Yao Xing

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Yao Xing came from the Yao clan of Chiting in Nan'an, a powerful Qiang lineage. His grandfather Yao Yizhong served as Grand Commander of the Western Qiang under Shi Hu of Later Zhao and was famed for courage and strategy; he had forty-two sons. Yao Xing's father Yao Chang repeatedly won military distinction under Fu Jian of Former Qin and rose to General of the Flying Dragon. After Former Qin collapsed following the Battle of the Fei River, Yao Chang was supported in 384 by more than fifty thousand households associated with western notables such as Yin Xiang, Zhao Yao, and Wang Qinlu. At Mamu north of the Wei River he styled himself General-in-Chief, Grand Chanyu, and Prince of Qin for Ten Thousand Years, establishing Later Qin.

Yao Xing was then in Chang'an. He escaped at great risk and joined his father, who made him Crown Prince. During the early years of Later Qin, Yao Chang was frequently away campaigning against Fu Deng, while Yao Xing guarded Chang'an and handled government affairs. He often discussed the classics with Han Chinese scholars such as Liang Xi, a palace aide to the Crown Prince, and Fan Xu, an equerry of the Crown Prince. Although living amid warfare, he did not abandon learning and was deeply influenced by Confucian scholarship. Historical accounts say that he had “great authority and benevolence” and that “people of the time were transformed by him,” showing that he was already known in youth for generosity and mildness.

Regency and First Military Successes

In the third month of 392, the seventh year of the Jianchu era, Yao Chang fell gravely ill at the front and urgently summoned Yao Xing to the army at Anding. Before he left, General Who Conquers the South Yao Fangcheng warned him that Wang Tong, Fu Yin, and other surrendered Former Qin commanders retained their own followers and might cause trouble and therefore should be eliminated early. Yao Xing was already suspicious of the surrendered commanders and decisively had Fu Yin, Wang Tong, Wang Guang, Xu Cheng, Mao Sheng, and others executed, removing a potential threat.

In 393, the eighth year of Jianchu, Former Qin commander Dou Chong rebelled and Fu Deng led an army to besiege him. Yin Wei suggested that Yao Chang send Yao Xing into battle to develop his military experience. Yao attacked Hukong Fort. When Fu Deng heard, he lifted the siege and went to the rescue, allowing Yao Xing to seize Pingliang in a surprise attack and return with a major victory. The campaign demonstrated his military judgment, and Yao Chang relied on him increasingly, ordering him to return to guard Chang'an.

In the twelfth month of that year Yao Chang died. Before death, Yao Huang asked about plans for destroying Fu Deng. Yao Chang replied that the great enterprise was nearly complete and that Xing's talent and intelligence were sufficient, so there was nothing more to ask. Yao Xing concealed the death, ordered Yao Xu to guard Anding, Yao Shuode to guard Yinmi, and Yao Chong to defend Chang'an, while styling himself General-in-Chief. He appointed Yin Wei chief secretary and Di Bozhi adjutant and prepared the army for war.

Destruction of Former Qin and Accession

In the spring of 394, the first year of the Huangchu era, Fu Deng learned of Yao Chang's death and contemptuously declared that Yao Xing was only a boy whom he could beat with a broken staff. He immediately marched east. Yao Xing first sent a surprise force that captured the rebellious Xianyang governor Liu Jinu, removing a threat to the rear. Fu Deng then advanced from Liumo toward Feiqiao. Yao sent Yin Wei with infantry to reinforce Yao Xiang at Mawei Fort. Yin held Feiqiao against Fu Deng, and Former Qin troops, unable to obtain water, suffered severe thirst and losses. They urgently attacked Yin. Yao sent Di Bozhi to order Yin to remain cautious and avoid battle, but Yin judged that because Yao Chang had just died and morale was uncertain, only a hard-fought victory could stabilize the army. He therefore engaged Fu Deng decisively and heavily defeated Former Qin. Fu Deng fled alone to Pingliang and entered Maomao Mountain.

Only after the victory did Yao formally announce mourning for Yao Chang. He proclaimed himself emperor at Huaili, southeast of present-day Xingping, Shaanxi, changed the era name to Huangchu, and posthumously honored Yao Chang as Emperor Wuzhao. In the seventh month Fu Deng sought aid from Qifu Gangui and led his troops out of the mountains. Yao met him south of Maomao Mountain, captured him alive, and executed him. He did not massacre Fu Deng's followers but released them to return to farming and moved thirty thousand households from Yinmi to Chang'an. Former Qin Crown Prince Fu Chong later proclaimed himself emperor in Huangzhong but was soon killed by Qifu Gangui, formally ending Former Qin. Yao's comparatively lenient handling of surrendered populations helped stabilize Guanzhong.

Expansion and the Height of Later Qin

After accession, Yao suppressed rebellions by Qiang Xi, Yang Duo, Dou Chong, and others and stabilized his rule. In 396, the third year of the Huangchu era, the Xianbei leader Yuezhi Jiegui led twenty thousand households in leaving Western Qin and surrendering to Later Qin; Yao settled them at Chengji. The same year Yao Shuode destroyed Jiang Ru at Shanggui, giving Later Qin broad control of Longyou. In 397, the fourth year of the Huangchu era, Yao suppressed Xue Bo's rebellion and increased his prestige.

The source also states that in 397, the seventh year of the Huangchu era, Yao launched an offensive against Eastern Jin and seized Hucheng, Shangluo, and other places. In 399, the ninth year of Huangchu, Yao Chong and Yang Fosong captured Luoyang and its defender Xin Gongjing. Many cities north of the Huai and Han rivers submitted without resistance. In 400, the second year of the Hongshi era, Yao Shuode launched a major attack on Western Qin. Qifu Gangui was defeated, first fleeing to Southern Liang and then surrendering to Later Qin. In 401, the third year of Hongshi, Yao Shuode attacked Later Liang and besieged Guzang; Later Liang ruler Lü Long requested surrender. Li Gao of Western Liang, Tufa Lilugu of Southern Liang, and Juqu Mengxun of Northern Liang also sent envoys seeking submission. In 403, the fifth year of Hongshi, pressure from Southern and Northern Liang led Later Liang to request a Later Qin escort. Yao sent Qi Nan to Guzang, formally annexed Later Liang, and transferred the Lü clan to Chang'an. At this point Later Qin reached its territorial height, extending south to the Han River region, east beyond Ru and Ying, west to the Western River region, and north to Shang Commandery, making it one of the strongest regimes of northern China at the time.

Defeat at Chaibi and Raids by Xia

In 402, the fourth year of the Hongshi era, Yao's refusal of a marriage proposal damaged relations with Tuoba Gui of Northern Wei. Northern Wei first attacked Gaoping and drove Moyigan away, alarming Chang'an. Yao sent Yao Ping and Di Bozhi with forty thousand infantry and cavalry against Northern Wei and personally led a large army behind them. Northern Wei was strong, and after Yao Ping took Qianbi he was surrounded at Chaibi. Yao Xing advanced with forty-seven thousand troops to relieve him and sought to seize Tiandu to move provisions, but Northern Wei built a floating bridge over the Fen River and fortified positions to block him. South of Mengkeng, Yao fought Tuoba Gui, lost more than one thousand men, and was forced to retreat. With provisions exhausted, Yao Ping attempted a breakout and drowned himself; Di Bozhi, Tang Xiaofang, and more than twenty thousand soldiers were captured. Watching from across the Fen as the army was annihilated, Yao Xing “wept in grief, his cries shaking the valley.” The defeat severely weakened Later Qin and ended its ability to compete directly with Northern Wei.

