Huan Xuan

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Huan Xuan belonged to the Huan clan of Qiao Commandery and was the youngest son born to Huan Wen by a concubine. According to a story preserved in the sources, his mother Lady Ma once saw a shooting star fall into a bronze basin of water on a moonlit night. It appeared as a fireball about two cun in size, and she scooped it up and swallowed it. She subsequently became pregnant. When Huan Xuan was born, light was said to fill the room, and diviners regarded the event as extraordinary. For this reason his childhood name was Lingbao.

Huan Wen was especially fond of Huan Xuan. When Huan Wen died in 373, the first year of Ningkang, he instructed his younger brother Huan Chong to command his forces and take over as Inspector of Yangzhou, while five-year-old Huan Xuan inherited the title Duke of Nanjun. Two years later, after the mourning period had ended, Huan Chong left his post as Inspector of Yangzhou. Civil and military officials came to bid him farewell, and Huan Chong stroked Huan Xuan's head and said, “These are your family's former officials.” Huan Xuan covered his face and wept, a reaction that surprised those present.

As he matured, Huan Xuan was described as striking in appearance and elegant in bearing. He was broadly accomplished in the arts, wrote well, and habitually regarded himself as a heroic figure. Yet because his father Huan Wen had shown signs of seeking the throne late in life, the court remained deeply suspicious and for many years hesitated to employ him. Only in 391, the sixteenth year of Taiyuan, when he was twenty-three, was he appointed Groom of the Heir Apparent. Several years later he became Administrator of Yixing. Dissatisfied with the post, he climbed to a high place overlooking Zhenze and lamented, “My father was overlord of the Nine Provinces, while his son is merely chief of the Five Lakes!” He resigned and returned to his fief in Nanjun, present-day Jiangling in Hubei.

On his way home, he passed through Jiankang and visited Sima Daozi, Prince of Kuaiji, who then controlled the government. Sima Daozi was drunk and, in front of a room full of guests, asked Huan Xuan, “Huan Wen wanted to become a rebel late in his life—what do you think of that?” Huan Xuan was so frightened that he prostrated himself and sweated profusely until Xie Chong, chief clerk of the princely household, intervened on his behalf. Huan Xuan thereafter hated Sima Daozi deeply. He also submitted a memorial defending his father, but it was set aside without response.

In Jingzhou and Wang Gong's Uprisings

After returning to Jiangling, Huan Xuan lived without office. Wang Chen, Inspector of Jingzhou, repeatedly suppressed him. On one occasion Huan Xuan rode directly into Wang Chen's residence; Wang Chen had a gate attendant whipped in front of him, and when Huan Xuan left angrily, Wang Chen made no effort to retain him. When Wang Chen died in 392, the seventeenth year of Taiyuan, Huan Xuan feared that Wang Gong might be appointed Inspector of Jingzhou. He therefore sent bribes to the nun Zhi Miaoyin, a favorite of Emperor Xiaowu, and caused the court to appoint the “weak” Yin Zhongkan instead. Yin Zhongkan respected and feared Huan Xuan after taking office, while Huan Xuan, relying on the prestige accumulated by his father and uncles during their long administration of Jingzhou, behaved domineeringly there. Local officials and people feared him even more than Yin Zhongkan. Yin Zhongkan therefore cultivated a close relationship with him, while Huan Xuan hoped to use Yin's military strength. Their alliance was largely one of convenience.

In 397, the first year of Long'an, Vice Director of the Secretariat Wang Guobao relied on Sima Daozi's power to weaken regional governors. Huan Xuan urged Yin Zhongkan to rise against Wang Guobao and contacted Wang Gong, Inspector of Qing and Yan provinces, proposing him as alliance leader. Yin Zhongkan hesitated, but when Wang Gong himself decided to rebel and approached Yin, Yin agreed to respond. The court, frightened, killed Wang Guobao and Wang Xu to end the crisis, and Wang Gong disbanded his troops. Huan Xuan and Yin Zhongkan undertook no substantial military action in this first episode.

In 398, the second year of Long'an, Huan Xuan requested appointment as Inspector of Guangzhou. Sima Daozi also wished to remove him from Jingzhou and therefore appointed him commander of military affairs in Jiao and Guang provinces, General Who Establishes Might, Colonel Who Pacifies the Yue, Inspector of Guangzhou, and acting imperial commissioner. Huan Xuan accepted the appointment but did not leave. That year Sima Daozi stripped Yu Kai, Inspector of Yuzhou, of part of his command. Yu Kai persuaded Wang Gong to raise troops again. Wang Gong allied with Huan Xuan, Yin Zhongkan, and others against the Sima Shangzhi brothers, and Huan and Yin acknowledged Wang Gong as alliance leader. Yin Zhongkan gave Huan Xuan five thousand troops, and Huan marched down the Yangtze together with vanguard commander Yang Quanqi. Huan Xuan defeated the court army at Baishi and advanced with Yang Quanqi to Shitou. When Liu Laozhi defected, killed Wang Gong, and led the Beifu Army to support the capital, Huan Xuan and Yang Quanqi withdrew in fear to Caizhou and confronted the court forces there.

