Liu Yu

Biography

Early Life

Liu Yu was born at the Weiwei government office. His father Liu Yu (future Emperor Ming) used the Book of Changes for divination before each son's birth, hence the childhood name Huizhen. In 466, Liu Yu was named crown prince. He could memorize texts after a single reading and was skilled at crafts and music without training, but disliked study and loved play. In 470, he moved to the Eastern Palace and married Jiang Jiangui as crown princess.

Accession and Early Reign

In 472, Emperor Ming died and Liu Yu succeeded. Yuan Can and Chu Yuan served as regents, but real power rested with the late emperor's favorites Ruan Dianfu, Wang Daolong, and Yang Yunchang. In 474, Prince Guiyang Liu Xiufan attacked Jiankang but was suppressed by Xiao Daocheng, who thereby rose to the core of court power.

Tyrannical Rule

Liu Yu's conduct became increasingly perverse. He frequently went out in disguise to kill pedestrians and court officials. Despite his mother's repeated pleas, he carried needles, awls, chisels, and saws as instruments of torture, randomly killing dozens of people daily. Common people closed their shops when they heard of his approach.

Assassination

On the day of the Qiqiao Festival in 477, Liu Yu was killed by Yang Yufu and others at age fifteen. He was buried west of the suburban altar in Moling County, Danyang, and posthumously demoted to Prince of Cangwu.

Birth, the Eastern Palace, and the Throne at Ten

Liu Yu (1 March 463 - 1 August 477), styled Derong, childhood name Huizhen, was a man of Pengcheng county in Pengcheng commandery of Xuzhou and the eighth emperor of Liu Song. He was born on the first day of the third month of 463 in the residence of the guard commander, his father (Liu Yu, later Mingdi) then holding that office; since Liu Yu's sons were all given childhood names from divination by the (Changes) before their birth, his was Huizhen. In the eleventh month of 465 his father, having killed his nephew Liu Ziye and made himself emperor as Mingdi, changed the era to Taishi; in the tenth month of the next year he was made crown prince, and in 467 was formally given the name Yu.

In the eastern palace his cleverness and his tastes made a strange contrast: he did not begin to read until five or six, "yet he had a memory that never forgot, was skilful with his hands and could play instruments without having learned," but "he would not study and loved only play", and the officials in charge could not control him and reported to Mingdi, who only ordered (his attendants changed) and set down "the rites for the crown prince's New Year audience." On the seventh day of the fourth month of 472 Mingdi died, and the next day Liu Yu took the throne at ten. It is recorded that at first (Yuan Can, Chu Yuan and Liu Mian) were to assist in the government, "but the real power lay throughout with Mingdi's trusted favourites (Ruan Dianfu, Wang Daolong and Yang Yunchang), and the government in his first years was in the hands of these three" — a child on the throne with power in the hands of favourites was the starting point of the reign.

The Rising of Liu Xiufan and the Rise of Xiao Daocheng

In 474 Liu Xiufan, prince of Guiyang, rose in the name of "clearing the ruler's side" and marched on the capital. The rebels were strong: (his officers Ding Wenhao and others) died one after another, and the rebels still entered Jiankang, "reaching the south gate of the palace city"; the guards at (Xinting) and Shitou scattered, the military secretary (Chu Cheng) surrendered and the palace secretary Sun Qianling opened the Chengming gate, the north gate of the palace. "The palace city was in chaos, and Liu Yu, holding the empress dowager's hand, wept aloud, and the defenders had no will to fight," and the rising was at last put down under the command of the right guard general Xiao Daocheng. Xiao Daocheng "by this victory built up the greatest prestige at court and in the country, and was presently ennobled as duke, the duke of Xiyang, promoted (to command the central army) and made commander of the guards, and being on good terms with the powerful minister who controlled the inner palace (Ruan Dianfu), his power grew daily." In the eleventh month of the same year Liu Yu assumed the cap of manhood, "and afterwards he became the more reckless."

In 476 Xiao Daocheng was promoted (to president of the secretariat of the left), and when (the prince of Jianping) Liu Jingsu, (governor of Southern Xuzhou), rose in revolt, "under Xiao Daocheng's direction of the campaign Liu Jingsu was destroyed, and with this the direct and senior imperial kin of Song were wholly extinguished." By then Liu Song "had reached the position of 'a child emperor, a confused situation and incapable princes' and of 'men of humble birth holding the great power and so indirectly the government' — a state of 'a feeble imperial house'" — a succession of princely risings put down by officers of humble birth, so that the princes who should have guarded the throne were one by one removed: the deep crisis of the reign.

