Tuoba Gui

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Tuoba Gui was born into the aristocracy of the Tuoba branch of the Xianbei in the Dai region. He was the legitimate grandson of Tuoba Shiyiqian, Emperor Zhaocheng, and the posthumous son of Tuoba Shi, Emperor Xianming. His mother was Lady He, later honored as Empress Xianming. Tuoba Gui was born north of Canhe Slope on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of Jianguo 34 (August 4, 371). The Book of Wei, volume 2, records his birth in supernatural terms, relating that his mother dreamed of sunlight filling a room and that unusual light was seen on the night of his birth.

In 376, Fu Jian, ruler of Former Qin, destroyed Dai. Six-year-old Tuoba Gui was initially to be moved to Chang’an, the Qin capital. Yan Feng, a former official of Dai, urged Fu Jian to allow the child to remain, arguing that if Tuoba Gui later became a leader he would remember Fu Jian’s kindness toward Dai. Fu Jian agreed. Former Dai territory was then divided between Liu Kuren and Liu Weichen. Lady He took Tuoba Gui, Tuoba Yi, and Tuoba Gu from the Helan group to the Dugu group, where they and southern tribal leader Zhangsun Song fell under Liu Kuren’s authority. Although Liu Kuren had accepted office from Former Qin after Dai’s fall, the source states that he continued to serve the Tuoba family loyally and gathered dispersed members of the old population with considerable prestige and trust.

Restoration of the Polity and Early Rule

After Fu Jian’s defeat at Fei River in 383, Former Qin fell into turmoil, many previously subordinated peoples and regimes rebelled, and northern China again fragmented. The following year, Dugu leader Liu Kuren aided Qin against Later Yan and was killed in a night attack by Murong Wen. His younger brother Liu Toujuan then took command. In 385, Liu Xian, son of Liu Kuren, killed Liu Toujuan and seized control, then sought to kill Tuoba Gui. The wife of Liu Kangni, a younger brother of Liu Xian, was Tuoba Gui’s aunt and warned Lady He of the plan. Liang Liujuan, a strategist for Liu Xian and a relative of Tuoba Shiyiqian, also sent members of the group, including Mu Chong and Xi Mu, to warn Tuoba Gui secretly. Lady He invited Liu Xian to drink, made him drunk, and enabled Tuoba Gui to flee at night with old retainers including Zhangsun Jian and Tuoba Ta to the Helan group. Internal disorder soon broke out among Liu Xian’s followers, allowing Lady He to rejoin Tuoba Gui. At the time Lady He’s younger brother Helan Rangan feared Tuoba Gui’s popularity and repeatedly tried to kill him, but the attempts failed because Yu Guzhen warned him and Lady He intervened. Tuoba Gui’s elder clan relatives Tuoba Heluo and Tuoba Jian urged Helan leader Helan Na to recognize Tuoba Gui as ruler.

On February 20, 386, the wushen day of the first lunar month of Dengguo 1, Tuoba Gui convened a tribal assembly at Niuchuan, in the area of the present-day Xilamulun River in Inner Mongolia, with support led by the Helan group. He proclaimed himself King of Dai and adopted the era name Dengguo. He appointed capable men, restored Tuoba power, soon moved the capital to the former Dai capital Shengle, and encouraged agriculture so that the population could recover. In the fourth lunar month he changed his title to King of Wei.

Northern Wei was surrounded by strong rivals: the Helan group to the north, Dugu to the south, Kumo Xi to the east, the Xiongnu Tiefu in the Hetao region to the west, Rouran and Gaoche north of the Yin Mountains, Later Yan under Murong Chui east of the Taihang Mountains, and Western Yan under Murong Yong to the west. Tuoba Gui’s uncle Tuoba Kuduo allied with Liu Xian in a succession struggle. Yu Huan and others plotted to kill Tuoba Gui in support of him, while Mo Ti and others exchanged messages with the rival. Tuoba Gui executed Yu Huan and four others but pardoned seven surnamed groups including Mo Ti’s. Fearful of internal rebellion, he withdrew to the Helan group, used the Yin Mountains as a defensive barrier, and asked Later Yan for military assistance.

In the tenth lunar month of 386, Tuoba Kuduo approached and Tuoba Gui’s followers became alarmed. Before Later Yan reinforcements arrived, Tuoba Gui sent the envoy An Tong back so that Wei followers would believe Yan troops were already near, restoring morale. Tuoba Gui then joined the Later Yan relief army and decisively defeated Tuoba Kuduo at Gaoliu. The defeated claimant fled west to the Tiefu and was killed by Liu Weichen; Tuoba Gui absorbed his followers. In the twelfth lunar month, Later Yan offered Tuoba Gui the title Western Chanyu and enfeoffed him as King of Shanggu, but Tuoba Gui refused.

Consolidating the Steppe South of the Gobi

In the sixth lunar month of 387, Tuoba Gui personally campaigned south of Mayi against Liu Xian, pursued him to Mize, and defeated him. Liu Xian fled south to Western Yan. In 388 Tuoba Gui defeated Kumo Xi groups, and in 389 he defeated Gaoche groups. In 390 he campaigned west against the Yuanhe division of the Gaoche and defeated it at Luhun Lake, reportedly capturing more than two hundred thousand people and livestock combined. Soon afterward he joined a Later Yan army led by Murong Lin in attacking the Helan, Hetulin, and Hexi groups; the latter two submitted to Northern Wei. In the seventh lunar month, when the Helan were attacked by the Tiefu, Helan Na submitted to Northern Wei and requested aid. Tuoba Gui relieved him, drove back a force led by Liu Weichen’s son Zhilidi, and moved Helan Na and others to the eastern frontier.

