Empress Dowager Xiaoding

Empress Dowager Xiaoding (1545–1614), of the Li clan, was a Chinese empress dowager of the Ming dynasty. She was one of the concubines of the Longqing Emperor and the mother of his successor, the Wanli Emperor. After the Longqing Emperor's death, Empress Dowager Li became the regent and de facto ruler in place of the underage Wanli Emperor. She oversaw the Emperor's education while Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng and the eunuch Feng Bao managed the state administration. Although she did not typically involve herself in politics, she did intervene in the dispute over the appointment of the heir to the throne, where she supported the rights of the Emperor's eldest son. Instead of focusing on politics, she devoted herself to religion. She was a devout Buddhist and surrounded herself with leading Buddhist monks of the time. She also used her influence and financial resources to extensively support Buddhist monasteries, particularly in the 1570s and 1580s, and to a lesser extent after 1601.