Liang Lanbi (梁蘭璧; 300–311) 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 ...

during the

Jin dynasty Jin may refer to: States Jìn 晉 * Jin (Chinese state) (晉國), major state of the Zhou dynasty, existing from the 11th century BC to 376 BC * Jin dynasty (266–420) (晉朝), also known as Liang Jin and Sima Jin * Jin (Later Tang precursor) ...

. Her husband was the ill-fated Sima Chi (Emperor Huai). Volume 138 of ''

Taiping Yulan The ''Taiping Yulan'', translated as the ''Imperial Reader'' or ''Readings of the Taiping Era'', is a massive Chinese '' leishu'' encyclopedia compiled by a team of scholars from 977 to 983. It was commissioned by the imperial court of the Son ...

'' had a short biography on her, citing the ''Book of Jin'' authored by Zang Rongxu. She was also the last empress of the Western Jin, as her husband's nephew and successor Emperor Min was not recorded to have an empress during his reign. Very little is known about her, and she was not even listed in the biographies of the empresses in the ''

Book of Jin The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty (266–420), Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, ...

'', the official history of the dynasty. She was from Anding, and her father was Liang Fen (梁芬), son of Liang Hongji (梁鸿季). She had married Sima Chi long before he became emperor (most probably during his tenure as Prince of Yuzhang, although the date is not known). When he was

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

from February 305 to January 307, she carried the title of crown princess. When he became emperor on 11 January 307, she was created empress. Nothing further is known about her, including her fate when both she and her husband were captured by

Han-Zhao The Han-Zhao ( zh, s=汉赵, t=漢趙, p=Hàn Zhào; 304–329 AD), or Former Zhao ( zh, s=前赵, t=前趙, p=Qián Zhào), was a dynastic state of China ruled by the Liu ( Luandi) clan of Chuge-Xiongnu ethnicity during the Sixteen Kingdoms per ...

forces in July 311. However, it appeared that at least by later that year, when the Han-Zhao emperor Liu Cong created him the Duke of Kuaiji, she had either diedZang Rongxu's ''Book of Jin'' recorded that she was captured by ''Hu'' barbarians during the ''Yong'jia'' era, presumably during the

Disaster of Yongjia The Disaster of Yongjia (simplified Chinese: 永嘉之乱; traditional Chinese: 永嘉之亂) occurred in 311 CE, when forces of the Han-Zhao dynasty captured and sacked Luoyang, the capital of the Western Jin dynasty. The Han's army committed a m ...

(永嘉中，没胡贼。). What happened to her after her capture was unrecorded. or had been taken elsewhere, for Liu Cong gave a concubine of his, Consort Liu, to be the former Jin emperor's duchess.

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

scholar

Xue Fucheng Xue Fucheng or Hsieh Fucheng (12 April 1838 – 21 July 1894) was a Chinese diplomat of the Qing dynasty in the late 19th century. Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu to a literati family. Late Qing dynasty writer/essayist, diplomat to England, France, Be ...

said Empress Liang committed suicide in defence of her virtue.

Notes

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