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Xiang Li李湘

Which Chinese Empress Are You?

Personality quiz · 10 questions

Ten questions. One empress.

How would you handle a palace? Every answer echoes something one of these women really did.

Ten questions about how you would handle a palace — a horse no one can break, a rival who is winning, a fortune you did not expect. Every answer echoes something one of these women actually did.

Personality quiz · 10 questions

Which Chinese Empress Are You?

Ten questions about how you would handle a palace — a horse no one can break, a rival who is winning, a fortune you did not expect. Every answer echoes something one of these women actually did.

The twelve possible results are twelve empresses from Xiang Li's collection, from the Han to the Qing: rulers, counsellors, scholars, artists and survivors. None of them is simply good or simply bad, and neither are the answers.

There are no right answers. Choose the one closest to what you would really do.

Twelve empresses you could be

Each result is a real woman from Xiang Li’s Chinese Empresses collection, painted on silk — 6 dynasties, from the Han to the Qing.

Empress Wu Zetian — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Sovereign

Wu Zetian 武则天

Empress Lü Zhi — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Founder

Lü Zhi 呂雉

Empress Zhangsun — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Counsellor

Empress Zhangsun 长孙皇后

Empress Ma (Empress Mingde) — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Incorruptible

Empress Ma 明德皇后

Empress Yin and Deng Sui (Empress Hexi) — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Scholar-Ruler

Deng Sui 邓绥

Empress Zhao Feiyan — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Performer

Zhao Feiyan 趙飛燕

Empress Dowager Cixi — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Strategist

Empress Dowager Cixi 慈禧太后

Empress Wenxian — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Partner

Dugu Qieluo 独孤伽罗

Empress Xiao — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Survivor

Empress Xiao 萧皇后

Empress Luo Shen (Three Kingdoms Cao Wei) — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Idealist

Lady Zhen 甄氏

Guo Nüwang – Empress Wende (Cao Wei) — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Kingmaker

Guo Nüwang 郭女王

Empress Zhou the Elder, Empress Zhou the Younger (Southern Tang) — silk portrait by Xiang Li

The Artist

Zhou Ehuang 周娥皇

The ten questions +

  1. The emperor has a horse no one can break, and asks the court for ideas. You say:

    • “Give me a whip, a mace and a dagger. It will submit, one way or another.”
    • “Let the grooms who know it best try — and I'll back whoever succeeds.”
    • “A horse that cannot be broken should be allowed to run.”
    • “Let me watch it for a week before anyone touches it.”

  2. An unexpected fortune lands in your lap. You:

    • Give it away. In a hungry world, hoarding treasure is its own crime.
    • Turn it down, and ask for books — or paper and ink — instead.
    • Quietly invest it in the people who will stand by you later.
    • Spend it on music, dance and a night no one will forget.

  3. Someone powerful offers your relatives high office. You:

    • Refuse — publicly, in writing, so no one can mistake it.
    • Refuse quietly, and keep refusing for as long as it takes.
    • Accept. Family is the only protection anyone really has.
    • Only if they are the best people for the job. Ability first.

  4. Your partner does something that hurts you. You:

    • Remind them of the promise they made — and hold them to it.
    • Write it down. A carefully made argument lasts longer than a scene.
    • Turn your face to the wall. Some things cannot be unseen.
    • Say nothing. Remember everything.

  5. The capital is falling and the court is in chaos. You:

    • Move first — secure the seals and act before anyone else can.
    • Stay alive, go where you must. There is always a later.
    • Stand beside the people facing the danger and steady them.
    • Save what cannot be replaced — the books, the music, the art.

  6. At a palace banquet, where are you?

    • On stage. Let them watch.
    • At the head of the table.
    • Next to the most interesting person in the room, listening.
    • Making sure the older guests are looked after.

  7. A rival is winning. You:

    • Out-think them, quietly, until the choice makes itself.
    • Bring in an ally. Two are harder to displace than one.
    • Refuse to compete. Be generous and let your character speak.
    • End it — permanently.

  8. What would you most like to be remembered for?

    • Nothing written down. Let them argue about me for a thousand years.
    • Something beautiful I made — or brought back from being lost.
    • Holding something fragile together when it could have fallen apart.
    • Outlasting everyone who underestimated me.

  9. Which words could you live by?

    • “Once you are riding the tiger, you cannot get off.”
    • “Better plain silk than a borrowed name.”
    • “Survive today. The story can be written tomorrow.”
    • “A good minister is the proof of a good ruler.”

  10. Choose a partnership:

    • Equals. We ride to work together and decide together.
    • Two artists. We make things and write each other poems.
    • Whatever gets me where I am going.
    • I would rather run things myself.

Daily portrait

Empress Unveiled

Daily trivia

Palace Audience