Ye Yan

Biography

Inheriting the Following of His Father

When Ye Yan was young his father Tuyan was stabbed in a conflict with the Qiang. As Tuyan lay dying he charged his officers to support Ye Yan and hold the Bailan region. The Book of Jin and the Book of Song record that after his father's death Ye Yan set up a straw figure to represent Jiang Cong and shot at it repeatedly to express his grief, and that when his mother fell ill he stopped eating with her. These details reflect the image of a filial son shaped by the histories; the shooting of the straw figure does not mean that Jiang Cong was still alive, since the Book of Song also records that Jiang Cong had already been killed by other commanders.

After Ye Yan succeeded, the Tuyuhun group continued to be active in Qinghai and its surroundings. Two accounts both name Muke Chuan as the centre of rule in this period, but the surviving histories say little about the process of relocation and the exact place, so a "transfer of the capital" with a definite date cannot be set out from them.

Change of Clan Name and Later Years

The Book of Jin records that Ye Yan cited the rule of propriety that "the son of a prince's son may take his grandfather's courtesy name as his clan name", and used his grandfather Tuyuhun's name as the clan name. The Book of Wei and the Book of Song record this too. Modern works go further and explain "Tuyuhun" as the name of a people or polity; treating the change of clan name as a mark of identity in Ye Yan's time is well grounded, but the surviving sources are not enough to assert that a state system was fully established in a particular year.

Ye Yan died after twenty-three years in power. As to the name of his successor, another account and a further account give "Suixi", as do the Book of Wei and the Book of Song, while the Book of Jin gives "Pixi". The two written forms are set side by side in the source comparison, and no separate entry is created for a person of the same name.

Major Activities

Political and institutional context

The cached record places Ye Yan within the institutions and conflicts of Tuyuhun.

Source-based record

Personal Relations

• Relationships are recorded from the cached source text and should be read together with the related entries listed below.

Historical Assessment

The Book of Jin says that Ye Yan "grew up resolute and deep, fond of asking about the workings of heaven and earth and about the calendars of emperors", and describes his filial conduct at some length. This is the historian's appraisal of his character and conduct. His change of clan name is likewise recorded in the Book of Wei and the Book of Song; as for the modern description of a shift from a tribal confederation to a fully formed state, it is still difficult to measure such a change from these specific records.