Yin Lihua

Empress Yin Lihua ( Chinese  阴丽华 , Pinyin Yīn Lìhuá ; * 5 AD ; † 64 ), formally Empress Guanglie ( 光烈 , Guāng Liè , re- erecting and meritorious empress ), was an empress of the Han Dynasty . She was the second consort of the Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), although she had married him before his first Empress, Empress Guo Shengtong . Yin Lihua was famous for beauty and gentleness. With their posthumous name began a custom in the Eastern Han Dynasty , according to which the posthumous names of the empresses were not only formed after that of their consorts (as was the custom in the Western Han Dynasty ), but also with an additional attribute Signs were provided.

Family background and marriage to Liu Xiu

Yin Linhua was born and raised in the Nanyang Headquarters (roughly today's Nanyang , Hebei ). Her future husband also came from there. As a child, Liu Xiu was charmed by her beauty. According to Hou Hanshu , Liu Xiu is said to have been so impressed by the city commander on a visit to the capital, Chang'an , that he (still bewitched by Yin Lihua's beauty) remarked, “If I was going to be an officer, I wanted one To be city commander; if I was to get married, I wanted to marry Yin Lihua. "

Yin Lihua's father died early when she was six years old, and his name is not recorded; her mother's name was Deng. Yin Lihua had at least four brothers: Yin Xing, Yin Jiu, Yin Shi, and Yin Xin. (Xing and Xin had the same mother as her; Yin Shi was a son of her father's previous wife, and Yin Jiu's origins are not clear). According to the Hou Han Shu , the Yin family descended from the Qi Prime Minister Guan Zhong .

In 23, Liu Xiu, then a civil servant in the newly established Han government under Emperor Gengshi , married Yin Lihua. When he was later summoned to the Yellow River , she returned home.

As an imperial concubine

Eventually, Liu Xiu broke with Emperor Gengshi, and declared himself Emperor Guangwu of Han. In the same year he designated Luoyang as the new capital and sent subordinates to bring Yin Lihua to the capital and make him an imperial concubine. At that time he also married Guo Shengtong, the niece of a local warlord , the Prince of Zhending, and she bore him a son, Liu Jiang .

Emperor Guangwu was 26 ready to choose an empress and gravitated towards his first love, Ms. Yin. However, because she did not have a son at the time, she refused and suggested Guo Shengtong instead. Therefore, Emperor Guangwu made her empress and her son crown prince.

Ms. Yin gave birth to his son Liu Yang in 28 .

Ms. Deng and Yin Xin were killed by robbers in 33. Emperor Guangwu mourned her very much and made Yin Jiu Marquis. He also wanted to pay the honor to Yin Xing, but he humbly refused and further recommended Ms. Yin always to be submissive and not seek honor for her relatives. She took this advice to heart.

As the imperial concubine, Yin Lihua was still favored by the emperor even though she was not the empress. Like these she bore him five sons.

As empress

Empress Guo had long since lost the emperor's favor by 41. She kept complaining about what angered him. He deposed her in 41 and made Lihua empress instead of her Yin. Instead of imprisoning Guo, he made her son Liu Fu Prince of Zhongshan and named her Prince Mother of Zhongshan. He made her brother Guo Kuang a high official and rewarded him with great benefits, perhaps as a kind of alimony.

Because he did not have the heart to depose him, the emperor left the crown prince (Guo's son) in his position. The Crown Prince, however, considered this to be politically dangerous and repeatedly asked to be allowed to return the title. 43 Emperor Guangwu gave in and instead made Prince Yang, the eldest son of Empress Yin, crown prince.

Empress Yin appears rarely in history, which may be a sign that she was not trying to gain much influence. Her three brothers, on the other hand, became powerful officials and margraves, although they were in low positions and did not seek high service. The Empress favored Liu Yan, the youngest son of the previous Empress Guo, and adopted him as her son after her death in 52.

Emperor Guangwu died in 57, and Crown Prince Yang ascended the throne as Emperor Ming . Empress Yin received the title of Empress Mother .

As an empress mother

Empress mother Yin seems to have had some influence on her son, but far less than the previous empress mothers.

A tragedy struck her family in 59. Yin Feng, the son of her brother Yin Jiu, had married a daughter of the deceased Guangwu Emperor: Liu Shou, the princess of Liyi. (It is not clear whether she was also a daughter of Empress Mother Yin.) Princess Liyi was arrogant and jealous, and Yin Feng finally killed her in anger, after which he was executed. Yin Jiu and his wife committed suicide. Apparently, Yin Jiu was held in high esteem posthumously after this event, and later an edict from Empress Ma , daughter-in-law of Empress Mother Yin, extolled him.

In 1960, at her request, Emperor Ming made his concubine Ma, the daughter of General Ma Yuan , empress. The Empress Mother favored her because she was meek and not jealous.

In the same year, Emperor Ming and Empress Mother visited the homeland of Emperor Guangwu and the Empress Mother, which was rare. There, in Nanyang, they spent their days at feasts with the distant Deng and Yin relatives of the Empress mother.

Empress mother Yin died in 64 and was buried with her husband, Emperor Guangwu.

literature

• Rafe de Crespigny : A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD) (= Handbook of Oriental Studies. Sect. 4 = China. Vol. 19). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2007, ISBN 978-90-04-15605-0 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Guo Shengtong	Empress of China 41–57	Ma