Qin and Han · Consort

Empress Wang 王皇后

Wang Huanghou

Attested BC 49 - AD 5

Passages
12
Chapters
2
Histories
1

Overview

The translated histories identify Empress Wang as a consort and royal family member. This record brings together 12 passages from 2 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Found inBook of Han

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Empress Wang 王皇后 Wang Huanghou
Title Empress 皇后 Huanghou
Personal Empress Dowager Wang 王皇后 Wáng Huánghòu
Title Empress Dowager Yuan 元后
Title Empress Wang 王皇后
Surname Wang 王氏 Wang

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Female

Roles

  • Consort
  • Royal Family Member

Life and dates

Attested activity

  • Source Date: Text: 元帝至平帝時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 49 · End: AD 5
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:093:s0050, hanshu:093:s0072
  • Source Date: Text: 初元元年三月丙午 · Western Year: BC 48
    Explicit · hanshu:010:s0021

Family

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

  • Spouse of Emperor Yuan (元帝)
    Kinship Term: empress / 皇后 · Union Category: primary-marriage
  • Spouse of Emperor Yuan (孝元皇帝)
    Kinship Term: empress / 皇后 · Union Category: primary-marriage · Relationship State: active
  • Sibling of Wang Feng (王鳳)
    Kinship Term: maternal uncle of her son / 元舅 · Shared Parentage: uncertain
  • Parent of Crown Prince (皇太子)
    Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son
  • Parent of Emperor Cheng (成帝)
    Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son

Career and standing

  • Title: Empress / 皇后 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 初元元年三月丙午 · Western Year: BC 48
    Explicit · hanshu:010:s0021

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

References in the histories

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

Book of Han, Chapter 10Volume 9: Annals of Emperor Yuan · 1 passage
Open chapter
Book of Han, Chapter 93Volume 82: Wang Shang, Shi Dan and Fu Xi · 11 passages
Open chapter
商不盡忠納善以輔至德，知聖主崇孝，遠別不親，後庭之事皆受命皇太后，太后前聞商有女，欲以備後宮，商言有固疾，後有耿定事，更詭道因李貴人家內女，執左道以亂政，誣罔悖大臣節，故應是而日蝕。 Wang Shang has not served with full loyalty or accepted good counsel to support your supreme virtue. Knowing that a sage ruler honors filial piety and that the empress dowager governs the inner palace, he refused when the empress dowager earlier asked for his daughter for the harem, pleading chronic illness. After the Geng Ding affair he tried again through the household of the newly favored Lady Li to smuggle a daughter inside. He practices heterodox ways that corrupt government and violates every standard of a chief minister—hence the eclipse.