Empress Guo (Wende) 文德郭皇后

Empress Guo (Wende) was a native of Guangzong in Anping, and her forebears had served for generations as senior local officials. When she was young her father Guo Yong thought her remarkable and said, 'This child is the king among my daughters,' and so she took Nuwang as her courtesy name. She lost her parents early, wandered amid the turmoil and ended up in the household of the Marquis of Tongdi, and when Taizu (Cao Cao) was Duke of Wei she was able to enter the Eastern Palace. Records, Wei 5 §32

She had wisdom and resourcefulness and from time to time offered counsel, and Chen Shou wrote that she had a hand in the plans by which Emperor Wen was chosen as heir. When the Crown Prince became king she was made Lady, and when he ascended the imperial throne, Honoured Consort. The account of Empress Zhen in the Biographies of Empresses and Consorts records that after Emperor Wen ascended the throne, Empress Guo and the Honoured Ladies Li and Yin all enjoyed his favour, so that Empress Zhen lost heart and spoke resentful words, and was ordered to die in the 6th month of the 2nd year of Huangchu (221); the biography of Empress Guo records that Empress Zhen's death came about because of the favour the empress enjoyed. Records, Wei 5 §32 · 20 · 33

In the 3rd year of Huangchu (222), when Emperor Wen wished to make her empress, the Gentleman of the Household Zhan Qian submitted a memorial. He argued that the emperors and kings of old had help not only from supporters outside but also from within, so that sage and wise rulers were careful in establishing a principal consort and always took her from a family of hereditary standing from earlier generations, and that Duke Huan of Qi too had said in his oath at Kuiqiu, 'Do not make a concubine your wife.' Zhan Qian said he feared that if a favourite were raised to empress out of love, making a lowly person suddenly noble, disorder would arise from above; but Emperor Wen did not follow his advice and in the end made her empress. The Annals of Emperor Wen records that on the day jiawu of the 9th month of that year he issued an edict forbidding women to take part in government, and on the day gengzi made Lady Guo empress. Records, Wei 5 §33–35Records, Wei 2 §34

Because the empress had lost her brothers early, her elder cousin Guo Biao was made Guo Yong's heir and appointed Chief Commandant of Imperial Carriages. When Liu Fei (劉斐), a relative on her mother's side, was about to marry someone from another region, she issued a decree that her relatives should marry into families of matching standing from their own home district, and must not use their influence to force marriages with people from other regions. When Meng Wu, her elder sister's son, wished to return home to take a concubine, she stopped him, and decreed to the various families: 'Women are few in the world today, and they should be matched with officers and soldiers; you must not use your connections to take them as concubines.' Records, Wei 5 §36

In the 5th year of Huangchu (224), when Emperor Wen went east on campaign, the empress remained at the Yongshi Terrace in Xuchang. When the rains continued for more than a hundred days and many of the city towers collapsed, the officials asked her to move her residence, but she cited the old story of Zhen Jiang, who was left behind at the Jian Terrace when King Zhao of Chu went out on an excursion and, refusing to go with an envoy who carried no tally, drowned; and she said that with the emperor far away she could not move before any danger had actually come. None of the ministers dared raise the matter again. In the 6th year (225), when Emperor Wen reached Guangling on campaign against Wu, the empress remained at the palace at Qiao. At that time Guo Biao, who was serving in the palace guard, wished to dam the water to catch fish, and the empress said that the water ought to be kept open for grain transport and timber was in short supply, so he would again privately take the government's bamboo and timber to build a weir, and asked whether what the Chief Commandant of Imperial Carriages now lacked was really fish. Records, Wei 5 §37–38

In the 5th month of the 7th year of Huangchu (226), when Emperor Ming took the throne, he honoured her as Empress Dowager, with her residence called the Yong'an Palace. In the 4th year of Taihe (230) Guo Biao was enfeoffed as Marquis of Anyang Village and then raised to a district marquisate, bringing his fief, together with what he held before, to 500 households, and was transferred to General of the Central Rampart, while Guo Biao's son Guo Xiang was made Chief Commandant of Cavalry. That year Emperor Ming posthumously named the Empress Dowager's father Guo Yong Marquis Jing of Anyang District and made her mother, Lady Dong, Lady of Du District, and transferred Guo Biao to General Who Manifests Virtue, granting him the gold seal and purple ribbon and the rank of Specially Advanced. Records, Wei 3 §1Records, Wei 5 §39

When Meng Wu's mother died and Meng Wu wished to give her a lavish burial and build an ancestral hall, the Empress Dowager stopped him, saying that since the turmoil began no tomb had been left unplundered, all because of lavish burials, and that he should take the Shouyang Mausoleum as his model. In the spring of the 3rd year of Qinglong (235) she died at Xuchang. The Annals of Emperor Ming records that the Empress Dowager died on the day dingsi of the 1st month of that year. Her tomb was built in accordance with the funeral regulations (zhongzhi), and on the day gengyin of the 3rd month she was buried west of the Shouyang Mausoleum. Records, Wei 5 §40Records, Wei 3 §42

Emperor Ming raised Guo Biao's rank to Marquis of Guanjin, adding 500 households to make 1,000 together with what he held before, and transferred Guo Xiang to Commandant Escort of Imperial Equipages. The following year, the 4th year of Qinglong (236), Guo Yong was posthumously re-enfeoffed as Marquis Jing of Guanjin and Lady Dong was made Lady of Tangyang, and the empress's elder brothers Guo Fu, Guo Du and Guo Cheng were posthumously given the rank of village marquis together with posthumous names, and envoys were sent to sacrifice to them with the tailao offering. When Guo Biao died, his son Guo Xiang succeeded him. Records, Wei 5 §40–41

In his assessment in Records of Wei 5, 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 he praised this change of course made by learning from the past; he also said that the arguments of Chen Qun and Zhan Qian were fit to serve as a model for a hundred kings. The assessment does not discuss Empress Guo separately. Records, Wei 5 §53