Grand Empress Dowager Shangguan

Who is Grand Empress Dowager Shangguan?

Grand Empress Dowager Shangguan, also known as Empress Shangguan, Empress Xiaozhao and Empress Dowager Shangguan, was an Empress, Empress Dowager and Grand Empress Dowager during Han Dynasty and wife to Emperor Zhao. Her father was Shangguan An, the son of Shangguan Jie. Her mother was the daughter of Huo Guang. She was a key figure in a number of political incidents during the middle Han Dynasty, and she spent her entire adult life as a Grand Empress Dowager and a widow without family. Both sides of her family were wiped out in two separate mass executions as punishment accessories of the people who dared usurp the throne. She remains the youngest person in history to assume the both titles of Empress Dowager and Grand Empress Dowager.