Murong Lin

Biography

Betraying His Father

Murong Lin was an illegitimate son of Murong Chui, characterized as treacherous, greedy, and self-willed. He was never loved by his father. In the final years of the Jianxi era of Former Yan, Murong Lin informed on his father Murong Chui's plan to flee to Former Qin, exposing the plan. Later, he betrayed his elder brother Murong Ling, leading to Murong Ling's death. After Former Yan fell, Murong Chui killed Murong Lin's mother and exiled him.

Service in the Restoration

In 384, when Murong Chui rose to restore the Later Yan state, Murong Lin assisted his father with strategies and gradually regained favor. He was appointed Grand General Who Comforts the Army and led forces that captured Zhongshan and other cities. After Murong Chui proclaimed himself emperor, he enfeoffed Murong Lin as Prince of Zhao. Murong Lin once advised Murong Chui to guard against the rise of Northern Wei, but this advice was not heeded.

The Battle of Canhe Slope

In 395, Murong Lin accompanied Crown Prince Murong Bao in the Battle of Canhe Slope against Northern Wei's Emperor Daowu Tuoba Gui, where they suffered a devastating defeat. This battle marked the turning point in Later Yan's decline. In 396, when Murong Bao ascended the throne, Murong Lin was promoted to Vice Director of the Left of the Department of State Affairs. He later joined Murong Bao in forcing their stepmother Lady Duan to commit suicide.

Self-Proclamation as Emperor

In 397, Northern Wei besieged the Later Yan capital of Zhongshan. Murong Lin plotted rebellion, but the plot failed and he fled. After Murong Bao withdrew, Murong Lin entered the city and killed the defender Murong Xiang, then declared himself emperor with the era name Yanping. However, he was soon defeated by Tuoba Gui and fled to Ye, abandoning his imperial title and seeking refuge with Prince Fan of Fanyang, Murong De.

Death at Huatai

In 398, Murong Lin supported Murong De as emperor of Southern Yan and was appointed Minister of Works and Director of the Department of State Affairs. He later plotted rebellion again, which was discovered by Murong De, who forced him to commit suicide at Huatai.

His Base Birth and His Services in the Restoration

Murong Lin, also written Murong Lin with the other character and styled Helin, was the son of a concubine of Murong Chui, of low birth, and was never loved by his father; the histories describe him as treacherous, greedy and self-willed. In 369, when Murong Chui was forced to flee to Former Qin by the suspicions of the Former Yan court, Murong Lin turned back on the road and informed on his father; and in 370, after Former Yan was destroyed by Former Qin, Murong Chui killed Murong Lin's mother but could not bring himself to kill him, only banishing him and rarely seeing him. After the battle of the Fei river in 383, when Murong Chui set about restoring Yan, Murong Lin offered plans repeatedly and gave him much to think on, so that Murong Chui was greatly pleased, began to treat him like his other sons and made him general of the pacifying army (or general-in-chief of the pacifying army). In the fifth month of 384 he marched west against Changshan and its commander surrendered; and he then besieged Zhongshan and after more than a month of hard fighting took it, capturing its commander Fu Jian alive, so that his fame rose greatly and he was given the charge of holding Zhongshan. In the same year, when Former Qin attacked, Wang Yong asked help of Liu Kuren, chief of the Xiongnu Dugu on the northern steppe and general of awe-inspiring might under Former Qin, who came with three thousand cavalry, heavily defeated the Later Yan army and advanced to Tangcheng to face Murong Lin; but Liu Kuren was presently killed by his own men and his officer Gongsun Xi's cavalry scattered on the news, so that he abandoned his army and fled to the Dingling. In the tenth month, the Xiongnu threat removed, Murong Lin marched to support the war against the Dingling leader Zhai Liao, and reaching Wuji joined Murong Nong in a surprise attack that broke the enemy, so that Zhai Liao fled alone to his cousin Zhai Zhen at Chengying. In the first month of 385 Murong Nong came to Zhongshan and joined him against Zhai Zhen; the two with several thousand cavalry went first to Chengying and were studying the ground outside when Zhai Zhen came out to surprise them and was beaten instead, the outer city being taken as well. Murong Chui then, needing to take the main army north into Jizhou, recalled the two in haste to hold Ye and Xindu respectively; and in the seventh month Murong Lin marched from Xindu to take Bohai, capturing its governor, and then camped at Likou; in the tenth month, when a man of Yimu raised troops to restore order, Murong Lin first beat off the relieving governor of Taishan, Ren Tai, and brought Cai Kuang to surrender, and then on Murong Chui's order killed Cai Kuang and put his fortress to the sword. He then turned against the commander holding Boling, meeting fierce resistance, and only in the twelfth month, when the grain, grass and arrows within were exhausted, took Boling and killed Wang Yan and Fu Jian.

