Empress Dowager Feng

Posthumous name
	Empress Wencheng Wenming 文成文明皇后

Empress Feng
Empress Feng
Born	442
Died	490 (aged 47–48)
Spouse	Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei
Posthumous name
Posthumous name
	Empress Wencheng Wenming 文成文明皇后
Father	Feng Lang
Mother	Lady Wang

Empress (Dowager) Feng (馮皇(太)后) (442^[1] – 17 October 490^[2]), formally Empress (Dowager) Wenming (文明皇后, literally "the civil and understanding empress") was an empress of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. Her husband was Emperor Wencheng. After her husband's death in 465, she overthrew the autocratic regent Yifu Hun in 466 and became regent over her stepson Emperor Xianwen and remained as such until his adulthood in 467. She subsequently had a falling-out with Emperor Xianwen (who had then become retired emperor) over his execution of her lover Li Yi (李奕), and she assassinated him and resumed regency over his son Emperor Xiaowen in 476. While Emperor Xiaowen assumed imperial powers upon adulthood, he remained very deferential to her, and she was highly influential until her death in October 490.^[3] An enduring legacy of her regency was a series of reforms that led to political recentralization for Northern Wei and future imperial dynasties.

^ Lady Feng's biography in Book of Wei indicated that she was 49 (by East Asian reckoning) when she died. Thus by calculation, her birth year should be 442.
^ guichou day of the 9th month of the 14th year of the Taihe era, per volume 7 (part 2) of Book of Wei
^ Lily Xiao Hong Lee, A.D. Stefanowska, Sue Wiles:Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E

[1] Lady Feng's biography in Book of Wei indicated that she was 49 (by East Asian reckoning) when she died. Thus by calculation, her birth year should be 442.

[2] guichou day of the 9th month of the 14th year of the Taihe era, per volume 7 (part 2) of Book of Wei

[3] Lily Xiao Hong Lee, A.D. Stefanowska, Sue Wiles:Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E

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