In 407, the ninth year of Hongshi, Helian Bobo became enraged by Later Qin's reconciliation with Northern Wei, killed Moyigan, rebelled, and founded Xia. Xia thereafter repeatedly attacked Later Qin's northern frontier, overran garrisons north of the three cities, killed commanders Yang Pi and Yao Shisheng, and forced towns in Lingbei to keep their gates closed even by day. Yao is recorded as regretting that he had not listened to the advice of his younger brother Yao Yong. In 408, the tenth year of Hongshi, he sent Qi Nan against Xia, but the army was heavily defeated and Qi captured; an attack on Southern Liang also ended badly. Helian Bobo continued raiding year after year. Although Yao personally led forces against him, he never eliminated Xia and Later Qin steadily declined.

Succession Struggle and Death

The most serious internal problem of Yao's later reign was a dispute over succession. His favored son Yao Bi, Duke of Guangping, entered court in 411, the thirteenth year of Hongshi, as Prefect of the Masters of Writing, Palace Attendant, and General-in-Chief and became extremely powerful. Yao Bi gathered supporters and sought to replace Crown Prince Yao Hong, even framing and causing the execution of Yao Hong's confidant Yao Wenzong. Right Vice Director Liang Xi, Palace Attendant Ren Qian, Intendant of the Capital Yin Zhao, and other ministers strongly remonstrated. Yao Xing denied intending to depose the heir but never effectively restrained Yao Bi's faction. In 414, the sixteenth year of Hongshi, while Yao Xing was gravely ill, Yao Bi's supporters even plotted disorder. Although Yao Xing forgave Yao Bi after the plot failed, the political situation had become difficult to control.

Yao Xing died in 416, the eighteenth year of Hongshi, aged fifty-one. Crown Prince Yao Hong succeeded him. In 417, Liu Yu of Eastern Jin launched a northern campaign and destroyed Later Qin.

Yao Xing, styled Zilue, was the eldest son of Yao Chang, founder of the Later Qin, and had been a member of the heir's household under Fu Jian. After the defeat at the Fei river the Former Qin fell apart; in 384 Yao Chang, supported by the Qiang of Guanzhong and the great families of the northwest, formally broke with the Former Qin and styled himself general-in-chief, great chanyu and king of Wanqin with the era name Baique, and more than a hundred thousand Qiang and Hu came over to him by stages. When his father rose at Mumu, Yao Xing was in Chang'an; he escaped at the risk of his life to join him and was made crown prince. After the founding of the Later Qin, Yao Chang was often away campaigning against the Former Qin emperor Fu Deng, and Yao Xing held Chang'an as crown prince and handled government; in those years he often discussed the classics with the Chinese scholars Liang Xi and Fan Xu and others, not letting the troubles of war interrupt the work, so that men were transformed by the example, and he formed close ties with them and was much influenced.

In the third month of 392, when Yao Chang fell ill in the field, he posted officers to hold Chang'an and summoned Yao Xing urgently to the camp at Anding. Before he left, the general Yao Fangcheng told him that with the enemy undestroyed and the emperor ill, men like Wang Tong and Fu Yin, each with his own following, would in the end do harm and had best be removed; Yao Xing, who had feared that the generals who had come over from the Former Qin could not be controlled, accordingly put Fu Yin, Wang Tong, Wang Guang, Xu Cheng and Mao Sheng to death and then went. The next year, when the Former Qin general Dou Chong styled himself king of Qin, fought Fu Deng and appealed to the Later Qin, Yin Wei told Yao Chang that the crown prince's reputation for generosity was long established but his military ability not yet shown, and proposed sending him against Fu Deng to try it; Yao Chang agreed and sent Yao Xing against Hukong fort, whereupon Fu Deng raised the siege to relieve it and Yao Xing raided Pingliang and returned with much booty, rising in his father's estimation and being posted to hold Chang'an.

Yao Chang died in the twelfth month of 394. When Yao Huang, weeping, asked his plans for destroying Fu Deng, he answered that the great work was nearly done and Yao Xing's ability enough for it, so that there was nothing more to ask. Yao Xing kept the death secret, posting his uncle Yao Xu at Anding, Yao Shuode at Yinmi and his brother Yao Chong in Chang'an. Yao Shuode's officers urged him to take his strong troops west to Qinzhou and watch how things fell out, but he answered that Yao Xing was generous and enlightened and would not suspect him, and that to take up arms while Fu Deng lived would be to follow the two Yuan brothers to ruin; he went to Yao Xing and was well received. Fu Deng, hearing of Yao Chang's death, was delighted and said that Yao Xing was a child whom he could beat with a stick, proclaimed an amnesty and took two forts held by the Tuge chief Yao Nu and Baipu. To avoid a dispute over titles Yao Xing did not take the imperial style but called himself general-in-chief, with Yin Wei as his chief of staff and Di Bozhi as his marshal; meeting the coming war calmly, he first sent a detachment to surprise Xianyang, capturing the governor Liu Jinu who had rebelled at Bishi fort, so that his rear was secure, and then gave Yao Chang the posthumous title Wuzhao and the temple name Taizu.

Soon after Yao Chang's death the decision was fought out between the Later and Former Qin. Fu Deng marched from Liumo straight for the Fei bridge, and the Later Qin governor of Shiping, Yao Xiang, held the Mawei fort against him; Yao Xing, doubting that Yao Xiang could hold, led picked cavalry himself to press Fu Deng and sent Yin Wei with infantry to Yao Xiang, who took Yao Xiang's advice and held the Fei bridge. When Fu Deng attacked hard and Yin Wei was about to give battle, Yao Xing sent Di Bozhi at speed to tell him that the art of war prizes mastering the enemy without fighting, and that Fu Deng was a cornered bandit to be handled with weight and not lightly engaged; Yin Wei answered that with the late emperor just dead men's hearts were shaken, and that unless they used their eagerness to destroy the enemy the whole enterprise was lost, and fought Fu Deng, breaking him utterly, so that two or three parts in ten of his men died of thirst and his army scattered that night, Fu Deng fleeing alone to Yong. Yao Xing then went into mourning, and in 394 took the imperial title at Huaili, proclaimed an amnesty and changed the era name to Huangchu. When Qifu Qiangui sent ten thousand cavalry to relieve Fu Deng, Yao Xing met him south of the mountains, took him alive and killed him; he did not slaughter his followers but sent them all home to farming and moved thirty thousand households from Yinmi to Chang'an.

In the following years he subdued or absorbed the various forces of Guanzhong and the Long region one after another. When the generals Qiang Xi and Yang Duo rebelled and raised Dou Chong as their chief, Yao Xing campaigned in person; at Wugong county Yang Duo's nephew killed him and surrendered, Qiang Xi fled to Qinzhou and Dou Chong to Qianchuan, where the Di chief Qiu Gao seized and delivered him. The Xianbei Yue Zhi Gui came over with twenty thousand households from Qifu Qiangui and was settled at Chengji and made a duke. Yao Shuode destroyed Hu Jinbao at Luocheng and then marched on Shanggui against Jiang Ru, who surrendered; Yao Xing made Yao Shuode governor of Qinzhou and protector of the eastern Qiang, holding Shanggui, and Jiang Ru a minister. When Qiang Xi and Quan Qiancheng invested Shanggui with thirty thousand men, Yao Shuode broke them, Qiang Xi fleeing to Chouchi and afterward by a roundabout way to the Eastern Jin, and Quan Qiancheng surrendering at Lüeyang. After the Western Yan was destroyed, its governor of Hedong, Liu Gong, held out behind the Yellow River; Yao Xing sent Yao Xu against him, who could not cross until Xue Qiang, holding the Yang family wall, brought him over at Longmen into Puban, whereupon Liu Gong surrendered. Yao Xing moved six thousand households from Xinping and Anding to Puban and put Hedong under the provinces of Bing and Ji with Yao Xu as their governor at Puban.