Tuoba Gui continued attacks on Gaoche groups. Rouran alone refused to submit, and in the tenth lunar month of 391 he attacked them. The Rouran withdrew; when Wei provisions were exhausted, the army used reserve warhorses for food and eventually overtook the enemy at Nanchuang Mountain, capturing about half their people. Tuoba Gui sent troops onward against the rest and compelled their leader Yujiulü Yuchengti to surrender.

The same year Tuoba Gui attacked the long-standing Tiefu rivals, advancing directly on their capital Dailai and capturing Liu Weichen’s son Zhilidi. Liu Weichen fled and was killed by his own subordinate. Tuoba Gui then executed more than five thousand members of Liu Weichen’s clan and cast their bodies into the Yellow River. After this victory, groups south of the Yin Mountains submitted to Northern Wei. Northern Wei had defeated most of its powerful neighboring rivals and became one of the strongest regimes in northern China.

Rivalry with Later Yan and Expansion into the Central Plains

Northern Wei and Later Yan both emerged in 386, but Later Yan was initially strong while Northern Wei was weak. Later Yan had repeatedly assisted Tuoba Gui during early internal conflicts and external campaigns, so the two maintained friendly relations and exchanged annual envoys. In 391, during internal conflict among the Helan, Helan Rangan and Helan Na fought one another and Tuoba Gui volunteered to guide a Later Yan army against them. In the same year, however, Later Yan detained the Wei envoy Tuoba Gu and demanded valuable horses in exchange. Tuoba Gui refused, Tuoba Gu remained in custody, and relations deteriorated. Northern Wei then aligned with Western Yan against Later Yan.

In the sixth lunar month of 394, Later Yan emperor Murong Chui attacked Western Yan and besieged its capital Zhangzi. Western Yan emperor Murong Yong asked Northern Wei for aid. Tuoba Gui sent Tuoba Qian, Duke of Chenliu, and Yu Yue, but before the relief army arrived Zhangzi fell and Murong Yong together with more than thirty senior officials and generals was killed. Western Yan was destroyed, leaving Northern Wei and Later Yan facing one another across northern China.

In 395 Murong Chui sent crown prince Murong Bao with 98,000 infantry and cavalry against Wei. Learning of the approach, Tuoba Gui withdrew west of the Yellow River rather than offer battle. In the seventh lunar month the Yan army reached Wuyuan, accepted the surrender of more than thirty thousand households from a separate Wei group, gathered grain, and built vessels for a river crossing. Tuoba Gui moved to the riverbank and confronted them. He sent Xu Qian to Later Qin requesting aid while also cutting communications between the Yan army and Zhongshan, its capital, and intercepting messengers. Murong Chui had already been ill when the army departed, and Murong Bao remained without news from home. Tuoba Gui forced captured messengers to spread a false report that Murong Chui had died, shaking Yan morale. The two armies faced each other across the river from the ninth through the tenth lunar month, until internal discord compelled the Yan army to burn its boats and retreat.

The Yellow River had not yet frozen, preventing immediate Wei pursuit. The next month strong winds froze its surface. Tuoba Gui ordered a crossing and sent more than twenty thousand elite cavalry after the retreating Yan army. At Canhe Slope the Wei force inflicted a major defeat and captured large numbers of Later Yan soldiers, members of the ruling clan, and officials. Tuoba Gui selected men of talent such as Jia Run, Jia Yi, and Chao Chong for retention and initially intended to send most other captives back. He then accepted the advice of Wang Jian, a central tribal leader, and buried the surrendered soldiers alive. This became known as the Battle of Canhe Slope.

In the third lunar month of 396, Murong Chui led another campaign against Wei and captured Pingcheng. Tuoba Qian, who defended the city, was killed, and more than thirty thousand households there were taken captive. Murong Chui sent Murong Bao and others to press toward Tuoba Gui, who became so alarmed that he considered abandoning Shengle. Murong Chui, however, fell ill after seeing piles of Yan corpses at Canhe Slope, withdrew, and died at Shanggu.

In the seventh lunar month of that year, Tuoba Gui adopted imperial banners, changed the era name to Huangshi, and openly set out to take the Central Plains territories held by Later Yan. In the eighth lunar month he launched a large offensive, personally leading more than four hundred thousand troops south from Mayi across Later Yan’s Bing Province. In the ninth lunar month Wei forces reached Jinyang; defender Murong Nong suffered a major defeat, and Northern Wei seized Bing Province. In the tenth lunar month Tuoba Gui crossed the Taihang Mountains and attacked Zhongshan. Officials in commanderies east of the mountains either abandoned their cities or surrendered, and most of the Central Plains commanderies submitted easily. Only Zhongshan, Ye, and Xindu continued resistance. Tuoba Gui divided his army into three forces to attack all three.

In the first lunar month of 397, Tuoba Gui joined the assault on Xindu, forcing defender Murong Feng to abandon the city. The Wei general Mogen defected to Yan, while his nephew Chouti led troops from Bing Province back toward the Northern Wei rear and stirred rebellion. Facing unrest behind him, Tuoba Gui sought peace with Later Yan, but Murong Bao refused and instead stationed 120,000 infantry and 37,000 cavalry at Baisi north of the Hutuo River. Yan forces crossed at night, launched a surprise attack with more than ten thousand men, and set fire to the Wei camp with the wind behind them. The Wei army fell into confusion and Tuoba Gui fled his camp, narrowly avoiding the Yan commander Qitezhen, who reached his tent. The Yan army then inexplicably fell into disorder and began fighting among itself. Seeing this from outside the camp, Tuoba Gui beat the drums to reassemble his men, attacked the Yan troops inside the camp, and then struck Murong Bao’s supporting forces to the north, forcing him back across the river. Yan morale collapsed. Tuoba Gui pursued Murong Bao’s retreating forces and defeated them repeatedly. Murong Bao abandoned the main army and returned rapidly to Zhongshan with twenty thousand cavalry, ordering the remaining soldiers to discard armor and weapons for speed. Many died in a severe snowstorm, while numerous Later Yan officials and soldiers were captured or surrendered.

