Huan Xuan - Brief Reign and Death

Brief Reign and Death

Huan Xuan posthumously honored his parents as emperor and empress, and he created his wife Lady Liu empress. He was, however, described as being constantly in fear after he became emperor, not being able to sleep well. He forced his officials to spend all day on minutiae, and he further started major palatial construction projects that imposed great burden on the people.

Initially, the only major official who dared to oppose Huan Xuan was Mao Qu (毛璩) the governor of Yi Province (益州, modern Sichuan and Chongqing). However, a conspiracy soon formed among the general Liu Yu, Liu Laozhi's nephew He Wuji, and Liu Yi the brother of Huan Xuan's official Liu Mai (劉邁). They were soon joined by a number of other conspirators, and in spring 404 they started the uprising against Huan from the cities of Jingkou (京口, in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) and Guangling. Huan Xuan panicked, and as soon as his cousin Huan Qian (桓謙) the Prince of Xinye lost some relatively minor battles to Liu Yu, Huan fled west with Emperor An, yielding Jiankang to Liu Yu's coalition. Once Liu Yu was in the capital, he declared the reestablishment of Jin, even though the former Jin emperor was still in Huan's hands.

Huan Xuan soon arrive at his old headquarters of Jiangling. Fearful that his officials would no longer respect him, he dealt out even harsher treatments, which led to even greater alienation among his subordinates. He Wuji and Liu Yi quickly advanced on Jiangling, and Huan planned to flee again. His subordinate Mao Xiuzhi (毛脩之), Mao Qu's nephew, falsely informed him that Mao Qu would support him, and Huan Xuan headed west toward Yi Province. He soon encountered Mao Qu's troops, which made heavy bow-and-arrow attacks on his fleet, causing it to scatter. The officer Feng Qian (馮遷) boarded Huan's ship and beheaded him. His five-year-old son Huan Sheng (桓昇) was delivered to Jiangling and beheaded as well.

After Huan Xuan's death, his cousins and nephews would hold out at their various posts for more than a year, but eventually were all killed or forced to flee to other states. Huan Xuan's hopes of establishing a new dynasty was no more.