Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Yuan Shanjian was born into the Northern Wei imperial house and was a great-grandson of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, Yuan Hong. His grandfather Yuan Yi, Prince Wenxian of Qinghe, was noted among Emperor Xiaowen's sons for his literary refinement. His father Yuan Dan inherited the title Prince of Qinghe, while his mother Hu Zhi came from the Hu clan of Anding. Yuan Shanjian grew up within the palace precincts of Luoyang and received a good imperial education. Historical records describe him as fond of literature and handsome in appearance, and state that he could carry a stone lion over a wall and never missed with a bow, combining literary talent with martial skill.
In the final years of Northern Wei, political corruption and the Six Garrisons Rebellion fostered the rise of military strongmen. During the reign of Emperor Xiaowu Yuan Xiu, Gao Huan controlled the court, and tensions between emperor and minister steadily intensified. In July 534, the third year of the Yongxi era, Yuan Xiu broke completely with Gao Huan and personally led 100,000 troops to camp at Heqiao. His subordinates, however, defected one after another, forcing him to flee to Chang'an and seek refuge with Yuwen Tai in Guanzhong. Northern Wei thereafter split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei.
Enthronement
After Yuan Xiu fled, Gao Huan entered Luoyang. At first he promoted Yuan Dan, Prince of Qinghe, to Grand Marshal and allowed him to exercise authority on behalf of the throne. Yuan Dan, however, began using imperial ceremonial escorts before he had even ascended the throne, which greatly displeased Gao Huan. Gao Huan therefore decided instead to enthrone Yuan Dan's son Yuan Shanjian. When Yuan Dan learned of this, he panicked and fled south on a light horse, but Gao Huan had him brought back.
On November 8, 534, the seventeenth day of the tenth lunar month in the third year of the Yongxi era, the eleven-year-old Yuan Shanjian ascended the throne northeast of Ye, adopted Tianping as the era name, and formally established Eastern Wei. Gao Huan served as Grand Councilor and dominated the government. The capital was moved to Ye, and the palace establishment and population of Luoyang were transferred there.
The Period of Gao Huan's Regency
Because Gao Huan had broken with Emperor Xiaowu and driven a ruler from the throne, he treated Yuan Shanjian with elaborate outward respect. Historical records state that Gao Huan showed Emperor Xiaojing great ceremonial deference: at banquets he bowed low when offering birthday congratulations, and when the emperor rode in procession to burn incense at Buddhist assemblies, Gao Huan followed on foot carrying the incense burner, maintaining a submissive posture and watching the emperor's expression. In government, matters great and small were formally reported to the emperor, and his stated approval or disapproval was observed.
Yuan Shanjian accepted Gao Huan's outward deference and made no attempt to seize power during Gao Huan's lifetime. In 537, the fourth year of the Tianping era, Gao Huan married his second daughter to Yuan Shanjian as empress, creating a marriage alliance. For more than a decade thereafter, Yuan Shanjian lived in relative comfort and dignity under Gao Huan's protection.
Gao Cheng's Domination
In 547, the fifth year of the Wuding era, Gao Huan died. His son Gao Cheng succeeded as Grand Councilor and Grand General and continued to control the court. Gao Cheng was arrogant and treated Yuan Shanjian with far less respect than his father had. On one hunting trip, when Yuan Shanjian urged his horse forward, the guard commander Wunalu Shougongfa shouted from behind, warning the emperor not to ride so fast because the Grand General would be angry. The incident illustrated how little dignity Yuan Shanjian possessed before Gao Cheng.
Gao Cheng once asked his confidant Cui Jishu about Yuan Shanjian in contemptuous terms, calling him a fool. On another occasion, Gao Cheng offered the emperor wine. Yuan Shanjian angrily remarked that no state had ever escaped destruction and asked why he should continue living under such conditions. Gao Cheng flew into a rage, mocked the emperor's repeated use of the imperial pronoun, and ordered Cui Jishu to strike him three times. Afterward Yuan Shanjian, rather than retaliating, presented Cui Jishu with silk. He even bound one hundred bolts into a single bundle and remarked that it too was only “one piece,” revealing the depth of his humiliation.
Plot and Confinement
Unable to endure further humiliation, Yuan Shanjian once recited lines from a poem by Xie Lingyun about Zhang Liang avenging fallen Han and Lu Zhonglian refusing submission to Qin. The court lecturer Xun Ji understood his intent and joined Prince Yuan Daqi of Huashan and Yuan Jin in plotting to kill Gao Cheng. They planned to dig a tunnel from the palace to Dongbaitang in the northern city of Ye, where Gao Cheng resided. When the tunnel reached the area near Qianqiu Gate, guards heard noises underground and immediately informed Gao Cheng.
Gao Cheng entered the palace with troops and harshly accused Yuan Shanjian of rebellion, threatening to kill his consorts. Yuan Shanjian answered firmly that Gao Cheng himself wished to rebel and asked what the matter had to do with the women, adding that if he did not value his own life, still less would he cling to theirs. Gao Cheng had no reply. He climbed down, kowtowed in apology, and the two drank until late at night. Three days later, however, Gao Cheng confined Yuan Shanjian in Hanzhang Hall, while Xun Ji, Yuan Jin, Yuan Daqi, and the other participants were boiled to death in the marketplace.
