Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi

Also in winter 552, Emperor Wenxuan personally led troops from Jinyang to Lishi (離石, in modern Lüliang, Shanxi), and he ordered the construction of a great wall from Huanglu Mountain (黃櫨嶺, also in modern Lüliang) to Sheping Fortress (社平戍, in modern Xinzhou, Shanxi), apparently to defend against Western Wei and Tujue.

In winter 553, Khitan tribes were attacking Northern Qi's northern borders, and Emperor Wenxuan himself led troops to attack Khitan—and on this campaign, he was described as personally exposing himself to the dangers and contributing much personally to defeating the Khitan.

Also in winter 553, Emperor Wenxuan, wanting to put Northern Qi-friendly emperor on the Liang throne, commissioned an army commanded by Guo Yuanjian (郭元建) to escort Emperor Yuan's cousin Xiao Tui (蕭退), who had surrendered to Eastern Wei in 548, back to Liang territory. However, Northern Qi forces were defeated by the Liang general Hou Tian, and Xiao Tui returned to Yecheng.

Around the new year 554, the remnants of Rouran, which by that point was near its end, surrendered to Northern Qi to seek protection from Tujue attacks. Emperor Wenxuan personally attacked the Tujue, fighting its army off, and then created Yujiulü Anluochen as the new khan of Rouran, settling the Rouran people within Northern Qi territory, at Mayi (馬邑, in modern Shuozhou, Shanxi).

In spring 554, Emperor Wenxuan, assisted by the senior general Hulü Jin and his brother Gao Yan the Prince of Changshan, launched a major attack on the Shanhu (山胡) tribe (in modern Lüliang). After victory, he ordered that all 11-year-old and older males of the Shanhu be slaughtered, and that the females and the young males be awarded as spoils of war to the soldiers. When one of his commanders died because that commander's lieutenant, Lu Huili (路暉禮), was unable to save him, Emperor Wenxuan ordered that Lu's internal organs be cut out of his body and that the soldiers consume them. Many traditional historians, including Li Yanshou (李延壽), the author of the History of Northern Dynasties, and Sima Guang, the author of the Zizhi Tongjian, saw this battle as the turning point of Emperor Wenxuan's rule—that thereafter, he began to act violently and capriciously. For example, in spring 554, when Rouran rebelled and he personally led troops to defeat Yujiulü Anluochen, he felt that warhorses offered by the general Heba Ren (賀拔仁) the Prince of Anding were not of sufficient quality—and he punished Heba by plucking out Heba's hair and demoting to commoner status, and further ordering Heba to serve as a worker in a coal processing facility. In another example, in fall 554, after he had put the official Yuan Xu (元旭), a former Northern Wei prince, to death, he remembered the snubs that Gao Longzhi, who was a friend of Yuan Xu's, had shown him before he became Eastern Wei's regent, and he had Gao Longzhi battered so severely that Gao Longzhi died several days later—and at a later point, still angry at Gao Longzhi, arrested Gao Longzhi's 20 sons and, with 20 executioners lined up, had the sons beheaded simultaneously, and then threw their bodies and Gao Longzhi's body into the Zhang River.

Starting in 551, Emperor Wenxuan had ordered his official Wei Shou to compile a history of Northern Wei. Wei Shou completed the work in 554, but his work (Book of Wei) was criticized by many to be defamatory to ancestors of many political enemies (so much so that they referred to the work as Huishu (穢書—the Book of Filth)), and several officials filed reports condemning Wei Shou. Wei Shou submitted a petition to Emperor Wenxuan defending himself, and Emperor Wenxuan, in an act that he believed to be protecting the integrity of history, jailed the officials who condemned Wei Shou.

In late 554, Western Wei launched a major attack on Jiangling (江陵, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei), then the capital of Liang. Emperor Wenxuan commissioned an army commanded by Gao Huan's cousin Gao Yue (高岳) the Prince of Qinghe to attack Western Wei's An Province (安州, roughly modern Xiaogan, Hubei) to try to relieve pressure from Jiangling, but by the time that Gao Yue arrived, Jiangling had already fallen, and Western Wei captured and then executed Emperor Yuan.

During the campaign against Liang, Emperor Wenxuan made another display of his increasing instability, as he, jealous over the fact that his concubine Consort Xue had previously had a sexual relationship with Gao Yue, ordered Gao Yue to commit suicide. Thereafter, he beheaded Consort Xue and hid her head in his sleeves. At a banquet later that day, he tossed her head onto a platter and cut her body into pieces, beginning to play with her leg, which he converted into a fiddle, surprising all of the banquet attendants. At the end of the banquet, he packed her body parts and began crying, following the cart carrying her body on foot.

In fall 555, Emperor Wenxuan became convinced that Buddhism and Taoism should be but one religion, and that one of them should be merged into the other. He had the leading Buddhist and Taoist monks debate before him, and he declared the Buddhists the victors, ordering Taoism merged into Buddhism and Taoist monks to become Buddhist monks. Some Taoist monks initially rejected this edict, but after he executed four monks, the others submitted, and Taoism became banned within Northern Qi.

In spring 556, border battles between Northern Qi and Liang resumed, and Northern Qi prepared another campaign against Liang. In summer 556, Northern Qi forces were again south of the Yangtze, operating in Jiankang's vicinity, but they were stalemated against Liang troops, eventually defeated by Chen and his generals after they ran out of food. A number of Northern Wei generals were captured and executed by Liang, and in response, Emperor Wenxuan put Chen Tanlang to death.

