Empress Fu was the empress of Emperor Xian of the Later Han. The Records has no separate biography of her, and she appears once, in the Annals of Emperor Wu in Records of Wei 1, in an entry for the 11th month of the 19th year of Jian'an (214). The empress had earlier sent a letter to her father, the former Colonel of Garrison Cavalry Fu Wan, saying that the emperor resented Cao Cao over the execution of Dong Cheng, and its wording was extremely vile. When this came to light, the empress was deposed and died, and her brothers were all executed according to the law. Records, Wei 1 §136 · 142
Chen Shou's main text in the Records does not give her personal name or origin. In the Romance she first appears in Chapter 13, placed in a carriage along with the Son of Heaven as he is carried off by Li Jue, and she appears in 5 of the 120 chapters. In Chapter 20 she sews the emperor's secret edict, written in blood, into the lining of a jade belt, and in Chapter 66, as in the chapter title 'Empress Fu Gives Her Life for the State', her letter plotting against Cao Cao is discovered and she is put to death. Records, Wei 1 §142Romance, Ch. 13 §16Romance, Ch. 20 §21Romance, Ch. 66 §48
According to the Annals of Emperor Wu, in the 1st month, in spring, of the 5th year of Jian'an (200), the plot of Dong Cheng and others leaked out and they were all executed. In the 7th month, in autumn, of the 18th year of Jian'an (213), the Son of Heaven took three of Cao Cao's daughters as Honored Ladies (guiren), and the youngest was made to wait in the state of Wei until she came of age. Records, Wei 1 §58 · 134
In the 11th month of the 19th year of Jian'an (214), it came to light that Empress Fu of the Han had earlier sent a letter to her father, the former Colonel of Garrison Cavalry Fu Wan, writing that the emperor resented Cao Cao over the execution of Dong Cheng. Chen Shou recorded that its wording was extremely vile. Implicated in this affair, the empress was deposed and died, and her brothers too were all executed according to the law. Records, Wei 1 §136 · 142
In the 1st month, in spring, of the following year, the 20th year of Jian'an (215), the Son of Heaven made Cao Cao's middle daughter empress. Chen Shou's main text in the Records does not give Empress Fu's personal name, origin, when she became empress, or her children. Records, Wei 1 §145 · 142
In Chapter 13 of the Romance, when Li Jue and Guo Si clash in Chang'an, Li Jue's nephew Li Xian surrounds the palace, puts the Son of Heaven and Empress Fu in two separate carriages and carries them off to Li Jue's camp. The next day, when Guo Si comes to fight before the camp, the emperor and empress are both terrified. Romance, Ch. 13 §16–17
In Chapter 20, after seeing Cao Cao's insolence at the hunt at Xutian, Emperor Xian returns to the palace and weeps that he and his wife do not know where they will die, and Empress Fu laments whether, among all the ministers who fill the court, there is not a single one who can save the state from its peril. Her father Fu Wan, who comes in at that moment, recommends Dong Cheng and proposes the plan of sending a secret edict hidden in a robe and a jade belt. Emperor Xian bites his fingertip and writes the secret edict in blood, and has Empress Fu sew it inside the purple brocade lining of the jade belt. Romance, Ch. 20 §17–21
In Chapter 24, when Cao Cao, having killed Dong Cheng and the others, enters the palace wearing his sword and drags out Dong Guifei, who is five months pregnant, Empress Fu pleads that it would not be too late to banish her to a cold palace and kill her after she has given birth. Cao Cao refuses, asking whether she wants to keep the rebel's seed alive to avenge its mother, and when Dong Guifei is strangled outside the palace gate, Empress Fu too weeps aloud. Romance, Ch. 24 §5–8
In Chapter 66, after Cao Cao enters the palace wearing his sword, browbeats the emperor and leaves, Empress Fu says that her father Fu Wan has always harbored the wish to kill Cao Cao and that she will plot with him by letter. To the emperor, who is afraid as he remembers what happened to Dong Cheng, she says that morning and evening are like sitting on a cushion of needles and that rather than live like this it would be better to die early, and she entrusts a secret letter to the eunuch Mu Shun. Fu Wan sends back a reply proposing to have Sun Quan and Liu Bei raise troops outside, but Cao Cao, waiting at the palace gate, finds the letter in Mu Shun's hair. Romance, Ch. 66 §34–40
Cao Cao surrounds Fu Wan's house, finds the empress's letter in her own hand, and throws the three branches of the Fu clan into prison. When Xi Lü takes back the empress's seal and ribbon, Empress Fu hides inside a double wall of the Pepper Chamber, but Hua Xin breaks open the wall, seizes her by her hair knot and drags her out. In the outer hall the emperor comes down and embraces her, weeping, and she asks in tears whether he cannot save her life, but the emperor answers that he does not know how long his own life will last. Saying that if he does not kill her she will surely kill him, Cao Cao has her beaten to death with clubs, kills the two sons she bore with poisoned wine, and has some two hundred members of the clans of Fu Wan, Mu Shun and others beheaded in the marketplace. This is in the 11th month of the 19th year of Jian'an. Romance, Ch. 66 §40–43 · 47–49
When Emperor Xian goes without food for several days, Cao Cao asks that his own daughter, the Honored Lady Cao, be installed in the principal palace, and on the first day of the 1st month of the 20th year of Jian'an the Honored Lady Cao becomes empress. In Chapter 78, Empress Fu, Dong Guifei, the two imperial sons, Fu Wan, Dong Cheng and others, more than twenty in all, appear covered in blood in the bedchamber of the ailing Cao Cao, and the next day Xiahou Dun too sees them and collapses in shock. Romance, Ch. 66 §51Romance, Ch. 78 §26 · 28
