The Bold Way Zhou Yafu Reportedly Earned The Respect Of Emperor Wen

Zhou Yafu was the son of Marquis Zhou Bo of Jiang (d. 169 BCE). If he was the type of man who wanted to surpass his father, he had a tough act to follow. Zhou Bo was instrumental in bringing Emperor Wen (r. 180-157 BCE) to power, and, although Zhou Bo and the emperor had the occasional tiff, he was generally a well-respected figure in the court of the Han Dynasty until his dying day.

Upon the death of Zhou Bo in 169 BCE, it was not Zhou Yafu who succeeded to the marquisate. Instead, his brother Shengzhi became the new Marquis of Jiang. Zhou Yafu, for his own part, was granted an appointment as the governor of Henei not long after his brother became a marquis. Like many second sons of noble families, he probably felt that his path up the social hierarchy would not come from inheritance, but from showing merit in government and military spheres.

Zhou Yafu was still governor of Henei when Xiongnu nomads entered the provinces of Shang and Yunzhong in 158 BCE, invading both regions with separate armies, reportedly numbering 30,000 men each. In response to the Xiongnu invasion, the emperor ordered several officials to mobilize Chinese forces and had them set up camps at certain regions in the empire. Zhou Yafu was one of the military leaders, and he was ordered to gather his forces at Xiliu.

It was at the time of the Xiongnu invasion of 158 BCE that Zhou Yafu caught the attention of Emperor Wen—and he reportedly did so in a bizarre and bold way. Emperor Wen was said to have toured the various military camps during the months-long showdown between the Xiongnu and the Chinese forces. As no major battles were reported during the conflict, the visits of Emperor Wen to his camped troops were often the most dramatic events of the invasion. According to the historian Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), Emperor Wen personally visited at least three of the military encampments set up during 158 BCE, and, by far, the emperor’s visit to Zhou Yafu’s camp at Xiliu was the most peculiar.

Channeling his inner Sun Tzu, Zhou Yafu reportedly adopted the persona of a strict, no-nonsense general when the emperor came to visit. Whereas the other camps toured by the emperor had immediately opened their gates and welcomed their ruler with great pomp and celebration, Zhou Yafu’s camp was on complete lockdown. The emperor’s caravan was alleged to have been awkwardly halted before a heavily guarded gateway, and the entrance of the Xiliu camp was reportedly not opened until Emperor Wen sent a messenger to display his imperial credentials to Zhou Yafu. Yet, that was only the beginning to the general’s display of extreme military by-the-book discipline. Sima Qian described the scene: “After the guards had opened the gates one of them told the cavalry and carriage drivers accompanying the emperor, ‘The general says there is to be no galloping within the camp!’ The emperor accordingly reined in the horses of his carriage and proceeded at a slow pace to the headquarters. General Zhou Yafu appeared bearing his arms and bowed curtly” (Shi ji, 57).

Emperor Wen’s companions were said to have been outraged at Zhou Yafu’s treatment of his sovereign. The emperor, however, was immensely impressed, appraising Zhou Yafu as one of his toughest generals, as well as the military leader least likely to be tricked by Xiongnu warriors attempting to impersonate the emperor. In his assessment of Zhou Yafu, Emperor Wen was likely thinking of sayings of Sun Tzu, such as “Have a capable general, Unhampered by his sovereign” and “The general is the prop of the nation. When the prop is solid, the nation is strong. When the prop is flawed, the nation is weak” (The Art of War, chapter 3).

The Xiongnu withdrew only a few months after the invasion of 158 BCE and the Chinese armies sent to defend against the invaders were recalled from their camps. Emperor Wen soon made Zhou Yafu a palace military commander and also appointed him as Marquis of Tiao. Yet, the old emperor was at the end of his reign. When Emperor Wen was on his deathbed in 157 BCE, he reportedly advised his son, Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE), to put Zhou Yafu in charge of the empire’s military. Emperor Jing did, indeed, put great trust in Zhou Yafu, making him his general of carriage and cavalry, palace military commander, grand commandant, and finally chancellor. Yet, he and Emperor Jing had a falling-out over what to do with Xiongnu defectors in 147 BCE, at which point he resigned as chancellor. A few years later, Zhou Yafu was arrested under suspicion of rebellion and he eventually committed suicide through a hunger strike.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (19th or early 20th century depiction of Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮), styled Kongming (孔明), on top of a city wall. [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by John Minford. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009.  
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personszhouyafu.html  

