Wang Hong - During Emperor Wu's and Emperor Shao's Reigns

During Emperor Wu's and Emperor Shao's Reigns

After Liu Yu seized the throne from Emperor Gong of Jin in 420, ending Jin and establishing Liu Song (as Emperor Wu), he created Wang Hong the Duke of Huarong. Wang briefly visited the capital Jiankang in 422, but then was returned to his post at Jiang Province, and he was not one of the officials whom Emperor Wu entrusted his son and crown prince Liu Yifu to before he died later that year, and Wang did not appear to have increased authority after Liu Yifu took the throne as Emperor Shao. Rather, authority vested in the hands of Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, and Xie Hui.

In 424, Xu, Fu, Xie, dissatisfied with Emperor Shao's tendencies to trust people lacking virtues and believing him to be unfit to be emperor, resolved to depose him. Because they were apprehensive about the powerful armies that Tan Daoji and Wang had, they summoned Tan and Wang to the capital and then informed them of the plot. They then sent soldiers into the palace to arrest Emperor Shao, after first persuading the imperial guards not to resist. Before Emperor Shao could get up from bed in the morning, the soldiers were already in his bedchamber, and he made a futile attempt to resist, but was captured. He was sent back to his old palace. The officials then, in the name of Emperor Shao's mother Empress Dowager Zhang, declared Emperor Shao's faults and demoted him to Prince of Yingyang, offering the throne to his younger brother Liu Yilong the Prince of Yidu instead. Liu Yilong, after some hesitation, took the throne as Emperor Wen.