Sima Yu

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Sima Yu was the youngest son of Emperor Yuan of Jin, Sima Rui, and a half-brother of Emperor Ming of Jin, Sima Shao. His mother was Lady Zheng, Zheng Achun, later honored as Empress Dowager Jianwenxuan. Sima Yu was intelligent from childhood and deeply favored by his father. The famous scholar Guo Pu reportedly said after seeing him, “The one who will revive the fortunes of Jin must surely be this man.” As an adult, Sima Yu was restrained in desire, inclined toward quietude, and skilled in metaphysical discourse.

In the second month of 322, the first year of the Yongchang era, Emperor Yuan issued an edict enfeoffing Sima Yu as Prince of Langya, with Kuaiji and Xuancheng as his fiefs. In the edict, Emperor Yuan recalled that his father and grandfather had ruled Langya, lamented the lack of an heir to continue its ancestral sacrifices, and praised Sima Yu as benevolent, intelligent, and capable of reverently maintaining the ancestral temple. The decree illustrates the high regard in which Emperor Yuan held him.

In 326, the first year of the Xianhe era, Sima Yu's mother Zheng Achun died. Only seven years old, he grieved deeply and asked Emperor Cheng of Jin, Sima Yan, to permit him to observe full mourning for his mother; Emperor Cheng took pity on him and agreed. In the twelfth month of 328, he was transferred to the title Prince of Kuaiji and appointed Regular Mounted Attendant. In 334 he became General of the Right with the additional title of Attendant-in-Ordinary. In 340 he was promoted to General Who Pacifies the Army and concurrently placed in charge of the Palace Library.

Prince-Regent and Court Leadership

In 345, the first year of the Yonghe era, Emperor Mu of Jin, Sima Dan, was still a minor, and Empress Dowager Chongde Chu Suanzi governed as regent. The court wished to summon the empress dowager's father, General of the Guards Chu Pou, to become Inspector of Yang Province and Supervisor of the Affairs of the Secretariat. However, Minister of Personnel Liu Xia and Wang Huzhi, chief clerk to the General of the Guards, advised Chu Pou that Prince Sima Yu of Kuaiji possessed distinguished virtue and long-established prestige and was “the Duke of Zhou of the state,” so government should be entrusted to him. Chu Pou therefore firmly declined and returned to his regional command. The empress dowager then appointed Sima Yu General-in-Chief Who Pacifies the Army and Supervisor of the Six Divisions of the Secretariat.

He Chong, who shared the regency, wished to employ Huan Wen to suppress Yu Yuanzhi, but Danyang Intendant Liu Tan believed Huan Wen harbored ambitions beyond the status of a subject. He warned Sima Yu that Huan Wen should not be allowed to occupy strategically advantageous territory and that his rank and titles should be regularly restrained. Liu Tan urged Sima Yu to take command in the upper Yangzi region himself and offered to serve as his military staff officer, but Sima Yu declined. Liu Tan then requested permission to go himself, which was also denied. Huan Wen was ultimately appointed General Who Pacifies the West, a position that gave him the basis for his later seizure of political power.

In 346, after Cavalry General He Chong died, Empress Dowager Chu ordered Sima Yu to take overall charge of government. He thereby became the Eastern Jin court's principal decision-maker. He Chong had also held the post of Inspector of Yang Province, and after the position fell vacant Chu Pou recommended the eminent scholar Yin Hao. Yin Hao declined and wrote to Sima Yu explaining his reasons, but Sima Yu urged him to serve; four months later, Yin Hao finally entered office.

In 347, Huan Wen destroyed Cheng-Han, greatly increasing both his prestige and military strength and provoking growing concern at court. Sima Yu decided to use Yin Hao as a counterweight, making the Inspector of Yang Province a close political ally and involving him in central government. From this point, mutual suspicion between Yin Hao and Huan Wen deepened. Sima Yu also brought many men from Kuaiji and fellow enthusiasts of metaphysical learning into the central administration in order to balance Huan Wen. These men influenced both warfare and domestic government under Emperors Mu and the Deposed Emperor.

