Grand Empress Dowager (太皇太后)

Overview

The translated histories identify Grand Empress Dowager as a consort and royal family member. This record brings together 7 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese
Personal	Grand Empress Dowager	太皇太后
Title	Empress Dowager	太后
Title	Empress Dowager	皇太后
Title	Grand Empress Dowager	太皇太后

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Title only
Sex: Female

Sex: female
Strongly inferred · songshi:469:s0153

Roles

Consort
Royal Family Member

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 禪位之議 · Western Year: AD 1194
Explicit event contextual date · songshi:469:s0153

References in the histories

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

History of Song, Chapter 469Volume 469 Biographies 228: Eunuchs 4: Shao Chengzhang, Lan Gui Kanglu, Feng Yi, Zhang Quwei, Chen Yuan, Gan Bian, Wang Deqian, Guan Li, Dong Songchen · 7 passages

Open chapter

即諭德謙奏之皇太后，德謙不敢，強之，既而無報。 He ordered Deqian to memorialize the empress dowager; Deqian shrank from it; pressed, he still brought no answer.

汝愚遣戚裏韓侂胄因內侍張宗尹以禪位之議奏，太皇太後曰：“此豈可易言！” Ruyu sent his kinsman Han Tuozhou through eunuch Zhang Zongyin to propose abdication; the Grand Empress Dowager said, “How can such a thing be spoken of lightly!”

禮指天自誓不言，侂胄遂白其事，禮即入宮，泣告太后以時事可憂之狀，且曰：“留丞相已去，所恃者趙知院耳。 Li swore by Heaven he would keep silent; Tuozhou then confided; Li rushed in weeping to tell the empress dowager the realm was in peril: “Chancellor Liu is gone—we have only Director Zhao.

今欲定大計而無太皇太后之命，亦將去矣。” Now he seeks to settle the succession, but without your command he will leave too.”

太后驚曰：“知院，同姓也，事體與他人異。” She cried in alarm, “Director Zhao shares our surname—his case is not ordinary.”

禮曰：“知院未去，恃有太后耳。 Li said, “He stays only because you remain.

太后悟，遂命禮傳旨侂胄以諭汝愚，約明日太后垂簾上其事。 She understood, ordered Li to tell Tuozhou to inform Ruyu, and set the morrow for a curtained audience.