Royals › Empress / Consort
Zhao Feiyan
Empress of Emperor Cheng of Han, a former palace servant trained as a dancer, who was deposed and killed herself when Wang Mang took power
Mural of the event “The Zhao Sisters of Zhaoyang Palace”, which this person took part in.
In the late Western Han, Zhao Feiyan dances before Emperor Cheng of Han at Zhaoyang Palace while Zhaoyi Zhao Hede stands nearby, embodying the sisters' shared dominance of the inner court.
Also known as Empress Xiaocheng
- Roles
- Empress / Consort
The History of the Han (Hanshu) says Zhao Feiyan, empress of Emperor Cheng, began as a palace servant in Chang'an, abandoned at birth and taken back when she survived three days. Placed in the household of Princess Yang'a, she learned singing and dancing and was nicknamed Flying Swallow; the emperor saw her on an incognito visit and brought her and her sister into the palace. After Empress Xu was deposed in 18 BC she was made empress in 16 BC, while her sister became Brilliant Companion and soon displaced her in favour. When Emperor Cheng died her sister killed herself, and the new emperor Ai honoured Feiyan as empress dowager, though an official accused the sister of killing Cheng's infant sons. In 1 BC, after Ai's death, Wang Mang had her demoted and then made a commoner, and she killed herself that day. The intimate scenes of the Unofficial Biography of Feiyan (Feiyan waizhuan), attributed to Ling Xuan of Han, are later fiction absent from the Hanshu.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–1 BCE