Disaster of Yongjia: Han-Zhao troops sack Luoyang

After the War of the Eight Princes northern China was ravaged by famine and rebellion. In 304 Liu Yuan, a noble of the Southern Xiongnu, had founded a state called Han, claiming the legacy of the Han dynasty, and rebels such as the Chinese Wang Mi and the Jie leader Shi Le joined him; his son Liu Cong, who seized the throne in 310, sent his armies against Luoyang, which they had already attacked in 308 and 309. In December 310 the regent Sima Yue led the last imperial army out of the famine-stricken capital; he died on 23 April 311, and in May his army — more than 100,000 men, according to the chronicles — escorting his coffin east under Wang Yan, was surrounded by Shi Le’s cavalry at Ningping and annihilated. Luoyang was left without defenders; the chronicles speak of cannibalism, and most officials fled. One of the Sogdian “Ancient Letters” found by Aurel Stein, written by the merchant Nanai-vandak, reports that all the Sogdians and Indians in the city had died of hunger.

Liu Cong sent Huyan Yan with 27,000 men and ordered Liu Yao, Wang Mi and Shi Le to join him. Huyan Yan reached the city on 29 June and broke in through the Pingchang Gate on 2 July, but withdrew for lack of support, burning the boats prepared for the emperor’s flight. Wang Mi reached the Xuanyang Gate on 7 July and Liu Yao the Ximing Gate on 8 July; on 13 July Huyan Yan and Wang Mi took the Xuanyang Gate, entered the Southern Palace and let their men plunder it. Emperor Huai tried to escape through the Hualin Park towards Chang’an but was caught. The next day Liu Yao killed the crown prince Sima Quan, the princes and ministers — more than 30,000 people died, according to the Book of Jin and the Zizhi Tongjian — dug up the imperial tombs and burned the palaces, temples and offices. The emperor and the six imperial seals were sent to Liu Cong at Pingyang, where Emperor Huai, made to serve wine at feasts, was put to death in 313.

The catastrophe is named after Emperor Huai’s Yongjia era (307–313), and it is counted among the worst disasters in Chinese history: an emperor and one of the ancient capitals had fallen into the hands of “barbarians”. A Jin court survived in Chang’an under Emperor Min until 316, but many northern families fled south of the Yangtze, where Sima Rui, Prince of Langya, was building up his power at Jianye, and the north broke up into the Sixteen Kingdoms. Luoyang did not become a capital again until 495, under the Northern Wei.