In the ninth month of 397 the Xianbei Xue Bo rebelled and fled to the north of the ridge, where the mixed Hu of Shangjun and Erchuan joined him and besieged Yao Xiang at Jincheng. Yao Xing sent Yao Chong and Yin Wei against him; Yao Chong cut his road but his own army went hungry for want of transport, and Yin Wei argued that the chiefs charged with the grain, men of the third rank, should be punished by law for failing in their duty, whereupon Yao Chong executed two of them and the tribes, terrified, brought in more than five hundred thousand piculs. Yao Xing then took the field in person with twenty thousand horse and foot, and Xue Bo fled in fear to the duke of Gaoping, who seized and delivered him. In 399 Yao Xing attacked Hucheng in the Eastern Jin; the governors of Hongnong and Huashan surrendered, and he went on to Shancheng and took Shangluo. He sent Yao Chong against Luoyang, but the Jin governor held Jinyong and the siege failed; he took the town of Bogu instead and moved more than twenty thousand households of refugees there, ordering the local officials to bury the fallen and find kin to continue their lines. The same year the Di of Wudu, Tu Fei and Dan Tie, killed the governor Yao Hui and held the Fangshan hills with more than three thousand households; Yao Xing sent Yao Shao against them, killed both, and sent Di Bozhi to Hanzhong to receive more than ten thousand households of refugees under Cao Hui and Niu Shou. In the ninth month of that year, because of eclipses and repeated disasters, he lowered his own title from emperor to king and had his dukes, ministers, generals, governors and officials each reduced a grade; fifty-three of them memorialized together that his merits reached heaven, that he was about to cleanse the south of Wu and Yue and unify the central plains, and that he should not be so modest as to defy heaven's charge, to which Yao Xing replied with the examples of Tang of Yin and others.

After lowering his title to king in 399 Yao Xing proclaimed an amnesty and changed the era name to Hongshi, distributed grain and cloth to widowers, widows, orphans and the childless, adding clothes and staves to those over seventy, and had the governor of Shiping, Zhou Ban, and the magistrate of Huaili executed for corruption, so that the commanderies were orderly. After the fall of Luoyang most of the cities north of the Huai and the Han sent hostages and asked to submit. When Wei Hua of Jingzhao, Xiahou Gui of Qiaojun and Pang Tiao of Shiping led more than ten thousand refugees of Xiangyang in revolt from the Eastern Jin to join him, Yao Xing received Wei Hua in the eastern hall and asked how the government, education and customs of the Jin stood since their move south; Wei Hua answered that the Jin ruler had the dignity of a sovereign without the substance of rule, that government issued from many doors and authority had left the imperial house, that the laws were harsh and the customs extravagant, and that since Huan Wen and Xie An there had been no ruler of balanced severity and lenity. Yao Xing, much pleased, made him director of the secretariat. He also praised by decree the integrity of several officials, adding a hundred households to the fief of one, the rank of marquis to another and a grade to the rest.

In the fifth month of 400 he sent Yao Shuode with the armies of Longyou against Qifu Qiangui while secretly leading troops himself to surprise him; Qiangui fled, thirty-six thousand of his men surrendered and sixty thousand armored horses were taken, and as Yao Xing's army never plundered the people, they were attached to him. Qiangui, at the end of his resources, soon surrendered and was made a general, governor of Hezhou and marquis of Guiyi, his followers being returned to him. In 402 the Northern Wei attacked Mo Yiyu, who abandoned his troops and fled with a few thousand riders and Helian Bobo to Qinzhou; the Wei army advanced to Wating, Chang'an was shaken and the cities shut their gates, and the Wei governor of Pingyang invaded Hedong. Yao Xing then drilled and reviewed his troops west of the city, summoned the bold into the palace and held a great council in the eastern hall on campaigning against Wei; his ministers all advised against it and he would not be dissuaded. The commandant Yao Xian urged that the ruler, being the anchor of the realm, should not go in person but send his generals by separate routes with instructions for victory, and Yao Xing answered that a king's business was to extend his territory and quiet disorder, so that he could not decline.

He thereupon dispatched several columns: Yao Ping and Di Bozhi with forty thousand horse and foot against Wei, Yao Shuode and Yao Mu with sixty thousand against Lü Long, with cavalry from Xingcheng and north of the ridge, picked troops from Guanzhong, the troops of Hedong and the horse of Shuofang all concentrating at Pingwang to join him; Mo Yiyu was left in charge at Shanggui, the duke of Guangling at Luoyang, and Yao Xian and the president of the secretariat with the crown prince Yao Hong. Yao Shuode, reaching Guzang, broke Lü Long's army and took ten thousand prisoners and heads, and Lü Long with twenty-five thousand men surrendered the Eastern Park; the chiefs holding Xiping, Zhangye and Dunhuang, who had been facing Lü Long, all sued for peace as well. In his campaign Yao Shuode conciliated the peoples, appointed officials, husbanded grain and stored it for a long stay, and kept his army in such order that it took nothing by force, sacrificed to the worthies of old and honored scholars, to the pleasure of the men of the west.

In the eighth month of 402 Yao Xing marched from Chang'an with forty-seven thousand men to join Yao Ping, who had taken the Wei town of Qiancheng and occupied Chaibi; the Wei army came in force and cut the Fen river, and Yao Xing, reaching Puban, dared not advance. Yao Ping, his grain and arrows gone, rode with thirty followers into the Fen and drowned, and ten generals with Di Bozhi and more than forty thousand men were taken by the Wei. Yao Xing decreed generous posthumous rewards to the dead; the Wei army pressed on to Puban, where Yao Xu held firm and would not fight, and the Wei withdrew, after which Yao Xing moved more than ten thousand households of the great families of Hexi to Chang'an.

In the twelfth month of 402 Yao Xing sent the general Zhao Yao west with twenty thousand men to camp at Jincheng and the officer Wang Songfen with cavalry to help Lü Long hold Guzang. Reaching Wei'an, Wang Songfen was surrounded by Tufa Wenzhen, brother of Tufa Nutan; the army broke and he was taken and sent to Nutan, who was furious with his brother, sent Wang Songfen back to Chang'an, punished Tufa Wenzhen and memorialized an apology to Yao Xing. Yao Xing decreed that the officers of the Mawei battle be recorded and promoted in order, their fort households exempted from taxes and service for twenty years. When Peng Quan, governor of Shunyang in the Eastern Jin, submitted, Yao Xing sent Yang Fosong with five thousand horse and the governor of Jingzhou to receive him, and took Nanxiang, capturing the general Liu Song and raiding to the borders of Liang before returning. He sent an envoy to Liangzhou to summon Lü Chao, brother of Lü Long, to court; Lü Long, fearing Tufa Nutan, asked to be moved inward, and Yao Xing sent Qi Nan with three generals and forty thousand horse and foot to receive him in Hexi. When Qi Nan reached Guzang he made his marshal Wang Shang acting governor of Liangzhou with three thousand men to hold the city, posted two generals over the towns of Cangsong and Fanhe, and moved Lü Long with his clan and staff to Chang'an. Wang Shang calmed and comforted the remaining people and taught them good faith and righteousness, so that they were drawn to him, and the Xianbei of the north sent envoys with tribute.