Holding Zhongshan and the Years of Fighting on the Steppe

In the first month of 386 Murong Chui took the imperial title, and in the third month Murong Lin was enfeoffed prince of Zhao and advanced to general of the guards; and in the eighth month, when Murong Chui marched south, he was made president of the right of the Secretariat and left in charge of the records of the resident administration, assisting the heir apparent Murong Bao in holding Zhongshan. After Murong Chui's departure the Dingling chief Xianyu Qi, who held the western hills of Quyang, came down with his men to camp at Wangdu and plunder the people; and Murong Lin resolved to lead the campaign himself, though his generals all advised that for the prince of Zhao to leave the capital in person would damage his authority if the Dingling were not destroyed at one blow, and that a subordinate should be sent instead. Murong Lin answered that Xianyu Qi, hearing that their lord was far away on campaign, would have no scruple and no preparation and could be taken at one stroke; and so, giving out that he was marching to Lukou, he turned by night and fell on Xianyu Qi's camp, striking at dawn and taking him alive. In the same year, when Liu Xian, chief of the Xiongnu Dugu, contended for the chieftainship with Tuoba Gui, and Tuoba Gui, being weak in numbers, sent a confidant for help, Murong Chui ordered Murong Lin with six thousand horse and foot to his relief; and when the Xiongnu Helan tribe also sent troops from the north in answer to Liu Xian, so that the Wei people began to waver and Tuoba Gui was in straits, Murong Lin, learning that the Wei forces were scattering, in order to steady them sent a messenger back in haste to Tuoba Gui, so that when the Wei people knew the Later Yan relief was near they took some heart; and Liu Xian, hearing that the Yan army had come, withdrew to hold Gaoliu, while Tuoba Gui with picked troops returned to Niuchuan, crossed Canhepi and came out by Daigu to join the Yan army, and the Yan and Wei forces fought the allied army of Liu Xian and Tuoba Kudu at the Gaoliu river, broke the Dugu utterly, so that Liu Xian fled with his remnant to Mayi and Tuoba Kudu fled east to the Tiefu Xiongnu and was killed by Liu Weichen, whose tribe Tuoba Gui took over, and Murong Lin led the army back to Zhongshan. Afterwards Murong Lin with the Wei took Shanggu and killed Wang Min who held it, and Later Yan's name awed the steppe; and when Liu Weichen, chief of the Tiefu, to please Later Yan sent Murong Chui fine horses which Liu Xian seized on the road, Murong Chui in anger sent Murong Lin with others against Liu Xian, who fled to the western hills of Mayi, where Tuoba Gui also brought the Wei army to join the Yan forces and the allies broke Liu Xian heavily at Mize, he escaping to the emperor of Western Yan, and they took tens of thousands of cattle, horses and sheep.

In the third month of 388 Murong Lin again reduced a dependent tribe, abolished the commandery of Dai and moved all its people to Longcheng; and in the twelfth month he with Murong Kai and Murong Long combined to reduce Zhang Shen. In the fourth month of 389 he led troops into the steppe again against the Helan tribe and pursued them to the Wugen hills; in the fourth month of 390 he entered the steppe once more and with the Tuoba attacked the Helan, breaking the allied forces of the Helan, Hutui and Huxi at Yixin mountain, the Hutui and Huxi surrendering. In the first month of 391, when the Helan fell into internal strife and killed one another, the Tuoba again asked Later Yan for troops, and in the second month Murong Lin joined the Wei army, in the sixth month taking Helan Ne alive, so that this campaign wholly subdued the Helan; but over the division of the Helan population he quarrelled with Tuoba Gui, until Murong Chui gave a compromise order splitting the Helan in two, the followers of Helan Ne staying on the steppe and those of Helan Rangan moving to Zhongshan, the Yan and Wei sharing them. Returning to Zhongshan, Murong Lin told Murong Chui that in his view Tuoba Gui's conduct would in the end be a trouble to the state, and that he should be summoned to court and his younger brother put in charge of the tribe; but Murong Chui would not agree. Murong Lin was deeply cunning and knew well that Tuoba Gui was not a man to be controlled.

