Empress Zhang Yan

Empress Zhang Yan

Zhang Yan (traditional Chinese: 張嫣; simplified Chinese: 张嫣; pinyin: Zhāng Yān) (died 163 BC), known formally as Empress Xiaohui (孝惠皇后) was an empress during the Han Dynasty. She was the daughter of Princess Yuan of Lu (the only daughter of Emperor Gao (Liu Bang) and his wife Empress Lü) and her husband Zhang Ao (張敖, son of Zhang Er), the Prince of Zhao and later Marquess of Xuanping.

In 192 BC, at the insistence of then-Empress Dowager Lü, Lady Yan married her uncle Emperor Hui, the son of Emperor Gao and Empress Dowager Lü, and she was created empress. The marriage was a childless one. At Empress Dowager Lü's instruction, Empress Zhang took several male children as her own and killed their mothers. (Whether these children were Emperor Hui's is a matter of controversy, although it appears likely that they were Emperor Hui's children by his concubines.)

When Emperor Hui died in 188 BC at the age of 22, one of the children that Empress Zhang adopted, Liu Gong, became emperor (as Emperor Qianshao), but Grand Empress Dowager Lü had effective total control of the imperial government. Empress Zhang, who was then made empress dowager, did not appear to have significant influence. Nevertheless, when Liu Gong found out in 184 BC that he was not actually her child, he made a careless comment that he would take vengeance on her—at which Grand Empress Dowager Lü had him deposed and executed, and replaced him with his brother Liu Hong (as Emperor Houshao), who was also adopted by Empress Zhang. It was during Emperor Qianshao's reign that Empress Zhang's brother Zhang Yan (張偃, pinyin Zhāng Yǎn—notice difference in tone) was created the Prince of Lu.

After Grand Empress Dowager Lü died in 180 BC, and the Lü clan overthrown and slaughtered by the officials opposed to the Lüs in the Lü Clan Disturbance, Emperor Houshao was deposed and killed. Empress Dowager Zhang was not killed, but she was deposed from her position as empress dowager and henceforth referred to as Empress Hui. Her brother, the Prince of Lu, was also deposed and reduced in rank to Marquess of Nangong. After this she went to live in a palace to the north and no records exist of her later life until her death. Empress Zhang died in 163 BC and was buried with her husband of merely four years.