Early life
There is no record of Empress Qian's birth name, other than that she was a member of the clan ''Qian'' (). She married the Zhengtong Emperor on 8 June 1442, and became his primary consort and empress.Empress
In 1449, the Zhengtong Emperor was captured after the Battle of Tumu and his captors demanded a ransom, which Empress Qian and her mother-in-law promptly raised. The ransom was rejected in favour of holding on to the Zhengtong Emperor as hostage, which prompted the court to assign him the status of retired emperor and name his half-brotherEmpress dowager
Empress Qian had no children, and when the Zhengtong Emperor died in 1464, he was succeeded by the Chenghua Emperor. She became involved in a conflict with Empress Xiaosu, the biological mother of the new emperor. As the mother of the emperor, Empress Xiaosu demanded the same title as Qian: that of empress dowager. Xiaosu pointed out that she was the mother of the emperor while Qian was childless, while Qian demanded the title pointing to her loyalty to the late emperor, whose house arrest she had shared. The emperor was unable to solve the conflict to the satisfaction of both parties, but granted the title of empress dowager to both, though Qian's formal title acknowledged her higher rank and precedence in court proceedings.Titles
*During the reign of Xuande Emperor (r. 1425–1435): **Lady Qian (錢氏; from 1426) *During the reign of the Zhengtong Emperor (r. 1435–1449): **Empress (皇后; from 1442) *During the reign of the Jingtai Emperor (r. 1449–1457): **Empress Emerita (太上皇后; from 1449) *During the reign of the Tianshun Emperor (r. 1457–1464): **Empress (皇后; from 1457) *During the reign of Chenghua Emperor (r. 1464–1487) **Empress Dowager Ciyi (慈懿皇太后; from 28 February 1464) **''Empress Xiàozhuāng Xiànmù Hónghuì Xiǎnrén Gōngtiān Qīnshèng Ruì'' (孝莊獻穆弘惠顯仁恭天欽聖睿皇后; from 1468)Death
Empress Dowager Qian died on 26 June 1468, and was interred at Yu ling in the Ming tomb complex near Beijing on 4 September 1468. The Tianshun Emperor specifically stated that she should only be buried next to him, 'after a thousand years of long life.'References
Sources
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Qian, Empress 1426 births 1468 deaths Ming dynasty empresses Ming dynasty empresses dowager 15th-century Chinese women 15th-century Chinese people People from Lianyungang