Early Career
Sima Jiong was the son of Sima You, Prince Xian of Qi, the younger brother of Jin Dynasty's founder Emperor Wu, making him Emperor Hui's cousin. Sima You's abilities were so highly regarded by both his father Sima Zhao and the officials that, at times, he was considered as the proper heir, first for Sima Zhao, then for Emperor Wu. After Emperor Wu therefore exiled him from the capital Luoyang in 282, he died in 283. Sima Jiong, as the oldest son of his wife, inherited his post, and complained to Emperor Wu about doctors' misdiagnosis. (The doctors, who had thought that they would gain Emperor Wu's favor if they informed him that Prince You was healthy (so that he could indeed go to his principality, had minimized the illness that Prince You was suffering.)
As an imperial prince, Sima Jiong had a sizable number of troops under his command. When Sima Lun overthrew Emperor Hui's domineering wife Empress Jia Nanfeng in 300 after she murdered Emperor Hui's crown prince Sima Yu, Sima Jiong was a participant of the coup, but did not receive great rewards afterwards. He therefore resented Sima Lun. Sima Lun, seeing his resentment, tried to appease him by giving him an important military command—of Xuchang (許昌, in modern Xuchang, Henan).
Read more about this topic: Sima Jiong
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see people. If you stay but a week at a place, and that an insignificant one, see, however, all that is to be seen there; know as many people, and get into as many houses as ever you can.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)