Empress Li (Liu Shouguang's wife)

Empress Li (李皇后, personal name unknown) (died February 12, 914[1][2]) was one of the two wives of Liu Shouguang, the only emperor of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Yan.

Very little is known about Empress Li, and it is not known whether she bore any of Liu Shouguang's children. (Indeed, it is not completely clear that she was given an empress title when he declared himself emperor in 911, although the modern Chinese historian Bo Yang asserted that she was, as was Liu's other wife Empress Zhu.[3]) When Yan's capital You Prefecture (幽州, in modern Beijing) fell in late 913 under siege by Li Cunxu the Prince of Jin, she, Liu Shouguang, Empress Zhu, and Liu Shouguang's three sons Liu Jixun (劉繼珣), Liu Jifang (劉繼方), and Liu Jizuo (劉繼祚) fled You Prefecture,[4][5] but were eventually captured at Yanle (燕樂, in modern Beijing) and delivered to Li Cunxu. Li Cunxu took them on a victory tour through the lands of his allies Wang Chuzhi the military governor of Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei) and Wang Rong the Prince of Zhao, but eventually took them back to his capital Taiyuan and executed them there. As they were to be executed, Liu Shouguang was begging for his life, and Empresses Li and Zhu rebuked him for not acting bravely like an emperor should, while they accepted their own executions.[1]

Notes and references

1. Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 269.
2. Academia Sinica Chinese-Western Calendar Converter.
3. Bo Yang Edition of the Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 66 [913].
4. Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 268.
5. New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 39.