The Battle of Canhepi: The Name of Rearguard and the Fact of Carelessness

In 395 Murong Bao and the prince of Zhao, Murong Lin, marched from Zhongshan with eighty thousand Xianbei horse and foot, going out beyond the passes from Mayi against Wei, with the prince of Fanyang, Murong De, and the prince of Chenliu following with eighteen thousand horse and foot. Facing the great Yan army the Wei forces drew back and the two armies faced each other across the Yellow river; and to break the Yan army's spirit Tuoba Gui spread word that Murong Chui was dead, whereupon Murong Lin's officer Muyu Song and others, believing it true, plotted rebellion and the raising of Murong Lin as emperor of Great Yan. The plot leaked, and Murong Bao acted at once, putting Muyu Song and the other officers to death; and though Murong Lin had no direct part in it, a rift between the two was unavoidable. In the tenth month Murong Bao began his withdrawal, the Yan army burning its boats and slipping away by night: at the beginning of winter the Yellow river had floating ice but was not frozen, and Murong Bao, thinking the Wei could not cross to pursue, sent out not even scouts; and on the third day of the eleventh month the weather changed abruptly, a great wind rose and the river froze, and Tuoba Gui himself chose twenty thousand picked cavalry and crossed on the ice. The Yan army fell back on Canhepi, where a great wind rose and a black vapour like a dyke came up behind the army and hung over it; and the monk Tanyemeng warned Murong Bao that the sudden change of wind and cloud was the sign of the Wei troops' coming and that a rearguard should be sent, and Murong Bao smiled and did not answer, and when Tanyemeng pressed him again Murong Lin flew into a rage and said that with the prince's godlike valour and the fullness of the army they might sweep the desert, and how should the caitiff slaves dare come from afar, and that Tanyemeng should be beheaded for alarming the host with wild words. Tanyemeng wept in his urgency and cited the Fei river, where Fu Jian's million-strong army was beaten in Huainan precisely because he relied on numbers, despised the enemy and did not believe in the way of heaven; and Murong De urged Murong Bao to listen, so that he sent Murong Lin with thirty thousand cavalry as rearguard against any event. Yet though Murong Lin led the rearguard he thought Tanyemeng's words unworthy of belief, and only sent his cavalry out hunting, setting no defence. In the end the Wei army caught the Yan army at Canhepi, taking and burying alive fifty thousand Later Yan soldiers. Murong Lin had seen two years earlier that Tuoba Gui would be a mortal trouble to Later Yan, yet was so careless now that later ages have suspected he meant Murong Bao to be beaten.

The Decision to Abandon the Strongpoints, the Forcing of Lady Duan's Death, and the Contest over the Succession

In the fourth month of 396 Murong Chui died and the heir apparent Murong Bao took the throne, advancing Murong Lin to president of the left of the Secretariat. When Murong Chui had set up his heir, the younger Lady Duan had passed judgement on his sons, holding that neither Murong Bao nor Murong Lin was fit to be heir; and before Murong Chui was cold Murong Lin with Murong Bao forced her to kill herself, and he then with Murong Sheng incited Murong Bao to go against Murong Chui's wish and set aside the concubine's son Murong Hui, "of many arts and great strategy," as heir, so that Murong Hui was bitterly resentful. In the eighth month of the same year Tuoba Gui called up more than four hundred thousand horse and foot and came south in force against Yan, heavily defeating the prince of Liaoxi, Murong Nong, at Jinyang, to the shock of Later Yan; and when Murong Bao took counsel in the Eastern Hall, the governor of Zhongshan, Fu Mo, urged holding the passes and stopping the enemy at the Taihang mountains and the Great Wall defiles, so as to keep the Wei cavalry out of the broad plains, but Murong Lin would not have it and had Murong Bao hold Zhongshan instead, saying that the Wei army came on flushed with victory and could not be withstood head-on, and that they should hold all of Zhongshan and wait for a moment of error on the enemy's part to strike back. In the end Murong Bao did not take Fu Mo's advice but adopted Murong Lin's, building walls and storing grain for a war of endurance, and he gave the command of the army to Murong Lin. Later Yan thus abandoned the strongpoints to hold an isolated city, which is held to be a chief cause of Murong Bao's eventual failure. The taking of the imperial title at Zhongshan and his death at Huatai belong to two different phases: in the famine at Zhongshan he killed Murong Xiang and made himself emperor with a new era, allowing the people out to gather food, yet could not steady the defence, and after his defeat at Yitai fled to Ye; and turning then to his uncle Murong De he urged the abandonment of Ye and the move south to Huatai with the river as the barrier, where Murong De took the title prince of Yan and began Southern Yan, and Murong Lin, urging him to take the imperial title, was made minister of works and president of the Secretariat, only to plot rebellion again and be discovered and given death by Murong De.

