Empress Fu伏皇后

History vs. fiction

Empress Fu of Emperor Xian of Han. The Romance fictionalizes her involvement in the Edict in the Girdle and her transformation into a vengeful ghost after death, while her deposition and execution for conspiring with her father is historical fact.

• novel inventionParticipated in sewing the Edict in the Girdle and pleaded for Consort Dong

  Chapter 024 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms fictionalizes Emperor Xian 'discussing the matter of Dong Cheng in private with Empress Fu,' and when Cao Cao wanted to kill Consort Dong, who was five months pregnant, Empress Fu pleaded for her, saying, 'Demote her to the cold palace, and after she gives birth, kill her then.' The Records of the Three Kingdoms has no record of Empress Fu participating in the Edict in the Girdle or pleading for Consort Dong.

• attestedConspired with her father to eliminate Cao Cao, and was killed when the plot was exposed

  The Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Wei, Annals of Emperor Wu, records: 'In the eleventh month, Empress Fu of the Han dynasty was implicated for previously writing to her father, the former Commandant of the Cavalry, Fu Wan, saying that the Emperor resented Cao Cao because Dong Cheng had been executed, and the words were very ugly. When this was discovered, the Empress was deposed and died, and her brothers were all executed.' Chapter 066 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms dramatizes the cause and process of this event, but the core events are consistent with historical records.

• novel inventionAfter death, transformed into a vengeful ghost to demand Cao Cao's life

  Chapter 078 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes that when Cao Cao was seriously ill, in the palace he 'suddenly saw Empress Fu, Consort Dong, the two princes, and Fu Wan, Dong Cheng, and more than twenty others, covered in blood, standing in a cloud of sorrow, faintly hearing the sound of demanding his life.' This is the supernatural color added by the novelist to highlight retribution; the Records of the Three Kingdoms has no such record.