Yuwen Tai

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

According to the source, Yuwen Tai's ancestors traced their origin to the Yan Emperor Shennong and later became incorporated into the Xianbei, forming the Yuwen branch. The Yuwen group was later destroyed by the Xianbei ruler Murong Huang, and the surviving members served the various Yan regimes of the Murong clan. After Later Yan was defeated by Northern Wei, the family submitted to Northern Wei and was soon resettled at Wuchuan, present-day Wuchuan County in Inner Mongolia, where it remained for generations. His ninth-generation ancestor Houdougui was defeated by Murong Huang; Houdougui's son Ling served Yan as Commandant of the Imperial Son-in-Law and was enfeoffed as Duke of Xuantu. When Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei attacked Zhongshan, Ling led five hundred armored cavalrymen in submitting to Wei, was appointed supervisor of imperial pastures, and received the title Marquis of Anding. In the early Tianxing era, Northern Wei relocated prominent families to the metropolitan region, and Ling moved to Wuchuan as part of this policy.

Yuwen Tai's father, Yuwen Gong, was military commander of Wuchuan Garrison and was known for determination and courage. At the end of the Zhengguang era in 524, the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons broke out, and the rebel forces of Wei Kegu captured Wuchuan and Huaishuo. Heba Duba, commander of Wuchuan Garrison and father of Heba Yue, was captured by the rebels but remained loyal to the Northern Wei court. Together with his close friend Yuwen Gong, he gathered local notables including Yu Zhen, Nian Xian, Yifu Kugen, and Yuchi Zhentan, raised local volunteers, and killed Wei Kegu in a surprise attack. Yuwen Tai's eldest brother Yuwen Hao died in the fighting. Shortly after Wuchuan expelled Wei Kegu's forces, it suffered an incursion by the Tiele. Heba Duba was killed fighting them, and Yuwen Gong led his family to take refuge in Zhongshan.

In the first lunar month of 526, the second year of Xiaochang, Xianyu Xiuli, a soldier from Huaishuo Garrison, led northern-garrison refugees in rebellion at Zuoren City in Dingzhou, identified here as present-day Tang County in Hebei. Yuwen Tai's family joined the rebel force. On the way to Zuoren City they were defeated by Northern Wei troops; Yuwen Gong and Yuwen Tai's second elder brother Yuwen Lian were killed. Yuwen Tai and his third elder brother Yuwen Luosheng survived and entered Xianyu Xiuli's army. After Xianyu Xiuli's death, Yuwen Tai joined Ge Rong's forces and was appointed a military commander.

Following Heba Yue

After Ge Rong's rebellion was defeated, Yuwen Tai and Yuwen Luosheng surrendered to Erzhu Rong. Yuwen Luosheng was respected for his upright character, concern for soldiers, and high reputation. Erzhu Rong became jealous and suspicious after hearing of this reputation and fabricated charges to have him killed. Yuwen Tai escaped the same fate only after speaking forcefully in his own defense and dispelling Erzhu Rong's suspicions. Because Yuwen Tai already knew Erzhu Rong's subordinate Heba Yue, who also came from a military family and had close ties with Yuwen Tai's father, Yuwen Tai was incorporated into Heba Yue's command.

In the spring of 530, the third year of Yongan, Erzhu Rong sent Erzhu Tianguang as commander-in-chief, with Heba Yue and Houmochen Yue as deputies, to suppress uprisings in the Guanlong region. Yuwen Tai entered the passes under Heba Yue as an infantry commandant. For his role in suppressing the rebellions he was successively promoted to General Who Pacifies the West and Grand Master of Splendid Happiness, received an additional three hundred households in his fief, was appointed General of the Direct Guard, and placed in charge of Yuanzhou affairs. During these campaigns Yuwen Tai used opportunities to expand his influence, showing favor to officials and commoners and winning considerable local support.

In 532, the first year of Taichang, Gao Huan destroyed the Erzhu clan, enthroned Emperor Xiaowu of Wei, Yuan Xiu, and took overall control of government. Heba Yue appointed Yuwen Tai Left Assistant Director of his Branch Department and military administrative officer, and additionally made him Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, entrusting him with affairs great and small. Yuwen Tai asked to be sent to Jinyang, present-day Taiyuan in Shanxi, to observe Gao Huan. At Jinyang, Yuwen Tai responded to Gao Huan with quickness and eloquence. Gao Huan wished to retain him in his own service, but Yuwen Tai firmly declined and returned. Back in Chang'an, he analyzed the political situation for Heba Yue and argued that Gao Huan would never be content to remain a subject. He advised Heba Yue to take troops into the Long region, occupy strategic points, collect local forces, and then return to Chang'an to support the Wei house. Impressed, Heba Yue sent Yuwen Tai to Luoyang to present this plan secretly to Emperor Xiaowu, who was delighted and additionally appointed him General of the Martial Guard.

In the eighth lunar month of 533, the second year of Yongxi, Emperor Xiaowu appointed Heba Yue commander of military affairs for Yongzhou, Huazhou, and twenty other prefectures and Inspector of Yongzhou. On the pretext of pasturing horses, Heba Yue led troops west to Pingliang, present-day Huating in Gansu. That year, regarding Xiazhou, with its seat at Yanlü, identified here as Baichengzi south of present-day Uxin Banner in Inner Mongolia, as an important frontier position, Heba Yue sought a capable inspector. On the strong recommendation of those around him, Yuwen Tai was appointed Commissioner Bearing the Tally, General of the Martial Guard, and Inspector of Xiazhou. After reaching Xiazhou, Yuwen Tai pacified displaced people, cultivated good relations with non-Han communities, and quickly brought the situation under control.

Rise in the Guanlong Region

In 534, the third year of Yongxi, Heba Yue joined Houmochen Yue in attacking Cao Ni but fell into Houmochen Yue's trap and was murdered. Heba Yue's army was left without a commander and became deeply unsettled. Zhao Gui and others proposed that Yuwen Tai take command and sent men to find him. Friends advised Yuwen Tai to wait because the situation was unclear and dangerous. He replied, “What is difficult to obtain and easy to lose is opportunity; what cannot wait even to the end of the day is the decisive moment. If I do not go at once, I fear the men's loyalties will disperse.” He immediately went to Pingliang, took command of Heba Yue's troops, gathered the generals to explain the situation, toured the camps, and restored order.

Gao Huan also sent his chief secretary Hou Jing to win over Heba Yue's former troops. When Yuwen Tai reached Anding he encountered Hou Jing at a relay station. Yuwen Tai spat out the food he was chewing, mounted his horse, and said: “Though Duke Heba is dead, Yuwen Tai is still here. What are you trying to do?” Hou Jing reportedly turned pale and answered, “I am like an arrow shot by another hand toward some other place; how could I decide my own direction?” He then withdrew.

Having taken control of Heba Yue's army, Yuwen Tai ordered the forces onto a war footing in preparation for attacking Houmochen Yue. At the same time he submitted a memorial to Emperor Xiaowu, and with Yuan Pi and the generals sacrificed an animal and swore an oath to support the imperial house. Emperor Xiaowu formally appointed Yuwen Tai Grand Commander and placed Heba Yue's former troops under him. With imperial recognition, Yuwen Tai immediately led these forces against the defectors Shi Gui and Houmochen Yue, defeated Houmochen Yue, and moved east to occupy Chang'an, establishing his political base in Guanlong. After pacifying Qin and Long his power increased. Emperor Xiaowu appointed him Palace Attendant, General-in-Chief of Agile Cavalry, Commander Unequalled in Honor, Grand Commander of the region west of the passes, and Duke of Lüeyang County, with authority to make appointments by imperial delegation. He became the most powerful figure in the empire after Gao Huan.

