Wei Zifu

Wei Zifu (simplified Chinese: 卫子夫; traditional Chinese: 衛子夫; pinyin: Weì Zǐfū; Wade–Giles: Wei Tzu-fu; died 9 September 91 BC¹), posthumously known as Empress Xiaowusi (孝武思皇后; lit. ''the filial, martial and thoughtful empress'') or Thoughtful Empress Wei (衛思后; Weì Sī Hòu), was an empress consort of the Chinese Han dynasty. She was the second wife of the famous Emperor Wu and his spouse for 49 years. She stayed as his empress for 38 years, the second longest in Chinese history (behind only the 47-year reign of Empress Wang, the wife of Ming dynasty's Wanli Emperor, who lived over 1,600 years later). She was the mother of Emperor Wu's heir apparent Liu Ju and a great-grandmother of Liu Bingyi (Emperor Xuan). She was also an elder half-sister of the famed general Wei Qing, aunt of Huo Qubing,² and step-aunt of statesman Huo Guang.³

Family background and early years

Wei Zifu was born of humble means to a serf family. She was the fourth child and the youngest daughter of a lowly housemaid/servant at the household of Princess Pingyang (平陽公主), Emperor Wu's older sister. Her father presumably died around the time of her birth, as there were few historic records of most of her family members. Her younger half-brother , born not long after her, was an from an by her mother with a low-level official serving the Princess's household. When Wei Zifu was still young, she was recruited as a at the princess' estate, where she was also trained in dancing and the . Wei Zifu was good at singing and composing, she also had beautiful long hair.