Shanyu Maodun’s Proposition To Empress Dowager Lü That Almost Caused A War

Empress Lü was the wife of Gaozu, founder of the Han Dynasty (c. 206 BCE) and the first Han emperor of China (r. 202-195 BCE). While Gaozu was alive, Empress Lü proved herself a fearsome political maneuverer who knew how to detect and eliminate threats to the fledgling dynasty, sometimes doing so even without the emperor’s permission. When Emperor Gaozu died in 195 BCE, the throne passed to the empress’ son, Hui. Yet, although her son was officially emperor, it was Empress Lü who was the true power behind the throne. The common people were reportedly content under the empress’ reign, but it was a very tense time for the newfound nobles in the empire. With the lives of her son and herself on the line, Empress Lü escalated her role as the unofficial spymaster of the dynasty, assassinating several half-brothers of Emperor Hui and sending out her kinswomen to marry (and spy on) the regional kings and marquises of the empire. When Emperor Hui died in 188 BCE, Empress Lü maintained her power by acting as regent for two successive child-emperors.

In the lands to the north of the Han Empire, the aging Empress Lü had an admirer. His name was Maodun, a powerful Shanyu (high chief) of the nomadic Xiongnu people. He came to power around 209 BCE and built an empire mighty enough to rival that of his Chinese neighbors. Shanyu Maodun and Emperor Gaozu had clashed in 200 BCE, and in the resulting battle Emperor Gaozu was outwitted by the Xiongnu, surrounded by the Shanyu’s forces, and pressured to agree to a peace that favored the Xiongnu. In the aftermath of the battle, Emperor Gaozu sent an imperial princess to be the consort of the Shanyu, and he also sent tribute to the nomads and opened up trade relations. This defensive policy of marriage, tribute and trade would continue for decades, and would be imitated by several of Emperor Gaozu’s successors.

Although Shanyu Maodun was a busy man, conquering rival nomadic tribes and expanding his empire, he kept himself informed on politics in the Han Dynasty. When the Xiongnu leader learned that Emperor Gaozu had died and that Empress Lü was reigning with an iron fist in China, he was apparently quite impressed or amused by the news. After hearing of Empress Lü’s rise to power, Shanyu Maodun evidently one day felt the urge to write the empress a blunt and audacious letter. When the peculiar note reached the imperial court in China, it caused a shock among the Han courtiers that would resound for decades.

In his letter to Empress Lü, Shanyu Maodun wrote out his observation that he and she were both old, lonely rulers and suggested that they comfort each other through marriage. Whether or not this proposal was pragmatic, heartfelt, or taunting, is a matter of opinion, but Empress Lü, her advisors, and the ancient Chinese scholars who wrote about the event virtually all considered it to be an insult of the highest degree. Empress Lü’s response upon hearing the marriage proposal was reportedly to summon her generals and demand that they plan an invasion of the Xiongnu Empire. Sycophants and warmongers eagerly volunteered to command the punitive expedition against the mighty Xiongnu chief. Yet, in the end, the more cautious advisors won the debate by reminding the empress that even the great Emperor Gaozu had not been able to defeat Shanyu Maodun in battle and that the empire was not yet stable enough for a protracted campaign against the Xiongnu. Ultimately, Empress Lü called off the war and maintained peace with the Xiongnu.

After Empress Lü’s death in 180 BCE, Emperor Wen (r. 180-157 BCE) and Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE) continued the Han Dynasty policy of sending tribute and imperial princesses to the Xiongnu, and otherwise only fighting defensive wars against incursions begun by the Shanyu’s forces. It was Emperor Wu (r. 141-87 BCE) who finally changed the Han policy with the Xiongnu to that of relentless aggression, leading to the conquest of great stretches of Xiongnu territory. Around the year 101 BCE, Emperor Wu released an edict that mentioned both Gaozu’s defeat and the letter sent to Empress Lü in an effort to rile up his people against the Xiongnu. The edict, recorded by Grand Historian Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), read:

“Emperor Gaozu has left us the task of avenging the difficulties which he suffered at Pingcheng. Furthermore, during the reign of Empress Lü the Shanyu sent to the court a most treasonable and insulting letter. In ancient times when Duke Xiang of Qi avenged an insult which one of his ancestors nine generations earlier had suffered, Confucius praised his conduct in the Spring and Autumn Annals” (Shi Ji 110).

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Rejection scene from the Admonitions Scroll, attributed to Gu Kaizhi (c.345-c.406), [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.
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gaohou 
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personslvhou.html 
• https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/xiongnu/essay.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 Tragic Tale of King Liu Hui

Liu Hui was a son of Emperor Gaozu (king r.206-202 BCE, Emperor r. 202-195 BCE), the founder of the Han Dynasty in China. Although the Liu family would continue to rule China for centuries, Liu Hui and his brothers fell on very hard times after the death of their father. Of the eight sons fathered by Emperor Gaozu, only one was born from Empress Lü. Therefore, when Gaozu died and Empress Lü’s son, Liu Ying, became the new emperor, she quickly came to regard her late husband’s other surviving sons as threats to her own child’s power.

