Yang Yin
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Yang Yin (楊愔) (511-560), courtesy name Zhunyan (遵彦), nickname Qinwang (秦王), was a high level official of the Chinese dynasty Northern Qi.
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[edit] Background
Yang Yin came from a clan that produced many officials of Northern Wei. His father was Yang Jin (楊津), and his mother was Yang Jin's wife Lady Yuan, who came from a noble lineage herself, being the granddaughter of the famed official Yuan He. In his youth, he studied the histories, the Shi Jing, and the I Ching, but particularly favored the Zuo Zhuan version of the Spring and Autumn Annals. However, because he was poor at speaking, he was considered to be unintelligent. Once, when he was meeting with his maternal uncle Yuan Zigong (源子恭), Yuan Zigong asked him what he was studying at the time, and when he mentioned that he was studying the Shi Jing, Yuan Zigong asked whether he had yet reached the poem Weiyang (渭陽) -- a poem ostensibly about meeting a maternal uncle, but was actually about the author's missing his deceased mother. When Yuan made that reference, Yang Yin understood the reference immediately and became very mournful. From this incident, Yuan judged him to be intelligent, and praised him before his father Yang Jin.
In 526, during the reign of Emperor Xiaoming, Northern Wei was suffering greatly from agrarian rebellions, and Yang Jing was commissioned with an army as the governor of Ding Province (定州, roughly modern Baoding, Hebei). Yang Yin accompanied his father to Ding Province, and on account of his contribution to his father's campaign, was created the Baron of Weichang. However, in spring 528, Ding Province fell to the rebel general Du Luozhou (杜洛周), and Yang Jing's household was imprisoned by Du. Soon thereafter, Du was defeated by another rebel general, Ge Rong (葛榮). Ge wanted to marry one of his daughters to Yang Yin and make him an official, but Yang, not willing to accept Ge's commission, pretended to be ill by holding cow blood in his mouth and then spitting it out. In 529, after Ge Rong had been defeated by the Northern Wei paramount general Erzhu Rong, Yang Yin returned to the Northern Wei capital Luoyang and was made a low level imperial official in the administration of Emperor Xiaozhuang. Later that year, when Yuan Hao the Prince of Beihai claimed imperial title under support from Liang Dynasty and captured Luoyang briefly, forcing Emperor Xiaozhuang to flee, Yang Yin convinced his cousin Yang Kan (楊侃) to remain loyal to Emperor Xiaozhuang. However, after Yuan Hao was subsequently defeated by Erzhu, permitting Emperor Xiaozhuang to return to Luoyang, Yang Yin believed that the empire was not yet at peace and decided to leave governmental service, taking up a hermit's existence with his friend Xing Shao (邢邵) at Mount Song.
In 530, Emperor Xiaozhuang, believing that Erzhu would eventually seize the throne, ambushed him in the palace and killed him. Erzhu clan members rose against Emperor Xiaozhuang, and in the subsequent campaigns, both Yang Jin and Yang Kan were on Emperor Xiaozhuang's side, and during the campaign, Yang Yin accompanied his father. After the Erzhus defeated and killed Emperor Xiaozhuang later that year, the Yangs largely retired from public service. Still suspicious of them, Erzhu Shilong and Erzhu Tianguang sent troops to carry out massacres of the Yang clan at their estates. Yang Yin happened to be away from the estate, and while he was apprehended and to be delivered to Luoyang, he was able to convince the army officer who escorted him, Gong Ronggui (鞏榮貴), to release him. (Of Yang Yin's immediate family members, only two younger brothers and one younger sister, as well as a few grandnieces, survived.) He subsequently fled to Gao Huan, who had risen against the Erzhus. Gao made Yang part of his staff. After Gao defeated the Erzhus in 532, on Yang Yin's account, he reburied the slaughtered Yang clan members with honor.
[edit] Service under Gao Huan and Gao Cheng
Thereafter, however, Yang Yin's cousin Yang Youqing (楊幼卿), while advising Emperor Xiaowu, whom Gao Huan had made emperor, used strong language that offended Emperor Xiaowu and was put to death. Another member of Gao's staff, Guo Xiu (郭秀), was jealous of Yang's abilities, and he therefore gave Yang false news that Gao was intending to deliver him to Emperor Xiaowu. Yang therefore pretended to have committed suicide by drowning, but changed his name to Liu Shi'an (劉士安) and fled to Guang Province (光州, roughly modern Yantai, Shandong) and hid on an island. In 535, after Northern Wei had divided into Eastern Wei (with Gao in control) and Western Wei (with Yuwen Tai in control), Gao heard that Yang was still alive, and had the governor of Guang Province find him and invite him back to serve on staff. Yang agreed, and Gao married one of his daughters by a concubine to Yang. He subsequently gradually rose in ranks. After Gao Huan's death in 547, Yang continued to serve Gao Huan's heir Gao Cheng, who took over as regent. In 549, Gao Cheng convened a meeting with Yang, Chen Yuankang (陳元康), and Cui Jishu (崔季舒) to discuss the process of seizing the throne from Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei, when Gao Cheng's slave Lan Jing (蘭京) made a surprise attack on Gao Cheng, killing him and Chen. Yang was able to flee from Lan's attack and was not killed. Subsequently, Gao Cheng's younger brother Gao Yang took over the regency, and in 550 took over the throne, ending Eastern Wei and establishing Northern Qi.
