Dou Miao

Empress Dou Miao ( Chinese  竇 妙  /  窦 妙 , Pinyin Dòu Miào , † 172 ), formally Empress Huansi ( hard-working and profound empress ) was an empress of the Han dynasty . She was the third wife of Emperor Huan . After his death in 168, she served as regent for his successor Emperor Ling , assisted by her father Dou Wu and the Confucian scholar Chen Fan . But they soon made enemies of the powerful eunuchs and were killed early. Thereafter, the empress was under house arrest until her death.

Family background and marriage to Emperor Huan

Dou Miao's date of birth is unknown. Her father Dou Wu was a minor official in the administration of Emperor Huan and a well-known Confucian scholar. He also came from a noble family, as a descendant of Dou Rong, who had contributed much to the restoration of the Han dynasty under Emperor Guangwu . Not much is known about her mother's family history.

In 165, when Emperor Huan deposed his second wife, Empress Deng Mengnü , Dou Miao became an imperial concubine. But Emperor Huan did not prefer them. Later that year, however, he considered her in choosing the new empress. At first, Emperor Huan wanted to elevate his favorite concubine, Tian Sheng, to empress, but officials, led by Chen Fan, opposed Tian Sheng's low background. They urged Emperor Huan to make the concubine Dou Miao empress. He gave in to pressure and elevated her to empress later that year. Her father was promoted to an important post that is not known.

In 166, during the first partisan prohibition , Dou Wu stood up for officials accused of wrongdoing by the powerful eunuchs and for the students who had been imprisoned for petitions on their behalf. His intervention prevented many executions. Because of this, Dou Wu and Empress Dou Miao were seen by the officials as a hope for the one-time overthrow of the powerful eunuchs.

As empress mother and regent

In 168, Emperor Huan died without leaving a son. Empress Dou became the mother of the empress and regent. She and her father examined the possible successors in the imperial family of the Liu , and they agreed on the twelve-year-old Liu Hong, the Marquis of Jieduting. He ascended the throne as Emperor Ling . Empress Dou continued to serve as regent. She trusted Chen Fan and her father Dou Wu and gave them great power.

Out of hatred, the Empress Mother Dou had her concubine Tian Sheng executed before the deceased emperor's burial because she was so popular with Emperor Huan.

As regent, Empress Mother Dou was diligent and attentive to important issues, including the suppression of a Qiang uprising . She promoted General Duan Jiong's program of overwhelming the Qiang with numbers, and he succeeded. Nonetheless, he came under fire, and this criticism was probably also directed at the Empress Mother Dou, because he had been incredibly cruel on the campaign. This is believed to have been the last Qiang revolt during the Han Dynasty.

Dou and Chen's argument with the eunuchs

After becoming senior officials, Dou and Chen did a lot to purge the government. They appointed numerous officials who had fallen victim to the first partisan prohibitions and gave them authority to eradicate corruption, especially that among the eunuchs.

The eunuchs defended themselves with flattery for the Empress Mother Dou, who showed them ever more trust, especially Cao Jie and Wang Fu. The scholar Chen Fan and the Empress’s father, Dou Wu, became suspicious and discussed a plan to wipe out the powerful eunuchs. In the summer of 168 they brought this plan to the Empress Mother Dou, who was surprised and refused it on the grounds that the eunuchs had done no harm after all. With their refusal, the plan was dropped.

In the fall of that year, the eunuchs learned of the plan and became angry. Zhu Yu, who got wind of it first, conspired against Chen and Dou when he was 17 eunuchs. They quickly took Emperor Ling into custody (supposedly for his own good), issued edicts to execute Chen and Dou on his behalf, and then kidnapped Empress Mother Dou. They also sent troops to arrest Chen and Dou. Chen was quickly captured and executed, while Dou publicly proclaimed and resisted a eunuch uprising. The eunuchs made General Zhang Huan believe that Dou Wu was a traitor, and Zhang defeated Dou on the battlefield.

Dou committed suicide after the defeat, and the Dou clan was wiped out, with the exception of his wife, who was exiled to Bijing (in what is now northern Vietnam ). Empress mother Dou was placed under house arrest but retained her title.

Late years

Empress Mother Dou was never able to achieve true power as the eunuchs dominated the political scene for the next few years. Her influence was taken over by the empress mother Dong . Zhang Huan, who regretted his act against Dou Wu, tried repeatedly to obtain her release but was unsuccessful. In 171, the eunuch Dong Meng tried to speak in their favor before Emperor Ling by declaring them innocent, and Emperor Ling believed him. Therefore he paid a few visits to the Empress mother Dou and guaranteed her supply of numerous goods. Cao and Wang did not like this, who falsely accused Dong Meng of dishonoring Empress Mother Dong, imprisoning him and executing him.

In 172 the Empress Mother Dou received the news that her mother had died in exile. She was depressed and became sick herself. She died that summer of the year. The powerful eunuchs hated the Dou clan so much that they had their bodies loaded onto a freight wagon and exposed to the weather for a few days, only to be buried according to the custom of the concubines. Due to the resistance of Emperor Ling, she was nevertheless buried with the ceremonies of an empress mother at her husband Huan.

predecessor	Office	successor
Deng menu	Empress of China 165–168	song