100 Famous Women in China

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27. Xu Zhaopei (the woman having makeup on half of her face)
Xu Zhaopei (?--549 AD) was the wife of Emperor Yuan of Liang dynasty (502—557 AD), which was a short dynasty during the second warring period. In the twelfth moon of 517 AD, she went to where the emperor lived. On her way there, there were strong winds that blew down houses, then snow storm came. When she arrived there, there were pealing thunders that shattered a pillar. All these were considered as bad omen.
After marriage, she bore a son and a daughter for him. As the emperor had one eye blind, Xu did not like him and was often rude to him. The emperor disliked her, too. Once when he went to her room, she only put the makeup on half of her face to imply that the emperor had only one eye good. So the emperor was enraged and seldom to see her ever since.
She then had adultery with some other people. The first one was a monk and she often went to his temple. The second one was Ji, a favorite courtier of the emperor. They had the action in the temple, too. After the action, they lay on bed and composed poems to each other.
Xu was a jealous woman. Whenever the emperor liked someone, she would find a way to murder her. Although the emperor disliked her, he liked her son and made him the crown prince. But the son died in a battle. The emperor forced her, the mother, to commit suicide. Finally she threw herself into a well and drowned inside it. Then the emperor revealed her lewd action to let people know it so that he forced her to make suicide was not without reason.

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28. Lou Zhaojun (she married a common man, but became emperor finally)
Lou Zhaojun (501—562 AD) had a legendary life. Her father was a courtier of high rank. When she grew up, many official families came to see her father to ask for her hand, but she denied all the suitors. She wanted to find a man fit to be her husband.
One day, she saw a man, a general, called Gao Huan (496—547 AD), doing some work at the battlements. She knew how to read the face. His face showed that he would be a leader of a state some day. Therefore, she married him. Although a general, he had no money. She gave him money and let him use it to make friends with all the known heroes of the time. Besides, she offered stratagems so that he could win merits in battles. He was promoted to be the premier.
When Gao Huan got powerful enough, she helped him to establish a new state, named North Qi. Gao became the emperor and she was the empress. She had born six sons and two daughters for him. Three of her sons were emperors in different times. Her daughters both became empresses of other states. She was frugal by nature. As the empress she would weave and sew herself. She treated her own children and the children of other concubines equally. Once she made sacrifice for her husband.
To strengthen his power for the situation, he should marry the princess of Ruru State. When he asked his empress if this was right for him to do, Empress Lou gave her ascent without hesitation. When Princess Ruru came, she let her be the empress and herself be the concubine. For that, she was praised by people in the small empire. The emperor had one wife and ten concubines. He had fifteen sons and three daughters in all.
Once when she was pregnant and got into hard labor, someone wanted to send urgent massage to the emperor, but she would not agree. At last she gave birth to twin babies, a son and a daughter. When the emperor returned and learned the condition, he was greatly moved.
Once he was defeated. A general came to offer to lead an army for the revenge. The emperor was glad and about to consent, but empress Lou said no. She explained that if the general had an army under command, whether he won or lost in the fight, he would never come back to obey him any more. He would be independent with an army in his control. So the emperor did not let the general go. The general later did betray another emperor in another state.
When the emperor, Gao Huan, died, his eldest son Gao Cheng became the emperor. Lou Zhaojun, as empress dowager, controlled the power. When Gao Cheng died, her son Gao Yang took the throne. Not long later, Gao Yang died, too. His son, Gao Yin, succeeded the throne. Gao Yin was the grandson of Lou. As Gao Yin was not a good emperor, the empress dowager deposed him and made him Prince JiNan. Then her another son Gao Yan was made the emperor. Not long afterwards, Gao Yan also died. She made her another son Gao Zhan the emperor, and made two other sons the princes. She died at the age of sixty-two.

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29. Mu Huanghua (an empress became the bawd)
Mu Huanghua (?--?) was the third empress of the emperor Gao Wei, the last emperor of North Qi dynasty. Her mother was a maid in the family of some courtier. Then she was raped by the coutier and bore the girl. When the girl grew up, she went to the palace. At first she was the maid of the first empress of the emperor. Once the emperor saw her and liked her. She became his concubine. In 572 AD, she was made the empress when the original empress died. In 577 AD, another state invaded North Qi and took the capital. The emperor and Mu had to escape. But the emperor was captured, and Mu ran away to ChangAn city, where to make her living, she opened a brothel and became the bawd. Her brothel was at the time well-known on both sides of the Yangtze River. This was a weird experience to her from an empress to a bawd.

