Biography
Family Background and Early Years
Tuoba Hong was born into the Northern Wei imperial family and was the eldest son of Tuoba Jun, Emperor Wencheng. On the gengzi day of the seventh lunar month of Xingguang 1, August 14, 454, he was born north of the Yin Mountains while his father was traveling there. The *Book of Wei*, volume 5, records that the emperor traveled to the Yin Mountains in the sixth lunar month and that prince Hong was born in the seventh.
In the second lunar month of 456, Tuoba Hong was designated crown prince. Historical accounts describe him as intelligent and quick to understand, already possessing as a child the qualities of a ruler capable of aiding the people, profoundly filial, and respectful toward teachers and friends.
Accession as a Youth and the Dominance of Yihun
On May 11, 465, Emperor Wencheng died in Taihua Hall at age twenty-six. The following day, the twelve-year-old crown prince Tuoba Hong ascended the throne and honored his father’s principal wife Lady Feng as Empress Dowager.
General of Chariots and Cavalry Yifu Hun then seized the opportunity to monopolize power. Taking advantage of the young emperor, he forged edicts and killed Minister Yang Baonian, Jia Airen, Duke of Pingyang, Zhang Tiandu, Duke of Nanyang, and the guard official Mu Duohou. On May 16, Palace Attendant, Minister over the Masses, and Prince of Pingyuan Lu Li returned from Tangquan and was also killed by Yifu Hun. Yifu Hun then made himself Grand Commandant and Director of the Department of State Affairs and in the seventh lunar month was appointed Chancellor above the princes. The source summarizes his control by saying that all matters, great or small, were decided by him.
The young emperor was powerless before this violence and reportedly could only weep before Empress Dowager Feng. At first she too did not dare directly oppose Yifu Hun and confirmed him as Chancellor to stabilize the situation. His ambitions continued to grow, however, and he plotted a palace coup to make himself emperor.
Empress Dowager Feng’s Regency and the Emperor’s Personal Rule
On the second day of the second lunar month of 466, Empress Dowager Feng struck first. She ordered Yuan Pi, Yuan He, Niu Yide, and others to surround Yifu Hun’s residence and execute him. With the political situation still unstable, she then issued an edict taking court affairs into her own hands and managed military and civil government.
During her regency, Northern Wei fought Liu Song in the Xuzhou region. In 466, Northern Wei commanders together with Xue Andu and others defeated Liu Song general Zhang Yong. The source states that corpses lay for more than sixty *li*. Governors in Xuzhou and other areas surrendered to Northern Wei and joined Wei forces against Song. Northern Wei successively acquired Qing, Ji, Xu, and Yan provinces north of the Huai River as well as nine commanderies of Yu Province west of the river, greatly expanding its territory.
In the eighth lunar month of 467, Lady Li, a consort of Tuoba Hong, gave birth to his eldest son Yuan Hong, later Emperor Xiaowen. In the sixth lunar month of 469, Lady Li was ordered to die under Northern Wei’s “mother dies when the son becomes noble” practice.
Abdication and the Title of Retired Emperor
In the eighth lunar month of 471, the seventeen-year-old Emperor Xianwen, described in the Chinese source as detached from current affairs and frequently inclined to leave worldly life behind, grew weary of government and resentful of Empress Dowager Feng’s continuing dominance. He proposed abdicating in favor of his uncle Tuoba Zitui, King of Jingzhao. Ministers strongly opposed the plan, and he abandoned it.
On August 21, he instead issued an edict transferring the throne to crown prince Yuan Hong. Ministers argued that the new emperor was too young to handle government and requested that Tuoba Hong continue directing all major affairs. They gave him the title “Retired Emperor,” distinguished in the source from the title used for the father of Emperor Gaozu of Han, who did not actually rule. On August 23, Tuoba Hong moved to Chongguang Palace. Its facilities were simple, with earthen steps, but major affairs of state still had to be reported to him.
Military and Political Activity as Retired Emperor
Abdication did not remove Tuoba Hong from power. He continued to direct major state and military affairs. In 472, when Rouran attacked, he left the capital in military dress and personally led troops north of the Yin Mountains, where he defeated Rouran and pursued them to the southern edge of the desert, forcing them to withdraw thousands of *li*. In the eleventh lunar month of the same year he led another campaign and again advanced as far as south of the desert.
In the sixth lunar month of 474, Tuoba Hong ordered that all cases be handled according to law, that decisions be based on facts, and that punishments be applied cautiously. In 475, although already retired from the throne, he conducted a major military review in the northern suburbs, attracting wide attention at court.