On January 13, 352, in the twelfth month of the seventh year of the Yonghe era, Huan Wen, after repeatedly requesting permission for a northern campaign and being refused, led some forty to fifty thousand troops downstream along the Yangzi and encamped at Wuchang. The court was alarmed. Gao Song, an officer under Sima Yu, drafted a letter on Sima Yu's behalf rebuking Huan Wen. Huan Wen submitted a fearful apology and withdrew to his base. In the seventh month of the same year, Sima Yu was promoted to Minister of Education, but firmly declined the office.

Rivalry with Huan Wen and Failed Northern Campaigns

Yin Hao launched repeated northern expeditions, but suffered successive defeats and exhausted military provisions and equipment. In 354, the tenth year of the Yonghe era, Huan Wen exploited widespread resentment against Yin Hao by submitting a memorial listing his offenses and calling for his dismissal. Sima Yu had little choice but to reduce Yin Hao to commoner status and exile him to Xin'an County in Dongyang Commandery. From then on, both civil and military power increasingly rested with Huan Wen.

In 358, the second year of the Shengping era, Emperor Mu had reached the age of capping, and Sima Yu wished formally to return political authority to him. Emperor Mu refused. In 365, the third year of the Xingning era, after Sima Yu learned that Champion General Chen You had abandoned Luoyang, he met Huan Wen at Liezhou to discuss military action. Emperor Ai, Sima Pi, died soon afterward and the plan was abandoned. After Emperor Ai's death, Prince of Langya Sima Yi succeeded to the throne. Empress Dowager Chu, on the grounds that the Langya line otherwise lacked an heir, again enfeoffed Sima Yu as Prince of Langya as a potential successor, and made Sima Yu's son Sima Yao Prince of Kuaiji. Sima Yu refused the new enfeoffment; although styled Prince of Langya, he continued to retain the Kuaiji designation as well.

In the tenth month of 366, the first year of the Taihe era, Sima Yu was promoted to Chancellor and Supervisor of the Affairs of the Secretariat. He was granted the ceremonial privileges of not hastening on entering court, not being addressed by personal name at audiences, and wearing sword and shoes in the palace, together with feathered canopies, musical escorts, and sixty guards bearing ceremonial swords. He again firmly declined. On November 25, 370, after Huan Wen's failed northern campaign, Sima Yu met him at Tuzhong to discuss their next steps.

Accession as Emperor

On January 6, 372, the fifteenth day of the eleventh month of the sixth year of the Taihe era, Grand Marshal Huan Wen deposed Sima Yi as Prince of Donghai and on the same day led the officials to the residence of the Prince of Kuaiji to escort Sima Yu to the throne. At court, Sima Yu changed his clothes, put on a flat headcloth and a single robe, faced east while weeping, bowed, accepted the imperial seals and ribbons, and became emperor that day. He changed the era name to Xian'an. Huan Wen temporarily occupied the central hall and deployed troops to guard the area.

Huan Wen later prepared an address explaining his reasons for deposing one emperor and enthroning another. But when Sima Yu received him and continued to weep, Huan Wen became so nervous that he was unable to say a word. Although Sima Yu occupied the imperial throne, he could only remain passive and preserve established norms, constantly fearing that he too might be deposed.

After Sima Yu's accession, Huan Wen dominated the government and moved step by step against his opponents. One of his first targets was Sima Yu's outspoken half-brother Sima Xi. Soon after the accession, Huan Wen accused Sima Xi of treason and removed him from office. He then forced Prince of Xincai Sima Huang to falsely confess that he had plotted rebellion with Sima Xi, Yin Juan, Yu Qian, and others, aiming to destroy the influence at court of the Yin clan of Chen Commandery and the Yu clan of Yingchuan. Huan Wen then had Censor-in-Chief Sima Tian petition for Sima Xi's execution according to law. Sima Yu refused and ordered further deliberation. Huan Wen petitioned again in increasingly urgent terms. Sima Yu personally wrote an edict to him: “If the fortunes of the Jin house are to endure, then you should obey the earlier edict. If the great situation of Jin is already lost, then allow me to withdraw and yield the throne to the worthy.” Reading this, Huan Wen broke into a fearful sweat and changed color. He no longer pressed for Sima Xi's execution, but instead had Sima Xi and his three sons stripped of rank and their family exiled. Yin Juan, Yu Qian, Yu Rou, and others were exterminated with their clans. The Yin and Yu families never recovered, while Huan Wen's authority reached its height.

