Editing Northern Wei (section)

=== Civil war and the two generals ===
[[File:Northern Wei pedestal.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Tiger-shaped stone bed. Northern Wei. Shenzhen Museum.]]
[[File:Stone funerary bed (tomb of Sima Jinlong), detail.jpg|thumb|250px|Stone funerary bed of General [[Sima Jinlong]], 484 CE.]]
The Erzhu clan dominated the imperial court thereafter, the emperor held power in name only and most decisions actually went through the Erzhus. The emperor did stop most of the rebellions, largely reunifying the Northern Wei state. However, [[Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei|Emperor Xiaozhuang]], not wishing to remain a puppet emperor and highly wary of the Erzhu clan's widespread power and questionable loyalty and intentions towards the throne (after all, this man had ordered a massacre of the court and put to death a previous emperor and empress before), killed Erzhu Rong in 530 in an ambush at the palace, which led to a resumption of civil war, initially between Erzhu's clan and Emperor Xiaozhuang, and then, after their victory over Emperor Xiaozhuang in 531, between the Erzhu clan and those who resisted their rule. In the aftermath of these wars, two generals set in motion the actions that would result in the splitting of the Northern Wei into the Eastern and Western Wei.

General [[Gao Huan]] was originally from the northern frontier, one of many soldiers who had surrendered to Erzhu, who eventually became one of the Erzhu clan's top lieutenants. But later, Gao Huan gathered his own men from both Han and non-Han troops, to turn against the Erzhu clan, entering and taking the capital Luoyang in 532. Confident in his success, he deposed [[Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei]], the emperor supported by the Erzhu clan, as well as [[Yuan Lang]] the emperor previously supported by Gao himself, and set up a new emperor [[Emperor Xiaowu of Northern Wei]] on the Luoyang throne and continued his campaigns abroad. The emperor, however, together with the military head of Luoyang, [[Husi Chun]], began to plot against [[Gao Huan]]. Gao Huan succeeded, however, in keeping control of Luoyang, and the emperor and a handful of followers fled west, to the region ruled by the powerful warlord [[Yuwen Tai]]. Gao Huan then announced his decision to move the Luoyang court to his capital city of [[Ye (ancient China)|Ye]]. "Within three days of the decree, 400,000 families—perhaps 2,000,000 people—had to leave their homes in and around the capital to move to Yeh as autumn turned to winter."<ref>Jenner, ''Memories of Loyang'', p. 101.</ref> There now existed two rival claimants to the Northern Wei throne, leading to the state's division in 534–535 into the [[Eastern Wei]] and [[Western Wei]]. The Eastern Wei were initially significantly stronger and looked likely to end Western Wei quickly, but were defeated at the [[Battle of Shayuan]] in 537, confirming the split of the Northern Wei