Royals › Empress / Consort
Lady Li
Favourite consort of Emperor Wu of Han and sister of the musician Li Yannian, who hid her wasted face from the emperor on her deathbed and was later honoured as empress
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.
Also known as Empress Xiaowu
- Roles
- Empress / Consort
Lady Li, a favourite of Emperor Wu of Han, came from Zhongshan and from a family of entertainers. The History of the Han (Hanshu) says her brother Li Yannian sang to the emperor of a beauty of the north who could topple cities, and Princess Pingyang revealed he had such a sister; summoned to court, she won the emperor's love and bore Liu Bo, later Prince Ai of Changyi. She died young. When the emperor visited her sickbed she hid her face under the covers, saying illness had ruined her looks, and afterwards told her sisters that love won by beauty fades with it. The emperor buried her with the rites of an empress, and the Hanshu adds that the magician Shaoweng raised her shade behind a curtain, and the emperor wrote a poem asking whether it was she. After Emperor Wu died, Huo Guang honoured his wishes by naming her Empress Xiaowu to share his sacrifices. The Tang poet Bai Juyi retold her story in his ballad Lady Li.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; consort of Emperor Wu