Major Activities

Repeated Betrayals

Murong Lin's life was marked by repeated acts of betrayal—first informing on his father, then betraying his brother, rebelling against his nephew, and finally plotting against Murong De. Despite contributing to the restoration of Later Yan, his character was consistently treacherous.

Brief Imperial Reign

Murong Lin's self-proclamation as emperor at Zhongshan was a product of the fragmentation of Later Yan during Northern Wei's campaigns. His reign lasted only several months before he was defeated and forced to flee.

The Layers of His Military Activity and the Historical Place of His "Faithlessness"

Murong Lin's military activity falls into layers. The first is the founding warfare of the Later Yan restoration in 384–385: the taking of Changshan, the month-long siege of Zhongshan ending in the capture of its commander, the joint surprise attack on Zhai Liao with Murong Nong, the taking of Bohai and the reduction of Boling — mostly concrete operations in support of Murong Chui's recovery of the Hebei towns, and indeed part of the military foundation of the restored state. The second is the years of campaigning on the steppe from 386 to 391: three expeditions against the Helan, victories with the Tuoba at Yixin mountain and elsewhere, the taking of Helan Ne alive and the complete subjection of the Helan, together with the relief of Tuoba Gui with six thousand horse and the heavy defeat of Liu Xian and Tuoba Kudu at the Gaoliu river. These campaigns made Later Yan's name feared on the steppe for a time, but they also objectively helped Tuoba Gui secure his position; and since he took part in relieving Tuoba Gui as early as 386 yet warned in 391 that "Tuoba Gui's conduct will in the end be a trouble to the state," there is a clear gap between his reading of the northern situation and Later Yan's strategic choices. The third is the battle of Canhepi in 395, where he was given thirty thousand cavalry as rearguard and "only sent his cavalry out hunting, setting no defence," so that fifty thousand Later Yan soldiers were taken and buried alive; and in 396 he pressed for the abandonment of the Taihang and Great Wall defiles in order to hold the isolated city of Zhongshan, letting the Wei cavalry into the plains. Both judgements directly hastened the collapse of Later Yan.

The sources usually describe his conduct as faithless, yet each of his choices can be given a motive: informing on his father was to secure himself and his prospects; forcing Lady Duan's death and manipulating the succession were to remove rivals; taking the imperial title at Zhongshan was to seize power amid famine and war; urging Murong De south to Huatai and then to take the title was to find a new base for his own arrangements; and in the end he was put to death for plotting rebellion once more. He should therefore be judged on the concrete military and political events, neither using "a good fighter" or "faithless" as a substitute for a life, nor attributing the fall of Later Yan to him alone; the military pressure of Northern Wei in this period, the unending strife within the Later Yan imperial house and Murong Bao's own decisions were all conditions acting together.

Personal Relations

• Murong Chui**: Father, Chengwu Emperor of Later Yan
• Murong Bao**: Brother, Huimin Emperor of Later Yan
• Murong De**: Prince of Fan yang, later Emperor of Southern Yan; Murong Lin supported and then plotted against him
• Murong Xiang**: Later Yan royal family member, killed by Murong Lin
• Tuoba Gui**: Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei, who repeatedly defeated Murong Lin
• Lady Duan**: Stepmother, forced to commit suicide by Murong Lin and Murong Bao

Historical Assessment

Murong Lin was one of the most morally corrupt imperial clan members of the Sixteen Kingdoms period. He informed on his father, betrayed his brother, assassinated fellow royals, and plotted multiple rebellions. Though he possessed some military ability and contributed to the restoration of Later Yan, his character was consistently treacherous. Historical records give him an extremely negative assessment, and his repeated betrayals ultimately led to his own destruction.