沈婺華

Shen Wuhua 沈婺華 (ca. 554-ca. 630). Chen dynasty writer.

Shen Wuhua was the empress of Chen Shubao 陳叔寶 (533-604), Emperor Houzhu 後主 (r. 582-589) of the Chen. Her ancestral home was Wukang 武康 in Wuxing 吳興 (south of modern Deqing 德清, Zhejiang). Her mother was the eldest daughter of the founder of the Chen dynasty, Chen Baxian 陳霸先 (503-449). She was married to Shen Junli 沈君里 (518-573), who was a famous scholar.

In 571, Shen Wuhua became a consort of Chen Shubao, the heir designate. She was officially conferred the title of empress when Chen Shubao succeeded to the imperial throne in 583. However she was not a favorite of the emperor. She never complained but lived simply and spent her time studying texts and chanting Buddhist sutras.

When the Chen dynasty ended in 589, Shen Wuhua and Chen Shubao submitted to the Sui regime. She wrote an elegy mourning the passing of Chen Shubao in 604. During the Sui period, Shen Wuhua often accompanied Emperor Yang (r. 604-618) on his inspection tours. After Emperor Yang was executed in 618, Shen Wuhua shaved her head and became a Buddhist nun in the Tianjing Monastery 天靜寺 of Piling 毗陵 (modern Changzhou, Jiangsu). She changed her name to Guanyin 觀音 (Avalokitesvara). She was over seventy when she died ca. 630.

According to Shen Wuhua's biography in the Chen shu (7.130), she was intelligent and had a retentive memory. She studied history and literary works and excelled at writing letters. The monograph on bibliography of the Sui shu lists the Chen Houzhu Shen hou ji 陳後主沈后集 (Collected works of Empress Shen of Emperor Houzhu) in ten juan. This work was lost already in the Tang. Very few of her writings survive. Her letter "Yu Shi Zhiyi shoushu" 與釋智顗手書 (Personal letter to Shi Zhiyi), which is addressed to Zhiyi (538-597), founder of the Tiantai school of Buddhism, is included in the Quan shanggu Sandai Qin Han Sanguo Liuchao wen". Her only extant poem, "Da Houzhu" 答後主 (Replying to Emperor Houzhu), is preserved in the Xian Qin Han Wei Jin Nanbeichao shi".

Taiping Chang

Citation

• 沈婺華 Shen Wuhua, Brill’s Chinese Reference Shelf. Brill Online, 2017. http://chinesereferenceshelf.brillonline.com/ancient-literature/ent...