Emperor Jing Was Deadly Serious About Board Game Rules And Checkmating Kings

For many people in ancient China, life under the early emperors of the Han Dynasty (starting with Emperor Gaozu c. 202 BCE) was a time of tranquility and peace. Yet, for the new Liu imperial family, court intrigue and political maneuverings made their lives much more stressful. Outside the palaces of kings and marquises, the common farmers were innocently planting their crops, but inside the courts and banquets of government, the politicians, lawyers and nobility were battling it out in the shadows. When Emperor Gaozu died in 195 BCE, his consort, Empress Lü, began skillfully and ruthlessly raising to prominence her brothers and cousins from the Lü clan. Yet, when Empress Lü died in 180 BCE, the Liu family brutally reasserted its authority by massacring the new Lü officials and placing Gaozu’s son, Emperor Wen (r. 180-157 BCE), on the throne. Emperor Wen was generally a virtuous ruler who brought peace to both the commoners and the nobility. Taking advantage of the peace, however, the feudal kingdoms of China became extremely powerful. Emperor Wen’s successor, Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE), would obsessively dwell on the growing political and military strength of the feudal kingdoms.

The kingdom of Wu was one such powerful feudal domain in the Han Empire. Wu’s long-reigning king was Liu Pi, the nephew of Emperor Gaozu. King Liu Pi had been placed on the throne of Wu in 195 BCE after distinguishing himself in battle against a rebel army. During the decades that Empress Lü and Emperor Wen ruled the Han Dynasty, the kingdom of Wu thrived under Liu Pi’s leadership. He exploited copper mines and salt deposits in his realm to make the kingdom of Wu one of the wealthiest regions of China. Furthermore, the people of Wu seemed to have generally loved their king, for Liu Pi was generous with his wealth and gave ample gifts to his subjects as rewards and incentives for good deeds. The king was also politically savvy, and achieved a great deal of autonomy from the central government of the Han Dynasty. It was said that King Liu Pi even had enough power to refuse to hand over fugitives to agents of the emperor.

Although he was a mighty figure, Liu Pi had shown unceasing loyalty to the emperors for decades. Sometime during the reign of Emperor Wen, Liu Pi sent his son, the crown prince of Wu, to the Han capital, Chang’an. There, the crown prince was well received by Emperor Wen and the young nobleman was even brought into the entourage of the heir apparent, Jing. The future emperor and the crown prince of Wu became drinking buddies and often tested each other’s skill over the trendiest board games that were popular in the capital.

One day, after the imperial heir and the crown prince both had too much to drink, the pair began to play a board game that resembled chess. Apparently, the inebriated noblemen disagreed on the rules of the game and the argument became quite heated. The crown prince stubbornly gave no ground in the debate and showed no deference to the opinion of the imperial heir. Jing, who, even at a young age, resented the power of the feudal lords, was enraged by the insubordination of the prince. As the argument persisted and the tension boiled higher, Jing lost his composure and lashed out. In his rage, Jing grabbed the game board, sending the pieces flying, and used it to clobber the crown prince over the head. The board wielded by Jing was not one of the flimsy cardboard mats used by cheap tabletop game makers of today—instead, he was bludgeoning the crown prince with what can only be described as a solid plank of hefty wood. Unfortunately for ancient Chinese politics, Jing actually beat the crown prince of Wu to death with the game board.

When news of his son’s needless death reached the ears of powerful King Liu Pi, the otherwise loyal monarch began to question his allegiance. After the incident, Liu Pi held a grudge against the central government, especially Jing, and pointedly never ventured to the capital of Chang’an. When Jing became emperor in 157 BCE, the feud between the central government and the kingdom of Wu only deepened. Emperor Jing increased the tension when he and his legalist advisor, Chao Cuo, began systematically whittling away at the power of kings. In 156 BCE, the central government removed the region of Changshan from the control of King Liu Sui of Zhao and also deprived six districts from King Liu Ang of Jiaoxi. The carving up of kingdoms continued in 155 BCE, with King Liu Wu of Chu losing control of Donghai province and King Liu Pi of Wu, himself, being stripped of his authority in Yuzhang and Kuaiji.