Toward the Eastern Jin and Chouchi his choices were equally deliberate. Huan Xuan sent envoys asking for the return of Xin Gongjing and He Danzhi; Yao Xing held Xin and released He, telling him that Huan Xuan, not reckoning the course of the times, meant to usurp, that heaven had not forgotten the Jin and a righteous rising would surely come, and that in his own view Huan Xuan would in the end be overthrown, so that He would go home to see his fall and they would meet again before long. Xin Gongjing had earlier refused to bow when received, saying he would rather be a ghost of his own state than a subject of the Qiang bandits, and Yao Xing had him confined; he now climbed the wall and escaped. Yao Xing also sent Yao Shuode and two other generals with thirty thousand men against Yang Sheng of Chouchi, advancing from two directions, and they took Yang Sheng's nephew Yang Bin and all his troops, so that Yang Sheng's brother and then Yang Sheng himself submitted; Yang Sheng was made a commissioner and governor of Yizhou and marquis of Wudu, sending his son and several dozen of his officers' sons as hostages, and another column took Cheng Gu and moved more than three thousand refugee households from Hanzhong to Guanzhong.

In the fifth month of 404 Liu Yu destroyed Huan Xuan and restored the emperor An, and Huan Xuan's generals, Huan Qian, Huan Yi, Huan Wei, Huan Mi, Huan Yin and He Danzhi, fled to Yao Xing. Liu Yu sent an officer to Yao Xian proposing friendly relations, and from then on envoys passed between the two states without cease. When Liu Yu asked for the return of the Nanxiang commanderies Yao Xing granted it, though his ministers objected, saying that goodness is one everywhere, that Liu Yu had risen from low station to support the Jin house, and that he would not begrudge a few commanderies in order not to spoil so fine a thing — and he ceded twelve commanderies, Nanxiang, Shunyang, Xinye and Wuyin among them, to the Jin.

While Wang Shang was confined at the southern terrace, the officials of Liangzhou memorialized in his defense, saying that he had taken charge of a province on the point of destruction, led by personal example, lived frugally, encouraged farming and had been at the capital only twenty days before being charged with a series of offenses that must have been fabricated. Yao Xing was delighted with the memorial and asked his attendant Yao Wenzu whether he knew the writer, Zong Chang, who answered that he was the finest talent of the west; suspecting that Wang Shang had written it, Yao Xing heard from both Yao Wenzu and Lü Chao that Zong Chang lodged with Yang Huan and had no contact with Wang Shang, and that his reputation in the west was higher than Yang Huan's. Showing the memorial to Lü Chao, Yao Xing asked whether so small a place as Liangzhou could produce such a talent, and Lü Chao answered that fine jade comes from the Kunlun ridges and pearls from the sea shore, and that if one judged men by their region then even the ancient sages would have been rejected; one should ask only what the writing was worth and not measure a man by his district. Yao Xing, pleased, pardoned Wang Shang and made him a minister.

In the fourth month of 407 Fu Xuan, a Jin general and inspector of Liangzhou, entered Hanzhong, and the Later Qin's officials there rose for him and appealed to Yang Sheng, who sent troops to the Xun mouth and afterward reopened relations with the Jin. Yao Xing made his crown prince Yao Hong director of the secretariat. Several princes of the Southern Yan came over to him. The Northern Wei had earlier sent a thousand horses and asked for a marriage alliance, which Yao Xing granted, but when the Wei set up a consort of the Murong house he broke it off, which led to the battle at Chaibi; now the two states were reconciled, and the Wei released the generals taken at Chaibi, whose ranks Yao Xing restored. The Shu ruler Qiao Zong sent envoys declaring himself a vassal and asked for Huan Qian to be sent down the Yangtze against Liu Yu, which Yao Xing, after consulting Huan Qian himself, allowed.

At this time the Later Qin was fighting the Southern Liang and the Xia. In the tenth month of 407 Tufa Nutan brought over Peng Xinian, who rebelled behind the river; in the fifth month of the following year Yao Xing sent three columns with thirty thousand horse and foot against Nutan and twenty thousand cavalry against Helian Bobo. The minister of personnel Yin Zhao advised that Nutan, relying on distance, should be left to fight the rulers of Liang and Western Liang until they destroyed each other and could then be taken, but Yao Xing would not hear of it. Helian Bobo withdrew to Hequ; Yao Bi crossed the river at Jincheng, and his officer Jiang Ji proposed a surprise descent on the city gates with five thousand light horse, after which a single isolated city could be taken at leisure — advice Yao Bi ignored, advancing to Changsong and on to Guzang, where Nutan held his walls, came out and beat him, driving him back to the Western Park. In the seventh month Yao Xing sent the great general Yao Xian with twenty thousand cavalry to command the whole; reaching Gaoping and hearing of Yao Bi's defeat, he comforted the people north of the river and brought the army home, and Nutan sent an envoy to apologize.

After Qi Nan was taken by Helian Bobo, Yao Xing sent four generals with forty thousand cavalry against him. While camped north of the ridge, Yao Chong planned to turn back and raid Chang'an; Di Bozhi refused to join him and Yao Chong poisoned him. When Yao Xing learned of the plot he was at first inclined to indulge his youngest brother for his great prowess, but when Lian Cheng protested with tears he decreed that Yao Chong's crime should be made known throughout the empire, sent him poison and had him buried with the rites of a commoner. Meanwhile, when the Jin armies defeated Qiao Zong, he asked Yao Xing for help, who sent twenty thousand men; the Jin withdrew, Qiao Zong sent thanks and tribute, and in the first month of 409 Yao Xing had Wei Hua invest him as grand commander, chancellor and prince of Shu with the nine bestowals, in the ceremonial of Wei and Jin, empowered to appoint and enfeoff as a king. In the ninth month of that year Yao Xing went to Ercheng to campaign against Helian Bobo and sent officers to bring up grain; before his columns had assembled Helian Bobo's cavalry arrived in force, and Yao Xing wished to leave the infantry to hold Ercheng and go himself to the camp of Lian Manwei, against which his ministers argued in vain.

In the Ercheng affair of the ninth month of 409 the palace secretary Wei Zong, to please him, urged Yao Xing to go to Lian Manwei's camp, while the censorate attendant Jiang Leng stepped out of order to say that Wei Zong was treacherous and disloyal, that he should be cut in two as an example, and that if the emperor moved the whole army would panic and no one would hold the walls; a single envoy should be sent to summon Yao Xiang. Yao Xing said nothing, and when the right vice president Wei Hua and others argued that a light move by the emperor would break the army without a fight and might never reach the camp, he adopted their advice instead, sending the general Yao Wenzong with the guards to fight and the officer Qi Mo with the Di troops in support; both fought to the death and Helian Bobo withdrew. Yao Xing left five thousand guards with Yao Xiang at Ercheng and returned to Chang'an. Soon after, Qifu Qiangui rebelled, took Jincheng and captured its governor Ren Lan, who rebuked him to his face for ingratitude, was imprisoned and starved himself to death.

