Huan Xuan (Chinese: 桓玄; pinyin: Huán Xuán) (369 – 19 June 404), courtesy name Jingdao (敬道), nickname Lingbao (靈寶), formally Emperor Wudao of Chu (楚武悼帝), was a Jin Dynasty warlord who briefly took over the imperial throne from Emperor An of Jin and declared his own state of Chu (Chinese: 楚; pinyin: Chǔ) in 403, known in historiography as Huan Chu (Chinese: 桓楚; pinyin: Huán Chǔ), but was defeated by an uprising led by the general Liu Yu in 404 and killed.
(An alternative account has him as born of Huan Wen's concubine Lady Ma, who was originally a songstress belonging to Yuan Zhen[7].)
Huan Xuan was so struck by the statement that he fell prostrate on the ground, fearing that Sima Daozi would kill him, and from this point he bore a grudge against the prince.
They feared the military powers that Yin Zhongkan and Wang Gong (王恭) the governor of Yan (兗州) and Qing (青州) Provinces (at that time, roughly modern central Jiangsu) possessed and persuaded Sima Daozi to reduce their domains.
Huan Xuan, believing that a disturbance would help his cause, encouraged Yin to join Wang Gong's campaign.
Huan Xuan accepted the post but did not actually report to Panyu (番禺, modern Guangzhou, Guangdong), the capital of Guang Province.
However, not being actually a military man himself, Yin gave the commands of the forward armies to Huan Xuan and Yang Quanqi (楊佺期).
They quickly advanced toward the capital Jiankang, but Wang Gong's general Liu Laozhi (劉牢之) then turned against him, capturing and executing him.
In 401, at the suggestion of the strategist Zhang Fashun (張法順), Sima Yuanxian declared Huan a renegade and started a campaign against him, but was thoroughly reliant on Liu Laozhi for support.
He forced his officials to spend all day on minutiae, and he further started major palatial construction projects that imposed great burden on the people.
Initially, the only major official who dared to oppose Huan Xuan was Mao Qu (毛璩) the governor of Yi Province (modern Sichuan and Chongqing).
They were soon joined by a number of other conspirators, and in spring 404 they started the uprising against Huan from the cities of Jingkou (京口, in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) and Guangling.
After Huan Xuan's death, his cousins and nephews would hold out at their various posts for more than a year, but eventually were all killed or forced to flee to other states.