Yuan Lang was born in 513, as the third son of Yuan Rong, the Prince of Zhangwu, a key official in the Northern Wei imperial government who is a distant relative of the then-reigning Emperor Xuanwu.

His mother was Lady Cheng.

(It is unclear whether she was Yuan Rong's wife or concubine.)

In 526, while fighting the agrarian rebel leader Ge Rong, Yuan Rong had been killed in battle, and Yuan Lang's older brother Yuan Jingzhe had inherited the title of Prince of Zhangwu.

Yuan Lang was said to be intelligent in his youth.

In 529, at age sixteen, Yuan Lang had become an army officer, serving on the staff of Yuan Su, the Prince of Lu Prefecture, at that time the governor of Si Province (roughly modern Xinzhou, Shanxi).

In spring 531, he had become the governor of Bohai Prefecture (in modern Cangzhou, Hebei).

At the time that Yuan Lang became the governor of Bohai Prefecture, the imperial government was dominated by members of the paramount general Erzhu Rong, who, after Emperor Xiaozhuang had killed Erzhu Rong in 530, had overthrown and killed Emperor Xiaozhuang, installing Yuan Ye and Emperor Jiemin successively.

In summer 531, the general Gao Huan, believing the Erzhus to be corrupt and to have lost the support of the people, had risen in rebellion at Xindu (in modern Hengshui, Hebei), and, while initially he claimed to be merely wanting to overthrow the Erzhus and still recognizing Emperor Jiemin, he had soon come to believe, at the urging of his general Sun Teng, that he needed to have an emperor under his control who could issue edicts as he wished.

In winter 531, he had therefore declared Yuan Lang, whose Bohai Prefecture was under his control by that point, emperor, even though Yuan Lang's lineage was distant from that of recent emperors and was not even an imperial prince himself.

There is little evidence that the eighteen-year-old Yuan Lang exerted any real influence on Gao Huan's policy decisions as he battled the Erzhus.

He had initially remained at Xindu, but after Gao captured the important city Yecheng (in modern Handan, Hebei) in spring 532, Yuan Lang had been placed in Yecheng.

Gao soon prevails in a major battle against the joined forces of Erzhu Zhao, Erzhu Tianguang, Erzhu Dulü, and Erzhu Zhongyuan, and in light of Gao's victory, the general Husi Chun rebels at the capital Luoyang and executes the prime minister Erzhu Shilong and Erzhu Shilong's brother Erzhu Yanbo, delivering their heads, as well as Erzhu Tiangguang and Erzhu Dulü, whom Husi had captured, to Gao.

Erzhu Zhao flees back to his domain, while Erzhu Zhongyuan flees to the rival Liang Dynasty in the south.

The victorious Gao, along with Yuan Lang, approaches Luoyang.

Gao, now believing that Yuan Lang's lineage is too distant, making him an inappropriate choice for emperor, initially considers still permitting Emperor Jiemin to remain on the throne, but after his generals Wei Lan'gen and Cui Ling persuade him that Emperor Jiemin would be difficult to control, imprisons Emperor Jiemin, while instead deciding on making Yuan Xiu the Prince of Pingyang, a grandson of Emperor Xiaowen, emperor.

Gao then forces Yuan Lang to yield the throne to Yuan Xiu, who takes the throne as Emperor Xiaowu.

Emperor Xiaowu creates Yuan Lang the Prince of Anding.

However, in winter 532, about six and a half months after taking the throne, Emperor Xiaowu orders Yuan Lang to commit suicide.

Yuan Lang is buried without imperial honor, but it is not clear whether he was buried with any honor at all.

The Northern Wei Dynasty, a non-Han polity thought to have been founded in 386 by the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei tribe, is most noted for the unification of northern China in 439.

Also heavily involved in funding the arts (many works from this period survive), the dynasty had moved its capital in 494 from Datong to Luoyang and initiated the construction of the artificial Longmen Caves, where more than thirty thousand Buddhist images from the time of this dynasty will be found in modern times.

The Tuobas had at some point renamed themselves the Yuans as a part of systematic Sinicization.

Towards the end of the dynasty, which comes in 534, there had been significant internal dissidence resulting in civil wars.

General Gao Huan, originally a member of the rebel soldiers from the northern frontier, had surrendered to the general Erzhu Rong, then become one of the Erzhu clan's top lieutenants; after the clan's open war with the emperor, Gao Huan had immediately gathered his own men and turned against his former leader.

He and another general, Yuwen Tai, have established themselves in the eastern and western parts of the state, respectively, and have declared for rival claimants to the Northern Wei throne, leading to the state's division in 534-535 into Eastern Wei and Western Wei, neither of which will last much past twenty years.

Eastern Wei sends an advance guard of three army columns through the Tong Pass to attack Western Wei.

The Western army under Yuwen Tai defeats one of the columns while the others retreat.

Yuwen follows up, but runs into the main Eastern army (two hundred thousand men).

The Westerners are pushed back through the pass and the Eastern army emerges from the mountains.

Unexpectedly, they are charged in the flank by ten thousand Western cavalry: six thousand Easterners are killed and seventy thousand captured.

The Western Wei official Yuwen Renshu (probably Yuwen Tai's relative but the relationship is unclear), while on a diplomatic mission to Liang (now with Xiao Yi as its undisputed emperor—as Emperor Yuan) in spring 554, is slighted by Emperor Yuan, who treats Northern Qi's ambassador with far greater respect.

Emperor Yuan then further aggravated the situation by sending an impolite letter to Yuwen Tai demanding that the borders be redrawn in accordance with old borders.

Yuwen made the comment, "Xiao Yi is the type of person that, as said in proverbs, 'One who has been abandoned by heaven cannot be revived by anyone else.'"

Yuwen Tai therefore began to prepare attacking Emperor Yuan at his headquarters of Jiangling (in modern Jingzhou, Hubei), as Emperor Yuan had made Jiangling his capital and declined to move back to the old capital Jiankang.

The Western Wei general Ma Bofu, formerly a Liang general, secretly reveals the attack plans to Emperor Yuan, but Emperor Yuan does not believe Ma and takes minimal precautions.

In winter 554, under Yuwen Tai's orders, Western Wei forces, commanded by Yu Jin, who is assisted by Yuwen Tai's nephew Yuwen Hu and Yang Zhong, launches a major attack on Liang.

Emperor Yuan initially does not take reports of the Western Wei attack seriously, and while he summons his major generals Wang Sengbian and Wang Lin from afar, he himself takes little defensive or evasive actions.

Yu quickly descends on Jiangling and puts it under siege.

Soon, Emperor Yuan surrenders, and Western Wei forces give him to Xiao Cha to be executed.

Western Wei creates Xiao Cha the Emperor of Liang (as Emperor Xuan) and gives him the Jiangling area in exchange for his old domain of Xiangyang area, over which Western Wei takes control directly.

(However, the rest of Liang does not recognize Emperor Xuan, and soon recognizes a rival candidate for the throne supported by Northern Qi, Emperor Yuan's cousin Xiao Yuanming.)

Most of the hundred thousand residents of Jiangling are seized as slaves and distributed to generals and officials., although eventually most of them are released by Yuwen after he is persuaded to do so by one of the captives, the Liang official Yu Jicai.

Gong Di succeeds his brother Fei Di as emperor of Western Wei.

He is deposed by general Yuwen Tai, who will later put him to death.