Eliminating Yin and Yang and Establishing a Regional Regime

Sima Daozi tried to entice Huan Xuan and Yang Quanqi into turning against Yin Zhongkan. The court appointed Huan Xuan Inspector of Jiangzhou, Yang Quanqi Inspector of Yongzhou, and demoted Yin Zhongkan to Inspector of Guangzhou. Yin Zhongkan was furious and ordered Huan Xuan and Yang Quanqi to attack Jiankang. Huan Xuan was pleased by his own appointment and hesitated. When Yin learned that Yang also intended to accept the court appointment, he began withdrawing. Huan Xuan and the others panicked and retreated west, catching up with Yin Zhongkan at Xunyang. Having lost the governorship of Jingzhou, Yin now depended on Huan Xuan, while Huan Xuan still needed Yin's army. They therefore joined forces again, and Yin Zhongkan and Yang Quanqi jointly chose Huan Xuan as alliance leader and refused the court's orders. Alarmed, the court issued conciliatory edicts and restored Yin Zhongkan as Inspector of Jingzhou. The forces then returned to their respective bases.

After becoming alliance leader, Huan Xuan grew increasingly arrogant and treated Yang Quanqi as a man of low birth. Yang, who came from the prominent Yang clan of Hongnong and prided himself on aristocratic ancestry, became deeply resentful and wanted to launch a surprise attack against Huan Xuan. Yin Zhongkan prevented him, fearing that after Huan Xuan's death he would be unable to control the Yang brothers. Huan Xuan also knew of Yang's hostility and planned to eliminate him. He stationed himself at Xiakou and made Bian Fanzhi, Administrator of Shi'an, his chief strategist.

In 399, the third year of Long'an, Huan Xuan requested an expansion of his jurisdiction. Sima Yuanxian hoped to divide Huan Xuan from Yin and Yang and therefore granted Huan command over Changsha, Hengyang, Xiangdong, and Lingling commanderies in Jingzhou, while replacing Yang Quanqi's elder brother Yang Guang as Colonel for the Southern Man tribes with Huan Xuan's elder brother Huan Wei. The Yang brothers were enraged. Yang Quanqi attempted to raise troops under the pretext of relieving Luoyang, then under attack by Later Qin, but Yin Zhongkan stopped him. That year Jingzhou suffered severe flooding, and Yin opened the granaries to relieve famine, leaving his stores depleted. Huan Xuan seized the opportunity to raise troops, likewise claiming that he intended to relieve Luoyang. He wrote to Yin Zhongkan saying that he intended to eliminate Yang Quanqi and ordered Yin to kill Yang Guang, threatening to attack Jiangling if he refused. Huan Xuan seized Yin's grain stores at Baling and falsely claimed to possess a secret imperial edict, appointing Liangzhou Inspector Guo Quan as vanguard commander and marching west.

Huan Xuan secretly instructed Huan Wei to act as an internal ally. Frightened, Huan Wei confessed to Yin Zhongkan and was detained as a hostage; he wrote urgently to Huan Xuan begging him to halt, but Huan Xuan refused. Yin sent Yin Yu with seven thousand naval troops to Xijiangkou, where they were defeated by Huan Xuan's commanders Guo Quan and Fu Hong. Yang Guang and Yin Daohu attacked next and were defeated again at Yangkou. Huan Xuan advanced directly on Jiangling. Yang Quanqi hurried from Xiangyang to reinforce it, but Huan Xuan defeated him, and Huan's commander Feng Gai pursued and killed Yang. Yin Zhongkan fled but was likewise captured by Feng Gai, and Huan Xuan compelled him to commit suicide. Huan Xuan thus eliminated both Yin Zhongkan and Yang Quanqi in the same year and took control of a broad region centered on Jingzhou and Jiangzhou.

In 400, the fourth year of Long'an, Huan Xuan requested that the court grant him the governorships of Jingzhou and Jiangzhou. The court appointed him commander of military affairs in Jing, Si, Yong, Qin, Liang, Yi, and Ning provinces, General of the Rear, Inspector of Jingzhou, and acting imperial commissioner, while separately appointing Huan Xiu Inspector of Jiangzhou. Huan Xuan insisted on holding Jiangzhou himself. The court yielded, adding Jiangzhou and eight commanderies in Yangzhou and Yuzhou to his military command and making him Inspector of Jiangzhou as well. Huan Xuan filled Jingzhou offices with his own associates, trained troops, and repeatedly requested permission to campaign against Sun En, but the court refused. After fully consolidating control, he made a series of military deployments: Huan Wei became Inspector of Jiangzhou at Xiakou, Sima Diao Chang was placed over eight commanderies at Xiangyang, and Huan Zhen, Huangfu Fu, Feng Gai, and others were stationed at Penkou. Huan Xuan also established Wuning and Suian commanderies to settle displaced tribal groups and gathered refugees respectively.

