Emperor Xiaowen (孝文皇帝)

Overview

The translated histories identify Emperor Xiaowen as a royal family member and ruler. This record brings together 55 passages from 12 chapters across 4 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文皇帝	Xiàowén huángdì
Title	Emperor Gaozu
Temple name	Emperor Gaozu	高祖	Gāozǔ
Temple	Emperor Gaozu	高祖	Gaozu
Regnal	Emperor Gaozu	高祖	Gaozu
Posthumous	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文皇帝	Xiàowén huángdì
Title	Emperor Xiaowen
Temple name	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文皇帝	Xiaowen huangdi
Title	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文
Title	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文帝
Regnal	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文帝	Xiaowendi
Temple name	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文皇帝
Temple name	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文
Temple name	Emperor Xiaowen	孝文	Xiaowen
Title	Emperor Xiaowen of Wei	魏孝文
Temple	Gaozu	高祖	Gāozǔ
Temple name	Gaozu	高祖	Gaozu
Temple name	Gaozu	高祖	Gāozǔ
Temple	Gaozu	高祖	Gaozu
Temple	High Ancestor	高祖	Gāozǔ
Temple name	Xiaowen	孝文	Xiaowen
Temple	Xiaowen	孝文	Xiaowen

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · beiqishu:036:s0048, jiuwudaishi:068:s0052, weishu:024:s0007, weishu:027:s0187, weishu:081:s0088, weishu:092:s0040, zhoushu:026:s0005
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · weishu:039:s0036, weishu:093:s0059, weishu:093:s0064, weishu:093:s0068, weishu:093:s0079, weishu:093:s0105, weishu:110:s0075, zhoushu:043:s0084

Roles

Royal Family Member
Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 元魏平定遼東徙洛 · Western Interval: Start: AD 471 · End: AD 499
Strongly inferred · jiuwudaishi:068:s0052
Source Date: Text: 太和九年 · Western Year: AD 485
Explicit · weishu:039:s0122
Source Date: Text: 太和二十三年 · Western Year: AD 499
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:024:s0141, weishu:024:s0142
Source Date: Text: 太和十七年七月癸丑 · Western Year: AD 493
Explicit · weishu:027:s0011
Source Date: Text: 太和十九年 · Western Year: AD 495
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:024:s0036, weishu:024:s0037
Source Date: Text: 太和十四年 · Western Year: AD 490
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:110:s0129
Source Date: Text: 孝文遷洛 · Western Year: AD 494
Explicit · zhoushu:026:s0005
Source Date: Text: 承明元年 · Western Year: AD 476
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:024:s0007
Source Date: Text: 承明初 · Western Year: AD 476
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:039:s0039
Source Date: Text: 承明初 · Western Year: AD 476
Explicit · weishu:039:s0136, weishu:039:s0137
Source Date: Text: 文明太后 · Western Interval: Start: AD 471 · End: AD 490
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:092:s0057
Source Date: Text: 朕託體孝文 · Western Year: AD 532
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:110:s0075
Source Date: Text: 高祖 · Western Interval: Start: AD 471 · End: AD 499
Explicit · weishu:092:s0040
Source Date: Text: 高祖孝文皇帝 · Western Interval: Start: AD 471 · End: AD 499
Explicit · beiqishu:036:s0048
Source Date: Text: 高祖時 · Western Interval: Start: AD 471 · End: AD 499
Explicit · weishu:081:s0088, weishu:081:s0093
Source Date: Text: 高祖詔原之 · Western Interval: Start: AD 471 · End: AD 499
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:093:s0057, weishu:093:s0059
Source Date: Text: 魏太和中 · Western Interval: Start: AD 477 · End: AD 499
Explicit · zhoushu:018:s0004
Source Date: Text: 魏孝文時 · Western Interval: Start: AD 471 · End: AD 499
Explicit event contextual date · zhoushu:043:s0084

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Spouse of Empress Wenzhao (文昭皇后)
Kinship Term: consort / 后妃 · Union Category: marriage · Subject Role: husband · Object Role: consort
Spouse of Zheng Chonghua (鄭充華)
Kinship Term: consort / 后妃 · Union Category: secondary-marriage · Subject Role: husband · Object Role: consort
Spouse of Lady Luo (羅夫人)
Kinship Term: consort / 后妃 · Union Category: secondary-marriage · Subject Role: husband · Object Role: consort
Spouse of Empress Lin (林皇后)
Kinship Term: consort / 后妃 · Union Category: marriage · Subject Role: husband · Object Role: consort
Spouse of Noble Lady Yuan (袁貴人)
Kinship Term: consort / 后妃 · Union Category: secondary-marriage · Subject Role: husband · Object Role: consort
Kin of Xie (諧)
Kinship Term: cousin / 從弟 · Subject Role: elder cousin/emperor · Object Role: younger cousin
Parent of Emperor Xuanwu of Wei (魏宣武帝)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Parent of Yuan Yu (元愉)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Parent of Yuan Yue (元悅)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Parent of Yuan Ti (元恌)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Parent of Yuan Xun (元恂)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Parent of Yuan Huai (元懷)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Parent of Yuan Yi (元懌)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Kin of Maternal uncle Grand Preceptor of Emperor Xiaowen (孝文舅氏太師)
Kinship Term: maternal uncle / 舅 · Subject Role: maternal-uncle · Object Role: nephew · Line: maternal
Kin of Jian (簡)
Kinship Term: uncle / 叔父 · Subject Role: nephew · Object Role: uncle · Line: paternal

Places and affiliations

Label: Northern Wei / 魏 · Relation: served
Explicit · weishu:039:s0036
Polity: Northern Wei / 北魏 · Relation: ruled
Explicit · weishu:092:s0040

