Background
It is not known when Tuoba Xie was born, but he was a younger brother to Emperor Xiaowen and was younger to all of the six other sons of their father Emperor Xianwen except Tuoba Xiang (拓拔詳) the Prince of Beihai. His mother was Consort Pan, who died shortly after giving birth to him. In 476, his father Emperor Xianwen (who was then retired emperor after having passed the throne to Emperor Xiaowen in 471) died as well, probably having been poisoned by Tuoba Xie's step-grandmother Empress Dowager Feng, who then assumed regency over Emperor Xiaowen as grand empress dowager. Tuoba Xie was considered studious and well-mannered in his youth, and was much favored by both Emperor Xiaowen and their step-grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Feng.
Read more about this topic: Yuan Xie
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)