Entering Jiankang and Controlling the Government

In 402, the first year of Yuanxing, Sima Yuanxian issued an edict ordering a campaign against Huan Xuan. Huan Xuan's cousin Huan Shisheng secretly informed him. Huan Xuan initially wanted to remain on the defensive at Jiangling, but Bian Fanzhi urged him to advance east and use his reputation and military strength to cause the court's forces to collapse. Huan Xuan left Huan Wei to defend Jiangling and personally marched east. When he passed Xunyang without encountering a court army, he was delighted and his troops' morale rose. He circulated a proclamation accusing Sima Yuanxian of wrongdoing. At Gushu, Huan Xuan sent Feng Gai and others to defeat and capture Sima Shangzhi, Inspector of Yuzhou, and seized Liyang. Sima Yuanxian was frightened and boarded a vessel but did not dare fight. Liu Laozhi, fearing that Sima Yuanxian would no longer tolerate him after Huan Xuan's defeat, unexpectedly surrendered the Beifu Army to Huan Xuan. Huan Xuan approached Jiankang, and Sima Yuanxian's attempt to defend the capital collapsed.

After entering the capital, Huan Xuan issued orders in the emperor's name ending the state of emergency and appointed himself Palace Attendant, commander of all military affairs inside and outside the capital, Grand Councilor, Director of the Department of State Affairs, Governor of Yangzhou, and concurrently Inspector of Xuzhou. He further assumed the Yellow Axe, ceremonial feather canopies and drums, and twenty ceremonial swordsmen. He then enumerated the crimes of Sima Daozi and Sima Yuanxian, exiled Sima Daozi to Ancheng Commandery, and had him killed several months later. He also killed Sima Yuanxian, Yu Kai, Sima Shangzhi, and members of the Grand Tutor's staff. Seeking to eliminate Liu Laozhi, Huan Xuan first appointed him Administrator of Kuaiji in order to remove him from Jingkou. Liu Laozhi attempted to rebel but failed to gain support from Beifu commanders and committed suicide while fleeing north toward Guangling. Sima Xiuzhi, Gao Yazhi, Liu Jingxuan, and others fled north to Southern Yan.

Huan Xuan then nominally declined the offices of Grand Councilor and the governorships of Jing, Jiang, and Xu provinces, distributing major posts among relatives and supporters: Huan Wei became Inspector of Jingzhou, Huan Xiu Inspector of Xu and Yan provinces, Huan Shisheng Inspector of Jiangzhou, Bian Fanzhi Intendant of Danyang, and Huan Qian Left Vice Director of the Secretariat. Huan Xuan himself assumed the titles Grand Commandant, General Who Pacifies the West, commander of all military affairs inside and outside the capital, Governor of Yangzhou, and concurrently Inspector of Yuzhou. He received ceremonial robes and crown, a green seal-ribbon, sixty ceremonial swordsmen, and privileges including wearing sword and shoes in the palace, entering court without hurrying, and not having his personal name spoken in formal announcements.

In the fourth month, Huan Xuan moved his headquarters to Gushu and resigned as Director of the Department of State Affairs, though major court matters still had to be referred to him, while lesser affairs were handled by Huan Qian and Bian Fanzhi. At first Huan Xuan dismissed corrupt officials and promoted able men, and Jiankang briefly appeared more orderly. Before long, however, he began humiliating the court, indulging in extravagant luxury, and issuing inconsistent policies, disappointing the population. At the time, the Three Wu region was suffering a severe famine and corpses of the starving lay along the roads. Huan Xuan ordered relief but lacked sufficient grain, so the measures were ineffective. He also killed former Beifu commanders including Gao Su, Zhu Qianzhi, Zhu Langzhi, Liu Xi, Liu Jiwu, and Sun Wuzhong in an effort to eliminate Liu Laozhi's former military network. He further ordered the empire to avoid using the name “Wen,” his father's personal name, requiring people who shared it to change their names, and posthumously elevated his birth mother Lady Ma as Lady of the Duke of Yuzhang.

Usurpation, Foundation of Chu, and Defeat

In 403, the second year of Daheng, Huan Xuan was promoted to General-in-Chief. He requested permission to lead a northern campaign against Later Qin and then privately induced the court to issue an edict refusing him permission. In the eleventh month of that year, he forced Emperor An of Jin to abdicate, established the Huan Chu regime, and changed the era name to Yongshi. After proclaiming himself emperor, he posthumously honored his father Huan Wen as Emperor Xuanwu with the temple name Taizu, and elevated his mother Lady Ma as Lady of the Duke of Yuzhang.

