Sima Dewen

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Sima Dewen was born in 386, the eleventh year of the Taiyuan era, as the second son of Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin, Sima Yao. His mother, Chen Guinu, came from a humble background and, after gaining Emperor Xiaowu's favor, gave birth to the brothers Sima Dezong and Sima Dewen. In his later years Emperor Xiaowu became increasingly absorbed in drinking and sexual pleasures, favored Lady Zhang, and allowed court government to deteriorate. In 392, the seventeenth year of Taiyuan, the seven-year-old Sima Dewen was enfeoffed as Prince of Langya, beginning his career as an imperial clansman. The principality of Langya held a special place in Eastern Jin history: the founding statesman Wang Dao had assisted Sima Rui, then Prince of Langya, in establishing the dynasty. Sima Dewen's receipt of this title indicates that he held a relatively elevated position within the imperial clan.

As a child, Sima Dewen was reportedly rather cruel and impatient. While in the Langya principality, he once ordered skilled archers to shoot horses for entertainment. Someone told him, “The horse is the dynastic surname, yet you yourself have them killed. This is extremely inauspicious.” Sima Dewen came to his senses and deeply regretted the act. The anecdote suggests that he was not naturally gentle, but that he was capable of self-reflection. He later successively served as General of the Central Army, Regular Mounted Attendant, General of the Guards, and Commander Unequalled in Honor, gradually accumulating political experience within the imperial clan.

The Huan Xuan Rebellion and Attendance on Emperor An

During the Long'an era, Eastern Jin politics became sharply unstable. In 397, the first year of Long'an, Wang Gong, Inspector of Yan Province, and Yu Kai, Inspector of Yu Province, raised troops because they opposed the monopolization of power by Wang Guobao, Left Director of the Department of State Affairs. The court was forced to have Wang Guobao killed to calm the crisis. In 398, Wang Gong again joined Yin Zhongkan, Inspector of Jing Province, Huan Xuan, Inspector of Guang Province, and others in rebellion. Their forces once approached Jiankang, but Wang Gong was later killed by his subordinate Liu Laozhi and the coalition collapsed. At the same time, Sun En led a large-scale rebellion in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu regions, repeatedly defeated Jin armies, and at one point cut off Jiankang, causing famine in the city.

In 402, the first year of Yuanxing, Huan Xuan defeated the ruling Sima Daozi and his son and took control of the court, reassigning Sima Dewen as Grand Steward. In 403, the second year of Yuanxing, Huan Xuan forced Emperor An to abdicate, proclaimed himself emperor, and changed the state name to Chu, known to history as Huan Chu. Emperor An was demoted to Prince of Pinggu, while Sima Dewen was reduced to Duke of Shiyang County and moved together with Emperor An to Xunyang, present-day Jiujiang in Jiangxi. After Huan Xuan's usurpation, Liu Yu raised troops against him in 404, the third year of Yuanxing. Huan Xuan was defeated and fled toward Jiangling while holding Emperor An and Sima Dewen. Huan Xuan was killed during his flight, and Wang Kangchan, Assistant in Jing Province, together with Wang Tengzhi, Administrator of Nan Commandery, received Emperor An at the Nan Commandery administrative residence, with Sima Dewen remaining constantly beside him. Huan Zhen and other surviving Huan Chu forces then took advantage of the situation and captured Jiangling. Wang Kangchan and Wang Tengzhi were killed. Huan Zhen rode in brandishing his weapon and angrily demanded to know the whereabouts of Huan Xuan's son Huan Sheng. When told that Huan Sheng was dead, he became furious and accused the Sima brothers of slaughtering the Huan clan. Sima Dewen replied, “How could this have been the intention of us brothers?” Only after Huan Qian repeatedly remonstrated did Huan Zhen refrain from harming Emperor An.

In 405, the first year of Yixi, Liu Yi and others captured Jiangling. Sima Dewen and Emperor An returned to Jiankang under the escort of He Wuji. Sima Dewen was restored as Prince of Langya, additionally made Inspector of Xu Province, and soon appointed Grand Marshal and Minister of Education. Although the Huan Xuan Rebellion had ended, Eastern Jin imperial power had already been thoroughly weakened, and Liu Yu had become a decisive figure at court.

