Empress Bian (Wuxuan) 武宣卞皇后

Empress Bian (Wuxuan) was a native of Kaiyang in Langya and the mother of Emperor Wen. She came from a family of singing girls, and at the age of twenty Taizu took her in at Qiao as a concubine; later she followed Taizu to Luoyang. Records, Wei 5 §8

When Dong Zhuo caused disorder, Taizu slipped away east in disguise to escape the trouble. When Yuan Shu passed on the grim news that Taizu was dead, the attendants of Taizu who had come to Luoyang all wanted to go home. The Empress stopped them, saying that whether Lord Cao was alive or dead could not yet be known, and that if they went home today and he proved to be alive tomorrow, with what face would they see him again; and even if disaster came, what hardship was there in dying together? All of them followed her words, and when Taizu heard of it he thought well of her. Records, Wei 5 §8–9

Early in the Jian'an era, when Lady Ding was deposed, Taizu made the Empress his principal wife and had her raise all the various sons who had no mother. Of the twenty-five sons of Emperor Wu, those born to Empress Bian were Emperor Wen (Cao Pi), Cao Zhang, Prince Wei of Rencheng, Cao Zhi, Prince Si of Chen, and Cao Xiong, Prince Huai of Xiao. Records, Wei 5 §9Records, Wei 20 §2

When Emperor Wen became Crown Prince, the senior palace attendants (changyu) around her congratulated the Empress and said that she should empty the storehouses to give out rewards. The Empress replied that the King had made Pi his heir only because he was the eldest, and that she ought to count herself fortunate merely to escape blame for failing to teach and guide him, so why should she give lavish rewards? When the attendants returned and reported these words, Taizu was pleased and said that not to change countenance in anger and not to lose restraint in joy was the hardest thing of all. Records, Wei 5 §9–10

In the 7th month, in autumn, of the 24th year of Jian'an (219), Lady Bian became Queen. The patent of appointment stated that Lady Bian had cared for and raised the various sons and possessed the virtue of a mother, and so she was raised in rank to Queen; the Crown Prince and the marquises attended in their places, the ministers offered toasts for her long life, and capital offenses within the state were reduced by one degree. Records, Wei 5 §11Records, Wei 1 §168

When Taizu died in the 25th year of Jian'an (220), Emperor Wen took the throne as King and honored the Empress as Queen Dowager, and after he ascended the imperial throne, in the 11th month of the 1st year of Huangchu (220), he honored the Queen Dowager as Empress Dowager, styled the Yongshou Palace. In the 9th month of the 3rd year of Huangchu (222) Emperor Wen issued an edict that from then on the ministers were not to report affairs to the Empress Dowager, and the relatives of empresses were not to hold posts assisting in government. Records, Wei 5 §11Records, Wei 2 §17 · 34

In the Huangchu era, when Emperor Wen wished to posthumously enfeoff the Empress Dowager's parents, Chen Qun, Master of Writing, submitted a memorial opposing it, saying that the classic records had no system of granting land and conferring rank on women and that in the ritual canon a wife follows her husband's rank. Emperor Wen said that this argument was right and had it not carried out, and he had it made into an edict, sent down to the Terrace Pavilions to be preserved and to serve forever as a model for later generations. Records, Wei 5 §12–13

In the 2nd year of Huangchu (221), when Guan Jun, Internuncio Supervising the State, reported that Cao Zhi had got drunk, behaved outrageously and threatened an envoy, and the officials concerned asked that he be punished, Emperor Wen, out of regard for the Empress Dowager, lowered Cao Zhi's rank, making him Marquis of Anxiang. Also, Emperor Wen had asked Cao Hong for a loan when young and, failing to get it, had always resented him, and when one of Cao Hong's retainers broke the law, Cao Hong was thrown into prison and was about to be put to death. Empress Dowager Bian said to Empress Guo, 'If you let Cao Hong die today, tomorrow I will order the emperor to depose the empress,' and Empress Guo wept and pleaded many times, so that Cao Hong was merely dismissed from office and had his rank and fief reduced. Records, Wei 19 §19Records, Wei 9 §51

When Emperor Ming took the throne, she became Grand Empress Dowager. When Lady Yu, whom Emperor Ming had taken as consort when he was a prince, was not made empress, the Grand Empress Dowager, Empress Dowager Bian, consoled and encouraged her, but Lady Yu said that the Cao family liked to raise up the lowly, and was sent back to the palace at Ye. In the 1st year of Taihe (227), saying that the Grand Empress Dowager had spoken of it many times, Emperor Ming enfeoffed Cao Mao (曹茂), Duke of Liaocheng, as Prince of Liaocheng, to comfort the Grand Empress Dowager's concern for her descendants. Also, when Dang, the wet nurse of Cao Hong the Specially Advanced, was imprisoned for serving the Wujian spirit, Empress Dowager Bian sent a eunuch of the Yellow Gate to the office to convey her order, but Sima Zhi did not admit him, had the case decided at once, and then submitted a memorial. Records, Wei 5 §11 · 44–45Records, Wei 20 §70–72Records, Wei 12 §85

In spring of the 4th year of Taihe (230), Emperor Ming at last posthumously named the Empress Dowager's grandfather Bian Guang as Respectful Marquis of Kaiyang and her father Bian Yuan as the Reverent Marquis, and enfeoffed her grandmother Lady Zhou as Lady of Yangdu, granting seals and ribbons to her as well as to the wife of the Reverent Marquis. In the 5th month of that year the Empress died, and in the 7th month she was buried jointly at the Gaoling mausoleum. The Annals of Emperor Ming record that the Grand Empress Dowager died on the wuzi day of the 6th month and that in the 7th month Empress Wuxuan Bian was buried jointly at Gaoling, so the month of her death differs from the Biographies of Empresses and Consorts. Records, Wei 5 §13Records, Wei 3 §18

The Empress's younger brother Bian Bing was enfeoffed for his merit as Marquis of a Chief District, and in the 7th year of Huangchu (226) he was promoted to Marquis of Kaiyang with a fief of 1,200 households and became General of Shining Valor. The daughter of Bian Long, Bian Bing's grandson and the son of Bian Lan, became empress of the Duke of Gaogui Village, and the daughter of Bian Lin, Bian Lan's younger brother, became empress of the Prince of Chenliu. Records, Wei 5 §14–15

In his assessment at the end of the volume, Chen Shou wrote that although the families of the Wei empresses and consorts were said to be rich and noble, none of them had, as in the declining Han, mounted to places not theirs and carved up the government of the court at will. He also wrote that the argument of Chen Qun and the discussion of Zhan Qian were enough to serve as rules for a hundred kings and to hand down a model to later generations. Records, Wei 5 §53