Empress Dowager Li (李太后)

Overview

The translated histories identify Empress Dowager Li as a consort and royal family member. This record brings together 9 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Empress Dowager Li	李太后	Li taihou
Title	Empress Dowager Li	李太后	Li taihou

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Title only
Sex: Female

Sex: female
Strongly inferred · hanshu:056:s0099

Roles

Consort
Royal Family Member

Life and dates

Death

Date Context: Source Date: Text: 後病薨 · Western Interval: Start: BC 128 · End: BC 123
Explicit · hanshu:056:s0199

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 元朔中 · Western Interval: Start: BC 128 · End: BC 123
Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:056:s0100

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Kin of Liu Xiang (襄)
Kinship Term: paternal grandmother / 大母 · Line: paternal · Generation Distance: 2 · Intermediary Person Ids: Liu Mai (買)
Parent of Liu Mai (買)
Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 56Volume 47: The Three Sons of Emperor Wen · 9 passages

Open chapter

共王母曰李太后。 King Gong’s mother was Empress Dowager Li.

李太后，親平王之大母也。 Empress Dowager Li was King Xiang’s paternal grandmother—King Gong’s mother.

李太后曰：「先王有命，毋得以尊與人。 Empress Dowager Li said, "The former king commanded that the vessel must not be given to anyone.

王襄直使人開府取尊賜任后，又王及母陳太后事李太后多不順。 King Xiang at once sent men to open the treasury, take the vessel, and give it to Consort Ren; and both the king and his mother Empress Dowager Chen treated Empress Dowager Li with much disrespect.

有漢使者來，李太后欲自言，王使謁者中郎胡等遮止，閉門。 When imperial envoys arrived, Empress Dowager Li wished to speak for herself, but the king sent Usher Attendant-of-the-Interior Hu and others to stop her and shut the gate.

李太后與爭門，措指，太后啼謼，不得見漢使者。 Empress Dowager Li struggled at the gate and injured her fingers; she wept and cried out but could not see the imperial envoys.

李太后亦私與食官長及郎尹霸等姦亂，王與任后以此使人風止李太后。 Empress Dowager Li also carried on secretly with the chief of the food office and Gentleman Yin Ba and others; the king and Consort Ren used this to send men to warn Empress Dowager Li into silence.

李太后亦已，後病薨。 Empress Dowager Li yielded; later she fell ill and died.

反知國陰事，乃上變告梁王與大母爭尊狀。 Fan knew the kingdom's private affairs, so he submitted a denunciation to the throne, accusing the king of Liang of contending with his grandmother, Empress Dowager Li, over ritual precedence.