Emperor Mingyuan of Northern Wei
Emperor Mingyuan of Northern Wei , Chinese name Tuoba Si, Xianbei name Mumo, was an emperor of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. He was the oldest son of the founding emperor Emperor Daowu. During his reign, Northern Wei's territory did not expand as much as it did under either his father's reign or the reign of his son Emperor Taiwu, but he helped the state stabilize over northern China, and started the tradition of meeting with important imperial officials to listen to their advice and make final decisions. He is generally regarded by historians to be an intelligent and rational ruler.
Early life
Tuoba Si was born in 392 after his father Tuoba Gui had founded Northern Wei in 386 but before he had conquered most of rival Later Yan's territory and claimed imperial title in 399. His mother was Tuoba Gui's favorite consort, Consort Liu, the daughter of the Tiefu chief Liu Toujuan. He was born at the capital Yunzhong He was Tuoba Gui's oldest son, and his father was said to be so pleased by this late arrival of a son that he declared a general pardon.As Tuoba Si grew, he was said to be a wise and kind young man, whose actions were all in accordance with proper protocol. In contrast, his oldest younger brother Tuoba Shao was described as being a violent young man, and he would often go out on the streets to rob people and violently attack animals. Tuoba Si tried to correct his brother's behaviour with rebukes, but Tuoba Shao did not change, so Tuoba Si lived in fear of his brother. In 403, Tuoba Gui, by this point emperor, created him the Prince of Qi. In 409, Emperor Daowu was intent on creating Tuoba Si crown prince, but based on the Tuoba tradition that when an heir is decided upon, his mother must be put to death, Emperor Daowu forced Consort Liu to commit suicide. Either before or after he did so, he summoned Tuoba Si to explain to him that this tradition was also in accordance with Emperor Wu of Han's rationale to put his favorite concubine, Consort Zhao to death, to avoid overly great maternal influence on a young emperor. After Tuoba Si left his father's presence, because of the affection that he had for his mother, he mourned greatly. Hearing this, Emperor Daowu summoned him back to the palace—and, because Emperor Daowu, in his late reign, often displayed great paranoid and violent tendencies, the new crown prince's attendants suggested that he not go to the palace but hide in the country. Tuoba Si agreed and did so, fleeing the capital Pingcheng, where Emperor Daowu had moved the capital in 398.
Meanwhile, Emperor Daowu had, because of Tuoba Shao's crimes, imprisoned Tuoba Shao's mother Consort Helan and planned to execute her. Consort Helan sent her son a message, asking him to save her. In response, Tuoba Shao assassinated Emperor Daowu and then tried to take over as emperor, and he tried to seize the troops. Tuoba Si, upon hearing this news, returned to Pingcheng but hid himself, while trying to gather supporters gradually. Tuoba Shao tried to seek him out to kill him, but the imperial guards gradually shifted to Tuoba Si's side, and the imperial guards arrested Tuoba Shao and presented him to Tuoba Si. Tuoba Si executed Tuoba Shao, Consort Helan, and Tuoba Shao's associates. He then took the throne as Emperor Mingyuan.
Early reign
Emperor Mingyuan, contrary to his father's dictatorial style, instituted a council of eight officials to advise him on all important decisions, with the intent to hear different opinions and then take informed actions. The council mostly constituted of ethnic Xianbei from his tribe, but also included Han and other ethnicities. This became a tradition that was followed by his descendants as well.At the time of Emperor Mingyuan's ascension to power, the paranoia and violence of Tuoba Gui's late reign had caused many problems within Northern Wei, with the officials described as idle and arrogant, the law as not properly enforced, crime so common that criminals would act in public without fear of repercussions, and many people too afraid to go outside in alleyways. Emperor Mingyuan established officials to hear the people's lawsuits and ensure that legal cases were judged fairly, restored officials who had earlier been removed from office, and issued government relief for the people's hardships. Due to this, many of the problems of Tuoba Gui's later years were eliminated.