Domination of Western Wei

In the seventh lunar month of 534, the third year of Yongxi, Emperor Xiaowu could no longer withstand Gao Huan and rode west from Luoyang into the passes, moving the court to Chang'an. He additionally appointed Yuwen Tai General-in-Chief and Inspector of Yongzhou, concurrently Director of the Department of State Affairs. In the tenth lunar month, Gao Huan installed Emperor Xiaojing of Wei, Yuan Shanjian, at Ye, present-day Yezhen in Linzhang County, Hebei, creating the regime known as Eastern Wei. Northern Wei thus split into Eastern and Western Wei.

After Emperor Xiaowu reached Chang'an, government orders came to depend entirely on Yuwen Tai. The emperor remained constrained and grew dissatisfied, and tension developed between the two. In the twelfth lunar month of the same year, Yuwen Tai poisoned Emperor Xiaowu and installed Yuan Baoju, establishing what became known as Western Wei. In the first lunar month of the following year, Yuan Baoju formally ascended the throne west of Chang'an, adopted the era name Datong, and became Emperor Wen of Western Wei. Yuwen Tai retained real control of government as chancellor, Commander of All Military Affairs at Home and Abroad, and chief of the Branch Department, and held the title Duke of Anding Commandery.

Eastern Wei was then stronger, and Gao Huan intended to pacify Guanlong. In the first lunar month of 535, the first year of Datong, Gao Huan led a large army to construct three floating bridges at Puban, present-day Yongji in Shanxi, in preparation to cross the Yellow River, opening prolonged warfare between the two Wei regimes. In the spring of 537 Eastern Wei attacked Tong Pass and Yuwen Tai defeated it. In the autumn of the same year, an Eastern Wei army of 100,000 reached Shayuan, present-day Dali in Shaanxi. With fewer than 10,000 troops, Yuwen Tai exploited the enemy's overconfidence, personally beat the drum to rally his men, and won a major victory, taking 70,000 prisoners in the Battle of Shayuan. Western Wei thereafter shifted from defense to attack and successively seized Eastern Wei territories including Hedong.

In 538, at the Battle of Mount Mang, Yuwen Tai won initially but then suffered a serious defeat; Eastern Wei, however, remained unable to penetrate deeply into Guanzhong. In 546, Gao Huan led an Eastern Wei army of 100,000 against Yubi. The Western Wei commander Wei Xiaokuan held the fortress with 7,000 men for more than fifty days. Gao Huan lost 70,000 men according to the source, fell ill from distress, and died soon afterward.

Yuwen Tai pursued a policy of making peace in the north while attacking southward. He maintained friendly relations with the Turks and Rouran. In 538 he arranged for Emperor Wen of Western Wei, Yuan Baoju, to marry Lady Yujiulü, a daughter of the Rouran qaghan Anagui, as empress, forcing his original empress, Lady Yifu, to become a Buddhist nun; in 540 he further compelled Lady Yifu to commit suicide. Against Xiao Liang in the south, Yuwen Tai followed an offensive strategy and successively seized Yizhou and territories around Jingzhou and Yongzhou in southwestern China.

In 551, Emperor Wen of Western Wei died and Yuwen Tai installed his son Yuan Qin as emperor. Yuan Qin was unwilling to remain a puppet and plotted to kill Yuwen Tai. The plot was exposed, Yuan Qin was deposed, and Yuwen Tai installed Yuan Kuo, later known as Emperor Gong of Western Wei.

Reforms and Death

While dominating Western Wei, Yuwen Tai carried out a series of major political, military, and economic reforms. Economically, he encouraged agriculture and sericulture, restored the equal-field system, and promoted military farming to support the army. He adopted Su Chuo's reform proposals, including the documentary practice described as “black enters, vermilion exits,” in which subordinates wrote memorials in black ink and superiors answered in red; the source connects this use of red and black to distinguishing fiscal expenditures and revenues and to the later Chinese expression for a deficit. He also established household registers and accounting procedures for listing the expected labor and tax obligations of the following year. Later he issued the Edict of Six Articles for local officials: first, regulate one's mind; promote moral education; fully exploit the land; elevate worthy men; show compassion in judicial matters; and equalize taxes and labor service.

Militarily, Yuwen Tai reformed the command structure and established the fubing system to broaden the recruitment base. Formally drawing on the old Xianbei system of eight divisions, he established Eight Pillars of State, though in practice there were six armies. Under each Pillar-of-State General-in-Chief were two generals-in-chief, making twelve in all. Under each general-in-chief were two Commanders Unequalled in Honor, making twenty-four. Under each such commander were two yitong commanders, making forty-eight; each yitong commanded one thousand soldiers. The six Pillars thus collectively controlled about 48,000 troops. This became the famous fubing system, later continued by the Sui and Tang.

Politically, Yuwen Tai emphasized moral education as the primary principle and law as a supplement. In legal affairs he opposed excessive severity and argued that “the law does not bend to the noble.” In thought and culture he promoted Confucian learning and established a school within the Branch Department. Captives such as Wang Bao and Zong Lin were treated courteously. He later ordered Lu Bian to reform the bureaucracy on the model of the Rites of Zhou, creating the Six Ministries system later associated with Northern Zhou, and even required government proclamations to imitate pre-Qin styles. Yuwen Tai also restored old Xianbei surnames: for example, the imperial Yuan clan was restored to the Tuoba surname, Han officials were granted Xianbei surnames, and soldiers adopted the non-Han surnames of their commanders. The source describes this as a formal “Hu-ization” of a group of Han Chinese, noting that Yang Zhong received the surname Puliuru and Li Hu the surname Daye.

In the ninth lunar month of 556, the third year of Emperor Gong of Western Wei, Yuwen Tai fell ill while returning from a northern inspection at Qiantun Mountain. He died at Yunyang Palace on the yihai day of the tenth lunar month, November 21, 556, aged fifty by traditional reckoning. His body was carried back to Chang'an before his death was publicly announced. After his son Yuwen Jue replaced Wei with Zhou, Yuwen Tai was posthumously honored as King Wen and given the temple name Taizu. In 559, the first year of the Wucheng era, he was further honored as Emperor Wen.