As Liu Pi had loathed Jing since the death of his son, the land deprivation finally pushed him over his limit and he began to plot with other disgruntled kings against the emperor. In 154 BCE, Liu Pi was the leading figure in the so-called Revolt of the Seven Kingdoms. The revolt and its aftermath proved that both sides of the conflict were right in their assessment of their enemy—Emperor Jing was right about the kingdoms having too much power, but the kings were also correct in their fears that the central government wanted to reduce their political and military might.

Emperor Jing executed his advisor, Chao Cuo, in response to the rebellion, but he also quickly crushed the revolt and had King Liu Pi of Wu assassinated. The destruction of the rebellion was a great leap forward in Emperor Jing’s dream to dismantle the power of the feudal lords. On the relentless campaign of Emperor Jing and his successor, Emperor Wu, against the power of the Chinese kingdoms, historian Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE) wrote, “The feudal lords were permitted nothing more than tax revenue from their lands, while the rest of their prerogatives were all taken away. In later years some of them grew so poor that they were obliged to ride about in ox carts” (Shi Ji, 59).

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Depiction of men playing Go, c. Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personsliupi.html  

Emperor Wen's Path To Power Was Greatly Helped By His Mother’s Unambitious Lifestyle

King Liu Heng of Dai was the son of Lady Bo and the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, Gaozu (king of Han 206-202 BCE, emperor 202-195 BCE). According to the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (c.145-90 BCE), Liu Heng was appointed as king of Dai by Emperor Gaozu in 196 BCE. After Gaozu’s death in 195 BCE, the heir of the empire, Emperor Hui, ascended to the throne and his mother, Empress Dowager Lü, became the power behind the throne. Once in power, the Empress Dowager began terrorizing the other concubines of the late emperor and undermining the sons of these rival women. Many concubines were imprisoned or executed and Empress Dowager Lü directly had Gaozu’s sons, Liu Ruyi and Liu You, killed by poison and starvation, respectively. Furthermore, the empress dowager tried to increase the power of her Lü family at the expense of the imperial Liu clan, especially after Emperor Hui’s death in 188 BCE left her position vulnerable.

Fortunately, the king of Dai and his mother, Lady Bo, were spared from the wrath of Empress Dowager Lü. Lady Bo was apparently able to escape imprisonment and execution because she was not one of Gaozu’s favorite concubines and he saw her rarely during his time as emperor. As for Lady Bo’s son, the king of Dai, he stayed alive largely because he could keep a low profile. He kept his criticism and outrage to himself while his half-brothers were being assassinated and his clan was being stripped of power, and instead focused on cultivating a reputation of kindness and generosity.

When Empress Dowager Lü died in 180 BCE, the Liu clan rallied their allies in the government and the military to launch a purge of the Lü clan.  Two of the most prominent leaders in the overthrow of the Lü were Zhao Bo (a friend of Lady Bo's family), who brought the garrison of Chang’an, the capital city, over to the Liu side, and King Ai of Qi (Gaozu’s grandson), who mustered a multi-kingdom army against the enemies of the Liu. After Liu loyalists were sent out “to arrest the men and women of the Lü family and, without distinction of age or youth, to behead them all,” the kings of Dai and Qi became the most likely successors to the throne (Sima Qian, Shi Ji 9 (Empress Lü)).

Both claimants had a good argument. King Ai of Qi had been a leader of the Liu rebellion against the Lü and was the heir of Emperor Gaozu’s oldest son.  It also didn’t hurt that King Ai had a large army in the field.  The other claimant, the king of Dai, was the oldest living son of the late Emperor Gaozu. Though he had developed a widespread reputation for kindness and generosity, he did not attempt to halt or criticize the massacre of the Lü family. In addition, he had the support of Zhou Bo—a family friend of the king of Dai—who held the empire’s capital city of Chang’an, as well as the forces garrisoned inside. In picking which of these two men they wanted to support, the great ministers of the empire had a difficult decision to make.

