Empress Cao (Dou Jiande's wife)

Empress Cao( tào Hoàng Hậu, personal name unknown) was the wife ofDou Jiande,an agrarian rebel leader who claimed the title of Prince of Xia at the end of theChineseSui dynasty.

Nothing is known about her personal background. She was said to be frugal in her living, as even after Dou conquered modernHebeiand had substantial holdings, she had no decoration on her clothing, and only had less than 10 maids attending her. After Dou defeated and killedYuwen Huaji,who possessed a large number ofEmperor Yang of Sui'sladies in waiting,Dou disbanded the ladies in waiting. (Novels fictionalizing the era generally attribute Dou's disbanding of the ladies in waiting to his love for her and her jealousy, but nothing is recorded in history suggesting that she was, in fact, jealous.) Dou himself only claimed the title of prince, notemperor,but after he heard in 619 thatWang Shichonghad deposed the last emperor of Sui,Yang Tong,and declared himself the Emperor of Zheng, Dou cut off Wang and began to take on imperial style in his ceremonies, including referring to his orders as imperial edicts. It was likely that it was at this time that he let her take on the title ofempress.

In 621, with Wang's Zheng state under attack by theTang dynastygeneralLi Shimin(the later Emperor Taizong), Wang sought aid from Dou. Dou, believing that if Li were able to conquer Zheng, that his Xia state would be next, decided to go to Wang's aid. As he approached Luoyang, his strategist Ling Jing ( lăng kính ) suggested that instead of heading to Zheng's capitalLuoyang,which Li was sieging, that he attack Tang's Fen ( Phần Châu, roughly modernLüliang,Shanxi) and Jin ( Tấn Châu, roughly modernLinfen,Shanxi) prefectures and be poised to further attack Tang's capitalChang'anin order to seize Tang territory as well as force Li to give up the siege on Luoyang. However, Wang's emissaries Wang Wan ( vương uyển ) and Zhangsun Anshi ( trưởng tôn an thế ) persuaded Dou that Luoyang was about to fall and needed his aid immediately, and so Dou headed for Luoyang. When Empress Cao heard this, she tried to persuade Dou to accept Ling's plan, stating:

The strategy of the Secretary General [(i.e., Ling)] must be accepted, and I do not understand why Your Royal Highness would not accept it. Your Royal Highness should enter through Fukou [( phũ khẩu, in modernHandan,Hebei)] into Tang's weak spot. Connect your camps and capture the area north of theTaihang Mountains.This, combined withTujue's pillages againstGuanzhong[(Tang's capital region)], will force Tang forces to withdraw to save themselves. Why worry that you cannot lift the siege on Luoyang? If you remain here, the officers and the soldiers will all be tired, and you will spend much material, and you will not be successful.

Dou, however, responded:

You women will not understand this. We came to save Luoyang, which is in dire straits and about to fall. If we abandon it and leave, we show that we are fearful of the enemy and turning our back on faith and righteousness. I cannot do this.

He therefore continued to progress toward Luoyang, and he engaged Li at theBattle of Hulao.Li defeated and captured him, and Wang surrendered. Li took both Dou and Wang back to Chang'an to be presented to his fatherEmperor Gaozu of Tang,who executed Dou. The Xia forces withdrew to the Xia capital atMingzhou(present-day Guangfu) and considered declaring Dou's adopted son as prince.The official Qi Shan xing ( tề thiện hạnh ), however, persuaded the others that further resistance would be futile, and the treasures that the Xia state had previously obtained were distributed to the soldiers, who were then disbanded. Qi, the former Sui officialPei Ju,and Empress Cao's brother Cao Dan ( tào đán ) then accompanied her, carrying the treasures and the imperial seals Dou took after defeating Yuwen, and they surrendered to Tang forces. Nothing further was said about her in history.