Royals › Empress / Consort
Yang Lihua
Eldest daughter of Sui founder Yang Jian and empress of Northern Zhou's Emperor Xuan, who resented her father's usurpation and refused to remarry
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
Yang Lihua was the eldest daughter of Yang Jian, the future Emperor Wen of Sui, and Empress Dugu. In 573 she was married to the Northern Zhou crown prince Yuwen Yun, and when he became Emperor Xuan she was made empress; after he named five empresses at once she was styled Great Empress of Heaven. Gentle and free of jealousy, she was once ordered to kill herself by her erratic husband and was saved only when her mother came to the palace and beat her head on the floor until it bled. When Emperor Xuan died in 580 she became empress dowager to the child Emperor Jing, while her father, as chancellor, took power and in 581 replaced the Zhou with his own Sui dynasty, which she openly resented. Made Princess of Leping in 586, she refused her father's attempts to have her remarry. She died in 609 in the Hexi corridor while travelling west with Emperor Yang, aged forty-eight, and was buried with Emperor Xuan in his Ding tomb.
Life and times
Dates 561 CE–609 CE