Feng Xiaolian

Consort Feng Xiaolian (馮小憐) (died 581?) was an imperial consort of the Chinese dynasty Northern Qi. She was a concubine of the penultimate Gao Wei, and his infatuation with her caused her to be, fairly or unfairly, often stated by traditional historians as a reason for Northern Qi's downfall.

Feng Xiaolian was initially a servant girl of Gao Wei's third wife Empress Mu. As Empress Mu lost favor from Gao Wei, she offered Feng Xiaolian to Gao Wei as a consort, and Gao Wei favored Consort Feng greatly. He gave Consort Feng the title of Shufei (淑妃), the first rank among consorts. She was described as alert, capable of dancing and playing the pipa. He became so infatuated with her that they went everywhere together and swore to heaven that they wanted to live together and die together.

In winter 576, rival Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou launched a major attack on Northern Qi, capturing the important city of Pingyang (平陽, in modern Linfen, Shanxi). At that time, Gao Wei and Consort Feng were on a hunt at Qilian Lake (祁連池, in modern Xinzhou, Shanxi), and when Gao Wei learned that Pingyang had fallen, he wanted to rush to recapture it, but Consort Feng wanted to hunt for one more round, so he agreed. When he eventually gathered his troops, he put Pingyang under siege, intending to recapture it. The Northern Qi forces sieged Pingyang with all effort—and after several days, were able to breach the wall—but at this point, Gao Wei stopped his attack and summoned Consort Feng so she could witness the fall of the city. When she arrived, however, Northern Zhou forces had already filled in the breach, and therefore held the city.

Around the new year 577, Northern Zhou's Emperor Wu led an army intending to lift the siege on Pingyang. Gao Wei engaged him. As soon as the armies engaged, though, Consort Feng misinterpreted a slight backoff by part of the Northern Qi army and panicked, yelling, "We have been defeated!" This caused Gao Wei's official Mu Tipo to panick as well, and together they persuaded Gao Wei to abandon the army. The army collapsed after the emperor left. Gao Wei and Consort Feng then fled north to the secondary capital Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi). (Gao Wei had intended to claim, if Pingyang had been captured, that it was the achievement of Consort Feng and then create her "Left Empress," and so had ordered his eunuchs to retrieve ceremonial clothes for an empress from Jinyang; on the way back to Jinyang, they met the eunuch, and despite the defeat, Gao Wei nevertheless had Consort Feng put on the empress's ceremonial clothes, although he did not create her Left Empress as he intended.) Once at Jinyang, Gao Wei had no will to resist Northern Zhou, and he fled back to the capital Yecheng (鄴城, in modern Handan, Hebei) with Consort Feng.

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