Emperor Wu of Han

Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor of the Western Han dynasty
Reign 9 March 141 BC – 29 March 87 BC
Predecessor Emperor Jing
Successor Emperor Zhao
Born 30 June 156 BC
Chang'an, Han Empire
Died 29 March 87 BC (aged 69)
Chang'an, Han Empire
Burial Mao Mausoleum, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, China
Empress Empress Chen Jiao (陳嬌)
Empress Wei Zifu (衛子夫)
Issue Princess Wei the Eldest (衛長公主)
Princess Zhuyi (諸邑公主)
Princess Shiyi (石邑公主)
Liu Ju, Crown Prince Li (戾太子劉據)
Liu Bo, Prince Ai of Changyi (昌邑哀王劉髆)
Liu Hong, Prince Huai of Qi (齊懷王劉閎)
Liu Dan, Prince La of Yan (燕刺王劉旦)
Liu Xu, Prince Li of Guangling (廣陵厲王劉胥)
Liu Fuling, Emperor Zhao (昭帝劉弗陵)
Full name
Family name: Liu (劉)
Given name: Che[lower-alpha 1] (徹)
Courtesy name: Tong[1] (通)
Era dates
Jiànyuán 建元 (140 BC – 135 BC)
Yuánguāng 元光 (134 BC – 129 BC)
Yuánshuò 元朔(128 BC – 123 BC)
Yuánshòu 元狩 (122 BC – 117 BC)
Yuándĭng 元鼎 (116 BC – 111 BC)
Yuánfēng 元封 (110 BC – 105 BC)
Tàichū 太初 (104 BC – 101 BC)
Tiānhàn 天漢 (100 BC – 97 BC)
Tàishĭ 太始 (96 BC – 93 BC)
Zhēnghé 征和 (92 BC – 89 BC)
Hòuyuán 後元 (88 BC – 87 BC)
Posthumous name
Short: Emperor Wu[lower-alpha 2] (武帝) "martial"
Full: Xiao Wu Huangdi[lower-alpha 3] (孝武皇帝) "filial and martial"
Temple name
Shizong (世宗)
Dynasty Western Han
Father Emperor Jing of Han
Mother Empress Wang Zhi (王娡)
Emperor Wu of Han
Traditional Chinese 漢武帝
Simplified Chinese 汉武帝
Literal meaning "The Martial Emperor of Han"
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 劉徹
Simplified Chinese 刘彻
Literal meaning (personal name)

Emperor Wu of Han (30 June 156 BC – 29 March 87 BC), born Liu Che, courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China, ruling from 141–87 BC.[2]

Emperor Wu's reign lasted 54 years — a record that was not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later, although he has remained the longest reigning Emperor of Han ethnicity. His reign resulted in vast territorial expansion, development of a strong and centralized state resulting from his governmental re-organization, including his promotion of Confucian doctrines. In the field of historical social and cultural studies, Emperor Wu is known for his religious innovations and patronage of the poetic and musical arts, including development of the imperial Music Bureau into a prestigious entity. It was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly or indirectly. Many new crops and other items were introduced to China during his reign.

As a military campaigner, Emperor Wu led Han China through its greatest expansion — at its height, the Empire's borders spanned from modern Kyrgyzstan in the west, to Korea in the east, and to northern Vietnam in the south. Emperor Wu successfully repelled the nomadic Xiongnu from systematically raiding northern China, and dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian in 139 BC to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi of modern Uzbekistan. This resulted in further missions to Central Asia. Although historical records do not describe him to be aware of Buddhism, emphasizing rather his interest in shamanism, the cultural exchanges that occurred as a consequence of these embassies suggest that he received Buddhist statues from Central Asia, as depicted in the murals found in the Mogao Caves.

While establishing an autocratic and centralized state, Emperor Wu adopted the principles of Confucianism as the state philosophy and code of ethics for his empire and started a school to teach future administrators the Confucian classics. These reforms had an enduring effect throughout the existence of imperial China and an enormous influence on neighboring civilizations. Emperor Wu was also known for his employment of shaman advisers, and for various religious and cultural changes with historical significance of a less directly obvious nature.

