The implementation of the equal-field system was largely due to the court's desire to break the economic power of local magnates who sheltered residents under their control living in fortified villages.

[6] This system successfully created a stable fiscal infrastructure and a basis for universal military conscription for the Northern Wei, and continued well into the Tang dynasty.

The equal-field program was coupled with another initiative, the "Three Elders" system, aimed at compiling accurate population registers so that land could be distributed accordingly.

In 494, Emperor Xiaowen moved the Northern Wei capital from Pingcheng (平城, in modern Datong, Shanxi) to Luoyang, a city long acknowledged as a major center in Chinese history.

That same year, his mother Consort Li died—and while traditional histories did not describe how she died, it appeared likely that she was forced to commit suicide according to the Northern Wei tradition of forcing crown princes' mothers to commit suicide, for it was written that the entire palace mourned her bitterly.

When needed on the frontlines against Rouran, he conducted military campaigns himself, while leaving important officials in charge of the capital Pingcheng (平城, in modern Datong, Shanxi) with Emperor Xiaowen.

In 476, Empress Dowager Feng, resentful that Emperor Xianwen had put her lover Li Yi (李奕) to death in 470, had him assassinated.

(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.)

The Northern Wei started to arrange for Han Chinese elites to marry daughters of the Xianbei Tuoba royal family in the 480s.

[13] Also in 481, the Buddhist monk Faxiu (法秀) tried to start a popular uprising at Pingcheng, but was discovered, captured, and executed.

Sometime during Emperor Xiaowen's rise to power, Grand Empress Dowager Feng had him detained and considered deposing him in favor of his brother Tuoba Xi (拓拔禧), but her attendants persuaded her otherwise.

In 486, perhaps as both a sign of Sinicization and demonstration of Emperor Xiaowen's authority, he began to assume traditional Chinese imperial clothing, including a robe with dragon patterns and a tasseled hat.

Grand Empress Dowager Feng and Emperor Xiaowen jointly convened an imperial council to discuss their punishment.

in 494, Emperor Xiaowen made a return to Pingcheng, and, for reasons that are not clear, reopened the discussions on whether to move the capital to Luoyang.

In summer 496, Emperor Xiaowen deposed Empress Feng, who then went to Yaoguang Temple (瑤光寺) and became a Buddhist nun.

Also in fall 496, the crown prince Yuan Xun, who did not adjust well to Han customs or the much hotter weather in Luoyang, plotted with his followers to flee back to Pingcheng, perhaps to hold that city against his father.

However, a second plot quickly arose, organized by the officials Mu Tai (穆泰) and Lu Rui (陸叡), who intended to again hold the northern regions against the Emperor.

Also in fall 497, Emperor Xiaowen launched another major attack against Southern Qi, this time first concentrating on the city Wancheng (宛城, in modern Nanyang, Henan).

At that same time, he himself was falling ill, and he entrusted the important matters to his brother Yuan Xie the Prince of Pengcheng, although he subsequently recovered and was able to return to Luoyang.

Meanwhile, however, in Emperor Xiaowen's absence, Empress Feng had been carrying on an affair with the attendant Gao Pusa (高菩薩).

Once Emperor Xiaowen arrived back in Luoyang, he arrested Gao and Empress Feng's assistant Shuang Meng (雙蒙) and interrogated them.

Emperor Xiaowen, despite his own weakened physical state, then decided to again advance south to react against a retaliation campaign by the Southern Qi general Chen Xianda (陳顯達).