From the ninth year of Yuan Kang (299) to the first year of Guangxi (306), the Rebellion of the Eight Kings lasted seven years. Its core figures were Sima Liang the King of Runan, Sima Wei the King of Chu, Sima Lun the King of Zhao, Sima Ran the King of Qi, King of Changsha, Sima Ying the King of Chengdu, Sima Yong the King of Hejian, and Sima Yue the Eighth King of the East China Sea.
In the end, Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, won the final victory, but he was only a short-term beneficiary, and the biggest beneficiary of this turmoil was Sima Rui, the king of Langya. In the first year of Taixi (290), sima rui, who was only fifteen years old, inherited the title of king of Langya, and according to the genealogy of the Sima family, Sima Rui was a great-grandson of Sima Yi, who belonged to a distant relative and had no access to the emperor.
However, after the outbreak of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, Sima Yue, the king of the Eastern Seas, raised an army and surrendered to Pi, and Sima Rui, the king of Langya, defected to him and was made a general of Andong and a military officer of Xuzhou, staying behind in Xia Pi and guarding the rear. After Sima Rui was appointed, he asked Wang Yan to be Sima congunciated from his brother Wang Dao, who participated in the military of Wang Yue in the East China Sea, and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility.
After the defeat of Sima Yue, the king of the East Sea, Sima Rui was afraid of the impending disaster and wanted to run to him. That night, the moonlight was bright and the vigilance was tight, and Sima Rui could not get out, and he was in a difficult situation. After a while, the black clouds covered the sky, the thunderstorm was raging, and the patrolling people were relaxed, so they could escape secretly.
Sima Rui reached the river and was stopped by officials at the ferry. The attendant Song Dian came from behind, beat Emperor Yuan's horse with a whip, smiled and said, "Shechang! The officials forbade the passage of nobles, and you were also detained! The official only then let Sima Rui pass. When Sima Rui arrived in Luoyang, he immediately took his family members out and went to Langya (琅琊, in modern Jiaonan County, Shandong).
At the same time, the nomadic peoples of the north moved south, and the Central Plains fell into an endless war. At that time, the south was not invaded by war, and Sima Rui took Wang Dao across the river to Jianye.
Jianye was originally the former capital of Eastern Wu, and Sima Rui was not famous, so the southern warrior clans rejected Sima Rui. For a time, after Sima Rui fell into a depression, Wang Dao persuaded Sima Rui to encircle the southern shi clan, and he pointed out that Gu Rong and He Xun were the most famous people in the area, and they should befriended to win people's hearts, and when the two of them came, there would be no one who would not come.
So Wang Dao arranged a majestic ceremonial guard for Sima Rui, and Sima Rui rode on public opinion, and Wang Dao and Wang Dun and other celebrities all rode horses and served as attendants, and the scene was very grand. Ji Zhan, Gu Rong, and the others were very surprised when they saw it, and one by one they prayed on the left side of the road, so that the title of the monarch was established.
Therefore, Sima Rui's Eastern Jin Dynasty regime was composed of a combination of multiple warrior clans, of which Wang Dao and Wang Dun were represented by the Wang family power was very strong at that time, which made the situation of "wang and ma sharing the world" maintained in Jiangzuo for more than twenty years.
Sima Rui and Wang Dao staged a good story of respect and love between kings and subjects. The Langya royal family also reached the peak of power, except for Wang Dao as the chancellor, Wang Dun controlled the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the soldiers were strong and strong. However, the fall of power caused Sima Rui great dissatisfaction, and he secretly used Liu Kui, Diao Xie, and others as his confidants in an attempt to suppress Wang's power.
When Wang Dun learned of this, he was greatly dissatisfied, so he raised an army in Wuchang in the name of Liu Kui and attacked Jianye. Sima Rui was defeated, and in desperation, Sima Rui "stripped off his clothes and wore imperial clothes" and said to Wang Dun, "If you want to be emperor, tell me earlier, I will give up the throne to you, and return to my king of Langya." Why let the people suffer with them?"
These words did not extinguish Wang Dun's ambitions, and he became even more rampant, so much so that Sima Rui and his court became a decoration. Sima Rui saw that he could not shake the power of the Wang clan, and he named himself The Son of Heaven, but in fact he was a puppet, and gradually became angry and sick, and became bedridden. In the first year of Yongchang, Sima Rui, the emperor of jinyuan, died of grief and illness.