Emperor Mingyuan himself was known for his competence in handling state affairs, and his reputation for this was such that the officials in charge of enforcing justice would be stern in their enforcement of the law in order to avoid making mistakes. However, Emperor Mingyuan did have the capacity for forgiveness and leniency in his decisions. As an example, when the minister An Tong conscripted people for labour without permission, the other ministers suggested that he be punished harshly, yet Emperor Mingyuan believed that An Tong's motives were in the interests of the common people, so he pardoned An Tong. Despite this, Emperor Mingyuan was also known for being perceptive in his investigations, and his standards were so exacting that his officials would often receive punishment. For example, in 413, one of his key advisors, Tuoba Qu the Marquess of Yuancheng, suffered a major defeat at the hands of rebel forces backed by Xia, and then, once demoted to governorship of Bing Province, indulged in alcohol while neglecting affairs of state, and Emperor Mingyuan executed him.
In 410, Emperor Mingyuan sent one of his advisors, Baba Song the Duke of Nanping to attack the Rouran, and when Baba was surrounded by Rouran troops, Emperor Mingyuan personally led an army to relieve Baba. For the next years, he often left the capital Pingcheng to examine the defenses on the northern and eastern fronts, to make sure that his state would be properly defended against enemies. Another feature of his early reign was that he would frequently have to raise armies to put down rebellions.
In 411, due to frequent floods and droughts in Northern Wei, Emperor Mingyuan reduced palace expenses by releasing excess palace women, and he ordered that they marry unmarried men to increase labour and population. Like his father, a feature of Emperor Mingyuan's reign was the commissioning of construction projects to expand Pingcheng as a capital and general state infrastructure.
Middle reign
In 414, Emperor Mingyuan sent ambassadors to Later Qin, Northern Yan, Jin, and Rouran, to try to establish peaceful relationships. The Later Qin and Jin missions were apparently largely successful, but his ambassador Huniuyu Shimen had a conflict with the Northern Yan emperor Feng Ba over Feng Ba's insistence that Huniuyu kneel to him, and Feng Ba detained Huniuyu and refused to establish relations with Northern Wei. How successful the Rouran mission was is harder to gauge, for although initially it appeared to be successful, by new year 415 the Rouran Khan Yujiulü Datan invaded, and Emperor Mingyuan was forced to respond, chasing Yujiulü Datan back to his territory, but when Emperor Mingyuan sent his advisor Daxi Jin to pursue Yujiulü Datan, the Northern Wei forces ran into severe weather and suffered many casualties based on frostbite. This would start a theme that would last for centuries—often, Rouran would attack, and Northern Wei would counter-attack successfully, but then become unable to have decisive victories over Rouran.Late in 414, Emperor Mingyuan began to have his official Cui Hao teach him the ancient texts of I Ching and Hong Fan – both mystical texts. Emperor Mingyuan had always been fond of mysticism and divination, and also often asked Cui Hao to make predictions based on those texts, which often came true. Cui Hao therefore became increasingly trusted and consulted by Emperor Mingyuan for important decisions.
In 414-5, Emperor Mingyuan became frustrated with the rampant corruption that officials were engaging in - a problem common in Northern Wei, because officials had no proper salary. In 414, he ordered that people be allowed to go to the palace to make direct reports to him on the illegal actions of officials, and when sending officials to check the wealth of the officials, he ordered that everything that was not used to sustain their family be confiscated as illegally obtained goods. In 415, believing the local officials to be idle in their jobs, he issued a fine on those who did not properly raise tax from those under them. Whether these policies had any effect on official corruption is unknown, but official corruption was still a major problem in the reign of his successor Emperor Taiwu.
