Yuan Faseng, the governor of Xu Province (modern northern Jiangsu), who had been a close associate of Yuan Cha, believing that Yuan Cha will soon fall, rebels as well, declaring himself emperor in 525.

After some initial defeats at the hands of Northern Wei forces sent against him, he surrenders his post of Pengcheng (in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu) to Northern Wei's southern rival, the Liang Dynasty.

Yuan Cha's precautions against Empress Dowager Hu have been greatly relaxed by this point, particularly after Liu Teng's death in 523, as he no longer sees her as a threat.

Empress Dowager Hu, Emperor Xiaoming, and Yuan Yong therefore take the opportunity to conspire against Yuan Cha.

Empress Dowager Hu first relaxes Yuan Cha's guard by often discussing his overly trusting of Yuan Faseng, which causes Yuan Cha to be an apologetic mood.

Then, with his agreement, she relieves him of his command of the imperial guards, replacing him with his associate Hou Gang.

In summer 525, she takes sudden action and declares herself regent again, killing most of Yuan Cha's and Liu's associates and putting Yuan Cha under house arrest.

However, she is initially hesitant to take further action against Yuan Cha, because of her relationship with her sister.

Eventually, however, with popular opinion favoring Yuan Cha's death, she forces him and his brother Yuan Gua to commit suicide, but still posthumously awards him much honor.

Empress Dowager Hu, after resumption of her regency over Emperor Xiaoming, allows her lover Zheng Yan to assume great power, and while Yuan Yong and Yuan Lüe the Prince of Dongping (Yuan Xi's brother) are trusted and have high ranks, Zheng and Zheng's associate Xu Ge are more powerful than they.

The agrarian and other revolts continue, and during these years, …

…additional chief rebels include Xianyu Xiuli, with his rebellion centering on Ding Province (roughly modern Baoding, Hebei.

After Xianyu's death, his general Ge Rong will take over and become very strong, proclaiming himself the Emperor of Qi; …

…Xiao Baoyin, son of Emperor Ming of Southern Qi, who seeks to reestablish Southern Qi, with his rebellion centering on Chang'an; …

…Xing Gao, with his rebellion centering on Beihai (roughly modern Weifang, Shandong); and …

…Moqi Chounu, who takes over Hu Chen's army after Hu is killed by Poliuhan Baling.

Empress Dowager Hu sends a number of generals against these rebels without much success, and while Xiao Baoyin is defeated by his own subordinates and forced to flee to Moqi, no other major rebels are defeated by Northern Wei generals.

Exacerbating the situation is the fact that Empress Dowager Hu does not like to hear about news of rebel successes, and therefore her attendants often make up good news, causing her to often refuse generals' requests for reinforcements.

Several times, Emperor Xiaoming publicly declares that he will personally lead armies against the rebels, but each time he fails to actually do so.

Meanwhile, Liang takes advantage of the internal troubles of Northern Wei by capturing a number of border cities, including the important city Shouyang (in modern Lu'an, Anhui).

Northern Wei is able to recapture Pengcheng from Liang in late 525, its only real military success and a fortuitous one, as the Liang prince Xiao Zong, the son of Emperor Wu of Liang and his concubine Consort Wu, who was previously the concubine of Southern Qi emperor Xiao Baojuan, becomes convinced that he is actually Xiao Baojuan's posthumous son, and surrenders to Northern Wei, causing his own army to collapse and allowing Northern Wei to reenter Pengcheng.

The monk Dionysius Exiguus, a member of the the Scythian monks community concentrated in Tomis, the major city of Scythia Minor, had collected thirty-eight papal decretals that, along with his Latin translation of canons, become widely circulated in western Europe.

A quarter-century later, he suggests that years be counted from the birth of Christ, which he designates AD (anno Domini, "the year of the Lord") 1.

He used it to identify the several Easters in his Easter table, but did not use it to date any historical event.

When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the consuls who held office that year — he himself stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of Probus Junior", which he also stated was five hundred and twenty-five years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ".

How he arrived at that number is unknown but there is evidence of the system he applied.

He invented a new system of numbering years to replace the Diocletian years that had been used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.

The Anno Domini era will become dominant in Western Europe only after it is used by the Venerable Bede to date the events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731.

Justin, in 525, repeals a law that effectively prohibits a member of the senatorial class from marrying women from a lower class of society, including the theater, which is considered scandalous at the time.

This edict paves the way for his nephew Petrus Sabbatius, the future emperor Justinian I, to marry Theodora, a former mime actress, and eventually results in a major change to the old class distinctions at the Imperial court.

(Procopius of Caesarea, in his Secret History, will allege in mid-century that before her marriage she had been an actress and prostitute.)

She soon becomes an equal to her new husband, participating in the governance with significant influence.