Empress Wei (; personal name unknown; died July 21, 710)According to her biography in the Old Book of Tang, Lady Wei was killed along with Wu Yanxiu and her daughter Princess Anle on the dingwei day of the 6th month of the 4th year of the Jinglong era of Tang Zhongzong's reign. This date corresponds to 28 July 710 in the Gregorian calendar. However, volume 209 of the Zizhi Tongjian recorded that Wei was killed on the gengzi day of the 6th month of the 1st year of the Jingyun era of Tang Ruizong's reign; this date corresponds to 21 July 710 on the Gregorian calendar.[(景龙四年六月)丁未，...,后惶骇遁入殿前飞骑营，及武延秀、安乐公主皆为乱兵所杀。] Old Book of Tang vol 51. / [(景云元年六月)庚子,...韦后惶惑走入飞骑营，有飞骑斩首献于隆基。] Zizhi Tongjian vol. 209. was an empress consort of the Chinese Tang dynasty. She was the second wife of Emperor Zhongzong (Li Xian), who reigned twice, and during his second reign, she tried to emulate the example of her mother-in-law Wu Zetian in accumulating power to eventually take the emperor’s throne. From the beginning of Emperor Zhongzong’s second reign in 705, Empress Wei was de facto in charge of most governmental affairs, though formally not regent. Emperor Zhongzong's death in 710 — traditionally believed to be a poisoning she carried out together with her daughter Princess Anle (Li Guo'er) — made her the empress dowager, and she took formal power as regent de jure during the minority of Emperor Shang of Tang. After reigning for 17 days, she was overthrown and killed in a coup led by Emperor Zhongzong's nephew Li Longji (later Emperor Xuanzong) and Emperor Zhongzong's sister Princess Taiping.
When Emperor Zhongzong was Crown Prince during the reign of his mother Wu Zetian, he took Empress Wei as his consort. In the first year of the Sisheng era (684), she was installed as Empress. However, Emperor Zhongzong’s attempt to assert independence from his mother, Wu Zetian—encouraged by Empress Wei—led to his deposition in the same year, and she accompanied him in exile to Fangzhou (present-day Fang County, Hubei). Empress Wei gave birth to Crown Prince Yide (Li Chongrun) and four princesses: Princess Yongtai (Li Xianhui), Princess Yongshou, Princess Changning, and Princess Anle (Li Guo'er). In the first year of the Shenlong era (705), after Emperor Zhongzong was restored to the throne, Empress Wei colluded with Wu Sansi and others to form an alliance known as the Wu-Wei clique, in order to gain power. Empress Wei became the de facto ruler of China.
As empress, she indulged Princess Anle in her decisions, such as selling government official positions to wealthy merchants, ordering the making of a skirt made from the feathers of a hundred different birds, and ordering the construction of Dingkun Pond, a large and elaborate artificial lake. Empress Wei was a Buddhist, and extensively constructed new monasteries and temples. During these years, treacherous and unscrupulous individuals in the court often waited outside the palace to privately arrange licentious outings with palace maids. Empress Wei and Princess Anle’s blatant and rampant selling of government positions led to significant chaos in imperial court.
In the fourth year of the Jinglong era (710), Emperor Wei is believed to have conspired together with Princess Anle in the poisoning of Emperor Zhongzong. They installed Li Chongmao (Emperor Shang of Tang) as emperor, and Empress Wei became the empress dowager. Due to Emperor Shang’s young age, Empress Dowager Wei assumed de facto power, controlled the government, and established an imperial court dominated by the Wei faction loyal to her. Just 17 days later, Princess Taiping and Li Longji (the later Emperor Xuanzong) launched a successful palace coup, killing Empress Wei, Princess Anle, and all their followers in court.
Fan Wenlan's General History of China (Volume Three) states: "Empress Wei only had tyrannical actions, but lacked Wu Zetian's political talent. Foolish cowardice combined with foolish tyranny; while the forms played out were quite similar, the results were completely different." Empress Wei’s attempt to emulate Wu Zetian’s rise to power, and its destructive consequences, led some historians to label this period as the Wu-Wei Disturbance.
Nevertheless, female dominance at court did not come to an end until Princess Taiping’s suicide, which followed a power struggle during the coup of 713, when her nephew Li Longji seized power to become Emperor Xuanzong. Women’s power and involvement in Tang imperial court politics continued, though to lesser extents, until Empress Zhang’s execution in 762.
First stint as crown princess It is not known when Empress Wei was born, or if she had a personal name. She was the daughter of Wei Xuanzhen, a military advisor, and Lady Cui. She was also the sister of Buddhist monk Jingjue (淨覺), who is believed to be the author of Lengqie shizi ji. During the reign of her husband's grandfather Emperor Taizong, her grandfather Wei Hongbiao () served as the military advisor to Emperor Taizong's son Li Ming () the Prince of Cao. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, when Li Zhe (later Emperor Zhongzong) was the crown prince, he married Wei as his second wife, making her the crown princess.As Li Zhe became crown prince in 680, and their son Li Chongrun was born in 682, the marriage must have taken place in either 680 or 681.