In the third month of 410 Helian Bobo sent Hu Jinzuan with more than ten thousand cavalry against Pingliang; Yao Xing marched to Ercheng, the enemy broke and Hu Jinzuan was taken alive. Bobo then took Dingyang by his nephew's hand, capturing the general Yao Guangdu, raided Longyou, broke the Baiya fort and pressed on to Qingshui, where the governor of Lüeyang abandoned his post for Qinzhou; Yao Xing pursued from Anding to Shouqu river without catching him. In the first month of 411, with Helian Bobo and Qifu Qiangui in revolt in the northwest and Tufa Nutan and Juqu Mengxun holding the Hexi, Yao Xing asked for generals able to quiet the two regions; the governor of Longdong, Guo Bo, named three men and added that the duke of Guangping, Yao Bi, was fit to command a region, begging the emperor to take warning from what had happened before, but Yao Xing disagreed and sent a commissioner as grand commandant and governor to conciliate Qifu Qiangui, whose successes brought Qiangui back to allegiance. The astronomer Ren Yi warned of a white vapor in the north five hundred li across, portending blood; and Qiangui sent back the captured officials, apologized and asked to submit, which Yao Xing, pressed by Helian Bobo, allowed for the moment, granting titles to him and his son.

That year Yao Xiang, holding Xingcheng, was pressed by Helian Bobo, and abandoning the city for want of grain was caught and taken; Yao Xing sent the great general Yao Xian to receive him, and after the defeat Yao Xian camped at Xingcheng with command of Anding and the two northern garrisons. When the governor of Yingchuan proposed burning Liu Yu's grain stores at Shaopi, Yao Xing said at first that Liu Yu was too weak to covet his borders and that any such design belonged to a later generation, but then summoned his minister Yang Fosong and ordered him with thirty thousand picked cavalry to burn the stores in early winter; Yang Fosong proposed crossing the Huai at Feikou and going straight for Shouchun, with the main body in the city and light horse raiding the countryside so that Huainan would lie waste and its troops and grain alike fail — at which Yao Xing was delighted. In those years the Western Hu Liang Guo'er built himself a great tomb at Pingliang, feasted there with his wives and sang on the bier when drunk, heedless of mockery, and having won great credit in campaign after campaign was made general of the north and a baron, dying past eighty. When Qifu Qiangui was killed by his own men and his son Qifu Chipan succeeded, the court urged Yao Xing to destroy him, and he refused, saying that Qiangui had returned to allegiance and was to be cherished, and that to attack at a funeral was not his intent.

When the duke of Chouchi, Yang Sheng, rebelled and raided Qishan, Yao Xing sent Zhao Kun with five thousand cavalry as van and Yang Boshou with infantry behind, with three other columns by separate roads, marching himself with five thousand light horse from Yongzhou to join them at the Long mouth. The governor of Tianshui, Wang Songfen, told Yao Song that the late emperor's strategy and the courage of his champion Xu Luosheng had twice failed before Chouchi, not through Yang Sheng's wisdom and courage but because of the ground, and that with Zhao Kun's troops and the general's authority he saw no prospect of success; Yao Song did not listen. Yang Sheng faced Zhao Kun, Yang Boshou hung back in fear, and Zhao Kun, outnumbered, was beaten; Yao Xing executed Yang Boshou and returned, and when Yao Song reported what Wang Songfen had said, he agreed with it. Later he made Yang Fosong commissioner of the northern expedition, a general and governor of Yongzhou, with the northern troops against Helian Bobo; some days after Yang Fosong left, Yao Xing told his ministers that the man was brave and impetuous and could not be restrained when he met the enemy, that he had always limited him to five thousand men, and that with so large a force he would certainly be beaten, but that he was now too far off to recall — and Yang Fosong was indeed taken by Helian Bobo and took his own life.

Beyond the foreign wars, the danger of Yao Xing's later years lay in the quarrel within his own house. Jiang Ji of Tianshui, a treacherous turncoat of the Lü house, attached himself to Yao Xing's son Yao Bi when the latter found favor; Yao Bi, then governor of Yongzhou at Anding, plotted with him to return to the capital and had him serve Yao Xian and plant partisans about him. Yao Xing later made Yao Bi president of the secretariat, attendant gentleman and general-in-chief, and with the offices of general and chancellor he opened his doors to the court's officials and gathered them, his power overshadowing the eastern palace, until he conceived the design of seizing the succession. Hating Yao Wenzong for his friendship with the crown prince Yao Hong, he accused him falsely of complaining of the emperor, with a censor as witness, and Yao Xing in anger had him put to death; thereafter the ministers were cautious and none dared speak against Yao Bi. The crown prince's attendant Wang Zhou also gathered scholars in the eastern palace, and though Yao Bi repeatedly schemed against him he would not bend; Yao Xing, praising his rectitude, made him director of the secretariat.

In the fifth month of 414 Yao Xing fell gravely ill. The crown prince camped at the Donghua gate and nursed him in the Ziyi hall; Yao Bi secretly prepared rebellion, gathering several thousand armed men hidden in his mansion, while the general Yao Shao, the attendants Ren Qian and Liang Xi, the champion Yao Zan, the governor of the capital region Yin Zhao and the general Lian Manwei commanded the guards and kept watch within. Yao Yu sent word to Yao Yi at Puban and letters to the princes setting out Yao Bi's treason. Yao Yi, weeping, told his officers that with the emperor ill it was a subject's duty to be careless even of his dress, and that with the duke of Guangping holding troops in his own house and disloyal to the heir, this was the day for him to die for righteousness; his men, enraged, pledged themselves to follow him, and he released the prisoners, distributed tens of thousands of bolts of cloth among his troops, raised his standard and swore his oath, preparing to march on Chang'an, while the general Yao Guang rose at Luoyang and Yao Chen in Yongzhou to come to the crown prince's aid. When Yao Xing recovered and held court, the general Liu Qiang asked him, weeping, how such things could have happened after some weeks of illness; Yao Xing answered that he had failed to instruct his sons and set them at odds, to his shame before the empire. Yin Zhao advised that Yao Bi, insolent through favor and holding troops with divided loyalty, should be dealt with under the statutes, or at least stripped of power and sent to live in his fief; Liang Xi agreed. Yao Xing, unable to bring himself to punish a son of such ability, merely removed him from the secretariat and left him at his own house as general and duke. Yao Yi and the others, hearing of the recovery, withdrew their troops, and though they and others memorialized against Yao Bi and asked that he be punished by law, the emperor refused.

Afterwards Yao Yi and three other princes came to court and had Yao Yu ask leave to speak; Yao Xing said he knew they meant to speak of Yao Bi, and when they wept and begged that he be handed to the judges, he answered only that he would deal with it himself. Earlier two officials had secretly memorialized urging him to change the heir, and he had neither followed nor blamed them; now the officer Jiang Qiu memorialized that Yao Bi had harbored treason for years with a crowd of flatterers, that his faction was still many and his sedition unceasing, and that the wicked should be dispersed to cut off the source of trouble. Showing the memorial to Liang Xi, Yao Xing asked what he should do when all men made his son their byword, and Liang Xi answered that Jiang Qiu was right and the decision should be made at once; Yao Xing said nothing. Yao Bi meanwhile, hating Yao Xian for having slandered him, accused him to the emperor; when Yao Xian's marshal came to Chang'an, Yao Xing reproached him for failing to guide his master and was about to have him killed, but the man, being crafty, turned about and invented charges against Yao Xian, whereupon the emperor in anger imprisoned Yao Xian at Xingcheng and sent Yao Bi with thirty thousand men to hold Qinzhou. Yin Zhao warned that if the duke of Guangping, at odds with the crown prince, held strong troops abroad, the state would be in danger should anything befall the emperor — a case of small forbearance bringing great disorder — and Yao Xing would not hear it. When Helian Bobo attacked Xingcheng, Yao Xing sent Yao Bi to relieve it, but it fell before he reached Guanquan; and after Yao Xing went to Beidi and Yao Bi camped at Sanshu, he sent him on toward Xinping and returned to Chang'an. Not long before, when Helian Bobo's general Helian Jian raided Erxian and entered Pingliang, and the governor was taken at Wujing, Yao Bi defeated Helian Jian at Longwei fort, took him alive and sent him to Chang'an, at which Bobo, who had for years failed to take the fort defended by Peng Shuangfang, withdrew his army.

