Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Empress Zhou came from a modest family. Her father Zhou Kui was from Fengxi in Changzhou County, Suzhou Prefecture. As a youth he followed relatives to Beijing and settled in Daxing County, earning a living through astrology and fortune-telling and also practicing medicine. Empress Zhou was his eldest daughter, born to Lady Ding. The family was poor, but she was described as beautiful from childhood.
The scholar Chen Renxi, courtesy name Mingqing and sobriquet Zhitai, is said to have once lodged with the Zhou family. On seeing the young Zhou girl, he reportedly told Zhou Kui that his daughter would become a person of the highest rank and taught her to read the *Zizhi Tongjian*. She became especially familiar with that work and was described as knowledgeable in letters, painting, and medicinal matters.
Selection as Consort and Marriage
In 1626 the seventeen-year-old Prince of Xin, Zhu Youjian, was due to select a consort. The Ministry of Rites gathered seventy-seven eligible women from the districts under Shuntian Prefecture, and Zhou was among them. Zhou Kui tried to use a shared Changzhou origin to persuade the Censor Gu Zongmeng to remove his daughter's name from the list, but Gu refused, saying that the selection was for a princely consort rather than a palace concubine and therefore there was no reason to remove her.
The selection process was complicated. Zhou initially ranked only third. Empress Zhang, the Yi'an Empress and wife of the Xizong Emperor, presided over the selection and, impressed by Zhou's appearance, raised her to the position of principal consort of the Prince of Xin. The *Jingong Yilu* records this version, while another account states that Consort Liu also strongly supported Zhou's selection, remarking that although Zhou was still small and slight, she would grow.
Another candidate was the daughter of Xu Xianchun. Xu, described in the source as the son of a deceased imperial son-in-law and a wealthy man, attempted through bribery inside and outside the palace to secure his daughter's selection. Fang Sicheng opposed the effort on the grounds that established precedent discouraged the imperial house from forming another marriage alliance with a powerful affinal family and strongly urged that Zhou be chosen. Xu consequently bore a grudge.
Zhou was formally selected on the twenty-first day of the sixth lunar month of 1626. In the intercalary sixth month, the Directorate of Astronomy submitted the wedding schedule: the move was set for the twenty-fifth day of the eleventh month, the capping rite for the tenth day of the twelfth month, the presentation of betrothal gifts and issuance of the investiture document for the sixteenth, and preparation of the bridal bed for the twenty-second. The pre-wedding facial preparation was held on the twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month of 1627. At the *mao* hour on the third day of the second lunar month, the Prince of Xin personally received the bride, completing the marriage ceremony.
Investiture as Empress and the Beginning of the Reign
In the eighth lunar month of 1627 the Xizong Emperor died without an heir, and his fifth younger brother, the Prince of Xin, succeeded to the throne as the Chongzhen Emperor. On the twenty-seventh day of the ninth lunar month, Zhou was formally invested as empress.
Before her investiture, the eunuch Liu Ruoyu, then imprisoned and later known as the author of the *Zhuozhong Zhi*, argued that according to earlier Ming precedent the emperor's deceased birth mother, Consort Liu, should first be posthumously honored before the new empress was invested. The Chongzhen Emperor accepted the recommendation. His mother received a posthumous imperial title on the twenty-first day of the ninth lunar month, and Empress Zhou was invested six days later.
The investiture edict praised Zhou's obedience, modesty, and virtue. Her father Zhou Kui received a military-administrative appointment and was later promoted. In 1630 he was enfeoffed as Marquis of Jiading and granted a residence in Suzhou.
Life as Empress
As empress, Zhou was described as straightforward, unadorned, and frugal. The *Jiujing Yishi* credited her frugality with shaping the atmosphere of the palace. She tightened palace discipline and frequently restrained benefits to her own relatives. She was said to wear certain yellow garments only when they had been explicitly bestowed by the emperor.
Among the Chongzhen Emperor's other consorts were Noble Consort Tian and Noble Consort Yuan. Tian was especially favored and was accomplished in calligraphy and music, but she was less deferential to the empress than Yuan, and relations between Tian and Empress Zhou were at times strained.
The *Jingong Yilu* records a New Year's Day incident in which palace consorts were required to pay respects to the empress. Noble Consort Tian arrived at the Hall of Union, but Empress Zhou did not immediately admit her and left her waiting outside in winter weather. Noble Consort Yuan arrived later and was admitted at once. When Tian was eventually received, Zhou reportedly remained stern and silent.
Tian later complained to the Chongzhen Emperor. The emperor confronted Zhou, and during the quarrel pushed her to the floor. Zhou, physically frail and deeply humiliated, withdrew to bed and refused food for several days. The emperor regretted his behavior, sent gifts and inquiries, and Zhou eventually resumed eating. Tian was ordered to live separately in the Qixiang Palace for three months.
Later that spring, while the emperor and empress were viewing flowers near Tian's former residence, Zhou asked that Tian be invited to join them. The emperor initially refused, but Zhou explained that her earlier treatment of Tian had been intended to correct pride rather than satisfy a private grudge. Zhou then had Tian brought to them, and the two women conversed amicably. The account presents this as evidence of Zhou's capacity to set aside resentment.
Death at the Fall of the Ming Capital
In the third lunar month of 1644, as Li Zicheng's forces approached Beijing, Empress Zhou reportedly hinted at a move south by remarking that there was still a family home in the south. The Chongzhen Emperor asked how she had learned of proposals to move the court, but she did not answer.
On the eighteenth day of the third lunar month, Li Zicheng's forces entered Beijing's outer city. That night the Chongzhen Emperor entered the inner palace and told Zhou that the situation was lost and that, as “mother of the realm,” she should die. Zhou wept and replied that she had served him for eighteen years but that he had ultimately never listened to her advice; now, if they were to die together with the dynasty, she had nothing further to regret.
She first embraced the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang and Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong and wept, then returned to the Palace of Earthly Tranquility and hanged herself. She was thirty-four by traditional age reckoning. Empress Zhang, the Yi'an Empress of the previous reign, also died by suicide that day.
The Chongzhen Emperor subsequently made arrangements for his sons, ordered Noble Consort Yuan to die by suicide, and then hanged himself on Coal Hill. Noble Consort Tian had died the previous year.
Burial and Posthumous Honors
On the twenty-first day of the third lunar month, rebel forces found the Chongzhen Emperor's body at Jingshan. His remains and those of Empress Zhou were displayed outside the Donghua Gate. On the fourth day of the fourth lunar month, local officials were ordered to bury the emperor and empress in the burial enclosure originally prepared for Noble Consort Tian.
After the Qing entered the capital, the new authorities ordered mourning and gave the Chongzhen Emperor a posthumous imperial title. Empress Zhou received the long posthumous title Empress Xiaojing Zhenlie Cihui Zhuangmin Chengtian Peisheng Duan. The former chief eunuch Cao Huachun proposed rebuilding Noble Consort Tian's tomb as the Siling Mausoleum, with the Chongzhen Emperor placed in the center, Empress Zhou on the left, and Tian on the right.
In 1659, the Qing court revised the Chongzhen Emperor's posthumous designation to Emperor Zhuangliemin and correspondingly changed Zhou's title to Empress Zhuangliemin. The Hongguang court of the Southern Ming had separately honored her as Empress Xiaojie Zhensu Yuangong Zhuangyi Fengtian Jingsheng Lie.