Empress Guo (Mingyuan) 明元郭皇后

Empress Guo (Mingyuan) was a native of Xiping, from a family that had for generations been a great clan of the region west of the Yellow River. During the Huangchu era, when her home commandery rebelled, she was taken into the palace as a confiscated person. When Emperor Ming took the throne she was greatly loved and favored and made a Lady (furen); her uncle Guo Li became Chief Commandant of Cavalry, and her father's cousin Guo Zhi became General of the Household Rapid as Tigers. Records, Wei 5 §50

As Emperor Ming favored Empress Yuan Guo, his love for Empress Mao (Mingdao) cooled day by day. In the 1st year of Jingchu (237), when Emperor Ming was enjoying himself in the rear garden and held a private banquet for the ladies of the rank of Talented Lady and above, Empress Yuan said, 'The empress should be invited too,' but the emperor refused and forbade his attendants to speak of it. Empress Mao learned of it and the next day said, 'Did you enjoy your outing and banquet in the north garden yesterday?' The emperor, holding that his attendants had leaked it, put more than ten of them to death and ordered Empress Mao to die. Records, Wei 5 §47

In the 12th month of the 2nd year of Jingchu (early 239 in the Western calendar), when Emperor Ming took to his bed with illness, he made her empress. On the first day of the next month, the 1st month, when Cao Fang, Prince of Qi, took the throne, the empress was honored as Empress Dowager and called the Yongning Palace. Her father Guo Man was posthumously made Marquis Ding of Xidu, with Guo Li's son Guo Jian succeeding to the title, and her mother, Lady Du, was enfeoffed as Lady of Heyang. Guo Zhi and Guo Li became full marquises, and Guo Jian and his elder brother Guo De, who had been adopted into the Zhen family, became Generals Who Guard and Protect and jointly commanded the palace guard. Records, Wei 3 §63Records, Wei 5 §50–51Records, Wei 4 §2

In the 1st month of the 10th year of Zhengshi (249), Sima Xuanwang (Sima Yi), in his memorial impeaching Cao Shuang, stated that the Grand Commandant Jiang Ji, the Prefect of the Masters of Writing Sima Fu and others had reported to the Yongning Palace that it was not fitting for Cao Shuang and his brothers to command troops and guard the palace, and that the Empress Dowager had ordered it carried out as reported. According to the Biography of Gao Rou, the Empress Dowager summoned Gao Rou by edict, granted him the staff of authority, and had him act as General-in-Chief and take over Cao Shuang's camp. The Grand Minister of Agriculture Huan Fan did not answer the Empress Dowager's summons, forged an edict to have the Pingchang Gate opened, and fled to Cao Shuang. Records, Wei 9 §80 · 83–84Records, Wei 24 §57

In the 9th month of the 6th year of Jiaping (254), Sima Jingwang (Sima Shi), plotting to depose the emperor, reported it to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager issued an order that, since the emperor Cao Fang, though of full age, did not attend to state affairs, indulged himself with favorites and entertainers and destroyed the proper order of human relations, he was to be sent back to his fief of Qi. Three days later, on the day dingchou, she issued an order making Cao Mao, Duke of Gaogui Village and son of Cao Lin, Prince of Donghai, the heir of Emperor Ming. On entering Luoyang, Cao Mao, saying he had only been summoned by the Empress Dowager and did not know for what, walked to the eastern hall of the Taiji Hall, had an audience with the Empress Dowager, and took the throne. Records, Wei 4 §39 · 44–46 · 49

In the 1st month of the 2nd year of Zhengyuan (255), Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin forged an edict of the Empress Dowager, listed the crimes of Sima Jingwang and raised troops. In the 2nd year of Ganlu (257), when Zhuge Dan rebelled, the Duke of Gaogui Village said in an edict, 'Now the Empress Dowager and I should for a time take the field together to swiftly put down the vile rebels.' Records, Wei 28 §20–21Records, Wei 4 §78 · 82–83

When the Duke of Gaogui Village died in the 5th month of the 5th year of Ganlu (260), the Empress Dowager issued an order. In it she said that he was violent and perverse by nature, had slandered her and cut off contact between the two palaces, had shot crossbow bolts at her palace, had bribed her attendants to put poison in her medicine, and in the end had tried to enter the Western Palace to kill her and go out to seize the General-in-Chief. Following the precedent of the Prince of Changyi of the Han, she ordered that he be buried with the rites of a commoner and that the Master of Writing Wang Jing and his family be handed over to the Commandant of Justice, but when Sima Fu, Sima Wenwang (Sima Zhao) and others asked that he be buried with the rites of a prince, she agreed. Records, Wei 4 §97–104

After that, the dukes asked that the Empress Dowager's written orders be called edicts (zhao and zhi). When the General-in-Chief Sima Wenwang firmly declined the posts of Chancellor of State and Duke of Jin and the Nine Bestowments, the Empress Dowager issued an edict that his memorial be made public to display the Duke's modesty. To the General-in-Chief's letter proposing to punish the family of Cheng Ji, who had killed the Duke of Gaogui Village, she replied, 'I, being a woman, do not understand great principles and thought that Cheng Ji could not simply be treated as guilty of high treason, but since the General-in-Chief's intent is earnest, I grant it as requested.' The newly welcomed Cao Huan, Duke of Changdao Village, also entered Luoyang and took the throne on the same day he had an audience with the Empress Dowager. Records, Wei 4 §105–110 · 113

Chen Shou wrote that because the three sovereigns were young and weak, the chief ministers took charge of the government, but in all great matters of granting and taking away they first consulted the Empress Dowager before acting, and when Guanqiu Jian, Zhong Hui and others raised rebellions they all used her command as their pretext. The Empress Dowager died in the 12th month of the 4th year of Jingyuan (263; early 264 in the Western calendar) and was buried west of the Gaoping Mausoleum in the 2nd month of the following year. The day after he arrived on the 15th day of the 1st month of the 5th year of Jingyuan, Zhong Hui gathered the generals and the former officials of Shu, proclaimed mourning for the Empress Dowager in the court hall of Shu, and announced a forged testamentary edict of the Empress Dowager ordering Sima Wenwang to be deposed. Records, Wei 5 §51Records, Wei 4 §127–128Records, Wei 28 §124

In his assessment, Chen Shou said that although the families of Wei's empresses and consorts were rich and noble, none of them, as in the declining Han, occupied positions not rightfully theirs and carved up the government of the court at will, and that learning from the past and changing course in this way was admirable. Records, Wei 5 §53