His Family and Wuchuan

Yuwen Tai, courtesy name Heita, was a man of Wuchuan county in Dai commandery, of Xianbei stock. His forebears of the Yuwen tribe came down nine generations to Hou Dougui, who was destroyed by Murong Chao; and Hou Dougui's son Yuwen Ling served Yan, was made commandant of the imperial son-in-law and enfeoffed as duke of Xuantu. When the Daowu emperor of Wei was about to attack Zhongshan, Yuwen Ling followed Murong Bao against him; and Murong Bao being beaten, Yuwen Ling came over to Wei with five hundred armoured riders, was made chief of the pastures and given the rank of marquis of Anding; and in the early Tianxing period, when the great men were moved to the capital of Dai, Yuwen Ling was moved with them to Wuchuan. In the last years of Zhengguang of the Northern Wei the rising of the Six Garrisons broke out, and the rebel Wei Keggu, whose party was especially strong, took Wuchuan and Huaishuo; and the commander of Wuchuan, Heba Doba, father of Heba Yue, though seized by the rebels, still in his heart upheld the Northern Wei government, and so plotted with his close friend Yuwen Gong, father of Yuwen Tai, and with the local worthies Yu Zhen, Nian Xian, Yifu Kugen and Yuchi Zhentan, gathering loyal men and killing Wei Keggu by surprise. After this Wuchuan, worn by war, had scarce driven out Wei Keggu's rebels when fresh risings came, and Yuwen Tai's family took part in them; but on the way to Zuoren city they were beaten by the Northern Wei government troops, and Yuwen Tai's father narrowly escaped and fled into the army of Xianyu Xiuli. After Xianyu Xiuli's death Yuwen Tai joined Ge Rong's force; and his elder brother Yuwen Luosheng, upright of character, kind to the soldiers and of high repute, was heard of by Erzhu Rong, who was jealous and suspicious of him and therefore framed a charge and killed him. When Ge Rong killed Xianyu Xiuli, Yuwen Tai being then eighteen, Ge Rong made him a commander; and Yuwen Tai, knowing that he would not succeed, plotted with his brothers to flee, but before the plan was carried out Erzhu Rong took Ge Rong and settled Hebei, and Yuwen Tai was moved with the rest to Jinyang. Erzhu Rong, thinking the Yuwen brothers heroes and fearing they might oppose him, killed Yuwen Tai's third brother Yuwen Luosheng on a trumped-up charge and meant to kill Yuwen Tai too; but Yuwen Tai vindicated his family's wrong with generous words, and Erzhu Rong was moved and spared him and treated him the more respectfully.

His Entry into the Passes under Heba Yue and His Mission to Bingzhou

In the second year of Xiaochang there was trouble in Yanzhou, and Yuwen Tai first went against it with Erzhu Rong as a commander. Earlier the prince of Beihai, Yuan Hao, had fled to Liang, and the men of Liang set him up as lord of Wei and had him lead troops into Luoyang, and Emperor Xiaozhuang of Wei withdrew to Henei to avoid him; and Erzhu Rong sent Heba Yue against Yuan Hao and to bring back the emperor. Yuwen Tai being an old friend of Heba Yue, he went with him as a detached commander. When Wanqi Chounu rebelled in the passes, Emperor Xiaozhuang sent Erzhu Tianguang and Heba Yue against him, and Yuwen Tai went with Heba Yue into the passes and as van broke the false travelling office Yuchi Pusa and others; and when Chounu was pacified and Longyou settled, Yuwen Tai had the greatest share of merit, and was made general of the western expedition and grandee of brilliant emolument of the purple, with three hundred more households, and made general of the palace gate and administrator of Yuanzhou. In putting down the risings of the passes Yuwen Tai took the chance to extend his influence, showing kindness to officers and people and winning much goodwill. In the first year of Taichang Heba Yue made him left assistant and master of horse of the travelling office, taking part in all decisions however great or small, and afterwards he went out as inspector of Xiazhou; and Heba Yue, under the pretext of pasturing horses, led troops west to camp in a vital frontier place and wished to appoint a capable man as its inspector, and at the urging of all Yuwen Tai was made inspector of Xiazhou, and on coming to Xiazhou he soothed the refugees and made friends of the peoples and soon had the commandery in hand. At that time Gao Huan was great chancellor in the court and held power, and Emperor Xiaowu, Yuan Xiu, secretly leagued with Heba Yue to check him, and Yuwen Tai, then master of horse of the office, asked of himself to go on a mission to Bingzhou to observe Gao Huan's character; and coming to Jinyang he answered Gao Huan readily and argued with vigour, and Gao Huan wished to keep him for his own use, but Yuwen Tai feigned loyalty and firmly declined and returned, and Gao Huan indeed sent men after him who came to the pass too late. Yuwen Tai also set out the situation to Heba Yue, saying that Gao Huan was no subject of a lord, and that the reason his treason was not yet manifest was his fear of the two brothers; but that no one who wished to do a great work and restore the altars of state had ever succeeded without taking advantage of the ground and gathering heroes; that Houmo Chen Yue was in truth a common man who by a lucky chance had got his post, and having no thought of the state's welfare was not feared by Gao Huan either, and that with preparation he could be taken easily; that the chief Fei Yetou had no fewer than ten thousand archers, that the inspector of Xiazhou, Hubasheng Mie'otu, had more than three thousand veteran troops, and that the inspector of Lingzhou, Cao Ni, trusting in his remoteness, harboured hopes of his own; that the refugees of Hexi under Gedouling Yili and the rest were rich in households and had not submitted to the court's influence; and that if they moved their army near Long and held the vital places, showing their might and winning them by virtue, they could gather their troops and horses to fill their own army, soothe the Di and Qiang in the west, hold the desert garrisons in the north, and return to Chang'an to support the Wei house, which was the deed of Huan and Wen. Heba Yue was much pleased, and memorialised to make Yuwen Tai holder of the tally, general of the martial guards and inspector of Xiazhou.

His Taking over Heba Yue's Army, His Welcoming of Emperor Xiaowu, and the Emperor's Killing

Heba Yue went against Cao Ni and, falling into Houmo Chen Yue's trap, was murdered, and his army of three hundred thousand was without a master and in fear. Zhao Gui and the others proposed that Yuwen Tai should command Heba Yue's troops and sent men to him; and Yuwen Tai's friends advised that the situation was unclear and the position dangerous and that he should watch and decide later, but Yuwen Tai held that the hour was hard to gain and easy to lose and that the moment would not wait the day, and that if he did not go at once the men's hearts would scatter. He went at once to Liangzhou and took over the command, gathered the generals and set out the case, and went about the camps to steady the army. Having taken over Heba Yue's troops, Yuwen Tai on the one hand put the armies under strict order to prepare against Houmo Chen Yue, and on the other memorialised Emperor Xiaowu, Yuan Xiu, and with Yuan Pi and the generals slaughtered victims and swore to support the royal house together; and Emperor Xiaowu thereupon decreed that Yuwen Tai be travelling office of the passes, commanding Heba Yue's troops. Having the emperor's formal recognition, Yuwen Tai at once led Heba Yue's remaining troops against the rebels Shi Gui and Houmo Chen Yue; and afterwards he went against Cao Ni, and the next year Cao Ni surrendered and Lingzhou was pacified, and Yuwen Tai moved its strongmen to Xianyang to hold them in hand. His strength growing after the pacification of Qin and Long, Emperor Xiaowu made him palace attendant, grand commander of the passes and duke of Lueyang, with power to appoint, becoming a powerful man second only to Gao Huan. In the seventh month of the third year of Yongxi Emperor Xiaowu, unable to withstand Gao Huan, came with light horse from Luoyang into the passes and moved the capital to Chang'an; and in the eighth month Gao Huan raided and took the Tong pass and raided Huayin, and Yuwen Tai led the armies to camp at Bashang to await him, and Gao Huan left his general Xue Jin to hold the pass and withdrew, and Yuwen Tai then marched against Xue Jin and took seven thousand of his men and returned to Chang'an, advancing to chancellor. In the tenth month of winter Gao Huan set up Yuan Shanjian, son of Yuan Dan prince of Qinghe, as lord and moved the capital to Ye, which was the Eastern Wei. After Emperor Xiaowu moved to Chang'an all decrees came from Yuwen Tai, and the emperor, still ruled by another, was displeased and grew estranged from him; and in the intercalary twelfth month of that year Yuwen Tai and the ministers settled the succession and set up Yuan Baoju, prince of Nanyang of Wei, as heir, who in the first month of the next year took the throne at the west of Chang'an city and changed the era to Datong, being Emperor Wen of the Western Wei. Yuwen Tai still held the real government of the Western Wei as chancellor, commander of all military affairs within and without and travelling office of the passes, with the rank of duke of Anding.

