道玄 Dàoxuán

Daoxuan, Prince Zhuang of Huaiyang, was cautious and honest by nature and trained in the fighting arts, yet his bearing was refined. At the beginning of Wude he was made a prince by the rule for imperial kinsmen. At fifteen he followed the Prince of Qin against Song Jingang at Jie Prefecture and was first onto the walls; the prince admired his courage and rewarded him very generously. In the campaign against Wang Shichong he fought many battles. When Dou Jiande was encamped at Hulao, the prince lured the enemy with light cavalry and sent Daoxuan to lie in ambush and wait for them; when the enemy came, he put them to flight. In the battle at the Si River he climbed the southern slope, drove right through the enemy line and came out at its rear, then led his men back again; the enemy all gave way before him, and every arrow he shot found its mark. The prince was delighted and gave him his own spare horse. Each time he charged the enemy, the arrows that struck him stuck out of his body like a hedgehog's quills, and his spirit grew only fiercer. When the Eastern Capital was pacified he was made Area Commander of Luo Prefecture. When the area command was abolished, he was made Prefect instead. Soon after, as Area Commander of the Expeditionary Army of Shandong Circuit, he attacked Liu Heita and was praised for his many successes. Edit

When Heita rose again, Daoxuan led Shi Wanbao into battle at Xiabo. He galloped across the mire, having arranged for Wanbao to follow him in, but Wanbao had always thought little of him and would not advance, saying: "I received the edict. The prince is named as the general only because he is a son of the imperial house; the army's advance and withdrawal are really in my hands. Now he is fighting rashly. If the whole army gallops after him, it will surely be stuck in the mire. Better to use the prince as bait for the rebels while I form my ranks and wait for them. It will not be good for the prince, but it will be good for the state." So Daoxuan fell in battle, aged nineteen. Wanbao was then attacked by the rebels, his whole army broke, and he alone escaped. Taizong mourned him, saying: "Since the war began, the boy always followed me. He saw that whenever I went deep into the enemy I won, and so he wished to be like me. What a pity he was so young and his great plans were never fulfilled. How sad!" And he wept. Daoxuan was posthumously made General-in-Chief of the Left Valiant Guard and given a posthumous name. Edit

He had no son, so his younger brother Daoming succeeded to the princedom as Prince by Succession and was promoted to General-in-Chief of the Left Valiant Guard. In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, with Murong Baojie, General of the Militant Guard, he escorted Princess Honghua to the Tuyuhun. He was found guilty of letting it be known that the princess was not the emperor's own daughter, was stripped of his princedom, and ended his career as Prefect of Yun Prefecture. His descendant in the sixth generation was Han. Edit