Consort Li.) While she was empress, she apparently had a cordial relationship with Cao Rui. There was no evidence that she opposed his candidacy when Cao Pi, seriously ill in 226, created him crown prince. Cao Pi died soon after, and Cao Rui ascended the throne. As empress dowager The new emperor, although he posthumously honoured his mother as an empress, honoured his stepmother as empress dowager, and he bestowed members of her family with wealth and titles. She died on 14 March 235 and was buried on 16 April 235 with honours befitting an empress alongside her husband Cao Pi. Her family remained honoured by her stepson. How Empress Dowager Guo came to die, however, is a matter of historical controversy. An apparently reliable historical account (although not conclusive one) states that at some point during Cao Rui's reign, Consort Li told him Empress Dowager Guo's role in Lady Zhen's death – and further told him that after Lady Zhen died, it was at Empress Dowager Guo's suggestion that she was buried with her hair covering her face and her mouth filled with rice grain shells – so that even after her death she would be unable to complain. Cao Rui became enraged and confronted Empress Dowager Guo – who could not deny her involvement directly. He then forced her to commit suicide, and, while he buried her with the honours befitting an empress, he had her face covered with her hair (so that she would never see sunlight ever again), and her mouth filled with rice grain shells (so that she could never say anything in the afterlife). However, even after her death, her family continued to be favoured by Cao Rui especially her cousin Guo Biao, who was granted succession to Guo Nuwang's father's posthumous fief and promoted to a general. See also Cao Wei family trees#Cao Pi's other wives and children Lists of people of the Three Kingdoms Notes References Chen, Shou (3rd century). Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi). |- 184 births 235 deaths Cao Wei empresses dowager