Who are the "Lang Evil Kings"?

Author: Yu Feng

After 1500, Sima Jinlong, the king of Northern Wei, finally "returned" to Nanjing. Recently, the exhibition "The King of Langya – From the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Northern Wei Dynasty", which opened at the Nanjing Museum, attracted the attention of many people and will last until April this year. Sima Jinlong, the king of Northern Wei Langya, who was a descendant of the Eastern Jin Dynasty royal family, never came to Jiankang (Nanjing), the former capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He has always lived in the north, held the position of public secretary, served as an imperial master, and married a princess. He probably wouldn't have imagined that one day, the burial artifacts in his tomb would return to his hometown for display.

In fact, Sima Jinlong's title "Langya" is also closely related to Nanjing. "Langya" once left a mark on the history of Nanjing, and in today's Nanjing, you can still find place names related to "Langya".

Speaking of "Langya", many people first think of the famous Langya Mountain in Chuzhou, Anhui, and the famous sentence in the Northern Song Dynasty Ouyang Xiu's "Drunken Pavilion" "Huan Chu Ji Shan Ye." Its southwest peaks, the forest is beautiful, the look is blue but deep, Langya is also", making Langya Mountain a household name in China.

Langya Mountain is only 70 or 80 kilometers away from Nanjing, and many people have visited it. But if you travel back to the Six Dynasties, you will find that "Langya" is not only the name of the mountain, but also the honorable title of the royal family, and the name of the county.

The Ming Dynasty scholar Chen Yi compiled a "Ancient and Modern Tu kao of Jinling", which contains maps of various eras from the pre-Qin to the Ming Dynasty Nanjing, and the "Eastern Jin Dynasty Capital Jiankang Map" reflects the political district setting of the Eastern Jin Dynasty when Nanjing was established. In the upper right corner of this picture, there is a "Lang Evil" on the east side of today's Qixia Mountain (marked as "Regent Mountain"). This "Lang Evil" is the ancient way "LangYa" was written.

How could Nanjing in the Six Dynasties have "Lang evil"? We have to start with Shandong in the north. Professor Zhang Xuefeng of the History Department of Nanjing University introduced that Langya County and Langya State were originally in the area of present-day Juxian County, Rizhao and Linyi in Shandong.

The Dictionary of Chinese Historical Geographical Names, compiled by the Institute of Historical Geography of Fudan University, depicts the evolution of Shandong's "Lang Evil" place names: "Lang Evil" was used as a place name, which first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was the "Lang Evil Yi" of the State of Qi, which was in the southwest of present-day Jiaonan County, Shandong Province, and was the main city and port of the State of Qi; after the Yue King destroyed Wu, the capital moved north to here. After qin unified China, langxian county was set up in the eastern coastal area of Qi, and the seat of government was langxi county; in the early years of the eastern Han Dynasty, it was changed to langxian county, with present-day Linyi as the capital, and later restored to langxian county; in the northern Wei Dynasty, there was still Langxian County, near present-day Linyi; during the Sui Kai Emperor's reign, Langxian County was abolished, and Yizhou was changed to Langxian County during the Daye period; in the early Tang Dynasty, it was restored to Yizhou, and during the Tianbao period, it was changed back to Langxian County, and abolished during the Qianyuan period. Since then, there have been no more Langya Counties in Shandong, but during the Republic of China, the Beiyang government briefly set up Langya Province.

The lang cult country has a vast territory and fertile land, which has been valued by the central government. During the Western Han Dynasty, Eastern Han Dynasty, and Cao Wei Dynasty, many prominent members of the imperial family were named the King of Lang Evil, and the earliest Lang Evil King was Liu Ze of the Western Han Dynasty. Even Sun Quan, the Emperor of Eastern Wu, who occupied Jiangnan and did not control Shandong, made his sixth son, Sun Xiu, who later became Emperor Jing of Wu, the King of Langyue.

After the establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Yi's ninth son Sima Lun and third son Sima Ling successively became the Evil King of Lang. After Sima Ling's death, his son Sima Xiao was given the title of Evil King of Lang. After Sima Xiao's death, it was his son Sima Rui who became the Evil King of Lang, the founding emperor of the Later Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Jin Yuan Emperor. Sima Rui served as the Evil King of Lang in the first year (290) of the Western Jin Dynasty. "Sima Rui is also the most famous of the many Lang evil kings who have appeared in history." Wang Zhigao, a scholar of the history of the Six Dynasties and a professor at Southern Normal University, said.