Names

The personal name of Emperor Wu was Liu Che(劉徹).[3] The use of "Han" (漢) in referring to emperor Wu is a reference to the Han dynasty of which he was a part. His family name is "Liu" (劉); the ruling family or clan of the Han dynasty shared the family name of "Liu", the family name of Liu Bang, the founding father of the Han dynasty. The character "Di" (帝) is a title: this is the Chinese word which in imperial history of China means "emperor". The character "Wu" (武) literally means "martial" or "warlike", but is also related to the concept of a particular divinity in the historical Chinese religious pantheon existing at that time. Combined, "Wu" plus "di" makes the name "Wudi", the emperor's posthumous name [3] used for historical and for religious purposes, such as offering him posthumous honors at his tomb.

Regnal years

One of Han Wudi's innovations was the practice of changing reign names every so many years, as deemed auspicious or to commemorate some event. Thus, the practice for dating years during the reign of Wudi came to be the nth year of the [Reign Year Name] (where nth stands for an ordinal integer and "Reign Year Name" for the specific name of that regnal year.[4]

Early years

Liu Che was the 10th son of Liu Qi (劉啟), the oldest living son from Emperor Wen of Han. His mother Wang Zhi (王娡) was initially married to a commoner named Jin Wangsun (金王孫) and had a daughter from that marriage. However, her mother Zang Er (臧兒) (a granddaughter of one-time Prince of Yan, Zang Tu (臧荼), under Emperor Gao) was told by a soothsayer that both Wang Zhi and her younger sister would one day become extremely honored. She then got the idea to offer her daughters to the then-crown prince Liu Qi, and forcibly divorced Wang Zhi from her then-husband. After being offered to Liu Qi, Wang Zhi bore him three daughters — Princess Yangxin (陽信公主), Princess Nangong (南宮公主) and Princess Longlü.

On the day of Liu Qi's accession to the throne as Emperor Jing of Han upon the death of his father Emperor Wen in 156 BC, Wang Zhi gave birth to Liu Che, and was promoted to a consort for giving birth to a royal prince. While she was pregnant, she claimed that she dreamed of a sun falling into her womb. Emperor Jing was ecstatic over the divine implication, and made the young Liu Che the Prince of Jiaodong (膠東王) in 153 BC. An intelligent boy, Liu Che was considered to be Emperor Jing's favorite son from a very young age.

Heir apparent

Emperor Jing's formal wife, Empress Bo, was childless. As a result, Emperor Jing's oldest son Liu Rong (劉榮), born of his favorite concubine Lady Li (栗姬), was made crown prince in 153 BC. Lady Li, feeling certain that her son would become the emperor, grew arrogant and intolerant, and frequently threw tantrums at Emperor Jing out of jealousy over his favor towards other concubines. Her lack of tact proved to be the chance for Consort Wang and the young Liu Che.

When Emperor Jing's older sister, Eldest Princess Guantao (館陶長公主) Liu Piao (劉嫖), offered to marry her daughter to Liu Rong, Lady Li rudely rejected the proposal out of her grudge over Princess Guantao often pimping new concubines for Emperor Jing and siphoning away her favor. Frustrated by the rejection, Princess Guantao then approached another of Emperor Jing's favored concubines: Consort Wang, who had been observing quietly from the sidelines. Guantao offered to marry her daughter to the consort's underage son, Liu Che. Seizing the opportunity, Consort Wang accepted the offer with open arms, securing a political alliance with Princess Guantao. Because of the age difference, Emperor Jing did not initially approve of this union. During a royal gathering, however, Princess Guantao alluded to the Wei-Jin era pseudohistoric fable Hanwu Stories (漢武故事): she held the 5-year-old Liu Che in her arms and asked him whether he wanted to marry her daughter A'Jiao (阿嬌), the young prince boasted that he would "build a golden house for her" if they were married. Princess Guantao then used the tale to convince Emperor Jing to finally agree to the arranged marriage. This inspired the Chinese idiom "Putting Jiao in a golden house" (金屋藏嬌), which later ironically became a term for keeping a mistress rather than a wife.

