Emperor Gong of Jin - After Abdication

After Abdication

Liu Yu created Sima Dewen the Prince of Lingling and built a palace for him near Jiankang. He had the general Liu Zunkao (劉遵考), a distant cousin, lead a group of guards, ostensibly to protect the prince but instead to keep him under watch.

Soon, Liu Yu, still believing Sima Dewen to be a threat, sent Sima Dewen's former attendant Zhang Wei (張偉) a bottle of poisoned wine, ordering him to poison Sima Dewen. Zhang, not wanting to carry out the order, drank the wine himself and died. Meanwhile, however, in order to prevent any likelihood that Sima Dewen would have a male heir, Liu Yu ordered Princess Chu's brothers Chu Xiuzhi (褚秀之) and Chu Danzhi (褚淡之) to poison any male children that Princess Chu or Sima Dewen's concubines would bear. Sima Dewen himself feared death greatly, and he and Princess Chu remained in the same house, cooking their own meals, with Princess Chu paying for the material herself. Assassins that Liu Yu sent initially could find no chance to kill the former emperor.

In fall 421, Liu Yu sent Chu Danzhi and his brother Chu Shudu (褚叔度) to visit their sister. As Princess Chu came out to meet her brothers in a different house, soldiers that Liu Yu sent intruded into Sima Dewen's house and ordered Sima Dewen to take poison. He refused, stating that Buddhist doctrines prohibited suicide and that those who committed suicide could not receive human bodies in the next reincarnation. The assassins therefore used a blanket to cover his head and asphyxiated him. He was buried with imperial honors.