Yuan Ye

Biography

Early Life and Princely Title

Yuan Ye had a frivolous and impetuous personality but possessed considerable physical strength. He began his career as a Secretarial Court Gentleman and was promoted to Attendant Gentleman of the Palace with Equal Carriage. In the first year of Jianyi (528), Emperor Xiaozhuang Yuan Ziyou made Yuan Ye Prince of Changguang with a fief of one thousand households and sent him out as Governor of Taiyuan Commandery, acting Governor of Bingzhou.

Installation as Puppet Emperor

In 530, Emperor Xiaozhuang, unwilling to see Northern Wei's power fall into the hands of the Erzhu clan, falsely claimed the birth of a crown prince and summoned Erzhu Rong to court, killing him. Erzhu Zhao, Governor of Fenzhou, sought revenge for his uncle and marched from Jinyang toward the capital Luoyang. He installed Yuan Ye, Governor of Taiyuan and acting Governor of Bingzhou, as emperor, with the era name Jianming. After Yuan Ye's installation, he appointed Erzhu Zhao as Grand General and elevated him to princely rank. In the twelfth month, Erzhu Zhao and Erzhu Dulü crossed the Fuping ford on horseback and attacked the capital, capturing Emperor Xiaozhuang. The Northern Wei government remained under Erzhu clan control.

Deposition

Erzhu Shilong considered Yuan Ye a distant branch of the imperial family without popular support and wished to install Yuan Gong, Prince of Guangling, instead. In the second month of 531, Erzhu Shilong and others prepared a document of abdication and forced Yuan Ye to abdicate at Mangshan South. Yuan Gong ascended the throne and changed the second year of Jianming to the first year of Putai. Yuan Ye was demoted to Prince of Donghai with a fief of ten thousand households.

Forced Suicide

After Gao Huan defeated the Erzhu clan and seized power, he controlled the government. In the eleventh month of 532, Gao Huan, citing Yuan Ye's and Yuan Lang's connections with the Erzhu clan, ordered both to commit suicide at the Menxia Wai Province on the same day. Yuan Ye's title was abolished and his line extinguished.

Yuan Ye, courtesy name Huaxing and childhood name Penzi, was a native of Luoyang in Henan, great-grandson of the posthumously honored Emperor Jingmu, Tuoba Huang, grandson of the Prince Hui of Nan'an, Tuoba Zhen, and son of the Prince of Fufeng, Yuan Yi. The Book of Wei describes him as light and impetuous but of great strength; he began his career as a secretary gentleman and rose to cavalier attendant in ordinary. On 21 May 528 (the jiachen day of the fourth month of the Jianyi era), Emperor Xiaozhuang enfeoffed the secretary Yuan Ye as Prince of Changguang with a thousand households and sent him out as governor of Taiyuan and acting commissioner of Bingzhou.

After Erzhu Rong was killed, Erzhu Shilong and the others fled back to Bingzhou and met Erzhu Zhao, who came from Jinyang, at Jianxing; on 5 December 530 (the renshen day of the tenth month of Yong'an 3) they raised Yuan Ye to the throne, proclaimed a general amnesty within their command and changed the era name to Jianming, advancing every official four grades. Yuan Ye made Erzhu Zhao general-in-chief and raised him to princely rank; made Erzhu Shilong director of the Secretariat, Duke of Leping, grand tutor and commissioner of Sizhou; made Erzhu Dulü grand commandant and Duke of Changshan; Erzhu Yanbo palace attendant; and Erzhu Zhongyuan general of chariots and cavalry, concurrently left deputy director of the Secretariat and grand commissioner of the three Xuzhou. Because Yuan Ye's childhood name was Penzi, contemporaries compared his elevation to the Red Eyebrows' raising of Liu Penzi.

In the twelfth month of that year Erzhu Zhao and Erzhu Dulü crossed the Yellow River on horseback and surprised Luoyang; the guards were unprepared, Emperor Xiaozhuang was taken, his sons killed and many of the imperial clan and court slaughtered, so that power remained with the Erzhu. On the wushen day Yuan Ye proclaimed a general amnesty, and on the jiayin day Erzhu Zhao moved Emperor Xiaozhuang to Jinyang and had him killed ten days later at the Third-Stage Buddhist monastery in the city. Erzhu Zhao left his uncle Erzhu Shilong to hold Luoyang and check Yuan Ye. Not long after, Erzhu Shilong secretly sent dozens of men disguised as bandits to kill Yuan Ye's mother, Lady Wei, in the streets as she went out.

