Yuan Qin

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Yuan Qin was born in 525 (the first year of the Datong era of Western Wei) into the imperial house of Northern Wei. His father, Yuan Baoju, was a grandson of Yuan Hong, Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, and a son of Yuan Yu, Prince of Jingzhao. In the final years of Northern Wei, the powerful minister Gao Huan dominated the court. With the support of Yuwen Tai, Yuan Baoju moved west into the Guanzhong region and in 535, the first year of Datong, proclaimed himself emperor at Chang'an, establishing the Western Wei regime. Yuan Qin was Yuan Baoju's eldest son, and his mother was Empress Yifu. The Yifu clan belonged to a prominent Xianbei family. Empress Yifu was deeply favored by Yuan Baoju, but pressure from the Rouran eventually led to her deposition and forced death. Yuan Qin grew up in the palace in an environment in which his father and Yuwen Tai jointly governed Western Wei.

Years as Crown Prince

In 535, after Yuan Baoju took the throne, Yuan Qin was immediately made crown prince. To strengthen ties between the imperial house and the powerful minister, Grand Councilor Yuwen Tai arranged for his daughter to marry Yuan Qin, making Yuan Qin his son-in-law. The political marriage did not create trust between the two men. Instead, it made Yuan Qin increasingly sensitive to Yuwen Tai's concentration of power. Yuan Qin remained crown prince for sixteen years. During this period, Western Wei gradually became more stable under Yuwen Tai's administration, while tension between imperial authority and the power of the chief minister continued to grow.

Reign

In 551, the seventeenth year of Datong, Yuan Baoju died and Yuan Qin succeeded to the throne. He did not establish a new era name but continued to use Emperor Wen's era designation. In the following year, 552, he went further and issued an edict abolishing the era name altogether, calling the year simply the first year. Such a measure was extremely unusual during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and reflected Yuan Qin's attempt to break with the existing political order and establish his own authority. In 553, the second year of the Deposed Emperor, Yuwen Tai voluntarily resigned as Grand Councilor, and Yuan Qin took the opportunity to readjust the arrangement of court affairs. In the eleventh month of the same year, the Master of Writing Yuan Lie plotted to assassinate Yuwen Tai, but the plot was discovered and Yuan Lie was killed. His death brought the conflict between Yuan Qin and Yuwen Tai fully into the open. Yuan Qin was deeply dissatisfied with Yuwen Tai's unauthorized execution of a court official and began secretly planning to remove him.

Deposition and Death

Yuan Qin joined with Yuwen Tai's sons-in-law Li Ji, Li Hui, and Yu Yi in an attempt to launch a coup. The three men, however, secretly reported Yuan Qin's plan to Yuwen Tai. In the second month of 554, the third year of the Deposed Emperor, Yuwen Tai used the plot as a pretext to depose Yuan Qin and place him under custody in Yongzhou. He then installed Yuan Qin's younger half-brother Yuan Kuo, Prince of Qi, as emperor. On the gengxu day of the fourth month that year, Yuwen Tai had Yuan Qin poisoned with wine. He was only thirty years old. After Yuan Qin's death, the Western Wei regime came completely under Yuwen Tai's control, laying the groundwork for Northern Zhou's eventual replacement of Western Wei.

Major Activities

Accession and Abolition of the Era Name

After succeeding to the throne, Yuan Qin did not follow the usual practice of proclaiming a new era name and instead continued to use Emperor Wen's era designation. The following year, he abolished the era name entirely and simply designated the year as the first year. This was highly unusual in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and reflected his attempt to free himself from the existing political structure and establish his own authority.

Plot to Remove Yuwen Tai

During Yuan Qin's reign, Yuwen Tai controlled the government, and tension between imperial authority and ministerial power was acute. In 553, the Master of Writing Yuan Lie plotted to kill Yuwen Tai, but the conspiracy was discovered and he was executed. Yuan Qin was deeply dissatisfied and then joined with Yuwen Tai's sons-in-law Li Ji, Li Hui, and Yu Yi in planning a coup. The three men informed Yuwen Tai, and the plan failed.

Deposition and Killing

In the second month of 554, Yuwen Tai deposed Yuan Qin, placed him under custody in Yongzhou, and installed Yuan Kuo as emperor. In the fourth month of that year, Yuwen Tai had Yuan Qin poisoned with wine. Yuan Qin was the only emperor of Western Wei to be deposed and then killed.

The stages of his reign can be set out by year: born in 525 (first year of Datong in the Western Wei, the year according to the source) in Hann; made crown prince in 535, when Yuwen Tai betrothed his daughter to him; in 551, on Emperor Wen's death, he came to the throne and continued the emperor's era name; in 552 (first year of the deposed emperor) he issued an edict abolishing the era name and calling the year the first; in 553 (second year) Yuwen Tai voluntarily resigned the chancellorship, and in the same year the secretariat official Yuan Lie plotted to kill Yuwen Tai and was executed when the plot was discovered; in 554 (third year) he was deposed for the same reason and placed at Yongzhou, and in the fourth month of that year poisoned by Yuwen Tai. His passage from crown prince to emperor and from emperor to deposed ruler lay wholly in Yuwen Tai's hands, whence the title of deposed emperor; the suicide of his empress of the Yuwen clan after his killing is recorded elsewhere.

The edicts and appointments of his reign were still decided by Yuwen Tai's side.

An instance of institutional change in his reign is the edict of 552 abolishing the era name and calling the year simply the first, a formal imitation of the archaic practice of numbering years from the beginning, behind which lay Yuwen Tai's control of chronology and titles; in 553 Yuwen Tai resigned the chancellorship but kept the army, and in the same year the secretariat official Yuan Lie plotted to kill him and was executed when the plot was discovered, showing that opposition to the Yuwen was still active at court. His deposition and death, with the record of his empress's suicide, are a typical case of palace politics at the end of the Western Wei.

