The Lamentations of the Two Jin Emperors: The Brothers of the Bitter Fate: Emperor An and Emperor Gong (Part 1)

1. Another idiot emperor Sima Dezong

Sima Dezong, the Emperor of Jin'an, was the eldest son of Emperor Xiaowu Sima Yao, who was made crown prince at the age of 6, and when he was murdered and died at the age of 15, he became emperor. The history books say that this benevolent brother was "unheeded", to what extent was he not favored? It is said that "from the small and long, the mouth can not speak", obviously a dumb; this is not enough, but also "cold and summer hunger and hunger can not be distinguished, eating and sleeping are not their own" ("Jin Shu • Andi Ji"), this is bad, even the seasonal changes, a cold and a warm do not know, even eating and dressing, sleeping and getting up and other daily life can not take care of themselves, this is not similar to the Jin "Hui" Emperor Sima Zheng, is also an idiot? Fortunately, this idiot emperor did not make jokes about "public ming", "private sound" and "why not eat meat", so the "reputation" was obviously not as good as that of Sima Zheng, the emperor of Jinhui; second, he had a good helper- his half-brother Sima Dewen, although he was 4 years younger than him, was not only clever and clever, but also humble and cautious, often serving the side of the stupid brother and arranging dispatches for him, so as not to make too many jokes. Some people may ask: How can such an intellectually inferior emperor, who has no adulthood, govern the world? It doesn't matter, there is his uncle, Sima Daozi, the Prince of Huiji, who is the regent. Sima Daozi, a benevolent brother, has already introduced himself before, is he a master who can govern the world well? He himself, together with his precious son Sima Yuanxian's various bad deeds, and during the regency, he also favored the yuchen Wang Guobao, etc., which made the government more and more corrupt and the social contradictions more acute, which not only led to the two joint forces of Wang Gong of Southern Yanzhou and Yin Zhongkan of Jingzhou, but also provoked a peasant uprising led by Sun En. In this case, Huan Wen's son Huan Xuan took the opportunity to absorb the elite of the Beifu army that had made great achievements in the Battle of Shuishui, and in the first year of Yuan Xing (402 AD), he invaded Jiankang, killed Sima Daozi's father and son, and controlled the Eastern Jin Dynasty, needless to say, the emperor Sima Dezong also fell into Huan Xuan's hands. The following year, Huan Xuan forced Sima Dezong to "take the throne" and became emperor himself, but he named Sima Dezong the "King of Pinggu". Soon, the Jianwei general Liu Yu and others led troops to Qin Wang, defeated Huan Xuan, and conquered Jiankang, and Sima Dezong was taken hostage by Huan Xuan to Xunyang (尋陽, in modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi). Due to Liu Yujie's victory, Huan Xuan fled west to Jiangling (江陵, in modern Jiangling, Hubei), and naturally did not forget to take the hostage Sima Dezong with him. Later, Sima Dezong was held hostage by Huan Xuan and sailed east to confront the Qin Army, and even after being killed, Huan Xuan still held the emperor, who had already been forced to take the throne, "Shan Gang West" (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 113). It was not until May of the third year of Yuan Xing (404 CE), the day before the murder of the rebellious Huan Xuan, that the fallen emperor Sima Dezong was found and protected by Wang Kangchan of Jingzhou and Tengzhi of Nanjun Taishou in the chaos. After all, the emperor was still the emperor, and once he was free, he immediately issued a holy decree in Jiangling as an emperor, pardoning the world, even if he was "rebellious" because of Huan Xuan's coercion," he would not be prosecuted—of course, this holy will was obviously not from the emperor's own hand, and before the amnesty, the huan family clan members, such as Huan Shikang, Huan Mao, Huan Sheng, etc., had been killed. Unfortunately, a few days after the good days, Huan Xuan's Yu Dang Huan Zhen and Huan Qian did not buy the account of the "Holy Will", and then searched for the defeated remnants of the horse, took advantage of the gap to capture Jiangling, Wang Kangchan and Wang Tengzhi were killed, Huan Zhen and "Prancing Horse Fighting" went straight to the steps of the "Palace", angrily opened their eyes, and scolded Sima Dezong: "What is there about our Huan family that is sorry for the country, and it is so tragic that they were killed so badly?" Naturally, the dumb emperor could not defend a word, but fortunately Sima Dewen stepped forward and asked, "The Huan family is killed, is this what our brothers meant?" The so-called "state" only refers to your emperor himself, at most the Sima family, and the wise Sima Dewen certainly cannot count the various crimes of the Huan family: your Huan family has actually deposed the emperor of our Sima family, is there anything bigger than this "sorry"? His rhetorical question was also the truth, at that time, the Qinwang army generals who were fighting against Huan Xuan and others, in addition to the Jianwei general Liu Yu, there were also the champion generals Liu Yi, etc., where did they allow the Sima brothers, who had just been rescued from the enemy camp, to be the masters? Although one of their brothers was the Emperor and the other was the King of Lang. Huan Zhen naturally understood this, but still did not rely on it, to kill both of the brothers, Huan Qian repeatedly persuaded, Huan Zhen's anger was calmed down; once the anger subsided, it was necessary to give the past emperor a little face, so Huan Zhen got off his horse, saluted the Sima brothers and left - it was dangerous! Although he saved his life, he was still held hostage in the army by Huan Zhen, and often fought against the Qin Wang army, suffering from turbulence and displacement. It was not until March of the first year of Yixi (405 AD), when Huan Zhen and other soldiers were defeated and killed, that sima Dezong's brothers were welcomed back to the capital Jiankang, ending a three-year prison period.

Sima Dezong (382 – 28 January 419)

Another civil strife has been calmed down, which is naturally a fortunate thing for the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Eastern Jin Dynasty. However, this Huanxuan rebellion was different from the previous Wang Dun rebellion and Su Jun's rebellion, although it also broke through the capital, almost imprisoned and even held the emperor hostage, the difference was that in the first two civil unrest, the Sima family was able to restore its rule and continue the "national Zuo", this time it was not so easy: the military and political power was firmly controlled by Liu Yu, and the Sima family completely became puppets, although it continued for more than ten years, and showed its might: externally, it successively destroyed the two divided regimes in the north, Southern Yan and Later Qin, and once recovered the former capitals of Luoyang and Chang'an Internally, the Lu Xun rebellion after Sun En was suppressed. But all this is only to prepare the conditions for the rise of a new dynasty, and what special significance does it mean to the dying old dynasty?

(Cold in the Heights: The Emperor and His Descendants, Series No. 133)