Unusual Death
On July 20, 476, the xinwei day of the sixth lunar month of Chengming 1, the twenty-three-year-old Tuoba Hong died unexpectedly in Yong’an Hall. The *Book of Wei* records his posthumous title Emperor Xianwen and temple name Xianzu and states that he was buried at the Jinling mausoleum in Yunzhong. The Chinese source states that later historians generally believed Empress Dowager Feng poisoned him. Wei Shou’s *Book of Wei* remarked that Tuoba Hong had early cherished a desire to abandon worldly affairs and ultimately suffered a palace upheaval, phrasing that the source interprets as an allusion to a court coup.
Tuoba Hong was the eldest son of Emperor Wencheng, Tuoba Jun, by the Lady Li. He was born north of the Yinshan on 14 August 454 (the gengzi day of the seventh month of Xingguang 1) and was made heir apparent in the second month of 456. The *Book of Wei* calls him intelligent and quick, with a boyhood resolve to succor the people, perfectly filial and respectful to teachers and friends. Emperor Wencheng died at the Taihua Hall on 11 May 465 at twenty-six, and the next day Tuoba Hong took the throne, proclaimed a general amnesty and honored the empress, Lady Feng, as empress dowager.
At the outset the chariot general-in-chief Yi Hun forged an edict and killed the director of the Secretariat Yang Baonian and the Dukes of Pingyang, Jia Airen, and of Nanyang, Zhang Tiandu, inside the palace; he then killed the palace attendant and minister Lu Li of Pingyuan on his arrival at court, made himself grand commandant and director of the Secretariat, and in the seventh month chancellor above all princes, so that nothing great or small was decided without him; he took the title Prince of Taiyuan and plotted further usurpation. In the second month of 466 Empress Dowager Feng ordered ministers to surround Yi Hun's residence with troops and put him to death; with order unsettled she proclaimed herself regent and took charge of military and civil affairs.
In the eighth month of 471, caring nothing for the business of the world and minded to withdraw from it, Emperor Xianwen wished to abdicate in favor of his uncle, the Prince of Jingzhao, Tuoba Zitui, and desisted only before the firm opposition of his ministers. On the dingwei day he issued the edict yielding to the heir apparent Tuoba Hong; because the new emperor was young and the machinery of government still required him, the ministers offered him the title of retired emperor — the first person in Chinese history to bear it. On the jiyou day he moved to the Chongguang Palace, its beams unplaned and its steps of packed earth, and great affairs of state were still reported to him. He did not wholly withdraw: in the second month of 472 he rode out in armor and led his generals to drive off a Rouran attack at the northern suburb, and in the eleventh month he campaigned against the Rouran as far as the southern desert. He ordered artisans, merchants and entertainers to take up farming, forbade the wanton slaughter of livestock to protect agriculture, promoted incorruptible governors and punished the rapacious. In the sixth month of 474 he ordered that all cases be judged according to law, on the facts, with careful use of punishment. The *Book of Wei* records that in the second month of 468 he hunted at the western hills and shot tigers and leopards himself, that in the fifth month he hunted at Guoshan, and that in 475, as retired emperor, he reviewed troops at the northern suburb.
Tuoba Hong died at the Yong'an Hall on 20 July 476 (the xinwei day of the sixth month of Chengming 1) at only twenty-three, posthumously Emperor Xianwen with the temple name Xianzu, and was buried at Jinling in Yunzhong. The *Book of Wei* judges him wise and decisive from youth, able to clear the deserts and open the south, yet says that he early harbored a wish to renounce the world and so met with a palace calamity, leaving a pointed remark on his death. His consort, Lady Li of Anxi in Zhongshan, daughter of the Prince of Nanjun, Li Hui, entered the Eastern Palace at eighteen, became his lady upon his accession and bore Emperor Xiaowen; in the third year of Huangxing she was put to death under the rule that the mother of an heir must die, and in Chengming 1 she was posthumously honored with titles and her tablet placed in the ancestral temple as Empress Si.
During Xianwen's reign and his years as retired emperor the war with the Liu Song continued. In 466 the Song governor of Xuzhou, Xue Andu, surrendered his province to Wei and the Wei army moved south to receive him, routing the Song generals Zhang Yong and Shen Youzhi; the four provinces north of the Huai — Qing, Ji, Xu and Yan — and the nine commanderies of western Henan in Yuzhou passed to Wei in succession. In 475 the retired emperor reviewed troops at the northern suburb and died not long after. In his reign he carried on the migration and agricultural policies begun under Emperor Daowu, moving Xianbei and other peoples from beyond the frontier into the east of the passes to restore the long-devastated farming of the central plains; yet the early Northern Wei still retained strong remnants of slavery, officials had no regular salaries, and bribery and usury flourished, abuses only gradually cleared away in Emperor Xiaowen's reforms. The *History of the Northern Dynasties* praises Xianwen as wise and decisive from youth, able to clear the deserts and open the south, while dismissing his death with the phrase "a palace catastrophe"; later historians have speculated much but proved nothing.
As retired emperor he still presided over the great review at the northern suburb and the campaigns against the Rouran, and on his death the succession passed to Emperor Xiaowen.