Atrocities, Ruan Dianfu's Plot, and Death at Fifteen

In his later years his conduct became the greatest calamity of the court. He "often went out in disguise to slaughter passers-by and ministers," and his mother the grand consort Chen remonstrated with him again and again "to no effect"; he "carried needles, mallets, chisels and saws as instruments of punishment, killing passers-by and ministers at will, so that dozens died every day, and the people, hearing that he was abroad, shut their doors and stopped their business, and the roads were empty of travellers." In the autumn and winter of 475 he went out many times, and the grand consort Chen followed in a carriage to dissuade him, "but he grew the more unbridled and she could do nothing"; he went out "with no (guards), only a few attendants, wandering at large and returning only at sunset," and "court and country alike were quite disappointed at such conduct in the emperor." In 477 Ruan Dianfu, governor of Liyang, seeing him so unrestrained, secretly joined (Shen Bozong and others) and Yu Tianbao to depose him when he went out and set up instead the prince of Ancheng (Liu Zhun); but Yu Tianbao informed against him and Liu Yu had Ruan Dianfu and the rest killed, while Ruan's confidant Zhang Yang, caught after flight, "was run over and killed by Liu Yu himself, driving the carriage at the Chengming gate." He then suspected the cavalier attendants (Du Youwen, Shen Bo and Sun Chaozhi), who were on good terms with Ruan Dianfu, and "all were killed by Liu Yu with his own hands"; and when Du Youwen's elder brother Du Shuwen was arrested north of the Xuanwu lake, "Liu Yu took a lance, mounted and killed Du Shuwen himself." "If a day passed without a killing he was out of spirits, so that everyone at court feared for his life from morning to night."

Xiao Daocheng, having put down Liu Xiufan and then Liu Jingsu, "grew ever greater in merit and fame at court and in the country," and Liu Yu suspected him the more. Some months later, driven beyond endurance, Xiao Daocheng held a secret meeting with Yuan Can and Chu Yuan, meaning to join them in a coup to depose him; but Yuan Can held that "Liu Yu is only young and does not know better, and may mend in time," and opposed it. Xiao Daocheng therefore turned to the gate general (Wang Jingze) and Yang Wannian and twenty-five of Liu Yu's own body servants, "who, delighted to hear that Xiao Daocheng meant to overthrow Liu Yu, and being richly paid besides, agreed at once," though they could find no opportunity. On the seventh day of the seventh month of 477 Liu Yu rode in an open carriage with his attendants to Taigang for a high-jumping contest, and afterwards went to the Qing garden (a nunnery), and at night to the Xin'an temple to steal a dog, "killing it there and making the monk (Tandu eat it with him)"; drunk beyond waking he was carried back to the Renshou hall to sleep, and before sleeping he told Yang Yufu: "Wait in the courtyard for the Weaving Girl to cross the river; if you see it, report to me at once, and if you do not see it I shall kill you." Yang Yufu, "seeing disaster before him, killed the sleeping Liu Yu with Yang Wannian using his own knife." He was fifteen, and was buried west of the suburban altar in Moling county, Danyang, afterwards degraded to prince of Cangwu and known in history as the Deposed Emperor of Song.

Major Activities

Impact of His Tyranny

Liu Yu's brutal rule intensified conflicts within the ruling elite. During the suppression of rebellions, the power of Xiao Daocheng expanded while the direct imperial clan was weakened, creating a situation of "weak royalty, powerful commoners" that paved the way for Xiao Daocheng's usurpation.

The Consequences of His Tyranny and the End of Liu Song

Liu Yu's conduct is a key link in the chain of Liu Song's fall. His tyranny "sharpened the contradictions within the ruling group": first the rising of the prince of Guiyang, Liu Xiufan, in 474, then that of the prince of Jianping, Liu Jingsu, in 476, both put down by the officer of humble birth Xiao Daocheng; and in the course of these campaigns "the power of the humble-born officer Xiao Daocheng grew steadily," while with the destruction of Liu Xiufan and Liu Jingsu "the direct and senior imperial kin of Song were wholly extinguished," producing the state of "a feeble imperial house and humble men in power" that "prepared the way for Xiao Daocheng's usurpation of Song and founding of Qi." Compared with the paths by which other Liu Song reigns fell, his position was "different, but the end was the same"; one historical judgment therefore says that "a child sovereign of fourteen, so cruel — the like has not been heard of." His own end, killed at fifteen by his own body servants and afterwards degraded to prince of Cangwu, shows that his tyranny left even those nearest him unable to protect themselves — once "a day without killing left him out of spirits" had become the norm, the only man able to settle matters was a general of another surname commanding the guards. The next year Xiao Daocheng took the throne from Song and founded Qi, and Liu Song's sixty years of rule came to an end.

Personal Relations

• Liu Yu (Emperor Ming)**: Father
• Lady Chen**: Birth mother
• Jiang Jiangui**: Crown princess
• Xiao Daocheng**: General of the Right Guard, later founder of Southern Qi
• Ruan Dianfu**: Emperor Ming's confidant who held real power

Historical Assessment

Shen Yue, author of the Book of Song, noted that while Liu Yu's path to downfall differed from that of the former deposed emperor Liu Ziye, their fates were identical. Historian Cai Dongfan commented: "A ruler of fourteen years old being so cruel is unprecedented in history."