Jia Nanfeng Throws Western Jin Into Crisis

Sima Yan had reunited the Three Kingdoms, but he left Western Jin with royal princes, powerful in-laws, and a taste for luxury.

When he died in 290, the apparently unified dynasty entered a more dangerous stage almost at once.

Emperor Hui Takes the Throne

After Sima Yan died, Crown Prince Sima Zhong became emperor. He is known to history as Emperor Hui of Jin.

His most famous label comes from the saying, "Why not eat meat porridge?" During a famine, many people had no grain and starved. When the news reached the emperor, he reportedly asked why people without rice did not eat meat porridge instead.

The line became a symbol of his distance from ordinary suffering.

That raises an obvious question. Sima Yan had many sons. Why did he leave the throne to this one?

Why Sima Zhong Still Became Heir

The first reason was legitimate senior succession.

Sima Yan had many sons, but fewer sons by the empress. His eldest legitimate son, Sima Gui, died young. Sima Zhong therefore became the practical eldest legitimate heir. Because the Sima family's own seizure of power was already morally sensitive, Sima Yan needed the language of proper succession.

He had benefited from that same rule. Sima Zhao once preferred his younger son Sima You, but ministers insisted that the eldest legitimate son should inherit, and Sima Yan kept his position. When it was his turn to choose an heir, he could not easily overturn the principle that had protected him.

Sima Zhong also had two important women behind him.

One was his mother, Empress Yang Yan. Sima Yan had once worried that the crown prince could not handle great affairs, but Empress Yang insisted that the heir's status had already been fixed and should not be changed. Her repeated arguments helped Sima Yan drop the idea of replacement.

Before she died, Yang Yan made one more arrangement. She feared that after her death, Sima Yan might favor another consort whose family could threaten the crown prince. So she asked him to make her cousin Yang Zhi the next empress. Sima Yan agreed, and the Yang family stayed close to imperial power.

The other woman was the crown princess, Jia Nanfeng.

Jia Nanfeng Helps the Crown Prince Pass

Jia Nanfeng was the daughter of Jia Chong, came from a high family, and had a strong political mind.

Sima Yan once tried to test the crown prince's ability by sending him official documents to review. He even kept attendants away so no one could write the answers for him.

When the documents reached Sima Zhong, he had no idea what to do. Jia Nanfeng learned of it and quickly found the crown prince's teacher, asking him to prepare answers.

The teacher's response was too polished. Jia Nanfeng saw the problem at once. Sima Yan knew Sima Zhong's usual level. If the crown prince submitted a perfect essay, the disguise would fail.

So she had Sima Zhong rewrite the answer in simpler language. It was rough, but passable. Sima Yan read it and decided that the crown prince was not outstanding, but not entirely useless either. His doubts quieted for the moment.

With help from his mother's family and his wife's family, Sima Zhong reached the throne.

Empress Families and Royal Princes Enter First

Because Emperor Hui could not govern by himself, power naturally moved into other hands.

Before Sima Yan died, he arranged two centers of regency. One was Yang Jun, an imperial in-law. The other was Sima Liang, Prince of Runan, an elder of the imperial clan. Yang Jun's daughter, Yang Zhi, had become Sima Yan's later empress, so the Yang family was powerful. Sima Liang was meant to balance them.

The design was supposed to make imperial in-laws and royal princes check each other. But because Emperor Hui was too weak, balance quickly became struggle.

Soon after Sima Yan died, Yang Jun gained the upper hand and forced Sima Liang to leave Luoyang for his fief.

On the surface, the Yang family controlled the court.

Inside the palace, however, Jia Nanfeng did not intend to remain outside power.

Jia Nanfeng Uses Another Hand Against Yang Jun

Yang Jun was Jia Nanfeng's largest obstacle.

She gathered trusted allies and decided to remove him by using a royal prince. The best candidate should have been Sima Liang, who had old grievances against Yang Jun. Jia Nanfeng's ally Li Zhao tried to persuade him to raise troops and enter the capital, but Sima Liang did not dare take the risk.

Li Zhao did not return empty-handed. He turned instead to two other princes: Sima Wei, Prince of Chu, and Sima Yun, Prince of Huainan.

