Royals › Empress / Consort
Empress Xiao
Empress of Emperor Yang of Sui, a daughter of the Western Liang ruler, who after her husband's murder at Jiangdu lived among rebels and the Turks before returning to Chang'an in 630
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 Xiaohuang Hou
- Roles
- Empress / Consort
Empress Xiao was a daughter of Xiao Kui, Emperor Ming of the Western Liang; because a birth in the second month was thought unlucky in the south, she was raised in the home of her maternal uncle Zhang Ke. In 582 she was chosen as consort of Yang Guang, Prince of Jin, and when he took the throne as Emperor Yang in 605 she became empress. The Book of Sui (Suishu) says she wrote a rhapsody as a veiled warning against his endless tours. After her husband was killed at Jiangdu in 618 she passed into the camp of Yuwen Huaji, then to Dou Jiande, and was finally taken north by Princess Yicheng, wife of the Turkic khagan. When Tang armies broke the Eastern Turks in 630 she was brought back to Chang'an. She died in 647 and was buried beside Emperor Yang at Yangzhou with the posthumous name Min. Excavations at Caozhuang near Yangzhou in 2013 identified one of two tombs there as hers.
Life and times
Dates 567 CE–647 CE (birth by another account 566)