She was the Empress of Ma in the Eastern Han Dynasty, combining virtue and talent, but she was very frugal in life, and she was historically called the "Empress of Cloth". Dedicated to the sake of the imperial family, her repeated "interference in politics" made the Han family prosper for countless spring and autumn years, and was later recorded in the "Biography of the Continuation of the Daughters" and praised by the world.
During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, Ma Yuan's third daughter, Ma Shi, was 13 years old and was elected to the palace to serve Empress Yin, and was deeply loved by Empress Yin. After Emperor Ming ascended the throne, she was chosen as a nobleman, and since he had no son of his own at the time, Emperor Ming asked him to raise Jia's son Liu Wei.
After that, Ma worked Liu Wei as his own son and raised her with all his heart, and the child was closer to her than her biological mother. At that time, the emperor did not have many children, and Ma often recommended excellent women around him to the emperor, and if any woman was frequently favored by the emperor, Ma would reward her.
At this time, there was no empress in the imperial court, and the officials proposed to the emperor to elect an empress, but before the emperor could speak, the empress dowager Yin felt that Ma was of good character, and the empress was none other than her.
If Ma did not disappoint the Empress Dowager Yin, after she ascended the position of empress, she was not only very frugal in life, but also constantly enriched her heart in terms of spirit, often found time to read books, and her style was low-key and connotative. The emperor also admired her style, and sometimes the emperor would ask her for advice on matters that were difficult to decide in the court, claiming that it was to test the empress's knowledge. However, the empress never involved her family's private affairs when she participated in political affairs, so the emperor also favored her more and more.
Later, she single-handedly brought her eldest son Liu Wei to become emperor, and Empress Ma was promoted to empress dowager, and the first thing the emperor was ready to do was to give his uncle, which was already a very normal thing in the past, because the dictatorship of foreign relatives was very prevalent in the feudal era. However, Empress Matthew strongly opposed the emperor to do so, coinciding with the natural disaster, and some officials proposed to the emperor that the natural disaster could be alleviated by granting foreign relatives, and the empress also believed that those who proposed to give foreign relatives wanted to curry favor with themselves so that they could gain something in the future.
She also persuaded the emperor that the Wang family had granted five titles in succession, but the results could not change the bad weather. She said that if the foreign relatives were greedy for too much wealth, the consequences would be unimaginable, and when the first emperor was alive, his uncle did not put them in important positions, but the Yin family was respectful, polite, brave and loyal.
She felt deeply guilty about this, saying that the Ma family was far worse than the Yin family, even though she often warned her relatives not to lose their big because of small things, and those relatives did not listen to her. She dressed low-key in life in order to set an example for others, and she thought that her mother's family would have an epiphany after seeing it, but what the Queen Mother did not expect was that they were still high-profile and luxurious in their lives.
When Empress Matthew found out, although she was angry, she did not scold them angrily, but cut their annual expenses, and in doing so, she did not restrain them, and she was still very lax in doing things. Therefore, Empress Matthew resolutely opposed the granting of foreign relatives.
As a last resort, the emperor also gave up the idea of granting foreign relatives. Empress Matthew has a clearer way to deal with foreign relatives, and those who are humble and upright will be appreciated by Empress Matthew, and if they make mistakes, they will be removed from the family list by Empress Matthew.
Throughout the life of Empress Matthew, she was honest and virtuous, always found a moderate way to deal with things, she was indisputable all her life, adhered to her principles, and truly realized her value.