In the third lunar month, Murong Bao requested peace, offering to return Tuoba Gu and cede territory west of Changshan. Tuoba Gui initially agreed, but Murong Bao changed his mind, so Tuoba Gui besieged Zhongshan. Murong Bao and others eventually abandoned the city, but Murong Xiang seized control and defended it. Tuoba Gui failed in a direct assault and in the fifth lunar month lifted the siege to obtain grain at Hejian. In the ninth lunar month Murong Lin, then holding Zhongshan, left because of famine and occupied Xinshi. Tuoba Gui attacked and in the following month defeated Murong Lin at Yitai. After Murong Lin fled, Tuoba Gui entered Zhongshan. In 398, Ye also fell to Wei after Murong De abandoned it. Tuoba Gui established a field administration at Ye, returned to Zhongshan, and ordered the forced relocation of officials, civilians, and non-Han residents from six newly conquered provinces east of the mountains to Dai Commandery to increase its population.

Capital at Pingcheng and Later Years

In the seventh lunar month of 398, Tuoba Gui moved the capital to Pingcheng and began constructing palaces, ancestral temples, and altars of soil and grain. On December 2 of that year, corresponding to January 24, 399, he changed the era name to Tianxing and assumed the imperial title. Soon afterward, in the first lunar month of 399, he toured north and sent three armies against the Gaoche. When they reassembled in the second lunar month, more than thirty Gaoche groups had been defeated. Tuoba Yi separately led thirty thousand cavalry against seven remaining groups and gained substantial captives and livestock. In the third lunar month, Tuoba Gui sent General Who Establishes Righteousness Yu Zhen and Colonel of Swift Cavalry Xi Jin north against the Kudi and Youlian groups, defeating them and compelling the Kudi leader Tayigan to submit. Yu Zhen and the others then defeated the Houmochen group and captured more than one hundred thousand head of livestock.

In his later years, the Chinese source states that use of Cold-Food Powder made Tuoba Gui increasingly suspicious and violent and that courtiers could be punished for minor offenses. In 409 (Tianci 6), his second son Tuoba Shao assassinated him. He was thirty-nine. He received the posthumous title Daowu, the temple name Taizu, and burial at the Jinling mausoleum at Shengle.

His Family, His Birth and His Childhood

Tuoba Gui, courtesy name Shegui, was a Xianbei of Shengle, grandson of the emperor Zhaocheng Tuoba Shiyijian and posthumous son of the emperor Xianming Tuoba Shi. By the annals of Wei, his mother the empress Xianming, lady He, "having first wandered in the clouds and marshes, lay down and slept and dreamed that the sun rose within her chamber, and waking saw light stretching from the window to the sky, and suddenly conceived"; and so "on the seventh day of the seventh month of the thirty-fourth year of Jianguo she bore Taizu north of the Shenhe bank, and that night there was light again." In the thirty-ninth year of Jianguo, 376, Zhaocheng died suddenly and Taizu was not yet set up, and Fu Jian of the Former Qin made Liu Kuren general of the Yangzi and marquis within the passes, ordering him with Liu Weichen to divide the tribes of Dai between them, those west of the river to Liu Weichen and those east to Liu Kuren; and thereupon the empress Xianming came with Taizu and the two princes of Wei and Qin to live with him, and Liu Kuren "served them loyally and did not change his loyalty with the rise and fall of fortunes, comforting and receiving the scattered and showing great kindness and good faith." Tuoba Gui, being young, was allowed to remain in his homeland.

His Flight to the Helan Tribe

Liu Kuren's son Liu Xian killed him and took his place, and then plotted rebellion. A merchant, Wang Ba, learning of it, trod on Tuoba Gui's foot in the crowd as a sign, and Tuoba Gui rode home; and the son of the old chief Liang Gaipen, Liu Juan, being Liu Xian's chief counsellor and knowing the whole plan, secretly sent his tribesman Mu Chong galloping to warn him. Tuoba Gui therefore secretly bound to himself the old ministers Zhangsun Jian and Yuan Ta and others, and in the eighth month of autumn went to the Helan tribe, and on that day Liu Xian did indeed send men after him but did not catch him. That year the Xianbei Qifu Guoren privately styled himself great shanyu, and Fu Jian was killed by Yao Chang and his son Fu Pi usurped the throne.

His Accession as Prince of Dai, His Taking the Title of Prince of Wei, and His Reduction of the Tribes