In 415, the northern regions of Northern Wei suffered a major famine, causing Emperor Mingyuan to consider moving the capital southward to Yecheng, but at the advice of Cui Hao and the official Zhou Dan, who believed that such a move would quickly expose the actual numerical inferiority of the Xianbei to the Han, he kept the capital at Pingcheng, but also pursuant to Cui and Zhou's suggestion, moved a number of impoverished Xianbei to the modern Hebei region. After the famine, Emperor Mingyuan issued an edict to encourage land cultivation. From then, the agricultural situation greatly improved, leading to a thriving livestock economy.
In winter 415, pursuant to a peace agreement they had reached earlier, Later Qin's emperor Yao Xing sent his daughter the Princess Xiping to Northern Wei to be married to Emperor Mingyuan. He welcomed her with ceremony fitting an empress. However, Tuoba customs dictated that only a consort who was able to craft a gold statue by her hands could be empress, and Princess Xiping was unable to, so Emperor Mingyuan only created her an imperial consort, but within the palace honored her as wife and empress.
In 415-6, Emperor Mingyuan would have to deal with a major rebellion - that of the Xiongnu of Shangdang and Henei commanderies. Initial efforts to defeat the rebellion were unsuccessful, but in 416, on the advice of Cui Hong, Emperor Mingyuan sent the general Yizhan Jian to supervise the army he had sent to quell the rebellion. The rebellion was crushed, and Yizhan Jian captured a large amount of the rebel force.
In 416, the Jin general Liu Yu launched a major attack on Later Qin, intending to destroy it. As part of Liu Yu's force, a fleet commanded by the general Wang Zhongde, approached Northern Wei's only main outpost south of the Yellow River, Huatai, the Northern Wei general Yuchi Jian, apprehensive of the Jin forces, abandoned Huatai and fled back north of the Yellow River. Emperor Mingyuan executed Yuchi and then sent messengers to rebuke Liu Yu and Wang Zhongde, both of whom restated that the target was Later Qin, not Northern Wei, and that the city would be returned as soon as the campaign was over.
Also in 416, because the general Kunuguan Bin had earlier defected from Northern Yan to Northern Wei but then back to Northern Yan, Emperor Mingyuan used this as a pretext to launch an attack on Northern Yan, and his forces not only killed Kunuguan Bin but his relatives Kunuguan Chang and Kunuguan Ti, both of whom held important posts in Northern Yan.
Jin forces quickly captured Later Qin's major city Luoyang and then headed toward the Later Qin capital Chang'an. In spring 417, The Later Qin emperor Yao Hong requested emergency assistance. Emperor Mingyuan summoned his council to consider whether to launch armies to try to stop Jin advances to try to save Later Qin. Most of his advisors, apprehensive at whether Liu Yu actually intended to attack Northern Wei as well, suggested that Emperor Mingyuan try to intercept Liu Yu's forces. However, Cui Hao opined that this would precisely make Northern Wei the target of Jin attacks, and Emperor Mingyuan partially agreed, but still sent some 100,000 men, commanded by Baba Song, to guard the northern bank of the Yellow River to prepare for battle. If a Jin ship were blown by the wind to the northern bank, Northern Wei forces would seize the ship and kill or capture its crew, and when Jin forces then landed on the northern banks, Northern Wei forces would temporarily retreat, and then re-establish the northern bank defensive posture as soon as Jin forces reboarded their ships. Angry at this harassment, Liu Yu sent his general Ding Wu to land on the northern bank and deal Northern Wei forces a major defeat. This ended Emperor Mingyuan's attempts to save Later Qin, and there were no further Jin/Northern Wei battles throughout the campaign, as while Emperor Mingyuan still planned to cut off Liu Yu's path if he were stopped by Later Qin forces, Liu Yu was able to capture Chang'an and destroy Later Qin by fall 417, and Emperor Mingyuan's planned attacks never materialized. Many former Jin officials who opposed Liu Yu who had taken refuge with Later Qin fled to Northern Wei, and Emperor Mingyuan further ordered that anyone who could save and deliver members of the Yao imperial clan to Pingcheng would be greatly rewarded.