He tried his best to expand the size of the harem and concubines to satisfy his lust. In August of the ninth year of Taishi, he ordered the selection of women from well-known families to serve as officials, stipulating that all women from officials below the rank of public minister should be selected; marriages were prohibited before the selection was completed; and those who concealed themselves and refused to report would be punished with death according to the law of disrespect. Those wealthy nobles did not dare to disobey, so they dressed up their biological daughters and sent them to the palace to prepare for selection. Soon after the edict was issued, beauties gathered at the palace gate. According to the regulations on the number of concubines in the early Jin Dynasty: under the queen, there are noble concubines, madams, nobles, Shufei, Shuyuan, Shuyi, Xiuhua, Xiurong, Xiuyi, Jieyu, Ronghua, Chonghua, beauty, There are 15 levels for talented people and medium talented people. At first, Emperor Wu Sima Yan sent Queen Yang to personally preside over the selection. Yang Yan, who was jealous, specially selected the tall and white ones to stay while sending those who were beautiful and dignified back home. Bian Fan's daughter has a delicate face, pretty face, and outstanding appearance. When she approached, Sima Yan was already out of his mind. When Yang Yan saw this, she became jealous and ordered her to return home. Sima Yan was displeased with Long Yan, so from then on, he personally selected all the beauties he was satisfied with, and tied a knot on his jade arm with red gauze. After Wu Sima Yan kept improving and repeatedly selected, he got dozens of beauties and divided them into different levels. Among them, Hu Fang was named a noble concubine, and Zhuge Wan was named his wife. Yang Yan has always been the favorite of Sima Yan, and she was unwilling to let Hu Fang and Zhuge Wan compete with her for favor. Soon, Yang Yan became restless and bedridden. In the early autumn of the tenth year of Taishi, Queen Yang's condition worsened, and she was about to die soon. Sima Yan rushed to visit, and tears burst into his eyes when he saw this scene. Yang Yan asked him to sit by the couch, slowly raised his head, and said intermittently: "My uncle Yang Jun's daughter Yang Zhi is beautiful." Very virtuous. If you can make her your queen, I can die in peace. After hearing this, Sima Yan was very sad, burst into tears, and agreed to her request.
Yang Yan has a distinguished background, is smart and graceful, is an expert at female craftsmanship, and is familiar with classics. She can be said to have both talent and appearance. But she made two major mistakes in her life: one was to establish the chief minister, because her eldest son Sima Gui died young, so she actually made the second son Sima Zhong, who had been an idiot since childhood, the crown prince; the other was when she proposed to establish the crown prince. Yang Yan chose the ugly, tough and vicious Jia Nanfeng because of taking bribes, thus causing future troubles for her family and country. She also did a good thing, that is, before she died, she persuaded her husband to make her cousin Yang Zhi his queen. The then 37-year-old Yang Yanjianwu Emperor Sima Yan agreed to her request and lay peacefully on Sima Yan's lap. Slowly he closed his eyes and passed away.