Töregene was a wife of the Mongol emperor Ögedei. The History of Yuan says in its biographies of empresses: Empress Zhaoci of Taizong, named Tuoliegena (Töregene), of the Naimazhen clan, who bore Dingzong. Zhaoci is a title given afterwards, and Töregene is her own name, so the heading uses the name. Wikidata gives two death years, 1246 and 1247, the Chinese Wikipedia article gives 1246, and Wikidata gives her birth year as 1185.[1][2][3]
Family and arrival at court
The Chinese Wikipedia article says the clan name Naimazhen, with the personal name Töregene, appears in the History of Yuan's table of empresses as Tunajina and in the Secret History of the Mongols as Dorege'ne, which are different renderings of the same name. Naimazhen means a woman of the Naiman. She was first the consort of Quduu, eldest son of the Merkit chief Toqto'a. When Genghis Khan destroyed the Merkit, he noticed an attractive woman among the captives, learned who she was, and gave her to Ögedei, who took her as his wife. She later bore Güyük. The article adds that she was a follower of the Nestorian church and treated Christians visiting the court with courtesy.[2]
Regency
The History of Yuan records that Taizong died in the eleventh month of the xinchou year and that she ruled in her own right for five years. In the bingwu year she gathered the princes and officials to discuss who should become Dingzong, and court affairs largely came from her. The Chinese Wikipedia article gives more detail. Ögedei died in the winter of 1241, and in the spring of the next year she won the agreement of Chagatai and other kin and ruled as regent. Her rank among the empresses had not been high, but she had five sons and was shrewd, and became the most powerful empress. She won over the princes and nobles with lavish gifts. She clashed with Ögedei's old ministers such as Mahmud Yalavach and Chinqai, and favored Fatima and Abd al-Rahman. Yelü Chucai opposed Abd al-Rahman's rise and the article says he died of depression. The article also mentions that Temüge Otchigin once marched on Karakorum; she raised troops for defense and sent envoys to ask his reasons, and he withdrew. In 1245 she sent troops against the area of Huaixi, Sizhou and Yangzhou, and they withdrew when the Song commissioner Zhao Kui asked for peace.[3][2]
Güyük's accession and her last years
The article says Ögedei had named his grandson Širemün as heir, but Töregene did not want to follow this, courted the princes, and sought to put her own son Güyük on the throne. In the spring of 1246 the princes and officials held a quriltai near Karakorum and agreed on Güyük, who took the throne in the seventh month. She kept hold of power afterwards, and mother and son fell out. Güyük had her favorite Fatima seized and killed, had Abd al-Rahman executed, and brought back Chinqai and Mahmud Yalavach. The article says she was filled with regret and died soon afterwards. The History of Yuan says she died in the second year of Zhiyuan and was posthumously named Empress Zhaoci and placed in Taizong's temple, and its collation note says that second year should read third year, and quotes Rashid al-Din's Jami al-tawarikh that she died two or three months after Güyük took the throne, so the records on her death do not agree. The article quotes the History of Yuan as saying she trusted treacherous men and let government fall into disorder, and notes that neither Chinese nor Western sources praise her rule.[3][2]