The Battle of Xiaoguan

In the first month of the third year of Datong Gao Huan camped at Puban and built three floating bridges on the Yellow River meaning to cross, and sent his general Dou Tai toward the Tong pass and Gao Aocao to invest Luozhou. Yuwen Tai held that the Eastern Wei, sending out columns and showing a crossing by bridges, were in truth holding his army while Dou Tai came in from the west; and that Dou Tai, a bold general of Gao Huan's made proud by many victories, should be attacked first, for if his army were beaten Gao Huan would retire without a battle. He told his generals that Gao Huan had twice raided the Tong pass, and that their army had never gone beyond Bashang; that this time he came in force but their troops had not gone out of the suburbs, so that the rebels thought they meant only to hold, with no will to fight afar, and being puffed up with success despised them; that taking this chance they could not fail; that though the rebels built bridges they could not cross at once, and that within five days he would take Dou Tai, and they should not doubt it. But the generals held that Gao Huan was near and Dou Tai far, and that to leave the near for the far was wrong, and advised dividing the army to meet them; while Yuwen Shen held that if they struck Gao Huan first Dou Tai would come to the rescue and they would be attacked front and rear, but that if they sent picked light troops out secretly to strike Dou Tai first, Gao Huan, being careful, could not come in time to the rescue, and Dou Tai being beaten Gao Huan's military power would be broken and they could turn back on him and win completely. Yuwen Tai took his advice, and proclaiming abroad that they were abandoning a certain place to mislead the Eastern Wei, secretly moved the army east from Chang'an and reached Xiaoguan on the morning of the seventeenth day of the first month; and Dou Tai, hearing suddenly that the Western Wei army had come, was panic-stricken and hurried south from Fengling to meet them, and Yuwen Tai came out at Mamuze and sent troops to attack Dou Tai, whose army broke; Dou Tai killed himself and more than ten thousand of his men were taken. Gao Huan, the ice on the Yellow River being thin and relief impossible, drew off his bridges; and Gao Aocao too was ordered to withdraw from Shangluo. In this battle Yuwen Tai judged the situation, used the weakness of the Eastern Wei army, concentrated his forces and struck one column where they did not look for it, and won at a blow.

The Battle of Shayuan

The second great war of East and West Wei now began. That year Guanzhong suffered famine, and Yuwen Tai, having pacified Hongnong, lodged and fed his army there more than fifty days; his fighting men were fewer than ten thousand, and hearing that Gao Huan was about to cross he led the army into the passes and held south of the Wei, and the troops of the several provinces he summoned did not come. Gao Huan's adviser told him that the Western Wei had suffered famine for years and that Yuwen Tai's army had risked coming to seize the grain of the granaries, and that they should divide their troops among the roads and not engage, so that by wheat harvest Yuwen Tai's soldiers and people would mostly starve and he would have to surrender; and the great general Hou Jing advised that with several hundred thousand men coming at once, if they were beaten they could not be gathered again, and that they should divide the great army in two and advance in succession, so that if the van won the rear could press on and if the van lost the rear could meet it. Gao Huan, eager for revenge, took neither advice and crossed the Yellow River at Pujin. Yuwen Tai summoned his generals, and Li Bi said that the enemy being many and they few, they could not array on the plain, but that ten li east there was the Wei bend where they might first take post and await them; so they advanced to the Wei bend and formed with their backs to the water, Li Bi as the right wing and Zhao Gui as the left, and ordered the officers and men to lay down their spears in the reeds and rise at the sound of the drum. At the hour of the monkey Gao Huan's army came, and seeing the smallness of Yuwen Tai's force they raced forward in no order and massed against the left; and as they joined battle Yuwen Tai beat the drum and the men all rose, and Yu Jin and five other armies fought with them while Li Bi and the rest with armoured horse struck across and cut their army in two and broke it utterly, beheading more than six thousand and taking more than twenty thousand who surrendered. Yuwen Tai pursued to the Yellow River, taking seventy thousand in all, keeping twenty thousand armoured men and letting the rest go home, and gathered their baggage and weapons and presented captives at Chang'an; and returning to the south of the Wei he found that the troops of the provinces he had summoned had only then arrived. After this victory his troops were fine and his grain sufficient, and he had each soldier plant a willow on the field of battle to mark the feat, and was advanced to pillar of state and grand general, with his fief increased to five thousand households.