On the day wushen of the first month of the spring of the first year of Dengguo, 386, Tuoba Gui took the throne as prince of Dai, sacrificed to heaven, founded an era and held a great assembly at Niuchuan, making Zhangsun Song again chief of the southern division and Shusun Puluo chief of the northern, with ranks and rewards in due degrees; in the second month he went to Shengle in Dingxiang and "rested the people and encouraged farming"; in the third month Liu Xian went south from Shanwu to Mayi and his clansman Nuzhen brought his people over to him; and in the fourth month he changed his title to prince of Wei. In the fifth month, on a progress to Lingshi, the chiefs of the Hufohou tribe, Hou Chen, and of the Yifu tribe, Daiti, rebelled and fled, and the generals wished to pursue them, but Tuoba Gui said that Hou Chen and the rest had served from generation to generation and that for a small fault they should be borne with, for the state was newly founded and men's minds were not yet one, and the foolish among those near him would naturally hang back, and they were not worth pursuing. In the seventh month he returned to Shengle, and Daiti came over again with his tribe, and a few days later fled to Liu Xian, whereupon the emperor gave his tribe to his grandson Beijin. That month Liu Xian's younger brother Feini raided Nuzhen's tribe with cavalry and then came over with his men to him. The emperor's uncle Tuoba Kudu, having been moved to Chang'an by Fu Jian and having followed Murong Yong, was made by Murong Yong governor of Xinxing; and in the eighth month Liu Xian sent his brother Kangni to welcome Kudu and came with troops against the southern border, at which all the tribes were stirred and men's minds wavered, and those about the emperor, Yu Huan and others, plotted rebellion with the tribesmen to answer him; the plot being discovered, the five who had devised it were executed and the rest were not questioned. Fearing trouble within, the emperor crossed the Yin mountains northward to the Helan tribe and held the mountains for defence, sending the envoy An Tong and Zhangsun He to Murong Chui to ask for troops. In the tenth month, before Helin's army arrived the enemy pressed forward, and the northern chief Shusun Puluo and twelve others with the various Wuhuan fled to Liu Weichen; the emperor moved from Nushan to Niuchuan and camped south of the Yanshui, coming out by Daigu to join Helin at Gaoliu and heavily defeat Kudu, who fled to Liu Weichen and was killed by him, and the emperor took over all his people. In the twelfth month Murong Chui sent envoys with tribute and offered him the seal of the western shanyu and the title of prince of Shanggu, which he did not accept. In the fifth month of the second year he sent An Tong to Murong Chui for troops and Murong Chui sent his son Helin with a force to join him; in the sixth month the emperor went in person against Liu Xian south of Mayi, pursued him to Mize and heavily defeated him, so that Liu Xian fled south to Murong Yong and the emperor took over all his tribe. In the fifth month of the third year he went north against the Kumoxi and in the sixth month heavily defeated them, taking more than a hundred thousand head of their four divisions' mixed livestock and crossing the Ruoluo water, rewarding his officers and men in due degrees; in the seventh month the Kumoxi chief gathered the scattered and attacked the camp by night, and he had them cut down to the last man; and in the twelfth month he went west to the Nüshui and attacked the Jieru tribe, heavily defeating them and taking more than a hundred thousand men and women with mixed livestock. In the first month of the fourth year he raided the Gaoche tribes and heavily defeated them; in the second month he went to the Nüshui and heavily defeated the Chitulin tribe, and when He Rangan and his brother came with the tribes to the rescue he met and drove them off. In the third month of the fifth year he went west to Luhun lake and raided the Yuanhe division of the Gaoche, heavily defeating them and taking more than two hundred thousand captives, horses, cattle and sheep; in the fourth month he went to the Yixin mountains and with Murong Helin heavily defeated the Helan, Hutulin and Huxi tribes; and in the sixth month, returning to Niuchuan, Liu Weichen sent his son Zhilidi against the Helan tribe and besieged it, and He Ne and the rest asked to submit and told of their distress; and in the seventh month the emperor led troops to their relief, reaching Yangshan, at which Zhilidi withdrew.

His Attack on the Rouran, His Destruction of the Tiefu, and the Unification of Daibei

In the tenth month of the sixth year of Dengguo, 391, Tuoba Gui attacked the Rouran, who would not submit; the Rouran withdrew before him and Tuoba Gui pursued, and when the army's grain was exhausted he used the spare warhorses for food, overtaking them at last at Nanchuang mountain and taking half their people, and then sending troops on after the rest and compelling their chief Wengeti to submit. He then marched against the ancestral enemy the Tiefu and attacked their capital: by the annals of Wei, in the Dengguo period Liu Weichen sent his son Zhilidi against the southern division with eighty or ninety thousand men while Taizu had but five or six thousand, and being surrounded, Taizu made a square camp of carts and fought as he advanced, heavily defeating him south of Tieqi mountain, so that Zhilidi fled alone on horseback while more than two hundred thousand cattle and sheep were taken. Following up his victory he crossed south at the Jijin ford of Wuyuan and went straight into his country, where the inhabitants were thrown into confusion and the tribes broke and fled, until he reached Yueba city where Weichen lived; and Weichen and his son fled in alarm and Taizu sent his generals with light cavalry after them: the duke of Chenliu, Yuan Qian, going south to the White Salt lake took Weichen's household, and the general Yi Wei reaching Mugen mountain took Zhilidi and absorbed all his people, while Weichen fleeing alone on horseback was killed by his own followers and his head sent to the camp, and four million head of horses, cattle and sheep were taken. Before this the river water had turned red as blood and Weichen had thought it a bad omen; and at his fall his kindred were put to death and thrown into the river; though the account in the History of Jin differs somewhat from that of the Wei annals. After this battle all the tribes south of the Yin mountains submitted to Wei, and the Northern Wei having thus defeated most of its strong neighbours grew greatly in power, becoming one of the strongest states in northern China and preparing the way for its entry into the central plain.