The first of Liu Hui’s brothers to be targeted by Empress Lü was Liu Ruyi. Empress Lü apparently detested Ruyi because his mother, Lady Qi, had been Gaozu’s favorite concubine. Furthermore, it was said that Emperor Gaozu had seriously considered making Liu Ruyi his heir instead of Empress Lü’s son. Nevertheless, the Empress and other advisors convinced Emperor Gaozu to keep Liu Ying as his heir and to send Ruyi away from the capital to become the king of Zhao. Even though Empress Lü had her way, she did not forget how close Lady Qi and Ruyi had come to shattering her life. Therefore, in 194 BCE, one year after the death of Gaozu, she had Liu Ruyi poisoned and then executed Lady Qi.

Liu Ying, who was supposedly driven to unhealthy habits to cope with his mother’s brutality, died in 188 BCE, when he was only twenty-three years old. Upon her son’s death, Empress Lü took full control of government, ruling as regent for two successive child-emperors of questionable birth. During her time as regent, she diligently introduced members of her Lü clan into government and noble positions, which angered and frightened her husband’s Liu clan. Unfortunately, by the end of the decade, Empress Lü apparently began to harbor murderous feelings toward the other sons of her late husband.

Sometime during Empress Lü’s reign, she arranged for Liu Hui and other sons of Gaozu to marry women from the Lü clan. These uneasy marriages caused drama between the Liu princes and their overbearing stepmother. This tension peaked in 181 BCE, when Empress Lü had Liu You—the new king of Zhao and another of Gaozu’s sons—starved to death after he allegedly offended his Lü family bride.

Liu Hui succeeded his half-brother, You, as the next king of Zhao, a title which must have seemed like a death sentence after the unnatural deaths of the kingdom’s two previous kings. Liu Hui found himself in an eerily similar situation to his recently deceased brother—both of them had been set up with wives from the Lü family, yet neither brother had any chemistry with his assigned bride. Even worse, Liu Hui’s wife brought with her a troop of Lü clan advisors, whose mission was to turn the new king of Zhao into a puppet ruler.

Despite these unfavorable conditions, King Hui took comfort in having with him a beloved concubine who could ease his sorrows. Yet, Liu Hui’s love for his unnamed concubine caused great jealousy for his queen. Sadly, as Hui’s brothers had discovered before him, it was deadly to be the target of a Lü woman’s scorn.

Whereas Liu You’s bride had complained to the empress about her husband, King Hui’s wife instead chose a more hands-on approach to dealing with her problem. According to Sima Qian, the angry queen exacted her revenge not on King Hui, but on the concubine that he loved. As even the royal attendants in Zhao were apparently loyal to the Lü clan, it was not difficult for the queen to have her way. Tragically, King Hui’s last bastion of comfort was murdered with poison.

The death of the woman he loved plunged Liu Hui into heartbroken depression. After her death, the king was inspired by the muse of sadness to write a poem in honor of his murdered partner and he even composed music to accompany the mournful verses. In the end, King Hui lost the will to live and ultimately committed suicide before the end of 181 BCE.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribute: (image from the Pictorial History Of China And India, by Robert Sears (1810-1892), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and Flickr.).

Sources:

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

The Cold-Blooded Revenge Of Empress Dowager Lü Against Her Rival, Lady Qi

Emperor Gaozu, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, did not come from a noble family. Instead, he had grown up as a peasant during the time of the Qin Dynasty and worked as a minor local official and village head who sometimes ran afoul of the law. One day, he had a momentous encounter with a certain Master Lü, who directed Gaozu to relocate to the district of Pei. Around that time, Gaozu married Master Lü’s daughter, Lü Zhi, and earned the respect of the local populace of Pei. When mass rebellions erupted against the Qin Dynasty in 209 BCE, Lü Zhi was actively by her husband’s side as he took power first as Governor of Pei, then as King of Han, and, finally, as Supreme Emperor of China.

When Gaozu became an emperor, Lü Zhi ascended to the rank of empress. The two were quite the formidable couple and their strengths complemented each other well. Emperor Gaozu was a masterful talent scout, able to recruit, manage and utilize great generals and ministers to help him run his empire. Gaozu was known to make bad decisions from time to time, but his wise counselors had the courage to offer advice, and the emperor had the good sense to listen to their suggestions. Empress Lü, on the other hand, reportedly had a keen instinct for knowing which disaffected nobles could cause potential problems for her family. She was also reportedly ruthless enough to have several of these threats eliminated, sometimes even without consulting Emperor Gaozu. Her talents were all the more deadly, as she was a natural at political maneuvering and court subterfuge.