The Battle of Heqiao and the Battle of Mangshan

Soon after Shayuan Yuwen Tai sent troops east: Yuan Jihai, prince of Fengyi, and the prefect of the armies Dugu Xin with twenty thousand foot and horse toward Luoyang, the inspector of Luozhou Li Xian toward Jingzhou, and Heba Sheng and Li Bi east across the Yellow River to invest Puban; and the Eastern Wei gate commander Gao Zixin opened the gate to Heba Sheng's army, and the Eastern Wei general Xue Chongli abandoned the city and fled, and Heba Sheng and the others pursued and took him. In the seventh month the Eastern Wei sent Hou Jing, Kudi Gan, Gao Aocao, Han Gui, Kezhu Hunyuan and Modoulou Daiwen to invest Dugu Xin at Luoyang, with Gao Huan following; and in the eighth month Yuwen Tai came to Gucheng, and Modoulou Daiwen and Kezhu Hunyuan came against him, and he killed Daiwen in the field and took all his men and sent them to Hongnong. Hou Jing raised the siege by night and went north, and Yuwen Tai pursued him; and Hou Jing drew up a long line, holding the river bridge in the north and Mount Mang in the south, and fought Yuwen Tai's great army. In the mêlée Yuwen Tai's horse was struck by a stray arrow and bolted and threw him to the ground, and the Eastern Wei host came up and his attendants scattered; and the commander Li Mu dismounted and beat the sprawling Yuwen Tai with his whip, pretending to curse a common soldier, and the Eastern Wei troops pursuing, hearing Li Mu's tone, took the man on the ground for no commander of the Western Wei and turned to chase others; and Li Mu helped Yuwen Tai onto a horse and both fled. The Western Wei rear coming up in force, their spirit revived and they turned on Hou Jing's army and broke it heavily, more than ten thousand drowning in the river as they fled. They killed Gao Aocao with his guardsman Li Meng and the inspector of Yanzhou Song Xian, and took fifteen thousand armoured men and as many tens of thousands drowned in the river; and Gao Huan, hearing of Gao Aocao's death, was as one whose liver and gall were torn out, and had Gao Yongle beaten two hundred strokes of the army staff. That day the array being great and its ends far apart, they fought from dawn to the hour of the goat some tens of engagements in a fog so thick that none could know the other; and Dugu Xin and Li Yuan held the right and Zhao Gui and Yi Feng the left, and both being worsted and not knowing where the emperor and Yuwen Tai were, they abandoned their men and went home first, and the generals Li Hu and Nian Xian of the rear, meeting Dugu Xin's retreat, went back with them, and so the army was withdrawn and Luoyang was lost. That night Gao Huan with seven thousand horse hurried to the front, but the Western Wei had gone; and though in this campaign the Eastern Wei recovered the central strongpoint of Luoyang and the Western Wei lost some troops, no vital harm was done, so that in the twelfth month of that year Luoyang fell again in a local counter-attack of the Western Wei. In the ninth year of Datong the fourth great war, the battle of Mangshan, opened, its occasion being the surrender to the Western Wei of the Eastern Wei inspector of Beiyuzhou, Gao Zhongmi; and Yuwen Tai led the armies to receive him, and coming to the north bank of the Yellow River where Gao Huan had crossed, he held Mount Mang and did not fight for days; and Yuwen Tai left all his baggage and climbed Mount Mang by night meaning to surprise Gao Huan. The Eastern Wei with several thousand horse charged straight into the northern army of the Western Wei and broke all before them, and Peng Le sent word of the victory, having taken the Western Wei prince of Lintao, Yuan Jian, with four other princes and forty-eight commanders and staff; and Gao Huan sent Peng Le after Yuwen Tai, and Yuwen Tai, in sorry case, begged him from horseback to take his gold and jewels and spare him, and Peng Le, being a rough man, thought it reasonable, left Yuwen Tai and went back to the camp to take the bags of gold and report to Gao Huan. Gao Huan, glad of the victory and furious that Peng Le had let Yuwen Tai go, made him prostrate himself and seizing his great head dashed it against the ground again and again, grinding his teeth, and several times raised his sword to cut it off but could not bring himself to do it. The next day the two armies fought again and Yuwen Tai's three armies struck together and Gao Huan was heavily beaten, with sixty thousand killed or taken, Gao Huan himself losing his horse to an arrow. Afterwards, because the troops under Zhao Gui and four other Western Wei generals fell back, the field changed again and the Eastern Wei, gathering, came on; and Yuwen Tai, attacking, could not hold and fled with his army, and only because Dugu Xin and the others gathered the scattered troops of the Western Wei and harassed the pursuers from behind did he escape, and camped on the upper Wei. Gao Huan entered Shanzhou, and his officer Feng Zihui urged him to follow up the victory and unite the two Weis; but the other generals had no spirit and dared not fight again, and Gao Huan, seeing them disheartened, ordered the army home; and Wang Sizheng, who had held the Hongnong granary for Yuwen Tai, hearing of the great defeat did not flee but had the gates opened wide and lay down with his clothes loosened on the city tower to encourage the officers and men, and some days later the Eastern Wei troops came to the wall, saw the gates open, and dared not enter.

The Turning after Yubi, the Rebellion of Hou Jing, and the Taking of Shu

In the ninth month of the twelfth year of Datong Gao Huan in person led more than a hundred thousand men to invest Yubi, held by the Western Wei, and Wei Xiaokuan defended it stubbornly; and Gao Huan cut the water, used fire and dug tunnels, and besieged the city more than fifty days, losing more than seventy thousand men, and could not take it, and at last fell ill and raised the siege. In that battle Gao Huan put out all his strength and could not take one isolated city in fifty days, so that his wit failed him and he fell into a fury and sickened, and in the first month of the next year he died; and from then Yuwen Tai turned his former inferiority about. Gao Cheng and Hou Jing, who held strong troops, were at odds, and Gao Cheng, fearing Hou Jing's weight, wished to take his troops; and Hou Jing held himself fast with his army, and Yuwen Tai accepted his surrender while being very cautious with the cunning and changeable Hou Jing, sending great armies in succession to take over the land Hou Jing held and hinting that he should give up his troops and come to court at Chang'an; and Gao Cheng in the meantime also sent a great army to press him, so that Hou Jing turned and went over to the Liang. In the putting down of Hou Jing's rebellion the Xiao brothers contended for the throne and killed one another, and Yuwen Tai took the chance to seize the Liang's land, taking Handong and the rest; and Xiao Yi, before Hou Jing was put down, had acknowledged himself a vassal of the Western Wei and made a league with them, with a border at a certain place, asking to be a dependent and sending a hostage, but once emperor he no longer acknowledged vassalage; and Yuwen Tai sent the envoy Yuwen Renshu to Jiangling to inquire, and the Liang emperor told him that Liang was now united and that the Western Wei should return to Liang the Yi and Xiangyang they had taken. Yuwen Tai held that having taken Liang and Yi they should go further and take the Jiang and Han; and it happened that Xiao Yi's nephew came to the Western Wei court asking for troops against Xiao Yi. So in the ninth month of the first year of Gongdi of the Western Wei Yuwen Tai ordered Yu Jin and Yuwen Hu against Jiangling, and Yuwen Hu with light horse as van went day and night and sent officers to take the Liang's frontier towns, took their scouts, and came straight under the walls of Jiangling; and the city, not expecting the army, was in confusion, and Yuwen Hu sent two thousand horse to cut the river crossing and collect the ships to await the great army, and invested and took it. In the eleventh month the city fell and the Liang emperor was put to death, and the Wei army chose more than a hundred thousand men and women of the people of Jiangling and drove them into the passes, leaving only an empty city to Xiao Cha, and bringing the lands the Liang had held within the Western Wei. These victories made the Western Wei the power best able to unite the realm.

The Deposing and Killing of the Western Wei Emperors, the Six Ministries, and His Death

In the third month of the seventeenth year of Datong Emperor Wen of the Western Wei died, and his son succeeded as the deposed emperor; the era was changed but no more era names were used, and from then the Western Wei emperors had no era names. Some of the Yuan imperial clan, unwilling that the government should come from the chancellor, wished to take power back from Yuwen Tai: the master of the secretariat Yuan Lie plotted a coup to kill him, and the matter leaked and he was killed by Yuwen Tai; and the deposed emperor, pitying Yuan Lie and much displeased with Yuwen Tai, plotted to kill him, and the plot leaked again, so that in the ninth month of the third year of the deposed emperor Yuwen Tai deposed and killed Yuan Qin and set up his younger brother, the prince of Qi. From then the Western Wei emperor had but the empty name of emperor, and the change of house was only a matter of time. In the first month of spring of the third year of Gongdi Yuwen Tai first carried out the rites of Zhou and established the six ministries, taking himself as grand tutor and grand steward, the pillar of state Li Bi as grand tutor and grand minister over the masses, Zhao Gui as grand guardian and grand master of rites, Dugu Xin as grand master of horse, Yu Jin as grand master of works and Houmo Chen Chong as grand master of works. In the fourth month of the third year of Gongdi of the Western Wei Yuwen Tai made a northern tour; in the eighth month he crossed the northern river; and in the ninth month, returning to Mount Qiandun, he fell ill, and knowing himself gravely ill he sent in haste for his nephew Yuwen Hu at Jingzhou and entrusted his orphan to him, saying that his sons were all young and that with strong enemies without and many rivals within the affairs of the state must all be decided by him, and that he must strive to accomplish his purpose. On the day yihai of the tenth month he died at the Yunyang palace and his death was announced at Chang'an at fifty-two, by another account fifty, and he was buried in the Cheng tomb with the posthumous name duke Wen. The next year Yuwen Hu forced the abdication of the Western Wei emperor and the Northern Zhou was founded; and Yuwen Tai was posthumously honoured in turn as king Wen and emperor Wen with the temple name Taizu. His Cheng tomb lies in the primary school of Gongli township, Fuping county, Shaanxi, eleven kilometres south of the county town at five hundred and thirty metres; the mound is twelve metres high and a hundred and forty-two point eight metres round, planted with pines and cypresses, and before it stands a stone set up by Bi Yuan, governor of Shaanxi, in the forty-first year of Qianlong, and another set up in the sixth year of Kaibao of the Northern Song.

