Dangerous Times
Lady Helan was a daughter of the Helan tribal chief Helan Yegan (賀蘭野干), an important general under Tuoba Shiyijian. Because of her beauty, Tuoba Shiyijian selected her to be the wife of his son Tuoba Shi. In 371, when the general Baba Jin (拔拔斤) attempted to assassinate Tuoba Shiyijian, Tuoba Shi took the blunt of the assault personally to protect his father, and he died later that year. After Tuoba Shi's death, Heiress Apparent Helan gave birth to Tuoba Gui. In 377, after Tuoba Shiyijian was assassinated by his son Tuoba Shijun (拓拔寔君), Dai fell to Former Qin forces. Initially, she took Tuoba Gui to Helan tribe to be taken under the protection of her brother Helan Na (賀蘭訥), but later went to be under the protection of the Xiongnu chief Liu Kuren (劉庫仁).
Not much was known about Lady Helan or her son for a number of years. In 384, after Former Qin had begun to collapse in light of its defeat at the Battle of Fei River, Liu Kuren tried to aid the Former Qin prince Fu Pi, but was assassinated by his own general Muyu Chang (慕輿常). His son Liu Xian (劉顯) later tried to kill Tuoba Gui, but Lady Helan heard the news and allowed her son to flee. Later, both were again at Helan tribe, when similarly her brother Helan Rangan (賀蘭染干) tried to kill Tuoba Gui, but stopped after she interceded.
Read more about this topic: Princess Dowager Helan
Famous quotes containing the words dangerous and/or times:
“Even healthy families need outside sources of moral guidance to keep those tensions from imploding—and this means, among other things, a public philosophy of gender equality and concern for child welfare. When instead the larger culture aggrandizes wife beaters, degrades women or nods approvingly at child slappers, the family gets a little more dangerous for everyone, and so, inevitably, does the larger world.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)
“The Ultimate Day really begins the night before, when you sit up until one o’clock trying to get things into trunk and bags. This is when you discover the well-known fact that summer air swells articles to twice or three times their original size.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)