Lady Shao
Jin dynasty (266–420); general Liu Xia's wife
Lady Shao (fl. 4th century) was the wife of Liu Xia, a military general during the Jin dynasty (266–420). She was one of the few recorded women from her period to have fought in battle, commanding a small group of soldiers to save her husband from encirclement. After her husband's death, she helped in quelling a mutiny by his former soldiers.
Life
Very little is recorded about Lady Shao, but she was deemed worthy enough to receive an entry within her husband's biography in the Book of Jin. Records also only refer to her as "[Liu] Xia's wife" (遐妻), contrary to how traditional historians would bestow the name 'shi' (氏) after a woman's surname if her given name is not known (i.e., Shaoshi (邵氏)). Lady Shao was from Anyang County, Wei Commandery, and she was the daughter of the Jin official, Shao Xu. She was described as having inherited her father's bravery and resolve.
Early in the 4th century, northern China was in the midst of being conquered by the Han-Zhao dynasty. In 314, Shao Xu took up arms against Han in Yanci (厭次, around present-day Dezhou, Shandong) and became one of the Jin dynasty's northern vassals, acting as their Inspector of Jizhou.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lady Shao” as jin dynasty (266–420); general Liu Xia's wife. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as jin dynasty (266–420); general Liu Xia's wife. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q65801301. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lady Shao” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.