[edit] Service under Emperor Wenxuan
Emperor Wenxuan made Yang Yin his prime minister and created him the Duke of Huashan, and during Emperor Wenxuan's reign, Yang served capably, finding appropriate officials for the key posts. Therefore, although Emperor Wenxuan, particularly late in his reign, turned violent and wasteful, the imperial government nevertheless functioned effectively. Yang was praised for remembering those who had helped him in the past, repaying them greatly, but not bearing grudges against those who had tried to hurt him. He was also known for his good memory, remembering officials' faces even if he had met them only once. However, he was also criticized for looking at the officials' abilities in an overly superficial manner. After Emperor Wenxuan killed the former Emperor Xiaojing in 551, he gave his sister -- Emperor Xiaojing's wife -- the Princess Taiyuan to Yang in marriage. (Presumably, by this point, Yang's first wife, also Gao Yang's sister, was deceased.) With Emperor Wenxuan, in his late years, accustomed to killing people for entertainment while he was drunk, Yang thought of an unusual solution -- he sent a supply of condemned prisoners to the palace, to be killed whenever Emperor Wenxuan wanted to kill someone; if the prisoners could survive three months without being killed, they would be freed. Emperor Wenxuan's brother Gao Jun (高浚) the Prince of Yong'an, once rebuked Yang for not trying to dissuade Emperor Wenxuan from his behavior, and Yang, who knew that Emperor Wenxuan was particularly suspicious whenever governmental officials conversed with imperial princes, reported the conversation to Emperor Wenxuan, eventually leading to Gao Jun's imprisonment and death. By 559, Yang's title was Prince of Kaifeng.
In 559, Emperor Wenxuan was near death. He entrusted his son Gao Yin the Crown Prince to Yang, Gao Guiyan (高歸彥) the Prince of Pingqin, Yan Zixian (燕子獻), and Zheng Yi (鄭頤). He soon died, and Gao Yin took the throne (as Emperor Fei).
[edit] Service under Emperor Fei
Emperor Fei's uncle Gao Yan the Prince of Changshan, while respected by the people, was not given great power, and while his (and Emperor Wenxuan's) mother Empress Dowager Lou Zhaojun had some desire to have Gao Yan made emperor instead, there was insufficient support at the time, and Yang, in fear that Gao Yan and another brother of Emperor Wenxuan, Gao Dan the Prince of Changguang, would try to take power, took steps to curb their authorities. Emperor Fei honored his grandmother Empress Dowager Lou as grand empress dowager and mother Empress Li as empress dowager. Pursuant to his edicts, the palace construction projects that Emperor Wenxuan started, which caused much misery for his people in the latter years of his reign, were halted.
As Emperor Fei took the throne while he was attending to his father's deathbed at the secondary capital Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), when he proceeded to the capital Yecheng in spring 560, it was initially believed that Gao Yan or Gao Dan would be put in charge of Jinyang -- then perhaps the most militarily secure city in the empire; instead, by the arrangements of Yang and his associates, the two princes were ordered to accompany the young emperor to Yecheng.
Once the imperial train arrived at Yecheng, the situation became even more tense, as an associate of Yang's, Kezhuhun Tianhe (可朱渾天和), was convinced that Emperor Fei would not be safe in his reign unless his two uncles were killed, and alternatively, Yan Zixian considered putting Grand Empress Dowager Lou, who still wielded much power as the clan matriarch, under house arrest, and forcing her to turn her authorities to Empress Dowager Li. Meanwhile, the ambitious Yang was carrying out a governmental reorganization scheme to trim unnecessary offices and titles and to remove incompetent officials. The officials who were hurt by Yang's actions became disaffected and largely hoped that Gao Yan and Gao Dan would take action and began to encourage them to do so. Yang considered sending Gao Yan and Gao Dan outside the capital to be provincial governors, but Emperor Fei initially disagreed. Yang wrote a submission to Empress Dowager Li to ask her to consider, and she consulted her lady in waiting Li Changyi (李昌儀), who leaked the news to Grand Empress Dowager Lou. She informed the two princes, and they set up an ambush, with Gao Guiyan and the generals Heba Ren (賀拔仁) and Hulü Jin (斛律金), at a ceremony where Gao Yan was to be named to a ceremonial post. Yang, Kezhuhun, Yan, Zheng, and Song Qindao (宋欽道) were all severely battered and captured. One of Yang's eyes fell out of his eyesocket.
Gao Yan and Gao Dan subsequently entered the palace and accused Yang and his associates of crimes. They were all executed, although Grand Empress Dowager Lou, who was otherwise supportive of her son Gao Yan's actions, personally attended Yang's wake and made the comment, "Lord Yang was faithful and suffered for his faithfulness." She made an eye out of gold and pressed it into his eyesocket, stating, "This is to show my heart." Soon, Gao Yan became regretful of putting Yang to death as well, but thereafter nevertheless killed one branch of Yang's household -- probably that of his oldest son -- while exiling the rest. During the reign of Gao Dan's son Gao Wei, Yang was posthumously honored.
