a year apart in age, and the prince fell madly in love with her. Her beauty and musical skills are said to have instantly enchanted him.
Not everyone in the prince's household was pleased with his new paramour. His wet nurse was a woman who still held great sway in the palace. When Emperor Taizong asked why his son had become so thin and listless, the prince's wet nurse was quick to blame Lady Liu. Chinese medicine taught that too much sex would drain a man of his energy. Aside from this, the wet nurse was displeased that the prince was giving so much attention to a woman from such a lowly background. After all, entertainers were considered to be of such a debased social status that it was legally impossible for them to marry respectable commoners, let alone the Son of Heaven. Taizong accepted the wet nurse's judgement and ordered Liu to be expelled from the palace.
But the prince had other plans. He secretly paid an official to build an extra wing in his house to keep Liu. And for fourteen years, that is where she stayed. It wasn't until 997 that Taizong died and the prince ascended to the throne as Emperor Zhenzong. Only then was Liu welcome back into the palace. Zhenzong had an official empress, Empress Guo, but Liu was his true love. When Guo died in 1007, Zhenzong wanted to immediately install Liu as empress, but his advisors offered great resistance. Proper empresses were from prominent families in good standing with the empire, not orphans who'd worked as musicians and prostitutes. "Because she had risen from poor and lowly origins," they said, "she could not be mother of the world." But in 1012, he finally got his wish, and Liu was made his official imperial wife.
Meanwhile, other women had been entering the palace. There were two main ways that women came to live in the inner palace. Some were married to the emperor specifically as his concubines, while others were recruited to work in palace service. The inner palace was staffed almost entirely by women - the Song government had a deep distrust of eunuchs, so their power was kept to an absolute minimum. Palace women workers were ranked in a system of six bureaus parallel to the six boards of civil service staffed by male officials in the outer palace. These were the Bureau of General Affairs; the Bureau of Rites and Etiquette; the Bureau of Clothing; the Bureau of Food and Wine; the Bureau of Apartments; and the Bureau of Work. The hundreds, sometimes thousands, of women who worked in these bureaus kept the inner palace running. They took care of everything from cleaning the rooms to sorting the imperial concubines' mail. Girls usually entered palace service around the age of 12 or 13. In addition to any training needed for the job, they received an education that ensured they were literate and well-versed in important Chinese classics considered necessary for a respectable woman. If the emperor did not choose them as his concubines, they were eventually retired with a generous pension and often married into well-to-do families.
Lady Li was one such girl who entered palace service around the year 1000. The granddaughter of a minor military official, she served in the Bureau of Apartments with about three dozen other women and girls. The staff of this bureau had a wide range of duties. They were in charge of the inner palace's chariots, gardens, lanterns, lamps, furniture, parks, gardens, and cleaning. In the gardens, they oversaw the growing of fruits and vegetables as well as general landscaping and upkeep. By the time Lady Li entered service, Lady Liu had made her triumphant return to the palace. Li quickly became one of her favourite maids. At some point during her career, Li even became Director of Apartments, running the entire bureau.
Li was not the only girl in the palace who caught Liu's eye. Another one was Consort Yang. Her father and grandfather were both military officials, so she came from a similar background to Li. Yang entered the palace one year before Zhenzong became emperor, at the age of 13. When Liu met her, Yang was the same age Liu had been when she had first entered the palace. Liu took an immediate liking to Yang and soon took the teenager under her wing. Every time Zhenzong promoted Liu to a higher rank of consort, she convinced him to promote Yang at the same time. The concubines were ranked just like the palace women and court officials. When Zhenzong promoted Liu, he promoted Yang to one rank below her. By the time Liu was made empress in 1012, Yang was second only to her. Liu's high esteem of Yang would be a recurring theme throughout her career in the palace.
