Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jincheng, was the third emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was the eldest son of Sima Shao, and the later Emperor Sima Yue of Jin was a half-brother, and their mother was Empress Yu Wenjun of Mingmu. Although Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jincheng, did not live long, Emperor Jincheng was emperor much longer than his father, Emperor Ming of Jin, who reigned between 325 and 342 AD.
Picture of Sima Yan, Emperor of Jincheng
When Sima Yan, the emperor of Jincheng, ascended the throne, he was only five years old, because he was too young to manage the government, so the administration of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was handed over to his mother, the then empress dowager, Yu Wenjun to assist the dynasty, and Yu Wenjun died and handed over to the chancellor Wang Dao and his foreign relative Yu Liang to assist the government. During the reign of Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jincheng, Yu Liang, a foreign relative, controlled the government and did whatever he wanted, and wanted to squeeze Out Wang Dao in this way, disintegrate the power in Wang Dao's hands, and restore the prestige and power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty royal family. However, Yu Liang, as a foreign relative, was always suspicious of the chancellor, killed many important officials in the court for his own selfish desires, and ignored Wang Dao's opinions and dissuasion, which eventually led to the outbreak of internal wars in the ruling clique of the feudal dynasty.
In 327 AD, Liyang Taishou SuJun rebelled in the name of killing the traitorous minister Yu Liang, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was in danger, and at the most critical juncture, Wang Dao once again sent troops to suppress it, and after the pacification of the incident, he once again took charge of the imperial government, and with the assistance of Wang Dao, Sima Yan and the Eastern Jin Dynasty finally turned the crisis into safety. In addition, during the reign of Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jincheng, he once ordered Yu Liang to carry out the Northern Expedition, but failed in the course of fighting Shi Hu.
In 336, the Jin Dynasty Emperor issued another edict prohibiting the local tycoon clan from privatizing the mountains and rivers, but the effect was not obvious. In 342, sima yan, the 21-year-old emperor of Jincheng, died.
Stills of Sima Yan in "The Soul of Akamatsu Mountain"