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repeated. so deleted.

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30. Hua Mulan (the first of the four heroines)
Hua Mulan (412—502 AD) was one of four heroines in Chinese history, fighting in the battlefield. The other three were Fan Lihua (Tang dynasty), Mu Guiying (North Song dynasty), and Liang Hongyu (South Song dynasty). Her story goes back to the second warring period. She had an elder sister and younger brother. But both of them could not fight. When Mulan was still young, a minority in the north invaded her country. Then an order was issued that every family must have one man to join the army for defense against the invasion. Mulan's father was too old. Her brother was too young. When a little girl she liked to learn how to fight as her father knew the fighting skills. She was just grown up, and so she offered to go instead of her father, but in disguise of a young man, using her brother's name,.
At that time, the government of the country did not supply a fighter with necessary equipment such as weapon, horse, armor and helmet, etc. Therefore, she had to go to the market to buy all these for herself. She was attired as a man should wear. Then she rode to the registration at the recruit's site. She was sent to the frontier with other recruits. She fought bravely in the battlefields and won a lot of merits. No one knew that she was a woman. After twelve years, she returned victoriously. Then she was known to her fellow fighters that she was a woman, which was at the time deemed cheating. The emperor received her and for her great merits, she was pardoned for the cheating of a good kind. The emperor wanted to let her be an official of high rank in the government, but she excused herself, saying that her father was old, and she must go home to take care of him. So the emperor let her go.
Her legend was written down in a long poem called “Song of Mulan.” In Tang dynasty, a temple was built in memory of her, and a statue of her was carved and put in the temple.

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31. Yang Lihua (sharing the title of empress with other four women)
Yang Lihua (561—609 AD) was the wife of Emperor Xuan (559—580 AD) of North Zhou dynasty (557—581 AD), a short dynasty in the northern China in the second warring period. Her father was Yang Jian (541—604 AD). Later he began a new dynasty, Sui dynasty, and became emperor Wen. Sui dynasty ended the second warring period and united China. Her mother was Empress Dugu.
In 573 AD, when she was only thirteen, she married Emperor Xuan and became one of the four empresses. It was the only emperor in the history, who made all his four women empresses. Then he liked the wife of his nephew, who had to rebel and was killed. The emperor took the nephew's wife as his fifth empress. As the emperor led a lewd life, all the courtiers opposed him. Yang Jian at the time was a powerful courtier and supported by others, he deposed the emperor, who died soon after. Then Yang Jian became the emperor of Sui dynasty (581—618 AD). Yang Lihua, his daughter, could not still have the title of empress, and so her father made her Princess Lepin, till her death at the age of forty-nine.

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32. Zhang Lihua (empress with special long hair)
Zhang Lihua (560—589 AD) was the favorite concubine of Chen Shubao (553—604 AD). When Chen Shubao was still the crown prince of Chen dynasty (557—589 AD), located to the south of Yangtzer River towards the end of the second warring period, Zhang Lihua was then only ten and entered the palace as the maid to a concubine of the crown prince. When she grew up, she was so beautiful and clever. The most conspicuous thing about her was her long black hair, more than two meters long. She was proud of her long hair. Every morning she spent a lot of time to comb her hair and did her hair up into a stylist knot. When the crown prince saw her one day, her beauty was so attractive to him that he took her as his concubine. He liked her long hair very much, which was unique. The crown prince was a famous poet.
In 582 AD, the crown prince succeeded the throne and Zhang became his favorite concubine. This emperor was talented in music and literature. His poems were so well-known and many handed down to us. One of his famous poems runs as follows:
Up on west tower alone, wordless,
The moon looks like a hook.
With the solitary Chinese parasol,
The deep backyard locking the cool autumn in.

