Empress Li Zu'e

Empress Li Zu'e (李祖娥) was an empress of the Chinese dynasty Northern Qi, known at times semi-formally as Empress Zhaoxin (昭信皇后) (due to her residence being Zhaoxin Palace). Her husband was Emperor Wenxuan (Gao Yang), the first emperor of Northern Qi.

Li Zu'e was the daughter of Li Xizong (李希宗), and she was from Zhao Commandery (趙郡, in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei). She was ethnically Han. The date that she married Gao Yang, the second son of Eastern Wei's paramount general Gao Huan, is not known, but it is known that at that time, he was the Duke of Taiyuan during the reign of his brother-in-law, Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei—and she carried the title of Duchess of Taiyuan. She bore him two sons, Gao Yin, and Gao Shaode (高紹德). In 549, Gao Yang took over the regency of Eastern Wei after his older brother, Gao Cheng, was assassinated by the servant Lan Jing (蘭京). In 550, he forced Emperor Xiaojing to yield the throne to him, ending Eastern Wei and establishing Northern Qi (as Emperor Wenxuan).

Emperor Wenxuan, before he became emperor, also had another key consort—his concubine Lady Duan, the sister of his cousin and the powerful official Duan Shao (段韶). (Duan Shao was born of Gao Yang's aunt, but it is not clear that Lady Duan shared the same mother, so it is not clear whether Lady Duan was his cousin.) The officials Gao Longzhi (高隆之) and Gao Dezheng (高德政), wanting to ingratiate themselves with Duan Shao, suggested that a Han woman should not be allowed to be empress. Emperor Wenxuan rejected their suggestion and created Li Zu'e empress, and only created Lady Duan an imperial consort. Emperor Wenxuan also created Empress Li's son Gao Yin crown prince. Emperor Wenxuan was violent and capricious in his behavior, fueled by his alcoholism, and often beat his consorts, although he never touched Li Zu'e. Once, when visiting Empress Li's household, he fired an arrow at Empress Li's mother, stating, 'When I am drunk, I do not even recognize my own mother. Who do you think you are?" However, despite Emperor Wenxuan's violent behavior—which included battering his concubines and sometimes even killing them—he remained respectful of Empress Li herself. In 559, he also began to have her referred to as both Kehedun (可賀頓, the Tujue title for empresses) and empress.

...
Wikipedia