Fu Shou

Fu Shou (died 8 January 215 ) was an empress of the Eastern Han dynasty of China. She was the first wife of Emperor Xian, the last Han emperor. She is best known for initiating a conspiracy against Cao Cao, the ruler of state of Cao Wei.

Empress Fu Shou is praised in the traditional point of view as one of the last defenders of the failed Han dynasty, alongside Lady Dong and Empress Xianmu in contrast to Emperor Xian's negligence.

Family background and marriage to Emperor Xian
Fu Shou's father was Fu Wan (伏完), a seventh generation descendant of the early Eastern Han official Fu Zhan (伏湛) and the hereditary Marquis of Buqi (不其侯). Fu Wan's wife was Princess Yang'an (陽安公主), a daughter of Emperor Huan, but she was not Fu Shou's biological mother as Fu Shou's mother was named Ying (盈). Fu Wan also had a wife with the family name Fan (樊), but it is not clear whether she was Ying. The Fu family descended from the prominent Confucian scholar Fu Sheng.

In 190, as Emperor Xian was being forced by Dong Zhuo to move the capital west to Chang'an, Lady Fu became an imperial consort. On 20 May 195, while Emperor Xian was largely under the control of Dong Zhuo's subordinates Li Jue and Guo Si, he designated Fu Shou as his empress consort.

As empress
As Emperor Xian continued his reign of being constantly under the control of one warlord or another, he and Empress Fu were apparently in a loving relationship, but both saw their power increasingly becoming minimal. Later in 195, during Emperor Xian's flight back to the old capital Luoyang, Empress Fu was carrying silk, which were seized by soldiers ostensibly protecting her – such that even her own personal bodyguards were killed, and their blood spilled on her. When they returned to Luoyang, the imperial court was poorly supplied and while there is no record indicating that Empress Fu personally was under threat of starvation, a number of imperial officials died of hunger or were killed by robbers. Materially, the imperial court became much better supplied once the warlord Cao Cao arrived in 196 and took Emperor Xian and the imperial court under control. Cao Cao relocated the imperial capital to his headquarters in Xu County (present-day Xuchang, Henan). Empress Fu was apparently not happy about Cao Cao's domination over the imperial court and central government. In February 200, Emperor Xian's concubine, Consort Dong, was forcibly executed by Cao Cao against the emperor's wishes after her father Dong Cheng was found guilty of masterminding a conspiracy to assassinate Cao Cao. After Consort Dong's death, Empress Fu became angry and fearful, so she wrote her father Fu Wan a letter accusing Cao Cao of cruelty and implicitly asking him to come up with a plan to eliminate Cao Cao. Fu Wan was fearful and did not act on the letter, but Empress Fu's letter was discovered in late 214. Cao Cao was so angry that he forced Emperor Xian to depose Empress Fu. When Emperor Xian was reluctant to do so, Cao Cao sent Hua Xin and close aides into the imperial palace to capture the empress. Empress Fu tried to hide behind a wall, but Cao Cao's men found her and dragged her out. As she was being taken away, she cried out to Emperor Xian to save her, but his only response was that he had no idea what would happen to him. She was incarcerated and killed along with her two sons (Liu Feng had predeceased his mother on 9 August 200 ) and more than 100 members of the Fu clan, with her mother Lady Ying and 18 others exiled.

Anecdotes
According to "Chronicles of the Emperor Xian," after Fu Wan had written a letter, he entrusted it to Xun Yu and his brother-in-law Fan Pu. Fan Pu presented it to Cao Cao, which raised concerns for Xun Yu, fearing that it might bring trouble to himself. Xun Yu advised Cao Cao to marry his daughter to Emperor Xian. During the discussion between Cao Cao and Xun Yu on this matter, Xun Yu mentioned, "Empress Fu has no child." However, Pei Songzhi, when writing annotations, questioned the logic of Xun Yu's statement in this account. Due to the credibility issues with this entire passage, it is uncertain whether Empress Fu indeed had two children who were poisoned, and the birth dates of these two children may not necessarily be after Fu Wan's conspiracy.

Appraisal
Republic of China historian Lü Simian (吕思勉) had a different perspective on the case of Empress Fu's execution. He believed that given Cao Cao's status and temperament, he wouldn't simply harm Empress Fu because of a disrespectful letter she sent to her father. Furthermore, Emperor Xian would not have transferred his anger to Cao Cao just because of Dong Cheng's assassination (Dong Cheng himself wasn't a trustworthy loyalist). Lu Simian thought that there must have been "another reason" behind this case, something significant and not suitable for inclusion in official history records. He speculated that Empress Fu had a comprehensive political plan that was crucial to the overall situation, and therefore, Cao Cao had no choice but to take action.