Ai Yulibalibada

Also known as Yuan Renzong · Puyan Duhan

Ayurbarwada, second son of Darmabala and younger brother of Khaishan, was born in 1285 and studied as a boy with the Confucian scholar Li Meng. When Emperor Chengzong died in 1307 he and the chief councillor Harghasun moved first in Dadu, secured the throne for Khaishan, and he himself was named heir apparent. On Khaishan's death in 1311 he at once abolished the Department of State Affairs, executed Toqto and the other finance ministers, and was enthroned in the third month, reigning as Huangqing and then Yanyou. In 1313 he decreed that the civil examinations be restored, with Zhu Xi's commentaries on the Four Books as the standard, and the first metropolitan examination was held in 1315; his land survey of 1314, however, provoked Cai Wujiu's rising in Jiangxi. Breaking the agreement that the succession would pass back to Khaishan's sons, he made his own son Shidebala heir. He died in 1320 at thirty-four, with the temple name Renzong.