Scissor'd, but not sever'd,
Put in order, yet in disorder,
Is the parting sorrow;
There's an unusual sensation at heart.
As Zhang Lihua could dance gracefully, the emperor composed a famous piece of music, and Zhang Lihua danced to it. The imperial couple led a lewd and dissipated life. At that time, all the separate independent states to the north of the Yangtze River were conquered by Sui dynasty. Only the Chen dynasty to the south of the Yangtze River still survived. In 589 AD, Sui army came to the capital. When the imperial couple was reported that Sui army entered the city, they tied themselves together and jumped into a well. But as the well was an old one without water in it, they did not die. Then Sui soldiers got them out. Zhang Lihua was killed because the commander thought that as she was so beautiful, if the Sui emperor saw her, he would take her to be his concubine, which might cause Sui dynasty to collapse like this Chen dynasty. The Chen emperor was captured and taken to be imprisoned and died a few years later.

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33. Empress Dugu (empress who'd not let emperor have other women)
Empress Dugu (543—602 AD) was the wife of Yang Jian (541—604 AD), Emperor Wen of Sui dynasty (581—618 AD). She bore a daughter, Yang Lihua (see above), and sons, Yang Yong (568—604 AD) and Yang Guang (569—618 AD).
Dugu married the emperor at fourteen. She was a very jealous woman. When she married him, they had an agreement that he would never touch any other women. She abolished the system that an emperor could have many concubines. She would not allow her husband to have any concubines. Once he had an action with a girl in the palace, the girl was later killed by Dugu. Luckily for her, she had born children for him. She also forbade her sons to have more than one woman. She forbade the palace maids to put on makeup and to gain access to the emperor without her permission. She even interfered with the courtiers in their marital affairs. Once a courtier's wife died, and he married another woman. Dugu let the emperor demote him, because her idea in marriage was that if a man could not be faithful to his wife and needed another woman, how could he be loyal to the sovereign? So she wanted to maintain one husband and one wife system. Besides, if a woman was not allowed to remarry as a tradition, a man should not be allowed to remarry, too.
Anyway, she was just in dealing with state affairs. She often offered her opinions to the emperor and he always thought that her opinions were right. Once one of her cousins committed some severe crime, and according to the law, he must be executed. However, the emperor, considering his relationship with the empress, intended to pardon him from his death sentence. When Dugu learned it, she said that the law must be just, and could not be disregarded owing to special conditions. The cousin thereby was executed.
Once an official presented to her a box of costly pearls. She said to him, “This is not what I need. You can use them as rewards to soldiers who are fighting at the frontier.” She never gave her relatives positions of high ranks. At first, as Yang Yong was the eldest son, he was made the crown prince. Nevertheless, he sought obscenity and merry-making, which the emperor and empress disliked. Besides, the crown prince had four concubines and ignored his wife. All that was against the wishes of the empress. Therefore, he was deposed and his brother Yang Guang was made the crown prince. The empress died before the emperor in the eighth moon of 602 AD, at the age of fifty.

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34. Xiao Meiniang (an empress married many times)
Xiao Meiniang (582 AD--? ) was the wife of Emperor Yang (Yang Guang) of Sui dynasty. He was the second and last emperor of Sui dynasty. She was a princess of Emperor Ming (542—585 AD) of West Liang dynasty (555—587 AD). As she was born in the second moon, superstitious tradition said that a girl born in the second moon could not bear sons. So she was given to the uncle, and when the uncle died, she was adopted by her maternal uncle, who was poor, and she must do all the housework.
When Yang Guang was still crown prince, his father wanted to choose a wife for him. The superstitious tradition had it that the birthday and birth time of both the girl and the boy should be given to a fortune-teller, who would tell if that of the girl and that of the boy were fit to each other. If they were not fit, and the girl and boy married, misfortune would befall them. All the girls in the area were not fit to be the wife of the crown prince by the calculation of the fortune-teller. Finally a fit girl was found. She was Xiao Meiniang. Therefore, she became the wife of the crown prince. When the crown prince succeeded the throne, she was made the empress. She bore two sons and a daughter for him.
The emperor was a lewd and corrupt man. But he had a great job done. It was the Great Canal, beginning from Luoyang city to Hangzhou city. It made the transportation of goods from south to north easier than before. It was finished by connecting some natural rivers through a lot of digging. But some historians said that the purpose of the emperor wanted to make the Great Canal was that he wanted to travel comfortably on the ship to Yangzhou city, where the most beautiful peonies grew. And it was also said that women in Yangzhou city were all beautiful. When he stayed there to enjoy his extravagant days, he was murdered by a general he trusted. Then there rose many warlords all over the nation.
There were two legends about her end. One was that after the death of the emperor she left the palace and wandered with her grandson like vagabonds till her death without remarrying. The other was that she was taken by the general who had murdered the emperor. When the general died, a warlord got her. Then she was captured by the chieftain of a minority in the north. Finally the famous Emperor Taizong (599—649 AD) of Tang dynasty (618—907 AD) conquered the minority and took her back to the capital. It was said that she became the wife of the Tang emperor.