The debate over who should be the next emperor was apparently so fierce, argument among the ministers even shifted to the topic of the mothers of the claimants. After surviving the reign of Empress Dowager Lü, the ministers were loath to give support to a man who had an overly ambitious and conniving mother.  Considering this angle, the ministers decided that Lady Bo, the mother of the king of Dai, would be the safer choice for a future Empress Dowager. Of course, Zhou Bo’s presence at the head of the forces in Chang’an, the city in which this debate was taking place, may have swayed a few ministers into siding with Lady Bo and the king of Dai. Whatever the case, the ministers threw their support behind the king of Dai, prompting King Ai of Qi to disband his army and return home. To the relief of the ministers, when the king of Dai became Emperor Wen in 180 BCE, his mother, Empress Dowager Bo, dabbled very little in politics besides encouraging her son to incorporate Daoism into his rule.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Chinese painting The Nymph of the Lo River, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, 12th-century copy of a painting traditionally attributed to the 4th-century artist Gu Kaizhi, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

The Members Of The Lü Clan Freely Gave Military Power To Their Eventual Murderers

Emperor Gaozu and Empress Lü, the first royal couple in charge of the Han Dynasty, were a very formidable and competent pair. After Gaozu’s death in 195 BCE, Empress Lü showed her prowess by continuing to administer the empire (through her son, Emperor Hui, and other puppet rulers) until her own death on August 18, 180 BCE. Although Empress Lü had been a powerful asset to Emperor Gaozu while he lived, Empress Lü quickly became a hindrance to the emperor’s imperial Liu clan when she was left to rule on her own. Of the emperor’s eight sons, Empress Lü was only the mother of one (Emperor Hui), and she showed little-to-no maternal care for her seven pseudo-step-sons—in fact, she had one or two of them killed. When Emperor Hui died young in 188 BCE, Empress Lü virtually broke off all her ties to the imperial Liu family and devoted the rest of her life to raising her own Lü family to a state of power that was equal to or greater than that of the imperial Liu clan.

When Empress Lü died on August 18, 180 BCE, she left the Lü clan in a remarkably strong position. She had appointed many Lü men to kingships and even created a new hereditary Kingdom of Lü. As for the kingdoms that were already ruled by Liu family monarchs, Empress Lü had a knack for winning over the ministers working under her rival kings. She also arranged for women of the Lü family to marry powerful men from the Liu clan. These Lü brides and their attendants reportedly acted as spies and informants, constantly writing to Empress Lü about the actions of their husbands. Last of all, she gave the Lü clan a firm foothold in the Chinese capital city, Chang’an—Empress Lü’s kinsman, Lü Lu, was appointed Supreme Commander of the Army, and the garrisons in the capital city were sworn to generals loyal to the Lü clan. This was the state in which Empress Lü left her clan at the time of her death in August, 180 BCE. It was a strong hand that the empress developed for her clan, but now her kinsmen would have to play their cards and win the game.

Unfortunately for the late Empress Lü, her clan proved to be totally incompetent and they folded in only a single month. The Liu kings and pro-Liu ministers who had long been oppressed and outsmarted by Empress Lü did not wait long to strike at the late empress’ legacy. By early September, King Ai of Qi (Gaozu’s grandson) was mobilizing a revolt. King Ai’s pro-Lü prime minister, a man named Shao Ping, discovered the king’s plot around September 12 and preemptively besieged the palace of Qi. Nevertheless, in a scene that would keep repeating for Lü officials, Prime Minister Shao Ping proved to be a poor judge of allegiance. After he had surrounded King Ai in the palace, Prime Minister Shao Ping incredibly was convinced to hand over control of the troops to another officer named Wei Bo. Unfortunately for Shao Ping, Wei Bo was firmly on the side of the Liu faction and therefore promptly lifted the siege of the king’s palace. Wei Bo and King Ai arrested and executed Shao Ping, then proceeded with their rebellion.

