Empress Dowager Hu

Xuanwu's concubine Consort Hu gives birth in 510 to a son, Yuan Xu.

Because Xuanwu has lost multiple sons in childhood by this point, he carefully selects several experienced mothers to serve as Yuan Xu's wet nurses, and disallows both Gao and Hu from seeing him.

Xuanwu creates Yuan Xu crown prince in winter 512 and, abolishing the Northern Wei custom that the crown prince's mother must be forced to commit suicide, he does not force Hu to commit suicide.

Northern Wei and Liang have continued to wage relatively minor border battles, with each side having gains and losses.

In 514, however, Xuanwu commissions Gao Zhao to launch a major attack against Liang's Yi Province (modern Sichuan and Chongqing).

Emperor Xuanwu dies suddenly in spring 515, and Yuan Xu succeeds him (as Emperor Xiaoming).

Yuan Cheng, Xuanwu's brother Yuan Yong the Prince of Gaoyang, and Yu Lie's son Yu Zhong seize power and, after recalling Gao, put him to death.

Xiaoming's mother Hu becomes empress dowager and regent.

Empress Dowager Hu is considered intelligent, capable of understanding many things quickly, but she is also overly lenient and tolerant of corruption.

For example, in winter 515, the corrupt governor of Qi Province (roughly modern Baoji, Shaanxi), Yuan Mi the Prince of Zhao, provokes a popular uprising when he kills several people without reason, and while he is relieved from his post, as soon as he returns to the capital, Luoyang, Empress Dowager Hu makes him a minister because his wife is her niece.

Empress Dowager Hu's power is unchallenged during these few years of Yuan Xu's childhood, and while she tolerates—and, in certain circumstances, encourages—criticism, including rewarding such officials as Yuan Kuang the Prince of Dongping and Zhang Puhui for their blunt words, she is slow to implement suggestions that will curb corruption.

Empress Dowager Hu is a fervent Buddhist, and during this part of the regency, she builds magnificent temples in Luoyang.

One, dedicated to her father Hu Guozhen the Duke of Qin, after his death in 518, is particularly beautiful.

Because of her influence, Emperor Xiaoming also becames a dedicated Buddhist.

In his youth, however, he also favors spending time in imperial gardens rather than studies or learning about important affairs of state.

A serious riot occurs in Luoyang in 519, after the official Zhang Zhongyu proposes that the civil service regulations be changed to disallow soldiers to become civilian officials.

The soldiers become angry and storm both the ministry of civil service and the mansion of Zhang Zhongyu's father, Zhang Yi, killing Zhang Yi and serious injuring Zhang Zhongyu and his brother Zhang Shijun.

Empress Dowager Hu arrests eight leaders of the riot and executes them but pardons the rest, to quell the unrest.

She also rejects the proposal to change the civil service regulations.

This event is often seen as the turning point and the start of the unrest that will eventually tear Northern Wei apart.

Despite these events, Empress Dowager Hu continues to tolerate corruption, and she often gives exuberant awards to officials, draining the treasury; the pressure on the treasury and the burden on the people are further increased by her orders that each province is to build a tower dedicated to the Buddha.

Sometime before 520, Empress Dowager had forced Emperor Xiaoming's uncle Yuan Yi the Prince of Qinghe, who is popular with the people and the officials because of his abilities and humility, to have an affair with her.

Yuan Yi thereafter becomes the effective leader of government, and he tries to reorganize the administration to decrease corruption.

He particularly tries to curb the powers of Empress Dowager Hu's brother-in-law Yuan Cha and the eunuch Liu Teng.

Yuan Cha therefore falsely accuses him of treason, but he is cleared after an investigation.

Fearful of reprisals, Yuan Cha and Liu persuade Emperor Xiaoming that Yuan Yi is trying to poison him and carried out a coup against Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Yi, killing Yuan Yi and putting Empress Dowager Hu under house arrest.

Yuan Yong becomes titular regent, but Yuan Cha becomes the actual power.

Yuan Cha of the Chinese/Xianbei Northern Wei dynasty is not particularly able as a regent, and he and Liu multiply their corruption once they are in power.

Yuan Cha himself is not dedicated at all to the affairs of state, but spends much of his time on feasting, drinking, and women.

He puts his father Yuan Ji and his brothers into positions of power, and they are just as corrupt.

Yuan Cha's incompetence and corruption, together with the level of corruption that Empress Dowager Hu herself had tolerated while in power, leads to popular dissatisfaction with the regime and many agrarian revolts, although the first revolt is by a non-agrarian—Yuan Xi the Prince of Zhongshan, who is friendly with both Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Yi—in fall 520, trying to avenge Yuan Yi and restore Empress Dowager Hu.

Yuan Cha quickly has Yuan Xi's rebellion suppressed.

Yuan Cha spends much of Northern Wei's energy in late 520, on trying to restore Rouran's khan Yujiulü Anagui, who had been overthrown by his cousin Yujiulü Shifa, despite warnings that doing so will either be fruitless or counterproductive.

The restoration is successful, but by 523 Yujiulü Anagui will rebel and again become an enemy to Northern Wei.

The Northern Wei general Xi Kangsheng makes an attempt to restore Empress Dowager Hu in spring 521, but fails.

Yuan Cha has him put to death.

The Six Frontier Towns, also known as Northern Frontier Towns, refers to six military towns that the Northern Wei government has built during the Huangshi era and the Yanhe era to prevent the southward invasion by the Rouran Khaganate.

These towns, from west to east, are Woye, Huaishuo, Wuchuan, Fumin, Rouxuan and Huaihuang.

The official Li Chong sees that the people of the six northern military garrisons, largely ethnic Xianbei, who have for generations been forced to stay at these garrisons to defend against Rouran attacks, are stirring with discontent, and in 523 he suggests to Yuan Cha and Emperor Xiaoming that the garrisons be converted into provinces and that the people be given the rights of the people of other provinces.

Yuan Cha refuses.

Later this year, …

…the people of Huaihuang (in modern Zhangjiakou, Hebei) and …