in 125, emperor an was on a trip to wancheng (宛城, in modern nanyang, henan) when he suddenly felt ill and decided to return to luoyang. before he could, however, he died. empress yan did not want to allow his son prince bao to be emperor. instead, she made liu yi (劉懿) emperor; liu yi had been the marquess of beixiang and was both a grandson of emperor zhang and emperor an's cousin. he is generally believed to have been far younger than prince bao, who was ten years old at the time, though his actual age is not recorded in history. the young emperor, however, died later that year, and a number of eunuchs loyal to prince bao, led by sun cheng, carried out a coup d'état and made prince bao emperor (as emperor shun). the yans were slaughtered, except for empress dowager yan.