Empress Dowager Lu Huinan
| Lu Huinan | |||||||||
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| Empress Dowager Chongxian 崇憲太后 Grand Empress Dowager |
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| Born | 412 | ||||||||
| Died | 466 (aged 53–54) | ||||||||
| Spouse | Emperor Wen of Liu Song | ||||||||
| Issue | Emperor Xiaowu of Liu Song | ||||||||
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| Full name | |
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Family name: Lu 路 Given name: Huinan 惠男 |
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| Posthumous name | |
| Empress Dowager Zhaohuang 昭皇太后 |
Lu Huinan (Chinese: 路惠男; 412 – February 24, 466), formally Empress Dowager Zhao (昭太后, literally "accomplished empress dowager"), semi-formally Empress Dowager Chongxian (崇憲太后), was an empress dowager of the Chinese dynasty Liu Song. She had been a concubine of Emperor Wen, and she became empress dowager because her son Liu Jun later became emperor (as Emperor Xiaowu).
Lu Huinan came from a humble background, and her father appeared to have been a servant to the powerful Wang clan (descendants of the Jin prime minister Wang Dao). Her brother Lu Qingzhi (路慶之) definitely was a Wang clan servant. She grew up in the Jin and Liu Song capital Jiankang, and she was selected as an imperial consort for Emperor Wen, for her beauty. She had one son, Liu Jun the Prince of Wuling, but was not otherwise favored by Emperor Wen, and as Liu Jun grew and became rotated as a provincial governor throughout his father's reign, Consort Lu often accompanied Liu Jun to the provinces rather than stay in the palace. She also raised another son of Emperor Wen, Liu Yu the Prince of Xiangdong, whose mother Shen Rongji (沈容姬) had died early. After she had given birth to Liu Jun, she carried the rank of Shuyuan (淑媛), the fifth rank for imperial consorts.
In 453, after Emperor Wen's oldest son Liu Shao the Crown Prince had assassinated Emperor Wen and taken the throne himself, Liu Jun rose against his brother from his defense post at Jiang Province (江州, modern Jiangxi and Fujian) and headed east to attack the capital Jiankang. Consort Lu remained at the capital of Jiang Province, Xunyang (尋陽, in modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi) and did not accompany her son on his campaign. Later in the year, after he had defeated and killed Liu Shao and taken the throne himself as Emperor Xiaowu, he had his brother Liu Hong (劉宏) the Prince of Jianping escort both her and his wife Princess Wang Xianyuan to Jiankang. Emperor Xiaowu honored his mother as empress dowager. Because Emperor Xiaowu often stayed in his mother's bedchambers, rumors grew that he was having an incestuous affair with his mother, but there was no conclusive evidence of such an affair.
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