Southern & Northern Dynasties
南北朝皇后
two centuries of division · three paintings
For two hundred years there were two Chinas. In the south, a succession of short Han-Chinese dynasties ruled from Jiankang on the Yangtze — Song, Qi, Liang, Chen — each founded by a general who overthrew the last. In the north, the Xianbei and other steppe peoples ruled the old heartland from Pingcheng and then Luoyang, and slowly, deliberately, turned themselves Chinese.
The northern courts are the stranger and more brutal of the two. The Northern Wei operated a rule called zigui musi — when a prince was named heir, his mother was put to death, so that no dowager could ever govern. It worked until it produced a woman determined enough to break it, at which point it destroyed the dynasty.
The Northern Zhou empresses ended almost uniformly the same way: five living empresses at once, and then, within a few years, all of them shaven-headed nuns.
The Northern Dynasties 北朝
The Southern Dynasties 南朝
The empresses of the Southern Dynasties 南朝皇后
420 – 589 · one painting
On this silk
- Zang Aiqin
- Sima Maoying
- Yuan Qigui
- Wang Xianyuan
- He Lingwan
- Wang Zhenfeng
- Jiang Jiankui
- Xie Fanjing
- Liu Zhirong
- Pei Huizhao
- He Jingying
- Wang Shunhua
- Liu Huiduan
- Zhu Lingyu
- Xi Hui
- Wang Linbin
- Xu Zhaopei
- Zhang Yao’er
- Shen Miaorong
- Liu Jingyan
More
- Before The Jin — whose collapse created the division.
- After The Sui — which ended it. Its founding empress, Dugu Qieluo, was a daughter of the Northern Zhou aristocracy.
- The whole collection All 205 empresses
Bring the Southern & Northern Dynasties era home
Canvas prints, scarves, puzzles and more — from $14.
Two full-color hardcovers — 217 empresses, 413 painted characters.
Questions? Write to xiangliart@gmail.com