Empress Dowager Xiaoding
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Empress Dowager Xiaoding, of the Li clan, was a Chinese empress dowager of the Ming dynasty. She was one of the concubines of the Longqing Emperor and the mother of his successor, the Wanli Emperor.
慈聖皇太后
The young Wanli Emperor, c. 1577
Bodhisattva Manjushri in Blanc-de-Chine, early 17th century
The Foundation of the State Crisis, which took place between 1586 and 1614, was a conflict between the Wanli Emperor, the 14th emperor of China's Ming dynasty, and a large group of bureaucrats. The di
Empress Dowager Xiaoding
…the imperial palace, Feng Bao, managed the state administration. Although she did not typically involve herself in politics, she did intervene in the dispute over the appointment of the heir to the throne, where she supported the rights of the emperor's eldest son. Instead of focusing on politics, she devoted herself to religion. She was a devout Buddhist…
Portrait of the Wanli Emperor
Portrait of Zhu Changluo as the Taichang Emperor. Although he was the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor, his father delayed appointing him as the heir to the throne for many years.