Empress Liu (Chen dynasty)

Empress Liu (534–616), personal name Liu Jingyan (柳敬言), was an empress of the Chinese dynasty Chen Dynasty. Her husband was Emperor Xuan (Chen Xu).

Liu Jingyan was born in 534, when her father Liu Yan (柳偃) was a Liang Dynasty official. His wife was the Princess Changcheng, a daughter of Emperor Wu of Liang. (The traditional histories imply that she was the princess' daughter, but did not clearly state so.) Liu Yan came from a lineage of officials, as his grandfather Liu Shilong (柳世隆) was a key general under Emperor Gao of Southern Qi and Emperor Wu of Southern Qi, and his father Liu Yun (柳惲) was a Liang official. When Liu Yan died while being governor of Poyang Commandery (鄱陽, roughly modern Shangrao, Jiangxi), Liu Jingyan was eight, and as she had no older brothers (she had one younger brother, Liu Pan (柳盼)), she was said to have managed the affairs of the household as well as an adult could. After the rebel general Hou Jing attacked the capital Jiankang in 548 and captured it in 549, Liu Jingyan and Liu Pan went to Jiangling to rely on the Princess Changcheng's brother Xiao Yi the Prince of Xiangdong. On account of the princess, Xiao Yi treated them with kindness.

In 552, after Xiao Yi's general Wang Sengbian defeated Hou, Xiao Yi declared himself emperor (as Emperor Yuan). He rewarded Wang and his lieutenant Chen Baxian, while requesting Chen Baxian to send his son Chen Chang and nephew Chen Xu to Jiangling, his new capital, to serve in his administration—but also to serve as hostages. While Chen Xu was at Jiangling, Emperor Yuan married Liu Jingyan to him as his wife, notwithstanding that he had already married a Lady Qian while he was a commoner at his home commandery of Yixing (義興, roughly modern Huzhou, Zhejiang). In 553, she bore Chen Xu a son, Chen Shubao. In 554, Western Wei forces attacked and captured Jiangling, and around the new year 555, they put Emperor Yuan to death. Chen Xu and Chen Chang were taken to the Western Wei capital Chang'an as honored captives, while Lady Liu and Chen Shubao were left at Rangcheng (穰城, in modern Nanyang, Henan).

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