Empress Helian (赫連皇后; died 453), formally Empress Taiwu (太武皇后), was an

empress The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

of the

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...

-led Chinese

Northern Wei dynasty Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an imperial dynasty of Chi ...

. Her husband was Emperor Taiwu. She was a daughter of the

Hu Xia Hu Xia ( zh, c=胡夏; English name: Fox Hu; born 1 March 1990) is a Chinese singer and actor. He won the sixth season of Taiwan's ''One Million Star'' in 2010 and released his debut album, ''Hu Love Xia,'' later that year. He has sung a great ...

's founding emperor

Helian Bobo Helian Bobo ( zh, t=赫連勃勃; Middle Chinese Guangyun: ; 381 – September 425), né Liu Bobo (劉勃勃), courtesy name Qujie (屈孑), also known by his posthumous name as the Emperor Wulie of Xia (夏武烈帝), was the founding emperor of ...

(Emperor Wulie). In 428, during the reign of her brother

Helian Chang Helian Chang (; died 434), courtesy name Huanguo (還國), nickname Zhe (折), was the second and penultimate emperor of the Hu Xia dynasty of China. He was the successor and a son of the founding emperor Helian Bobo (Emperor Wulie). After his f ...

, Emperor Taiwu led his Northern Wei forces to capture the Xia capital Tongwan (統萬, in modern Yulin,

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

), and while Helian Chang fled, she was captured along with most nobles and officials of Xia. She and her two sisters were all taken as Emperor Taiwu's imperial consorts. In 432, she was created empress, presumably after being able to pass the traditional Tuoba tribe test by being able to forge a gold statue. Little is known about Empress Helian's life during her husband's reign. She did not bear him any sons. In 452, he was assassinated by his

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

Zong Ai Zong Ai (? - 31 October 452) was a eunuch who briefly came to great power in the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty in 452 after assassinating Emperor Taiwu and making his son Tuoba Yu emperor. Biography Little is known about Zong's caree ...

, who claimed that by her orders Emperor Taiwu's son,

Tuoba Yu Tuoba Yu (拓拔余) (died 29 October 452), posthumous name Prince Yin of Nan'an (南安隱王), Xianbei name Kebozhen (可博真; "''The Gatekeeper''"), was briefly an emperor of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty. He was placed on the t ...

the Prince of Nan'an should be made emperor, bypassing Emperor Taiwu's apparent intended heir, Tuoba Jun, the son of

Tuoba Huang Tuoba Huang (拓拔晃) (428 – July 29, 451''wuchen day'' of the 6th month of the 1st year of the ''Zhengping'' era, per Emperor Gongzong's biography in ''Book of Wei''), Xianbei name Tianzhen (天真), formally Crown Prince Jingmu (景穆太子 ...

the Crown Prince, who had died in 451. Tuoba Yu honored her as

empress dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother; ) is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a monarch, especially in regards to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese monarchs in the Chines ...

, but there is no particular evidence to suggest that Empress Helian was actually involved in Zong's conspiracy. Later that year, Zong assassinated Tuoba Yu as well, but the officials then overthrew Zong and put Tuoba Jun on the throne as Emperor Wencheng, and he honored her as

grand empress dowager Grand empress dowager (also grand dowager empress or grand empress mother) ( (太皇太后) was a title given to the grandmother, or a woman from the same generation, of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultur ...

. She died in 453.

In popular culture

* Portrayed by Wan Meixi in the 2016 Chinese TV series '' The Princess Weiyoung''.

References

* ''

Book of Wei The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to 5 ...

'', vol. 13. * ''

History of Northern Dynasties The ''History of the Northern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. The text contains 100 volumes and covers the period from 386 to 618 CE: the histories of Northern Wei, Western ...

'', vol. 1

* ''

Zizhi Tongjian The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...

'', vols.

120 120 may refer to: *120 (number), the number *AD 120, a year in the 2nd century AD *120 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *120 film, a film format for still photography * ''120'' (film), a 2008 film *120 (MBTA bus), a Massachusettes Bay Transport Aut ...

122 122 may refer to: * 122 (number), a natural number * AD 122, a year in the 2nd century AD * 122 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * ''122'' (film), a 2019 Egyptian psychological horror film *" One Twenty Two", a 2022 single by the American rock band ...

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