Now sealed in the marriage alliance with Consort Wang, Princess Guantao began incessantly bad-mouthing Lady Li in front of Emperor Jing. Gradually buying into his sister's words, Emperor Jing decided to test out Lady Li. One day he asked Lady Li that whether she would happily foster-care the rest of his children if he was to pass away, only to have her rudely refusing to comply. This made Emperor Jing angry and worried that if Liu Rong were to inherit the throne and Lady Li to become empress dowager, many of his concubines might suffer the fate of Consort Qi in the hands of Empress Lü. Princess Guantao then began to openly praise her son-in-law-to-be to her brother, further convincing Emperor Jing that Liu Che was a far better choice for heir apparent than Liu Rong. Seizing the opportunity, Consort Wang laid in the final straw for Lady Li — she persuaded a minister to officially advise Emperor Jing that he make Lady Li empress, as Liu Rong was already the crown prince. Emperor Jing, already concluding that Lady Li must not be made empress, was enraged and believed that Lady Li had conspired with government officials. He executed the clan of the minister who had made that proposal and deposed Liu Rong as crown prince, making him Prince of Linjiang (臨江王) and exiling him from the capital city Chang'an in 150 BC. Lady Li was stripped off her titles and placed under house arrest; she died of depression not long after. Liu Rong was arrested from his state two years later for illegal seizure of imperial shrine lands and committed suicide in custody.

As Empress Bo had been deposed one year earlier in 151 BC, the position of empress was open and Emperor Jing made Consort Wang empress merely four months later. The seven-year-old Liu Che, now legally the oldest son of the Empress, was later made crown prince in 149 BC.

In 141 BC, Emperor Jing died and Crown Prince Liu Che ascended to the throne as Emperor Wu at the age of 15. His grandmother Empress Dowager Dou became the grand empress dowager, and his mother became Empress Dowager Wang. His older cousin and wife from the political marriage also officially became Empress Chen (陳皇后).

Early reign and reform attempt

The Han dynasty up to this point was run according to a Taoist wu wei (無為而治) ideology, championing economic freedom and government decentralization. Foreign policy-wise, periodic heqin was used to maintain a de jure "peace" with the powerful Xiongnu confederacy to the north. These policies were important in stimulating economic recovery following the post-Qin dynasty civil war, but not without drawbacks. The non-interventionist policies resulted in loss of monetary regulation and political control by the central government, allowing the feudal vassal states to become powerful and unruly, culminating in the Rebellion of the Seven States during Emperor Jing's reign. Nepotism among the ruling class also stagnated social mobility and encouraged nobles' rampant disregard of laws, leading to the rise of local despots who bullied and oppressed other civilians. The heqin policy also failed to protect the Han borders against nomadic raids, with Xiongnu cavalries invading as close as 300 li (100 miles, 160 km) from the capital during Emperor Wen's reign, and over 10,000 border residents abducted or enslaved during Emperor Jing's reign. Prominent politicians like Jia Yi (賈誼) and Chao Cuo (晁錯) had both previously advised on the necessity of important policy reforms, but neither Emperor Wen nor Emperor Jing was willing to risk implementing such changes.

Unlike the emperors before him, the young and vigorous Emperor Wu was unwilling to put up with the status quo. Only a year into his reign in late 141 BC, Emperor Wu took the advice of Confucian scholars and launched an ambitious reform, known in history as the Jianyuan Reforms (建元新政). The reforms pursued the following new policies:

  1. Officially endorsing Confucianism as the national philosophy (鄉儒術), while previously the more libertarian Taoist ideals were held in esteem;
  2. Evicting noblemen back to their own fiefdoms (令列侯就國). A large number of noblemen would overstay in the capital Chang'an at the time, lobbying with court officials while exploiting the central government's budget to cover their expenses despite already great wealth from their own feudal land tenure taxation. Emperor Wu's new policy dictated that they could no longer live off the government's spending and must leave the capital if lacking any justifiable reason to stay;
  3. Removal of non-central government sanctioned checkpoints (除關). Many lords of vassal states would establish checkpoints along main state roads that went through their territory with the purpose of collecting tolls and restricting traffic. Emperor Wu intended to seize the control of transportation back to the central government from local authorities;
  4. Encouraging the reporting and prosecution of criminal activities by nobles (舉謫宗室無行者). Unlawful noblemen would be impeached and punished and their assets or lands could be confiscated back as state property;
  5. Recruitment and promotion of talented commoners into government positions (招賢良), in order to reduce administrative monopoly by noble class at the time.