By this point, Emperor Wenxuan's erratic behavior became even greater in scope, fueled by his alcoholism. As described by Sima Guang in his Zizhi Tongjian:

... [Emperor Wenxuan] drank heavily and lived immorality, carrying out cruel and barbarous act at his on whim. Sometimes he sang and danced day and night. Sometimes he spread his hair and wore barbarian clothing with colorful sashes. Sometimes he bared his body and put on makeup. Sometimes he rode donkeys, cows, camels, or elephants without using saddles. Sometimes he ordered Cui Jishu or Liu Taozhi (劉桃枝) to carry him and a large drum to allow him to beat the drums. He was accustomed to making surprise charges into the nobles' and imperial officials' private residences. He often crossed streets, sometimes sitting in the streets and sometimes even sleeping on them. Sometimes when it is warm, he would be naked to bask in the sun, but even in the coldest winter, he would strip naked as well and run around. His attendants could not stand his behavior, but he himself did not care. ... Once, he asked a woman on the street, "How is the Son of Heaven like?" The woman responded, "He is so crazy that he really cannot be considered a Son of Heaven." He beheaded her.

Once, when he was drunk and acting irrationally, his mother Empress Dowager Lou rebuked him, and he threatened to marry her to an old barbarian. When she became angry, he became fearful, and he wanted to induce her to smile again, so he crawled on the ground under her seat, but in doing so, he flipped the seat over, and she was injured. After he sobered up, he realized how she had been injured, and he set a large fire, intending to jump in to die, causing her to have to grab him to save him. He thereafter pledged not to drink any more, but was only able to do so for 10 days before he began drinking again. He also once shot an arrow at Empress Li's mother Lady Cui and whipped her. Further, it was described that most women of the imperial Gao clan were forced to have sexual relations with him at one point or another. When Gao Huan's concubine Erzhu Ying'e, the Princess Dowager of Pengcheng, refused, he killed her with his own hands. Emperor Wenxuan also became homicidal when he drank, and he always wanted to kill people when he was drunk, mostly by dismemberment, but sometimes by burning or drowning. Yang Yin, who was prime minister at this point, therefore set up a group of condemned prisoners and a saw to be available to the palace guards—if Emperor Wenxuan wanted to kill someone, a condemned prisoner would be brought out for him to kill, and if a prisoner was able to survive for three months without being killed, he would be set free.

However, even in his erratic behavior, Emperor Wenxuan was still attentive to many important matters, and because of his harshness, his officials did not dare to be corrupt. Further, Yang was a capable prime minister, and Emperor Wenxuan gave him full authorization to carry out laws properly. Therefore, it was said at the time that while the emperor was violent and insane, the government was nevertheless efficient.

In winter 557, believing prophecies that Gao Huàn would be emperor, he ordered Gao Huàn arrested. Gao Huàn tried to resist, but was nevertheless captured and delivered to Yecheng. When another brother, Gao Jun (高浚) the prince of Yong'an, sent petitions urging him to change his behavior, he had Gao Jun arrested as well, and the two princes were imprisoned in a dungeon.

Also in winter 557, Chen Baxian had Liang's Emperor Jing yield the throne to him, establishing the Chen dynasty, and subsequently had Emperor Jing killed in 558. The general Wang Lin, then in control of modern Hunan and eastern Hubei, refused to submit to Chen and sought to continue Liang's lineage. He therefore requested Northern Qi to return Xiao Zhuang the Prince of Yongjia to be emperor. In spring 558, Northern Qi troops escorted Xiao Zhuang to Wang's territory, and Wang declared Xiao Zhuang emperor, as a Northern Qi vassal, with his capital at Jiangxia (江夏, in modern Wuhan, Hubei).

By this point, Emperor Wenxuan's military campaigns and other wasteful behavior had caused the imperial treasury to be drained. He had also become unhappy with his son Gao Yin, believing that Gao Yin was too Han-like in behavior, and he considered deposing Gao Yin. Once, he ordered Gao Yin to personally execute a prisoner, but Gao Yin could not bring himself to do so, and Emperor Wenxuan battered him with a whip handle, causing Gao Yin to thereafter have a panic disorder and at times be unable to speak. When Emperor Wenxuan became drunk, he would often state that he might eventually pass the throne to his brother Gao Yan, and he stopped stating as such only after urging by Yang and Wei Shou, who believed that his words were causing an unstabling effect in causing a doubt as to who would succeed him.

Around the new year 559, Emperor Wenxuan visited the imprisoned Gao Jun and Gao Huàn. He initially took pity on them and considered releasing them, but, at the urging of another brother, Gao Zhan the Prince of Changguang, did not do so, and further started to pierce them with spears. He also ordered that torches be thrown at them, burning them to death. He rewarded the princes' wives to the soldiers who delivered the death blows.

In summer 559, Emperor Wenxuan, suspecting that the members of the Northern Wei imperial Yuan clan would eventually try to return to power, ordered the Yuans to be slaughtered, regardless of age or gender, and had the bodies thrown into the Zhang River. In particular, a man named Yuan Huangtou was flown off a tower strapped to a kite as part of an experiment of Emperor Wenxuan, in the first known case of human flight. He survived but was starved to death in prison. Only several households who were particularly close to the Gaos were spared.

In fall 559, Emperor Wenxuan suffered a major illness that historians believed to be alcoholism-driven. He stated to Empress Li, "A person will live and die, and there is nothing to regret, other than that our son Gao Yin is still young, and someone else will take his throne." He stated to Gao Yan, "Go ahead and take the throne, but do not kill him!" However, he did not change the succession order, and after his death, Gao Yin took the throne as Emperor Fei. The officials tried to mourn at his death, but no one was actually able to shed a tear other than Yang Yin. Not long after, Gao Yan killed Yang Yin and deposed Gao Yin, becoming emperor.