Empress consort of Liu Song dynasty
Sima Maoying (Chinese: 司馬茂英; 393?[1] or 403/4?[2] – 439) was a princess of the Eastern Jin dynasty (with the title Princess Haiyan (海鹽公主)) and an empress consort of the Liu Song dynasty. Her father was Emperor Gong of Jin, and her husband was Emperor Shao of Song.
Life
Sima Maoying was a daughter of Emperor Gong and his wife, Chu Lingyuan. She must have been created princess during her father's brief reign (419–420), and it was also at that time that she married Liu Yifu (the future Emperor Shao), then the heir apparent to the powerful general Liu Yu (the future Emperor Wu of Song). In 420, her father-in-law forced her father to yield the throne to him, ending Jin and establishing Liu Song. He created Liu Yifu crown prince, and she therefore carried the title of crown princess. In 421, he had her father killed. In 422, after Liu Yu died, Liu Yifu took the throne as Emperor Shao, and she was created empress.
However, in 424, officials whom Liu Yu had left in control of the government deposed Emperor Shao, believing him to be unfit to be emperor, demoting him to the title of Prince of Yingyang (营阳王). Empress Sima was therefore also demoted to Princess of Yingyang. Soon, the officials had Liu Yifu killed. They replaced him with his capable brother Liu Yilong (as Emperor Wen), and Emperor Wen, in 432, posthumously had his nephew Liu Lang (劉郎) (a son of his brother Liu Yigong (劉義恭) the Prince of Jiangxia) adopted into Liu Yifu's line as his son and created Liu Lang the Prince of Nanfeng (南丰王). The former Empress Sima therefore carried the title Princess Dowager of Nanfeng. She died in 439.
Notes
- ^ This year is according to Lady Sima's biography in Book of Song, but a late-Qing era commentator to the Book of Song, Zhang Senkai (張森楷), commented in his Jiao Kan Ji that this would make her some 13 years older than her husband, which seemed rather unlikely even for a political marriage, and commented that it was far more likely she was born around the same time as her husband. It should also be noted that this birth year would mean that she was born when her father was only seven years old and her mother nine years old, so it appeared that Zhang was quite likely correct in his skepticism. (《校勘记》云：“按少帝死年十九，则妃于时亦当二十左右。后十六七年至元嘉十六年卒，应年三十六七，不应四十七，疑有误。”)
- ^ Zhang Senkai is of the opinion that Sima Maoying's true birth year is around this period as this would make her 36-37 years old (by East Asian reckoning) at the time of her death. In addition, one possible reason why this period was not used as her birth year was that Huan Xuan usurped the Jin throne during this period, making Sima's birth more lowly as her father's title at the time was "Duke of Shiyang County" (石阳县公), which is lower in rank than "Prince of Langye".