Empress Yujiulü

The empress Yujiulü was the eldest daughter of the Rouran khan Anagui. She became the second wife of Emperor Wen of the Western Wei.^[1] Her marriage secured peace for the Western Wei on its northern border while it fought the east. Her death two years later led Anagui to change sides.^[2]

Marriage

At the beginning of the Datong era, the Rouran raided the northern border again and again. Emperor Wen made a treaty with them and sealed it with a marriage.^[1] The Zizhi Tongjian attributes the plan to Yuwen Tai. At the same time, Yuwen Tai married a Wei princess to Anagui’s brother Tahan.^[3]

Yuan Fu, Prince of Fufeng, went to meet her. She came with seven hundred carts, ten thousand horses and a thousand camels. Her tents and mats all faced east, because the Rouran honoured the east.^[1] At the Black Salt Lake, the Wei escort arrived, and Yuan Fu asked her to face south. She answered: “I have not yet seen the lord of Wei, and so I am still a Rouran woman. The Wei guard faces south; I face east.” Yuan Fu had no reply.^[1]

She reached the capital in the first month of 538. By Chinese reckoning she was fourteen when she was made empress.^[1] To make room for her, the empress Yifu was sent from the palace and made a nun.^[1]

Death

In 540 the Rouran crossed the Yellow River in force. It was said that they came because of the deposed empress, and Emperor Wen ordered her to take her own life.^[1] In the same year the Rouran empress, pregnant, was living in the Yaohua hall. She heard dogs barking overhead. She saw a richly dressed woman come to her, whom none of her physicians or shamans could see. The court took the woman for the spirit of the dead empress.^[1] She died after giving birth, at sixteen, and was buried at Shaolingyuan. In 551 she was reburied with the emperor in his tomb, the Yongling.^[1]

Her death was used at once. The eastern court told Anagui that Emperor Wen and Yuwen Tai had killed his daughter. Anagui then went over to the Eastern Wei.^[2]