Yifu Hun () or Yi Hun (乙渾; died 466),

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...

surname Yifu (乙弗), Xianbei personal name Bu (步), was a high-ranking official of the

-led Chinese

Northern Wei dynasty Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an imperial dynasty of Chi ...

, who effectively briefly served as the

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

for Emperor Xianwen. Little is known about Yifu Hun's background despite his one-time prominent status, as neither official histories ''

Wei Shu The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to 5 ...

'' nor ''

Bei Shi The ''History of the Northern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. The text contains 100 volumes and covers the period from 386 to 618 CE: the histories of Northern Wei, Western ...

'' contained a biography for him—a fairly unusual fact, as both of those works were generally considered highly comprehensive in including biographies, even for villainous figures. He came to power in 465 after Emperor Wencheng died and was succeeded by his young son Emperor Xianwen. Yifu quickly seized power and killed a number of other officials, including Yang Baoping (楊保平), Jia Airen (賈愛仁) the Duke of Pingyang, and Zhang Tiandu (張天度) the Duke of Nanyang. He then summoned Emperor Wencheng's trusted prime minister Buliugu Li, away from the capital Pingcheng (平城, in modern

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province, China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 census, it had a population o ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

) back to Pingcheng, and after he got into conflicts with Buliugu, killed Buliugu, as well as Qiumuling Duohou (丘穆陵多侯), who had warned Buliugu not to return to the capital, and Tuoba Yu (拓拔郁) the Duke of Shunyang. He became the commander of the armed forces, and while he was not regent by title, he effectively was regent. He was also created the Prince of Taiyuan. By 466, Yifu was continuing to carry out a campaign of terror. However, Emperor Wencheng's wife

Empress Dowager Feng Empress (Dowager) Feng (馮皇(太)后) (442 – 17 October 490), formally Empress (Dowager) Wenming (文明皇后, literally "the civil and understanding empress") was an empress of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. Her husband was E ...

then staged a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

, probably along with Jia Xiu (賈秀) and Tuoba Pi (拓拔丕), and Yifu was arrested and executed.''

Zizhi Tongjian The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...

'', vol. 131

References

Northern Wei regents 466 deaths Year of birth unknown 5th-century regents {{China-politician-stub