Empress Dowager Hu

Timeline

1. c. 500–515Luoyang · LuoyangHu was of a powerful clan, beautiful and talented, and deeply favored by Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke after entering the palace. Northern Wei had the old custom of 'mother dies when son is elevated'; Hu risked execution for bearing a prince (later Emperor Xiaoming) but survived. When Xuanwu died in 515, her son Yuan Xu was only six when he acceded as Emperor Xiaoming.
2. 515–520Luoyang · LuoyangAfter Xuanwu died, Hu governed from behind the curtain as empress dowager, monopolizing power. She implemented tax cuts and disaster relief, winning popular support; a devout Buddhist, she ordered construction of the nine-story wooden pagoda of Yongning Temple in Luoyang (known in history as the Yongning Temple Pagoda). In 520 court officials staged a coup and Hu was forced to become a nun, temporarily losing power.
3. 520–528Luoyang · LuoyangEmperor Xiaoming took personal rule as an adult, but Empress Dowager Hu refused to relinquish power and secretly poisoned her own son Emperor Xiaoming, installing a toddler on the throne. This enraged the Jinyang warlord Erzhu Rong, who marched south under the pretext of 'clearing the emperor's side' and in 528 massacred over two thousand Northern Wei imperial clan members and officials at Heyin (modern Xingyang, Henan), known in history as the 'Heyin Incident'. Empress Dowager Hu and the installed child emperor were both thrown into the Yellow River and drowned, and the Northern Wei regime effectively collapsed.