However, Emperor Wu's reforms threatened the interests of the existing class of nobles, and was swiftly defeated by his grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Dou, who held real political power in the Han court. Most of the reformists were punished: Emperor Wu's two noble supporters Dou Ying (竇嬰) and Tian Fen (田蚡, Empress Dowager Wang's half-brother) both had their positions stripped, and his two mentors Wang Zang (王臧) and Zhao Wan (趙綰) were impeached, arrested, and forced to commit suicide in prison.

Emperor Wu, now deprived of any allies, was subject to conspiracies to have him removed from the throne. At this point, Empress Chen had already married Emperor Wu for years but failed to become pregnant. In an attempt to dominate his love, she also prohibited him from keeping other concubines. Emperor Wu's political enemies used his childlessness as an excuse to depose him, as the inability of an emperor to propagate a royal bloodline was a serious matter. These enemies wished to replace him with his distant uncle Liu An (劉安), the King of Huainan (淮南王), who was a renowned figure of Taoist ideology. Even Emperor Wu's own maternal uncle Tian Fen switched camp and went to appease Liu An, as he predicted the young emperor would not be in power for long. Emperor Wu's political survival now relied heavily on the lobbying of his aunt/mother-in-law, Princess Guantao, who served as a mediator for the Emperor's reconciliation with his powerful grandmother. Princess Guantao wasted no opportunities to exploit this leverage, and constantly made excessive demands from her son-in-law.

Emperor Wu, already unhappy with his lack of heir and Empress Chen's bratty behavior, was further enraged by her mother's greed. His mother Empress Dowager Wang, however, convinced him to tolerate such abuse for the moment, as his aging grandmother was declining physically and would not be around for long. He spent the next few years pretending to have given up political ambition, playing the part of a docile, hedonist, often sneaking out of the capital Chang'an for hunting and sightseeing and posing as an ordinary marquess.

Solidifying power

Knowing that the conservative noble classes occupied every level of the Han court, Emperor Wu changed his strategy. He secretly recruited a circle of young loyal supporters from ordinary upbringings, and promoted them to middle-level positions in order to infiltrate executive ranks in the government. These newly established officials, known as the "insider court" (內朝), took orders and reported directly to Emperor Wu, having genuine influence over the operation of government affairs though lower in rank. They became a powerful countermeasure against the "outsider court" (外朝) made up of the Three Lords and Nine Ministers that, at the time, were mostly composed of anti-reformists. Furthermore, Emperor Wu sent out nationwide edicts appealing to grassroots scholars to enroll in government services in an attempt to break the stranglehold that the older-generation noble class had on the nation's balance of power.

In 138 BC, the southern autonomous state of Minyue (閩越國, in modern-day Fujian) invaded the weaker neighboring state of Dong'ou (東甌國, in modern-day Zhejiang). After their king Zuo Zhenfu (騶貞復) died on the battlefield, the battered Dong'ou desperately sought help from the Han court. After a heated court debate over whether to offer military intervention for such a distant vassal state, Emperor Wu dispatched a newly promoted official Yan Zhu (嚴助) to Kuaiji (then still located in Suzhou, rather than Shaoxing) to mobilize the local garrison. However the tiger tally (虎符), which was needed to authorize any use of armed forces, was under Grand Empress Dowager Dou's possession at the time. Yan Zhu, as the appointed imperial ambassador, circumvented this problem by executing a local army commander who refused to obey any order without seeing the tiger tally and coerced the Chief of Kuaiji to mobilize a large naval fleet to Dong'ou's rescue. Seeing that superior Han forces were on the way, Minyue became fearful and retreated. This was a huge political victory for Emperor Wu and set the precedent of using the Emperor's decrees to bypass the tiger tally, removing the need for cooperation from his grandmother. Now with the military firmly in his control, Emperor Wu's political survival was assured.