During his reign, Huan Xuan ordered yellow paper to replace wooden or bamboo slips as the medium for official documents, contributing to the wider use of paper. He also frequently imposed light sentences on prisoners in an effort to win popularity. His political foundation, however, remained unstable. Former Beifu officers led by Liu Yu secretly coordinated their plans and in the second month of 404, the first year of Yongshi, raised troops against him. Huan Xuan was defeated and fled west with Emperor An to Jiangling, where he attempted to rebuild his forces. After another defeat by the western expeditionary army, he tried to escape into Yizhou. On the way, he encountered a group escorting the coffin of Yizhou Inspector Mao Fan, including Fei Tian, and was killed by Yizhou military officer Feng Qian at the age of thirty-six. After his death, his cousin Huan Qian and others supported Huan Zhen, Huan Xuan's younger kinsman, in continued resistance, but they were soon defeated. The Huan Chu regime had lasted only a few months.

Childhood Anecdotes, a Refused Marriage, and His Early Want of Employment

The New Account of Tales of the World records that as a boy Huan Xuan kept geese with his cousins and fought them, and that "the geese of the southern commandery were always the weakest," at which he was greatly angered; and so at night he went into the goose pen and killed all his cousins' geese. At dawn the household was aghast, thinking some portent had occurred, and reported it to the general of the chariots and cavalry, who said that there was no portent and that it was probably a prank of the southern commandery, and on inquiry so it proved. The same book records that when Huan Wen sought the daughter of Wang Tanzhi in marriage for his son, Wang Tanzhi went home to consult his father Wang Shu, who flew into a rage, pushed him from his knee and said that he was a fool to fear Huan Wen's face, for how could one marry a daughter into a soldier's house; and Wang Tanzhi reported that the family had already settled a match, at which Huan Wen said that he understood, and that it was the old gentleman who would not consent — though afterwards a daughter of the Huan was married to Wang Tanzhi's son. The two anecdotes show at once the violence and impatience of his boyhood temper and the fact that the Huan of Qiaoguo, however powerful, were still not accepted by the old great houses, which answers to his later outcry that his father had been lord of the nine provinces while he was but chief of the five lakes. Grown up, he was of extraordinary appearance and free and open spirit, versed in many arts and good at composition, and always thought himself a hero; but because his father had in his last years shown designs on the throne the court was deeply wary of him and would not employ him, so that only in 391, at twenty-three, was he made groom of the heir apparent, and having been given the governorship of Yixing he found himself unsatisfied and threw up office to return to his fief in Nanjun. Passing through Jiankang on the way he called on the regent, the prince of Kuaiji, Sima Daozi, who, being drunk, asked him before all the guests what he thought of his father's wish in his last years to be a rebel; and Huan Xuan, in terror, fell to the ground and lay sweating and could not rise until the chief of the prince's household, Xie Zhong, smoothed it over, so that from that time he hated Sima Daozi deeply, and his memorial pleading his father's wrong was shelved and never answered.

The Ceremonial of His Usurpation, the Error in the Era Name, and the Enfeoffments and Posthumous Honours

In the eleventh month of 403 Huan Xuan forced the Jin emperor An to abdicate and founded Chu, changing the era to Yongshi; and before that he had by forged edict given himself a crown of twelve pendants, the banners of the Son of Heaven, the clearing of the road for his comings and goings, a golden-rooted carriage with six horses, the five seasonal secondary carriages, the yak-tail and cloud-hunt banners, the eight rows of dancers, and the bells and drums of the palace, with his wife as queen and his heir as heir apparent; and he forced the prince of Linchuan, Sima Bao, to have the emperor write a personal edict, seizing the seal in the process. The officials came to Gushu to urge him to take the throne and he pretended to decline, and on their insistence he set up an altar in the southern suburb seven li from the city and took the throne, sacrificing to heaven with a black ox and the officials in attendance, yet "the ceremonial was unprepared, he forgot to be hailed with ten thousand years, and he did not change the emperor's name-taboo," so careless was the rite. His proclamation to heaven recited the troubles of the Jin since the middle of the dynasty and said that though he had stood in the marshes and been cast out of the ranks of the time, right feeling had moved him and he could not but sigh; that the merit of clearing away disorder and righting what was overturned was all due to the love left by his forebears and that he himself had done nothing; and that the throne could not long be empty nor gods and men lack their offerings. His first forged edict had changed the era to Jianshi, and the president of the right, Wang Youzhi, pointed out that Jianshi had been the false era of the prince of Zhao, Sima Lun, so it was changed to Yongshi — which was likewise the year in which Wang Mang began to grasp power, so that the unlucky names were taken as showing how the portents chimed with usurpation. For the enfeoffments he gave the Jin emperor the Pinggu county of Nankang as the principality of Pinggu with carriage, banners, calendar and first day of the month as of old, and moved him to Xunyang in the manner of the prince of Chenliu at the Ye palace; he reduced the empress dowager Yongan to lady of Lingling, the prince of Langya to duke of Shiyang and the prince of Wuling, Sima Zun, to marquis of Pengze; he posthumously made his father Huan Wen emperor Xuanwu with the temple name Taizu and the princess of Nankang empress Xuan, naming Huan Wen's tomb Yongchong mausoleum with forty guards; he enfeoffed his son Huan Sheng as prince of Yuzhang and various kinsmen as princes; he made Huan Chong posthumously grand tutor and prince of Xuancheng with his grandson Huan Yin as his heir and president of the board of personnel; and he enfeoffed Wang Mi duke of Wuchang, Bian Fanzhi duke of Linru, Yin Zhongwen duke of Dongxing and Feng Gai marquis of Yufu. On the ritual of posthumous honour, the cavalier attendant Xu Guang held by the Jin codes that seven temples should be established, but Huan Xuan argued that the rites speak of three zhao and three mu with the founder making seven, so that the founder must hold the chief place in the temple, and that in the Jin temple Xuan was among the zhao and mu and could not occupy the founder's place, so that zhao and mu were confounded and the founder had no seat; and being unwilling to set out his forebears above his great-grandfather, whose name and rank were not distinguished, and remembering that Wang Mang's nine temples had been mocked in the histories, he used a single temple instead and reduced the fasts of the suburban and ancestral sacrifices to two days.

