Wang Zhi

Wang Zhi was the empress of Emperor Jing of Han and the mother of Emperor Wu; she came from Huaili, and her mother, Zang Er, was a granddaughter of Zang Tu, once king of Yan. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) relates that she was first married to Jin Wangsun and bore him a daughter, but when a diviner foretold that both her daughters would rise high, Zang Er took her back and placed her in the household of the crown prince, Liu Qi. She bore him three daughters and a son, Liu Che, conceived, she said, after dreaming that the sun entered her bosom. In 150 BCE, when the heir Liu Rong was deposed, she was made empress and Liu Che crown prince. On his accession in 141 he honoured her as empress dowager; her half-brother Tian Fen later became chancellor, and the emperor himself brought her eldest daughter, Jin Su, to court. She died in 126 and was buried at Emperor Jing's Yang tomb.