In 1464, she was selected to be the first consort of the newly crowned emperor and chosen to become his empress.
Soon after the wedding, she became involved in a conflict with the emperor's favorite concubine, Consort Wan, and ordered her to be whipped for impertinence.
However, the emperor sided with his favorite consort, Wan, and had Empress Wu demoted and stripped of her title and position.
The former Empress Wu lived the rest of her life in obscurity in the garden of the Forbidden City.
[2] Lady Wu's funeral was treated as that of a consort, and she was not awarded a posthumous name.