In the same year, Emperor Wu's newly favored concubine Wei Zifu became pregnant with his first child, effectively clearing his name and silencing any political enemies who had schemed to use infertility as an excuse to have him removed. When this news reached the state of Huainan, a deluded Liu An, who was hoping the young Emperor Wu's infertility would allow him to ascend to the throne, was in a state of denial and awarded anyone who told him that Emperor Wu was still childless.

In 135 BC, Grand Empress Dowager Dou died, removing the last obstacle against Emperor Wu's ambition for reform.

The Han empire (dark orange) under administrative units control during Emperor Wu's reign (r. 141–87 BC), and sphere of influence (light orange)

Imperial expansion

Conquest of the south

After the death of Grand Empress Dowager Dou in 135 BC, Emperor Wu had full control of the government. While his mother, Empress Dowager Wang, and his uncle Tian Fen were still influential, they lacked the ability to restrain the Emperor's actions.

Emperor Wu began a military campaign of territorial expansion, nearly destroying his empire, in the early part of the process. Reacting to border incursions by sending out the troops, Emperor Wu sent his armies in all directions but the sea.[4]

Conquest of Minyue

Following the successful maneuver against Minyue in 138 BC, Emperor Wu resettled the people of Dang'an into the region between the Yangtze and Huai Rivers. In 135 BC, Minyue saw an opportunity with Zhao Mo (趙眜), the new and inexperienced king of Nanyue (南越國, in modern-day Two Guangs and part of Fujian): Minyue invaded its southwestern neighbor and Zhao Mo sought help from the Han court.

Emperor Wu dispatched an amphibious expedition force led by Wang Hui (王恢) and Han Anguo (韓安國) to address the Minyue threat. Again fearing the Han intervention, the younger brother of Minyue's King Ying, Luo Yushan (雒余善), orchestrated a coup with other Minyue nobles, killed his brother with a spear, decapitated the corpse and sent the severed head to Wang. Following the campaign, Minyue was split into a dual monarchy: Minyue was controlled by a Han proxy ruler, Zou Chou (騶丑), and Dongyue (東越) was ruled by Luo Yushan.

As Han troops returned from the Han–Nanyue War in 111 BC, the Han government debated military action against Dongyue. Dongyue under King Lou Yushan had agreed to assist the Han campaign against Nanyue, but the Dongyue army never reached there, blaming the weather while secretly relaying intelligence to Nanyue. Against the advice of General Yang Pu (楊僕), Emperor Wu rejected a military solution, and the Han forces arrived home without attacking Dongyue, though border garrisons were told to prepare for any military conflicts. After King Yushan was informed of this, he grew full of himself and responded by revolting against the Han, proclaiming himself emperor and assigned his "Han-devouring generals" (吞漢將軍) to invade neighboring regions controlled by the Han. Enraged, Emperor Wu sent a combined army led by generals Han Yue (韓說), Yang Pu, Wang Wenshu (王溫舒) and two marquesses of Yue ancestry. The Han army crushed the rebellion, and the Dongyue kingdom began to fragment after King Yushan stubbornly refused to surrender: elements of its own army defected and turned against their ruler. Eventually, the king of the other Minyue state, Zou Jugu (騶居股), conspired with other Dongyue nobles to kill King Yushan before surrendering to the Han forces. The two states of Minyue and Dongyue were then completely annexed under the Han rule.

Conquest of Nanyue

Further information: Han–Nanyue War

In 135 BC, when Minyue attacked Nanyue, Nanyue also sought assistance from Han even though it probably had enough strength to defend itself. Emperor Wu was greatly pleased by this gesture, and he dispatched an expedition force to attack Minyue, over the objection of one of his key advisors, Liu An, a royal relative and the Prince of Huainan. Minyue nobles, fearful of the massive Chinese force, assassinated their king Luo Ying (駱郢) and sought peace. Emperor Wu then imposed a dual-monarchy system on Minyue by creating kings out of Luo Ying's brother Luo Yushan (雒餘善) and nobleman Zou Chou (騶丑), thus ensuring internal discord in Minyue.