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35. Hongfu (literally meaning red duster)
Hongfu (?--?) was the nickname and her real name was Zhang Chuchen. But better known as Hongfu in the history. Her father was a general and killed in a battle. Her mother was taken by Yang Su (544-606 AD) a general, and later the first courtier of Sui dynasty, as a wet nurse. She brought her daughter with her. So Hongfu grew up in the residence of Yang Su, and in her girlhood, she became a waiting girl to Yang Su. She often stood a little behind him when he sat on the chair to receive guests. On such occasions, She often held a red duster in hand, hence her nickname.
There was a young man by name of Li Jing (571—649 AD). He was a man of talent and ambition, a strategist as well. Therefore, he came to the capital to seek for fame and a bright future. As he could not directly go to see the emperor, he went to see Yang Su first and became one of Yang's hangers-on, which meant people having food and board in Yang's residence working like advisers. At first, Yang did not think much of Li Jing as he had so many hangers-on in his residence. Once Yang had a talk with him and came to know that this man was talented. But he did not recommend him to the emperor, which was what Li desired. Therefore, Li was disappointed.
When Yang had the talk with Li, Hongfu was present and had also such opinion of him. She admired him to much that one night she went to see him in his room, just as Li was sad and uncertain of his future. When he heard the knock at his door he opened it and saw the girl who had stood behind Yang in his conversation with Yang. When Hongfu was invited in and sat down, she revealed her purpose to come. She offered herself to be his life mate. Li was so happy and accepted. Then they eloped under the cover of night.
The couple were disguised as merchants and went to ChangAn city where another Li family lived as magistrate, and afterwards, this Li family united the whole country and established Tang dynasty (618—907 AD). Li Jing went to visit Li Shiming, the famous Emperor Taizong later, to offer his service. Li Shiming thought highly of him. When Sui dynasty collapsed with the murder of the Sui emperor, there arose many warlords. Although there were constant wars among the warlords, historians did not define this period of time as a warring period, because it lasted very short, only for seven years and the whole nation was united by Tang dynasty. As Li Shiming wanted to unite the nation,he accepted all the known heroes that came to serve him. In the wars conquering other warlords, Li Jing and Hongfu, who could fight, achieved a lot of merits. When the Tang dynasty united the country, Li Jing was rewarded with the title of Duke Weiguo. And Hongfu was his ladyship.

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36. Princess Pinyang (a female commander)
Princess Pinyang (580—623 AD) was the sister of Emperor Taizong by the name of Li Xiuning. She was the only woman in the history who organized and commanded an army. Other women before her, if they could fight, just fought as a female general, not commanding an army.
In the fifth moon of 617 AD, Li family decided to subdue all the warlords and united the country. At the time Princess Pinyang was in ChangAn city while the Li family lived in Taiyuan city. She was married to a general and lived in ChangAn city with her husband. When she got the information that her family would take up arms against all the warlords, she started to recruit enough men to form an army. Her husband went to Taiyuan city first to join in the combats. There were some small groups of rebels. She sent someone to persuade them one by one to join her army, which enlarged greatly. She even defeated several attacks from the army of Sui dynasty.
After the death of Emperor Yang of Sui dynasty, there were warlords occupying separate independent areas. It was the duties of Emperor Taizong now to wipe out all the warlords. And the princess only stayed in the pass called Woman Pass, which was the throat to enter where there was the base of Li family. She must guard it. Her task was very important. If any warlord entered the Pass, the safety of her family would be threatened. Anyway, she defended the Pass well against any attacks till the unity of the nation. The name of the Pass was in memory of her. When she died, the army under her command held a military funeral for her. It was the only funeral that was held by an army for a female in the history.