Emperor Gaozu and Empress Lü had two children. These were Princess Yuan and the future Emperor Hui. Although Lü Zhi was Gaozu’s wife and empress, she was not the only woman in his life. To the empress’ chagrin, there was a harem of other women that the emperor spent time with. These consorts, and their children, had the potential to challenge Empress Lü’s authority as empress and also endangered her son, Hui’s, position as heir apparent. There were at least seven other sons fathered by Emperor Gaozu with different women, and each of these sons had been granted control of a kingdom by their father.

The greatest rival to Empress Lü was a certain woman named Lady Qi. Emperor Gaozu and Lady Qi had a son named Liu Ruyi, and the emperor showed both mother and child great affection. In fact, in 195 BCE, the very year of Gaozu’s death, the emperor was seriously considering the idea of making Prince Ruyi the heir apparent instead of Hui. Fortunately for Empress Lü, most of the nobles were against the idea. Several influential members of the court, including the imperial secretary, Zhou Cang, the master of ritual, Shusun Tong, and Marquis Zhang Liang of Liu, successfully convinced the emperor to keep his current heir apparent. Convinced by his vassals, Emperor Gaozu reaffirmed Hui’s position as heir and sent away Liu Ruyi to take up the throne of Zhao.

When Emperor Gaozu died on June 1, 195 BCE, Hui became the new emperor and Lü Zhi’s title shifted to that of Empress Dowager. Although her son was the emperor, real power in the empire fell into the hands of Lü Zhi. Unfortunately for Lady Qi and her son, Liu Ruyi, the empress dowager had not forgotten or forgiven their disruption in the imperial succession.  With Gaozu no longer around to shield them, Empress Dowager Lü quickly began plotting her revenge.

Not long after Gaozu’s death, Liu Ruyi began receiving messages from the empress dowager, asking him to leave his domain of Zhao to make an appearance in the Han capital of Chang’an. Luckily for the king of Zhao, the late emperor Gaozu had sent his trusted royal secretary, Zhou Chang, to act as Liu Ruyi’s prime minister, with instructions to keep the young king safe. Zhou Chang intercepted three of the empress dowager’s summons and sent the messengers back with replies that the king of Zhao would not be traveling to the capital city. Thwarted, Empress Dowager Lü changed her tactics. She sent a message summoning only Zhou Chang to Chang’an, making no mention of Liu Ruyi. Zhou Chang accepted the summons and set off on the road to the capital. Little did he know, however, that Empress Dowager Lü had sent a separate letter to Liu Ruyi, which arrived after the prime minister had already departed from Zhao. This time, Zhou Chang was not present to intercept the letter. Without his prime minister’s cautious counsel, Liu Ruyi decided to travel to Chang’an.

Despite Empress Dowager Lü’s hatred for Lady Qi and Liu Ruyi, Emperor Hui still had a surprisingly warm relationship with his half-brother. To the empress dowager’s annoyance, when the vulnerable Liu Ruyi arrived in Chang’an, Emperor Hui immediately brought him under his protective wing. For months, the emperor kept his half-brother nearby, letting Liu Ruyi eat meals with him and even allowing him to sleep near the emperor’s own chambers. Yet, Hui could not keep his eye on his brother forever, and the empress dowager was a patient woman. Near the end of 194 BCE, Emperor Hui left Chang’an on a hunting trip, leaving his half-brother behind. When the emperor returned to the city, Liu Ruyi had died of suspicious causes—the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), claimed that Empress Dowager Lü had him poisoned.

While horrible, Liu Ruyi’s early death was a kind fate compared to what allegedly happened to his mother. At the time of Emperor Gaozu’s death, Lady Qi had already been in Chang’an, so the empress dowager quickly arrested her and locked her in the palace. With Lady Qi in her grasp, the empress dowager apparently delved into her own darkest and most deranged thoughts to come up with a punishment for her hated rival. Sima Qian graphically wrote, “Empress Lü later cut off Lady Qi’s hands and feet, plucked out her eyes, burned her ears, gave her a potion to drink which made her dumb, and had her thrown into the privy, calling her the ‘human pig’” (Shi Ji 9, trans. Burton Watson). Sima Qian further alleged that Empress Dowager Lü’s brutality greatly distressed the young emperor, resulting in Hui turning to heavy drinking and other bad habits. He died in 188 BCE, at only twenty-three years of age.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Social media crop of Palace Ladies, painted by Gu Kaizhi  (345–406), [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/Gaohou 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gaozu-emperor-of-Han-dynasty  

The Odd Ceremony Used By Emperor Gaozu To Bind His Ministers To A Pledge

According to Han Dynasty tradition, the first emperor of that dynasty, Emperor Gaozu (r. 202-195 BCE), wanted the majority of the kingdoms in China to remain firmly in the hands of the Liu imperial family. Therefore, by the end of Gaozu’s reign, the emperor’s sons, brothers and nephews ruled most of the empire’s kingdoms. The emperor was apparently so concerned about the rise of a rival family that he called his most important officials together in a meeting and had them swear to depose any new kings who were not from the Liu family.

