Yang Meizi, hitherto dismissed as concerned chiefly with romance and beauty, was granted a dimension of leadership and political acumen.

[2] It is said that she came from Kuaiji, reportedly the biological or adopted daughter of courtesan,[3] Zhang Shansheng (d. 1170), who became an actress in the service of Empress Dowager Wu.

[1] Historical accounts suggest that Zhang Shansheng left the palace, but allegedly learned through a vision that her daughter would become a famous politician.

After this, she invited him to the palace for a "reunion feast" to celebrate the discovery of her long lost family,[1] who would prove to be very helpful in her rise to power.

Believing he had won, he relaxed his guard, allowing Yang to outmaneuver him and convince Ningzong to sign another edict which named her as empress.

Ningzong, a man who had been brought up as a pampered child, was the unfortunate victim of the Song Dynasty's recent family squabbles.

and even if he was mature and possessed the qualities of a good ruler, he was a man of frail health and questionable mental faculties, which suited Yang's purposes.

Following the Jin-Song war of 1205-07, which ended in a stalemate, Yang was able to increase her support, while Han Touzhou, whose militaristic policies had caused the conflict for no real return, had become unpopular with the court at large.

Yang's foster son and crown prince designate, Zhao Kai, loved and respected her as though she were his mother, leading her to support his claims and grant him political counsel.

Furthermore, Emperor Ningzong grew to trust her enough to make her his secret chief advisor, a post in which she revised his petitions and suggested appointments and dismissals of officials in the Court.

Her powers reached their height when she had the Imperial Seal, previously misused by Han Touzhou, returned to the palace, specifically to her care.

In gratitude for giving him the throne, Emperor Lizong invited Yang to reign as his co-regent behind a lowered silk and pearl screen.

Despite all of this, her outwardly kind nature made her a popular figure among the people, who idolized her as the living embodiment of the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin.

She spent much of her personal wealth renovating and expanding temple complexes, funding the academies, as well as retraining and re-equipping the largely inefficient Southern Song army.

In the last decade of her life, following 30 year de facto reign over the Empire, the once weak and vulnerable state with an ineffective military force had become a strong, formidable power, as she reduced the influence of the merchant clans and political factions in the Court, and restored power to the throne that had been lost following the reign of Emperor Guangzong and his wife, Empress Li.

Finally, she eventually rid the Southern Song Court of corrupt officials, which assured its survival for the immediate future, as well as concluding an alliance with the Mongols to safeguard the State from foreign threats.

After her death, the influence of the Yang, Shi, Ma and Wu Clans, on which she had greatly relied for her own political survival, considerably diminished.

Historically, though, it is asserted that Shi Miyuan never recovered from the depression and grief, and his grip over State Affairs loosened as his health declined.

Consequently, the rapid decline of the Song Dynasty afterwards was because she had left behind a poor and weak choice of an Empress as her successor, and Emperor Lizong did little to improve the condition of his people, as he lacked her foresight and advice, and was uninterested in handling the affairs of State.

[9] Around fifty surviving poems of Empress Yang were collected by Mao Jin in the Ming dynasty and included in the Er Jia Gong Ci (三二家宫詞), alongside those of Emperor Huizong.

Utilizing the imagery of a naturalistic water hall and blooming lotus, the first two lines of the poem highlight the beauty of the Imperial garden, signifying the free-flowing and vibrant spirit of the royal family.

The subsequent two lines then demonstrate the artistic talent of the emperor for being able to transcend "all the vulgarities" with his instrument, implying the main theme of celebrating the harmony of the court and the pursuit of literary elegance.

It is also widely believed that the Hundred Flowers Scroll, which may be the oldest surviving painting by a female artist in Chinese art history, should be attributed to Empress Yang.

[14] Specifically for his work with Empress Yang, light imagery and illustrations of the graceful facets of natural Chinese landscapes - blossoms, bamboo, and mountains - are among the most commonly-featured images.

It depicts the title event in the characteristic details of Emperor Ningzong's administration while staying true to the painter's style and the demands of Song artistic culture.

The arrangement of the features in the work give room above the palace for Empress Yang's calligraphy, which emphasizes the feelings of a warm, damp summer night in Hangzhou, the capital of the Song dynasty.

[14] Night Banquet is a prime example of the themes explored in Empress Yang's poetry, as she re-imagined literary culture to represent the values common in Confucian women while fundamentally challenging assumptions of the gender held by many in her time.

For example, her encouragement of such frivolities involving alcohol as those depicted in Night Banquet could be seen as unbecoming of a Confucian woman, but she was also politically inclined to support the customs of the nobility.

Based on her achievement in poetic inscription, art historian John Hay commented that "before [Empress Yang's] time no scroll or fan was ever viewed as such an intimate union of word and image.

The details of the brushwork—such as the heavy and tapered vertical strokes, and the “swallowtail” notch at the end of the right-falling strokes—demonstrated her deep learning of the calligraphy style of the Tang Dynasty.