Liu Yu's Domination and the Abdication

From 412, the eighth year of Yixi, Liu Yu monopolized power at court, excluded and persecuted officials who opposed him, and forged Emperor An's edicts in order to control provincial officials. Sima Dewen understood that Liu Yu intended both to usurp the throne and to kill Emperor An. Emperor An himself had suffered severe intellectual disability since childhood: he could not distinguish hunger from cold and could not even recognize changes between winter and summer. Sima Dewen therefore stayed beside his elder brother day and night, sharing his meals and sleeping quarters without leaving even briefly, in order to protect his life. His respectful care was widely praised by contemporaries. Eventually Sima Dewen became ill and had to move outside the palace.

In 418, the fourteenth year of Yixi, Liu Yu sought to fulfill a prophetic saying that “after Changming (Emperor Xiaowu) there would still be two emperors” and sent Secretariat Gentleman Wang Shaozhi to strangle Emperor An. Wang Shaozhi had watched for an opportunity for a long time, but Sima Dewen's constant presence prevented him from acting. Only after Dewen fell ill and moved outside the palace was Wang able to strangle Emperor An with loose clothing in the Eastern Hall. After Emperor An's death, Liu Yu falsely invoked a testamentary edict and installed Sima Dewen as emperor. The era name was changed to Yuanxi the following year.

On July 5, 420, corresponding to the renxu day of the sixth month in the second year of Yuanxi, Liu Yu judged that the time was ripe. He ordered his associate Fu Liang to draft an abdication edict and enter the palace to force Sima Dewen to copy it out. Sima Dewen accepted readily, took up his brush, copied the document, and said to those around him: “When Huan Xuan usurped the throne, the Jin house had already lost the empire. Because of Lord Liu (Liu Yu), its fortunes were extended for nearly twenty more years. I undertake today's act willingly.” Two days later, Sima Dewen withdrew to the residence of the Prince of Langya, officials took leave of the Jin emperor, and the Eastern Jin ended. After ascending the throne, Liu Yu reduced Sima Dewen to Prince of Lingling and moved him to Moling. His calendar, carriages, clothing, and other ceremonial arrangements were maintained according to Jin standards, while Liu Zunkao, Champion General, was assigned troops to guard him.

Years as Prince of Lingling and Death

After his abdication, Sima Dewen lived in the former county offices at Moling. Although he nominally retained Jin ceremonial standards, he was in fact kept under close surveillance. Chu Lingyuan's elder brothers Chu Xiuzhi and Chu Danzhi abandoned their former lord and sought favor from Liu Yu, assisting in the surveillance of the former imperial couple. When Empress Chu gave birth to a son, the Chu brothers, acting under Liu Yu's orders, killed the infant.

Liu Yu continued to seek a way to kill Sima Dewen. Dewen therefore lived in constant fear, spending each day in the same room as Empress Chu, who personally prepared all of his food and drink, temporarily denying Liu Yu an opportunity. In the ninth month of 421, the second year of Yongchu, Liu Yu ordered Zhang Wei, former Chancellor of the Langya principality, to carry poisoned wine to Moling and kill Sima Dewen. Zhang Wei could not bear to murder his former ruler and also could not return without carrying out the order. He sighed, “Rather than poison my lord so that I may live, I would rather die!” and drank the poison himself on the road. Liu Yu was enraged when he learned of this. In the eleventh month he sent Chu Danzhi to pretend to visit Empress Chu, while ordering armed men to follow secretly. When the empress heard that her brother had arrived, she went outside to meet him. The soldiers seized the opportunity to climb over the wall into Sima Dewen's room, placed poisoned wine before him, and ordered him to drink it quickly. Sima Dewen shook his head and refused, saying, “Buddhist teachings say that anyone who commits suicide cannot be reborn as a human.” The soldiers then forced him onto a bed, covered his face with a quilt, and suffocated him. He was thirty-six when killed. He received the posthumous title Emperor Gong and was buried at Chongping Mausoleum in the eleventh month. Liu Yu personally led civil and military officials at the funeral.

Major Activities

Caring for Emperor An

The act for which Sima Dewen was most praised was his careful attendance on his intellectually impaired elder brother, Emperor An of Jin, Sima Dezong. Emperor An had been unable to speak since childhood, could not distinguish changes between winter and summer, and was completely incapable of managing daily life. As his full younger brother, Sima Dewen remained at his side for years, carefully managing “changes of warmth and coolness and the rhythms of sleeping and eating,” and became known for his respectful attentiveness. During the Yixi era, once he perceived Liu Yu's intention to usurp the throne and kill Emperor An, Sima Dewen guarded his brother day and night, sharing meals and sleeping quarters and never leaving even briefly, leaving Wang Shaozhi no opportunity to act. Only after Dewen himself fell ill and moved outside the palace was Emperor An killed. Although his protection could not ultimately change the outcome, his devotion to his brother was especially striking amid the violence of political struggle.

