Empress Dowager Wenhui (文惠皇太后王氏)

Overview

The translated histories identify Empress Dowager Wenhui as a consort, family member, and royal family member. This record brings together 9 passages from 2 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Empress Dowager Wenhui	文惠皇太后王氏	Wenhui Huang Taihou Wang shi
Posthumous name	Empress Dowager Wenhui	文惠皇太后	Wenhui Huang Taihou
Title	Grand Lady of Jin	晉國太夫人	Jin guo tai furen
Descriptive kinship	his mother of the Wang clan	妣王氏
Descriptive kinship	Mother Wang	母王氏	mu Wang shi
Personal name	Wang	王氏	Wang shi
Personal	Wang	王氏	Wang shi
Posthumous	Wen Hui	文惠	Wenhui

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Female

Sex: female
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0001, jiuwudaishi:011:s0006, xinwudaishi:002:s0022

Roles

Consort
Family Member
Royal Family Member

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 开平元年秋七月己亥 · Western Year: AD 907
Explicit event contextual date · xinwudaishi:002:s0022, xinwudaishi:002:s0018
Source Date: Text: 開平初 · Western Year: AD 907
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0001

Family

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

Parent of Zhu Quanzhong (朱全忠)
Kinship Term: mother / 妣 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: mother
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: mother · Subject Birth Order: 3
Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son · Object Birth Order: 3
Parentage: biological
Parent of Zhu Yu (朱昱)
Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son · Object Birth Order: 1
Parent of Zhu Cun (朱存)
Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son · Object Birth Order: 2
Spouse of Zhu Cheng (朱誠)
Union Category: marriage
Kinship Term: mother/wife / 母 · Union Category: marriage · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: wife · Object Role: husband

Career and standing

Title: Grand Lady of Jin / 晉國太夫人 · Action: enfeoffed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 以溫貴 · Western Year: AD 907
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:011:s0020
Title: Wen Hui / 文惠 · Action: posthumously-granted
Explicit · xinwudaishi:002:s0022
Title: Empress Dowager Wenhui / 文惠皇太后 · Action: posthumously-honored · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 開平初 · Western Year: AD 907
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0001

Places and affiliations

Place: Bian / 汴 · Relation: resided-at
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0017

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Quoted: true
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0014, jiuwudaishi:011:s0015, jiuwudaishi:011:s0023, jiuwudaishi:011:s0024, jiuwudaishi:011:s0025

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: intercessor · Action: urged-lighter-punishments · Other Person Id: Zhu Quanzhong (朱全忠)
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0003
Kind: personal · Role: subject · Action: welcomed-to-Bian · Place: Bian / 汴
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0013, jiuwudaishi:011:s0016, jiuwudaishi:011:s0017, jiuwudaishi:011:s0018

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: initially-disbelieved-Wen's-rise · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Source Work: Scattered Dreams of the Northern Quarter / 北夢瑣言
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:011:s0014, jiuwudaishi:011:s0015

References in the histories

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

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 11Volume 11 Book of Later Liang 11: Biographies 1: Empresses and Consorts · 8 passages

Open chapter

文惠皇太后王氏，開平初追諡。 Empress Dowager Wenhui (Wang) received her posthumous title early in the Kaiping era.

太祖性孝願，奉太后未嘗小失色，朝夕視膳，為士君子之規範。 The Founder was deeply filial: he never let his manner slip before the Empress Dowager and attended her at every meal, morning and night—a standard for the cultivated man.

帝嚴察用法，無纖毫假貸，太后言之，帝頗為省刑。 The Emperor enforced the law without mercy; when the Empress Dowager intervened, he often eased sentences.

母王氏，攜養寄於同縣人劉崇家。 Their mother Wang entrusted the boys to Liu Chong, a man of the same county.

他日與仲兄存入黃巢軍作賊，伯兄昱與母王氏尚依劉家。 Later Wen and his second brother Cun went off with Huang Chao’s rebels; the eldest, Yu, and Mother Wang remained with the Lius.

王氏惶恐，辭避深藏，不之信，謂人曰：「朱三落拓無行，何處作賊送死，焉能自致富貴？ Wang was afraid, refused, and hid; she told others: "That good-for-nothing Zhu Third is off robbing somewhere—how could he possibly have become rich and powerful?

使者具陳離鄉去裏之由，歸國立功之事，王氏方泣而信。 The envoy explained how Wen had left home, served the dynasty, and won distinction; at last Wang wept and believed.

王氏以溫貴，封晉國太夫人。 With Wen’s rise, Wang was created Grand Lady of Jin.

New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 2Volume 2 Later Liang Annals 2: Taizu 2 · 1 passage

Open chapter

考诚谥曰文穆，庙号烈祖，妣王氏谥曰文惠。 his father Cheng the name Wen Mu and temple name Ancestor Lie, and his mother of the Wang clan the name Wen Hui.