As much as Zhenzong was enamoured with Liu, there was one thing she couldn't provide him: an heir. In the decades since they'd first fallen in love, Liu had given birth to no children. He had no surviving children from Empress Guo either, and so he turned to the wider pool of palace women available to him to seek an heir. It was Lady Li who finally gave birth to Zhenzong's son when she was 23 years old, ten years after this illustration is set. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Prince Zhouyi, the future Emperor Renzong. At this time, Liu had not yet been made Zhenzong's official empress, but as One of Cultivated Countenance, she held a much higher rank than Lady Li. Because of this, there was nothing Li could do when Zhenzong's favourite concubine came to her and demanded her son be handed over to be raised by Liu instead. Liu's crucial ally in this bold political move? Consort Yang. Liu's temper was feared throughout the palace, so everyone was too afraid to go against her wishes. And so Liu adopted Prince Shouyi, pushing Li into a life in the shadows of the palace, unable to claim her own son. Yang, for her part, was said by later historians to be very wise in her decision to support Liu. Rather than getting in the way of the tempestuous Liu by pursuing her own ambitions, she secured her own position at court by remaining loyal to the woman who was said to love her dearly.
As the prince grew up, no one dared tell him that Li was his birth mother. Instead, Liu and Yang raised the boy together with no input from Li. Liu was the harsher of the two, always enforcing discipline when necessary, although she was known to show Shouyi great tenderness at times. The official histories wrote of her that "whenever the Crown Prince sighed, the empress personally nursed him, abruptly dismissing all attendants and making her inquiries of him". Still, it was Yang that he preferred. She would indulge him behind Liu's back. Once the prince was sick with phlegm and Liu forbade him eating any shellfish. Taking pity on the boy, Yang smuggled him shrimp and crabs to eat in secret. Yang became his near-constant companion. But Shouyi came to resent his mother Liu's meddling in his private life once he became a young man. He was deeply in love with a palace woman called Zhang and wanted to marry her. But Liu insisted on choosing him a wife from the Guo clan, the same clan Zhenzong's late empress had come from. Shouyi never accepted Guo as his wife, and it was only Liu's favour at court that gave her any protection - indeed, after Liu died, he had Guo promptly expelled.
Liu was involved in far more than the political machinations of motherhood, however. Around the year 1020, Emperor Zhenzong fell very ill. When he became too weak to rule the government on his own, he turned to Liu to run it for him. Although she came from a poor background, she had studied voraciously since coming to his harem, no doubt taking advantage of the education system offered to girls training for palace service. Consequently, by the time Zhenzong became ill, she was well-versed in politics and history as well as being considered a capable manager of the inner palace's affairs. She became the main point of contact for government ministers and issued decisions in Zhenzong's name. Although this was Zhenzong's will, his male ministers were not happy that Liu was being given so much power. They resented her for being a woman and for being low-born. They also were unhappy at how she gave positions to her "family". Once Liu had entered the palace as an imperial consort, she adopted her former patron Gong Mei as her brother. He changed his surname to Liu, and she began bestowing official honours on members of his family. In previous dynasties, aspiring empresses had built up power bases of their own kin to help them overcome the objections of male court officials. Since Liu had no family of her own, she had to make one.
Zhenzong died in 1022. His son was only twelve years old, too young to handle the throne. While Shouyi was installed as Emperor Renzong, Zhenzong's final testament decreed that Liu would be elevated to Empress Dowager and rule in his stead. Yang was also mentioned in the emperor's will, being promoted to a new position of Supreme Consort which Liu is thought to have created just for her. Upon the emperor's death, Liu had a private chapel built for herself. She commissioned an artist to create a portrait of her and Zhenzong making offerings to Maitreya, the future Buddha. Every morning when she woke up, she lit incense and prayed before the icon. Then she got to work running the Northern Song Dynasty as Empress Zhangxian Mingsu. It was agreed that she would not take on the imperial pronoun zhen and that she would sit behind a curtain next to her son's throne. Nevertheless, she was adamant that she would be present for all royal audiences, and she made all political and military decisions on her son's behalf.