Major Activities

Military Campaigns

Yuwen Tai was one of the outstanding military commanders of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, and his career included several celebrated victories won with smaller forces. In the spring of 537, at the Battle of Xiaoguan, Gao Huan of Eastern Wei launched a three-pronged offensive against Western Wei. Yuwen Tai saw through the use of bridge construction as a diversion and judged that Dou Tai, one of Gao Huan's most formidable commanders, had become arrogant after repeated victories and should be attacked first. He reasoned that if Dou Tai were defeated, Gao Huan would withdraw without fighting. Yuwen Tai launched a surprise attack on Dou Tai's force; Dou Tai was defeated and killed himself, and Gao Huan was forced to retreat.

In the autumn of the same year, an Eastern Wei army of 100,000 reached Shayuan. Yuwen Tai, with fewer than 10,000 men, exploited the enemy's overconfidence, personally sounded the drums, and won a major victory, taking 70,000 prisoners in the Battle of Shayuan. Western Wei thereafter went over to the offensive and seized Eastern Wei territory including Hedong.

At the Battle of Mount Mang in 538, Yuwen Tai won at first but then suffered heavy losses, though Eastern Wei remained unable to penetrate Guanzhong. In 546, Gao Huan besieged Yubi with 100,000 men. Wei Xiaokuan defended it with 7,000 troops for more than fifty days; according to the source, Gao Huan lost 70,000 men and soon died from illness brought on by distress. In external expansion, Yuwen Tai followed a policy of peace in the north and attack in the south, launching offensives against Southern Liang and successively occupying Yizhou and areas around Jingzhou and Yongzhou, greatly expanding Western Wei territory.

Political Reforms

Yuwen Tai's political reforms centered on the Edict of Six Articles and the Six Ministries system. The Six Articles—regulate one's mind, promote moral education, fully exploit the land, elevate worthy men, show compassion in judicial matters, and equalize taxes and labor service—were administrative guidelines for local officials and emphasized moral transformation with law as a supplement. The Six Ministries system was introduced after Yuwen Tai ordered Lu Bian to reorganize offices on the model of the Rites of Zhou; even official proclamations were written in imitation of pre-Qin forms.

Yuwen Tai also promoted the “black enters, vermilion exits” documentary format, using red and black to distinguish fiscal expenditure and revenue, and established household registers and accounting methods listing projected taxes and labor obligations for the coming year. These reforms provided institutional foundations later inherited by Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang.

Establishment of the Fubing System

Yuwen Tai reorganized military command and established the fubing system to broaden the military manpower base. Formally modeled on the old Xianbei eight-division system, it created Eight Pillars of State but in practice organized six armies. Each Pillar-of-State General-in-Chief had two generals-in-chief beneath him, for twelve in total. Each general-in-chief had two Commanders Unequalled in Honor, for twenty-four in total; each of these had two yitong commanders, for forty-eight, and each yitong commanded one thousand soldiers. The six Pillars therefore controlled roughly 48,000 troops. The fubing system incorporated local elite military forces into a centrally organized structure and strengthened central control over the army. It was later continued by the Sui and Tang and became a major institutional development in Chinese military history.

Formation of the Guanlong Group

Based in the Guanlong region, Yuwen Tai drew together the military families of Wuchuan Garrison, Han Chinese local elites, and Xianbei aristocrats, creating what became known as the Guanlong Group. He restored old Xianbei surnames, including changing the imperial Yuan clan back to Tuoba, and granted Xianbei surnames to Han officials, while soldiers were assigned the non-Han surnames of their commanders. Yang Zhong, for example, received the surname Puliuru, and Li Hu the surname Daye. The source characterizes this as a policy of Hu–Han integration that helped make the Guanlong Group the core ruling force of Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang and gave it long-term historical influence.

Relations with Contemporaries

Yuwen Tai had a close relationship with Heba Yue, serving under him early in his career and enjoying his confidence. After Heba Yue's murder, Yuwen Tai took over his troops and became the central leader of the Guanlong Group. Gao Huan was Yuwen Tai's principal rival: the two controlled Western and Eastern Wei respectively, confronted one another for many years, and fought repeatedly. Yuwen Tai and Su Chuo had a productive ruler–minister relationship; Su Chuo devised the Edict of Six Articles and other reforms and was one of Yuwen Tai's most important advisers. Yuwen Tai's relationship with Emperor Xiaowu of Wei, Yuan Xiu, was instead marked by suspicion and conflict, ending with Yuwen Tai poisoning Yuan Xiu and installing Yuan Baoju.

The Six Articles and His Institutional Reforms

In the ninth month of the seventh year of Datong Yuwen Tai promulgated the six articles drafted by Su Chuo: to order the heart first, to promote teaching and transformation, to exhaust the advantages of the ground, to raise the worthy and good, to be careful in lawsuits and to equalize taxes and services; and in the eleventh month he promulgated twelve new regulations, which with the twenty-four of the third month of the first year of Datong made thirty-six. The six articles and the new regulations ranged widely over politics, economy, thought and culture: in politics Yuwen Tai held to the principle of governing chiefly by virtuous teaching and transformation with law as its aid, requiring officers at every level to cultivate themselves by the Confucian doctrine and to practise benevolence and righteousness, filial piety and brotherly love, loyalty and good faith, courtesy and yielding, honesty and equity, and frugality; and he instilled into the people the same filial piety, docility and propriety, to steady the order of rule. He also had Su Chuo and Lu Bian reform the offices after the Zhou system, setting up the six ministers in the middle of Datong and completing them only in the third year of Gongdi, the six ministries being those of Heaven, Earth, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, with government proclamations in an archaic style, thereby winning the adherence of the great Chinese landlords of the central plains. In employing men he raised only the worthy without regard to family standing, so that a man of humble birth could hold the offices of minister or chancellor if he had both virtue and ability: Li Bi had been a great commander under Houmo Chen Yue and was his connexion by marriage, yet coming over he was used without suspicion and became one of the eight pillars of state commanding the militia; and Su Chuo, once obtained, was at once made military adviser of the chancellor's office and became the chief man in framing the state's policy, trusted without reserve, so that when Yuwen Tai went abroad he would leave blank papers signed for Su Chuo, who might act as occasion required and report afterwards. He also attended to the differing opinions of his subordinates and was ready to take advice: as early as the fifth year of Datong he had paper and brushes set up outside the Yangwu gate of the capital to seek out faults and merits; and when the recorder of the chancellor's office proposed that loyal and straight words be invited, he gladly adopted it and required the historians to record gains and losses without concealment. He set the administration in order by relaxing the death penalty for corruption to thirty bolts — more lenient than the Liang code's ten bolts or the Northern Wei and Northern Qi rule of death for a single bolt — but only the better to enforce the law, proclaiming openly that to kill one for the profit of a hundred to cleanse the royal transformation a heavy penalty was permissible; and for former corrupt officials the Northern Zhou made a law of recovery, pardoning the old offence but tracing to the end whatever could be traced, recording it, and recovering the gains, the decree saying that the treasury was the common property of the realm and the emperor but its keeper, and that while he might pardon their crimes the people's property must be recovered for them. He also restored the old Xianbei surnames and the imperial clan Yuan to Tabgatch, and the soldiers took their commanders' Hu surnames. Of old the Wei had had thirty-six states and ninety-nine great clans, most of which had died out; and now those generals of the highest merit were made heirs of the thirty-six states and the next of the ninety-nine clans, and the troops they commanded took their surnames and wore Xianbei dress.

