Death
In 528, with Empress Dowager Hu and Emperor Xiaoming in a conflict after Emperor Xiaoming wanted to put Empress Dowager Hu's lover Zheng Yan (鄭儼) to death by conspiring with the general Erzhu Rong, Empress Dowager Hu poisoned Emperor Xiaoming and put the young child Yuan Zhao, a great-grandson of Emperor Xiaowen from a collateral line, on the throne. Erzhu refused to recognize Yuan Zhao's imperial authority and advanced on Luoyang, quickly capturing it. He made Yuan Xie's son Yuan Ziyou emperor (as Emperor Xiaozhuang) and threw Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao into the Yellow River to drown.
Erzhu then believed that, in order to show his might, he needed to massacre the high level officials, whom the people viewed as corrupt. Under guise that they were needed to attend Emperor Xiaozhuang in sacrificing to heaven, he had them, led by Yuan Yong, report to Heyin, near Luoyang. Then, he had his cavalry surround them and massacre them. Erzhu would later regret this action, and he had Yuan Yong and the other officials killed buried with honor.
Read more about this topic: Yuan Yong
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence. He’s got to have some inner standards worth fighting for or there won’t be any way to bring him into conflict. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it. That’s all there is to it.”
—Clark Gable (1901–1960)
“There is a rhythm to the ending of a marriage just like the rhythm of a courtship—only backward. You try to start again but get into blaming over and over. Finally you are both worn out, exhausted, hopeless. Then lawyers are called in to pick clean the corpses. The death has occurred much earlier.”
—Erica Jong (b. 1942)
“You don’t send a man to his death because you want a hero.”
—Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981)