Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Yuan Shanjian
The only emperor of the Eastern Wei, put on the throne at eleven by Gao Huan, who ceded it to Gao Yang in 550 and was poisoned soon after
In a side chamber of a palace, a yellow ceremonial robe embroidered with a dragon hangs on a wooden stand, its hem worked with waves and rocks, before a carved folding screen, while a black lacquer chest sits on a low table by a lattice window and no person is in view.
Also known as Xiaojing Di
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Yuan Shanjian was a great-grandson of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei and son of Yuan Dan, Prince of Qinghe. When Emperor Xiaowu fled west to Yuwen Tai in 534, Gao Huan enthroned the eleven-year-old Yuan Shanjian and moved the court to Ye, founding the Eastern Wei. He reigned under the titles Tianping, Yuanxiang, Xinghe and Wuding, while power lay with Gao Huan and then his son Gao Cheng. After Gao Huan died in 547, Gao Cheng treated him with open contempt, once cursing him at a banquet as a dog-legged emperor and ordering Cui Jishu to punch him three times; the emperor plotted with Xun Ji to kill Gao Cheng by digging a tunnel from the palace, but the plot was discovered and Xun Ji executed. In 550 he was made to abdicate to Gao Cheng's brother Gao Yang and was reduced to Prince of Zhongshan. In January 552 Gao Yang had him poisoned; he was twenty-seven, and the Northern Qi named him Emperor Xiaojing.
Life and times
Dates 524 CE–552 CE