Accompanying Liu Yu's Northern Expedition

In 416, the twelfth year of Yixi, Liu Yu prepared a Northern Expedition against Later Qin. To use the prestige of the Jin imperial house in reassuring northern populations, Liu Yu wanted Sima Dewen to accompany the army. Sima Dewen submitted a memorial requesting to join the expedition under the pretext of repairing and paying respects at the Jin imperial mausoleums, and ultimately departed with Liu Yu. In 417, the thirteenth year of Yixi, Liu Yu successfully destroyed Later Qin and recovered Chang'an. At the end of that year the army returned east, with Sima Dewen accompanying it. They reached Pengcheng, present-day Xuzhou in Jiangsu, the following summer, and Sima Dewen then returned to Jiankang ahead of Liu Yu. This campaign was the last large-scale military operation in Eastern Jin history. Although Sima Dewen exercised no actual military command, his presence as an imperial clansman objectively lent political legitimacy to Liu Yu's expedition.

Abdication and the Fall of the Dynasty

In 420, the second year of Yuanxi, Liu Yu ordered Fu Liang to draft an abdication edict and compelled Sima Dewen to copy it. Sima Dewen wrote out the edict and said to those beside him: “When Huan Xuan usurped the throne, the Jin house had already lost the empire. Because of Lord Liu, its fortunes were extended for nearly twenty years. I undertake today's act willingly.” The statement both reflected resignation to political reality and acknowledged, to some degree, Liu Yu's role in prolonging the Jin regime. Two days later, Sima Dewen withdrew to the residence of the Prince of Langya, officials took leave of the Jin emperor, and the Eastern Jin ended. Sima Dewen thus became the final emperor of the Jin, and his abdication marked the complete end of Sima imperial rule.

Buddhist Faith

Sima Dewen was a Buddhist believer. He once ordered the casting of a golden Buddha image one zhang and six chi high and personally went to Waguan Temple to receive the image, walking in attendance for more than ten li. This episode is recorded in the imperial annals of the Book of Jin. Before his death, he refused to drink poison and commit suicide on the grounds that Buddhist teaching held that one who killed oneself could not be reborn in human form. The episode reflects the depth of his faith. Buddhism offered this last Jin emperor a source of spiritual support amid political collapse, although his refusal to take his own life ultimately led to a more violent death.

His passage from prince to emperor and from emperor to abdicated king is the last link in the pattern of abdication and replacement at the end of the Eastern Jin: in 408 (fourth year of Yixi) he was given the additional office of minister of education; in 416 (twelfth year of Yixi) he accompanied Liu Yu's northern campaign against the Later Qin under the pretext of visiting the imperial tombs; in 417, after Liu Yu destroyed the Later Qin, he returned with the army; in 418, when Emperor An was strangled by Wang Shaozhi, he was made emperor and changed the era name to Yuanxi the following year; in 420 (second year of Yuanxi) he abdicated in favour of Liu Yu, ending the Eastern Jin, was reduced to Prince of Lingling and moved to Moling; in 421 (second year of Yongchu) he was suffocated with a quilt on Liu Yu's orders, given the posthumous name Emperor Gong and buried at the Chongping Mausoleum. Only a year passed between his abdication and his murder, showing how hard it was for a former sovereign to survive a change of dynasty; the procedure of Liu Yu's accession and the treatment of the abdicated ruler that followed also set a precedent for the changes of dynasty in the Southern Dynasties.

The course around his reign can be set out by year: in 408 (fourth year of Yixi) he was given the additional office of minister of education; in 416 (twelfth year of Yixi) he accompanied Liu Yu's northern campaign against the Later Qin under the pretext of visiting the imperial tombs; in 417, after Liu Yu destroyed the Later Qin, he returned with the army; in 418, when Emperor An was strangled by Wang Shaozhi, he was made emperor and changed the era name to Yuanxi the following year; in 420 (second year of Yuanxi) he abdicated in favour of Liu Yu, ending the Eastern Jin, was reduced to Prince of Lingling and moved to Moling; in 421 (second year of Yongchu) he was suffocated with a quilt on Liu Yu's orders, given the posthumous name Emperor Gong and buried at the Chongping Mausoleum. Only a year passed between his abdication and his murder, showing how hard it was for a former sovereign to survive a change of dynasty; the procedure of Liu Yu's accession and the treatment of the abdicated ruler that followed also set a precedent for the changes of dynasty in the Southern Dynasties.