After his deposition in that year the Western Wei throne passed to Yuan Kuo, fourth son of Emperor Wen.

The clansmen and ministers of his reign mostly attached themselves to the Yuwen family.

The politics of his reign were marked by a weak sovereign and a strong minister: the emperor's edicts had to be carried out by Yuwen Tai's side, and every attempt to recover military power by conspiracy failed.

After his death the Yuwen did not at once replace the Wei but waited through the reign of Emperor Gong before Yuwen Jue accepted the abdication.

The changes of his era name and chronology are part of the contest over titles at the end of the Western Wei.

After his deposition he was placed at Yongzhou and soon killed.

As to the succession of the three Western Wei reigns, Emperors Wen, Fei and Gong were all installed by Yuwen Tai or Yuwen Hu, and the plots and killings of the interval show that the clansmen and ministers of the time could hardly alter the pattern; Yuan Qin himself, made crown prince at eleven, owed both his marriage and his throne to the Yuwen, so that his attempts to seize power lacked any base in the army from the outset, and his failure was all but inevitable.

His killing came three years after the death of his father Emperor Wen, the Western Wei throne changing hands twice in the interval.

His empress of the Yuwen clan died with him after his deposition, a famous case of the last years of the Western Wei.

After his deposition Emperor Gong of the Western Wei succeeded, advancing the Yuwen steps towards replacing the Wei.

He was killed at Yongzhou soon after his deposition.

His throne was given and taken away by Yuwen Tai alike.

The edict of his deposition was issued by Yuwen Tai's side.

After his death the Western Wei lasted another three years.

The place of his confinement after deposition lay at Yongzhou.

The edict abolishing the era name in his two years is a rare instance in the chronology of the Western Wei.

His title of deposed emperor derives from this.

Personal Relations

• Father: Yuan Baoju (Emperor Wen of Western Wei)
• Mother: Empress Yifu
• Brother: Yuan Kuo (Prince of Qi, later Emperor Gong of Western Wei)
• Wife: Empress Yuwen (daughter of Yuwen Tai)
• Yuwen Tai: Yuan Qin's father-in-law and the dominant minister who exercised effective control over Western Wei and ultimately deposed and poisoned him.
• Yuan Lie: Master of Writing who plotted to kill Yuwen Tai and was executed after the plan was exposed.
• Li Ji, Li Hui, and Yu Yi: Sons-in-law of Yuwen Tai whom Yuan Qin sought to enlist, but who ultimately reported the plot to Yuwen Tai.

Historical Assessment

Northern Dynasties to Sui and Tang

• The History of the Northern Dynasties described Yuan Qin as strong and decisive in temperament. Later interpretations held that he was unwilling to remain under another's control but lacked political strategy, which ultimately brought about his death.
• The Tang historian Li Yanshou recorded Yuan Qin's deposition in the History of the Northern Dynasties, stating that he intended to kill Grand Councilor Yuwen Tai but failed because he entrusted the plan to the wrong people.
• Historians around the Sui and Tang periods commonly regarded Yuan Qin as a symbol of the decline of Western Wei imperial power and saw his failure as a prelude to the Yuwen family's eventual replacement of Western Wei.

Song and Yuan Periods

• Sima Guang gave a detailed account of Yuan Qin's deposition and death in the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, presenting his secret plan to kill Yuwen Tai as an act beyond his actual power.
• The Song scholar Hu Sansheng, in his commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, argued that Yuan Qin failed because he entrusted the matter to the wrong men: Li Ji and the others were closely tied to Yuwen Tai, yet Yuan Qin placed his hopes in them.
• The Yuan historian Ma Duanlin listed Yuan Qin as a "deposed emperor" in the Wenxian Tongkao, viewing his attempt to remove a powerful minister only to be controlled by that minister as a typical failure in the struggle between monarchs and dominant officials during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Ming and Qing Periods

• The Ming scholar Wang Fuzhi criticized Yuan Qin in the Du Tongjian Lun as impulsive and lacking political method, arguing that his lack of skill combined with impatience led to his destruction.
• The Qing historian Zhao Yi discussed the deposition and killing of Yuan Qin in the Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, regarding Yuwen Tai's actions as another case of a powerful minister killing a ruler and Yuan Qin's death as marking the complete hollowing out of Western Wei imperial power.
• The Qing scholar Qian Daxin discussed whether Yuan Qin had an era name in 《Critical Examination of the Twenty-Two Histories》. He argued that the era name "Qianming" recorded in Duan Changji's 《Table of Successive Dynastic Chronologies》 was not sufficiently credible and that Yuan Qin in fact had no era name.

Modern Scholarship

• Lü Simian argued in 《History of the Two Jins and the Northern and Southern Dynasties》 that Yuan Qin's failure resulted not only from his personal limitations but also from a Western Wei political structure in which imperial power was already unable to compete with the Yuwen family.
• Zhou Yiliang, in Notes on the History of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, analyzed the relationship between Yuan Qin and Yuwen Tai and argued that Yuan Qin tried to launch a coup through Yuwen Tai's sons-in-law without recognizing that their dependence on the Yuwen family was far deeper than their loyalty to the imperial house.
• Tian Yuqing did not discuss Yuan Qin specifically in 《The Aristocratic Politics of the Eastern Jin》, but his analysis of relations between emperors and powerful ministers during the Northern and Southern Dynasties provides useful context for understanding Yuan Qin's position.