Scope of the record: In the Romance, Empress Fu speaks and acts across 5 chapters, from the turmoil of Li Jue through the edict written in blood and the death of Dong Guifei to the letter plotting against Cao Cao. In Chen Shou's main text in the Records there is only a single entry, for the 11th month of the 19th year of Jian'an in the Annals of Emperor Wu. Romance, Ch. 13 §16Romance, Ch. 20 §18Romance, Ch. 24 §7Romance, Ch. 66 §35Records, Wei 1 §142
The edict written in blood: In Chapter 20 of the Romance, Emperor Xian bites his finger and writes a secret edict in blood, and Empress Fu sews it into the lining of the jade belt. The Biography of the First Sovereign in the Records says only that Dong Cheng claimed to have received a secret edict hidden in the emperor's sash and said that Cao Cao must be executed; there is no mention of its being written in blood or of the empress sewing it. Romance, Ch. 20 §21Records, Shu 2 §15
Contents of the letter: In Chapter 66 of the Romance, the empress's secret letter is meant to plot against Cao Cao together with her father Fu Wan, and Fu Wan's reply proposes joining hands with Sun Quan and Liu Bei so that they would respond from outside. In the Records, what became an issue was the discovery that in a letter she had earlier sent to her father the empress had written that the emperor resented Cao Cao over the execution of Dong Cheng. Romance, Ch. 66 §35 · 40Records, Wei 1 §142
Death: In Chapter 66 of the Romance, Hua Xin drags out the empress hiding inside the wall, and Cao Cao has her beaten to death with clubs. The Annals of Emperor Wu in the Records says only that the empress was deposed and died, and records neither who dragged her out nor how she died. Romance, Ch. 66 §42 · 48Records, Wei 1 §142
Those who died with her: In Chapter 66 of the Romance, Cao Cao kills the two sons the empress bore with poisoned wine and has some two hundred members of the clans of Fu Wan, Mu Shun and others beheaded in the marketplace. In the Annals of Emperor Wu in the Records, those executed according to the law were the empress's brothers; Fu Wan appears only as the former Colonel of Garrison Cavalry who received the letter, and the empress's sons do not appear. Romance, Ch. 66 §48Records, Wei 1 §142
The next empress: In Chapter 66 of the Romance, Cao Cao asks Emperor Xian to install his daughter, who is already an Honored Lady, in the principal palace, and the Honored Lady Cao becomes empress. The Annals of Emperor Wu in the Records says only that in the 7th month of the 18th year of Jian'an the Son of Heaven took three of Cao Cao's daughters as Honored Ladies and in the 1st month, in spring, of the 20th year made the middle one empress, and Cao Cao's request does not appear. Romance, Ch. 66 §51Records, Wei 1 §134 · 145
Cao Cao's death: In Chapter 78 of the Romance, the ghosts of Empress Fu and the others appear before Cao Cao as he nears death. The Annals of Emperor Wu in the Records says only that on the gengzi day of the 1st month of the 25th year of Jian'an the king died at Luoyang at the age of 66, and there is nothing of the kind. Romance, Ch. 78 §26Records, Wei 1 §171–172
Written by 3KDEX (not yet reviewed) — The tags at the end of each paragraph link to the exact passage in the Records volume or Romance chapter it is based on.
The Records score (Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms, main text) is the baseline. Each ability compares how the Romance redrew the same person, and the evidence from both sources explains the difference.
RConveyed the emperor's resentment to her father by letter; the original text calls its wording vileWei 1 §142
NSewed the secret edict into the jade belt, risked her life plotting against Cao Cao, and pleaded for Dong Guifei's lifeCh. 66 §35Ch. 24 §7Ch. 20 §21
RNo direct record — estimated from her deedsWei 1 §142
NChose Mu Shun as loyal and trustworthy, and he did not confess even under interrogationCh. 66 §36Ch. 66 §40
RNo direct record — estimated from her deedsWei 1 §142
NThe palace attendants all claimed not to know and hid herCh. 66 §42
RNo direct record — estimated from her status as empressWei 1 §142
NNo direct record — estimated from her status as empressCh. 66 §35
RNo direct record — estimated from her status as empressWei 1 §142
NNo direct record — estimated from her status as empressCh. 66 §42
RNo direct record — estimated from her deedsWei 1 §142
NTried to plot against Cao Cao with her father, but the plan leaked as in Dong Cheng's caseCh. 66 §35Ch. 66 §40
RNo direct record — estimated from her deedsWei 1 §142
NNo direct record — estimated from her deedsCh. 20 §18
RAn earlier letter came to light; she was deposed and died, and her brothers were executedWei 1 §142
NPlotted, saying it was better to die early than live like this, and was caught inside the wallCh. 66 §36Ch. 66 §42
RNo direct record — estimated from her writing a letterWei 1 §142
NNo direct record — estimated from her writing a secret letter in her own handCh. 66 §37
RNo direct record — estimated from her deedsWei 1 §142
NPleaded that Dong Guifei be kept in a cold palace and killed only after giving birth, but failedCh. 24 §7
Records Romance Unverified No direct record; scored from their actions (evidence grade C)
3KDEX scoring — the Records use the main text of Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms; the Romance uses the 120-chapter Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Click a source tag to open that passage in the reader.
AppearsNot present Chapter list →
| Parents | Fu Wan Romance |
|---|---|
| Spouse | Liu Xie Novel & History |
Based on Wikidata items for the historical and Romance figures. Relations without the Unverified badge were also confirmed in the Records.
Includes automatic matching from Wikipedia infoboxes and source keywords (unverified).