Portents on Entering the Palace, His Luxury and Hunting, and the Greed Recorded in the Histories

The histories record that when Huan Xuan entered the Jiankang palace "the wind blew contrary and sharp, and all the banners and ceremonial ornaments were bent and fallen"; and that at a small gathering in the western hall with music, with crimson silk curtains and gold-threaded valances in the hall and dragons of gold at the four corners with five-coloured feather tassels in their mouths, the ministers said privately among themselves that it was much like a hearse and of the kind of Wang Mang's immortal canopy, and that the dragon's horns were what the Changes meant by the dragon overreaching itself. He made a golden-rooted carriage with six horses; and because he loved hunting and travel and was too large to ride, he made a "wandering carriage" with a swivel so that it turned without hindrance, and a great carriage seating thirty men carried by two hundred; he made his wife Lady Liu empress and, to build halls, moved into the Eastern Palace, and opened the eastern side gates, the Pingchang and Guangmo gates and the gates of the palace in three passages each. After the usurpation he was proud, extravagant and wasteful, hunting without measure by night as by day, so that on the day his brother Huan Wei was buried he "mourned in the morning and hunted in the evening, and sometimes rode out several times in one day"; and he was violent and hasty, summoning men peremptorily, so that the duty officers kept their horses tethered before the department and the palace was noisy and disordered with no semblance of a court, until the people were worn out, the court and countryside exhausted, and "of those who resented and thought of rebellion, nine houses in ten." He also "loved to do small kindnesses": he would go to the hall of hearings and review the prisoners, remitting most without regard to the gravity of their crimes, and would sometimes relieve beggars in the streets. But the great outlines he never governed, being nice only in trifles — in the second year of Yongshi, when a president of the Secretariat answered with "spring hunt" written wrongly, all the offices through which it passed were degraded. He changed the ministry of justice's bureau into a "bandit bureau" and added five colonels, three generals and officers of the strong crossbow and massed archery guards; he proposed to restore mutilation and to abolish coinage, with ceaseless changes and no fixed will. The histories further record his greed: that he was covetous and loved strange things, especially treasures, so that pearls and jades never left his hand; that of men who had fine calligraphy, good paintings or good gardens and houses he wished to have all, and, not daring to seize them by force, took them at gambling; and that he sent his officers everywhere to dig up fruit trees and move bamboos, so that for thousands of li the people had no fine fruit or beautiful bamboo left. He trusted flattery and turned against plain speaking. Above all he gave himself to writing his own "Diary of Activity and Rest," all about his resistance to Liu Yu's army, saying that he had directed the several armies with plans that never failed and that the defeat was due only to his generals' disobedience, not to any fault in the fighting; and having written it he published it far and near, so that he had no leisure to take counsel with his subordinates.

