Gan Mei was a concubine of Liu Bei and the mother of Liu Shan, later honored as Empress Zhaolie. The Records of the Three Kingdoms say only that the First Lord's Empress Gan was from Pei, and give no personal name for her. The opening of the Chinese Wikipedia article says that she was of the Gan family and named Mei, and notes that the Gazetteer of Kuizhou Prefecture gives the name Gan Mei. This name appears in a local gazetteer and not in the standard history, so it is used here as the article records it, with that qualification stated first. Wikidata's Chinese label is 昭烈皇后, with Lady Gan as an alias, and it records her death in 210 and birthplace Pei County. Zhaolie is a posthumous title and Lady Gan is a kin form of address, so neither is a personal name.[1][3][2]
Taken as a concubine
The Records say that when Liu Bei was governor of Yu province and stayed at Xiaopei, he took her as a concubine. Liu Bei lost his principal wives several times, and she often managed the household. She followed him to Jingzhou and bore the later ruler Liu Shan. The article dates Liu Shan's birth to the twelfth year of Jian'an, 207.[3][2]
Changban at Dangyang
When Cao Cao's army caught up with Liu Bei at Changban in Dangyang, the situation was desperate and Liu Bei abandoned her and the infant, and they were saved only through the protection of Zhao Yun.[3][2]
Death and posthumous titles
The Records say that she later died and was buried in Nan commandery. In the second year of Zhangwu, 222, she was posthumously titled Lady Huangsi, and was to be moved to Shu, but Liu Bei died at Baidi before her coffin arrived. The chancellor Zhuge Liang submitted that Lady Huangsi had conducted herself with virtue and cultivated and guarded her person, that by the principle of the Spring and Autumn Annals a mother is honored through her son, and, citing precedents such as the high emperor's honoring of his mother and Emperor He's reburial of Lady Liang, proposed with Lai Gong, the minister of ceremonies, the title Empress Zhaolie under the rules for posthumous names, and asked that she be buried with Liu Bei. The edict approved. Wikidata records her place of death as Gong'an County and the year as 210.[1][3]
Other statements in the article
Chinese Wikipedia also notes that a tomb of Lady Gan stands in today's Fengjie County, so some hold that Liu Bei was also buried at Fengjie and not returned to Chengdu, and it says that the Zizhi Tongjian's note under Yanxi 8 that Empress Dowager Gan died is a mistake, since the dowager who died that year must have been Liu Shan's stepmother, Empress Dowager Wu. It also cites the Shiyi Ji, which says she was poor but outstandingly beautiful, was taken as a concubine by Liu Bei at eighteen, and urged him to remove a jade statue so as not to waste his will on a toy, while adding that this report is doubtful because Wu and Wei had not yet been founded when she died.[2]
Basic facts
- Name: of the Gan family, given name Mei (from the Gazetteer of Kuizhou Prefecture, as cited in Chinese Wikipedia)[2]
- Titles: Empress Zhaolie (posthumous), Lady Huangsi; kin form of address: Lady Gan[3][1]
- Origin: Pei[3]
- Spouse: Liu Bei; child: Liu Shan[1][3]
- Died: 210[1]
- Dynasty or state: Shu Han[1]
- Birthplace: Pei County[1]
- Portrayal: 昭烈皇后 (character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms)