Empress Dayi, known during her life asLady Wang, was a concubine ofSun Quan, the founding emperor of the state ofEastern Wu and mother of heirSun He during theThree Kingdoms period of China. She would lose favor due to the slanders of another and died.^[3][4]

Lady Wang was from Langye (琅邪; present-dayLinyi,Shandong), and was referred to asLady Wang of Langye to distinguish her from Lady Wang of Nanyang (posthumously known asEmpress Jinghuai, another concubine of Sun Quan who shared the same surname).^[5] Lady Wang was the daughter of Wang Lujiu,^[2] and she is reported as having three younger brothers.^[6] She entered Sun Quan's harem during theHuangwu period (222-229), presumably before 224 when she gave birth toSun He, and she was generally Sun Quan's second-favourite afterLady Bu. When Crown PrinceSun Deng died in 241,^[4] Sun He became heir apparent and Sun Quan made overtures to make Lady Wang his empress with other favored ladies like Lady Wang of Nanyang were removed from the palace.^[7] However, Sun Quan's daughter by Lady Bu,Sun Luban was a supporter of rival candidateSun Ba while she and Lady Wang had fallen out,^[4][8] slandering her little by little.^[4] When Sun Quan was bedridden and Sun He went to offer sacrifices at Sun Ce's temple, Sun Luban acted against both He and Lady Wang, saying Sun He had gone to conspire with his in-laws includingZhang Xiu and that Lady Wang rejoiced when she saw Sun Quan so unwell.^[8] Sun Quan was enraged on hearing this and Lady Wang supposedly died of anxiety.^[9]

Sun He's position was weakened and he was exiled during the political scandal of his succession struggle withSun Ba in 250; he was forced to commit suicide in late 253 duringSun Liang's reign. He was survived by his own son,Sun Hao, who became emperor in 264, at which point Lady Wang was posthumously titledEmpress Dayi (大懿皇后Great Exemplary Empress), and her three younger brothers were awarded marquisates.^[6]

• Chen, Shou (3rd century).Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi). Scroll 50.
  • Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell.Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's Commentary. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999.
• Pei, Songzhi (5th century).Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi zhu).

• Family of Sun Quan
• People of Eastern Wu
• Chinese concubines
• Eastern Wu posthumous empresses
• People from Linyi

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Year of birth unknown
• Year of death unknown