Many of the male court officials were not happy that Liu was running the government. In fact, a coup attempt had even been staged shortly before the emperor's death. But Liu had built many alliances in the palace, including with the men of her adopted family and the court women. Renzong adored Yang, so Yang's support was also crucial to ensuring Liu's ability to rule without being turned into a puppet by government ministers. She was the first female regent the Song Dynasty had ever seen. Government officials were always uneasy about the rule of women, but especially so after the example of Tang Dynasty empress Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian was the only woman in China's history to take the title of emperor and rule in her own right. She was roundly condemned for this and had become a spectre warning against female power by the time of the Song. An ancient adage said, "Hens should not announce the dawn", and this was doubly reinforced after Wu Zetian's example. Liu is known to have been curious about Wu Zetian's legacy, once asking a minister what kind of woman she had been. His negative assessment of Wu Zetian as a traitor was also a warning to Liu not to overstep the boundaries of her role as empress dowager, the role which Wu Zetian had held before usurping power for herself. It's said that Liu was once presented with a painting of Wu Zetian, which she threw angrily to the floor.
Given her own undistinguished background and the shadow of Wu Zetian, Liu had to work harder than most regents to maintain her power. One of the ways she did this was by strictly enforcing rules of propriety and etiquette, especially as they concerned rank. She forbade anyone except the emperor's own concubines to wear green jade earrings and hairpins. She refused to let the imperial family eat from wooden plates. She snubbed women who had married into the imperial family in favour of Zhenzong's blood relatives. This was on the one hand hypocritical - Liu herself had come from a lowlier background than all of Zhenzong's in-laws. But in the context of her precarious political situation, it made perfect sense: She had to prove to the government ministers that she was not going to open the floodgates to let more commoners into the palace. Once she came through that door, she needed them to know that it was firmly closed behind her.
Her rule itself was mostly uneventful, which was a sign of her success. She presided over a period of relative peace and stability for the Song. Officials wrote of her tenure as empress dowager that she was "alert and perceptive" and that "although governance issued from the women's quarters, still her words of command were strict and clear, and her grace and majesty reached the world." But in 1033, in the final year of her reign, her most controversial decision occurred. In normal times, the emperor presided over sacrifices to his ancestors at the Imperial Ancestral Temple. As empress dowager, however, it was Liu and not Renzong who would be performing the important ceremony. She spent months seeking the advice of ritual specialists about what would be appropriate for her to do. While some advised her that she should wear the robes of an empress, others said that the ritual had to be done by someone wearing the robes of an emperor. These men argued that it would be insulting to approach the ancestors in the mere robes of an empress, so she must dress as a man. Liu therefore decided to wear the imperial robe and crown.
The male officials at court were deeply disturbed at this development. One asked her provocatively, "On the day of Your Majesty's great visit to the Imperial Temple, will you be acting as a son or a daughter?" The queen did not answer. When the day for the ceremony finally came, she first appeared in the ceremonial robes of a queen. But when it came time to make the sacrifices to the ancestors, she changed into the imperial robes of an emperor. In all of China's history, she is the only woman other than Wu Zetian to do so. Historians ever since have been arguing about whether she intended to claim power solely for herself after that as Wu Zetian had done. But even if she did, this was never realized. Only a few months after the ancestral sacrifice, Liu fell ill and died.
But even in death, Liu still had a few surprises up her sleeve. To the shock of everyone at court, she declared in her final testament that the 23-year-old Renzong was still not fit to rule on his own. Instead she named as her heir none other than Consort Yang. Yang, she said, should be promoted to Empress Dowager and continue the regency in her place. Renzong was outraged. As much as he loved Consort Yang, he was fully grown now and was tired of Liu trying to shape his future. His fury only grew when it was finally revealed to him that Liu had not given birth to him. Consort Li had died only a year before, after living out her days quietly out of the way in the palace. In a flurry of grief and rage, Renzong flew to her tomb and had it opened. To his surprise, he found that Li had been buried in the robes of an empress. It later came out that while Liu had wanted to give her a much less distinguished burial, her advisors had convinced her it would be better for her in the long run if she gave Li honour in death.
