Empress Ma 明德皇后
The Incorruptible
You would rather be plain and right than dazzling and owed.
- Modest
- Fair-minded
- Quietly scholarly
The daughter of a great general who died in disgrace, Empress Ma of the Eastern Han held the highest position open to a woman for nineteen years and never once used it to restore her family's name. She wore undyed silk without pattern, and visiting princesses found her plainer than they were.
You hold a line even when it costs you. When her son the emperor wanted to make her brothers marquesses, she refused in a public edict. When a treason case spiralled into mass executions, she persuaded the emperor to stop. She kept a silk workshop and a mulberry garden, taught her grandsons the Analects, and compiled the daily record of Emperor Ming's reign — the first work of history in China written by a woman.
