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Emperor An of Jin

emperor of the Jin Dynasty (265–420)

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ7403 ↗
Source-derived summary

Emperor An of Jin (simplified Chinese: 晋安帝; traditional Chinese: 晉安帝; pinyin: Jìn Ān Dì; Wade–Giles: Chin An-ti; 382 – 28 January 419), personal name Sima Dezong (司馬德宗), was an emperor of the Eastern Jin in China. He was described as so developmentally disabled that he was unable to speak properly, clothe himself, or be able to express whether he was hungry or full. He was created crown prince in 387 and ascended the throne in November 396. Because of his disability, the actual power was controlled by his uncle, Sima Daozi, Prince of Kuaiji. During his reign, regents and warlords dominated the Jin regime. Revolts by various governors also ravaged the land. From 398 to 403, there were constant revolts and civil war campaigns. In 403, the Jin regime was usurped by the warlord Huan Xuan, and while Emperor An was restored in 404, the Jin Dynasty was nearing its end. With the warlord Liu Yu as the actual power, Jin destroyed Southern Yan and Later Qin, greatly expanding its territory. However, with Liu Yu up in the north, the renegade governor of Guang Province (廣州, modern Guangdong and Guangxi), Lu Xun (卢循; descendant of Lu Zhi), rebelled and threatened the capital city Jiankang, before Liu Yu returned and crushed the revolt.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Emperor An of Jin” as emperor of the Jin Dynasty (265–420). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Emperor, emperor and Dynasty.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current 212-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 0382. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Emperor, emperor and Dynasty providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Emperor An of Jin”, the useful work is to connect “emperor of the Jin Dynasty (265–420)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7403. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Emperor An of Jin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Emperor An of Jin primary sources, Emperor An of Jin archive and Emperor research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Emperor An of Jin”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Emperor An of Jin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.