Huan Wen - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Huan Wen was born in 313. His father Huan Yi (桓彝) was a commandery governor. When he was young, his father once received a visit from Wen Jiao, who saw the boy and thought that the child was special. Huan Yi, because Wen had a high opinion of the child, thus named his son Wen, after Wen Jiao's family name.

In 328, during the rebellion of Su Jun, Huan Yi tried to resist Su's forces, but was defeated and killed by Su's general Han Huang (韓晃), who received help from Huan Yi's subordinate Jiang Bo (江播). In 330, after Jiang had already died, Huan Wen killed Jiang's sons to avenge his father, and this was an act that brought him great fame. As he was considered capable, and his father had died for the imperial cause, he was selected as the husband for Emperor Cheng's sister Sima Xingnan (司馬興男) the Princess Nankang. He inherited his father's title of the Baron of Wanning, and he gradually rose in rank, eventually becoming the governor of Xu Province (徐州, then modern central Jiangsu). Emperor Cheng's uncle Yu Yi (庾翼) was impressed with his talent, and often endorsed him for even greater responsibilities. During Emperor Kang's brief reign, Huan was one of the few officials who supported Yu's plan for a northern campaign against Later Zhao in 343, although Yu's plan was never actually carried out. After Yu's death in 345 (during the reign of Emperor Mu, then a toddler), the prime minister He Chong (何充) commissioned Huan to succeed Yu, as the commander of the military forces in the western provinces (roughly modern Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan), even though some other imperial officials had misgivings about Huan's ambitions and independence.