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Dugu Qieluo | |||||
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Empress consort of the Sui dynasty | |||||
Tenure | 4 March 581–10 September 602 | ||||
Born | 544 | ||||
Died | September 10, 602 | (aged 57–58)||||
Spouse | Emperor Wen of Sui | ||||
Issue | Yang Lihua, Empress Tianyuan of Northern Zhou Yang Yong, Prince Fangling Yang Guang, Emperor Yang Yang Jun, Prince Xiao of Qin Yang Xiu, Prince of Shu Yang Awu, Princess Lanling Yang Liang, Prince of Han Princess Xiangguo Princess Guangping Princess Wanan, Duchess of Chen | ||||
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Father | Dugu Xin | ||||
Mother | Lady Cui |
Dugu Qieluo or Dugu Jialuo[1] (Chinese: 獨孤伽羅; 544[2] – September 10, 602[3]), formally Empress Wenxian (文獻皇后), was an empress of the Chinese Sui dynasty. She was the wife of Emperor Wen, who, on account of his love and respect for her, as well as an oath they made while they were young, did not have any concubines for at least most of their marriage, an extreme rarity among Chinese emperors. However, she had a bipolar personality that made it difficult to judge her, sometimes cruel and domineering and sometimes kind and unassuming. But was exceedingly powerful and influential during her husband's reign and assisted the emperor in running the empire. She was heavily involved in his decision to divert the order of succession from their oldest son Yang Yong to the second son Yang Guang (later Emperor Yang), and her influence in changing the succession eventually led to the fall of the Sui dynasty.