Final Illness and Death

Sima Yu became deeply uneasy after Mars entered the Taiwei Enclosure, because the same celestial phenomenon had appeared when the former emperor was deposed. He asked Xi Chao, a close associate of Huan Wen who had once served on Sima Yu's own staff, whether Huan Wen might carry out another deposition. Xi Chao insisted that the Grand Marshal was stabilizing the state internally and expanding its territory externally, and pledged the lives of more than a hundred members of his family that no abnormal change would occur. When Xi Chao later asked leave to visit his father Xi Yin, who remained loyal to Jin, Sima Yu told him: “Tell your honored father that affairs of the ancestral state have reached this point because I was unable to rectify and preserve them through virtue. My shame and grief are too deep to express in words.” He then recited a poem by Yu Chan: “The resolute man grieves at the peril of the court; the loyal minister mourns the humiliation of his lord,” weeping until his robes were soaked.

Sima Yu subsequently fell ill from grief and anxiety. On September 7, 372, gravely ill, he summoned Huan Wen to court to assist in government and issued four edicts in a single day and night, but Huan Wen declined to come. On September 12, Sima Yu named Sima Yao crown prince. Before his death, he drafted an edict instructing Huan Wen to act as regent after the model of the Duke of Zhou and wrote: “If the young son can be assisted, assist him; if he cannot, take the position yourself.” Wang Tanzhi tore up the edict in Sima Yu's presence. Sima Yu replied that the Jin realm had itself been gained unexpectedly through good fortune and asked why Wang should object to this decision. Wang Tanzhi answered that the Jin realm had been founded by Emperor Xuan, Sima Yi, and Emperor Yuan, Sima Rui, and was not for the reigning emperor alone to dispose of. Sima Yu therefore ordered Wang Tanzhi to redraft the edict to state: “All affairs of the household and state are to be reported to the Grand Marshal, following the precedents of Marquis Zhuge Wu, Zhuge Liang, and Chancellor Wang, Wang Dao.” Huan Wen was deeply disappointed when he saw the revised document. On the same day, Sima Yu died in the Eastern Hall at the age of fifty-three. On November 19, he was buried at Gaoping Mausoleum, with temple name Taizong and posthumous name Emperor Jianwen.

Sima Yu was a younger son of Emperor Yuan of the Eastern Jin, his mother the lady Zheng, afterward honoured as Empress Dowager Jianwen Xuan. Clever as a child and much loved by his father, he was seen by the famous scholar Guo Pu, who said to others that the man who would revive the fortunes of the Jin was surely this one. Grown, Sima Yu was pure and of few desires and above all skilled in the dark conversation of the day, a leading figure among the gentleman-scholars of the Eastern Jin. In the second month of 322 Emperor Yuan enfeoffed him prince of Langya with Kuaiji and Xuancheng for his revenue, the decree saying that he had the virtue of benevolence and clearness and the measure of wisdom to serve the ancestral temple devoutly.

In 326 his mother, the lady Zheng Achun, died, and Sima Yu, then seven, was so grieved that he asked Emperor Cheng's leave to wear deep mourning for her, which the emperor in pity allowed; in the twelfth month of 328 he was transferred from prince of Langya to prince of Kuaiji. In 334 he was made general of the right and cavalier attendant, and in 340 general of the pacification army and concurrently director of the imperial library. In 345, the emperor Mu being young and the empress dowager Chongde holding the court, the court summoned Chu Pou, father of the empress, intending him for governor of Yangzhou and supervisor of the department of state affairs; but the president of the board of personnel, Liu Xia, and the chief secretary Wang Huzhi told Chu Pou that the prince of Kuaiji, Sima Yu, was a man of illustrious virtue and long-standing reputation, the duke of Zhou of the state, and that he should be given the government, whereupon Chu Pou firmly declined and went back to his command, and the empress dowager made Sima Yu general-in-chief of the pacification army and supervisor of the six bureaux of the department — and from that time he stood at the centre of the Eastern Jin government.