The Breach with the Later Yan and the Battle of Shenhe Bank

The Northern Wei had been founded two years before the Later Yan, which was then strong while Wei was weak. The two states were of old connected by marriage, and in the troubles of the Tuoba restoration and their campaigns the Later Yan had mostly sent troops to help, so that Tuoba Gui was on good terms with Yan, exchanging envoys every year. But as his power grew, the ambitious Tuoba Gui began to conceive the thought of destroying Yan, while the Murong of Yan wished to control the Tuoba, so that their relations were in truth delicate. In the very year that Tuoba Gui asked to serve as guide for a Yan expedition against the Helan tribe, Murong Chui detained the Wei envoy Tuoba Gu and demanded famous horses, and Tuoba Gui broke with him and sent envoys to Murong Yong, who had his grand master of ceremonies memorialise urging him to take the exalted title. In the tenth year of Dengguo, 395, Murong Chui sent his son Murong Bao with his sons and brothers at the head of ninety-eight thousand foot and horse against Wei, and Tuoba Gui, learning that the great Yan army was coming, led his people west of the river to avoid battle; and the Yan army reaching Wuyuan in the seventh month took the submission of thirty thousand households of detached Wei tribes and collected grain and built boats to cross and attack, while Tuoba Gui also moved to the river and faced them. He sent his master of horse of the right, Xu Qian, to seek troops from Yao Xing and had the duke of Dongping, Yuan Yi, move to Shuofang; in the eighth month the emperor drilled his troops south of the river and in the ninth month advanced and built a terrace at the ford, with banners along the river for more than a thousand li east and west, the duke of Chenliu, Yuan Qian, with fifty thousand horse on the east to cut off their left, Yuan Yi with fifty thousand horse north of the river to follow behind them, and the duke of Lüeyang, Yuan Zun, with seventy thousand horse to block the road to Zhongshan. Tuoba Gui blocked the road to Zhongshan and seized the Yan envoys going to the front; and Murong Chui having been ill when he set out, the blocking of the roads kept Murong Bao long in ignorance of news from home, and Tuoba Gui compelled the captured envoys to lie to the Yan army that Murong Chui was dead, and so shook the spirit of its officers and men. The two armies faced each other across the river from the ninth month to the tenth, when the Yan, with Murong Lin's officer Muyu Song and others taking Murong Chui for truly dead and plotting rebellion in favour of Murong Lin, the plot was discovered and Muyu Song and the rest put to death, and Bao and Lin being at odds with one another in their own hearts, on the day xinwei of the tenth month they burned their boats and fled by night. The river being not yet frozen the Wei could not pursue at once, but the next month a great wind froze the surface and Tuoba Gui at once ordered the crossing and sent more than twenty thousand picked cavalry after the Yan army, heavily defeating it at the Shenhe bank and taking many of its officers and imperial kinsmen, capturing the prince of Chenliu, Murong Shao, the prince of Luyang, Wonu, the prince of Guilin, Daocheng, the duke of Jiyin, Yin Guo, the heir of the prince of Beidi, Zhongkui, and the heir of the prince of Anding, Yang'er, with several thousand civil and military officers below them, and arms, armour, baggage and military stores beyond counting; and Tuoba Gui chose from among the captives men of ability such as Jia Yi, Jia Gui and Chao Chong to consult on plans and on the statutes and precedents, rewarding his ministers and officers in due degrees. By the Comprehensive Mirror, forty or fifty thousand of the Yan troops laid down their arms at once and were taken, only a few thousand escaping, and the heir apparent Murong Bao and the rest barely escaped on single horses; and Tuoba Gui, meaning to give the captives clothing and grain and send them home to win the hearts of the central land, was told by the chief of the central division, Wang Jian, that the Yan host was strong and had come out with the whole state, and that having had the fortune of a great victory it were better to kill them all so that their state should be empty and the easier to take, and so they were all buried alive — which was why Zhongshan afterwards could not be taken.

Murong Chui's Second Campaign and Death, and Tuoba Gui's Advance into the Central Plain

In the third month of the eleventh year of Dengguo, 396, the Yan emperor Murong Chui, to avenge the shame of the Shenhe bank, led a great army again against Wei. Coming secretly out of Zhongshan and cutting a road through the Taihang mountains, he took Pingcheng by surprise, and the Wei duke of Chenliu who held it led his men out to meet him and was defeated and killed; and Tuoba Gui, shaken by the loss of so important a town and finding the tribes of divided mind at the death of the valiant Tuoba Qian, meant to leave Shengle for a time and avoid the enemy's edge. But Murong Chui, seeing the heaped corpses of the Yan soldiers at the Shenhe bank, fell ill, and was obliged to withdraw and died at Shanggu, and his son Murong Bao returned to Zhongshan to succeed him, so that the crisis facing Tuoba Gui vanished at once. In the seventh month of that year Tuoba Gui set up the banners of the Son of Heaven and changed the era name to Huangshi, beginning formally to prepare for the seizure of the central plain held by the Later Yan. In the eighth month he drilled his troops in the eastern suburb; and on the day jihai he set out in force against Murong Bao, leading in person more than four hundred thousand of the six armies south from Mayi and over Jugu, with banners stretching more than two thousand li, drums beating as they went, so that the houses of the people shook; and he ordered the general Feng Zhen with two other armies by the eastern road to raid Youzhou and invest Ji. In the ninth month he halted at Yangqu and from the western hills looked down on Jinyang, ordering his generals to surround and threaten it with cavalry, and then withdrew; and Murong Bao's governor of Bingzhou, the prince of Liaoxi, Murong Nong, in great fear abandoned the city by night with his wife and children and fled east, and Bingzhou was pacified; and Wei then "first set up the boards and offices, appointed the hundred officials, enfeoffed dukes and marquises and appointed generals, inspectors and governors, all the gentlemen of the secretariat and below being literati." In the tenth month he came out by the Jingxing pass, sending the champion general Wang Jian and the general of the left army Li Li with fifty thousand horse ahead; in the eleventh month he reached Zhending, and east of Changshan the officers either abandoned their cities and fled or knocked their heads at his camp gate, only Zhongshan, Ye and Xindu not submitting; and he ordered the duke of Dongping, Yuan Yi, with fifty thousand horse south against Ye and Wang Jian and Li Li against Xindu, ordering that the army on its march should not harm the people's mulberries and dates. Afterwards the Yan emperor Murong Bao sued for peace, offering to send back Tuoba Gu and cede the land west of Changshan, and Tuoba Gui agreed; but Murong Bao went back on it, and Tuoba Gui then invested Zhongshan. In the end Murong Bao and the rest abandoned the city and fled, and Tuoba Gui meant to enter that night, but Wang Jian dissuaded him on the ground that the soldiers would steal the city's treasures in the dark, so he waited for sunrise; and the men of the city then set up Murong Pulin as their lord and shut the gates against him, and Tuoba Gui tried to storm it for days without success and then tried to win it by offer, while the soldiers and people said they feared the fate of the Yan prisoners killed at the Shenhe bank and held out to the last. Tuoba Gui had a man mount a siege tower and call to the people that Murong Bao had abandoned the city and they had no lord to defend, asking why they did not know the decree of heaven and seek death; and they answered that being ignorant folk they feared only to be as the host of the Shenhe bank and so sought to prolong their days; and Tuoba Gui hearing it turned and spat in Wang Jian's face. In the fifth month he raised the siege. In the first month of the spring of the first year of Tianxing, Murong De withdrew to hold Huatai and Yuan Yi took Ye and its stores; and the emperor, about to return north, levied ten thousand men to make a straight road, cutting through the Heng ridge from the Tie gate of Wangdu to Dai, more than five hundred li; and fearing trouble in Shandong after his return he set up a travelling office at Zhongshan, ordering the left chancellor and acting president of the secretariat, the prince of Wei, Yuan Yi, to hold Zhongshan and the general of the army of the left, the duke of Lüeyang, Yuan Zun, to hold the mouth of the Bohai at Hekou. Afterwards he "moved the officials and people of the six prefectures of Shandong and the Tuhe, Koguryo and mixed barbarians, three hundred and sixty thousand, with a hundred thousand artisans and craftsmen, to fill the capital."

