Empress Dong 董太后

In Chapter 2 of the Romance, in the 4th month, in summer, of the 6th year of Zhongping (189), Emperor Ling falls gravely ill. The younger sister of the General-in-Chief He Jin had borne the imperial prince Bian and become empress, and Meiren Wang, whom Emperor Ling favored, had borne the imperial prince Xie but was poisoned by the jealous Empress He, so the imperial prince Xie is raised in Empress Dong's palace. The Romance introduces Empress Dong as Emperor Ling's mother and the wife of Liu Chang, Marquis of Jiedu Village. Because Emperor Huan had no son, the son of the Marquis of Jiedu Village was brought in and set up as emperor—this was Emperor Ling—and after succeeding to the throne Emperor Ling brought his mother into the palace and honored her as Empress Dowager. Romance, Ch. 2 §36–38

Empress Dong had long urged the emperor to make the imperial prince Xie crown prince, and the emperor too favored Xie and wished to set him up. The Regular Palace Attendant Jian Shuo memorializes that if Xie is to be set up, He Jin must first be killed to cut off future trouble, and the emperor summons He Jin, but the Major Pan Yin reveals Jian Shuo's scheme at the palace gate and He Jin hurries home. Then, when Emperor Ling dies, He Jin goes in with more than thirty ministers and sets up the crown prince Bian as emperor before Emperor Ling's coffin. Romance, Ch. 2 §38–41

When Empress He entrusts He Jin with the post of Intendant of the Affairs of the Masters of Writing, Empress Dong summons Zhang Rang and others to her palace and asks what she should do, saying that He Jin's younger sister was someone she herself had raised up in the first place, yet now her son has become emperor and the officials inside and outside the court are all their trusted men. When Zhang Rang tells her to lower the screen and hear state affairs, enfeoff the imperial prince Xie as a prince, and give the imperial uncle Dong Chong high office so that he holds military power, Empress Dong is overjoyed. At court the next day Empress Dong issues an edict enfeoffing the imperial prince Xie as Prince of Chenliu and Dong Chong as General of Agile Cavalry, and has Zhang Rang and the others take part in court affairs together. Romance, Ch. 2 §44–45

Seeing Empress Dong monopolize power, Empress He holds a banquet in the palace and invites Empress Dong, and saying that it is not fitting for women to meddle in the government of the court, cites how the whole clan of Empress Lü, a thousand people, was put to death for holding great power. Empress Dong, in a great rage, rebukes her as a woman so jealous that she poisoned Meiren Wang, who now relies on the power of her son and her elder brother to speak recklessly, and says that ordering the General of Agile Cavalry to cut off her elder brother's head would be as easy as turning over her hand. When Empress He too grows angry, Empress Dong calls her family a pack of butchers and wine-sellers, and as the two palaces quarrel, Zhang Rang and the others each soothe them and send them back to their own palaces. Romance, Ch. 2 §46–47

Having heard of this from Empress He, He Jin consults the Three Excellencies, and at court the next morning he has the court officials memorialize that Empress Dong, originally the consort of a vassal king, cannot stay long in the palace and must move to Hejian, setting a deadline for her to leave the gates of the capital that same day. On the one hand he sends men to escort Empress Dong away; on the other he sends the palace guards to surround the house of the General of Agile Cavalry Dong Chong, and Dong Chong cuts his own throat in the rear hall. In the 6th month He Jin secretly has a man poison Empress Dong at the post station of Hejian, brings her coffin back to the capital and buries her in the Wen Mausoleum, while he himself stays away, pleading illness. Romance, Ch. 2 §48–50

The Colonel-Director of Retainers Yuan Shao urges He Jin to take this opportunity to kill the eunuchs, saying that Zhang Rang, Duan Gui and others are spreading rumours outside that he poisoned Empress Dong and is plotting a great undertaking. In Chapter 3, when He Jin enters the palace on receiving the Empress Dowager's edict, Zhang Rang and Duan Gui surround him at the gate of the Jiade Hall, and Zhang Rang berates him, asking what crime Empress Dong had committed that he should recklessly poison her, and saying that he did not even attend the funeral of the mother of the realm, pleading illness. Then assassins lying in wait burst out all at once and cut He Jin in two. Romance, Ch. 2 §50Romance, Ch. 3 §8–11