Empress Yifu

Empress Yifu (乙弗皇后, personal name unknown) (510–540), formally Empress Wen (文皇后, literally "the civil empress"), was an empress of the Chinese/Xianbei state Western Wei—a branch successor state of Northern Wei. Her husband was Emperor Wen (Yuan Baoju).

Her ancestors were ancestral chiefs of a branch tribe of Tuyuhun, and later became vassals of Northern Wei. After Northern Wei conquered Northern Liang in 439, her great-great-grandfather Yifu Mogui (乙弗莫瓌) led his tribe into Northern Wei and became a Northern Wei general. For three generations following his, the Yifus married Northern Wei princesses, and their daughters often married Northern Wei imperial princes. Her father Yifu Yuan (乙弗瑗) was a provincial governor, and her mother was the Princess Huaiyang, a daughter of Emperor Xiaowen.

In 525, when she was 15, she married Yuan Baoju, who was then 21 and a general under his cousin Emperor Xiaoming, but who carried no noble title because his father Yuan Yu (元愉) the Prince of Jingzhao had had his title stripped posthumously after dying in a rebellion. In 535, after Northern Wei had split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei, he was made emperor (as Emperor Wen) by the general Yuwen Tai after the death of his cousin Emperor Xiaowu. He created her empress and created her son Yuan Qin crown prince.

As empress, Empress Yifu was said to be frugal, avoiding extravagant clothing, jewelry, and food, often eating just vegetables. She was also said to be kind and tolerant and never jealous, and Emperor Wen respected her greatly. She bore him 12 children, although only Yuan Qin and Yuan Wu (元戊) the Prince of Wudu survived infancy.

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