Cao Fang — Emperor of Cao Wei
曹芳
“Deposed at twenty-two by the family that had been governing for him”
Adopted as heir by Cao Rui and enthroned at seven, Cao Fang never held power. The Gaoping Tombs Incident of 249 gave the state to Sima Yi, and in 254 Sima Shi deposed him and made him Prince of Qi. He lived another twenty years, into the Jin dynasty that replaced the one he had nominally ruled.
For his first decade the regents Cao Shuang and Sima Yi split the government between them. In 249, while the court was outside the capital visiting the imperial tombs, Sima Yi closed the gates of Luoyang and took the city; Cao Shuang surrendered on a promise and was executed with his clan. Nothing after that was the emperor's to decide.
Three empresses were made and unmade around him, and Xiang Li paints all three together: Empress Zhen Huai, Empress Zhang and Empress Wang — an emperor's marriages used, one after another, as instruments of whichever family held the palace that year.
The empress of this reign
Painted on silk in gemstone mineral pigments by Xiang Li.
About this page
Written for this site to place Cao Fang's reign around the paintings. For the full biography, the dynastic histories and the scholarship behind them, start at Wikipedia.