The Battle of Chaibi and His Suspicion and Slaughter in His Last Years

In the fifth year of Tianxing the Qin ruler Yao Xing raised a great army, sending the duke of Yiyang, Yao Ping, and the president of the right of the secretariat, Di Bozhi, with forty thousand foot and horse against Wei while Yao Xing followed with the main force, and Yao Ping took the Wei fortress of Qianbi after sixty days. In the seventh month the Wei ruler sent the prince of Piling, Yuan Shun, and the inspector of Yuzhou, Zhangsun Fei, with sixty thousand horse as the van while he followed with the main army; and reaching Yongan, when Yao Ping sent a brave officer with two hundred picked horse to spy on the Wei army, Zhangsun Fei met and took them all, so that Yao Ping withdrew and the emperor pursued him and came up with him at Chaibi, where he held the city and the Wei besieged it. The Qin ruler Yao Xing brought forty-seven thousand to relieve him, meaning to hold Tiandu and carry grain to him; and the Wei erudite Li Xian said that by the art of war one who is high is perched for the enemy and one who is deep is imprisoned by him, and that the Qin had committed both faults, so that before Yao Xing arrived a surprise force should seize Tiandu and Chaibi could be taken without battle; and the emperor had the double lines of circumvallation strengthened, within against Yao Ping's sortie and without against Yao Xing's entry. The general of wide valour, An Tong, further said that east of the Fen lay the Mengkeng, three hundred li across with no path, and that Yao Xing coming would surely come by the west of the Fen straight to Chaibi, so that it were better to build a pontoon and cross west of the Fen and build a wall to stop him; and the emperor agreed. Yao Xing reaching Puban, fearing Wei's strength, advanced only after long delay; and the emperor with thirty thousand foot and horse met him south of the Mengkeng, taking more than a thousand heads, so that Yao Xing fell back more than forty li, and the emperor then posted troops to hold the four strongpoints so that the Qin could not approach Chaibi. In the tenth month Yao Ping, his grain and arrows gone, tried by night to break out through the southwest, and Yao Xing drew up troops west of the Fen and lit beacons and beat drums in answer, but only shouted to one another and none dared press the ring; and Yao Ping, unable to escape and at the end of his devices, led his men into the water and drowned, and most of his officers followed him, the emperor having swimmers drag for them so that none escaped, while Di Bozhi and the cavalry colonel Tang Xiaofang and more than forty others were taken and the remaining twenty thousand laid down their arms; and Yao Xing, watching his ruin and unable to save him, wept with his whole army so that the sound shook the valley, and several times sent to sue for peace, but the emperor refused; and following up his victory he attacked Puban, until hearing that the Rouran meant to attack Wei he led his troops back. Thereafter Taizu, having taken the cold-food powder, and the medicine having often worked on him since the death of the imperial physician Yin Qiang, grew much worse, and with disasters frequent he was anxious and uneasy, sometimes eating nothing for days and sometimes not sleeping till dawn; he blamed those below him, his joy and anger were out of course, he thought the hundred officials and those about him untrustworthy, and fearing from the prognostications that there might be peril at his elbow, he recalled his past successes and failures and talked to himself all day and night as if something were answering him; and when ministers came before him he would recall their old faults and kill them, and others whose colour changed, or whose breathing was uneven, or whose walk was out of step, or whose words failed them he took to be harbouring evil within that showed without, and would beat them with his own hands, so that "the dead all lay before the Tian'an hall." Thus high and low alike feared for themselves, the offices grew slack and no one supervised them, craftsmen stole and robbers worked openly, and the streets and lanes were left with few people; and hearing of it the emperor said that he had let it be so and that when the year of calamity had passed he would set it in order again. On the day wuchen of the tenth month of the sixth year of Tianci the emperor died in the Tian'an hall at thirty-nine; in the ninth month of the second year of Yongxing he was given the posthumous name Emperor Xuanwu and buried at the Jinling at Shengle with the temple name Taizu, and in the fifth year of Taichang his posthumous name was changed to Daowu. As to his death, by the annals of Wei the emperor was about to put to death his consort lady He, and she secretly sent to Tuoba Shao for help; and Tuoba Shao, in league with the palace guards and eunuchs, came over the wall into the palace that night and killed him, the emperor waking as he came and seeking a weapon in vain, and being killed by him. By the History of Song there is also a tale that a shaman warned Tuoba Gui that disaster would come upon him and that only by "destroying Qinghe and killing ten thousand men" could he escape it.

