Empress Lü
As a result, Empress Dowager Lü held the court, listened to the government, spoke on behalf of the emperor, and did everything (臨朝聽政制, "linchao tingzheng zhi").
While four women are noted as having been politically active before her—Fu Hao, Yi Jiang, Lady Nanzi, and Queen Dowager Xuan—Lü was the perhaps first woman to have ruled over united China.
Liu Bang (later Emperor Gaozu of Han), then a minor patrol officer (亭長), went there bringing a single cent and said, "I offer 10,000 coins."
Liu Bang later participated in the rebellion against the Qin dynasty under the insurgent Chu kingdom, nominally-ruled by King Huai II.
However, Liu Bang's family, including Lü Zhi and her children, remained in Pei County, which was a territory of Xiang Yu's kingdom of Western Chu.
In the summer of 205 BC, Liu Bang took advantage of the situation when Xiang Yu was occupied with suppressing rebellions in the Qi kingdom to attack and capture Western Chu's capital of Pengcheng.
Xiang Yu immediately withdrew from Qi and launched a counterattack, defeating Liu Bang's forces at Suishui (睢水).
During this period of time, Lü Zhi started an illicit affair with Shen Yiji (審食其), one of Liu Bang's followers, who was also held captive together with her.
In the autumn of 203 BC, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu came to a temporary reconciliation, known as the Treaty of Hong Canal, which divided China into west and east under their Han and Western Chu domains respectively.
Liu Bang later renounced the truce and attacked Xiang Yu, eventually defeating the latter at the Battle of Gaixia in 202 BC and unifying China under his rule.
Even after Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang)'s victory over Xiang Yu, there were still unstable areas in the empire, requiring the new government to launch military campaigns to pacify these regions thereafter.
During this time, Lü Zhi proved herself to be a competent administrator in domestic affairs, and she quickly established strong working relationships with many of Gaozu's officials, who admired her for her capability and feared her for her ruthlessness.
In 196 BC, Gaozu left the capital Chang'an to suppress a revolt in Julu started by Chen Xi, the Marquis of Yangxia.
He pleaded with her to spare his life and let him return to his hometown in Changyi (昌邑; present-day Jinxiang County, Shandong), and the empress pretended to agree.
In his late years, Emperor Gaozu started favouring one of his younger consorts, Concubine Qi, who bore him a son, Liu Ruyi, who was instated as Prince of Zhao in 198 BC, displacing Lü Zhi's son-in-law Zhang Ao (Princess Yuan of Lu's husband).
Since Lü Zhi had strong rapport with many ministers, they generally opposed Gaozu's decision but the emperor seemed bent on deposing Liu Ying.
Zhang Liang invited the "Four Whiteheads of Mount Shang", a group of four reclusive wise men, to persuade Gaozu to change his decision.
For example, consorts who bore male children that were instated as princes were granted the title of "Princess Dowager" (王太妃) in their respective sons' principalities.
She had Qi stripped of her position, treated like a convict (head shaved, in stocks, dressed in prison garb), and forced to do hard labour in the form of milling rice.
"[6] From then on, Emperor Hui indulged himself in carnal pleasures and ignored state affairs, leaving all of them to his mother, and this caused power to fall completely into her hands.
Lü Zhi felt offended and secretly instructed her servants to pour a cup of poisoned wine for Liu Fei, and then toasted him.
Liu Fei then offered to give up an entire commandery from his principality to Lü Zhi's daughter, Princess Yuan of Lu.
In 192 BC, Lü Zhi received a marriage proposal from the Xiongnu chanyu Modu, who wrote as follows in a letter meant to intimidate and mock her: I'm a lonesome ruler born in marshes and raised in plains populated by livestock.
[8] Lü Zhi was infuriated at the rude proposition, and in a heated court session, her generals advised her to rally an army and exterminate the Xiongnu immediately.
[9] Rethinking her plans, Lü Zhi rejected Modu's proposition humbly, as follows: Your Lordship does not forget our land and writes a letter to us, we fear.
[11] In 191 BC, at Lü Zhi's insistence, Emperor Hui married his niece Zhang Yan (Princess Yuan of Lu's daughter) and made her empress.
Empress Dowager Lü closely monitored and controlled the imperial court and kept the whole army firmly in her hands, thus maintaining power more strongly than before.
His death and the succession of an immature child left power completely and solely in the hands of Empress Dowager Lü, and as a regent, legitimized her as the first female absolute ruler in Chinese history to do so exclusively.
Emperor Gaozu had previously decreed that no non-imperial clan members could become princes (not including the vassal kings), a rule that Lü Zhi herself had a hand in creating.
When Wang Ling rebuked Chen Ping and Zhou Bo in private for going against Emperor Gaozu's law, they rationalized that their compliance with the empress dowager's wishes was necessary to protect the empire and the Liu clan.
