Royals › Empress / Consort
Bo Ji
Consort of the Han founder Liu Bang, once in the harem of Wei Bao, who bore the future Emperor Wen and escaped Empress Lu's purge because she had seldom been favoured
In a spring palace garden, a pavilion with round windows stands over a pond of goldfish; a peony-painted round fan, a zither and a lacquer box of pearl hairpins lie in the foreground, and one small figure in a long-sleeved gown stands at the far end of a covered walkway.
- Roles
- Empress / Consort
Bo Ji was the mother of Emperor Wen of Han. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says her father came from Wu county and had an affair under the Qin with a woman of the Wei royal house, who bore her. Her mother placed her in the palace of Wei Bao, king of Wei, where the physiognomist Xu Fu foretold that she would bear a Son of Heaven. After Wei Bao turned against Han and was destroyed, she was sent to the palace weaving rooms, where Liu Bang saw her and took her into his harem, but only after more than a year did he call for her; she bore Liu Heng. When Liu Bang died and Empress Lu confined his favourites, Bo Ji, rarely favoured, was let go to her son's fief of Dai. In 180 BC, after the Lu clan was destroyed, the ministers made her son emperor and she became empress dowager; she died in 155 BC and was buried at Nanling.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–155 BCE