For more than twenty years after that Sima Yu took part in government as prince of Kuaiji. In those years the power of Huan Wen rose steadily: he destroyed Cheng Han, campaigned north three times, and overawed the court. Sima Yu in the chancellery tried to restrain him but could hardly control the situation; the court wavered between Huan Wen's weight and the opinion of the great families, and the rivalry of Yin Hao with Huan Wen and the varying fortunes of the northern campaigns all fall in this period. His own position was awkward: of high reputation, good at pure conversation but no master of political art, he often appeared hesitant at great decisions.

In 371 Huan Wen deposed the emperor Sima Yi as prince of Donghai and set up Sima Yu as emperor, who took the throne as Jianwen at fifty-one. Once emperor he faced Huan Wen's demand for the nine bestowals and his design of taking the throne himself, while Xie An, Wang Tanzhi and others sought to delay him. In 372, gravely ill, Jianwen issued a decree that Huan Wen should act as the duke of Zhou had done; Wang Tanzhi took the decree, tore it up before the emperor's face, and brought in the heir apparent Sima Yao, leaving Huan Wen the name of regent only. Jianwen died the same year after eight months on the throne.

The Jin History judges him in more than one way: it calls him pure and of few desires, skilled in dark conversation and of illustrious virtue, first among the gentlemen of his day; and it notes that in the years of Huan Wen's usurping power he could not correct it, and that his long conduct of government had few results. His life is closely bound up with the aristocratic politics of the middle Eastern Jin — a weak throne, the great families governing together, overmighty ministers rising one after another — and his scholar's grace along with his political impotence forms one side of that age.

Sima Yu's practice of pure conversation was well known in his day: he disputed and discussed with Liu Tan, Wang Meng, Xu Xun and others and was a leading participant in the metaphysical conversation of the middle Eastern Jin, and much of what is recorded of him in the New Tales of the World belongs to that side of his life. The gentlemanly grace sits oddly with his passive place in politics, and later commentary on the aristocratic politics of the Eastern Jin often takes him as an example. After he took the throne Huan Wen pressed faster toward usurpation, and the court manoeuvred around the question of the nine bestowals; after Jianwen's death Xie An and the rest went on answering Huan Wen by delay and deferral until his grave illness and death relieved the crisis of the throne. Such events show that although Jianwen reigned but a short time, the question of his succession bore directly on the politics of the later Eastern Jin. As prince of Kuaiji he had presided over the government for years, and the officers and guests of his household afterward entered the chief posts of state, which made him an important figure in the political network of the middle Eastern Jin. The record of him is found chiefly in the annals of Emperor Jianwen in the Jin History and in the Eastern Jin portion of the Comprehensive Mirror, with many fragments of his words and doings preserved in the New Tales of the World and other miscellaneous histories.

Sima Yu was the youngest son of Emperor Yuan of the Eastern Jin, his mother the lady Zheng. A clever child and much loved by his father, he was seen by the famous diviner Guo Pu, who told others that whoever revived the Jin house would be this man. Grown, he was quiet and free of desire, and above all skilled in the "pure conversation" of the day. In 322 Emperor Yuan enfeoffed him prince of Langya with Kuaiji and Xuancheng as his fief; when his mother died in 326, the seven-year-old boy wept and begged to wear the heavy mourning, and the Cheng emperor, moved, allowed it, transferring him the same year to be prince of Kuaiji and appointing him a cavalier attendant. He rose thereafter to general of the right and attending secretary, and in 340 to general of the army and director of the palace library.

