Yan Ji

Empress Yan Ji († 126 ), formally Empress Ansi ( peaceful and profound empress ), was an empress of the Han dynasty . She was the wife of Emperor An and was known for her conspiratorial and nepotistic demeanor, both as Empress and as Empress mother . However, her plan to usurp power with her brothers failed and her clan was executed.

Family background and marriage to Kaiser An

Yan Ji's father, Yan Chang (閻 暢), was the son of Yan Zhang (閻 章). This in turn had been an official under Emperor Ming , and his two sisters were imperial concubines . Yan Zhang has been described as a capable civil servant whose career was overseen by Emperor Ming.

Young Yan Ji is described as intelligent and beautiful, and in 107 she was chosen to be the concubine of Emperor An, who was then 13 years old. Soon she became his favorite concubine. In 108 he made her empress, although she was very jealous. In the same year she poisoned the concubine Li, who had given birth to a son to the emperor, Liu Bao (劉 保).

As empress

During his reign, Emperor An was overshadowed by his regent, the Empress Mother Deng Sui . But after she died in 121, he strengthened his position and ousted her clan by installing his confidants in their positions. He forced many members of the Deng clan to commit suicide. Among his confidants were the Empress's brothers, Yan Xian (閻 顯), Yan Jing (閻 景), Yan Yao (閻 耀) and Yan Yan (閻 晏). Empress Yan Ji herself increasingly influenced her husband's actions, and often to the detriment of the empire. In 124 she falsely accused nine-year-old Liu Bao, who at the time was Emperor An's only son and had been made Crown Prince. Emperor An deposed Prince Bao and made him Prince of Jiyin .

As an empress mother

In 125 Emperor An died suddenly while on a trip to Wancheng (in what is now Nanyang , Henan ). The Empress who accompanied him did not immediately announce his demise, but rather conspired with her brothers and the powerful eunuchs Jiang Jing and Fan Feng to find an alternative to Prince Bao. They chose a younger cousin of Emperor An, Liu Yi, the Marquis of Beixiang , and made him emperor over Liu Bao's head. They made this decision because Liu Yi was young and easy to control.

The Yan clan soon gained power in agreement with Jiang Jing. They slandered many confidants of the Emperor An, including his step-uncle Geng Bao, his nurse Wang Sheng and the eunuch Fan Feng. Fan was executed while Geng and Wang and their families were exiled. The Yan clan enjoyed themselves believing that they were in power. But an illness carried off the young emperor.

Since the eunuch Sun Cheng was certain that Prince Bao was the rightful emperor, he conspired with Prince Bao's assistant Changxing Qu and several other eunuchs to establish himself as emperor. When the young empress died that same year, Yan Ji and her brothers kept their deaths a secret and called the sons of the imperial princes to the capital because they wanted to bypass Prince Bao again. A few days later, Sun Cheng and 18 other eunuchs launched a surprise attack on the palace, killing Jiang Jing and some eunuchs from his faction. They forced his colleague Li Run to lead their coup. They received Prince Bao in the palace and proclaimed him emperor ( Emperor Shun ). The eunuchs fought with the troops of Empress Mother Yan Ji for a few days until they defeated her and her brothers. The Yan clan were wiped out while the Empress Mother was imprisoned in her palace.

Some officials recommended Emperor Shun to depose Empress Mother Yan Ji. After much deliberation, the emperor refused to do this and continued to treat it with due honors. Despite all this, Yan Ji died in the spring of 126, perhaps out of fear and mourning for her family. She was buried with her husband, Emperor An.

predecessor	Office	successor
Deng Sui	Empress of China 108–125	Liang Na