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WHO IS INCLUDED?

A word needs to be said about the criteria Chen Shou used in
selecting women to include in his history, for not all palace women or
even all rulers' wives have entries in the Records of the Three States
fascicles on empresses and consorts. Moreover, the treatment of them
differs somewhat state by state. In picking those to be included in the
section on Wei, Chen followed criteria similar to those applied later
by Fan Ye in his Later Han History.[105] All had been empresses and are
listed by their titles, as befit the consorts of the rulers of the legitimate
successor state to the Han. This legitimacy is underscored by the
omission of the term "empress" (hou) from the titles of the chapters
on Shu and Wu. Curiously, however, the section on Shu also lists
empresses by their titles, though Liu Bei and Liu Shan are naturally
not referred to as "emperor." The Shu chapter differs from the other
two in that it combines the biographies of the consorts with those of
the younger male offspring, rather than separating them, as is done for
Wei and Wu. This is, of course, a function of the relatively small number
of persons involved. Fascicle 50 differs from the other two in not listing
any of the women under the title of "empress." With one exception,
all are listed under the title of "lady" (furen), though most had been
declared empress. The exception is Sun He's consort née He, who was
mother of Sun Hao, the last ruler of Wu. Although Sun Hao bestowed

on her the title of empress and then empress dowager, she was listed
as Dame He [OMITTED] to indicate that she was not the wife of a ruler.[106]
Another difference is that Fascicle 50 includes wives of Sun Quan—
Lady Xie and Lady Xu—who had not been declared empresses, either
in their own lifetimes or posthumously. Their inclusion is further
indication that Chen Shou believed there were no grounds for
considering Wu to be a legitimate successor to the Han.

Aside from the empresses who appear in Fascicle 5, the Caos had
other wives who were mothers of younger sons who did not become
emperor. These are mentioned in Fascicle 20 with the entries for their
sons (see Appendix I, Tables 9 and 10). The information is sketchy,
and for most Chen gives little more than a name.[107] Fascicle 59, on
the five sons of Sun Quan who did not rule (Sun Liang and Sun Xiu,
having been rulers, share a separate fascicle with Sun Hao, the final
ruler of Wu), differs somewhat because the mothers of these five are
covered in Fascicle 50. Still, Fascicle 59 contains some additional
information that complements parts of the biographical sketches found
in the section on consorts.