Background
Relatively not much is known about Yuan Ye's early life. His father Yuan Yi (元怡) was a son of Tuoba Zhen (拓拔楨) the Prince of Nan'an, a brother of Emperor Wencheng and son of Tuoba Huang, Emperor Taiwu's crown prince. Tuoba Zhen's line was dishonored after Tuoba Zhen participated in a plot against Emperor Xiaowen's sinicization regime, but Yuan Yi's older brother Yuan Ying (元英) was eventually created the Prince of Zhongshan after he achieved much in the battlefield. Yuan Yi himself was said to be corrupt and violent when serving as the commanding general of the garrison at remote Shanshan (鄯善, in modern Turpan, Xinjiang), and who fled and hid after accusations of such corruption was made against him, dying while in flight sometime between 512 and 515. One of Yuan Yi's sisters married the general Erzhu Rong, and after Erzhu became the paramount general of the empire during the reign of Emperor Xiaozhuang, Yuan Yi was posthumously honored as the Prince of Fufeng.
Yuan Ye himself was not Yuan Yi's oldest son, as he had at least one older brother, Yuan Su (元肅). His mother was Lady Wei, and it is unclear whether she was Yuan Yi's wife or not. Early in Emperor Xiaozhuang's reign, probably on account of his aunt, Yuan Ye was created the Prince of Changguang and made the acting governor of Bing Province (并州, modern central Shanxi), deep in Erzhu Rong's power base. According to the Book of Wei (whose author, Wei Shou, however, might have had an incentive to defame him), he was frivolous and impatient, but physically strong, in his youth.
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