Empress Dowager Xiao, whose real name was Xiao Chuo, was the Empress Dowager of the Liao Dynasty and an outstanding politician and military strategist. During the regency period of Empress Dowager Xiao, the Liao Dynasty’s national strength was also at its peak. So, what are the strengths of Empress Dowager Xiao? At that time, Emperor Taizong of Song saw that the Emperor of Liao was young and could only rely on his mother to govern, so he ordered a large-scale northern expedition, but the result was a disastrous defeat and he returned home. The story of the Yang family generals happened during this period, and their biggest opponent was Empress Dowager Xiao. It can be said that Empress Dowager Xiao not only saved the Liao Dynasty, but also made it stronger through a series of measures.
Friends who are familiar with the story of the “Yang Family Generals” all know that the Yang family is a loyal and unyielding family that fought against the Khitan and refused to surrender to the death. Even though the sons of the Yang family died on the battlefield, under the leadership of Lady She, the widows of the Yang family continued to fight, appearing particularly heroic. Undoubtedly, there are depictions of novels and operas in it, but the loyal spirit of the Yang family generals is still worthy of our admiration.
When it comes to the ‘Yang Family Generals’, we have to talk about their archenemy – the Khitan. In the story of ‘Yang Family Generals’, the ruler of the Khitan Empire was a woman – Empress Dowager Xiao. So who exactly is Empress Dowager Xiao, who was able to make the entire Khitan submit to her and repeatedly cause the ‘Yang Family Generals’ to suffer losses? Let’s approach Empress Dowager Xiao with this question in mind and get a glimpse of its true nature.
This Empress Dowager Xiao, originally named Baili Li, with the given name Chuo and the small courtesy name Yan Yan, was later given the surname Xiao by Yelv Abaoji, hence also known as Xiao Yan Yan. Xiao Yanyan was born in 953 and passed away in 1009 at the age of 57. Careful reading of history reveals that so-called great figures must have extraordinary qualities in their childhood, and Xiao Yanyan is no exception. This woman was very clever and obedient when she was young, working very diligently and with a spirit of never giving up until she achieved her goals. Because of this, her father Xiao Siwen doted on her greatly. It is said that once, she worked with several of her sisters, and everyone else did a perfunctory job. Only she was meticulous and dutiful. This situation was discovered by the father who was secretly observing, and he felt quite emotional, believing that ‘this woman must achieve great things’.
In 969 AD, a major event occurred, which was also the year when Xiao Yanyan rewrote her fate. In February, Emperor Muzong of Liao led trusted ministers such as Xiao Siwen to hunt in Black Mountain. Speaking of Liao Muzong, he was naturally very cruel and tyrannical, so his subordinates dared not speak out against him and held him in high regard. One night, Liao Muzong got drunk, and these repeatedly abused guards could no longer bear it, so they conspired to assassinate him. After hearing the news, Xiao Siwen quickly blocked the news and enthroned Yelv Xian, who had been in close contact with him, to the throne. As a reward, they will naturally be promoted to higher positions and ranks. In addition, in order to get married, we also made a marriage agreement with him. Thus, Xiao Chuo was sent to the palace. As soon as she entered the palace, she was honored as the Noble Consort. After two months, she ascended to the throne of the queen with one step. This is the result that many women have spent their entire lives striving to obtain, and they never expected her to effortlessly obtain it. Perhaps this is fate, as the old saying goes, ‘There must be times in life, and there must be times without force.’.
In the second year of Baoning (970), which was destined to be an extraordinary year, my father was assassinated by Gao Xun and his daughter. After experiencing the pain of losing her parents, Xiao Yanyan became mature and gradually participated in political affairs, governing national affairs together with her husband Liao Jingzong. Thus, her talent gradually emerged and earned her husband’s approval. So, with the tacit approval of Emperor Jingzong of Liao, Xiao Yanyan began to rule on all major and minor affairs in the future. The decision made by Xiao Yanyan was not objected to by Emperor Jingzong of Liao, but he annotated “I understand” afterwards, which is quite similar to the story of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Empress Wu Zetian in the past. Under the efforts of Xiao Chuo, the state of Liao began to flourish and was once able to rival the Song Dynasty in the Central Plains.
In the eighth year of Baoning (976), Emperor Jingzong of Liao issued a decree to the scholars of the History Museum, stating that any record of the empress’s words would be “also known as’ I ‘,’ Yu ‘, and’ written as a fixed form ‘. This also means that Empress Dowager Xiao began to sit on an equal footing with Emperor Jingzong of Liao, and her participation in political affairs can be said to be legitimate thereafter.
