The Matriarch Speaks: Dowagers’ Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Era and Beyond

Yuri Pines

doi:10.1163/15685268-02801006

The Matriarch Speaks: Dowagers’ Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Era and Beyond

Yuri Pines^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Asian Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Imperial China was well acquainted with the formidable power of empress dowagers. By contrast, preimperial texts remain all but silent about the dowagers’ potential political impact except for rare interventions in succession struggles or interministerial cleavages. However, new paleographic evidence, drawn primarily from the Springs-and-Autumns period (Chunqiu 春秋, 770–453 BCE), suggests a much stronger impact of matriarchs on the course of their polities. The paper addresses this new evidence, juxtaposes it with transmitted texts, primarily Zuozhuan 左傳, and assesses the reasons why assertive matriarchs’ voices are not reflected in Zuozhuan and other transmitted texts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	13-46
Number of pages	34
Journal	NAN NU
Volume	28
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1163/15685268-02801006
State	Published - Aug 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright Yuri Pines, 2026. Published with license by Koninklijke Brill BV. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

Keywords

bronze inscriptions
dowagers
historiography
rulership
Zuozhuan

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10.1163/15685268-02801006

Cite this

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abstract = "Imperial China was well acquainted with the formidable power of empress dowagers. By contrast, preimperial texts remain all but silent about the dowagers{\textquoteright} potential political impact except for rare interventions in succession struggles or interministerial cleavages. However, new paleographic evidence, drawn primarily from the Springs-and-Autumns period (Chunqiu 春秋, 770{\textendash}453 BCE), suggests a much stronger impact of matriarchs on the course of their polities. The paper addresses this new evidence, juxtaposes it with transmitted texts, primarily Zuozhuan 左傳, and assesses the reasons why assertive matriarchs{\textquoteright} voices are not reflected in Zuozhuan and other transmitted texts.",

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The Matriarch Speaks: Dowagers’ Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Era and Beyond

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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