The Founding of the Militia System

In the third year of Datong Yuwen Tai began to reorganize the army. Gao Huan, relying on the strength of his horsemen, attacked the Western Wei every year; and though he had never succeeded, Yuwen Tai knew that in the long run the Western Wei, the weaker in strength, could not hold out, and that the urgent business was to raise the men's spirit, strengthen their fighting power, open new sources of soldiers and enlarge the army. In the seventh month of that year he gathered the armies, and in the eighth month led them to the Tong pass to set the army in order, proclaiming the military law that they should not covet wealth nor despise the enemy nor tyrannize over the people, and that in battle those who did their duty would be rewarded and those who fled would be killed. Thereafter, as the quality of the army rose, he enlarged it further: at first, when he took over Heba Yue's corps of Wuchuan military households, it numbered but a few thousand; after the defeat of Houmo Chen Yue, his great general Li Bi came over with ten thousand; and afterwards the Northern Wei guards who came into the passes with Emperor Xiaowu, Yuan Xiu, were also nearly ten thousand, so that Yuwen Tai's army was near thirty thousand in twelve commands; and after Shayuan, by taking in surrendered troops and the like, it grew steadily, and in the third month of the eighth year of Datong, when six armies were formally established, there were about a hundred thousand men. After the defeat at Mangshan, in which more than sixty thousand were lost, and the Xianbei of the Guanzhong region being too few to replace them, Yuwen Tai began to draw soldiers from among the Chinese: in the third month he proclaimed the levy of the armed retainers of the strong landlords of Guanlong, turning the local forces which the strong landlords had raised to protect their own interests in the disorders of the last years of the Northern Wei, and which after the division of the two Weis were still in their hands, into part of the central army under men of repute chosen by the government from Guanlong, thus both strengthening the centre's control of the army and weakening the local forces of the last years of the Northern Wei, and joining the Wuchuan military group with the landlords of Guanlong; and afterwards, by the sixteenth year of Datong, the levy was extended to all the equal-field households, so that the proportion of Chinese soldiers in the Western Wei army grew further. He also reformed the system of command, taking in form the old Xianbei eight divisions and setting up eight pillars of state: besides Yuwen Tai himself as the real commander, in the fourteenth year of Datong he made a prince of the imperial house of the Western Wei a pillar of state; and under each pillar two great generals, twelve in all, under each great general two prefects of the armies, twenty-four in all, and under each prefect two equal-rank officers, forty-eight in all, one equal-rank officer commanding about a thousand men, one prefect two thousand, one great general four thousand and one pillar eight thousand, so that the six pillars had about forty-eight thousand men; and this army is what history calls the militia. The militia's forerunners were Heba Yue's Wuchuan corps, Li Bi's corps of Houmo Chen Yue's army, and the Northern Wei guards who came into the passes with Emperor Xiaowu, all Xianbei-ized armies; and Yuwen Tai, himself of the Wuchuan corps, understood well the feeling of the Six Garrisons Xianbei whose standing had fallen with the Tabgatch's feudalization, and therefore in founding the militia took the old Xianbei tribal organization of the eight divisions as the model for the new army, keeping the old Xianbei clan relationship between officers and men. In the first year of Gongdi of the Western Wei he had the meritorious generals inherit the thirty-six states and ninety-nine clans of the Xianbei, changing back to double surnames those who had changed them to single ones at the Taihe reform and giving Xianbei surnames to those who had or had always had Chinese surnames, as Li Hu being given the surname Daye, Li Bi Tuhe, Zhao Gui Yifu and Yang Zhong Puluru, and all the troops they commanded took their commanders' Xianbei surnames.

His Economic Measures and His Thought and Culture

In the economy Yuwen Tai, following the Confucian notion of enriching the people before teaching them, actively encouraged farming and sericulture and rewarded tillage, framing measures accordingly. First he restored the disrupted equal-field system, joining again to the land those peasants who had lost it and drifted elsewhere through engrossment, war and natural calamity, thus giving them the means to produce; and the Western Wei's equal-field system differed little from the Northern Wei's in the grant of land and the tax, though the labour service was much changed, the age of service being raised from fifteen to eighteen, the term fixed by the harvest so that in a good year it was no more than a month, in a middling year no more than twenty days and in a poor year no more than ten, greatly shortening the service, and one man only in each household being required, so as not to take too much labour from the fields. He also promulgated the household register and the system of accounts, that is the method of reckoning in advance the next year's labour service, so that the levies might be fairer, and fixed the length of silk at forty feet to the bolt. Besides this he laid down the duty of the local officers in production: at the beginning of each year the officers of the prefectures and counties must urge the people, and all, young or old, who could hold a farm tool were to be sent to the fields and not miss the season; and the idle and slothful who would not work were punished. Since one of the standards by which he judged the governors was their encouragement of farming and sericulture, the local officers mostly attended to it, and the economy grew, so that before his death there was already a modest prosperity with full granaries. In thought and culture Yuwen Tai loved the Confucian arts and used the Confucian doctrine as his weapon of thought, doing away with some backward Xianbei customs and with the corrupt fashion of empty metaphysical talk and the vain discussion of Buddhism and Daoism then current; he set up the imperial college in the capital Chang'an and made a great Confucian the libationer, training through schooling a body of men of Confucian mind as props of the regime; and he made a Great Announcement after the form of that piece in the Documents and showed it to his ministers in the eleventh year of Datong, decreeing that henceforth all writing should follow that style, seeking thereby to correct the ornate fashion. After the six articles were promulgated he had the officers of every level study and recite them, decreeing that whoever did not know the six articles and the method of accounts could not hold office, which secured the carrying out of these measures.