Although initially launched as a punitive expedition by Emperor Wu against the autonomous kingdom of Nanyue, the entire Nanyue territory (which includes modern Guangdong, Guanxi, and North Vietnam) had been conquered by Emperor's military forces and annexed to the Han Empire by 111 BC.

War against the northern steppes

Further information: Xiongnu and Han–Xiongnu War

Military tension had long existed between ancient China and the northern "barbarians", mainly because the fertile lands of the prosperous agricultural civilization presented attractive targets for the poorer but more militaristic horseback nomads. The threat posed to the Xiongnu by the northward expansion of the Qin Empire ultimately led to the consolidation of the many tribes into a confederacy.[5] Following the end of the Chu-Han Contention, Emperor Gao of Han realized that the nation was not yet strong enough to confront the Xiongnu. He therefore resorted to the so-called "marriage alliance", or heqin (和親), in order to ease hostility and buy time for the nation to "rest and recover" (休養生息). Despite the periodic humiliation of appeasement and gifting, the Han borders were still frequented by Xiongnu raids for the next seven decades. Following the death of his powerful grandmother, Emperor Wu decided that Han China had sufficiently recovered enough to support a full-scale war.

He first ended the official policy of peace with the Battle of Mayi in 133 BC, which involved a failed plan to trick a force of 30,000 Xiongnu into an ambush of 300,000 Han soldiers. While neither side suffered any casualties, the Xiongnu retaliated by increasing their border attacks, leading many in the Han court to abandon the hope for peace with the Xiongnu.

The failure of the Mayi operation prompted Emperor Wu to switch the Han army's doctrine from the traditionally more defensive chariot–infantry warfare to a highly mobile and offensive cavalry-against-cavalry warfare. At the same time, he expanded and trained officers from his royal guards.

After a series of defeats by Wei Qing (the half-brother of Emperor Wu's favorite concubine) and Wei's nephew, Huo Qubing between 127 and 119 BC, the Xiongnu were expelled from the Ordos Desert and Qilian Mountains.[6][7] As a result of these territorial acquisitions, the Han Dynasty successfully opened up the Northern Silk Road, allowing direct access to trade with Central Asia. This also provided a new supply of high-quality horse breeds from Central Asia, including the famed Ferghana horse (ancestors of the modern Akhal-Teke), further strengthening the Han army. Emperor Wu then reinforced this strategic asset by establishing five commanderies and constructing a length of fortified wall along the border of the Hexi Corridor, colonizing the area with 700,000 Chinese soldier-settlers.[8]

The Battle of Mobei (119 BC) saw Han forces invade the northern regions of the Gobi Desert.[9] The two generals led the campaign to the Khangai Mountains where they forced the Chanyu to flee north of the Gobi Desert,[10][11] and then out of the Gobi Desert.[12]

The Xiongnu, destabilized and worried of further Han attacks, retreated further north into the Siberian regions where they suffered starvation due to livestock loss from harsh climates. The battle was however also costly for the Han forces, which lost almost 80% of their warhorses. The cost of the war led the central Han government to introduce new levies, increasing the burden on average peasants, and the population census of the empire showed a significant drop from famines and people going rogue to flee the taxes.

Invasion of the Korean Peninsula

Emperor Wu made an invasion of the Korean Peninsula by establishing the Commandery of Canghai (蒼海), but abandoned it in 126 BC. Some of his military colonies survived into the 4th century, leaving behind various particularly well-preserved funerary artifacts.[4] However, this did not turn out to be a successful expansion of territorial control.

Diplomacy and exploration

Emperor Wu dispatching Zhang Qian to Central Asia from 138 to 126 BCE, Mogao Caves mural, 618–712 CE.

