Extra stuff about the Jin Dynasty via the War of Eight Princes (from "you know who" on tumblr)
Here's just some personal info I wanted to throw out thanks to me bothering to read the more modern/abridged version of events. I hope this helps, even if I'm not allowed to put this up here, I suppose.
I need a better way to read up all of this info myself, rather than advertise tumblr blogs like an idiot.
- Two of the princes were somehow already long dead before the actual events of the "war between the princes" started. Those two were Sima Liang and Sima Wei.
- During the time Sima Zhong was chosen as emperor, Sima Liang and Yang Jun (the father of Sima Yan's empress Yang Zhi) were selected to be Sima Zhong's regents as declared by Sima Yan himself. However, the latter was unwilling to share power and wanted to manipulate Zhong to be his puppet, so he pretty much prevented Liang from gaining the proper authority. Sima Liang fled the capital and assumed control as Marshall of Yu Province instead.
- However, Jia Nanfeng managed to spend a while trying to gather support in order to throw off Yang Jun, and managed to make the move to kill off Yang Jun and all of his supporters (including the Empress Dowager Yang).
- Eventually, Jia Nanfeng invited Sima Liang to take part in the government affairs. Meanwhile however, Sima Wei was rather ambitious with his own possible plans in store for the government. Supposedly in my honest opinion, Jia Nanfeng's bad reputation started off for manipulating Sima Wei to take care of Liang so he could replace him, and so Wei assassinated Liang for just that. Nanfeng then took things further by charging him with forging an imperial edict that was supposedly the authorization to kill Sima Liang in the first place, allowing Sima Wei to be executed and leaving Jia Nanfeng in sole control of the government.
- Despite this, there have been sources stating that Jia Nanfeng before Sima Yu (the current heir at the time of Sima Zhong's "rule") was overseeing the government affairs extremely well in her own right, none of the other princes seemed to be willing to speed up her retirement from office. Sima Yu also showed some promise as the one who would be next in line.
- However, Sima Yu was eventually old enough to properly assert himself into government affairs, leaving Jia Nanfeng worried. Jia Nanfeng tricked Yu into writing a letter of treason just to have him executed, which was the point where the other princes decided to throw down against her. Both Sima Lun and Sima Yong managed to lay a planned attack on her with Jia Nanfeng ending up killed, and Lun took control of the government thereafter. However, Sima Lun also was starting to be notably criticized for his unlawfulness and managed to shut down Sima Yun's efforts of rebellion to have him executed; Lun then grew rather arrogant and deposed Sima Zhong and declared himself the new emperor. This was the event that started the War of Eight Princes (or the six remaining ones).
- Despite this, there have been sources stating that Jia Nanfeng before Sima Yu (the current heir at the time of Sima Zhong's "rule") was overseeing the government affairs extremely well in her own right, none of the other princes seemed to be willing to speed up her retirement from office. Sima Yu also showed some promise as the one who would be next in line.
- The Xiongnu tribe/people problem was supposedly started by Wang Jun, a general favored by Jia Nanfeng who was sent to oversee the non-Chinese tribes in the North; however, this eventually gained him many allies in a far-away region where he was safe from the events aforementioned. For some time during Sima Ying's (son of Sima Yan and prince of Chengdu) reign, Wang Jun proved to be too difficult for him to bring down, and was pillaging the many northern regions.
- Adding with the problems Ying had to face from Zhang Fang's (the general of the other Sima Yong, often written as "Sima Yung" to differentiate) growing power in Luoyang (due to prior events during the Eight/Six Princes conflict), Sima Ying was completely discredited upon arrival. Sadly, Wang Jun with his many allies arrived first in Chang'an when Zhang Fang moved the capital to there, and ended up slaying both Sima Ying and Sima Yung. Due to prior events, Sima Yue was the only one left standing from the Eight Princes conflict, but Wang Jun's massive influence would soon cause more trouble down the line.
--SneaselSawashiro (talk) 21:35, August 2, 2016 (UTC)