His Marriages with the Northern Peoples and His Tomb

To deal with the Eastern Wei and the Liang with all his strength, Yuwen Tai took the policy of marriage alliance toward the Rouran and the Turks of the north. In the disorders at the end of the Northern Wei the Rouran grew strong again and raided the frontier repeatedly; and after the Western Wei was founded Yuwen Tai first gave a daughter of the imperial clan, Yuan Yi's daughter, to Tahan, younger brother of the Rouran lord Anagui, and then persuaded Emperor Wen of the Western Wei to take Anagui's daughter, the lady Yujiulü, as empress, to bind the Rouran to him. The same with the Turks: in the eleventh year of Datong he sent envoys to the Turks and established relations, and in the seventeenth year gave the princess of Changle to the Turkish lord. By these marriage alliances with the northern pastoral peoples he kept the frontier free of trouble and strengthened friendly intercourse with them. His Cheng tomb lies in the primary school of Gongli township in Fuping county, Shaanxi, south of the Phoenix mountain, eleven kilometres south of the county town and a hundred and seventy metres east of the township government, at longitude one hundred and nine degrees eight minutes and latitude thirty-four degrees fifty-one minutes, five hundred and thirty metres above the sea; the surrounding land is sloping, and the original enclosure cannot be traced because of the houses built about the tomb through the ages. In the forty-first year of Qianlong the governor of Shaanxi, Bi Yuan, wrote the tomb inscription for Emperor Wen's Cheng tomb; on the twenty-ninth day of the fourth month of 1956 the people's committee of Fuping county proclaimed the Cheng tomb a protected site of the county, and on the twentieth day of the fourth month of 1996 it was proclaimed by the Shaanxi provincial people's government as a principal protected site of the third group.

Personal Relations

• Yuwen Gong (father), Lady Wang of Lelang (mother), Yuwen Hao (elder brother), Yuwen Lian (elder brother), Yuwen Luosheng (elder brother), Lady Yuan (wife, Princess Fengyi of Northern Wei), Lady Chinu (wife, posthumously honored as Empress Xuan), Lady Yao (wife), Lady Dabugan (wife), Lady Wang (wife), Yuwen Yu (son, Emperor Ming of Northern Zhou), Yuwen Zhen (son, Duke Xian of Song), Yuwen Jue (son, Emperor Xiaomin of Northern Zhou), Yuwen Yong (son, Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou), Yuwen Xian (son, Prince Yang of Qi), Yuwen Zhi (son, Prince La of Wei), Yuwen Zhao (son, Prince Jian of Zhao), Yuwen Jian (son, Prince Zhongxiao of Qiao), Yuwen Chun (son, Prince Huo of Chen), Yuwen Sheng (son, Prince Ye of Yue), Yuwen Da (son, Prince Bi of Dai), Yuwen Tong (son, Duke Gongkang of Ji), Yuwen You (son, Prince Wen of Teng), Empress Yuwen (daughter, empress of Yuan Qin, Emperor Fei of Western Wei), Princess Xiangyang (daughter, married Dou Yi), Princess Yi'an (daughter, married Li Hui), Princess Shunyang (daughter, married Yang Zan), Princess Pingyuan (daughter, married Yu Yi).
• Heba Yue (superior), Su Chuo (adviser), Zhao Gui (subordinate commander), Li Hu (subordinate commander), Li Bi (subordinate commander), Yu Jin (subordinate commander), Houmochen Chong (subordinate commander), Dugu Xin (subordinate commander).
• Yuan Xiu (Emperor Xiaowu of Wei), Yuan Baoju (Emperor Wen of Western Wei), Yuan Qin (Emperor Fei of Western Wei), Yuan Kuo (Emperor Gong of Western Wei).
• Gao Huan (powerful Eastern Wei official), Houmochen Yue (murderer of Heba Yue), Yuan Xiu (Emperor Xiaowu of Wei, poisoned by Yuwen Tai).

Historical Assessment

Northern Zhou and Contemporary Assessments

The Northern Zhou historian Linghu Defen wrote in the Book of Zhou: “Taizu received the mandate and was capable of restoring order from chaos; with a heroic and martial bearing he met an age of hardship. ... Just as he intended to cultivate civil government, set aside war, and bring peace to the realm, he died before his undertaking was complete.” The assessment strongly praised Yuwen Tai's abilities and foundational achievements. Reform-minded officials such as Su Chuo and Lu Bian highly esteemed him, describing him as one who “understood government, revered Confucian learning and antiquity, and in all his institutions modeled himself on the Three Dynasties.” Emperor Wen of Western Wei, Yuan Baoju, though a puppet in practice, was also recorded as acknowledging that Yuwen Tai's “merit surpassed Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou, and his virtue crowned antiquity and the present.”

Sui–Tang Period

After Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, the son of Yuwen Tai's subordinate Yang Zhong, founded the Sui dynasty, many features of Yuwen Tai's fubing and Six Ministries systems were inherited, giving rise to the phrase “Sui inherited Zhou institutions.” Emperor Taizong of Tang was recorded as saying, “Yuwen Tai's talent may truly be called heroic.” The Tang historian Li Yanshou wrote in the History of the Northern Dynasties: “When Wei lost its government and all under Heaven fragmented, Taizu, with the bearing of a hero, met a time of danger. He gathered outstanding men, rode through warfare, and in the end was able to support the Wei house and take possession of Guanzhong. Though his achievements were not completed, the scale of his plans was vast.”

Song–Yuan Period

The Song historian Sima Guang wrote in the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government: “Tai's talent and strategy may be said to have surpassed ordinary men. Yet in his conduct he relied much on power and deception and did not pursue the upright and open.” This criticized Yuwen Tai's political methods. The Song Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi was recorded as observing: “Yuwen Tai's government was not the law of the ancient kings, yet because he could employ men and establish institutions, he was able to found a state.” Yuan historian Hu Sanxing, annotating the Comprehensive Mirror, wrote: “When Yuwen Tai took Guanzhong, he obtained Su Chuo and employed him; the institutions he established are worth observing.”

Ming–Qing Period

The Ming thinker Wang Fuzhi wrote in Commentaries on the Comprehensive Mirror: “Yuwen Tai's rise did not rest on strength equal to Gao Huan's, yet he could gather the heroes of Guanlong and accomplish an imperial enterprise; from this his talent can be known. Yet he killed Emperor Xiaowu and deposed Emperor Qin, and though these acts may be called expedient, he could not avoid the charge of usurpation.” Qing historian Zhao Yi wrote in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories: “Yuwen Tai founded his enterprise in opposition to Gao Huan and eventually prevailed because he could employ men. Su Chuo, Lu Bian, and their peers were outstanding figures of their age, and Tai trusted and employed them; therefore his government was worthy of notice.” The Korean King Jeongjo and Yun Jae-hui discussed Yuwen Tai in similar terms, contrasting the political effects of institutions attributed to the Yuwen regime with later uses in Song and Ming.

Modern Period

Modern historian Chen Yinke wrote in Draft Discussion of the Institutional Origins of Sui and Tang: “Yuwen Tai's fubing system was in fact the core of the Guanlong Group; the prosperity of Sui and Tang arose from this.” Lü Simian, in History of the Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, described Yuwen Tai as “suspicious and calculating yet able to employ men, and therefore able to achieve his success.” Tian Yuqing, in discussing the Guanlong political structure, regarded Yuwen Tai's policies of Hu–Han integration as helping create the Guanlong Group and laying foundations for Northern Zhou's unification of the north and the later national unification under Sui and Tang. Modern scholarship generally treats Yuwen Tai as an important statesman and military commander whose institutional innovations had far-reaching effects.