Emperor Wencheng

Empress Wen Cheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty

Empress Dowager Feng (441-490 A.D.), Queen of emperor Wencheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty. He was an outstanding female politician in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

birth

Feng's grandfather Feng Hong and uncle Feng Ba were the king of northern Yan. After the fall of northern Yan, his father Feng Lang was demoted to Wei, where he served as a governor of Qin and Yong prefectures. His aunt was Zuo Zhaoyi of tuobatao, Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei. Later, her father was killed for crime, and she went to the palace with her aunt.

In 452 ad, after emperor Wencheng ascended the throne, he granted the 14-year-old Feng family a noble title, and at the age of 18, he became the queen. In the same year, he made his two-year-old son tuobahong the crown prince. According to the rule of "setting up a son to kill his mother", Li Guiren, Tuoba Hong's mother, was given death. Empress Feng raised tuobahong and treated the prince as if he had been born.

Women politicians

After the death of emperor Wencheng, when Emperor Xianwen tuobahong ascended the throne, he was only 12 years old. He respected empress Feng as empress dowager, and the prime minister yihun was in charge of the government. Yihun conspired to usurp the throne, and Empress Dowager Feng arrested and killed him. From then on, the government was ruled by Empress Dowager Feng alone.

As emperor Xianwen grew up, the contradiction between mother and son became deeper and deeper. In 471 ad, the 18-year-old emperor Xianwen was forced to become emperor himself by his five-year-old son tuobahong. But he still led the army to the South and the north, which in itself made the Empress Dowager feel threatened, and he also killed the Empress Dowager's male pet Li Yi, so the Empress Dowager poisoned the 23-year-old emperor Xianwen in 476.

After the death of emperor Xianwen, Empress Dowager Feng and Empress Dowager Taihuang were in court again. We killed a number of political opponents and put a number of people with reform ideas in high position. We carried out a series of reforms, including issuing the Banlu system, rectifying the administration of officials, unifying weights and measures, carrying out the "three chief system" and implementing the equal field system. It changed the backward situation of Xianbei people and laid a foundation for the prosperity of Emperor Xiaowen after he moved his capital to Luoyang.

Empress Dowager Feng's life is also simple and not easy to adorn, but she is a man's pet and takes it as a means to win over powerful officials. Even Liu Zan, an envoy sent by the state of Qi in the Southern Dynasty, was put up in the palace by Empress Dowager Feng to solve the border problem between beds and curtains.

In any case, Empress Dowager Feng is worthy of being an outstanding female politician in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

In September 490, Empress Dowager Feng died at the age of 49. His posthumous title is empress dowager of civilization. He was buried in YONGGU mausoleum in Fangshan, northern suburb of Datong, Shanxi Province.

Chinese PinYin : Wen Cheng Di