Yuan · Royal Family Member and Consort

Empress Dowager 太后

Attested AD 1311 - AD 1320

Passages: 10
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

The translated histories identify Empress Dowager as a consort, royal family member, and ruler. This record brings together 10 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	太后
Title	empress dowager	太后
Title	Empress Dowager	太后

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Title only
Sex: Female

Sex: female
Explicit · yuanshi:179:s0041

Roles

Consort
Royal Family Member
Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 仁宗朝 · Western Interval: Start: AD 1311 · End: AD 1320
Explicit event contextual date · yuanshi:179:s0041

References in the histories

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

History of Yuan, Chapter 179Volume 179 Biographies 66: He Sheng, Yang Duoerzhi, Xiao Baizhu · 10 passages

鐵木迭兒走匿太后宮中，太后為言，僅奪其印綬而罷之。 Temüder fled and hid in the empress dowager's palace. She pleaded for him, and he was merely stripped of rank and dismissed.

初，武宗崩，皇太后在興聖宮，鐵木迭兒為丞相，踰月，仁宗即位，因遂相之。 Earlier, when Emperor Wuzong died, the empress dowager was at Xingsheng Palace and Temüder served as chief minister. More than a month later, when Emperor Renzong came to the throne, he retained Temüder as chief minister.

朵兒只持之急，徽政近臣以太后旨，召朵兒隻至宮門，責以違旨意者。 As Duoerzhi pressed the case hard, close associates of the Office of Imperial Provisions, acting on the empress dowager's order, summoned him to the palace gate and rebuked him for defying the imperial will.

對曰：「待罪御史，奉行祖宗法，必得罪人，非敢違太后旨也。」 He replied, "I am a censor who stands ready to accept punishment. In enforcing the laws of our ancestors I must inevitably give offense. I do not defy the empress dowager's will lightly."

帝仁孝，恐誠出太后意，不忍重傷咈之，但罷其相位，而遷朵兒只為集賢學士。 The emperor, filial by nature, feared that the empress dowager truly meant it and could not bear to wound her deeply. He merely removed Temüder from the chief ministership and transferred Duoerzhi to Academician of the Hall of Encouraging Literature.

仁宗崩，英宗猶在東宮，鐵木迭兒復相，乃宣太后旨，召蕭拜住、朵兒隻至徽政院，與徽政使失里門、御史大夫禿忒哈雜問之，責以前違太后旨之罪。 When Emperor Renzong died, Emperor Yingzong was still in the Eastern Palace. Temüder again became chief minister. Proclaiming the empress dowager's order, he summoned Xiao Baizhu and Duoerzhi to the Office of Imperial Provisions and jointly interrogated them with Commissioner Shilimen and Censor-in-Chief Tutuqa, charging them with having earlier defied the empress dowager's will.

果違太后旨，汝豈有今日耶！」 If I had truly defied the empress dowager's will, would you be standing here today?"

鐵木迭兒權勢既成，毫髮之怨，無不報者，太后驚悔，而帝亦覺其所譖毀者皆先帝舊臣。 Once Temüder's power was secure, he avenged even the smallest slight. The empress dowager was shocked and filled with regret, and the emperor came to see that those Temüder had slandered were all former ministers of the late emperor.

英宗即位之十有九日，右丞相鐵木迭兒怨拜住在省中牽制其所為，又發其奸贓、專制等事，遂請依皇太后旨，並前御史中丞楊朵兒只皆殺之。 On the nineteenth day of Emperor Yingzong's reign, Right Chief Minister Temüder, resenting Baizhu's checks on his conduct in the Secretariat and angered by exposures of his bribery and despotism, requested by the empress dowager's order that Baizhu and the former Censor-in-Chief Yang Duoerzhi be executed.

二人罪狀未明，當白太后，使詳讞之，若果無冤，誅之未晚。」 The guilt of these two men is not yet clear. The matter should be reported to the empress dowager and thoroughly investigated. If they are truly not wronged, it will not be too late to execute them."