The exploration into Xiyu was first started in 139 BC, when Emperor Wu commissioned Zhang Qian to seek out the Kingdom of Yuezhi, which had been expelled by Xiongnu from the modern Gansu region. Zhang was to entice the kingdom to return to its ancestral lands with promises of Han military assistance, with the intention that Yuezhi forces would fight against the Xiongnu. Zhang was immediately captured by Xiongnu once he ventured into the desert, but was able to escape around 129 BC and eventually made it to Yuezhi, which by then had relocated to Samarkand. While Yuezhi refused to return, it and several other kingdoms in the area, including Dayuan (Kokand) and Kangju, established diplomatic relations with Han. Zhang was able to deliver his report to Emperor Wu when he arrived back in the capital Chang'an in 126 BC after a second and shorter captivity by Xiongnu. After the Prince of Hunxie surrendered the Gansu region, the path to Xiyu became clear and regular embassies between Han and the Xiyu kingdoms commenced.

Emperor Wu sent ambassadors to the Dian Kingdom in Yunnan. Bronze sculpture depicting Dian people, 3rd century BCE.

Another expansion plan, this one aimed at the southwest, was aimed at the eventual conquest of Nanyue, which was viewed as an unreliable vassal. The plan was to first obtain submission of the southwestern tribal kingdoms — the largest of which was Yelang (modern Zunyi, Guizhou) — so that a route for a potential back-stabbing attack on Nanyue could be made. The Han ambassador Tang Meng (唐蒙) was able to secure the submission of these tribal kingdoms by giving their kings gifts; Emperor Wu established the Commandery of Jianwei (犍為, headquarters in modern Yibin, Sichuan) to govern over the tribes, but eventually abandoned it after being unable to cope with local revolts. Later, after Zhang Qian returned from the western region, part of his report indicated that embassies could more easily reach Shendu (India) and Anxi (Parthia) by going through the southwestern kingdoms. Encouraged by the report, Emperor Wu sent ambassadors in 122 BC to try to persuade Yelang and Dian (滇, modern eastern Yunnan) into submission again.

Religion

Han Gaozu, founder of the Han dynasty, had installed shaman cultists from the area of the former state of Jin (in the area of the modern province of Shanxi) as official religious functionaries of his new empire.[13] Emperor Wu worshiped the divinity Tai Yi (or, Dong Huang Tai Yi),[14] a deity to whom he was introduced by his shaman advisers, who were able to provide him with the experience of having this god (and other spiritual entities, such as the Master of Fate, Si Ming) summoned into his presence;[15] the emperor even went so far as to construct a "House of Life" (shou gong) chapel at his Ganquan palace complex (甘泉, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi) specifically for this purpose, in 118 BC.[16] One of the religious rituals that Emperor Wu organized was the Suburban Sacrifice,[14] and the nineteen hymns entitled Hymns for Use in the Suburban Sacrifice were written in connection with these religious rites and published during Wu's reign.[17]

Emperor Wu worshipping two statues of Golden Man (or Buddha?) in 121 BC, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, ca. 8th century CE.([18])

It was also during this time that Emperor Wu began to show a fascination with immortality. He began to associate with magicians who claimed to be able to, if they could find the proper ingredients, create divine pills that would confer immortality. However, he himself punished others' use of magic severely. In 130 BC, for example, when Empress Chen was found to have retained witches to curse Consort Wei and to try to regain Emperor Wu's affections, he had her deposed and the witches executed.

Family

In 128 BC, Consort Wei bore Emperor Wu his first-born son, Liu Ju. She was made empress later that year and Liu Ju was made crown prince in 122 BC.

Liu An prepares coup

In 122 BC, Liu An, the Prince of Huainan (a previously trusted adviser of Emperor Wu, and closely enough related to have imperial pretensions) and his brother Liu Ci (劉賜), the Prince of Hengshan, were accused of plotting treason. They committed suicide; their families and many alleged co-conspirators were executed.

Another Xiongnu war

In 119 BC, Emperor Wu launched a new effort to permanently defeat the Xiongnu empire by making a major excursion against the Xiongnu's headquarters. The forces of his most prominent generals, Wei and Huo, were able to make a direct assault on Chanyu Yizhixie's forces, nearly capturing him and annihilating his army. It was at this battle, however, that the famous general Li Guang, whose fortunes had been effectively sabotaged by a strategic plan of Wei's, committed suicide after being told that he would be court-martialed for his failures. Even though both Wei and Huo were successful, Emperor Wu particularly praised Huo and rewarded him with many others; it was from this point on that Huo began to receive greater favor over his uncle Wei. After the Xiongnu suffered these heavy losses, the Chanyu sought heqin peace with Han again, but broke off peace talks after Han made it clear that it wanted Xiongnu to become a vassal instead.

