Empress Dowager Hu (Northern Wei)
| Empress Hu | |
|---|---|
| Died | 17 May 528 |
| Spouse | Yuan Ke, Emperor Xuanwu |
| Issue | Yuan Xu, Emperor Xiaoming |
| Father | Hu Guozhen |
| Mother | Lady Huangfu |
Empress Dowager Hu (胡太后, personal name unknown) (died 17 May 528), formally Empress Ling (靈皇后, literally "the unattentive empress"), was an empress dowager of the nomadic dynasty Northern Wei (515-528). She was a concubine of Emperor Xuanwu, and she became regent and empress dowager after her son Emperor Xiaoming became emperor after Emperor Xuanwu's death in 515. She was considered to be intelligent but overly lenient, and during her regency (interrupted by a period (520-525) where her overly trusted brother-in-law Yuan Cha seized power), many agrarian rebellions occurred while corruption raged among imperial officials. In 528, she was believed to have poisoned her son Emperor Xiaoming after he tried to have her lover Zheng Yan (鄭儼) executed. This caused the general Erzhu Rong to attack and capture the capital Luoyang. Erzhu threw her into the Yellow River to drown.
It is not known when the future Empress Dowager Hu was born. Her father Hu Guozhen (胡國珍) was the hereditary Earl of Wushi, but appeared to carry no imperial offices initially after he inherited the title in 491. Hu Guozhen's sister was a well-known Buddhist nun, and she often preached inside the palace of Emperor Xuanwu, himself an avid Buddhist. On one of these lecture stints, which lasted several days, she told Emperor Xuanwu's attendants of her niece's beauty. When Emperor Xuanwu heard of this, he decided to take Hu Guozhen's daughter as a concubine—as an imperial consort of the rank Chonghua (充華). Because Consort Hu's aunt was a Buddhist nun, she also became well-versed in Buddhism. She was also said to be literate and capable of making quick decisions.
Because of Northern Wei's tradition that when a crown prince is created, his mother must be put to death, the imperial consorts often prayed that they only wished to give birth to princes who would not be crown prince or princesses, not the crown prince. However, Consort Hu prayed differently—particularly because Emperor Xuanwu lacked a son at this point—that because she did not want to see the empire without a crown prince, she was willing to do so. Eventually, she became pregnant, and her friends inside the palace suggested that she have an abortion. She refused, saying that she would rather die if she could be the mother of the crown prince. in 510, she gave birth to a son, Yuan Xu. Because Emperor Xuanwu had lost several sons by this point, he carefully selected experienced mothers to be Yuan Xu's wet nurses, and prohibited, for a while, either Consort Hu or his wife Empress Gao from seeing him. In 512, Emperor Xuanwu created Yuan Xu crown prince, but, abolishing the custom of putting the crown prince's mother to death, spared Consort Hu.
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