Empress Yifu (乙弗皇后, personal name unknown) (510–540 CE), formallyEmpress Wen (文皇后, literally "the civil empress"), was anempress of theXianbei-led ChineseWestern Wei dynasty—a branch successor state ofNorthern Wei. Her husband wasEmperor Wen (Yuan Baoju).[1][2]
Her ancestors were ancestral chiefs of a branch tribe ofTuyuhun, and later became vassals of Northern Wei. After Northern Wei conqueredNorthern Liang in 439, her great-great-grandfather Yifu Mogui (乙弗莫瓌) led his tribe into Northern Wei and became a Northern Wei general. For three generations following his, the Yifus married Northern Wei princesses, and their daughters often married Northern Wei imperial princes. Her father Yifu Yuan (乙弗瑗) was a provincial governor, and her mother was the Princess Huaiyang, a daughter ofEmperor Xiaowen.
In 525, when she was 15, she married Yuan Baoju, who was then 18 and a general under his cousinEmperor Xiaoming, but who carried no noble title because his father Yuan Yu (元愉) the Prince of Jingzhao had had his title stripped posthumously in a rebellion. In 535, after Northern Wei had split intoEastern Wei andWestern Wei, he was made emperor (as Emperor Wen) by the generalYuwen Tai after the death of his cousinEmperor Xiaowu. He created her empress and created her sonYuan Qincrown prince.
As empress, Empress Yifu was said to be frugal, avoiding extravagant clothing, jewelry, and food, often eating just vegetables. She was also said to be kind and tolerant and never jealous, and Emperor Wen respected her greatly.[3] They had 12 children, although only Yuan Qin and Yuan Wu (元戊) the Prince of Wudu survived infancy.
In 538, with Western Wei occupied with wars against Eastern Wei and unable to defend itself against attacks byRouran, Yuwen Tai wanted to further relationships with Rouran through an imperial marriage. He first had Emperor Wen create the daughter of the official Yuan Yi (元翌) as the Princess Huazheng and marry her to the Rouran Chiliantoubingdoufa KhanYujiulü Anagui's brother Yujiulü Tahan (郁久閭塔寒), and then further asked Emperor Wen to marryYujiulü Anagui's daughter. Emperor Wen was forced to agree. He deposed Empress Yifu and made her become aBuddhist nun, and he created Yujiulü Anagui's daughter empress.[4]
Even though Empress Yifu had been deposed and made a nun, however, Empress Yujiulü was still jealous of her. To avoid conflict, in 540, Emperor Wen made Yuan Wu the governor of Qin Province (秦州, roughly modernTianshui,Gansu), and had Empress Yifu accompany Yuan Wu to his post. Emperor Wen, still harboring love for her in his heart, secretly requested that she start keeping her hair uncut so that he could eventually welcome her back to the palace. Unfortunately, around the same time, Rouran launched a major attack against Western Wei, and a number of officials believed that the Rouran attack was made on behalf of Empress Yujiulü. Emperor Wen, with the officials pressuring him, sent hiseunuch Cao Chong (曹寵) to Qin Province to order Empress Yifu to commit suicide. She made the comment to Cao:
She then committed suicide, and was buried with honors due an empress, albeit not near the capitalChang'an, but instead at the Maiji Cliffs (麥積崖), near Shanggui (上邽) the capital of Qin Province.[2] It was not until later, when Yuan Qin was emperor, that she was reburied with Emperor Wen.
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| Preceded by | Empress of Northern Wei (Western) 535–538 | Succeeded by |