After Emperor Xiaozhuang's death, Erzhu Shilong and his brothers judged the Prince of Changguang too distant in descent and without prestige, and planned to enthrone a closer kinsman. In 531 they had the abdication document drawn up in advance and, while Yuan Ye was away at the suburban hills, forced him to yield to the Prince of Guangling, Yuan Gong. As the Comprehensive Mirror records, Erzhu Shilong sent the governor of Taishan, Dou Yuan, alone with a whip into his presence to say that the hopes of heaven and men alike rested on Guangling and that he should follow the example of Yao and Shun; Yuan Ye then signed the document, and the Prince of Guangling thrice declined before taking the throne, granting a general amnesty and changing the era to Putai. On the guiyou day of the third month Yuan Ye was reduced to Prince of Donghai with ten thousand households. Gao Huan then rose against the Erzhu and set up Yuan Lang and later Yuan Xiu, and the Erzhu faction was destroyed. On 26 November 532 (the jiachen day of the eleventh month of Taichang 1) Gao Huan, holding that the Prince of Anding, Yuan Lang, and Yuan Ye were both implicated with the Erzhu, had the two put to death on the same day. The Book of Wei says Yuan Ye was given death at his residence for an offense and, leaving no son, his fief lapsed, while the Comprehensive Mirror says he was killed at the outer chancellery; the two differ on the place. He left no son and his title was abolished.

Yuan Ye's Jianming era was observed only in the regions the Erzhu controlled. Thereafter Yuan Gong reckoned by Putai, Yuan Lang by Zhongxing and Yuan Xiu by Taichang: within two years Northern Wei had four emperors, each raised by a powerful subject. Wei Shou's Book of Wei places Yuan Ye among the imperial clansmen rather than in the annals of emperors; later compilers of the Northern Wei succession have generally counted him as an emperor on the strength of his proclamation, while some pass directly from Emperor Xiaozhuang to Emperor Jiemin, Yuan Gong. According to the Comprehensive Mirror, the Erzhu met to raise Yuan Ye at Gaodu county in Jianxing commandery, and the offices he granted went to the brothers, sons and nephews of the Erzhu, with the garrisons of Hedong and Bingzhou under their control. After his deposition the Erzhu still held Jinyang as their base until Gao Huan entered Luoyang and set up Yuan Xiu, when their power was finally broken. From the time of Emperor Xiaozhuang the Northern Wei throne passed into the hands of the Erzhu, then Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai, and Yuan Ye's reign stands at the beginning of that process.

The Jianming era continued in use by the Erzhu after Yuan Ye's deposition until it was changed to Putai in the second month of the following year. Thereafter Yuan Lang, raised by Gao Huan, reckoned by Zhongxing and stood opposed to Emperor Jiemin, Yuan Gong, at Luoyang, so that Northern Wei briefly had two emperors at once. When Gao Huan entered Luoyang in 532, Jiemin was deposed and poisoned, Yuan Lang and Yuan Ye were put to death on the same day, and Yuan Xiu took the throne and changed the era to Taichang, the imperial authority passing to Gao Huan's faction and leading within a decade to the division into Eastern and Western Wei. The sources differ on his birth year and age: one gives 509, which would make him twenty-four at death, while others record no birth year and only his death in 532. As he left no son and his title lapsed at once, his line is of little weight in the Northern Wei genealogies.

The Book of Wei places his biography after the twelve princes of Jingmu, recording his fief, his reign and his deposition without treating him as an emperor — a contrast with the later practice of counting him in the Northern Wei imperial succession.

He left no heir, and the title of Prince of Donghai lapsed at once; the histories say nothing of his household.

Major Activities

Yuan Ye reigned for about four months, established the Jianming era name and issued a general amnesty after the Erzhu clan occupied Luoyang. Both his elevation and his abdication were driven by the Erzhu group, and the surviving sources show no long-term policy that can be attributed to Yuan Ye himself. The Book of Wei and the History of the Northern Dynasties place his career within the biographies of the imperial clan and the depositions and installations at the end of the Northern Wei, which shows that the core of his political activity lay in the relation between the Erzhu clan and Northern Wei imperial power.

Personal Relations

• Yuan Yi**: Father, Prince of Fufeng
• Lady Wei**: Mother, murdered by Erzhu Shilong's agents
• Erzhu Zhao**: Father-in-law and supporter, Prince of Yingchuan
• Empress Erzhu**: Wife, daughter of Erzhu Zhao
• Yuan Gong**: Successor, Jiemin Emperor
• Gao Huan**: Warlord who ultimately ordered Yuan Ye's death
• Yuan Ziyou**: Predecessor, Emperor Xiaozhuang

Historical Assessment

Yuan Ye was a puppet emperor during the Erzhu clan's domination of Northern Wei, reigning for only four months. He was installed and deposed by the Erzhu clan at will, and ultimately died at the hands of Gao Huan. Neither the Book of Wei nor the History of the Northern Dynasties recognized him as a legitimate emperor, though later historians generally include him in the Northern Wei imperial sequence. His life was entirely controlled by powerful warlords, exemplifying the collapse of imperial authority in Northern Wei's final years.