Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei - Reign

Reign

During Emperor Jiemin's reign, the Erzhu clan members controlled much of the functions of the central government, the provinces, and the military, with Erzhu Shilong controlling the central government, Erzhu Zhao controlling the northern provinces, Erzhu Tianguang controlling the western provinces, and Erzhu Zhongyuan (爾朱仲遠) controlling the southeastern provinces. Despite this, Emperor Jiemin himself tried to exert influences on policy in subtle ways, and at times he refused to following Erzhu Shilong's wishes. For example, when Erzhu Shilong had the official Xing Zicai (邢子才) author Emperor Jiemin's general pardon edict, describing the death of Erzhu Rong in detail as an extremely wrongful act by Emperor Xiaozhuang, Emperor Jiemin refused to promulgate the edict as written, but instead wrote a brief edict himself, using humble language and not getting into details. He also removed the character huang (皇) from his title, going from huangdi (皇帝) to just di (帝). He treated Yuan Ye with honor, creating him the Prince of Donghai. He also, in an unprecedented action, ordered that rival Liang Dynasty no longer be referred to as "false" (偽, wei) Liang. (Traditionally, in Chinese history, the rival states referred to each other as "false.") He posthumously honored his father Yuan Yu as emperor, but only honored his mother Lady Wang as princess dowager, perhaps out of respect to Yuan Yu's wife Princess Zheng. He also created his brother Yuan Yongye the Prince of Gaomi and his son Yuan Shu (元恕) as Prince of Bohai.

The Erzhus, however, engaged in violence and corruption, and Emperor Jiemin was unable to curb them. As a result, in succession, the generals Liu Lingzhu (劉靈助) and Gao Huan rebelled. Liu was easily defeated, but Gao, with many disaffected generals joining him, proved to be a formidable opponent, and Gao, who initially acknowledged Emperor Jiemin's position as emperor, soon had another distant member of the imperial Yuan clan, Yuan Lang, declared emperor. In late 531, with the Erzhu clan in internal dissent from rumors that Gao spread, Gao defeated Erzhu Zhao and captured the important city Yecheng.

In spring 532, Erzhu Shilong, in order to end the dissension within the Erzhu clan, requested that Emperor Jiemin marry Erzhu Zhao's daughter as his empress. Soon, the Erzhu forces, commanded by Erzhu Zhao, Erzhu Tianguang, Erzhu Zhongyuan, and Erzhu Shilong's brother Erzhu Dulü (爾朱度律), converged at Yecheng to face Gao Huan, but despite their numerical advantage, Gao defeated them. Erzhu Zhao and Erzhu Zhongyuan fled back to their headquarters, while Erzhu Tianguang and Erzhu Dulü fled back toward Luoyang. At this time, the general Husi Chun rose against the Erzhus at Luoyang, and he killed Erzhu Shilong and Erzhu Yanbo, while capturing and delivering Erzhu Tianguang and Erzhu Dulü to Gao, who executed them.