Born in Quy Nhơn, Bình Định Province. According to Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện, she was maternal half-sister of Bùi Đắc Tuyên and Bùi Văn Nhật. She married Nguyễn Huệ, and was crowned the empress[2] and received the noble title Chính Cung hoàng hậu (正宮皇后)[3] when she was thirty. She had three sons and two daughters, the eldest son was Nguyễn Quang Toản.[2]
Liên died in 1791, and received the posthumous nameNhân Cung Ðoan Tĩnh Trinh Thục Nhu Thuần Vũ Hoàng chính hậu (仁恭端靜貞淑武皇正后).