The Rising of Liu Yu and His Destruction

In the second month of 404 Liu Yu, Liu Yi, He Wuji and other former officers of the Northern Garrison conspired to restore the dynasty, Liu Yu killing Huan Xiu at Jingkou and Huan Hong at Guangling and making contact with agents in Jiankang. Liu Yu sent Zhou Anmu to tell Liu Yi's brother Liu Mai to act from within, but Liu Mai, terrified, and fearing the plot had leaked, informed Huan Xuan, who first made him marquis of Chong'an and then, a night later, killed him for not having arrested Zhou Anmu in time, killing with him Liu Yu's other agents in the capital. Huan Qian asked for troops against Liu Yu, but Huan Xuan, fearing the keenness of Liu Yu's army, meant to station troops at Mount Fuzhou and wait, thinking that when Liu Yu came from Jingkou to Jiankang he would be astonished at the great army, and that as he himself would not come out, the other would seek battle in vain and scatter of himself; but Huan Qian insisted, and Huan Xuan sent the governor of Dunqiu, Wu Fuzhi, and the general of the right guard, Huangfu Fu, north against the rebels. Liu Yu fought them at Jiangcheng, killed Wu Fuzhi in the field, advanced to the Luoluo bridge and fought Huangfu Fu, whose head he took. Huan Xuan in terror went so far as to summon adepts of the arts to cast his fate and work counter-spells, and asked his company whether he would be defeated, and Cao Jingzhi answered that heaven was angry and men resentful and that he himself was afraid; and when Huan Xuan asked how men might resent him but heaven be angry, Cao answered that he had moved the Jin ancestral temples so that they wandered homeless, and that the sacrifices of Great Chu did not reach his ancestors, which was why they were angry; and when Huan Xuan asked why he had not remonstrated, Cao answered that all the gentlemen on the carriage thought it a Yao and Shun age and he had not dared speak. Huan Xuan, the more furious and afraid, had Huan Qian and He Tanzhi camp at Dongling and Bian Fanzhi west of Mount Fuzhou, twenty thousand in all, to hold off the rebels; and Liu Yu, reaching Mount Jiang, sent the weak and thin in oiled cloaks up the hill, spreading banners and advancing by several roads, so that Huan Xuan's scouts reported that Liu Yu's army was on every side and its numbers unknown, and he was the more in dread. With a fierce north-east wind the rebels set fires, smoke and dust covered the sky and the shouting shook the capital, and Liu Yu, axe in hand, waved his men on, so that Huan Qian and the rest broke and fled at once. Huan Xuan rode out with several thousand trusted men, giving out that he went to battle, and taking his son Huan Sheng and his brother's son Huan Jun went out by the south side gate to Shitou, where Yin Zhongwen prepared boats and they fled south together; and whereas at Gushu the stars of his generals had several times changed, and on the night of the usurpation the moon and Venus had entered the imperial enclosure, he had been much troubled, and now, his confidants urging him to fight, he had no time to answer and only pointed to heaven with his whip, and having gone a whole day without food he could not swallow the coarse rice they brought him, while his son Huan Sheng, then a few years old, embraced his chest and stroked him, so that his grief was more than he could bear. Entering Jiangling he would not fight again though Feng Gai urged it, wishing to flee to Hanzhong to the governor of Liangzhou, Huan Xi; but men's minds were estranged and his orders were not obeyed, and riding out of the city someone in the dark struck at him and missed, and those before and behind killed one another, and he barely reached a boat while his followers scattered. The governor of Yizhou, Mao Qu, had sent his cousin's grandson Mao Youzhi and the army adviser Fei Tian with his brother Mao Fan's coffin for burial at Jiangling with two hundred men, and Mao Qu's disciple Mao Xiuzhi, then Huan Xuan's cavalry colonel, lured him toward Shu, which he agreed to; and reaching the Meihui islet Fei Tian and Mao Youzhi fell upon him, arrows raining down, and his favourites Ding Xianqi and Wan Gai covered him with their bodies and died pierced with dozens of arrows, and Huan Xuan himself took an arrow which his son Huan Sheng pulled out; and the protector of Yizhou, Feng Qian, drawing his sword and coming forward, Huan Xuan took the jade ornament from his hair and gave it him, still asking who he was that dared kill the Son of Heaven, and Feng Qian answered that he would kill the thief who would be Son of Heaven, and cut him down at the age of thirty-six. His son Huan Sheng, crying that he was the prince of Yuzhang and begging not to be killed, was sent to the Jiangling market and beheaded; and Huan Qian gathered men to mourn him and set up a mourning hall, falsely giving him the posthumous name emperor Wudao. There had already been a children's song that "in Longgan lane, lane Longgan, this year the young lord is killed, next year all the Huans are beheaded" — the young lord being Sima Yuanxian; and in the Yuanxing years a hen at Hengyang had turned into a cock whose comb withered after eighty days, while Huan Xuan from his accession to his flight from Jiankang made about eighty days, and the Monograph on the Five Elements records that in the household of the prince of Langya, Sima Daozi, a black hen turned into a red cock which neither crowed nor led, taken as the sign that Huan Xuan would usurp and not complete the work.

Major Activities

Political Activities

Huan Xuan's political career began in 391, the sixteenth year of Taiyuan, when he became Groom of the Heir Apparent, and later Administrator of Yixing. His major political activity was concentrated between the Long'an and Yuanxing eras, from 397 to 403. In 397 he persuaded Yin Zhongkan to join Wang Gong's uprising against Wang Guobao, beginning armed confrontation between regional governors and the central regency. In 398 he participated in Wang Gong's second uprising and was selected as alliance leader. In 399, taking advantage of flooding and depleted grain stores in Jingzhou, he eliminated Yin Zhongkan and Yang Quanqi and established control over Jingzhou and Jiangzhou. In 402 he entered Jiankang, killed Sima Daozi and his son, and took command of the court. In 403 he deposed Emperor An of Jin, proclaimed himself emperor, and established Huan Chu.