Although seeing the honour Liu had paid to Li slightly mollified him, Renzong still fired many of Liu's allies at court. He posthumously elevated Consort Li to the rank of Empress Dowager Zhangyi and built a palace in her memory. Whispers that Liu had ordered Li to be murdered circulated at court, but Renzong refused to believe them. As much as he resented Liu and the complicated legacy she'd left him, he said that burying Li in an empress's robes proved she couldn't have murdered her. As for Consort Yang, he promoted her to an imperial rank too as Empress Dowager Baoquin. While she therefore received the rank Liu had wished for her in her will, Renzong refused to share power with her. Yang seems to have accepted this without issue. She made no attempts to interfere in the government of his kingdom, although she did still hold some sway over the young emperor. After three of his sons died young, Yang was instrumental in persuading him to adopt an heir. He followed her advice, and this was her last recorded act in history before she died in 1036.
Why did Liu name Yang as her successor in her will? Mustn't she have known that Renzong and the men of court would refuse to accept another woman ruler? They said the kingdom could not tolerate being "mothered" again so soon after a long regency - why didn't she anticipate this? Some scholars have speculated that she was imitating Wu Zetian, who had hoped her daughter would succeed her in the new dynasty she'd founded, the Zhou Dynasty. This explanation does seem more likely than the accusation that as a woman whose power base was rooted in the inner palace, Liu had a naïve misunderstanding of gender and power relations. It's hard to imagine that someone who ruled as deftly as Liu did would be so ignorant. Her nomination of Yang as successor is also a testament to the deep trust between the women. In a world so different than the one she'd grown up in, Liu counted on allies like Yang to secure her position. Because of the strong bond between these two women, Yang was the only woman in Song Dynasty history to advance to the rank of empress through the patronage of another woman.
The illustration here is set in the year 1000. The rivalry between Li and Liu is far in the future: For now, Li is just one of her favourite palace maids. Li holds a container of makeup for Liu containing purple powder made from coloured silk threads. Liu revived a style that had been popular among some palace women in the Tang Dynasty. The makeup created the impression of a gauze veil and emphasized the intensity of the eyes. This signature style would later be used in her own imperial portrait. As imperial concubines, she and Yang both wear jade earrings. They also wear silver phoenix hairpins. Yang's overly long sleeves indicate her youth. Li is dressed in the ringlets and robe of a maid like the one seen fanning the fire in this 11th century painting of palace women by Emperor Huizong. Butterflies, symbols of men in Chinese paintings, flutter around them. Li is slightly distracted by the butterfly flying near her face, while Yang ignores hers, focusing her attention on Liu instead. An incense burner in the shape of intertwined mandarin ducks represents an ancient symbol for marital bliss on the table in front of them.
In Song Dynasty paintings of women in gardens, male artists loved to depict women staring into mirrors while pining for their lovers. Surrounded by the signs of autumn that indicate their fading beauty, these fictional women were left to languish in the inner palace without a man to pay them attention. The mirror in these paintings was an opportunity for women to scrutinize their face for flaws that might have driven their man away while also revealing their deep, inner feelings for him. Younger women typically ignore them as they gaze into their own isolated reflections. But in this illustration, Liu is surrounded by attentive younger women in a garden full of spring blooms. Contrary to Song stereotypes about a woman in her 30s, Liu was just entering into her prime. She was finally reunited with the emperor who had loved her since she was a teenager. With her newfound position of influence in the palace, she took it upon herself to take younger women like Li and Yang as her mentees. While she looks confidently into the mirror, her true feelings are hidden to us, a reversal of the usual trope of illustrated Song women baring their souls to male voyeurs. History leaves us only the smallest clues to her thoughts: Enough to paint a picture of a clever and strong-willed woman who ruled over China, but not enough to give us a full picture of her inner world.
Artist's Comments
Wow, I have been working on this one FOREVER! I did so much research and then it took so long to actually draw it. But Empress Liu is so cool, I have been so excited to finally tell her story. And I loved learning about the women in her life like Consort Yang and Lady Li. It's amazing that right after the Liao Empire was ruled by a powerful dowager empress, China was next. And in 1000, Korea was even ruled by a dowager empress too, something I hope to illustrate in the future.
