Since ancient times, Chinese have attached great importance to filial piety, whether it is a birth mother, a concubine mother, or a patriarchal mother, they will treat them with courtesy and filial piety. There are exceptions to everything, there was such a king during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, he did not honor the chief, forced to kill the empress, and finally ended up being killed by his own family, he was Murong Bao, the Emperor of Later Yan.
Murong Bao (355–398), whose mother was Empress Dowager Duan of Chengzhao (進段後), was the fourth son of Murong Chui, emperor of Yancheng. When Murong Chui was the King of Wu, he disrespected the lowly empress Kezuhun and was persecuted, falsely accused of practicing witchcraft, and the fierce-tempered Xian Duanhou vowed to die unyieldingly, and was tortured to death in the second year of Guangshou (358). Murong Bao, who was only 3 years old, had no mother. In the eighth year of Taiyuan (383), Murong Chui proclaimed himself the Prince of Yan and married Duan Yuanfei as his successor, and Duan Yuanfei was the niece of Duan Hou, that is, Murong Bao's cousin. At this time, Murong Bao had reached the age of 18, and Duan Yuanfei should have been a few years older than him, and had almost no nurturing grace for him, which was also a major reason for the later disasters.
In the eleventh year of Taiyuan (386), Murong Chui was proclaimed emperor, and Duan Yuanfei was made empress, and 8 years later, Murong Bao was made crown prince. Duan Yuanfei thought that Murong Bao's qualifications were lacking and did not favor him, so she persuaded Murong Chui: "The crown prince is graceful and indecisive, and he can become a Ming Emperor in the taiping and prosperous world, but in this chaotic world, he is not the hero of the Ji dynasty, and His Majesty entrusts the great cause to him, and the concubines cannot see the future of future generations." Among His Majesty's sons, the King of Liaoxi and the King of Gaoyang were very wise, and one of them could be chosen to be crown prince. Murong Lin, the King of Zhao, was treacherous and often had the idea of insulting the crown prince, and once His Majesty went west, disaster would surely occur. This is a family affair of His Majesty and should be well considered. However, either out of longing and guilt for his deceased wife, or because Murong Bao was good at disguise and good at currying favor with the chancellor, Murong Chui did not take her advice. When the crown prince and Murong Lin heard this, they both hated their stepmother very much. Later, Duan Yuanfei mentioned this matter to Murong Chui again, but Murong Chui did not think so, and returned: "Do you want me to be the Duke of Jin?" He Xuren, the Duke of Jinxian, was the king who favored Li Ji and deposed the crown prince Shensheng and established Xi Qi, the son of Li Ji, and after the death of Duke Xian of Jin, the princes competed for the throne, and the Jin kingdom was in chaos. Although Princess Duan had her own sons Murong Lang (慕容朗) the Prince of Bohai and Murong Jian (慕容鉴) the Prince of Boling, she did not favor her own son, and she chose the son of a virtuous person, but her husband did not understand.
In the 21st year of Taiyuan (396), murong chui died and Murong Bao succeeded to the throne. Just over a month later, Murong Bao could not wait to send Murong Lin to force Duan Yuanfei to kill Duan Yuanfei with the fate of the entire Duan family, so Duan Yuanfei generously died, and before he died, he lamented that the country would soon perish. And this family of the Duan clan was not Murong Bao's maternal grandfather, Murong Bao even believed that Duan Yuanfei was plotting to depose the concubine, the way of having no mother, and it was not appropriate to have the ceremony of keeping the funeral, fortunately, there were ministers who spoke for Duan Yuanfei, and only then did they bury Duan Yuanfei with the ceremony of empress, with the title of "Empress Chenglai". Later, Murong Lin sent troops to rebel, Murong Bao was also killed, and Murong De ascended the throne as emperor, and in the end, as Duan Yuanfei expected.
Murong Bao so disregarded his family affection, forced to kill his stepmother and cousin, and finally ended up being killed by his relative Lan Khan, which can also be regarded as self-inflicted.