Fu Hao 婦好
Fu Hao 婦好 was the main consort of King Wu Ding 武丁 of the Shang dynasty 商 (17th to 11th cent. BC). She was famous for her military ambitions and personally conducted campaigns against the Tufang 土方, Qiangfang 羌方, Yifang 夷方 and Bafang 巴方. During one of these campaigns she commanded as much as 13,000 troops. Her tomb was discovered in 1976 in Xiaotun 小屯村 near Anyang 安陽, Henan, among the ruins of the last Shang capital Yin 殷. It contained the remains of human sacrifices as well as a lot of sacrificial vessels with the mark "Fu Hao", and weapons (among others four yue 鉞 type axes that served as a symbol of royal power, see picture to the right). There were in total more than 1,600 pieces of grave furniture. Chinese historians love to call her China's first female general.
In the oracle bone inscripitions her title is Bi Xin 妣辛 "Consort Xin" or Mu Xin 母辛 "Mother Xin". It is also known that she possessed an own fief from which she presented tributes to the royal court.
Sources:
- Chen Quanli 陳全力, Hou Xinyi 侯欣一 (ed. 1991). Houfei cidian 后妃辭典, p. 4. Xi'an: Shaanxi renmin jiaoyu chubanshe.
- Xue Hong 薛虹 (ed. 1998). Zhongguo huangshi gongting cidian 中國皇室宫廷辭典, p. 797. Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe.
- Wang Songling 王松齡 (ed. 1991). Shiyong Zhongguo lishi zhishi cidian 實用中國歷史知識辭典, p. 394. Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe.