Major Activities

Founding Institutions

Tuoba Gui assumed the title King of Dai in 386 and changed his title to King of Wei later the same year, establishing the Northern Wei polity. In 398 he moved the capital to Pingcheng, formally established the state name Wei, and assumed the imperial title. He modeled institutions on those of Central Plains dynasties, built palaces, ancestral temples, and altars of soil and grain, and established an official bureaucracy, laying institutional foundations for Northern Wei.

Military Consolidation of the North

Tuoba Gui successively defeated Gaoche, Rouran, Tiefu, and other northern groups and consolidated control south of the Gobi. He then destroyed the main Later Yan army at Canhe Slope and took advantage of Murong Chui’s death to advance south. He captured Zhongshan and Ye and occupied large areas of northern China, laying foundations for Northern Wei’s later unification of the north.

Breaking Up Tribal Organization and Political Reform

During state formation, Tuoba Gui pursued policies that weakened blood-based tribal organization and registered populations according to place of residence, turning older kinship-based groupings into territorially organized administrative units. He also implemented an eight-division system around the capital Pingcheng, dividing the surrounding area into eight sectors under eight commanders to strengthen control over the population. The Chinese source states that these measures weakened tribal aristocrats, reinforced central authority, and contributed to Northern Wei’s transformation from a tribal confederation into a more centralized state.

Travels and Campaign Geography

Tuoba Gui campaigned widely across the Dai region and Central Plains. His early activities centered on Shengle and Niuchuan. After restoration, he campaigned against Liu Xian, Kumo Xi, Gaoche, Rouran, Tiefu, and other groups, reaching as far north as Ruoluo River and Luhun Lake and west to the Hetao region. During the southern war against Later Yan, he stayed successively at Jinyang, Changshan, Zhongshan, Ye, and other places before making Pingcheng his capital.

Relations with Contemporaries

Tuoba Gui had a complex relationship with Later Yan ruler Murong Chui. He initially relied on Later Yan assistance to overcome internal rebellion, but the detention of envoy Tuoba Gu caused relations to collapse and eventually led to war. He also had contacts with Later Qin ruler Yao Xing; before the Battle of Canhe Slope he sent Xu Qian to request military aid from Later Qin. Among former officials of Dai, he was close to Yan Feng, Zhangsun Song, and Wang Jian. Yan Feng helped ensure that he could remain in his homeland as a child, while Wang Jian advised the mass killing of surrendered Yan soldiers after Canhe Slope.

His Military Achievements and the Unification of Daibei

After taking the throne of Dai, Tuoba Gui with the help of Murong Lin of the Later Yan subdued in turn Liu Xian of the Dugu, Liu Weichen of the Tiefu and the Helan tribe, and broke the Kumoxi, the Gaoche and the Rouran, gradually unifying the region of Daibei and growing strong: in the sixth year of Dengguo he attacked the Rouran and pursued them to Nanchuang mountain, taking half their people, and heavily defeated the Tiefu, taking four million head of horses, cattle and sheep, "and all the tribes south of the river submitted"; at the Shenhe bank he overthrew the main force of the Later Yan, taking several thousand of its civil and military officers, and at Chaibi he destroyed tens of thousands of the Qin army and took Di Bozhi and forty others alive. By this time the Northern Wei had defeated most of its strong neighbours and had become one of the strongest powers in the north, preparing the way for its entry into the central plain.

The Dissolution of the Tribes and Feudalisation

To strengthen the process of feudalisation Tuoba Gui forcibly dissolved the tribal organisations based on blood relationship and re-formed them by place of residence as households of the state. On entering the central plain he moved several hundred thousand people of Shandong to Pingcheng to fill the capital region, a policy of mass migration that caused some disturbance, the powerful houses unwilling to be moved gathering their followers in resistance; but by moving troops and by remitting taxes and giving relief in two directions the order of Shandong was quickly restored. He also set up four ranks of nobility, prince, duke, marquis and earl, with five grades of titular office, had the imperial clan appoint a clan master and the eight states masters great and small, and the prefectures and commanderies masters too, to distinguish kin and factions and raise talent; and he appointed twenty palace officials ranking with the palace attendants to serve in turns at his side, and increased the attendant officers to issue orders at home and abroad, taking sons of good family of the eight states and men of years and reputation from the four commanderies of Dai, Shanggu, Guangning and Yanmen to fill them.

Agriculture, Letters and Punishments

In the first year of Dengguo Tuoba Gui had tried settled farming at Shengle, which came to nothing because of the military pressure from Liu Xian and others, and in the ninth year of Dengguo he had the duke of Dongping, Tuoba Yi, open garrison farms in Wuyuan and elsewhere. After moving the capital to Pingcheng he settled people to farm and developed the region, so that much fertile land lay about Pingcheng: in the early Tianxing period "the capital region was laid out, from Daijun in the east to Shanwu in the west, from Yingguan in the south to Shenhe in the north, as the fields within the capital region, and outside, in the four quarters and four corners, eight division chiefs were posted to supervise them, encouraging farming and comparing the returns to rank them, and the emperor ploughed the sacred field in person to lead the people." In letters he had masters appointed for each of the Five Classics and other books and increased the students of the imperial college by three thousand, and gathered the erudites and scholars to collate the texts of the classics by category, more than forty thousand characters in all, under the title of the Collective Classics. Asked by the emperor what book in the world was best for enlarging a man's wisdom, Li Xian answered that there was none but the classics, and being asked further how many books there were in the world and how they might be gathered, he advised strict orders to every prefecture and commandery to search out and send them up, and the emperor accordingly issued orders throughout the realm, "and the classics were somewhat gathered." On fixing the capital at Pingcheng he issued a decree for the building of Buddhist temples so that believers might have a place to dwell, and at the same time "he loved the words of Laozi and chanted them untiringly," lecturing himself and punishing ministers who did not listen carefully to his exposition of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi. In punishments, Taizu, "having met hardship in youth and tasted every danger, knew well the truth and falsehood of the people"; in office he practised benevolence and kindness and brought harmony among the people; and having settled the central plain and finding the penal net of former ages too close, he had the gentleman of the three excellencies Wang De remove from the law what was cruel and oppressive to the people and settle the statutes, greatly preferring simplicity; and the people, long afflicted by war and loving peace, and knowing this, he steadied them by silence, and punishment was ever light, so that the millions rejoiced and upheld him.

