Empress Wei (韋氏) | 24 Histories

Overview

Empress Wei was a consort.

PeriodSui and Tang

IdentityHistorical · Female

Roles

Found in

Life and dates

Death

AD 710 to AD 710 誅韋皇后
Execution · Authority Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (唐玄宗)
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 22, passage 67

Attested activity

AD 705 to AD 710 AD 705-710
Strongly inferred · New Book of Tang 113, passage 47
AD 705 to AD 710 中宗時
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 45, passage 136
AD 707 to AD 710 景龍
Directly stated · Old Book of Tang 130, passage 18
AD 708 景龍二年
Directly stated · Old Book of Tang 85, passage 46
AD 705 to AD 710 神龍景雲
Dated from the passage context · Old Book of Tang 27, passage 59
AD 710 誅韋庶人
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 121, passage 11

Show 2 more source-backed claims

AD 705 to AD 710 韋后
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 22, passages 67, 154
AD 705 to AD 710 韋庶人
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 102, passage 139

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Spouse of Zhongzong (中宗)
empress 后 · Primary marriage
Empress Wei 韋氏
empress 後 · Primary marriage
Sources vary in certainty · New Book of Tang 121, passage 59; Old Book of Tang 27, passage 59; New Book of Tang 45, passage 136
Spouse of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (中宗)
empress 皇后 · Primary marriage
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 22, passages 67, 154

Key source chapters

Career and standing

Defeated
Fall from power
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 45, passage 139
Suffered
Executed
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 22, passage 67

Places and affiliations

Tang 唐
Relation Served
Strongly inferred · New Book of Tang 45, passage 136
Polity Tang 唐 · Relation Served
Directly stated · Old Book of Tang 27, passage 59

Events and relationships

Issued slanted seal appointments
Political · Power holder
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 45, passage 136

Source notes

Historicity historical
Directly stated · New Book of Tang 45, passage 136

References in the histories

Search passages

History

15 passages

Old Book of Tang, Chapter 130Volume 126 Biographies 76: Li Kui, Li Han, Chen Shaoyou, Lu Yue, Pei Xu · 1 passage

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景龍失政，韋氏專恣，加號翊聖，今若加皇后之號，與韋氏同。 Under the misrule of the Jinglong years Empress Wei had seized power and taken the title Assisting Sage. To grant the same title now would repeat that unhappy precedent.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 102Volume 102 Book of Later Jin 4: Emperor Yin Annals 2 · 1 passage

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唐則天女主，自我作古，乃生有則天之號，韋庶人有順聖之號，知禮者非之。 Tang's female sovereign Wu Zetian, making antiquity anew for herself, bore the title Zetian while still alive, and the secondary consort Wei bore the title Shunsheng—those who knew ritual condemned this.

New Book of Tang, Chapter 22Volume 22 Treatises 12: Rites and Music 12 · 2 passages

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玄宗為平王，有散樂一部，定韋后之難，頗有預謀者。 As Prince of Ping, Xuanzong maintained a miscellany-music troupe and had taken no small part in planning the overthrow of Empress Wei.

是時，民間以帝自潞州還京師，舉兵夜半誅韋皇后，制《夜半樂》、《還京樂》二曲。 Popular musicians then wrote "Midnight Music" and "Returning to the Capital," commemorating his midnight march from Luzhou to kill Empress Wei.

New Book of Tang, Chapter 45Volume 45 Treatises 40: Selecting and Appointing Officials 2 · 1 passage

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中宗時，韋後及太平、安樂公主等用事，於側門降墨敕斜封授官，號「斜封官」，凡數千員。 Under Zhongzong, Empress Wei and the Princesses Taiping and Anle ruled through side-gate edicts with slanted seals, creating thousands of "slanted-seal" appointees.

New Book of Tang, Chapter 113Volume 113 Biographies 38: Tang, Zhang, Xu · 3 passages

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韋庶人請妃、公主、命婦以上葬給鼓吹，詔可。 Empress Wei requested that imperial consorts, princesses, and titled ladies of rank and above be granted martial funeral music; the edict approved it.

中宗始郊，國子祭酒祝欽明等知韋後能制天子，欲迎諂之，即奏以皇后亞獻，安樂公主終獻，又四時及列帝誕日，遣使者詣陵如事生。 When Emperor Zhongzong first performed the suburban sacrifice, National University Libationer Zhu Qinming and others, knowing Empress Wei could dominate the emperor, sought to flatter her. They memorialized that the empress perform the secondary offering and Princess Anle the final offering, and that envoys be sent to the imperial tombs in all four seasons and on successive emperors' birth anniversaries as though the dead were still living.

韋後臨朝，詔同中書門下三品，旬日，出為絳州刺史。 When Empress Wei held court she made him chancellor of the third rank, but within ten days he was posted as prefect of Jiangzhou.

New Book of Tang, Chapter 121Volume 121 Biographies 46: Liu, Zhong, Cui, and the Two Kings · 7 passages

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臨淄王入誅韋庶人，預參大策，是夜號令詔敕一出其手。 When the Prince of Linzi marched in to destroy Consort Wei, Youqiu helped shape the coup; that night every command and proclamation bore his hand.

景龍中，為苑總監，會討韋氏難，紹京帥戶奴、丁夫從。 During Jinglong he directed the imperial parks; when forces moved against the Wei clan, he led household servants and laborers into the fight.

帝崩，韋後專制，畏禍及，更因僧普潤、道士王曄私謁臨淄王以自托，且密贊大計。 After the emperor's death, when Empress Wei seized power, he feared for his life and, through the monk Purun and the Daoist Wang Ye, secretly sought out the Prince of Linzi, pledging support for the coup.

及韋氏平，夜詔權雍州長史，以功授黃門侍郎，參知機務，封齊國公，賜實戶二百。 After the Wei faction fell, he was named acting chief administrator of Yongzhou the same night; rewarded with the vice-directorship of the Yellow Gate and a share in government, he was created Duke of Qi with two hundred fief households.

太子遽召見，琚曰：「韋氏躬行弒逆，天下動搖，人思李氏，故殿下取之易也。 The prince summoned him at once; Ju said, "The Wei clan murdered the emperor and shook the realm; men longed for the Li, so you seized power easily.

韋後稱制，令韋播、高嵩為羽林將軍，押萬騎，以苛峭樹威。 When Empress Wei ruled, she put Wei Bo and Gao Song in command of the Ten Thousand Riders and ruled them harshly.

果毅葛福順、陳玄禮訴於王，王方與劉幽求、薛宗簡及利仁府折沖麻嗣宗謀舉大計，幽求諷之，皆願效死，遂入討韋氏。 Ge Fushun and Chen Xuanli appealed to the prince, who was plotting with Liu Youqiu, Xue Zongjian, and Ma Sizong; all pledged their lives, and they marched against the Wei clan.