Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei (, 507 – 26 January 531; r. May 528 – Jan 531), personal name Yuan Ziyou (), courtesy name Yanda (彥達), was an emperor of China's Northern Wei dynasty. He was placed on the throne by General Erzhu Rong, who refused to recognize the young emperor, Yuan Zhao, who Empress Dowager Hu had placed on the throne after she poisoned her son Emperor Xiaoming.
During his reign, General Erzhu largely controlled the military and acted in a violent manner, leading Emperor Xiaozhuang to believe that he would usurp the throne. In late 530, Emperor Xiaozhuang ambushed General Erzhu and killed him in the palace, but his cousin Erzhu Shilong and nephew Erzhu Zhao subsequently captured and killed Xiaozhuang.
Early life Yuan Ziyou was born in 507, during the reign of his cousin Emperor Xuanwu, as the third son of the highly regarded imperial prince, Emperor Xuanwu's uncle Yuan Xie the Prince of Pengcheng. His mother was Yuan Xie's wife Princess Li Yuanhua, the daughter of the honored official Li Chong (). Of his two older brothers, the oldest, Yuan Zizhi (), was not Princess Li's son, and the other, born of Princess Li, was Yuan Shao ().
In 508, Princess Li was again pregnant and due to give birth, when Emperor Xuanwu, believing in false accusations of his maternal uncle Gao Zhao that Yuan Xie was plotting rebellion, forced Yuan Xie to commit suicide. Princess Li soon gave birth to Yuan Ziyou's younger brother, Yuan Zizheng (). It appeared that Yuan Ziyou was close to his brothers. Yuan Shao, as the oldest son of Yuan Xie's wife, inherited Yuan Xie's title of Prince of Pengcheng. Yuan Ziyou and his brothers Yuan Zizhi and Yuan Zizheng were created dukes—in Yuan Ziyou's case, the Duke of Wucheng. Yuan Ziyou, in his youth, served as an attendant to Emperor Xuanwu, and was praised for his intelligence and handsome looks. He held increasingly higher offices during the reigns of Emperor Xuanwu and his son and successor Emperor Xiaoming.
In 526, Emperor Xuanwu's son and successor Emperor Xiaoming promoted Yuan Ziyou to be the Prince of Changle. In 527, however, he lost all actual authority (although he retained honorific offices) when Yuan Shao was suspected of plotting a rebellion and was reported by Yuan Yanming () the Prince of Anfeng. Emperor Xiaoming and his mother, Empress Dowager Hu, however, did not kill either Yuan Ziyou or his brothers.
In 528, Emperor Xiaoming, who was having increasing friction with Empress Dowager Hu, conspired with the general Erzhu Rong to have Erzhu advance on the capital Luoyang to force Empress Dowager Hu to yield power and to kill her lover Zheng Yan () and Zheng's associate Xu Ge (). The conspiracy was discovered, and Empress Dowager Hu poisoned the emperor and made Yuan Zhao, a two-year-old son of an imperial prince, emperor. Erzhu refused to recognize Yuan Zhao as emperor and advanced on Luoyang. Because Yuan Xie's memory remained highly regarded by the people, and Yuan Ziyou was renowned for his abilities, Erzhu sent secret messengers to make overtures to him, offering to make him emperor. Yuan Ziyou agreed, and when Erzhu advanced to Luoyang's vicinity, Yuan Ziyou, along with Yuan Shao and Yuan Zizheng, fled Luoyang and joined Erzhu's army. Erzhu proclaimed him emperor (as Emperor Xiaozhuang), and there was much rejoicing in the army ranks.
Reign in coordination with Erzhu Rong Emperor Xiaozhuang made Yuan Shao the Wushang Prince (無上王, meaning "prince without anyone greater") and Yuan Zizheng, who was Duke of Bacheng, the Prince of Shiping. He invested Erzhu Rong with a variety of supreme military and civilian titles, and created him the title Prince of Taiyuan.
The Heyin Massacre and aftermath Upon hearing of Emperor Xiaozhuang's ascension, Empress Dowager Hu's generals Zheng Xianhu (), a friend of Emperor Xiaozhuang, and Fei Mu (), quickly surrendered, while another general, Li Shengui (), fled. Zheng Yan and Xu Ge also deserted Luoyang. Empress Dowager Hu became desperate; after ordering Emperor Xiaoming's consorts to all become Buddhist nuns, she took tonsure herself although she did not declare herself a nun.
Erzhu ordered the imperial officials to welcome Emperor Xiaozhuang into Luoyang while sending cavalry to arrest Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao. After a meeting with Empress Dowager Hu, in which she tried to defend her actions but drew no sympathy from Erzhu, Erzhu had her and Yuan Zhao thrown into the Yellow River to drown.
Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao would not be Erzhu's only victims, however. Fei suggested to Erzhu that since his army was actually small, as soon as the imperial officials realized the situation, they would resist him. He suggested that Erzhu carry out a massacre of the imperial officials, and Erzhu, despite the opposition of his strategist Murong Shaozong, proceeded. Erzhu ordered the imperial officials to his camp at Heyin (河陰, near Luoyang) under the pretense that Emperor Xiaozhuang was going to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth there, and then surrounded the imperial officials and slaughtered them, killing more than 2,000 of them, including Emperor Xiaozhuang's uncle, the prime minister Yuan Yong the Prince of Gaoyang. Erzhu also sent soldiers to assassinate Yuan Shao and Yuan Zizheng, while putting Emperor Xiaozhuang under effective arrest in the army camp.
