Wei Zifu (; died 9 September 91 BCgengyin day of the 7th month of the 2nd year of the Zheng'he era, per Emperor Wu's biography in Book of Han), posthumously known as Empress Xiaowusi (; ) or Thoughtful Empress Wei (), was an empress consort of the Chinese Han dynasty. She was the second wife of the famous Emperor Wu and his spouse for 49 years. She stayed as his empress for 38 years, the second longest in Chinese history (behind only the 47-year reign of Empress Wang, the wife of Ming dynasty's Wanli Emperor, who lived over 1,600 years later). She was the mother of Emperor Wu's heir apparent Liu Ju and a great-grandmother of Liu Bingyi (Emperor Xuan). She was also an elder half-sister of the famed general Wei Qing, aunt of Huo Qubing, and step-aunt of statesman Huo Guang.
Family background and early years Wei Zifu was born of humble means to a serf family. She was the fourth child and the youngest daughter of a lowly housemaid/servant at the household of Princess Pingyang (平陽公主), Emperor Wu's older sister. Her father presumably died around the time of her birth, as there were few historic records of most of her family members. Her younger half-brother Wei Qing, born not long after her, was an illegitimate child from an extramarital affair by her mother with a low-level official serving the Princess's household. When Wei Zifu was still young, she was recruited as a courtesan at the princess' estate, where she was also trained in dancing and the four arts. Wei Zifu was good at singing and composing, she also had beautiful long hair.(《汉武故事》：“陈皇后废，立卫子夫为皇后。初，上行幸平阳主家，子夫为讴者，善歌，能造曲，每歌挑上，上意动，起更衣，子夫因侍衣得幸。头解，上见其美发，悦之，欢乐。主遂内子夫於宫。”) Hanwu Gushi was a collection of anecdotes, akin to A New Account of the Tales of the World.
Encountering Emperor Wu and consortship Emperor Wu's relationship with his newly-wed first wife, Empress Chen, started to strain not long after he ascended to the throne at age 16. Empress Chen was an older cousin who was at least 8 years his senior, and their union was arranged from the political alliance between his mother Consort Wang Zhi (王夫人) and his paternal aunt Grand Princess Guantao (館陶長公主), when he was barely 6 years old. The marriage was consummated at some point after Emperor Wu was then created the crown prince, but soon soured after Empress Chen was unable to bear him any children after many years. This tension further deteriorated after the young Emperor Wu, whose political survival at the time relied heavily on lobbying from his aunt/mother-in-law after the defeat of his ambitious reform in 140 BC by his grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Dou, was forced to submit to the spoilt and abusive behavior of Empress Chen.
After conducting an annual ceremonial ritual at Bashang (灞上, between present-day Baqiao District and Lantian County of Xi'an, Shaanxi) in the spring of 139 BC, Emperor Wu took the opportunity to pay a casual visit to his older sister Princess Pingyang, whose household happened to be nearby. Princess Pingyang, intending to gain favour with her royal brother by imitating the deeds of their aunt Princess Guantao (who gained favor with their father Emperor Jing by routinely procuring new concubines for him), had prepared a collection of young women to offer for her brother's concubinage to establish herself political leverage (girls from lowly background like Wei Zifu were however not considered). However, the plan did not work – all her candidates failed to impress the young emperor. Realizing her brother was disappointed and bored, the Princess called in her in-house dancers for entertainment. This time, Emperor Wu set his eyes on Wei Zifu and was immediately attracted by her beauty and grace. Taking the opportunity of visiting the restroom, the young emperor took advantage upon and consummated with the young singer, whom the observant Princess Pingyang had ordered to follow in and serve as a handmaid. Now excited over the romantic encounter, Emperor Wu immediately conferred a thousand sycees of gold to his sister as reward, who in turn offered the new girl to him as a gift. Emperor Wu then took Wei Zifu back to Chang'an, bringing along her younger half-brother Wei Qing as well to serve as a palace stableboy.
However, what Wei Zifu would later experience was far from a lovely Cinderella story. Upon hearing the arrival of the new girl, the extremely jealous and intolerant Empress Chen threw a tantrum and made sure Emperor Wu would abandon his idea of keeping Wei Zifu as a concubine. Wei Zifu was then demoted to an insignificant palace maid and was largely neglected. More than a year later, feeling hopeless with her life inside the palaces, Wei Zifu blended into a queue of palace maids waiting to be expelled (normally those who were too aged or incompetent in palace services) in the hope of getting out. Coincidentally, Emperor Wu happened to be there inspecting the expulsion process, and love soon re-flamed when he saw the tearful girl pleading to go home. By this point, Emperor Wu had just scored his first political victory with the successful intervention of Dong'ou and consolidated enough power, and thus no longer needed to appease Empress Chen and Princess Guantao. Wei Zifu was made to stay and fell pregnant very shortly later.
