From Family Crisis to State Crisis: The Case of Former Yan (Qian Yan 前燕, 285/337–370), a Xianbei Conquest Dynasty

Abstract

Former Yan (285/337–370) was a state in Northeast China established by the Murong branch of the Xianbei, a partly nomadic people who had settled on the Chinese frontier in the 220s. The Murong gradually accommodated themselves to Chinese ways and, having defeated their rivals along the frontier by the 340s, became a major power in North China. A decade later they destroyed the states which had been strongest north of the Yellow River (Later Zhao 319–351) and their ruler assumed imperial dignity. By this time they were close to becoming the masters of North China. Schreiber explains one of the secrets of their success by arguing that the creation and the conduct of the Yan government was “a family affair”. He claimed that the Yan was a stable state, relatively free of internal turmoil and civil war. However, deteriorating family relations within the ruling elite, which did not lead to serious armed conflict but dragged on for about two decades, played a major role in the demise of their state. In the present paper I examine the causes of this deterioration and attempt to shed light on the connections between the crisis it caused and earlier attempts to forestall such a crisis.