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37. Empress Changsun ( a virtuous woman, never jealous)
Empress Changsun (03/15/601—07/28/636 AD) was the wife of the famous Emperor Taizong (599—649 AD) of Tang dynasty (618—907 AD). Her father was a general in Sui dynasty and died when she was only eight years old. She was brought up by her maternal uncle. She married Emperor Taizong at the age of thirteen when Emperor Taizong was then only Prince Qin. She was the ladyship of the prince Qin. The crown prince was the eldest brother of Prince Qin, and he had a younger brother. The three of them vied for the throne, of course, like in many dynasties. The crown prince was no good as a ruler, and the younger brother was a fighter, not fit to be a ruler. To be a ruler needed many qualities. Only Prince Qin had such qualities. Therefore, all the generals of Tang dynasty supported him. It was not just because they thought Prince Qin was a talented man, suitable to be the emperor, but also because they had fought together with him so long in the process of subduing all the warlords.
On the second day of the seventh moon in 626 AD, there was a coup d'état. Helped by the generals, Prince Qin killed his two brothers and became Emperor Taizong. His father was on the throne at the time, but he could not control the situation as all the generals did not listen to him, and only obey his second son. Therefore, after the coup d'état, the father gave up the throne to the son and became the retired emperor. Ladyship Zhangsun was due to be the empress. She bore for the emperor three sons and four daughters. Later her youngest son became the crown prince and then the emperor, Emperor Gaozong, the husband of Empress Wu the Great. That's another book I wrote.
She was a virtuous woman, never jealous. She treated other concubines and maids and eunuchs nicely. So the palace was peaceful, no competitions between concubines for the special favor of the emperor. She often educated the children, no matter those of her own or those of other concubines, equally that they must be frugal, not extravagant. She always gave the emperor good advice, and whenever the emperor made any mistakes, she would persuade him to correct them. She even dissuaded the emperor to give her own brother a powerful position, lest the brother turned arrogant because he had power and then made unpardonable mistakes.
When she was seriously sick, the emperor wanted to have a ceremony in a temple to pray for her quick recovery, but she disagreed to it. She was not a superstitious person. She did not believe in prayer to make sickness better. She died at the age of thirty-six. When she was sepulchered in imperial grave, the emperor did two things for her that no other emperors did before or after for their spouses. Firstly he had a collage built in front of her grave and let some maids live there like to wait on her as if she was still alive. Secondly he had a high tower built in the palace so that whenever he thought of his empress, he could mount it to watch her grave. However, for this tower, he accepted the advice of a courtier later and demolished it.

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38. Fan Lihua (the second of the four heroines)
Fan Lihua (?--?) lived in the reign of Emperor Taizong. She was one of the four heroines. Her father was originally a general of the Sui dynasty. When this dynasty was overthrown, he escaped to a minority in the west of present China. When Tang dynasty sent army to conquer that minority, Fan Lihua helped her father to resist Tang army. But once when she saw the son of the commander of Tang army, who came out of the camp, to fight, she fell in love with him. Therefore, she and her father surrendered to Tang dynasty and Fan Lihua married the son of the commander of Tang dynasty. She had great fighting skills and knew strategies. She helped the Tang army to conquer the minority. Later when some tribe in the northwest invaded Tang dynasty, Her father-in-law was made the commander of Tang army again. She went as a female general and fought together with her husband against the invaders.
When her father-in-law died in the battlefield, she, not her husband, succeeded the position of the commander, as she could fight better and knew how to use stratagems while her husband could only fight. They returned after victory and owing to her great merits, she was given the title of Marquise of Weining. She bore four sons. The third son was a naughty one, and often did something wrong. Once, by accident, the third son killed a prince. That was a serious crime. Therefore the whole family were executed. Only Fan Lihua and two of her sons escaped before the execution happened.

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39. Wu Meiniang (the sole female sovereign in China)
Wu Meiniang was the concubine of Emperor Taizong, and after the death of emperor Taizong, she was the empress of emperor Gaozong, the son of emperor Taizong. Such thing happened in the history of China. After the death of emperor Gaozong, she was the empress dowager, and then the empress sovereign. (I wrote a separate book for her titled “Empress Wu the Great.”)

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repeated, so deleted.