Ruzi Ying

Ruzi Ying, personal name Liu Ying, was the last ruler of the Western Han dynasty of China, though only as a child and only in name. He was born around 5 CE as a great-great-grandson of Emperor Xuan. After the regent Wang Mang poisoned the teenage Emperor Ping, Wang wanted a successor too young to challenge him and chose the one-year-old Ying in 6 CE. Ying was named crown prince and never formally crowned, and the epithet Ruzi, meaning infant, echoed the boy king of the early Zhou dynasty who ruled under a regent. Wang Mang held the real power as Acting Emperor, and in 9 CE he declared the Xin dynasty and demoted Ying to the Duke of Ding'an. The former child ruler was kept under close guard for the rest of his youth. In 25 CE rebels kidnapped him to use as a figurehead against the Gengshi Emperor, and he was killed when that rebellion was crushed. Historians usually see him as an innocent victim of palace politics.