Huan Chong - Later Life, Positions and Death

Later Life, Positions and Death

In 375, in further sign that he was showing submission to the imperial government, Huan Chong turned down the governorship of Yang Province (which included the capital Jiankang), instead becoming the governor of Xu Province (徐州, modern central and northern Jiangsu). Later, after Huan Huo's death in 377, Xie trusted Huan Chong sufficiently to give him the governorship of the important Jing Province (荊州, modern Hunan and central and southern Hubei), as well as the military command over the western half of the empire—nearly the domain that Huan Wen had controlled earlier.

In 378, after a major attack by Former Qin led to the losses of the important cities of Xiangyang (襄陽, in modern Xiangfan, Hubei) and Weixing (魏興, in modern Ankang, Shaanxi), both of which were in his command zone and which he had failed to relieve, Huan Chong offered to resign, but his resignation was not accepted.

In 383, when Former Qin launched another major attack, this time seeking to capture Jiankang and destroy Jin, Huan Chong was concerned about the capital's defenses and therefore sent several thousand elite soldiers to Xie to shore up Jiankang's defenses, which Xie declined, stating that the capital was already well-guarded (which, however, it actually was not). Upon receiving the soldiers back, Huan Chong lamented that while Xie was an able prime minister, he lacked military talent, making the exclamation, "I am finally going to have to wear barbarian clothes" (meaning that Jin would soon fall to Former Qin, which Huan considered a barbaric regime). After Former Qin forces were repelled at the Battle of Fei River, however, Huan Chong became embarrassed—and so much so that he grew ill. He died in early 384. Contrary to the customs for high level officials at the time, Huan Chong did not submit a petition to the emperor in his illness, asking for his family members to be given posts, but only wrote to Xie, lamenting that Huan Wen's youngest sons were still young and that he had thus failed in raising them properly, as Huan Wen asked him to. He was greatly praised at the time for this self-deprecation.