I used several paintings as models for this one. There's the aforementioned painting by Emperor Huizong, Court Ladies Pounding Newly Woven Silk. Another very useful model was Gu Hongzhong's Night Revels of Han Xizai. What a load of stories are contained in that painting! The women in that one are prostitute entertainers like Liu was before she came to the palace. Lady at her dressing table in a garden, Embroidered Cage, Morning Mirror, and Lady watching a maid with a parrot were very helpful too. And in Palace Banquet you can see what the inner palace looked like in the Northern Song period. Special thanks to my sister Ellie for her help in the final stage of this drawing. Happy New Year! ~ January 5, 2022
I used several paintings as models for this one. There's the aforementioned painting by Emperor Huizong, Court Ladies Pounding Newly Woven Silk. Another very useful model was Gu Hongzhong's Night Revels of Han Xizai. What a load of stories are contained in that painting! The women in that one are prostitute entertainers like Liu was before she came to the palace. Lady at her dressing table in a garden, Embroidered Cage, Morning Mirror, and Lady watching a maid with a parrot were very helpful too. And in Palace Banquet you can see what the inner palace looked like in the Northern Song period. Special thanks to my sister Ellie for her help in the final stage of this drawing. Happy New Year! ~ January 5, 2022
Resources
Want to learn more about Empress Liu, Consort Yang, Lady Li, and other Song Dynasty palace women? Here are some recommended resources.
"The Rise and Regency of Empress Liu (969-1033)" by John Chaffee
This is the best overview of Liu's life available in English. Chaffee goes through her various origin stories and then looks at how she established precedents as regent that other Song empresses would later follow.
Palace Women in the Northern Sung, 960-1126 by Priscilla Ching Chung
Chung's monograph is THE definitive book on Northern Song palace women! Chung explains the ranking systems, recruitment methods, and opportunities for advancement of women who worked in the palace. This ranged from maids like Li to high-ranking official concubines like Liu and Yang. Discussions of each woman are included in the text.
"Empress Liu's "Icon of Maitreya": Portraiture and Privacy at the Early Song Court" by Heping Liu
This article provides an in-depth analysis of one lost portrait commission Empress Liu made of herself and the late Emperor Zhenzong venerating Maitreya, the future Buddha. Heping Liu argues that the close association between Wu Zetian and the Maitreya cult suggests that Empress Liu was expressing personal ambitions for power by commissioning this icon for her private chapel.
"Gender and Entertainment at the Song Court" by Beverly Bossler
In this chapter, Bossler contextualizes Empress Liu's origins as an entertainer by discussing the role of female musicians in Song palace life. There are some really interesting discussions of the palace's Music Bureau and of the legal status of "debased" entertainers. The key argument of this article is that female musicians, by performing in the outer court and by influencing the course of politics by ingratiating themselves with the emperor, exposed the limits of the inner/outer court divisions. Court officials condemned female musicians for this reason, but they were ultimately powerless against the imperial will and the ability of female musicians to transgress their idealized Confucian gender boundaries.
"Visualizing Love and Longing in Song Dynasty Paintings of Women" by Lara Caroline Williams Blanchard
Blanchard's PhD thesis is what inspired the setting of my illustration. The thesis is all about how women were represented in Song Dynasty paintings. The favourite way of depicting women was to show them pining for men who were away or had abandoned them. Blanchard's arguments about the symbolism of makeup, mirrors, gardens and butterflies all influenced my choices in this illustration. Although the specific women in my picture are not mentioned, I'd highly recommend this thesis to anyone who wants to understand more about the experiences of Song Dynasty palace women and courtesans - or at least, how scholarly men liked to imagine those experiences in art.
