University of Virginia Library

The beginning of the future Grand Empress Dowager née Wang's
career

Many casual happenings cooperated to bring Emperor Ch'eng to the
throne. About 52 B.C., while his father, Emperor Yüan, was still only
Emperor Hsüan's Heir-apparent, the Heir-apparent's favorite concubine
became ill and died. Either in sincerity or because she wished to keep
her husband true to her, she told the future Emperor Yüan, before she
died, that her death had been the result of magical imprecations by his
other concubines. He believed her, became ill with grief, and would
have nothing to do with his other women. His father, Emperor Hsüan,
became worried, and told his Empress to pick out some of his Daughters
of Good Family (the next to the lowest grade of imperial concubines)
for the Heir-apparent. Five girls were offered to the sorrowing Heir-apparent,
who had no desire for any of them. Out of respect for his
mother, he forced himself to say, "One of these will do." The harem

official thought he meant the girl nearest him, who happened to be the
only one dressed in red; consequently she was sent to the Heir-apparent's
apartments.

This girl, Cheng-chün, the future Grand Empress Dowager née Wang,
was the daughter of a minor official in one of the capital bureaus. She
had been betrothed twice, and each time her betrothed had died. The
diviners had foretold that she would become honorable, so she had
been taught to write and to play the lute, and had been presented to the
imperial harem. At this time, she was in her nineteenth year. The
Heir-apparent had been married for seven or eight years and had had
several tens of women in his apartments, but he had had no children;
the first time that this new girl was summoned, she was favored and
conceived. In 51 B.C., she gave birth to the future Emperor Ch'eng.
Emperor Hsüan was delighted with the babe, his grandson, called him
the Heir-apparent of the Heir-apparent, and often had the child by
him. When Emperor Yüan came to the throne, this child was in his
third year and was made Heir-apparent. His mother was accordingly
made the Empress. Cheng-chün's father was made a marquis, and
her uncle was given an official position. The favoring of relatives
(cf. p. 292) is a Confucian moral principle.