He Luo Zhen

Biography

Succession in the Southern Dynasties Sources

The "Account of Henan" in the Book of Liang records that the Tuyuhun leader Fulianchou sent envoys to the Liang several times and that after Fulianchou died "his son Heluozhen was installed". The History of the Southern Dynasties preserves the same order. The Tuyuhun group that Heluozhen took over maintained a relationship of investiture with the Liang, but neither book sets out the actual process by which he took power, changes in the territory he ruled or specific military actions. Other accounts introduce him mainly on this Southern Dynasties line as well.

In 529 (3rd year of the Datong era, Nan Liang) Emperor Wu issued an edict appointing Heluozhen general pacifying the west, protector of the Qiang and governor of the two provinces of Qin and He. Both the Book of Liang and the History of the Southern Dynasties give "the two provinces of Qin and He"; a further account instead lists three provinces, Qin, He and Sha, while noting the variant of "two provinces". The text adopts the two-province reading supported by both standard histories and one other account, and keeps the three-province reading in the source comparison rather than conflating the titles.

Death and Disputed Succession

The Southern Dynasties histories record immediately afterwards that "Zhen died and his son Fofu inherited the rank", without giving a Gregorian month and day for Heluozhen's death. Another account dates his death to 530 on the basis of the order of succession, and the information card therefore uses that year while noting its source. Another account contains the later activities of Fofu and Ketazhen, which belong to the succeeding figures and cannot be transferred to Heluozhen.

The line of succession recorded in the northern Book of Wei and History of the Northern Dynasties moves directly from Fulianchou to Kualü and does not list Heluozhen, Fofu and the other successors recorded in the south one by one. The two groups of sources cover different ground, and the available evidence is not enough to assert that Heluozhen and Kualü stood in a direct father-son relation, belonged to the same line of rule or represented two mutually exclusive polities; the entry therefore states only the father-son and succession relations that the southern material can prove.

Major Activities

Political and institutional context

The cached record places He Luo Zhen 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 Liang and the History of the Southern Dynasties give Heluozhen only brief records of succession, investiture and the inheritance of his son, and provide no instances by which to judge his character, policy or military achievements. Modern encyclopedic accounts place him among the Tuyuhun kings on the basis of the southern material, but the length of his rule and his relation to the Kualü recorded in the north are subject to source limitations, and his independent achievements should not be exaggerated from such sparse material.