His Fixing of the Dynastic Name, His Moving of the Capital to Pingcheng and His Building

In the third year of Huangshi, 398, Tuoba Gui formally fixed the dynastic name as Wei, moved the capital to Pingcheng and took the imperial throne. He built palaces, established ancestral temples and altars of soil and grain, and had distances marked and weights and measures equalised and checked. After moving the capital he actively built the city, using captured Gaoche and the eight divisions' men of Pingcheng as labour, raising a whole series of buildings including the twelve gates of the capital and the western arsenal, so that the poor region north of Dai was greatly developed: with the captured Gaoche he made the Deer Park, "bounded by the shadow of the terrace in the south, the Great Wall in the north, Baideng in the east and the western hills, several tens of li across," dug a channel to lead the waters of Wuchuan into the park and divided them into three channels flowing within and without the palace city, and dug the Wild Goose pond; and afterwards he raised in turn the Tianhua hall, the Zhongtian hall with the Mica chamber and the Golden Flower room, the Purple Pole hall, the Dark Warrior tower, the Cool Wind belvedere, the stone pool and the Deer Park terrace. From the first year of Tianxing he had Cui Hong and others decide that Wei should follow the earth virtue, with yellow for its ceremonial colour and other adaptations of the central plain system, and the president of the secretariat Cui Xuanbo and the rest memorialised accordingly; but at the sacrifice to heaven in the second year of Tianci, 405, the old Xianbei rite was still followed, sacrificing to heaven in the western suburb and using black rather than the yellow of the earth virtue.

Personal Relations

• Tuoba Shiyiqian, Emperor Zhaocheng: grandfather
• Tuoba Shi, Emperor Xianming: father
• Empress Xianming, of the He clan: mother
• Murong clan member, daughter of Murong Bao, and Lady Liu: wives/consorts as listed in the Chinese source
• Tuoba Si, Emperor Mingyuan; Tuoba Shao; Tuoba Xi; and Tuoba Yao: sons
• Tuoba Yi and Tuoba Gu: clan brothers
• Yan Feng: former Dai official who argued that Tuoba Gui should remain in his homeland
• Zhangsun Song: southern tribal leader and later senior Northern Wei official
• Wang Jian: central tribal leader who advised burying the surrendered soldiers alive after Canhe Slope
• Mu Chong: warned Tuoba Gui about Liu Xian’s plot and later became a Northern Wei meritorious official
• Helan Na: leader of the Helan group who supported Tuoba Gui’s rule
• Murong Chui: ruler of Later Yan; early ally and later enemy
• Murong Bao: Later Yan crown prince and opponent at Canhe Slope
• Fu Jian: ruler of Former Qin who destroyed Dai but permitted Tuoba Gui to remain in his homeland
• Yao Xing: ruler of Later Qin, from whom Tuoba Gui requested assistance before the Battle of Canhe Slope
• Tuoba Kuduo: uncle and failed rival claimant
• Liu Xian: Dugu leader who sought to kill Tuoba Gui
• Liu Weichen: Tiefu leader and hereditary enemy whose clan was destroyed
• Helan Rangan: Helan leader and maternal relative who attempted to kill Tuoba Gui
• Tuoba Shao: second son who assassinated Tuoba Gui

Historical Assessment

Northern Dynasties

The Book of Wei, volume 2, praised Tuoba Gui as a heroic founder who personally led armies to sweep away rivals, moved the capital to Pingcheng, built palaces, ancestral temples and state altars, promoted the people’s welfare, fixed the official system, and established institutions and teachings. Wei Shou treated him as the ruler who created the dynasty and laid its foundations.

The Book of Wei also records that even during periods of leisure he continued discussion and study and “did not put books down,” praising his interest in learning. At the same time, it criticizes his later years for deep suspicion and conduct departing from proper norms.

Sui and Tang Periods

The Sui historian Wang Shao, drawing on Northern Wei historiography in his History of Wei, praised Tuoba Gui’s achievements and described him as a martial ruler who rose amid a difficult age, conquered enemies in all directions, and gained the Central Plains.

Tang historian Liu Zhiji, in Generalities on History, discussed Northern Wei affairs and acknowledged Tuoba Gui’s military ability and founding achievements while also criticizing his tendency toward killing.

Song and Yuan Periods

Sima Guang’s Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance recorded Tuoba Gui’s career with recognition of his military skill and state-building achievements but also criticized the violence of his late reign, describing him as increasingly suspicious and inclined to kill for minor offenses.

Yuan scholar Hu Sanxing, in his commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror, discussed Tuoba Gui’s military methods and judged the tactics at Canhe Slope effective, while condemning the mass killing of surrendered troops as excessively cruel.

Modern Assessments

Modern historian Lü Simian, in History of the Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, described Tuoba Gui as a powerful martial ruler who rose in the northern Dai region amid disorder, campaigned in all directions, and eventually secured the Central Plains, while arguing that cultural transformation under his rule remained incomplete.

Contemporary scholar Tian Yuqing, in Studies in Tuoba History, emphasized Tuoba Gui’s breakup of tribal organization and construction of imperial authority, treating him as a key figure in Northern Wei’s transformation from a tribal confederation toward a centralized state and arguing that these institutional changes influenced later Northern Dynasties and Sui–Tang institutions.