In the last year of the Western Jin Dynasty, the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" and the "Five Hu Chaos" occurred one after another, and the Central Plains fell into endless wars, and a large number of northerners migrated to Jiangnan. Among the people who came to Jiangnan from the north was Sima Rui. In the first year of the Western Jin Dynasty (307), Sima Rui was appointed by the imperial court as the general of Andong, and the town guarded Jianye (Nanjing). In 316, the Western Jin Dynasty fell, and when the news reached Nanjing, it was already March 317, and Sima Rui, the evil king of Lang, re-established the Jin Dynasty in Nanjing, known as the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In 318, Sima Rui officially claimed the title of emperor, that is, Emperor Yuan of Jin, and changed his name to Yuan Taixing.

During the turbulent period of the alternating between the two Jin Dynasties, a large number of northern expatriates poured into Jiangnan, and in order to resettle the displaced people and make them feel a sense of identity and belonging to the southern region, the Eastern Jin government established a number of Qiaozhou counties in the ruling area, including Nanjing. The "Lang Evil" that appears on the map of Nanjing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty is one of the qiao counties.

According to history, when the Western Jin Dynasty fell, many families in the northern Lang evil kingdom crossed the river to Nanjing, including the famous Lang evil Wang clan, the Lang evil Yan clan, the Lang evil Zhuge clan and other family families. In the history of the Six Dynasties, the famous Wang Dao, Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi, etc. are the representative figures of the Lang Evil Wang Clan.

After Sima Rui ascended the throne, he set up Huaide County (later renamed Fei County) north of Jiankang Palace (now north of Nanjing Drum Tower to Jiuhua Mountain) to resettle the immigrants of the Lang evil state, which came under the jurisdiction of Danyang County, which was the first overseas Chinese county in the Eastern Jin Dynasty with historical records.

Sima Rui also sent Lang Evil County to Danyang County, setting up Lang Evil Phase, but this Lang Evil County did not have actual land. In the first year of the Jin Dynasty Emperor Xiankang, Huan Wen was approved by the imperial court to establish Lang Evil County with part of the land of Jiangcheng County, Danyang County, which was located in Jincheng, Jiangcheng County, Jiangcheng County, which is near the present-day Qixia Mountain.

Zhang Xuefeng introduced that the approximate location of Langxian County is today along the Yangtze River, south of Qixia Mountain, east to the Jiuxiang River (ancient name Jiangchengpu) at the Xianlin Campus of Nanjing University, and west to the Shogunate Mountain and lion mountain area.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty's Langxian County in Nanjing continued until the Southern Dynasty, when it was changed to "Southern Langxian County", and the administrative office was moved to BaixiaCheng near Xiangshan in present-day Gulou District, and was not abolished until the Southern Chen period. Counting before and after, Nanjing's "Lang Evil County" existed for more than two hundred and fifty years.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, China, one south and one north, had two "Lang evils" for a long time. Above the temple, those who can serve as the "King of Lang Evil" are also extremely important figures in the royal family.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, after Sima Rui, Sima Fu, Sima Anguo, Sima Huan, Sima Yu, Sima Yue, Sima Pi, Sima Yi, Sima Daozi, sima Dewen, and so on were successively crowned as the evil kings of Lang. Professor Wang Zhigao introduced that Among them, Sima Yue, Sima Pi, Sima Yi, Sima Yu, and Sima Dewen all ascended to the throne.

Finally, let's take a look at the Langya Mountain in Chuzhou, Anhui Province, mentioned at the beginning of this article. According to reports, the origin of the name of Langya Mountain is actually related to the "Lang Evil King", one theory, when the Western Jin Dynasty fell on Wu, it is said that sima Ling, the evil king of Lang, once led an army to stay here; another theory is that Sima Rui lived on this mountain when he was the king of Lang Evil, and was later called Langya Mountain.

During the Republic of China period, when Nanjing was carrying out urban construction, the newly opened roads in the north of the city were named after well-known mountains and rivers in China. In 1934, west of the Drum Tower, a newly opened road on the east side of the north section of Xikang Road was named "Langya Road", and the "Langya Road Primary School" on this road was one of the famous primary schools in Nanjing. (Yu Feng)