In February 291, Sima Wei led troops into Luoyang. The first gate of the War of the Eight Princes had been pushed open.

Jia Nanfeng then had Li Zhao submit an accusation that Yang Jun was plotting rebellion. Under her pressure and that of her allies, Emperor Hui issued an edict against Yang Jun.

Yang Jun was feasting in his residence and was unprepared. He was killed. His followers were purged. Empress Yang Zhi was deposed, imprisoned in Jinyong City, and starved to death the next year.

Yang Jun was gone.

But Jia Nanfeng still had not gained all power.

Sima Wei Becomes the Second Blade

Sima Wei, who had entered the capital with troops, now controlled military power in Luoyang.

Jia Nanfeng could not confront him directly, so she redesigned the situation. She summoned Sima Liang back to court and made him share regency with Wei Guan.

Neither man was close to Jia Nanfeng. Sima Liang had refused her earlier appeal. Wei Guan had also opposed her in earlier debates over the crown prince and crown princess.

Jia Nanfeng brought them in because she wanted them to clash with Sima Wei.

It worked. Once Sima Liang and Wei Guan held power, they quickly turned against Sima Wei. Jia Nanfeng then sent people to tell Sima Wei that Sima Liang and Wei Guan were plotting rebellion and that he should arrest them.

Sima Wei asked for a public edict. The messenger replied that this was the empress's secret order and could not be announced. Sima Wei believed it and divided his troops to seize the two men.

Sima Liang was killed by troops and became the first prince to die in the War of the Eight Princes. Wei Guan was also killed, along with several members of his family.

Sima Wei thought he had performed a great service. The next day, when he entered the palace to claim credit, Jia Nanfeng turned on him. She accused him of killing ministers without authorization and forging orders.

Sima Wei argued that he had acted on the empress's command. Jia Nanfeng held to one point: without an open imperial edict, it was a false order.

Sima Wei was soon executed. He became the second major victim among the princes.

Crown Prince Sima Yu Remains the Final Threat

Yang Jun was dead. Sima Liang was dead. Wei Guan was dead. Sima Wei was dead.

Power finally settled into Jia Nanfeng's hands.

But she still felt unsafe because one person threatened her future.

That person was Crown Prince Sima Yu.

Sima Yu was Emperor Hui's son by Xie Jiu. Unlike his father, he was bright from childhood. When he was five, a fire broke out in the palace. Emperor Wu climbed up to look. Sima Yu pulled his grandfather into the shadows and said that in a sudden night emergency, the emperor should not let firelight reveal where he stood.

Sima Yan was deeply impressed and believed the boy might one day revive the Sima house. Some even said Sima Yan did not replace Sima Zhong as heir because he valued this grandson.

For Jia Nanfeng, that made Sima Yu dangerous. If he inherited the throne, her power might disappear completely.

The Night the Crown Prince Was Deposed

Jia Nanfeng had no son of her own, but wanted her faction to continue holding power.

She had her sister Jia Wu give birth in the palace and pretended that she herself was pregnant. After the child was born, she claimed him as her own son and named him Sima Weizu. Then she turned against the real crown prince, Sima Yu.

Late at night near the end of 299, Sima Yu received a palace order saying the emperor was seriously ill and summoning him to attend at the inner palace.

When he entered, he did not see his father or Jia Nanfeng. Palace women gave him wine under orders. He drank, became heavily intoxicated, and could no longer control himself.

Jia Nanfeng then appeared. She had paper and brush brought in and ordered him to write a prayer for the emperor. Sima Yu wrote in a drunken, disordered hand. Others then altered the text to make it read like a statement of rebellion.

Jia Nanfeng took this supposed rebel writing to Emperor Hui and accused the crown prince of treason. Emperor Hui believed the empress. He issued an edict deposing Sima Yu, imprisoned him in Jinyong City, and had his mother Xie Jiu killed.

News of the deposition spread, and anger grew inside and outside the palace. Jia Nanfeng feared future trouble, so she sent men with poison to kill Sima Yu. He refused to drink it and was finally beaten to death with a pestle.

Jia Nanfeng thought she had removed the final threat.

Instead, by killing the crown prince, she gave others the perfect reason to raise troops against her.

The gates of Western Jin's palace were about to be struck again by another Sima prince.