Empress Wang Zhengjun

Who was Empress Wang Zhengjun?

Empress Wang Zhengjun, official imperial title Empress Xiaoyuan, later and more commonly known as Grand Empress Dowager Wang, born in Yuancheng, was an empress during the Western Han Dynasty of China, who played important roles during the reigns of five successive Han emperors—her husband, her son, her two stepgrandsons, and her stepgreat-grandnephew—and later led to the usurpation of the throne by her nephew Wang Mang. She is largely viewed sympathetically by historians as an unassuming and benevolent if overly doting woman who suffered much in her long life, who tried to influence the empire as well as she could, and who was not a party to her nephew's machinations, but whose failure, leading to the downfall of the Western Han Dynasty, was her overdependence on her clan.