Traditional Chinese 全皇后 Name Empress Huijie Wade–Giles Chuan Huang-hou | Pinyin Simplified Chinese 全皇后 Died 300 AD | |
Other names Quan Huijie (Chinese: 全惠解; pinyin: Quan Huijie; Wade–Giles: Chuan Hui-chieh) | ||
Empress Quan (244 – died c. 300s CE), also known as Quan Huijie, was an empress of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. She was married to Sun Liang, the second emperor of Wu.
Life
Lady Quan was the daughter of Quan Shang (全尚). Her granduncle Quan Cong (Quan Shang's uncle) was married to Sun Luban (孫魯班), a daughter of Wu's founding emperor Sun Quan. When she was young, she often visited her grandaunt and was deeply favoured by the latter. When a succession struggle between Sun Quan's sons Sun He and Sun Ba was ongoing, Sun Luban, who had a feud with Sun He's mother, urged her father to arrange a marriage between Lady Quan and Sun Liang (another of Sun Quan's sons born to Lady Pan) because Sun Liang and his mother were becoming increasingly favoured by Sun Quan. Around 250, the succession struggle between Sun He and Sun Ba concluded when Sun Quan deposed Sun He from his position as crown prince and forced Sun Ba to commit suicide. Sun Liang was designated as the new heir apparent to the Wu throne.
In 252, Sun Liang ascended the throne upon the death of his father. In January 253, he instated Lady Quan as the empress. Following that, Empress Quan's family and relatives rose to power as six members of the Quan clan (including Quan Shang) were enfeoffed as marquises and assumed high offices in the Wu government and military forces. This was regarded as a phenomenon because since the founding of Wu in 229, there had never been a case of waiqi (外戚; relatives of the emperor's wives) playing prominent roles in the Wu political scene. In 257, when Zhuge Dan (a general from Wu's rival state Cao Wei) started a rebellion in the Wei-controlled Shouchun (壽春; around present-day Shou County, Anhui), he requested help from Wu so Sun Liang ordered the Quans to lead troops to Shouchun to assist Zhuge Dan. However, the rebellion was suppressed by Wei forces and Zhuge Dan was killed, while four of the Quans surrendered and defected to Wei, thereafter the Quans' influence in Wu weakened drastically.
In 258, Sun Liang was deposed from the throne by Sun Chen, a distant relative of the Wu imperial family who rose to power in the 250s and became the regent of Wu. Sun Liang became known as the "Prince of Kuaiji" after his dethronement while Empress Quan also lost her place as the empress. In 260, Sun Liang's elder half-brother and successor, Sun Xiu (who eliminated Sun Chen after ascending the throne in 258) further demoted Sun Liang to "Marquis of Houguan" and sent Sun Liang to his marquisate in Houguan County (侯官縣; around present-day Fuzhou, Fujian). Lady Quan accompanied Sun Liang to Houguan County and settled there. She returned to the Wu capital Jianye (建業; present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) after Wu was vanquished in 280 by forces of the Jin dynasty. She died sometime in the Yongning era (301–303) of the reign of Emperor Hui of Jin.