6.10 Fu Hao

Military commander, landowner, high priestess, royal consort, and mother of the heir to the throne—the warrior-queen Fu Hao (or Lady Hao) is one of the most extraordinary women in the history of the ancient world. 

Directions: Watch “The Forgotten Warrior Queen” video to help you answer the questions below. Add more facts from the class discussion to the right.

Click here to watch a full documentary about Fu Hao

Directions: Use the reading below to help you answer the questions on your worksheet.

Adapted from article by  Dr. Cortney E. Chaffin on Khan Academy

The story of Fu Hao’s remarkable life can be pieced together from objects found in her lavish tomb near Xiaotun in Anyang, as well as inscriptions on oracle bones made from tortoise shells and ox scapulae used by her husband, King Wu Ding, in divination ceremonies. From the inscriptions on the oracle bone, we learn that Fu Hao was not only a queen and mother of Wu Ding's heir, but she also held a high status as a military general second in command to the king. With the most important generals in Shang history under her command, she led thousands of troops in successful military campaigns against hostile tribes beyond the Shang borders. She also led sacrificial rituals, normally performed only by male priests, to appease the ancestral spirits whom the Shang believed influenced every aspect of their lives. Graphic inscriptions on oracle bones and objects found in Fu Hao’s tomb illustrate how she captured her enemies in battle and sacrificed them to her ancestors through cooking, beheading, burning, and boiling them alive. 

Like the great military kings Alexander of Macedon and Thutmose III of Egypt, Fu Hao never lost a battle.

Despite Fu Hao’s status in Shang society, she was not buried in the royal cemetery at Xibeigang alongside the Shang kings. Instead, and fortunate for us, she was buried in a location where grave robbers did not think to look. Her tomb was discovered 200 meters west of the capital in a location called Xiaotun. Unlike the massive tombs in the royal cemetery which were looted in by the time China's first emperor rose to power, Fu Hao’s tomb remained intact until its excavation in 1976. While the immense size of the royal tombs of the Shang kings looms over Fu Hao’s modest resting place, the excavation of her tomb gave us our first true glimpse at the vast wealth of Shang royalty and their lavish burial customs.

Fu Hao’s tomb was a vertical earthen pit tomb measuring 5.6 x 4 meters with a depth of 7.5 meters. Archaeologists believe Fu Hao was buried in nesting coffins made of red and black lacquered wood. Over 1,600 items were found in her tomb including over 130 of Fu Hao's personal bronze weapons, a sacrificial pit, or yaokeng, containing six sacrificed dogs, Neolithic jade sculptures, mirrors, and ring knives from lands she conquered, more than 200 bronze ritual vessels used by her husband, King Wu Ding, to offer sacrifices to her and inscribed with the names Queen Xin, Mother Xin, and Ancestress Xin. "Xin" was one of the 10 days in the Shang week associated with the heavens and reserved solely for sacrifices to be made to Fu Hao. 16 human sacrifices were also found in coffins arranged around an upper burial ledge, or ercengtai, for Fu Hao to use as servants in the next life.

The most impressive artifacts from Fu Hao's tomb are her four large, flat bronze yue axes. These were reserved only the highest ranking military leaders and also include iconography cementing her role leading religious rituals. Each was made from a unique clay mold and include images of dragons devouring a human head. Fu Hao would have ridden into battle holding these axes then later used them to decapitate prisoners of war following her many victories.