X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Yuan Cha


Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei

Due to his young age (five) when he ascended the throne at 515, governmental matters were dominated by his mother Empress Dowager Hu (with an intervening regency by the official Yuan Cha from 520 to 525), whose overly lenient attitude toward officials' corruptions spurred many agrarian rebellions that threw essentially the entire state into war.

He particularly tried to curb the powers of Empress Dowager Hu's brother-in-law Yuan Cha and the eunuch Liu Teng (劉騰).

Yuan Cha

Yuan Cha made Emperor Xiaoming's granduncle Yuan Yong the Prince of Gaoyang the titular head of government, but in effect, Yuan Cha, in association with Liu, was the actual regent.

Yuan Cha was the oldest son of Yuan Ji (元繼) the Prince of Jiangyang, who was a distant member of the imperial clan, whose ancestor was a son of Northern Wei's founder Emperor Daowu.



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