Empress Dowager Yaonian Yanmujin

Yaonian Yanmujin (遙輦巖母斤) or Xiao Yanmujin (蕭巖母斤) (died December 18, 933), formally Empress Xuanjian (宣簡皇后), was an empress dowager of the Khitan Liao Dynasty. She was the mother of Liao's founder Emperor Taizu of Liao (Yelü Abaoji) and the wife of his father Yelü Saladi (耶律薩剌的). During the reign of Emperor Taizu's son Emperor Taizong, she was grand empress dowager.

It is not known when Yaonian Yanmujin was born. (She is referred to in traditional historical sources (such as the History of Liao) as Xiao Yanmujin because, according to the History of Liao, Emperor Taizu greatly admired Emperor Gao of Han, and so referred to his own Yelü clan by the name of Liu as well, while he had the names of the traditional wife clans of Yelü chieftains — the most prominent of whom included the Yishi (乙室) and Bali (拔裏) clans — change their names to Xiao (after Emperor Gao's prime minister Xiao He), and thus almost all Liao empresses, both actual and posthumously honored ones, were known by the surname of Xiao.) Yaonian Yanmujin was of the Yaonian clan, and was a daughter of the chancellor Yaonian Tila (遙輦剔剌).

At some point, Yaonian Yanmujin married the Yelü chieftain Yelü Saladi. She bore him six children — five of his six sons, including his oldest son Yelü Abaoji, and one daughter.

After Yelü Abaoji succeeded Yelü Saladi as the Yelü chief, he conquered the other Khitan tribes by force, and by 872, he had declared himself the emperor of a new Khitan Empire (which would later become known as Liao) as its Emperor Taizu. He honored his mother Yaonian Yamujin as empress dowager. Still, despite her honored title, her daughter-in-law Empress Shulü Ping, because of Empress Shulü's own battlefield accomplishments, refused to bow to her (or Empress Shulü's own mother) and instead made them bow to herself, stating, "I only bow to Heaven, not to humans."

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