In September of the fourth year of Qianheng (982), Emperor Jingzong of Liao died of illness while on a hunting trip at the Jiaoshan Palace in Yunzhou (now Datong, Shanxi), at the young age of 35. At the moment of his death, he left a testament: ‘Prince Longxu of Liang will inherit the throne, and military affairs will follow the orders of the empress.’ However, Prince Liang was still young and had no decision-making ability, so it can be said that Emperor Jingzong of Liao entrusted the country to the hands of Empress Dowager Xiao. At this time, Empress Dowager Xiao was only 29 years old, but her political skills were quite mature.
Faced with doubts about the country and the power of the royal family, Empress Dowager Xiao understood her current situation very well. Therefore, she had to show weakness and deliberately shed tears in front of the ministers Yelv Xieting and Han Derang, saying, “Mother and son are weak, clan is strong, and the border defense is not stable. What can we do?” Seeing Empress Dowager Xiao crying, the two of them were moved with sympathy and said, “Trust me, why worry about me!” Soon after, Xiao Chuo sent Yelv Xiuge to stay in Nanjing (now Beijing) and oversee the military in the south to strengthen the border defense. In addition, he appointed his niece and son-in-law Yelv Xiezhen as the Privy Councillor of the Northern Court to manage internal affairs, especially to strengthen supervision over these nobles. At the same time, Empress Dowager Xiao also heeded the advice of Han Derang, the Privy Councilor of the Southern Court, and ordered that “all kings return to their respective ranks and shall not engage in private meetings with Yan”, gradually depriving the aristocratic families of their military power and resolving internal hidden dangers. From this, we can also see that this woman is by no means simple, but it is said that ‘women are not inferior to men’!
It is said that Empress Dowager Xiao was also an extremely charming empress dowager, and her story with Han Derang spread like wildfire, even heard by the Song Dynasty court. After learning of this news, the ministers of the Song Dynasty felt that it was a heaven sent opportunity and assumed that such a promiscuous woman would surely lead to a mess in the country’s governance, thinking that it was a great opportunity to use military force against her. So, these ministers advised Emperor Taizong of Song to send troops to the Khitan. At this time, Emperor Taizong of Song was also ambitious and determined to recover the sixteen states of Yan and Yun, so he allowed this request. So, in the third year of Yongxi, the war against Liao was launched, initially achieving some partial victories, but later the Song army was completely defeated by the Liao army and fled in panic. This is the famous Northern Expedition of Yongxi in history, and of course, we all know the outcome, which was a great defeat for the Northern Song Dynasty. However, Yang Ye was captured alive by the Khitans without waiting for reinforcements and vowed not to surrender, dying in this war.
In addition, we are familiar with another war – the Battle of Chanyuan. In this battle, if it weren’t for Kou Zhun’s efforts to turn the tide and insist on having Emperor Zhenzong of Song personally lead the expedition, it would have been difficult to say who would have won or lost. Thanks to the encouragement of Emperor Zhenzong, morale suddenly increased, and everyone stood united against the enemy, treating death as if returning home. Liao general Xiao Talin was shot and killed by a crossbow from the Song army while inspecting the terrain. At this point, the Liao army had a difficult start and had to reach a peace agreement with the Song Dynasty. Both sides agreed to be brotherly countries and stipulated that the Song Dynasty would send 300000 gold and silk to Liao every year. Since then, there have been no major conflicts between the two sides, maintaining a hundred years of peace and laying a solid foundation for the economic and cultural prosperity of both countries. Therefore, the Treaty of Chanyuan can be said to have achieved the goal of win-win.
In the 27th year of the Tonghe reign (1009), a powerful woman named Xiao Chuo completed her magnificent life at the age of 57. Empress Dowager Xiao was indeed a powerful woman in Chinese history, but later generations have had mixed evaluations of her. The History of the Yuan Dynasty has a high evaluation of him, stating that “in the later Ming Dynasty, when he reached the level of governing the Tao, he would obey the good deeds he heard, so his ministers exhausted their loyalty.” However, the History of the Song Dynasty stigmatizes him, stating that “he was born with a tendency to endure, was addicted to poison and killing, had divine intelligence and strategy, was good at controlling his left and right sides, and his ministers were more powerful than him.” We naturally understand that the Song people clearly concealed the facts with their stance. When we look at Empress Dowager Xiao again today, we should naturally break out of this old stereotype and make an objective evaluation based solely on her behavior itself.