"Women Rulers in Imperial China" by Keith McMahon
This article focuses on Wu Zetian and how later empresses followed some of the precedents she set while trying to avoid direct comparisons to her. McMahon looks at how the upper echelons of Chinese society dealt with their distaste for women rulers alongside the real necessity for occasional women regents. There are some interesting details in here, like how Liu was forbidden from using the imperial first-person pronoun, and how her crown featuring the Queen Mother of the West alluded to independent female figures without directly imitating Wu Zetian. I like how McMahon picks up on the similarity between Wu Zetian wanting her daughter to succeed her and Liu wanting Yang to succeed her.
"Childless Mother of the World" by The History of China Podcast
I listened to this podcast episode over a year after completing this illustration. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the ins and outs of political intrigue during Liu's reign. It had a lot of interesting details I hadn't known about, and I learned how the names of the people in the story are all pronounced. I particularly like how the host talked about Liu establishing a template for future Song Dynasty empress regents, remaking the role in a way that was less tainted by the memory of Wu Zetian.
"The Rise and Regency of Empress Liu (969-1033)" by John Chaffee
This is the best overview of Liu's life available in English. Chaffee goes through her various origin stories and then looks at how she established precedents as regent that other Song empresses would later follow.
Palace Women in the Northern Sung, 960-1126 by Priscilla Ching Chung
Chung's monograph is THE definitive book on Northern Song palace women! Chung explains the ranking systems, recruitment methods, and opportunities for advancement of women who worked in the palace. This ranged from maids like Li to high-ranking official concubines like Liu and Yang. Discussions of each woman are included in the text.
"Empress Liu's "Icon of Maitreya": Portraiture and Privacy at the Early Song Court" by Heping Liu
This article provides an in-depth analysis of one lost portrait commission Empress Liu made of herself and the late Emperor Zhenzong venerating Maitreya, the future Buddha. Heping Liu argues that the close association between Wu Zetian and the Maitreya cult suggests that Empress Liu was expressing personal ambitions for power by commissioning this icon for her private chapel.
"Gender and Entertainment at the Song Court" by Beverly Bossler
In this chapter, Bossler contextualizes Empress Liu's origins as an entertainer by discussing the role of female musicians in Song palace life. There are some really interesting discussions of the palace's Music Bureau and of the legal status of "debased" entertainers. The key argument of this article is that female musicians, by performing in the outer court and by influencing the course of politics by ingratiating themselves with the emperor, exposed the limits of the inner/outer court divisions. Court officials condemned female musicians for this reason, but they were ultimately powerless against the imperial will and the ability of female musicians to transgress their idealized Confucian gender boundaries.
"Visualizing Love and Longing in Song Dynasty Paintings of Women" by Lara Caroline Williams Blanchard
Blanchard's PhD thesis is what inspired the setting of my illustration. The thesis is all about how women were represented in Song Dynasty paintings. The favourite way of depicting women was to show them pining for men who were away or had abandoned them. Blanchard's arguments about the symbolism of makeup, mirrors, gardens and butterflies all influenced my choices in this illustration. Although the specific women in my picture are not mentioned, I'd highly recommend this thesis to anyone who wants to understand more about the experiences of Song Dynasty palace women and courtesans - or at least, how scholarly men liked to imagine those experiences in art.
"Women Rulers in Imperial China" by Keith McMahon
This article focuses on Wu Zetian and how later empresses followed some of the precedents she set while trying to avoid direct comparisons to her. McMahon looks at how the upper echelons of Chinese society dealt with their distaste for women rulers alongside the real necessity for occasional women regents. There are some interesting details in here, like how Liu was forbidden from using the imperial first-person pronoun, and how her crown featuring the Queen Mother of the West alluded to independent female figures without directly imitating Wu Zetian. I like how McMahon picks up on the similarity between Wu Zetian wanting her daughter to succeed her and Liu wanting Yang to succeed her.
"Childless Mother of the World" by The History of China Podcast
I listened to this podcast episode over a year after completing this illustration. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the ins and outs of political intrigue during Liu's reign. It had a lot of interesting details I hadn't known about, and I learned how the names of the people in the story are all pronounced. I particularly like how the host talked about Liu establishing a template for future Song Dynasty empress regents, remaking the role in a way that was less tainted by the memory of Wu Zetian.