Huan Xuan - Early Career

Early Career

Huan Xuan was born in 369, as the youngest son of Huan Wen, then the paramount general of Jin, and his wife, Sima Xingnan (司馬興男) the Princess of Nankang, the daughter of Emperor Ming of Jin. (An alternative account has him as born of Huan Wen's concubine Lady Ma.) When Huan Wen died in 373, his title should have gone to his heir apparent Huan Xi (桓熙), his oldest son. However, Huan Chong, Huan Wen's brother whom Huan Wen entrusted the command of the army to, believed (correctly) that Huan Xi was in a plot with another brother of Huan Wen's, Huan Mi (桓秘), and another son of Huan Wen's, Huan Ji (桓濟), to assassinate him and take power, and so detained Huan Xi, Huan Ji, and Huan Mi. Instead, he declared that it was Huan Wen's desire that his title be passed to Huan Xuan, and so Huan Xuan, at age four, inherited the title of Duke of Nan Commandery, with the dukedom roughly corresponding to modern Jingzhou, Hubei.

As Huan Xuan grew in age, he became ambitious and wanted high posts, but the imperial government was highly suspicious of him and did not give him governmental posts until 391, when he became an assistant to Emperor Xiaowu's crown prince Sima Dezong (later Emperor An). Around this time, he had an encounter with Emperor Xiaowu's younger brother Sima Daozi the Prince of Kuaiji that went badly—as at one feast where Sima Daozi invited Huan Xuan as a guest, after Sima Daozi became drunk, he made the statement, "Was it not true that when Huan Wen became old, he planned treason?" Huan Xuan was so struck by the statement that he fell prostrate on the ground, fearing that Sima Daozi would kill him, and from this point he bore a grudge against the prince. Eventually, Huan Xuan became the governor of Yixing Commandery (義興, roughly modern Wuxi, Jiangsu), but felt that the post was not sufficient for his talent, and he therefore resigned and returned to his dukedom, and he wrote a report to Emperor Xiaowu that was highly accusatory in tone in which he claimed that Emperor Xiaowu had much to owe to Huan Wen, and Emperor Xiaowu ignored the report.

During Huan Xuan's year at Nan Commandery, the people of the commandery were far more fearful of him than of the governor of Jing Province (荊州, modern Hubei and Hunan), Yin Zhongkan (殷仲堪). Yin himself was very respectful and fearful of Huan as well. Effectively, Huan Xuan got his way with both the people and the governor, whatever he wanted.