Empress Dowager Chaoxing
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Empress Houshiyun 霍诗韵皇后 | |||||||||
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Empress Dowager Chaoxing | |||||||||
Empress dowager of the Huang dynasty | |||||||||
Tenure | 20 March 1868 – 14 February 1898 | ||||||||
Predecessor | Empress Dowager Cixi | ||||||||
Successor | Empress Dowager Longyu | ||||||||
Empress consort of the Huang dynasty | |||||||||
Tenure | 29 October 1859 – 20 March 1868 | ||||||||
Predecessor | Empress Xiaogongzhang | ||||||||
Successor | Empress Gongrangzhang | ||||||||
Born | Chen Wenxuan (陳文宣) 29 November 1843 (貞祐十一年 十一月 二十九日) Yonggucheng, Huang Empire | ||||||||
Died | 28 December 1899 (元光十四年 十二月 二十八日) Tooth Relic Temple, Zhongnanhai, Basingse, Huang Empire | (aged 56)||||||||
Burial | Eastern Huang Tombs, Imperial Tombs of the Huang Dynasty | ||||||||
Spouse | Zhengyou Emperor (m. 1859; died 1869) | ||||||||
Issue | Yuanguang Emperor | ||||||||
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House | Li (李; by birth) Huang (黃; by marriage) | ||||||||
Father | Huoguang (霍光) | ||||||||
Mother | Lady Xian | ||||||||
Religion | Jin shamanism, Jin N'nhivaranism |
Life
Birth
Zhenyou era
Yuanguang era
Assassination
Aftermath
Funeral procession and tomb
Legacy
Photographs and illustrations
Documents note that she was in an official royal family photograph, but its whereabouts are unknown if it perished or was kept hidden by Da Huang's government. Another royal family portrait does exist, but it purported to have been destroyed when the warlord Sun Dianying and his army plundered the Eastern Mausoleum during the early stages of the Wucheng Heavenly Rebellion. The mausoleum complex was methodically stripped down of its precious ornaments, and the entrance to her burial chamber was dynamited. Sun Dianying's army opened Chaoxing's coffin, threw her corpse (said to have been found intact) on the ground, and stole the jewels in the coffin. They also took the massive pearl placed in the empress dowager's mouth to protect her corpse from decomposing (in accordance with Jin tradition). They subsequently tried to burn down the complex as they fled the area when Royalist forces under the command of the Yuanguang emperor stormed it. Royalist forces were able to put out the fire and found her body, which miraculously survived the fire, albeit in a ruinous state. The Yuanguang emperor brought his grandmother's remains along as he and his army fled the central plains, reburying it in the Royalist stronghold during the Republican era. After the Corrective Movement and re-establishment of the Huang dynasty in 1943, the Gaozu Emperor ordered the restoration of the complex of Empress Dowager Chaoxing's tomb, and her remains were reburied once more there. When asked why he looted the Eastern mausoleum, Sun Dianying claimed the desecration was revenge for the fallen in the First Cross-Strait War.
Wang Jinyu, a professor at Basingse University, said that the reason why there are not many photos of the Empress Dowager was because she lived in constant fear of the early-modern Jin superstition of having one's soul snatched by a camera if their photograph was taken. Others believe that there are, in fact, photos of her since she was politically active and suspect that the ROJ government had removed any traces of the Empress Dowager after her assassination.