During the early stage of his dominance, Huan Xuan attempted to correct some abuses of the late Eastern Jin government by dismissing corrupt officials and appointing able men, but the Chinese source states that these reforms failed because they touched the interests of aristocratic families. His government became inconsistent and extravagant and failed to stabilize the political situation. His order to replace wooden and bamboo slips with yellow paper for official documents contributed to the spread of paper and is described in the Chinese source as one of the few positive aspects of his rule.

Military Activities

Military action ran through Huan Xuan's political career. In 398, during Wang Gong's uprising, he defeated the court army at Baishi and advanced to Shitou. In 399 he eliminated Yin Zhongkan and Yang Quanqi, defeating Yang Guang and Yin Daohu at Yangkou and then defeating Yang Quanqi near Jiangling. In 402 he marched east, defeated Sima Shangzhi, seized Liyang, induced Liu Laozhi to surrender, and entered Jiankang. In 404, the first year of Yongshi, he was defeated by Liu Yu, fled west to Jiangling to regroup, was defeated again, and was killed by Feng Qian while trying to reach Shu.

Literature and Art

Huan Xuan was broadly accomplished in the arts and skilled in writing. His writings are included in the Complete Prose of the Jin Dynasty. Although few survive, contemporary sources described him as adept at composition. He was also accomplished in calligraphy, and Yang Xin of the Southern Dynasties included him in Collection of Ancient and Modern Calligraphers. Works such as his “Letter to Yin Zhongkan” are quoted in his biography in the Book of Jin and are described in the Chinese source as forceful and sharp in style.

Contemporary Associations

Huan Xuan's relationship with Yin Zhongkan was complex: they initially used each other but ultimately became enemies. He clashed with Yang Quanqi over aristocratic status and eventually destroyed him. Huan Xuan deeply hated Sima Daozi after being publicly humiliated by him and later exiled and killed him after entering the capital. His relationship with Liu Laozhi began as an alliance of convenience and ended in suspicion that drove Liu to suicide. Bian Fanzhi served as Huan Xuan's chief strategist and played an important role in Huan Xuan's seizure of the central government and eventual usurpation.

His Measures as Usurper, the Yellow Paper for Documents, and the Purge of Monks

The concrete measures of Huan Xuan's ascendancy and brief empire are few, of which the more consequential were a change in the medium of documents and a purge of the religious population. He decreed that yellow paper replace wooden tablets for official documents, which spread the use of paper in government; and he issued an instruction to his subordinates on sifting the monastic population, criticizing the capital for "vying in luxury, with fine display crowding the markets," and pointing out that among the monks "those evading service are gathered by the hundred li and runaways fill the temples, so that in one county thousands form a settlement," which he held to "injure government and harm the faith, so that both sides suffer." In justice he often remitted sentences to win men's hearts, going to the hall of hearings to review prisoners and remitting most without regard to their crimes. In Jingzhou he had established the two commanderies of Wuning and Sui'an to settle the transferred tribesmen and the displaced persons he had gathered, and he posted Huan Wei as governor of Jiangzhou at Xiakou, Sima Diao as commander of eight commanderies at Xiangyang, and Huan Zhen, Huangfu Fu and Feng Gai at Penkou, so that the Huan clan controlled both the upper and lower reaches; and on the pretext that every age had its recluses but his own had none, he summoned Huangfu Xi, great-great-grandson of Huangfu Mi, as a court writer with an allowance, having him refuse and be styled a "lofty scholar," which men of the day called a "manufactured recluse." These measures stood side by side with his lack of any governing framework and his inconstant orders: on the one hand a technical change with lasting effect in the use of paper, on the other a ceaseless altering of laws — proposals to restore mutilation, to abolish coinage, changes and reversals with no fixed will. His devotion to writing his own diary of activity to justify himself, and his habit of doing small kindnesses to win repute, were both taken by the historians as evidence that he had "a petty cunning but not the great virtue of breadth." As to the outcome, his state lasted only a few months; and the historians of the Jin therefore held that "the sacred vessel may not be grasped in the dark, nor the mandate of heaven assumed at will," judging that Huan Xuan lacked the condition of merit reaching the world and virtue saving the living, and had only taken advantage of the decline of Jin and the weakness of its authority to "let loose his claws and teeth and seize the throne for a time."