When the Lü leaders in Chang’an heard of the growing rebellion, they dispatched an army under the command of Guan Ying to crush the rebel forces.  Once again, however, the Lü administration was a poor judge of character. Guan Ying, indeed, led his forces out of the capital. Yet, when his troops were in the field, Guan Ying made a pact with the rebel leaders and refused to fight against the rebellion.

By September 26, 180 BCE, the Lü leadership in Chang’an was in a panic. Lü Chan, commander of the southern garrison had withdrawn into the capital’s palace and Lü Lu, the Supreme Commander of the Army and general of the northern garrison, was unsure how to respond to the rebellion. Sensing his indecisiveness, various pro-Liu ministers and advisors in Chang’an preyed upon Lü Lu. In particular, the Supreme Commander was influenced by a man named Li Ji, who apparently convinced Lü Lu that his life would be spared if he resigned from his military posts. Unbelievably, Lü Lu agreed to the suggestion and handed over his general’s seal to the grand commandant, Zhou Bo, giving the man control of the northern garrison and promoting him to the rank of Supreme Commander of the Army. Unfortunately for the Lü clan, Zhou Bo was a ruthless supporter of the Liu faction. Although Lü Lu was hoping for mercy, his decision to relinquish power ensured the bloody downfall of his clan.

Zhou Bo immediately rallied the forces of Chang’an to the Liu side when he received command on September 26, 180 BCE. There was, however, a slight obstacle—the southern garrison was still technically controlled by Lü Chan, who had earlier fled to the palace. Zhou Bo solved the problem by sending assassins to the palace, who murdered Lü Chan, as well as the colonel of the palace guards. After seizing control of the southern garrison, Zhou Bo then spent the next several days hunting down and executing all of the powerful members of the Lü clan. After the slaughter, Emperor Wen (Gaozu’s oldest living son) assumed the imperial throne. The historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE) described the massacre that took place to clear the way for the new emperor:

“Then he [Zhou Bo] divided his men into groups and sent them out to arrest the men and women of the Lü family and, without distinction of age or youth, to behead them all. On the following day, xinyu (27 Sept.), he arrested and beheaded Lü Lu and had the empress dowager’s sister, Lü Xu, beaten to death. He also dispatched men to execute Lü Dong, the king of Yan, and remove Zhang Yan, the king of Lu, from his position.”

—The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji 9, Annals of Empress Lü) by Sima Qian, (trans. by Burton Watson, 1993).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (a lacquer painting over a four-panel wooden folding screen measuring 81.5 cm in height; from the tomb of Sima Jinlong in Datong, Shanxi province, dated to the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534 AD). [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji 9, Annals of Empress Lü) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

The Fake New Year Jade Of Emperor Wen

Around 164 BCE, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty reached his seventeenth year of rule, according to the ancient Chinese calendar. That year, a man named Xinyuan Ping began to send reports to the emperor of great wondrous cloud formations and the appearance of mystical signs. He also recommended that searches should be mounted for the lost sacred cauldrons of the fallen Zhou Dynasty and he also suspected that a magnificent jade artifact would soon be discovered.

As Xinyuan Ping predicted, a beautiful jade cup was found with an inscription that read, “Long Life to the Lord of Men.” Emperor Wen was so excited about the jade object that he ordered feasts and parties to be held throughout his empire. The emperor believed the discovery was such a momentous event in his life that he decided to reset the years of his reign—it was no longer the seventeenth year of his rule; now it was the first year of the second part of his reign.

Emperor Wen’s exuberation, however, did not last for long. Before the end of 164 BCE, the jade cup and the other signs reported by Xinyuan Ping were all proven to be fraudulent. As a response to the embarrassment, Emperor Wen had Xinyuan Ping and three sets of his relatives executed, even though the emperor strongly wanted to outlaw multi-generational punishment. The reset in the numbering of Emperor Wen’s reign, however, interestingly remained intact.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Chinese jade (nephrite) bowl, 19th century, Dayton Art Institute, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wendi-emperor-of-Han-dynasty 
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personshanwendi.html