元祥 Yuánxiáng

Prince of Jiang'an

Yuanxiang, Prince of Jiang'an, was first made Prince of Xu and later had his title transferred. He was four times a prefect, and his actual fief reached a thousand households. He was mediocre and miserly by nature, and wherever he went he amassed property without end. At that time the three Princes of Teng, Jiang and Guo were all greedy and cruel, and those appointed to the staffs of their households loathed it and did not want to go. So there was a saying of the time: "Better to be sent to Dan, Ya, Zhen or Bai than to serve Jiang, Teng, Jiang or Guo." Yuanxiang was huge, with a waist of ten spans, and ate as much as several men together. The Princes of Han, Guo and Wei were also big and tall, but did not match him. When he died, he was posthumously made Grand Minister of Education and Grand Area Commander-in-chief of Bing Prefecture, and was buried as an attendant at the Xian Mausoleum. Edit

He had seven sons. Zhuo was made Prince of Yongjia; he behaved like a beast and was put to death. Jiao was made Prince of Wuyang, and the others were all made dukes. Under Empress Wu most of them were killed. Jiao's son Cong was exiled south of the Five Ranges while still a child and died there; he was buried at Nan'an, and people called his grave "the Tomb of the Grandson of Heaven". When Zhongzong came to the throne, he had his nephew Qin succeed to the princely title. Again, because Jiao's fief had lapsed, he took a son of Jiao's younger brother, Jizong, to be his heir; afterwards, because commandery princely titles could not be inherited, Jizong was reduced to Duke of Li. Edit