Empress Dowager He (Sun Hao)

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Empress Dowager He (何太后, personal name unknown) was an empress dowager during the reign of her son Sun Hao, the final emperor of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period.

She was from Danyang Commandery (roughly modern Xuancheng, Anhui). Her father He Sui (何遂) was a cavalry soldier in the army of the Eastern Wu founder Sun Quan. One day, when Sun Quan was examining the troops, he noticed that she was peeking out and looking at the troops. He found her unusual, and gave her to his son Sun He as a consort. In 242, the same year that Sun He was created crown prince, she gave birth to his oldest son, Sun Hao.

Crown Prince He, due to the machinations of many powerful people at court, was deposed in 250 and reduced to commoner status. In 252, he was created the Prince of Nanyang, with his fief at Changsha (長沙, in modern Changsha, Hunan). However, after his enemy Sun Jun became regent for his brother, the emperor Sun Liang, in 253, Sun Jun forced him to commit suicide. His wife Princess Zhang also committed suicide. When Consort He was offered the opportunity to commit suicide as well, however, she declined -- reasoning that someone needed to raise the children, and she was the one who raised Sun Hao and his three younger brothers (by other consorts), Sun De (孫德), Sun Qian (孫謙), and Sun Jun (孫俊 -- note different character than the regent).

In 264, after the death of the emperor Sun Xiu, a younger brother of Prince He, the powerful officials Puyang Xing (濮陽興) and Zhang Bu (張布) chose Sun Hao to be the emperor. He quickly posthumously honored Prince He as an emperor and honored Consort He as the empress dowager. Her family became exceedingly powerful during his reign. There was no record of when she died, and she probably survived to see the collapse of the empire under her son's violent and incompetent reign in 280 and its conquest by the rival Jin, but it is not clear.