元嬰 Yuányīng

Prince of Teng

Yuanying, Prince of Teng, was first made a prince in the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, with an actual fief of a thousand households. As Prefect of Jinzhou he was arrogant and unrestrained beyond all measure. During the mourning for Taizong he gathered his officials and staff to feast, drink, sing and dance, and was on familiar terms with grooms and menials. Touring his territory, he borrowed dogs from the people to hunt with nets, doing damage wherever he passed. He shot people with pellets and was delighted to watch them run to escape. The city gates were opened at night without any regularity. Gaozong wrote to rebuke him severely: "Because you are my close kin, I cannot bear to subject you to the law. I have now marked your evaluation as low-upper, hoping to make you feel ashamed." Edit

After a long time he was transferred to be Area Commander-in-chief of Hong Prefecture. When any of his officials had a beautiful wife, he would lure her in by pretending that his consort had summoned her, and force himself on her. Once the wife of the Document Clerk Cui Jian, of the Zheng family, cursed him and struck Yuanying in the face with her shoe until the blood ran, and only so got away. Yuanying was ashamed and did not attend to business for ten days. Later, for breaking the law, half his fief households and half his personal attendants and tent guards were taken away, and he was banished to Chu Prefecture. He was brought back as Prefect of Shouzhou and moved to Long Prefecture, where again he did not keep the law. His subordinate, the Adjutant Pei Yu, remonstrated to correct his faults, and Yuanying seized him by the hair and humiliated him. When Yu came to the capital with the accounts he reported it all, and the emperor raised Yu to the upper sixth rank. The emperor once gave the princes five hundred bolts of coloured silk each, but because Yuanying and the Prince of Jiang were greedy, he only sent them a letter saying, "My uncle Teng and my brother Jiang need no gift; give them two cartloads of hemp to help them string their cash." The two princes were deeply ashamed. In Empress Wu's time he was promoted to Commander Unequalled in Honour and Area Commander-in-chief of Liang Prefecture. When he died he was posthumously made Grand Minister of Education and Area Commander-in-chief of Ji Prefecture, and was buried in attendance at the Xian Mausoleum. Edit

He had eighteen sons. The eldest, Xiuqi, succeeded him as Prince of Changle; the rest were made dukes. In the Chuigong era six of them died in the imperial prison. Early in the Shenlong era, She, son of his youngest son Xiuxin, was made heir instead; in the Kaiyuan era he was appointed General of the Left Valiant Guard. When he died his son Zhanran succeeded; he followed Xuanzong to Shu and was promoted to General of the Left Imperial Insignia Guard. Edit