His mother was Consort Li, who had previously been captured in war and had become a concubine of Tuoba Ren (拓拔仁) the Prince of Yongchang, a distant relative of Emperor Wencheng, who was executed in 453 after having been accused of crimes.
In c.March 456,[5] Emperor Wencheng created Tuoba Hong crown prince—and, at the same time, according to Northern Wei customs, ordered Consort Li to commit suicide.
Power soon fell into the hands of the official Yifu Hun, who assumed dictatorial powers and killed a large 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), Qiumuling Duohou (丘穆陵多侯), Tuoba Yu (拓拔郁) the Duke of Shunyang, and Emperor Wencheng's prime minister Buliugu Li.
She also sent the general Murong Baiyao (慕容白曜) to attack and try to capture Liu Song's Qing (青州, modern central and eastern Shandong) and Ji (冀州, modern northwestern Shandong) Provinces, which were cut off from the rest of Liu Song after Xue's defection, and by 469, both provinces fell into Northern Wei hands, and all of the regions north of the Huai River were by now Northern Wei territory.
In 467, Emperor Xianwen's concubine Consort Li—a daughter of his uncle Li Hui (李惠) and therefore his cousin—bore his oldest child Tuoba Hong (different character than his own), and Empress Dowager Feng personally raised the young prince.
As Tuoba Hong's mother Consort Li died the same year and was described in traditional histories to be missed by all in the palace, she was probably forced to commit suicide pursuant to Northern Wei customs.
He wanted to pass his throne to his uncle Tuoba Zitui (拓拔子推) the Prince of Jingzhao, who was highly praised by all officials.
(Most historians, including Sima Guang, believed that she poisoned him, but another version indicated that Empress Dowager Feng readied assassins who, when Emperor Xianwen came to her palace to greet her, seized and smothered him.)
However, studies by Zhou Siyuan (周思源) point out that if Feng had killed the monarch, chaos would have ensued, but nothing of the sort happened.