Under the child emperor Mu, the empress dowager Chongde held court. The court wished to summon the empress's father, Chu Pou, to be governor of Yangzhou and director of the secretariat, but the president of the board of officials, Liu Xia, and others told Chu Pou that the prince of Kuaiji was a man of manifest virtue and long-standing reputation, the Duke of Zhou of the state, to whom the government should be given; Chu Pou firmly declined and returned to his garrison, and the empress dowager appointed Sima Yu general-in-chief of the army and director of six departments. In 345, with the empress dowager in court, he was advanced to general-in-chief and director of the secretariat. After Yu Yi's death the court debated putting Yu Yuanzhi in Jingzhou, but He Chong urged the appointment of Huan Wen; Liu Tan, governor of Danyang, warned Sima Yu repeatedly that Huan Wen must not hold a region of strategic advantage and that his rank and titles should be kept down, and urged Sima Yu to take the upper river himself, but he would not listen, and Huan Wen's power grew. On He Chong's death in 346 the empress dowager ordered Sima Yu to direct all affairs, and he thus became the central figure of the mid-Eastern Jin government. In 371 Huan Wen deposed the duke of Haixi and set Sima Yu on the throne as the Jianwen emperor; he died the next year after less than a year's reign. Praised all his life for pure conversation and elegant reputation, he lacked the power to check a strong minister, and his passage from prince of Kuaiji to emperor shows precisely the delicate relation of throne and provincial command in the aristocratic politics of the Eastern Jin.

Major Activities

Political Activity

Sima Yu served through seven reigns—those of Emperors Yuan, Ming, Cheng, Kang, Mu, Ai, and the Deposed Emperor—and participated in government for more than twenty years. Beginning in 345, he shared the regency with He Chong; after He Chong's death, he directed government himself. He brought Yin Hao and other eminent men into office in an effort to counter Huan Wen. After Yin Hao's failed northern expeditions and dismissal, Huan Wen dominated the court, and Sima Yu, even as Chancellor, could no longer restrain him. In 372 Huan Wen installed Sima Yu as emperor. His reign lasted only eight months before he died under intense anxiety.

During his years of regency, Sima Yu brought many men from Kuaiji and associates interested in metaphysical discourse into the central administration, forming a circle of Kuaiji literati around himself that affected the political configuration of the middle Eastern Jin. Although he repeatedly suffered setbacks in his attempts to balance Huan Wen, he continued to uphold the legitimacy of the Jin imperial house, helping preserve the institutional basis from which Xie An and others later resisted Huan Wen's faction.

Literary and Metaphysical Contributions

Sima Yu excelled in philosophical conversation. Historical sources describe him as “pure and empty in disposition, sparing in desire, and especially skilled in abstruse discourse,” making him a representative emperor of the culture of pure conversation. Under his patronage, metaphysical thought flourished in the middle Eastern Jin. He was said to sit for long periods on a folding stool without even clearing away accumulated dust, absorbed in metaphysical reflection. A collection of his writings in five juan once existed but is now lost.

His interest in metaphysics also shaped the political culture around him. Yin Hao, Liu Tan, and other men he promoted were noted intellectuals, and the household of the Prince of Kuaiji became an important center of elite philosophical conversation. When Wang Meng once asked to become Administrator of Dongyang, Sima Yu refused. When Wang Meng later became gravely ill, Sima Yu lamented, “I shall have failed Zhongzu,” using Wang Meng's courtesy name, and ordered his appointment as Administrator of Dongyang. Wang Meng remarked, “People say the Prince of Kuaiji is foolishly devoted; he truly is foolishly devoted.”

Travels and Places of Activity

Sima Yu spent most of his life in and around Jiankang, present-day Nanjing. As a princely regent and later emperor, he never personally led troops on campaign. During his regency, however, he met Huan Wen several times, including the meeting at Liezhou in 365 and the meeting at Tuzhong in 370. Both concerned major military and political decisions.

Relations with Contemporaries

Sima Yu maintained close ties with many leading intellectuals of his time. He relied on Liu Tan and Yin Hao and was also close to Wang Meng and Xi Chao. His relationship with Huan Wen was the most complex: Huan Wen was simultaneously a political rival and a military power on whom the court had to rely. Xi Chao, although a confidant of Huan Wen, had once served Sima Yu, and Sima Yu's question to him about whether Huan Wen would carry out another deposition illustrates the delicacy of these relationships.