The events after Yao Xing's death show how he had failed in the matter of the succession. In the ninth month of 415 a white rainbow crossed the sun and a diviner told him that something inauspicious would come but would end by dissolving itself; Yao Bi, under cover of illness, stayed from court and gathered troops in his mansion, and Yao Xing in fury had two of his partisans, censors of the palace, seized and killed. The crown prince Yao Hong told him that he had failed to bring his brother to harmony and had thus let Yao Bi make trouble, that if the emperor thought him a danger to the state he might remove him for the state's peace, and that if he could not bear to punish him he asked leave to hold a frontier post; Yao Xing's face changed with grief, and he secretly planned in the consultation hall to arrest Yao Bi, sending word to Yao Shao at Yongcheng. For days no decision came and Yao Bi's party grew dangerous, so that the emperor, fearing a rising, arrested Yao Bi and confined him, pressed his partisans hard and was about to kill them, when Yao Hong with many tears begged him to stop; and Yao Xing told Liang Xi that Yao Hong's nature was calm and free of suspicion and that he would certainly harbor the worthy and preserve his brothers, and pardoned the faction. Yao Hong was made director of the secretariat, Yao Shao and Hu Yidu given command of the guards inside the palace to control affairs within and without, and Lian Manwei sent to take the weapons from Yao Bi's house into the arsenal.

In the second month of 416 Yao Xing toured Huayin, leaving Yao Hong to supervise the state in the western palace, and because his illness worsened returned to Chang'an. Yao Hong wished to go out to meet him, but his household officers warned that with the emperor gravely ill and wicked ministers about him, and the duke of Guangping always aiming at something extraordinary, to leave the city would be neither to see the emperor nor to escape Yao Bi's mischief; he should restrain the feelings of nature for the sake of the state, and he accordingly greeted the carriage only at the Huanglong gate. Yao Bi's party, seeing the emperor mount his carriage, were full of fear. Yin Chong and others had meant to kill Yao Hong as he came out, but the secretary Yao Shami argued that they should rather stop Yao Bi's rebellion and so wipe out their old shame; they refused, and wished to enter the palace and raise disorder, but not knowing whether the emperor lived or died, they hesitated. As Yao Xing's illness deepened, his sister the princess of Nan'an came to ask after him and got no answer, and his youngest son Yao Geng'er told his elder brother Yao Yin that the emperor was dead and they must act quickly; Yao Yin and his followers then attacked the Duan gate with armored men. Lian Manwei fought them off and Hu Yidu shut the four gates with the guards, but they sent braves up over the gate and along the roofs as far as the horse road. Yao Hong, then nursing his father in the consultation hall, sent Lian Manwei with the palace troops up onto the arsenal to fight and the crown prince's guard Yao Hedu into the south of the horse road, so that Yao Yin could not advance and set fire to the Duan gate. Yao Xing, forcing himself up, came to the front hall and in public ordered Yao Bi to take his own life; the guards, seeing him, leaped for joy, put on their armor and charged, the rebels broke, Yao Yin fled to Mount Li with his party scattering, and Yao Xing brought Yao Shao and four others into the inner chamber, charging them with the government by his last words. He died the next day at fifty-one, having reigned twenty-two years, and was given the posthumous name Wenhuan and the temple name Gaozu, buried in the Ou tomb.

Summing up his life, three threads run through it. The first is the consolidation of Guanzhong on the foundation his father laid: by the battles at the Fei bridge and south of the mountains he removed the Former Qin threat, and then absorbed the contending forces and moved people into the frontier lands until the Later Qin was the widest and best organized state of the later Sixteen Kingdoms. The second is the promotion of learning and moral instruction together: Confucian scholarship and Buddhism, scholars and monks gathered, a school of law founded, statutes revised and doubtful cases heard, keeping a working order of civil officials and law amid the disorder. The third is holding fast within and making peace without, standing on the defensive against Helian Bobo and Tufa Nutan, treating with Liu Yu and returning the Nanxiang commanderies, avoiding an enemy on every side. His failing in old age was indecision over the succession, so that Yao Bi's revolt nearly overturned the state; fortunately he settled it before he died and the Later Qin survived some years longer. He died at fifty-one after reigning twenty-two years, and under him Guanzhong knew good harvests and distant quiet — an interval of settled order not often found in the disorders of the Sixteen Kingdoms.

Major Activities

Political Measures

In the early part of his reign Yao Xing pursued active government and welcomed remonstrance. He revised harsh laws, established a law school in Chang'an where local officials studied legal matters, and personally decided doubtful cases; historical accounts claim that there were “almost no unresolved injustices within the realm.” He restored to commoner status people who had sold themselves into slavery during famine and organized the resettlement of different populations in Guanzhong to restore production. He promoted capable civil and military figures such as Yin Wei and Yao Shuode and made use of surrendered officers. Jiang Ru, for example, was appointed a Master of Writing after surrender, and Yuezhi Jiegui was enfeoffed as Duke of Pingxiang. Yao could also accept remonstrance: when Yin Wei disobeyed orders and chose battle at Feiqiao, the result proved him correct and Yao did not punish him.

Confucian Learning and Buddhism

Yao was fond of Confucian learning. Even as Crown Prince he discussed the classics with Liang Xi, Fan Xu, and others and, as the source says, “did not abandon study because of war.” After accession he promoted Confucian learning more energetically, established schools in Chang'an, and recruited scholars. Jiang Kan, Chunyu Qi, Guo Gao, and other noted scholars were treated with honor and each had hundreds of students. Yao himself frequently discussed learning and the Way with scholars and was diligent in doing so.

In 401, the third year of Hongshi, Yao invited the eminent Buddhist monk Kumārajīva of Kucha to Chang'an and treated him with the honors of a national preceptor. Kumārajīva directed translation work there, producing numerous Buddhist scriptures, including the Treatise on the Middle, the Lotus Sutra, and the Vimalakirti Sutra, which had a far-reaching influence on later Buddhism. Yao himself was also a committed Buddhist, composed the Treatise on the Three Times to expound Buddhist principles, and built the “Great Monastery of Chang'an.” With his support, Chang'an became a major center of Buddhism in northern China.

Military Expansion

Yao's early reign was marked by major military successes. In 394 he destroyed Former Qin and captured and killed Fu Deng; in 397 he seized Hucheng and Shangluo from Eastern Jin; in 399 he captured Luoyang; in 400 he destroyed Western Qin; in 401 he received Later Liang's submission; and in 403 he formally annexed Later Liang. Later Qin reached its greatest extent in this period. After the major defeat at the Battle of Chaibi in 402, however, it shifted to a defensive posture and remained unable to deal effectively with the Xia state of Helian Bobo.

Ethnic Policy

As a Qiang ruler, Yao adopted comparatively tolerant policies toward Han Chinese and other peoples. He employed Han Chinese scholars such as Yin Wei and Wei Hua, released slaves to farming, resettled different populations to strengthen Guanzhong, and made suitable arrangements for surrendered Xianbei, Xiongnu, and other groups. During his reign, the source states that ethnic tensions in Guanzhong were relatively moderate and the regional economy recovered to some degree.

