Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties · Prince of Qinghe and Statesman

Yuan Yi 元懌

Attested AD 497 - AD 520

Passages: 19
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

The translated histories identify Yuan Yi as a royal family member, scholar, statesman, and writer. This record brings together 19 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Yuan Yi	元懌	Yuan Yi
Title	Prince of Qinghe	清河王	Qinghe wang
Posthumous name	Wenxian	文獻	Wenxian
Courtesy name	Xuanren	宣仁	Xuanren
Personal name	Yi	懌	Yi

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · weishu:027:s0006

Roles

Royal Family Member
Scholar
Statesman
Writer

Life and dates

Death

Age: Value: 34 · Reckoning: sui · Manner: killed under false charges by Yuan Cha and Liu Teng / 遂害之
Explicit · weishu:027:s0143

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 正光元年七月 · Regnal Year: 1 · Month: 7 · Western Year: AD 520
Explicit · weishu:027:s0143
Source Date: Text: 太和二十一年 · Regnal Year: 21 · Western Year: AD 497
Explicit · weishu:027:s0106

Family

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

Sibling of Yuan Yue (元悅)
Kinship Term: brother / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: full
Child of Emperor Xiaowen (孝文皇帝)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Child of Lady Luo (羅夫人)
Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son
Parent of Yuan Chan (元亶)
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological

Career and standing

Label: grand marshal / 太尉 · Action: appointed
Explicit · weishu:027:s0124
Label: palace attendant / 侍中 · Action: appointed
Explicit · weishu:027:s0107
Label: vice director of the masters of writing / 尚書僕射 · Action: appointed
Explicit · weishu:027:s0107
Title: Prince of Qinghe / 清河王 · Action: enfeoffed
Explicit · weishu:027:s0106

Works and attributed material

Work: Records of Manifest Loyalty / 顯忠錄 · Relation: author · Extent: twenty scrolls / 二十卷
Explicit · weishu:027:s0142
Kind: memorial · Role: author
Explicit · weishu:027:s0130, weishu:027:s0131, weishu:027:s0132, weishu:027:s0133, weishu:027:s0134, weishu:027:s0135
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: Emperor Xuanwu of Wei (魏宣武帝)
Explicit · weishu:027:s0116, weishu:027:s0117, weishu:027:s0118, weishu:027:s0119, weishu:027:s0120, weishu:027:s0121, weishu:027:s0122
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: Gao Zhao (高肇)
Explicit · weishu:027:s0114, weishu:027:s0115

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: loyal yet slandered · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · weishu:027:s0142, weishu:027:s0191

References in the histories

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

Book of Wei, Chapter 27Volume 22: Emperor Xiaowen's Five Princes · 19 passages

羅夫人生清河文獻王懌、汝南文宣王悅。 Lady Luo bore Yi, Prince of Qinghe (posthumous Wenxian), and Yue, Prince of Runan (posthumous Wenzuan).

及在州謀逆，愉遂殺長史羊靈引及司馬李遵，稱得清河王密疏，云高肇謀殺害主上。 While he was in the province he rose in rebellion. Yu killed chief clerk Yang Lingyin and marshal Li Zun, claiming a secret letter from the Prince of Qinghe that Gao Zhao meant to murder the emperor.

清河王懌，字宣仁。 Qinghe Wang Yi, styled Xuanren.

懌才長從政，明於斷決，割判眾務，甚有聲名。 Yi excelled in administration, decided cases with clarity, cut through piled business, and won wide renown.

司空高肇以帝舅寵任，既擅威權，謀去良宗，屢譖懌及愉等。 Gao Zhao, the emperor's uncle by marriage, already held unchecked power and sought to purge the princes, repeatedly denouncing Yi, Yu, and others.

懌恐不免。 Yi feared he would not escape.

懌因侍宴酒酣，乃謂肇曰：「天子兄弟，詎有幾人，而炎炎不息。 When wine had deepened at a feast Yi told Zhao, "The emperor's brothers are few—why does your flame never die down?

詔懌裁門下之事。 An edict put Gate-and-Chamber business in Yi's hands.

懌表諫曰：「臣聞律深惑眾之科，禮絕妖淫之禁，皆所以大明居正，防遏姦邪。 Yi remonstrated: "Law punishes deluding the people; rites forbid demonic excess—all to keep the throne upright and bar wickedness.

靈太后以懌肅宗懿叔，德先具瞻，委以朝政，事擬周霍。 Empress Dowager Ling, seeing Yi as Xiaoming's honored uncle and a man all eyes followed, entrusted government to him on the model of the Duke of Zhou and Huo Guang.

懌竭力匡輔，以天下為己任。 Yi labored to steady the state and took the realm as his charge.

懌裁之以法，每抑黜之，為叉所疾。 Yi checked him with law and repeatedly humiliated him; Cha came to hate him.

叉黨人通直郎宋維希叉旨，[7]告懌謀反，禁懌門下，訊問左右及朝貴，貴人分明，乃得雪釋焉。 Cha's man Song Wei, eager to please, [7] accused Yi of treason; they sealed his staff and questioned attendants and nobles until the truth cleared him.

懌以忠而獲謗，乃鳩集昔忠烈之士，為顯忠錄二十卷，以見意焉。 Slandered though loyal, Yi compiled Records of Manifest Loyalty in twenty scrolls to declare his mind.

正光元年七月，叉與劉騰逼肅宗於顯陽殿，閉靈太后於後宮，囚懌於門下省，誣懌罪狀，遂害之，時年三十四。 In the first year of Zhenguang, seventh month, Cha and Liu Teng seized Xiaoming in Xianyang Hall, walled the dowager in the rear palace, jailed Yi in the Gate and Chamber office, forged charges, and killed him at thirty-four.

夷人在京及歸，聞懌之喪，為之劈面者數百人。 Barbarians in the capital and those returned, hearing of his death, lacerated their faces in mourning—several hundred men.

及清河王懌為元叉所害，悅了無讎恨之意，乃以桑落酒候伺之，盡其私佞。 When Qinghe Wang Yi fell to Yuan Cha, Yue bore no grudge; he courted Cha with mulberry-fall wine and shameless flattery.

臨拜日，就懌子亶求懌服玩之物，不時稱旨。 On the day of appointment he asked Yi's son Chan for his father's robes and curios; Chan displeased him.

清河器識才譽，以懿親作輔，時鐘屯詖，始遘牆茨之逼。 Qinghe had capacity, insight, talent, and reputation, and as an excellent kinsman served as assistant, but the age fell into hardship and crookedness, and he first met the pressure of the wall-thorns.