At the time that they were married, Li Zhe's father Emperor Gaozong promoted her father Wei Xuanzhen () from being the military advisor to the prefect of Pu Prefecture (, roughly modern Ziyang, Sichuan) (eighth rank, second class, second division) to be the much more important post of being prefect of Yu Prefecture (, roughly modern Zhumadian, Henan) (fourth rank, first class, second division).This is per the Old Book of Tang, vol.51. However, according to the Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 203, this promotion took place after Li Zhe took the throne as emperor in 684. As crown princess, she gave birth to her and Li Zhe’s only son, Li Chongzhao, in 682. She also gave birth to at least one daughter, Princess Changning, and possibly another (Li Xianhui, later Princess Yongtai).
First stint as empress Emperor Gaozong died in late 683, and Li Zhe took the throne as Emperor Zhongzong. However, actual power was in the hands of his mother Empress Wu, now empress dowager. In spring 684, Emperor Zhongzong made Crown Princess Wei the empress. He soon wanted to promote Wei Xuanzhen to be Shizhong (侍中), the head of the examination bureau of government (門下省, Menxia Sheng) and a post considered one for a chancellor. This move, as well as another wish of his — to make the son of his wet nurse an official of the fifth rank — were opposed by the chancellor Pei Yan. As they argued, Emperor Zhongzong, in anger, remarked:
Pei, in fear, informed Empress Dowager Wu. Less than two months after Emperor Zhongzong had taken the throne, Empress Dowager Wu issued an edict deposing Emperor Zhongzong, reducing him to the title of Prince of Luling. She then made his younger brother Li Dan, the Prince of Yu, ascend the throne as Emperor Ruizong. Li Chongzhao, who had been given the title of Deputy Crown Prince by Emperor Gaozong, was reduced to commoner rank and Wei Xuanzhen, along with his family, were exiled to Qin Prefecture (欽州, roughly modern Qinzhou, Guangxi). Empress Dowager Wu soon ordered that Li Zhe and his family first be delivered to Fang Prefecture (房州, in modern Shiyan, Hubei), and then Jun Prefecture (均州, also in modern Shiyan), to be held under house arrest at the same house that his uncle Li Tai had been placed after Li Tai was deposed in 643.
In exile Li Zhe was constantly in fear in exile, as Empress Dowager Wu had previously shown willingness to kill her own children — having forced his older brother Li Xián to commit suicide in 684 and having been rumored to have poisoned another older brother, Li Hong, in 675 — and whenever imperial messengers were arriving from then-capital Luoyang, he would consider committing suicide, fearing that they brought orders for even worse fates for him. Princess Wei would repeatedly tell him:
During this time, Li Zhe and Princess Wei were deeply in love with each other. At one point, he told her:
While in exile, she gave birth to their youngest daughter, Li Guo'er (later Princess Anle). Her name Guo'er meant "child who was wrapped", referring to how, when she was born, Li Zhe had to take off his outer coat and wrap her in it. Li Zhe and Princess Wei both greatly favored this child born in distress.
Meanwhile, while Li Zhe and Princess Wei were in exile, so were Wei Xuanzhen and his family. After Wei Xuanzhen died soon thereafter, a local tribal chief, Ning Chengji (寧承基), demanded to marry Princess Wei's younger sister. When Princess Wei's mother Lady Cui refused, Ning killed her and her four sons Wei Xun (韋洵), Wei Hao (韋浩), Wei Dong (韋洞), and Wei Ci (韋泚).
While Li Zhe and Princess Wei were in exile, Empress Dowager Wu had, in 690, forced Li Zhe's brother Li Dan to yield the throne to her, interrupting the Tang dynasty and establishing her own Zhou dynasty with her as "emperor" (thereafter known as Wu Zetian). She created the now-removed Li Dan as her crown prince, but constantly suspected him of secretly plotting against her, and in 693, she killed his wife Crown Princess Liu and concubine Consort Dou, and further investigated him for treason, stopping the investigation only when his servant, An Jinzang, cut open his own belly to swear that Li Dan would never commit treason. She nevertheless repeatedly considered replacing him with her nephews Wu Chengsi the Prince of Wei and Wu Sansi the Prince of Liang.
By 698, however, the chancellor Di Renjie had convinced Wu Zetian that it was to her sons, not her nephews, that she should turn for support. Di's fellow chancellors Wang Fangqing and Wang Jishan, as well as Wu Zetian's lovers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong and her confidant Ji Xu also supported the idea of summoning Li Zhe from exile. In spring 698, Wu Zetian summoned Li Zhe and his family back to Luoyang.
Second stint as crown princess Once Li Zhe was back in Luoyang, Li Dan offered to yield the crown prince position to his older brother, and Wu Zetian agreed. In fall 698, she created Li Zhe crown prince and had him change his name back to the original name Li Xiǎn (note different tone than his brother) (although she soon also had him change his surname to her surname Wu—thus making him Wu Xiǎn). Princess Wei again became crown princess. Her son Li Chongzhao—who had by now changed his name to Li Chongrun to observe naming taboo for Wu Zetian's personal name Zhao—was created the Prince of Shao. There are many glorious state paintings of this in the forbidden city.