The history of Feng Weiyang

                       Chinese Legendary Female
                               --- The story of Feng Weiyang
       After introduced so many awesome Chinese legendary females in ancient China, I concluded that almost all of them have good qualities like independent, kind, and determinant. So from those cases and histories, I could learn to improve myself and make me become a better individual.
       Another legend that I want to talk about is Feng Weiyang, before 220BCE, China was a split country. At that time, each city can be seen as a country. Feng was born in a country named Yan, and she was an aristocrat in Yan, but when she was only 10, her home country was defeated by Wei, so she was forced to go to the Wei’s palace and became a servant. Feng was a beauty at that time, so the emperor of Wei who was only thirteen years old selected Feng as the concubine of him. After the marriage, Feng and the emperor had a harmonious life, and it’s a good way for Feng to get to know the political environment of Wei and get involved in some political issues.
     Feng was a wise woman. She knew what was good for the development of the whole country, how to deal with the problems that can maximize citizen’s welfares, and what kind of people could give critical suggestions in managing the whole country. One of her preeminent jobs was her focus on advancing Han culture, which is her own culture. When both Feng and the emperor of Wei were managing the country, the society was stable, and the development of economy was also stable. Plus, Feng was so smart because she knew how to get to know what was the emperor thinking, and she was good at summarizing, in every aspect. All these merits helped Feng to get to know more political issues and the ways how higher institutions worked. Therefore, when Feng was only fourteen years old, she became the empress of the country.
     Not only Feng’s intelligence and talents but also her politeness to the emperor’s adoptive mother and her kindness toward the emperor’s son who would become the next emperor of the country. According to the history textbook, the emperor of Wei was adopted by a concubine who took care of the emperor and raised him up. So the emperor felt thankful to his adoptive mother, and he would like to share everything with his adoptive mother. Feng was a polite daughter-in-law, she respected his mother, visited the emperor’s adoptive mother every morning and serve tea to his mother, brought some treasures that some officials who came from the other countries to her, etc.
On the other hand, she was so nice to the prince of Wei. As I assumed before, in ancient China, one of the reasons why concubines wanted to possess the emperor’s affection was that they wished their son could be the prince of the country, and among so many children of the emperor, only one child could be the prince. And once their son became the prince, which means that the possibility of that prince to be the emperor the country is the largest, and they could, therefore, enjoy the life of comforts and luxury. So from this perspective, no one really wanted to be nice with the one who was not their kid and one may try her best to let her own son be the prince. However, Feng behaved differently than others, she cultivated the prince, Hong, in some moral perspectives, let the most excellent educators teach him knowledge, and asked him to follow some generals to learn military strategies. This was another reason why there were so many generals and officials support her. To be honest, I think Feng was a great step-mother in ancient China because she was not selfish and wanted the prince can do fantastic jobs in every aspect of her inner mind.
An old saying goes, “a woman plays so many characters in their life, a good daughter in law, a good mother, and a good wife.” And I believe that Feng proved this old saying from her behaviors. She understood how tired her husband was after all those work, and she knew how to make her husband relaxed after whole day heavy work and huge pressures. Feng showed her every possible consideration to the emperor, tried so hard to make the emperor happy, and let the emperor forget how complicated the works were and just enjoy the wonderful moments with her. Although these behaviors sound easy to do, it hard to put them into practice, this is one reason why the emperor put a lot of affections to Feng. So Feng and the emperor’s life were super sweet and harmonious in the eyes of other people. Nevertheless, good times did not last long, the emperor died at age twenty-six, Feng could no longer take care of her beloved one. After the emperor’s death, Feng lived in a grievous and deeply sorrow life, and she just cried every day. But after several months, it seemed that she suddenly realized the true meaning of life and the death, so she became more adamant and determinant after the emperor’s death.
On the second day of the emperor’s death, the prince ascended the throne, because the prince was only twelve years old and he has almost no experiences about how to manage the whole country, so he had to depend on Feng. Therefore, in the following years, Feng helped the new emperor, Hong, to manage political issues, and sometimes, military strategies. Under the control of Feng’s management, the country went stable, and social problems were solved or undermined.

Feng was a great woman, even though she does not have any offspring, she did a great job in educating the new emperor Hong, she knew how to make country more flourish, and she understood to respect others. Although she did not become an emperor of the country like what Wu Zetian did, from my perspective, her talents and abilities are almost the same with Wu, and both of them are the greatest women in ancient China and in Chinese history. 
(The portrait of Feng)

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