Hou Jing was a physically handicapped but militarily brilliant general who served the Northern Wei and later the Eastern Wei. He was known for his extreme opportunism and had a reputation for shifting loyalties whenever it suited his survival. After failing in a power struggle in the North, he fled across the Yangtze River and surrendered to the Southern Liang Dynasty, seeking the protection of the elderly Emperor Wu.
In 548 AD, Hou Jing launched a sudden and brutal rebellion against his benefactor. His forces swept across the prosperous South, eventually laying a month-long, horrific siege to the capital Jiankang. The siege was noted for its extreme cruelty; the surrounding population was forced into the city where they suffered from pestilence and starvation. Hou Jing finally breached the city walls, imprisoned Emperor Wu, and oversaw the massacre of the Southern aristocracy, effectively destroying the cultural heart of the Southern Dynasties.
His reign of terror was short-lived. In 551 AD, he briefly declared himself the Emperor of a new state called Han, but he was soon defeated by the combined provincial armies of the Liang. His end was as gruesome as his life; after being killed while trying to escape, his body was publicly displayed in the marketplace. Legend says the people of Jiankang hated him so intensely that they literally ate his flesh to satisfy their vengeance. His rebellion left the South so weakened that it could no longer defend itself against the rising powers of the North.