Consort Dowager Liu

Consort Dowager Liu (劉太妃, personal name unknown) (died May 30, 925? ) was the wife of Li Keyong, the founder of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Jin. However, despite this status, after Li Keyong's son Li Cunxu later defeated Jin's rival Later Liang and established Later Tang as its Emperor Zhuangzong, she was not honored as empress dowager, but only given the lesser title of consort dowager.

During Li Keyong's life It is not known when Lady Liu was born, and all that is known about her background is that she was from the Daibei (代北, i.e., the region around and north of modern Xinzhou, Shanxi) region. It is not known when she married Li Keyong other than that it was before he initially rebelled against the reign of Emperor Xizong in 878. Throughout the campaigns that Li Keyong subsequently waged through the years, both as a rebel against and later as a Tang dynasty vassal, Lady Liu often accompanied him on campaigns. She was said to be intelligent, dextrous, and capable of strategies; she also often taught Li Keyong's concubines horsemanship and archery.

In 894, when Li Keyong was sieging his adoptive son Li Cunxiao, who had rebelled against him, at Xing Prefecture (邢州, in modern Xingtai, Hebei), when Li Cunxiao offered to surrender, it was Lady Liu that Li Keyong sent into the city to make sure that Li Cunxiao was, in fact, surrendering, and it was she who brought Li Cunxiao out to surrender. In 895, when Li Keyong defeated Wang Xingyu the military governor of Jingnan Circuit (靜難, headquartered in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), who had threatened Emperor Xizong's brother and successor Emperor Zhaozong, and temporarily restored Jingnan to imperial control, Li Keyong was created the Prince of Jin, and Lady Liu was created the Lady of Qin.

Lady Liu was sonless, so Li Keyong's oldest son Li Cunxu, by his concubine Lady Cao, became the apparent heir. Lady Cao thus gained much favor from Li Keyong. Instead of being jealous of Lady Cao, Lady Liu treated her well, drawing greater respect from Li Keyong. Li Keyong thus also had her raise the sons of other concubines, and she treated them like they were her own. Little is known about Lady Liu's activities during the subsequent 15-year war between Jin and Later Liang, as it was said that Li Cunxu often accepted counsel from his mother Lady Cao, but no reference was made to Lady Liu.

Later in the year, Emperor Zhuangzong captured the Later Liang capital Daliang (大梁, i.e., Bian Prefecture). Later Liang's last emperor Zhu Zhen committed suicide as the city fell, ending Later Liang. Later Tang took over all of Later Liang's territory, and Emperor Zhuangzong made the old Tang eastern capital Luoyang his capital. In spring 924, he sent his brother Li Cunwo (李存渥) and his son Li Jiji to Taiyuan to escort Empress Dowager Cao and Consort Dowager Liu to Luoyang. Consort Dowager Liu refused to leave Taiyuan, stating that she needed to remain to attend to the graves and the temples of the deceased emperors (i.e., Li Keyong and his father Li Guochang), and so Empress Dowager Cao headed to Luoyang by her own.

This was, according to traditional accounts, devastating to both Empress Dowager Cao and Consort Dowager Liu, however, as they missed each other bitterly, and both grew sad. Consort Dowager Liu fell ill in summer 925, and Empress Dowager Cao sent a stream of doctors to Taiyuan to treat her, but she did not get better. Empress Dowager Cao considered returning to Taiyuan to care for her, but Emperor Zhuangzong dissuaded her on account of the summer heat; instead, Li Cunwo was dispatched to Taiyuan to attend to Consort Dowager Liu. Soon thereafter, Consort Dowager Liu died. Mourning her, Empress Dowager Cao fell ill as well, and would die a few months later. Consort Dowager Liu did not receive a posthumous name and was buried at Wei County (魏縣, i.e., Daming).

Notes and references

Old History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 49. New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 14. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 255, 259, 263, 272, 273.