Yao Xing

Yao Xing (; 366–416), courtesy name Zilüe (子略), formally Emperor Wenhuan of (Later) Qin ((後)秦文桓帝), was an emperor of the Qiang-led Chinese Later Qin dynasty. He was the son of the founding emperor Yao Chang (Emperor Wucheng). For most of his reign, he did not use the title of emperor, but used the title Heavenly King (Tian Wang). During his reign, he destroyed the rival Former Qin and proceeded to expand his hegemony over nearly all of western China, as he temporarily seized all of Western Qin's territory and forced Southern Liang, Northern Liang, Western Liáng, and Qiao Zong's Western Shu all to at least nominally submit to him, but late in his reign, defeats on the battlefield, particularly at the hands of the rebel general Helian Bobo (who founded Xia), and internecine struggles between his sons and nephews greatly damaged the Later Qin state, and it was destroyed soon after his death. Yao Xing was an avid Buddhist, and it was during his reign that Buddhism first received official state support in China. The monk Kumarajiva also visited Chang'an at Yao Xing's request in 401. Before and during Yao Chang's reign Yao Xing was born in 366, when his father Yao Chang was a general under the Former Qin emperor Fu Jiān. Who his mother was is open to interpretation; Yao Chang's wife, the later Empress She, was mentioned as his mother, but when Yao Xing later became emperor, he posthumously honored one of Yao Chang's concubines, Consort Sun, as empress dowager, which allows an inference that he could have been born of Consort Sun but raised by Empress She, but there is no conclusive evidence. Not much is known about his life under Former Qin rule, other than that when he grew older, he served as an assistant to Fu Jiān's crown prince Fu Hong. When Yao Chang declared a rebellion and established Later Qin in 384, Yao Xing was at the Former Qin capital Chang'an, and he immediately fled to his father. For the next several years, as Yao Chang fought with Former Qin and Western Yan, Yao Xing was often entrusted with guarding the base of operations (initially Beidi (, in modern Tongchuan, Shaanxi), later Chang'an after Western Yan captured and then abandoned it), while his father engaged in campaigns. In 386, after Yao Chang declared himself emperor, he created Yao Xing crown prince. He was considered to be firm and gracious, and he spent much time studying literature despite the work necessary in maintaining home base.