Empress He (Tang dynasty)

Empress He (何皇后, personal name unknown) (d. January 22, 906), formally Empress Xuanmu (宣穆皇后) as honored by Later Tang, semi-formally known as Empress Jishan (積善皇后) (after the palace she resided in, Jishan Palace), was the wife of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang (Li Jie/Li Ye) near the end of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, and the mother of two of his sons, Li You/Li Yu and Emperor Ai of Tang (Li Zuo/Li Zhu). Her husband, she, and her sons would all die at the hands of the warlord Zhu Quanzhong, who would eventually take over the Tang throne and establish his own Later Liang.

It was not known when the future Empress He was born. She was from Zi Prefecture (梓州, in modern Mianyang, Sichuan), and her family was not prominent. She became a consort of Li Jie's while he was the Prince of Shou. It was said that she was beautiful and wise, and therefore was favored by Li Jie.

After Li Jie (who then changed his name to Li Min, and then to Li Ye) became emperor (as Emperor Zhaozong) in 888 after the death of his brother Emperor Xizong, he created Consort He an imperial consort with the rank of Shufei (淑妃), the second highest rank for imperial consorts below empress. She was the mother of his oldest son Li You (who was created the Prince of De) and ninth son Li Zuo (who was created the Prince of Hui). (Li You's birth date is unknown, while Li Zuo was born in 892.)

In 897, while Emperor Zhaozong was at Hua Prefecture (華州, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi) after having fled the imperial capital Chang'an in 896 in response to an attack by the warlord Li Maozhen the military governor (Jiedushi) of Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), he created Li You Crown Prince (and changed Li You's name to Li Yu), and then created Consort He empress. (She was the first living empress in a century since Emperor Zhaozong's great-great-great-grandmother Empress Wang, the wife of Emperor Dezong, was briefly empress for three days before her death in 786, even though there had been emperors' mothers who were honored empresses dowager while they were alive after their sons became emperors and/or been honored empresses posthumously.)

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