Empress Wang

Empress Wang (王皇后, personal name unknown) (died January 21 CE), formally Empress Xiaomu (孝睦皇后, literally, the Filial and Congenial Empress) was an empress during the Xin Dynasty. Lady Wang married her husband, the eventual Xin emperor Wang Mang while he was still a commoner (albeit a well-connected commoner, being a nephew of then-Han empress Empress Wang Zhengjun). She was a daughter of Wang Xian (王咸), the Marquess of Yichun, who was a grandson of Han prime minister Wang Xin (王訢). (Her marriage to Wang Mang is evidence that at that time, the Chinese prohibition against endogamy based on the same family name was not as strict as it was later.) Lady Wang bore her husband at least five children—sons Wang Yu (王宇), Wang Huo (王獲), Wang An (王安), and Wang Lin (王臨), and a daughter (personal name unknown) who later became empress to Emperor Ping of Han and was given the title of Princess Huanghuang during Xin Dynasty. Wang Mang was publicly known for his marital faithfulness, and he put on the appearance that he had no concubines or other female liaisons in addition to his wife. However, that was not true, for Wang Mang had affairs with at least three servant women and, later, a lady-in-waiting to Empress Wang. He was also known for his minimising personal expenditure which extended to his wife. In one incident when he was the commander of the armed forces under his cousin Emperor Cheng of Han, after his mother died, when Lady Wang came to greet the mourners she was in clothes that were so plain that she was mistaken for a servant.