Personal Relations

• Father: Sima Rui, Emperor Yuan of Jin
• Mother: Zheng Achun, Empress Dowager Jianwenxuan
• Half-brothers: Sima Shao, Emperor Ming of Jin; Sima Xi, Prince Wei of Wuling
• Empress: Wang Jianji, Empress Jianwenshun
• Consorts: Shuyi Hu; Shuyi Wang; Li Lingrong, later posthumously honored as empress dowager; Noble Lady Xu
• Sons: Sima Daosheng, Sima Yusheng, Sima Yu, Sima Zhusheng, Sima Tianliu, Sima Yao (Emperor Xiaowu of Jin), Sima Daozi
• Daughters: Princess Poyang; Sima Daofu, Princess Xin'an; Princess Wuchang
• Guo Pu: reportedly predicted that Sima Yu would “revive the fortunes of Jin”
• Liu Tan: Danyang Intendant who urged Sima Yu to restrain Huan Wen
• Yin Hao: eminent scholar whom Sima Yu relied on to counter Huan Wen
• Wang Meng: eminent scholar and close associate of Sima Yu
• Sima Yan, Emperor Cheng of Jin: Sima Yu's elder brother, who made him Prince of Kuaiji
• Sima Dan, Emperor Mu of Jin: emperor during Sima Yu's regency
• Sima Yi, the Deposed Emperor of Jin: deposed by Huan Wen and succeeded by Sima Yu
• Sima Yao, Emperor Xiaowu of Jin: Sima Yu's son and successor
• He Chong: Secretariat Director and co-regent
• Huan Wen: Grand Marshal who installed Sima Yu as emperor and posed his greatest political threat
• Xi Chao: confidant of Huan Wen and former subordinate of Sima Yu
• Wang Tanzhi: rewrote Sima Yu's final edict and prevented him from leaving the throne to Huan Wen
• Xie An: eminent statesman associated with opposition to Huan Wen

Historical Assessment

Eastern Jin and Contemporary Views

• Guo Pu reportedly said, “The one who will revive the fortunes of Jin must surely be this man.” (Book of Jin, juan 9, “Imperial Annals 9”).
• The Book of Jin described him as “remarkably intelligent from childhood and beloved by Emperor Yuan” and, as an adult, “pure and empty in disposition, sparing in desire, and especially skilled in abstruse discourse.”
• Liu Tan and other eminent men regarded Sima Yu as a man of “distinguished virtue and refined reputation, the Duke of Zhou of the state.” (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, juan 97).
• Wang Meng remarked, “People say the Prince of Kuaiji is foolishly devoted; he truly is foolishly devoted.” (A New Account of the Tales of the World).

Southern and Northern Dynasties

• Southern court historiography endorsed Emperor Jianwen's legitimacy by presenting Huan Wen's deposition of the former emperor as the removal of an unworthy ruler and the elevation of a worthy one. Xie Lingyun wrote in “Rhapsody on the Campaign”: “Fearing that the imperial line might fall, he deposed the benighted and honored the worthy.”
• Southern historians generally praised Sima Yu for preserving Jin dynastic legitimacy under Huan Wen's pressure and thereby contributing to the continuation of Eastern Jin rule.

Tang and Song Periods

• The Tang-compiled Book of Jin stated that although Sima Yu occupied the supreme position, he “folded his hands and preserved the Way, constantly fearing deposition,” both recognizing his difficult circumstances and criticizing his political passivity.
• The Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance records his maneuvering with Huan Wen in detail. Sima Guang treated his predicament with sympathy while also identifying the employment of Yin Hao and the failed northern expeditions as political mistakes.

Modern Scholarship

• Modern scholars commonly view Sima Yu as a tragic figure of a period in which Eastern Jin imperial authority was weak: intellectually accomplished, but unable to control a powerful military strongman.
• Tian Yuqing's Aristocratic Politics of the Eastern Jin discusses Sima Yu's regency and argues that his strategy of using eminent intellectuals to balance powerful aristocratic interests had some effect but ultimately could not halt Huan Wen's rise.
• Some scholars argue that the relative political continuity under Sima Yu helped create conditions for Xie An's later administration and the Eastern Jin victory at the Battle of the Fei River.