While Emperor Xiaowen assumed imperial powers upon adulthood, he remained very deferential to her, and she was highly influential until her death in October 490.
[3] An enduring legacy of her regency was a series of reforms that led to political recentralization for Northern Wei and future imperial dynasties.
In 456, she was created empress; this was probably after she completed, as according to Northern Wei tradition, forging a golden statue, but there was no conclusive statement that she did so.
Two days later, as according to Northern Wei custom, Emperor Wencheng's personal possessions were burned—and while the ceremony was conducted, Empress Feng, in sadness, jumped into the fire.
In spring 466, however, Empress Dowager Feng staged a coup, probably in association with Tuoba Pi (拓拔丕) and Jia Xiu (賈秀), and Yifu Hun was arrested and executed.
She also sent the general Murong Baiyao (慕容白曜) to attack and try to capture Liu Song's Qing (青州, modern central and eastern Shandong) and Ji (冀州, modern northwestern Shandong) Provinces, which were cut off from the rest of Liu Song after Xue's defection, and by 469, both provinces fell into Northern Wei hands, and all of the regions north of the Huai River was by now Northern Wei territory.
In 467, Emperor Xianwen's concubine Consort Li bore his oldest child Tuoba Hong, and Empress Dowager Feng personally raised the young prince.
While Empress Dowager Feng was no longer regent, she appeared to remain fairly influential during the reign of her stepson Emperor Xianwen.
(Most historians, including Sima Guang, believed that she poisoned him, but another version indicated that Empress Dowager Feng readied assassins who, when Emperor Xianwen came to her palace to greet her, seized and smothered him.)
The implementation of the equal-field system was largely due to the court's desire to break the economic power of local magnates who sheltered residents under their control living in fortified villages.
[5] This system successfully created a stable fiscal infrastructure and a basis for universal military conscription for the Northern Wei, and continued well into the Tang dynasty.
The equal-field program was coupled with another initiative, the "Three Elders" system, aimed at compiling accurate population registers so that land could be distributed accordingly.
Also in 481, the Buddhist monk Faxiu (法秀) tried to start a popular uprising at the capital Pingcheng (平城, in modern Datong, Shanxi), but was discovered, captured, and executed.
Sometime during the process, Grand Empress Dowager Feng apparently became apprehensive of his abilities and therefore had him detained and considered deposing him in favor of his brother Tuoba Xi (拓拔禧), but after her attendants persuaded her otherwise, she did not carry out such actions.
In 486, perhaps as both a sign of Sinicization and demonstration of Emperor Xiaowen's authority, he began to assume traditional Chinese imperial clothing, including a robe with dragon patterns and a tasseled hat.
Grand Empress Dowager Feng and Emperor Xiaowen jointly convened an imperial council to discuss their punishment.
In the "equal-filed system" (juntian-zhi) implemented in 485, the state redistributed uncultivated land to commoners attached with obligations of tax duty in the forms of grain, cloth, and labor service.
The three elders, appointed by the government, were responsible for detecting and re-registering population that fell otherwise outside of state accounts, requisitioning corvee labor, military conscripts, and taxes, and taking care of the poor and orphaned under their jurisdiction.
[8] Empress Dowager Feng's reforms substantially increased agricultural production and tax receipts in the long run.
They also weakened the economic power of local aristocrats who sheltered residents under their control living in fortified villages that scattered across the rural landscape of the northern China from taxation.