Emperor Shao of Liu Song - Reign

Reign

Emperor Shao honored his stepgrandmother Empress Dowager Xiao Wenshou as grand empress dowager, and he created his wife Crown Princess Sima Maoying as empress. The matters of the central government were largely in the hands of Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, and Xie Hui.

One immediate matter that needed to be dealt with was that Emperor Mingyuan of Northern Wei, hearing of Emperor Wu's death, launched a major attack on Liu Song and crossed the Yellow River. In winter 422, Northern Wei forces captured Huatai (滑台, in modern Anyang, Henan). In spring 423, they captured Luoyang. Tan Daoji was dispatched to try to save the northern cities, and he was able to save Shandong Peninsula from falling, but by summer 423, the last major Liu Song outpost on the Yellow River, Hulao (虎牢, in modern Zhengzhou, Henan), had fallen, along with Xuchang. Only then did Northern Wei stop its advances.

In fall 423, Emperor Shao honored his mother Consort Zhang as empress dowager.

By 424, Xu, Fu, and Xie had grown increasingly dissatisfied with Emperor Shao as an emperor, as Emperor Shao had failed to follow the proper behavior during the three-year mourning period for his father, but spent most of his time on games and pleasure rather than on studies and important matters of state, despite encouragement from his official Fan Tai (范泰). They therefore considered deposing him, but they were also dissatisfied with the next ranked son of Emperor Wu, Liu Yizhen, who was talented but was even more frivolous than Emperor Shao in his behavior, often spending time with other talented but frivolous men, including Xie Lingyun and Yan Yanzhi (顏延之) and often requesting the imperial government to supply him with more and more money. They therefore stoke the rivalry that Emperor Shao already had with Liu Yizhen and then accused Liu Yizhen of crimes, and Emperor Shao reduced Liu Yizhen to commoner status and exiled him to Xin'an Commandery (新安, roughly modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang).

With Liu Yizhen out of the way, Xu, Fu, and Xie prepared to remove Emperor Shao as well. Because they were apprehensive about the powerful armies that Tan and Wang Hong had, they summoned Tan and Wang to the capital and then informed them of the plot. They then sent soldiers into the palace to arrest Emperor Shao, after first persuading the imperial guards not to resist. Before Emperor Shao could get up from bed in the morning, the soldiers were already in his bedchamber, and he made a futile attempt to resist, but was captured. He was sent back to his old palace. The officials then, in the name of Empress Dowager Zhang, declared Emperor Shao's faults and demoted him to Prince of Yingyang, offering the throne to his younger brother Liu Yilong the Prince of Yidu instead.