Consort Shen

Consort Shen (personal name unknown) (disappeared 759), formally Empress Ruizhen (睿真皇后, literary meaning "the wise and true empress"), was a Tang Dynasty woman who served as a consort of Emperor Daizong of Tang (Li Chu) while he was the Prince of Guangping under his grandfather Emperor Xuanzong and father Emperor Suzong and the mother of the future Emperor Dezong (Li Kuo). She was captured by the rebel Yan forces during Anshi Rebellion, and although Li Chu regained her at one point during the war, was lost again later during the war. Despite efforts by Emperors Daizong and Dezong to locate her after the war, they were never able to find her. She was finally declared deceased by her great-grandson Emperor Xianzong in 805. Before the Anshi Rebellion It is not known when the future Consort Shen was born, but it is known that her family was from Wuxing (吳興, in modern Huzhou, Zhejiang) and that her clan was a prominent clan in the area. Her father Shen Yizhi (沈易直) had, at one point, served in the imperial government as Dali Zheng(大理正), second-in-command of the Emperial Court, and later was honored by Emperor Daizong as Mishu Jian (秘書監), the director of the Palace Library. Towards the end of Emperor Xuanzong's Kaiyuan era (713-741), she, as the daughter of a reputable household, was selected for the palace of Emperor Xuanzong's son and crown prince Li Heng, but was from there further given to Li Heng's oldest son, Li Chu the Prince of Guangping. She was not designated Li Chu's wife—and neither was any other consort of his, including the most prominent one, a Consort Cui whose mother was the Lady of Han, a highly honored woman at court due to her status as the sister of Emperor Xuanzong's favorite concubine Yang Guifei. She gave birth to Li Chu's oldest son, Li Kuo, in May 742. During the Anshi Rebellion and disappearance In 755, the general An Lushan rebelled at Fanyang and soon attacked south and established a new state of Yan, with him as emperor and its capital at Luoyang (Tang's eastern capital). By summer 756, Yan forces were approaching the Tang capital Chang'an, forcing Emperor Xuanzong to flee to Chengdu. Li Heng did not follow Emperor Xuanzong to Chengdu; rather, he fled to Lingwu, where he was declared emperor (as Emperor Suzong). Li Chu followed his father to Lingwu as well. Consort Shen was left at Chang'an, and she was captured and taken by Yan forces to Luoyang and detained in the palace jail.