Works and attributed material

Kind: edict · Role: author · Statement: burial rules after move to Luoyang
Explicit · weishu:024:s0060, weishu:024:s0061, weishu:024:s0062, weishu:024:s0063, weishu:024:s0064, weishu:024:s0065, weishu:024:s0066, weishu:024:s0067, weishu:024:s0068
Kind: edict · Role: author · Statement: mourning for uncle Jian
Explicit · weishu:024:s0142
Kind: edict · Role: author · Statement: mourning regulations for Xie
Explicit · weishu:024:s0037, weishu:024:s0038, weishu:024:s0039, weishu:024:s0040, weishu:024:s0041, weishu:024:s0042, weishu:024:s0043, weishu:024:s0044, weishu:024:s0045, weishu:024:s0046, weishu:024:s0047
Kind: edict · Role: author
Explicit · weishu:024:s0053, weishu:024:s0054, weishu:024:s0057
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: Yuan Xun (元恂)
Explicit · weishu:027:s0012, weishu:027:s0013, weishu:027:s0014, weishu:027:s0015, weishu:027:s0016, weishu:027:s0017, weishu:027:s0021, weishu:027:s0022, weishu:027:s0023, weishu:027:s0024, weishu:027:s0025, weishu:027:s0036, weishu:027:s0037, weishu:027:s0038, weishu:027:s0039, weishu:027:s0040, weishu:027:s0053, weishu:027:s0054, weishu:027:s0055
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: Zhang Lie (張烈)
Explicit · weishu:081:s0098, weishu:081:s0099, weishu:081:s0103

Events and relationships

Kind: administrative · Role: founder · Action: established Jing Province city
Explicit · zhoushu:018:s0020
Kind: judgment · Role: sovereign · Action: exempted-Sun-Yide · Other Person Id: Sun Yide (孫益德)
Explicit · weishu:092:s0057, weishu:092:s0058
Kind: political · Role: ruler · Action: moved capital to Luoyang; surname change to Zhangsun
Explicit · zhoushu:026:s0005
Kind: pardon · Role: sovereign · Action: pardoned-Zhangsun-Zhen · Other Person Id: Zhangsun Zhen (長孫真)
Explicit · weishu:092:s0040
Kind: ritual · Role: mourner · Action: personally-mourned · Other Person Id: Xie (諧) · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 太和十九年 · Western Year: AD 495
Explicit · weishu:024:s0058, weishu:024:s0070

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 36Volume 36 Biographies 28: Xing Shao · 3 passages

Open chapter

仰惟高祖孝文皇帝稟聖自天，道鏡今古，列校序於鄉黨，敦詩書於郡國。 We look up to Emperor Xiaowen of Wei, the High Ancestor, who received the sage from Heaven and whose Way reflects all ages—he ordered schools in the hamlets and spread the Odes and Documents through every commandery.

伏聞朝議以高祖大造區夏，道侔姬文，提記明堂，式配上帝。 We hear the court argues that because the High Ancestor shaped the realm within the four seas and his Way matched King Wen of Zhou, he raised the Bright Hall to sacrifice to the Lord on High.

今若基址不修，乃同丘畎，即使高皇神享，闕於國陽，宗事之典，有聲無實。 If the foundations are not restored, it is but a mound in a field—even the High Emperor's spirit lacks its seat in the national altar; ancestral rite has sound without substance.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 68Volume 68 Book of Later Tang 44: Biographies 20: Xue Tinggui, Cui Yi, Liu Yue, Liu Ye, Feng Shunqing, Dou Mengzheng, Li Baoyin, Gui Ai, Kong, Miao, Zhang Wenbao, Chen Yi, Liu Zan · 1 passage

Open chapter

其先遼東襄平人，元魏平定遼東，徙家於代，隨孝文遷洛，遂為洛陽人。 His forebears came from Xiangping in Liaodong. When the Northern Wei pacified the northeast the family was moved to Dai; they followed Emperor Xiaowen to Luoyang and became Luoyang natives.

Book of Wei, Chapter 24Volume 20: Emperor Wencheng's Five Princes · 9 passages

Open chapter

高祖罰杖三十。 Gaozu had him beaten thirty strokes with the staff.

諧將大殮，高祖素服深衣哭之，入室，哀慟，撫尸而出。 On the eve of Xie's great encoffment Gaozu came in plain white and deep mourning, wept, entered the chamber, was overcome, comforted the corpse, and withdrew.

及葬，高祖親臨送之。 At the burial Gaozu attended in person to see him off.

高祖嘗與簡俱朝文明太后於皇信堂，簡居帝之右，行家人禮。 Gaozu once paid court to Empress Dowager Wenming with Jian at Huangxin Hall. Jian sat to the emperor's right, and they observed family rites.

高祖仁孝，以諸父零落，存者唯簡。 Gaozu was benevolent and filial; his uncles had died off, and only Jian remained.

每見，立以待之，俟坐，致敬問起居，停簡拜伏。 Whenever he saw Jian, he stood to wait for him; once Jian was seated, Gaozu respectfully asked after his health and prevented him from bowing prostrate.

時高祖不豫，詔曰：「叔父薨背，痛慕摧絕，不自勝任，但虛頓床枕，未堪奉赴，當力疾發哀。」 Gaozu was ill at the time and issued an edict: "My uncle has passed away; grief and longing crush me beyond endurance. I am weak and confined to bed, and cannot yet attend in person, but I will force myself through illness to express my mourning."

母常氏，高祖以納不以禮，不許其為妃。 Because his mother, Lady Chang, had not been taken as consort according to proper ritual, Gaozu did not permit her to be made princess.