Empress Liu Jingyan (柳敬言) (534-616) was an
empress of the
Chinese dynasty
Chen Dynasty. Her husband was
Emperor Xuan (Chen Xu).
Background
Liu Jingyan was born in 534, when her father Liu Yan (柳偃) was a
Liang Dynasty official. His wife was
the Princess Changcheng, a daughter of
Emperor Wu of Liang. (The traditional
histories imply that she was the princess' daughter, but did not
clearly state so.) Liu Yan came from a lineage of officials, as his
grandfather Liu Shilong (柳世隆) was a key general under
Emperor Gao of Southern Qi and
Emperor Wu of Southern Qi,
and his father Liu Yun (柳惲) was a Liang official.
When Liu Yan died
while being governor of Poyang Commandery (鄱陽, roughly modern
Shangrao
, Jiangxi
), Liu
Jingyan was eight, and as she had no older brothers (she had one
younger brother, Liu Pan (柳盼)), she was said to have managed the
affairs of the household as well as an adult could. After
the rebel general
Hou Jing attacked the
capital
Jiankang in 548 and captured it in
549, Liu Jingyan and Liu Pan went to
Jiangling to rely on the Princess Changcheng's
brother
Xiao Yi the Prince of
Xiangdong. On account of the princess, Xiao Yi treated them with
kindness.
Marriage to Chen Xu
In 552, after Xiao Yi's general
Wang
Sengbian defeated Hou, Xiao Yi declared himself emperor (as
Emperor Yuan). He rewarded Wang and his lieutenant
Chen Baxian, while requesting Chen Baxian
to send his son
Chen Chang and nephew
Chen Xu to Jiangling, his new
capital, to serve in his administration -- but also to serve as
hostages.
While Chen Xu was at Jiangling, Emperor Yuan
married Liu Jingyan to him as his wife, notwithstanding that he had
already married a Lady Qian while he was a commoner at his home
commandery of Yixing (義興, roughly modern Huzhou
, Zhejiang
). In
553, she bore Chen Xu a son,
Chen
Shubao. In 554,
Western Wei forces
attacked and captured Jiangling, and around the new year 555, they
put Emperor Yuan to death.
Chen Xu and Chen Chang were taken to the
Western Wei capital Chang'an
as honored
captives, while Lady Liu and Chen Shubao were left at Rangcheng
(穰城, in modern Nanyang, Henan
).
In 557, Chen Baxian seized the throne and established
Chen Dynasty as its Emperor Wu. While Chen Xu
was then still detained at Chang'an, he remotely created Chen Xu
the Prince of Shixing. Subsequently, when Emperor Wu died in 559,
because Chen Baxian's son Chen Chang was still detained at Chang'an
as well, Chen Xu's brother
Chen
Qian succeeded Emperor Wu (as Emperor Wen). In 562, following
negotiations, Western Wei's successor state
Northern Zhou agreed to allow Chen Xu to
return to Chen. Later that year, after further negotiations, Lady
Liu and Chen Shubao were allowed to return to Chen as well. As Chen
Xu then carried the title of Prince of Ancheng, she carried the
title of Princess of Ancheng.
In 566, Emperor Wen died and was succeeded by his son
Emperor Fei. Chen Xu, as the young
emperor's uncle, was in an honored position, sharing power with the
officials Dao Zhongju (到仲舉), Kong Huan (孔奐), Yuan Shu (袁樞), and Liu
Shizhi (劉師知). However, Chen Xu soon came into a power struggle with
Dao and Liu, and in 567, after Liu made a failed attempt to have
Chen Xu removed from the palace, Chen Xu forced him to commit
suicide, and subsequently forced Dao to commit suicide as well. He
was now in control of the imperial government. In winter 568, he
had an edict issued in the name of Emperor Wu's wife
Grand Empress Dowager Zhang Yao'er
deposing Emperor Fei and giving him the throne. In spring 569, he
formally took the throne as emperor (as Emperor Xuan). He created
Princess Liu as empress and her son Chen Shubao as
crown prince.
As empress
Empress Liu was said to be beautiful, tall, and humble. Cognizant
that Emperor Xuan had married Lady Qian as his wife prior to
marrying her, but that Lady Qian had been subordinated to the
lesser imperial consort title of
Guifei (貴妃), she humbled
herself when in Consort Qian's presence, often offering the better
items to Consort Qian and taking the lesser items for
herself.
In spring 582, Emperor Xuan became ill. Crown Prince Shubao, as
well as his brothers Chen Shuling (陳叔陵) the Prince of Shixing and
Chen Shujian (陳叔堅) the Prince of Changsha attended to Emperor Xuan.
Chen Shuling, who wanted the throne for himself, secretly had a
dull knife designed to cut medications sharpened. When Emperor Xuan
died, Crown Prince Shubao, while mourning his father, placed
himself over the casket. Chen Shuling stabbed him in the neck with
the knife, and he fell to the ground. When Empress Liu saw this,
she intervened, but she was also stabbed several times by Chen
Shuling, who was however then hit by the
lady in waiting Lady Wu and was unable to
kill Chen Shubao. Subsequently, Chen Shuling fled out of the palace
and staged a military coup, along with his cousin Chen Bogu (陳伯固)
the Prince of Xin'an (Emperor Wen's son). Because Chen Shubao had
been seriously wounded, Empress Liu, while also herself injured,
took control of the situation, and the imperial troops were able to
defeat Chen Shuling's and Chen Bogu's. Both were killed. Chen
Shuling's sons were also killed, while Chen Bogu's sons were
demoted to commoner status.
As empress dowager
Chen Shubao then assumed the throne, and Empress Liu took the title
of
empress dowager.
As Chen Shubao was
continuing to recover from his injuries, the various urgent matters
at hand -- including Emperor Xuan's funeral arrangements, the
border defenses (as Chen had recently lost the region between the
Huai River and the Yangtze River
to Northern Zhou's successor state Sui Dynasty), and other important matters, were
ruled on by Empress Dowager Liu, assisted by Chen Shujian.
When Chen Shubao recovered, she returned the imperial authorities
to him and no longer ruled on governmental matters.
When Chen fell to Sui in 589, Chen Shubao and his clan were taken
to Chang'an. Empress Dowager Liu went to Chang'an as well.
She
subsequently took up residence at Sui's eastern capital Luoyang
. She
died there in 616 and was buried in Luoyang, not with her husband
Emperor Xuan.
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