Emperor Xiaozhuang, in fear and anger, sent a messenger to Erzhu, suggesting that he would be willing to yield the throne either to Erzhu or to another person that Erzhu designated. Erzhu, under suggestion of his general Gao Huan, toyed with the idea of taking the throne himself or offering it to his close associate Yuan Tianmu, a distant relative of Emperor Xiaozhuang. Subsequently, however, his sorcerer Liu Lingzhu () predicted that neither Erzhu himself nor Yuan Tianmu was favored to be an emperor by the gods, and that only Emperor Xiaozhuang was favored. Erzhu therefore stopped these plans and offered a deep apology to Emperor Xiaozhuang, claiming that the massacre was a result of the soldiers going out of control. However, the people of Luoyang and the surviving imperial officials, fearful of further massacre, fled Luoyang, which was then left nearly empty, particularly because Erzhu publicly pondered the idea of moving the capital to Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi). It was not until Erzhu offered offices to the heirs of the officials who died and publicly renounced the idea of moving the capital that the people began to return to Luoyang.
Nevertheless, Erzhu, while publicly returning authority to Emperor Xiaozhuang, retained command of the armed forces, while putting several officials closely aligned with him, including Yuan Tianmu and his cousin Erzhu Shilong, into high positions. He kept a close watch on Emperor Xiaozhuang even though he was largely away from the capital. He also wanted Emperor Xiaozhuang to marry his daughter Lady Erzhu, who had previously been Emperor Xiaoming's concubine, as his empress. Because this match constituted incest under Confucian standards, Emperor Xiaozhuang hesitated, but under the suggestion of the official Zu Ying (), who advised that this marriage would be advantageous, Emperor Xiaozhuang agreed.
Subsequent reunification of the empire Emperor Xiaozhuang was said to be diligent in governmental matters, and even though Erzhu was not particularly pleased with the development, Emperor Xiaozhuang proceeded to take much interest in criminal matters, as well as refusing to comply with all of Erzhu's recommendations for officials. He did not dare to directly cross Erzhu, however, and Erzhu continued to install officials close to him in the imperial administration.
Meanwhile, Erzhu proceeded to try to reunify the empire, which had been largely divided by agrarian rebellions that rose during the reign of Emperor Xiaoming. At that time, the more major rebels included:
Ge Rong, with an army largely of Xianbei soldiers from the six garrisons on the northern borders, with the title of Emperor of Qi and controlling most of the provinces in modern Hebei Xing Gao, with an army largely consisting of refugees from Ge Rong's and other associated rebellions, with the title of Prince of Han and controlling most of the provinces in modern Shandong Moqi Chounu, with the title of emperor and controlling most of the provinces in Shaanxi and eastern Gansu
Erzhu's first target was Ge, who had put the important city Yecheng under siege and was getting close to the Yellow River. With just 7,000 cavalry soldiers, Erzhu caught the much larger Ge army by surprise and crushed it, capturing Ge and delivering him to Luoyang, where Ge was executed in winter 528. Ge's general Han Lou () took party of his army and took over modern Beijing and Tianjin.
In spring 529, Emperor Xiaozhuang posthumously honored his father Yuan Xie as Emperor Wenmu and his mother Princess Li as Empress Wenmu, and enshrined them in the imperial ancestral temple, despite opposition by Yuan Yu () the Prince of Linhuai as being inappropriate since Yuan Xie was never actually emperor. He further also posthumously honored his brother Yuan Shao as Emperor Xiaoxuan and Yuan Shao's wife Princess Li as Empress Wengong, although he did not enshrine them in the imperial temple.
Around the same time, rival Liang dynasty's Emperor Wu created Emperor Xiaozhuang's cousin Yuan Hao the Prince of Beihai, who had fled to Liang following the Heyin Massacre, the Prince of Wei and sent an army commanded by the general Chen Qingzhi to escort him, with an intent to install Yuan Hao as Northern Wei's emperor as a vassal state to Liang. Emperor Xiaozhuang's administration did not consider Yuan Hao a serious threat at the moment, and instead sent a large army, commanded by Yuan Tianmu and Erzhu Rong's nephew Erzhu Zhao, to attack Xing first. Xing was captured and executed in summer 529, but Chen and Yuan Hao, who declared himself the emperor of Northern Wei upon entering Northern Wei territory, took the opportunity to capture Yingyang (滎陽, in modern Zhengzhou, Henan), defeating Yuan Tianmu as he returned from the campaign against Xing, and approached Luoyang. Emperor Xiaozhuang decided to flee Luoyang, and he crossed the Yellow River to rendezvous with Erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu at Zhangzi (長子, in modern Changzhi, Shanxi). Meanwhile, Yuan Hao entered Luoyang unopposed, and the provinces south of the Yellow River largely declared allegiance to Yuan Hao.
Yuan Hao, however, believed that he had already succeeded and began to plot against Chen and his Liang forces, wanting to throw off Liang's control. He therefore sent messengers to persuade Liang's Emperor Wu not to send any additional reinforcements. Erzhu's forces, meanwhile, were stymied against Chen, but eventually Erzhu made an attack at night and crossed the Yellow River, causing Yuan Hao's forces to collapse, and while Chen tried to withdraw, his army was defeated as well. Yuan Hao was killed in flight, and Emperor Xiaozhuang again entered Luoyang to assume the throne.