In his twenty-two years on the throne Yao Xing was known for attending to government and taking counsel widely. Any man with one good word to offer was received with courtesy; Du Jin of Jingzhao, Ji Mo of Fengyi and Zhou Bao of Shiping were promoted for memorializing on current affairs, and he ordered the whole body of officials to recommend men of unusual talent and conduct. He was attentive in honoring his ministers: he had the tablets of twenty-four of them, the former chancellor Yao Xu, the grand tutor Yao Shuode, the great marshal Yao Chong and the minister Yin Wei among them, placed in the temple of Yao Chang to share the sacrifices; and when his ministers died one after another he ordered the responsible office to review the rites of mourning attendance, and when it reported that by precedent the announcement should be made in the eastern hall, he refused and attended in person at every minister's death.

In law he abolished punishments and ordinances that had become inconvenient. When the officer Bian Xi memorialized that the military ordinances were too severe and should be simplified, Yao Xing approved and revised them on the model of the oath-taking of Sun Wu and Wu Qi. He established a school of law at Chang'an, summoned the idle clerks of the commanderies and counties to study there, sent those who mastered the statutes back to judge cases locally, referred what they could not decide to the commandant of justice, and often heard doubtful cases himself in the consultation hall, so that it was said in his time that no injustice or delay remained. He decreed that generals and officers bereaved of parents might go home to mourn unless posted in a perilous frontier station, returning at the end of mourning; that those bereaved on the eve of battle be given a hundred days' leave; and that a frontier commander who left his post before his replacement arrived be punished as one who abandoned office without leave. His army was strict and took nothing from the people along its march, and was much loved for it.

Militarily his reign achieved a great deal: the Later Qin destroyed the Later Liang, all but extinguished the Former Qin, brought the Western Qin, Tufa Lilugu, Juqu Mengxun and Li Xuansheng to submission for a time, held Longyou and the Hexi, and taking advantage of the weakness of the Eastern Jin and the Later Yan seized Luoyang and Hedong, while Qiao Zong in Shu declared himself a vassal. Its territory then reached the Yin mountains in the north, Liangzhou in the south, Xuzhou in the east and Guzang in the west — the strongest state of the later Sixteen Kingdoms. Toward the end, short of funds, he raised the taxes at river and land barriers, on salt, bamboo, mountain timber and wood; his ministers objected that such natural produce should not be taken from the local people, and he answered that only rich households could cross the barriers to profit from hills and waters, and that to reduce the surplus of the wealthy to make up the state's deficiency was no wrong, and carried the measure out.

Under his government the Later Qin recovered somewhat, Guanzhong reaching a condition of good harvests and distant peace, with handicrafts and stock-raising improving. In his last years his son Yao Yi at Puban released prisoners and distributed tens of thousands of bolts of cloth to his troops, and that a place so far from the heartland should hold such stores says something of the state of its weaving. The Later Qin also maintained official workshops: after destroying it Liu Yu moved the artisans of Chang'an to Jiankang to work as state craftsmen and carried off the south-pointing and distance-recording carriages made by its workmen, of exquisite workmanship; and the Hedong salt ponds, then within its borders, were highly productive, a contemporary describing them as yielding salt from the water, taken in the morning and renewed by evening, with a thousand carts and ten thousand donkeys taking as much as they pleased.

Yao Xing promoted both Confucian learning and Buddhism, and the culture of the Later Qin flourished in his reign. Jiang Kan of Tianshui, Chunyu Qi of Dongping and Guo Gao of Fengyi were venerable scholars of established conduct, each with several hundred disciples teaching at Chang'an, and students came from far off to the number of more than ten thousand. Yao Xing would bring them to the eastern hall in his leisure from government to discuss the arts and sift the principles of names. When Hu Bian of Liangzhou, who had moved east to Luoyang at the end of Fu Jian's time and taught more than a thousand pupils, drew the younger men of Guanzhong to him, Yao Xing instructed the frontier guards that students seeking instruction and cultivating themselves should not be held to the ordinary rules of passage, so that scholars were stirred and the Confucian fashion flourished; and he had the palace secretary Gu Chengchen, the secretariat attendant Wang Shang and the secretary Ma Dai take part in confidential business for the elegance of their writing. He decreed that grandparents and brothers might shield one another from the law, and exhorted the people to order the relations within their own families.

In Buddhism he often went to the Xiaoyao park and led the monks to the Chenxuan hall to hear Kumarajiva expound the scriptures. Kumarajiva, who knew Chinese well, found the older translations full of error and out of keeping with the Indian texts, and Yao Xing with him and more than eight hundred monks produced the Greater Version afresh, Kumarajiva holding the Indian text and the emperor the old translation for comparison, so that where the new text differed from the old it agreed with the sense, and more than three hundred rolls of scriptures and treatises were translated — the new scriptures now in use being Kumarajiva's. With the emperor's mind set on the Buddhist way, his ministers all followed, monks came from afar to the number of five thousand, a stupa was raised in Yonggui lane and a Prajna terrace built in the palace where a thousand at a time sat in meditation, and the fashion spread through the provinces until nine households in ten practiced the faith. He forbade the people to weave brocade and to perform improper sacrifices, and ordered the commanderies to free all who had sold themselves into slavery during famine.

In ritual and family relations his conduct was distinctive. When his mother died he mourned beyond the rule and neglected government; the ministers proposed the Han and Wei practice of resuming ordinary life after the burial, while the secretary Li Song held that the emperor should wear plain robes and hold court after the burial as an example of filial piety, and Yin Wei objected that Li Song had overstepped the rites and should be handed to the judges. Yao Xing declared Li Song a loyal minister and a filial son, rebuked Yin Wei for discarding the ancient codes in favor of Han and Wei expedients, and ordered that Li Song's proposal be followed. When the baron of Xuanshi, Yao Maide, plotted to kill him at his mother's funeral, Yao Xing at first disbelieved the report and sent Li Song to sound him out; learning the truth, he had Yao Maide put to death and his partisans killed. He proclaimed that no one in the realm or at court might take a personal name offending against those of his uncles Yao Xu and Yao Shuode, to mark his special regard for them; and being by nature reverent, filial and friendly, he treated his two uncles as family, adjusting his dress and addressing them by their courtesy names, giving them the first use of horses, carriages and fine things and consulting them before carrying out any great decision of state.

In his reign Yao Xing moved populations by plan some ten times, in total roughly a hundred thousand households or several hundred thousand people, mostly refugees and the inhabitants of Yongzhou and Liangzhou brought into Guanzhong; more than forty thousand households, some hundred thousand people, were settled in the Chang'an region alone, nearly half of the whole. Bringing so many into the relatively stable and productive Guanzhong added strength to the recovery of that region, and since Guanzhong was the center of his power its recovery mattered greatly for the rest; the movement, including Han laborers, spread techniques and experience, and the mixture of peoples it produced did much for ethnic fusion, hastening in practice the sinicization of the Qiang and other peoples. He also freed all who had sold themselves into slavery in famine, forbade the weaving of brocade and improper sacrifices, and lived frugally himself, his carriage and horses unadorned with gold or jade, so that thrift and honesty became the fashion of the state from top to bottom.

