Beautiful Lady Yu (; died 179; personal name unknown) held the rank of "beautiful lady" (美人) in the harem of

Emperor Shun of Han Emperor Shun of Han (; 115 – 20 September 144) was an emperor of China, emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty and the eighth emperor of the Eastern Han. He reigned from December 125 to September 144. Emperor Shun (Prince Bao) was the only son o ...

. She was the biological mother of Liu Sheng (刘生), Grand Princess of Wuyang (舞阳长公主) and Liu Bing, Emperor Chong of Han (汉冲帝刘炳). According to ''Xu Hanzhi'', Lady Yu's father Yu Shi () and grandfather Yu Heng () were both Han officials. Lady Yu was chosen to be a concubine at the age of 13 (by East Asian reckoning), on the basis of belonging to a "good family", and her mother's clan members were all honoured and favoured people. Later on she gave birth to her daughter, Liu Sheng. In 138, her daughter Liu Sheng was conferred the title "Grand Princess of Wuyang". In 143, Lady Yu gave birth to Emperor Shun's only son: Liu Bing. In September 144, following the death of Emperor Shun, Liu Bing became emperor. In February of the following year, Liu Bing died. When an Emperor ascended the throne, the mother of that Emperor would usually receive an honourable title. Yet, this was not the case for Beautiful Lady Yu. According to ''

Book of the Later Han The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Lat ...

'', due to General

Liang Ji Liang Ji (梁冀) (died 9 September 159), courtesy name Bozhuo (伯卓), was a Chinese military general and politician. As a powerful consort kin, he dominated government in the 150s together with his younger sister, Empress Liang Na. After hi ...

's violent seizure of power, Lady Yu's clan feared Liang Ji doing them harm and avoided court positions and honours, and was thus considered simply a "grand family". On 24 November 175,

Emperor Ling of Han Emperor Ling of Han (156/157 – 13 May 189), personal name Liu Hong, was the 12th emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty. He was also the last Eastern Han emperor to exercise effective power during his reign. Born the son of a lesser marquis who ...

honoured Lady Yu as mother of Emperor Chong by bestowing her the higher harem rank "noble lady of Xian hill" (宪园贵人), together with bestowing the title "concubine of Prince Xiao of Bohai" on Lady Chen, mother of

Emperor Zhi of Han Emperor Zhi of Han (; 138 – 26 July 146) was an emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty. He was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhang. His reign was dominated by Liang Ji, the brother of Empress Dowager Liang, who eventually poisoned the young ...

. Following this, Lady Yu was also known as "Noble Lady Yu of Xianling" (宪陵贵人虞氏). In 179,Her funeral was mentioned in vol.57 of ''Zizhi Tongjian'' Lady Yu died, having outlived both her husband and son by more than 30 years.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Beautiful Lady 179 deaths 2nd-century Chinese women 2nd-century Chinese people 2nd-century births Han dynasty imperial consorts Mothers of Chinese emperors