Personal Relations

• Father: Sima Yao (Emperor Xiaowu of Jin)
• Mother: Chen Guinu (Consort; honored as Empress Dowager De after Emperor An's accession)
• Elder brother: Sima Dezong (Emperor An of Jin)
• Sisters: Princess Jinling (married Xie Hun); Princess Poyang (married Wang Gu)
• Empress: Chu Lingyuan (daughter of Chu Shuang; titled Empress Gongsi)
• Daughters: Sima Maoying (Princess Haiyan, married Liu Yifu); Princess Fuyang
• Liu Yu: Prince of Song; replaced Jin with Song and ordered Sima Dewen's death
• Huan Xuan: usurped the throne and established Huan Chu
• Wang Shaozhi: Secretariat Gentleman who killed Emperor An at Liu Yu's direction
• Chu Xiuzhi and Chu Danzhi: elder brothers of Empress Chu who abandoned their former lord, assisted Liu Yu in surveillance, and ultimately helped bring about Sima Dewen's death
• Zhang Wei: former Chancellor of the Langya principality; ordered by Liu Yu to poison Sima Dewen, but unable to harm his former ruler and instead committed suicide

Historical Assessment

Tang and Contemporary Assessments

• Fang Xuanling and the other compilers of the Book of Jin wrote that Sima Dewen “was rather harsh and impatient in childhood,” but that “because Emperor An was not intelligent, the emperor always attended him at his side, regulating his warmth and coolness and his sleeping and eating; he became known for respectful attentiveness, and people of the time praised him.” The passage commended his careful service to Emperor An.
• The Book of Jin also states: “An inherited indulgence, and great bandits arose. Gong merely held a borrowed mandate, while others controlled the reins. Like King Nan of Zhou he preserved an empty dignity; like King Huai he began with a hollow title. Empty honor and borrowed names—different methods, the same ruin.” It compared Sima Dewen to King Nan of Zhou and emphasized the tragic condition of a ruler possessing only nominal honor and no control over his own fate.
• Another passage in the Book of Jin reflects: “When an age encounters overturning, Emperor Gong suffered it most. The people of Yuyue did not perfume the cinnabar caves, nor did the companions of Kuaiji lament entering service. He left the imperial hall and returned without resentment, casting aside the vermilion writ. When the Five Phases change and the Three Subtleties reach their limit, it is like the withering season of high autumn, the natural principle of things. Yet when one watches the leaves fall, there are those moved to tears.” The passage expresses sympathy for the bleak fate of the last emperor.

Song and Yuan Periods

• In his commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, Hu Sanxing lamented: “From this time onward, rulers who abdicated rarely preserved their lives,” identifying Sima Dewen's death as a precedent for the violent ends of abdicated monarchs.
• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance records Sima Dewen's death in detail and presents objectively his refusal to commit suicide and his effort to preserve his dignity through Buddhist belief.
• The Song Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi used the character “murdered” when recording Sima Dewen's death in the Outline and Details of the Comprehensive Mirror, implicitly condemning Liu Yu's conduct.

Ming and Qing Periods

• Wang Fuzhi, in Du Tongjian Lun, discussed the transition from Jin to Song and considered Sima Dewen's death a sign that “the tendency of the realm is that regimes surviving in a corner must ultimately end in annexation,” analyzing what he regarded as the historical inevitability of Eastern Jin's fall.
• The Qing scholar Zhao Yi, in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, discussed how rulers who abdicated during the Southern Dynasties often met violent deaths. He treated Sima Dewen as the first example and observed that “beginning with Emperor Gong of Jin, no ruler who abdicated escaped being killed.”
• Ming and Qing historians also paid attention to the record that Sima Dewen abdicated “gladly,” interpreting this not simply as weakness but as a clear recognition of political reality.

Modern and Contemporary Scholarship

• Lü Simian, in History of the Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, argued that after the Huan Xuan Rebellion Sima Dewen “understood deeply that the Jin house could no longer be sustained,” and regarded his abdication as an unavoidable accommodation to the circumstances.
• Tian Yuqing's Aristocratic Politics of the Eastern Jin discusses the decline of imperial power at the end of the dynasty and regards Sima Dewen's death as marking the complete end of the political arrangement in which aristocratic clans and imperial authority jointly governed.
• Modern scholars generally hold that, although Sima Dewen possessed little political ability, his respectful care for Emperor An and composure in the face of death gave him a comparatively dignified image among last emperors of successive dynasties.