Later historians judge him in two directions. On one hand they grant that he inherited a foundation already laid, sought the Way with an open heart, looked for worthies, kept friendship with his brothers and harmony in his house, and made rewards and punishments clear to those below; that he took Fen and Jiang, seized Xu and Luo, brought the usurping Yan to terms, and governed so that harvests were good and distant regions quiet — a record, they say, that even a Zhuang of Chu or a Mu of Qin could hardly surpass. On the other they charge that in his later years he indulged his ambition and boasted of his achievements, careless of what would follow; that he entrusted Liangzhou to Tufa, brought disaster on himself by self-will, lost frontier cities one after another, courted trouble by refusing counsel, suffered repeated quarrels within his own walls, so that no year passed without war and men lived in fear; and that at a time for action he practiced the work of inaction, favoring the Buddhist clergy until the fashion swept all before it, exhausting his reserves, taxing the hills and woods, and ruining his government and his authority — not heaven's doing but his own. Other writers point out that in the age of the Sixteen Kingdoms, when the Luo and Yellow River regions lay waste and Shanxi was the cockpit of east and west and the slaughter after the collapse of the Former Qin was especially cruel, in the east only the Murong house and Yao Xing gave shelter to what remained of northern culture, and that the patronage of scholars and monks in his reign should not be overlooked for what it preserved in a time of disorder.

One mark of Yao Xing's handling of men was his capacity to endure them. When Yao Chang died, his uncle Yao Shuode, of long-standing prestige and the strongest following, was urged by his officers to take his troops west and watch how things fell out; he judged that Yao Xing was broad-minded and clear and would not suspect him, went to him and was well received. The crown prince Yao Hong too had a reputation for plain dealing that was known far and near — evidence that in a house of the Yao, in an age of the Sixteen Kingdoms when suspicion was the rule, father, son and brothers could still live at peace together for a time. Even his enemies said that Yao Xing was a hero of his age and that Guanzhong was not to be plotted against, which measures his strength. In his last years his indecision over the succession nearly overturned the state through Yao Bi's revolt, yet by dismissing Yao Bi before he died and entrusting the government to Yao Shao and the others he gave the Later Qin a few more years; Liu Yu's northern campaign destroyed it in 417, when his son Yao Hong surrendered and was killed — little more than a year after his own death.

Several further aspects round out the picture of his government. First, he employed his uncles and kinsmen while not neglecting ability: Yao Xu and Yao Shuode long held Puban and Shanggui, and Yin Wei, Di Bozhi, Yao Xian and Lian Manwei each had the post that suited him, while his brother Yao Chong's treason was punished by law and not excused for kinship. Second, in war he won and lost but on the whole held and digested: he took Luoyang and Hedong without driving deep into the Eastern Jin, stood on the defensive against Helian Bobo and Tufa Nutan, and made peace with Liu Yu and returned the Nanxiang commanderies — a sober estimate of the limits of his strength. Third, he kept a working order of civil officials and law amid the disorder: the school of law, the commandant of justice and his own hearings formed a hierarchy of judgment, Confucian discussion and Buddhist translation went on side by side, and even when taxes were raised he justified it as taking from the surplus to supply the deficiency. These practices gave the Later Qin a more complete institutional shape than most states of the later Sixteen Kingdoms and left experience on which the northern dynasties afterward could draw.

Within the general pattern of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Yao Xing's government holds a place of its own. After the collapse of the Former Qin, Guanzhong had seen years of hard fighting between Fu Deng and Yao Chang, with the population scattered and the towns in ruins; taking the throne, Yao Xing first settled the Former Qin threat in the two battles at the Fei bridge and south of the mountains, then absorbed the various local forces, gathered refugees and moved people into Guanzhong, so that within a few years the region turned from a battlefield into a relatively settled core. While holding by force what he had gained in Longyou and the Hexi, he managed relations with the neighboring states by peace, investiture and marriage, avoiding war on several fronts at once. The Later Qin was destroyed soon after his death by Liu Yu's northern campaign, but the production and culture rebuilt in Guanzhong during his dozen years, and the scholars, monks and legal officials he gathered, left their traces in the northern dynasties that followed.

Personal Relations

• Father: Yao Chang, Emperor Wuzhao of Later Qin
• Mother: Madam She, principal wife of Yao Chang
• Younger brothers: Yao Chong, Yao Xian, Yao Yong, Yao Chong, and others
• Uncles: Yao Xu and Yao Shuode
• Sons: Yao Hong, Crown Prince; Yao Bi; Yao Yi; Yao Guang; Yao Chen; Yao Xuan; Yao Yin; and others
• Wives: Empress Zhang, Empress Qi, and others
• Liang Xi: Palace aide to the Crown Prince; discussed the classics with Yao in his youth
• Fan Xu: Equerry of the Crown Prince; discussed the classics with Yao
• Yin Wei: Important Later Qin minister who helped Yao destroy Former Qin and determine major policy
• Kumārajīva: Eminent monk invited by Yao to Chang'an to translate Buddhist scriptures
• Yao Shuode: Uncle and major Later Qin commander with repeated military achievements
• Yao Xu: Uncle who guarded Puban
• Di Bozhi: Master of Writing captured at the Battle of Chaibi
• Yao Huang: Regent minister
• Yao Fangcheng: General Who Conquers the South who once advised Yao to execute surrendered commanders
• Fu Deng: Emperor of Former Qin and Yao's principal opponent, captured and killed
• Tuoba Gui: Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei, who heavily defeated Yao at the Battle of Chaibi
• Helian Bobo: Founder of Xia, which repeatedly raided Later Qin
• Qifu Gangui: Ruler of Western Qin, who first surrendered and later rebelled
• Tufa Rutan: Ruler of Southern Liang, alternately at war and peace with Later Qin

Historical Assessment

Contemporary

• Yao Chang said near death that the great enterprise was nearly complete and that Yao Xing's talent and intelligence were sufficient to finish it. (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance)
• Fu Deng contemptuously called Yao Xing a mere boy whom he could beat with a broken staff. (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance)
• Yao Shuode said that the Crown Prince's ambition and bearing were broad and enlightened and that he would not harbor suspicion or obstruction. (Book of Jin)
• Yin Wei said Yao's reputation for benevolence and generosity was known near and far, although his heroic strategy had not yet fully shown itself. (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance)

Northern Wei through Sui-Tang

• The Book of Jin judged that Yao defeated powerful enemies and possessed Qin and Long, praising his heroic and martial qualities, but criticized him for failing to preserve his achievements to the end and for entrusting matters to the wrong people, leading eventually to the collapse of his foundation.
• The Book of Wei presents Yao more negatively and emphasizes his defeat at Chaibi.
• Cui Hong's Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms described Yao as “fond of Confucian learning and attentive to government affairs.”

Song and Yuan Periods

• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance records Yao extensively, crediting his destruction of Former Qin, acceptance of remonstrance, and promotion of Confucian learning while criticizing his later favoritism toward Yao Bi and inability to restrain Helian Bobo.
• Hu Sanxing's commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance described Yao as having “the measure of a ruler,” but “not the talent to bring order out of chaos.”

Modern and Contemporary

• Lü Simian, in History of the Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, regarded Yao as one of the more capable rulers of the Sixteen Kingdoms period and credited his promotion of Confucian learning and Buddhist translation with cultural significance.
• Wang Zhongluo, in History of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, observed that Later Qin reached its height in the early part of Yao's reign but declined after the defeat at Chaibi.
• Tian Yuqing's Aristocratic Politics of the Eastern Jin discusses Yao's relationship with Eastern Jin and treats his seizure of Luoyang and related actions as a major threat to Eastern Jin.