Wei Zifu's pregnancy was exciting news for Emperor Wu, who was upset over himself being blamed for Empress Chen's infertility. His throne was previously under threat due to his political clash with conservative factions led by his grandmother during the failed 140 BC reform, and many nobles schemed of deposing him under the excuse of "being incapable of fathering children" (the inability to propagate royal bloodline was a serious matter), and making his distant uncle Liu An the successor. This pregnancy cleared Emperor Wu's name and silenced his political enemies, and ensured Wei Zifu becoming favoured over Empress Chen.
Empress Chen became exceedingly jealous but could do little to Wei Zifu as she was under Emperor Wu's direct protection. Empress Chen's mother, Princess Guantao, then attempted retribution by kidnapping Wei Qing, who was then serving as a horseman in Jianzhang Camp (建章營, Emperor Wu's royal guards), and have him murdered. However, Wei Qing was rescued from the princess' estate by his friends – a group of fellow palace guards led by Gongsun Ao (公孫敖), who reported the entire incident to Emperor Wu. In response and as a sign of annoyance towards Empress Chen and her mother, Emperor Wu publicly made Wei Zifu a consort (夫人, a concubine position just beneath the Empress), and appointed Wei Qing the triple role of Chief of Jianzhang Camp (建章監), Chief of Staff (侍中) and Chief Councillor (太中大夫), effectively making him one of Emperor Wu's closest lieutenants. Consort Wei then went on to monopolize Emperor Wu's love for over a decade, and bore him three daughters.
In 130 BC, Empress Chen was found to have resorted to witchcraft to curse other concubines in attempt to restore her husband's love to her. Following an investigation/crackdown under the widely feared prosecutor Zhang Tang (張湯), which saw the execution of more than 300 people, Empress Chen was officially deposed for this misconduct against imperial moral standards, and exiled to the remote and lonely Long Gate Palace (長門宮), a suburban household that Princess Guantao once offered to Emperor Wu as a gift for tolerating her scandalous relationship with her godson Dong Yan (董偃).
As Empress The deposition of Empress Chen had left the position open, and Emperor Wu now had no official principal spouse. In 129 BC, Wei Qing, who was already a member of Emperor Wu's "insider circle" (內朝) of government officials, led an army of 10,000 cavalry and scored the first proper Han victory against the Xiongnu. The following year, Consort Wei gave birth to Emperor Wu's first son, Liu Ju, and the overjoyed Emperor Wu (who was already 28 years of age when the son was born) immediately made her empress later that year on 30 April.jiazi day of the 3rd month of the 1st year of the Yuan'shuo era, per vol.18 of Zizhi Tongjian Liu Ju was later created crown prince on 1 June 122 BC.dingmao day of the 4th month of the 1st year of the Yuan'shou era, per vol.19 of Zizhi Tongjian
After Wei Zifu became Empress, Wei Qing, now considered part of Emperor Wu's extended family, would be entrusted with more prominent roles in the war effort against Xiongnu, and was appointed the Generalissimo (大將軍) of All Armed Forces after his crushing victory over Xiongnu's Worthy Prince of the Right (右賢王) in 124 BC. Empress Wei's nephew Huo Qubing was also a distinguished military tactician with a series of highly successful campaigns over the control of the Hexi Corridor. By 123 BC, the Wei family had five marquesses and achieved top family honour, a remarkable feat for a clan from serf background.
Despite the fact that the rise of the Wei family largely owed credit to the military talent of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, Wei Zifu was often seen as the backbone of the family. A contemporary folk song sang:
Because the great achievements of this Wei family, many later Han emperors considered marrying concubines with the surname Wei as a way of attaining good fortune.
During her tenure, Wei Zifu was recorded as a modest, careful and low-key empress, who tried her best to keep her clan members in line and out of trouble. The legendary historian Sima Qian, despite often displaying a sceptical and condescending attitude towards Emperor Wu's extended families, described Empress Wei as "fine in virtues" (嘉夫德若斯).
As the years went by, Emperor Wu's sexual attraction to Empress Wei faded and he began to favour other concubines, including Consort Wang (王夫人), Consort Li (李夫人) and Lady Zhao (趙婕妤, mother of Liu Fuling). However, he continued to respect Empress Wei's judgment and entrusted her to govern palaces affairs: Palaces of Changshen, Changle and Wayang, especially Shaofu (Emperor Wu's inner court who managed all military and state affairs and kept all war secrets and confidential government information), when he was absent from the capital, and assigned her son Crown Prince Liu Ju as the regent for all governmental and border affairs. Emperor Wu's trust in Empress Wei was such that when she wanted to inform him of important decisions to be made in the palaces during his absence, Emperor Wu received her reports verbally and most of the time refused to listen to them. He fully trusted Empress Wei's judgment on palaces' affairs.
Later on, civil unrest broke out between Consort Li's family and Wei Zifu's family, leading to Li's downfall and several of Li's relatives being executed.
The Crown Prince revolt and death In his advanced age, Emperor Wu became paranoid and suspicious over the possible use of witchcraft against him. A series of witchcraft persecutions would begin, and large numbers of people, many of whom were high officials and their families, were accused of witchcraft and executed, usually with their clans. Soon, these witchcraft persecutions would become intertwined in the succession struggles and erupt into a major catastrophe.