Personal Relations

• Huan Wen (father): Eastern Jin Grand Marshal whose late career showed signs of seeking the throne; Huan Xuan later posthumously honored him as Emperor Xuanwu.
• Lady Ma (mother): Huan Wen's concubine; Huan Xuan later elevated her as Lady of the Duke of Yuzhang.
• Huan Chong (uncle): Huan Wen's younger brother; commanded Huan Wen's forces after his death and helped raise Huan Xuan.
• Huan Wei (elder brother): served as Inspector of Jingzhou and was taken hostage during Huan Xuan's campaign against Yin Zhongkan.
• Huan Zhen (younger kinsman): continued resistance against Liu Yu after Huan Xuan's death.
• Huan Qian (cousin): Left Vice Director of the Secretariat under Huan Xuan and later supported Huan Zhen.
• Huan Xiu (cousin): close supporter who served as Inspector of Xu and Yan provinces.
• Huan Shisheng (cousin): supporter who secretly warned Huan Xuan of Sima Yuanxian's campaign and later served as Inspector of Jiangzhou.
• Bian Fanzhi: chief strategist who urged Huan Xuan to march east and later encouraged his usurpation; served as Intendant of Danyang.
• Feng Qian: Yizhou military officer who killed Huan Xuan.
• Feng Gai: Huan Xuan's commander who pursued and captured Yang Quanqi and Yin Zhongkan.
• Guo Quan: Inspector of Liangzhou whom Huan Xuan falsely claimed an imperial edict had appointed as his vanguard commander.
• Yu Kai: Inspector of Yuzhou who encouraged Wang Gong to rebel, later joined Huan Xuan, and was ultimately killed by Huan Xuan.
• Emperor Xiaowu of Jin, Sima Yao: Eastern Jin emperor who distrusted Huan Xuan and delayed his appointment for many years.
• Sima Daozi: Prince of Kuaiji; publicly humiliated Huan Xuan and was later killed on Huan Xuan's orders.
• Sima Yuanxian: son of Sima Daozi and Huan Xuan's political enemy; killed by Huan Xuan.
• Emperor An of Jin, Sima Dezong: deposed by Huan Xuan and later restored.
• Liu Yu: former Beifu officer who led the uprising against Huan Xuan and brought about the fall of Huan Chu.
• Wang Gong: Inspector of Qing and Yan provinces; chosen as alliance leader by Huan Xuan and later defeated and killed.
• Yin Zhongkan: Inspector of Jingzhou; first an ally of convenience and later an enemy, compelled by Huan Xuan to commit suicide.
• Yang Quanqi: Chancellor of Nanjun; came into conflict with Huan Xuan and was destroyed by him.
• Liu Laozhi: commander of the Beifu Army; surrendered to Huan Xuan and was later driven to suicide.

Historical Assessment

Eastern Jin and Contemporary Assessments

• Huan Xuan's biography in the Book of Jin described him as “striking in appearance, elegant in bearing, broadly versed in the arts, and skilled in composition,” but also as a man who relied on his talent and family background, assumed a heroic posture, and inspired fear in others.
• The contemporary Xie Chong praised Huan Wen as one who “deposed a benighted ruler and raised a sagely one, with achievements surpassing Yi Yin and Huo Guang,” a judgment that indirectly reflects Huan Xuan's reliance on his father's achievements and prestige.
• Liu Xi and other subordinates of Liu Laozhi refused to follow Liu in turning against Huan Xuan, saying that once weapons had been raised, regret would be useless. The Chinese source treats this as reflecting both fear of and distrust toward Huan Xuan among Beifu commanders.

Southern Dynasties to Tang

• Liu Yiqing's A New Account of the Tales of the World preserves numerous anecdotes about Huan Xuan, recording both his talent and his arrogance.
• Shen Yue's Book of Song, Annals of Emperor Wu takes Liu Yu's side as legitimate and portrays Huan Xuan as a usurper.
• The Tang-compiled Book of Jin placed Huan Xuan in the biographies of rebels and criticized him for relying on inherited status and usurping titles and offices, interpreting his downfall as the result of Heaven's rejection.

Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Periods

• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance gives a detailed account of Huan Xuan and, in Sima Guang's own commentary, criticized him for failing to measure his virtue and ability realistically.
• Hu Sansheng's commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance attributed Huan Xuan's failure to his loss of popular support.
• Wang Fuzhi's Du Tongjian Lun argued that Huan Xuan had seized power through rebellion and attempted to preserve it through rebellion, making his failure inevitable.

Modern Scholarship

• Lü Simian's History of the Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties held that Huan Xuan was not without ability but that arrogance and excessive self-confidence caused his downfall.
• Tian Yuqing's Aristocratic Politics in the Eastern Jin analyzed Huan Xuan's rise and fall within the structure of Eastern Jin aristocratic politics and argued that although he sought to restore Huan family dominance, the political conditions that had existed in Huan Wen's time no longer remained.
• The Chinese source states that modern scholars generally regard Huan Xuan's defeat as marking the end of Eastern Jin aristocratic politics and as opening the way for the establishment of Liu Song and the rise of men of humbler social background in the Southern Dynasties.