Guo Huai

Guo Huai (, 237–296), courtesy name Yuhuang

Her life was marked by severe cruelty, jealousy, and dishonesty, although these accounts may have been colored by the bias of Book of Jin historians. (Jia Chong had been a loyal supporter of Sima Yan in his rise to power.

Marrying off daughter by bribing In 271, Jia Chong desperately wanted to avoid a military assignment, so he decided to have one of his daughters to marry the developmentally disabled crown prince, Sima Zhong. The emperor initially rejected the idea, as he preferred Wei Guan's daughter, who was mild-tempered, beautiful, tall, and fair-skinned, as opposed to the Jia sisters, who were not only jealous like their mother, but also ugly, short, and dark-skinned. However, because Guo Huai was on friendly terms with Empress Yang Yan, she bribed the empress and her associates

Final years As years went by, Empress Jia was increasingly taking advantage of her husband's mental disability and practically dominated the government. Worried, Guo Huai's nephew Pei Wei had convinced Guo Huai to advise her daughter to treat the crown prince Sima Yu well. Sima Yu's mother Xie Jiu , an imperial concubine, was considered by many to be a good replacement for the uncontrollable empress. Also sensing the danger, Guo Huai wanted Empress Jia to adopt Sima Yu as her own son, and she further advocated for the marriage between him and Jia Wu's daughter, but that was opposed by both her daughters and did not take place.

After Guo Huai became terminally ill, her title changed to Lady of Yicheng which was suggested by a diviner. On her deathbed, she repeated her warning to Jia Nanfeng regarding Sima Yu. She was buried by the empress according to a ritual that far exceeded her position. The people were indignant but no one dared to speak out. (Eventually Jia Nanfeng had Sima Yu assassinated and in turn got herself killed, along with Jia Wu and Jia Mi, in a coup. )

Entombed stele Guo Huai's entombed stone stele was discovered in 1930 in Pingle, Henan, northeast of Luoyang. Unlike her depiction by historians, the commemorative text on her tomb stele gives a flattering account and praises her intelligence, reverence, and frugality, among many other virtues. She was also described as a "unifier of lineages and one concerned with ritual propriety".