The ministers and generals who were called forth to make this pledge were allegedly faced by an odd ceremony. According to the account of Grand Historian Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), the emperor brought a white horse to his meeting with these courtiers. In front of the crowd, the emperor supposedly sacrificed the white horse and smeared some of the animal’s blood on the lips of his ministers. Then, with their lips reddened, the important officials made their pledge to depose any new king that was not from the Liu family.

In 180 BCE, the Liu nobles and other loyal vassals did, indeed, rise against a rival family. Their rival was the Lü family, the clan to which Emperor Gaozu’s wife belonged. From the time of Gaozu’s death in 195, to the time of her own death in 180 BCE, Empress Lü had feverishly worked in hopes of making her Lü clan equal or greater than her husband’s Liu family—she placed numerous members of the Lü family in positions as generals, marquises and kings. Yet, when the empress dowager died in 180 BCE, the Liu nobility and their followers quickly raised their forces, seized the capital city, and launched a systematic extermination of the whole Lü clan. In the end, it is possible that the story about the white horse could have simply been propaganda produced by the Liu family to justify their massacre of the encroaching Lü.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Marengo, painted by James Ward (1769–1859), [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.

A Son Of The Chinese Emperor Gaozu Was Starved To Death

Emperor Gaozu was said to have had eight legitimate sons—of these, Liu Ying, Gaozu’s child with Empress Lü, was named heir apparent, while the rest of the sons (from different consorts of the emperor) were appointed as kings of various regions in the empire. Perhaps, Emperor Gaozu had hoped that his sons would all have prosperous lives. Little did he know, however, that after his death in 195 BCE, political turmoil between Emperor Gaozu’s Liu family and the Lü clan of the empress would directly or indirectly lead to the early deaths of half his sons.

Liu You was one of the ill-fated sons fathered by Emperor Gaozu. At the time of the emperor’s death, Liu You was the king of Huaiyang. The following year, however, he was transferred by Empress Dowager Lü to rule the kingdom of Zhao, which had been left leaderless after the murder of Liu Ruyi, one of Liu You’s royal half-brothers. Along with the throne, Empress Dowager Lü also sent Liu You a woman from the Lü clan to be his wife. Although Liu You and his new wife did not get along, the king’s reign in Zhao was calm enough to keep his name out of the historical records for over a decade.

Outside of Zhao, however, the rift between the Liu and Lü families was becoming increasingly wide. On September 26, 188 BCE, Emperor Hui (formerly the heir apparent Liu Ying) died at the young age of twenty-three after allegedly falling fatally ill from heavy drinking and other bad habits. The Grand Historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), proposed that the young emperor turned to these unhealthy vices because of depression and mental strain caused by the empress dowager. In any case, after Hui’s death, Empress Dowager Lü retained control of the empire by placing two subsequent young puppet emperors on the imperial throne. Then, secure at the head of government, she began to shift the power structure of China by putting an increasing number of Lü family members in powerful positions as generals, marquises and kings.

King Liu You of Zhao returned to the historical record in 181 BCE. By this point, he and his Lü family bride had a complete falling out. The king apparently favored a concubine over his wife, and the Lü woman was so infuriated by this that she returned to the Han Dynasty’s capital of Chang’an, where she complained about her husband to the matriarch of the Lü family, the empress dowager. In particular, the scorned wife spread a rumor that Liu You, like many of the Liu family nobles, was grumbling about the Lü clan’s recent rise to power. She allegedly also told the empress dowager that the king of Zhao was considering an attack on the new Lü nobles at some point in the future. This news was too much for the empress dowager to let go unanswered.

In early 181 BCE, Empress Dowager Lü summoned Liu You to the city of Chang’an. As soon as the king arrived in the city and entered his state residence there, the building was surrounded by the empress dowager’s soldiers and besieged. For several weeks, the empress dowager refused to allow any provisions to be brought to the king. Sima Qian even claimed that several officials were arrested while trying to smuggle supplies to Liu You. During his days of worsening hunger and thirst, the king was said to have spent his time writing poetry about the abuses of the Lü family and the peril facing his own Liu clan. After wasting away inside his besieged residence, King Liu You died from lack of food and water on February 21, 181 BCE.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Ancient Chinese exhibit in the Sichuan University Museum (四川大学博物馆) - Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. [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. 
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personslvhou.html