Lady Peng

Lady Peng (彭夫人, personal name unknown) (died 938), formally Lady Shunxian of Qin (秦國順賢夫人, "the serene and wise lady"), was the wife of Ma Xifan, the third ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Chu.

Background It is not known when Lady Peng was born. Her father Peng Gan (彭玕) had served as the prefect of Ji Prefecture (吉州, in modern Ji'an, Jiangxi), late in the Tang dynasty and early in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, under the warlord Wei Quanfeng, who then controlled four prefectures, including Ji, centered on Fu Prefecture (撫州, in modern Fuzhou, Jiangxi). In 909, when Wei was defeated and captured by the Wu general Zhou Ben, Zhou then followed up by attacking Ji. Peng Gan abandoned Ji and fled to Chu. Chu's prince Ma Yin, appreciating Peng for his faithfulness to Wei, made him the prefect of Chen Prefecture (郴州, in modern Chenzhou, Hunan). Either that year or later, he had his son Ma Xifan marry Lady Peng. (As Ma Xifan would have been just 10 years old in 909, the marriage likely came later.) (It is not known whether Ma Xifan's only known son—whose name was lost to history—was born of her or not.) Lady Peng, as his wife, became the lady of the state, and was eventually created by Li Siyuan, the emperor of Later Tang (to whom Ma Xifan was formally a vassal), to be the Lady of Qin.

Notes and references

Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms, vol. 71. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 267, 281.