Yang Lihua (Chinese: 楊麗華; 561–609) was an empress of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Zhou dynasty, and later a princess of the Sui dynasty.
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Background
Yang Lihua was born in 561, as the eldest daughter of Yang Jian, then the heir apparent to Yang Zhong (楊忠) the Duke of Sui, and Yang Jian's wife Dugu Qieluo. In 568, her grandfather Yang Zhong died, and her father Yang Jian inherited the title of Duke of Sui.
On 30 October 573, Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou arranged Yang Lihua to be the wife of Yuwen Yun, then his crown prince, and she thereafter carried the title of crown princess. He was 14 and she was 12. They had one daughter, Yuwen Eying (宇文娥英), although her birth year is not clear.
As Empress of the Northern Zhou
After Emperor Wu died in June 578, Yuwen Yun took the throne as Emperor Xuan. He created Yang Lihua empress on 29 July of that same year. However, Emperor Xuan was excessive and erratic in his behavior, and less than a year after taking the throne, in spring 579, he formally passed the throne to his son Yuwen Chan (as Emperor Jing), born of his concubine Zhu Manyue. He took an atypical title for a retired emperor, "Emperor Tianyuan" (天元皇帝, Tianyuan Huangdi). She thereafter took the title of "Empress Tianyuan" (天元皇后, Tianyuan Huanghou). However, as part of his unusual behavior, he soon decided that he would have four empresses, so he gave to three of his concubines — Consort Zhu, Consort Chen, and Consort Yuan — empress titles as well, but different from Empress Yang's to distinguish them (Empress Zhu was Tianyuan Dihou (天元帝后); Empress Chen was Tianzhuo Huanghou (天左皇后); and Empress Yuan was Tianyou Huanghou (天右皇后)). He later added one more empress, Yuchi Chifan. However, Empress Yang continued to be recognized as the most honored among his empresses. In spring 580, he added Da (大, "grand") to the empresses' titles, and therefore Empress Yang's title was changed to "Grand Empress Tianyuan" (天元大皇后).