Abdication and Death
In September 549, the seventh year of the Wuding era, Gao Cheng was assassinated in Ye by the kitchen servant Lan Jing. Yuan Shanjian rejoiced at the news and told those around him that the Grand General's death appeared to be Heaven's will and that imperial authority might now return to the ruling house. Gao Cheng's younger brother Gao Yang, however, quickly stabilized the situation. He entered the palace with eight thousand armored soldiers, claimed that family affairs required him to return to Jinyang, and departed. Watching him leave, Yuan Shanjian turned pale and remarked that this man too seemed unable to tolerate him and that he did not know on what day he would die.
In May 550, the eighth year of the Wuding era, Gao Yang forced Yuan Shanjian to abdicate and founded Northern Qi. Yuan Shanjian was reduced to Prince of Zhongshan with a fief of ten thousand households, while his three sons were made county dukes. After taking the throne, Gao Yang often brought Yuan Shanjian along on journeys to show that he supposedly harbored no suspicions of him.
On January 21, 552, the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the second year of the Tianbao era, Gao Yang held a banquet for Yuan Shanjian's wife, Empress Gao. After she became drunk, he sent men to poison Yuan Shanjian, who died at the age of twenty-nine. Yuan Shanjian's three sons were subsequently executed as well. In the second lunar month of the third year of Tianbao, Northern Qi posthumously honored him as Emperor Xiaojing and buried him west of the Zhang River in Ye County.
After driving out Emperor Xiaowu, Yuan Xiu, Gao Huan looked for another sovereign. He first made Yuan Dan minister of works and acting administrator of the government to test him, but Yuan Dan, before ever mounting the throne, put on the airs of an emperor and had the roads cleared whenever he went out. Gao Huan, despising such presumption, told him that he would rather set up his son than himself, and turned to Yuan Dan's son, Yuan Shanjian. Yuan Dan, frightened, rode south by night and was brought back by Gao Huan. On the seventeenth day of the tenth month of 534 Yuan Shanjian took the throne northeast of Ye at the age of eleven, proclaimed an amnesty and changed the era name to Tianping, becoming Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei.
Gao Huan, ashamed before the world of having expelled his sovereign, treated Yuan Shanjian with the greatest ceremony: at every banquet he bowed low to wish him long life, and when the emperor held a Buddhist assembly and rode in his carriage scattering incense, Gao Huan walked behind with the censer in his hand, bent and holding his breath, watching his countenance. His subordinates accordingly dared not treat the emperor with less respect. In all affairs great and small Gao Huan reported to the throne first and left the decision to the emperor's will, and so Yuan Shanjian enjoyed more than ten easy years under Gao Huan's protection, neither trying to recover power nor gathering loyal ministers about him.
On Gao Huan's death in 547 his son Gao Cheng took the power. Gao Cheng showed the emperor no reverence at all, holding that the state had been won by the Gao family and that its sovereign should bear that name. Once, hunting east of Ye, the emperor galloped so fast that he left Gao Cheng behind, and the guard commander Wuna Luo Shougongfa called after him that the Son of Heaven should not ride so hard, for the grand general was angry. To win over Cui Jishu, a favourite of Gao Cheng, the emperor used to tell him that he was his wet nurse; Gao Cheng made no secret of his contempt, writing to Cui Jishu to ask how the idiot was doing and whether his idiocy had abated. Once, drinking with the emperor, Gao Cheng raised his cup to urge him to drink, and the emperor, suddenly angry, said that no state had ever failed to perish and that he had no need to live by such means; Gao Cheng in a rage cried out "We! We! Dog-legged We!" — mocking his stammering claim to the imperial 'We' — and had Cui Jishu strike the emperor three blows before he swept out. The next day Gao Cheng sent Cui Jishu to inquire after him, and the emperor thanked him and gave him a hundred bolts of silk; Cui Jishu dared not take all of them, and Gao Cheng told him to take a piece, whereupon the emperor tied the hundred bolts into one great bundle and said that this too was a piece.
Unable to bear his shame, Yuan Shanjian chanted the poem of Xie Lingyun on Zhang Liang's rising at the fall of Han and Lu Zhonglian's shame at the emperor of Qin. The attendant and lecturer Xun Ji read his meaning and plotted with the prince of Huashan, Yuan Daqi, and Yuan Jin to pile up a hill within the palace and dig a tunnel northward, by which he meant to come out and attack Gao Cheng, who lodged in the eastern cypress hall of the north city of Ye. The tunnel had reached the Qianqiu gate when the guards heard the noise under ground and told Gao Cheng. Gao Cheng entered the palace with troops and demanded why the emperor had rebelled, saying that his father and he had preserved the state and had never wronged him, and would have killed the women about him. The emperor answered calmly that it was Gao Cheng who meant to rebel and that it was nothing to do with him, and that as he did not care for his own life he cared little for the lives of a few consorts. Gao Cheng bowed his head on the ground, wept bitterly and begged pardon, and the two drank deep until he left late in the night. Three days later he had the emperor confined in the Hanzhang hall, and Yuan Daqi and Yuan Jin were boiled alive in the market.
In the ninth month of 549 Gao Cheng was murdered by Lan Jing. The emperor said privately to those about him that with the grand general dead it seemed the will of Heaven, and that power should return to the imperial house. Soon after, Gao Cheng's brother Gao Yang came to audience in the Zhaoyang hall with eight thousand armoured men, more than two hundred of them mounting the steps with bared arms and hands on their blades as before an enemy, and had the herald announce that he had family business and must go to Jinyang, then bowed twice and left. The emperor, changing colour, watched him go and said that this man too seemed one who could not suffer him, and that he did not know on what day he would die. In the fifth month of 550 Yuan Shanjian abdicated in favour of Gao Yang, and the Eastern Wei came to an end; he was enfeoffed as a prince and withdrew from the throne.