Despotism at home

Around the same time, perhaps as a sign of what would come to be, Emperor Wu began to trust governing officials who were harsh in their punishment, believing that such harshness would be the most effective method to maintain social order and so placing these officials in power. For example, one such official, Yi Zong (義縱), became the governor of the Commandery of Dingxiang (part of modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia) and executed 200 prisoners, even though they had not committed capital crimes; he then executed their friends who happened to have been visiting.

A famous wrongful execution happened in 117 BC, when the minister of agriculture Yan Yi (顏異), was falsely accused of committing a crime, though he was actually targeted because he had previously offended the emperor by opposing a plan to effectively extort double tributes out of princes and marquesses. Yan was executed for "internal defamation" of the emperor, and this caused the officials to be fearful and willing to flatter the emperor.

Further territorial expansion, old age, and paranoia

Starting about 113 BC, Emperor Wu began to display further signs of abusing his power. He began to incessantly tour the commanderies, initially nearby Chang'an, but later extending to much farther places, worshipping the various gods on the way, perhaps again in search of immortality. He also had a succession of magicians whom he honored with great things. In one case, he even made one a marquess and married a daughter to him; that magician, Luan Da (欒大), was later exposed as a fraud and executed. Emperor Wu's expenditures on these tours and magical adventures put a great strain on the national treasury and caused difficulties on the locales that he visited, twice causing the governors of commanderies to commit suicide after they were unable to supply the emperor's entire train.

In 112 BC, a crisis in the Kingdom of Nanyue (modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam) erupted, leading to military intervention. At that time, the King Zhao Xing (趙興) and his mother Queen Dowager Jiu (樛太后) — a Chinese woman whom Zhao Xing's father Zhao Yingqi (趙嬰齊) had married while he served as an ambassador to Han — were both in favor of becoming incorporated into Han. This was opposed by the senior prime minister, Lü Jia (呂嘉), who wanted to maintain the kingdom's independence. Queen Dowager Jiu tried to goad the Chinese ambassadors into killing Lü, but the Chinese ambassadors were hesitant to do so. When Emperor Wu sent a 2,000-man force led by Han Qianqiu (韓千秋) and Queen Dowager Jiu's brother Jiu Le (樛樂) to try to assist the king and the queen dowager, Lü staged a coup d'etat and had the king and the queen dowager killed. Lü then made another son of Zhao Yingqi, Zhao Jiande (趙建德), king and went on to annihilate the Han forces under Han and Jiu. Several months later, Emperor Wu commissioned a five-pronged attack against Nanyue. In 111 BC, the Han forces captured the Nanyue capital Panyu (番禺, modern Guangzhou) and annexed the entire Nanyue territory into Han, establishing ten commanderies.

That same year, one of the co-kings of Minyue (modern Fujian), Luo Yushan, was fearful that Han would attack his kingdom next and made a preemptive attack against Han, capturing a number of towns in former Nanyue and in the other border commanderies. In 110 BC, under Han military pressure, Luo Yushan's co-king Luo Jugu (駱居古) assassinated him and surrendered the kingdom to Han. However, Emperor Wu did not establish commanderies in Minyue's former territory; instead, he moved its people to the region between the Yangtze and Huai Rivers.

Later that year, Emperor Wu, at great expense, carried out the ancient ceremony of fengshan (封禪) at Mount Tai; this involved the worship of heaven and earth and presumably a secret petition to the gods of heaven and earth to seek immortality. He then decreed that he would return to Mount Tai every five years to repeat the ceremony, but only did so once in 98 BC. Many palaces were built for him and the princes to accommodate the anticipated cycles of the ceremony.

It was around this time that, in reaction to the large expenditures by Emperor Wu that had exhausted the national treasury, his agricultural minister Sang Hongyang (桑弘羊) conceived of a plan that many dynasties would repeat later: creating national monopolies for salt and iron. The national treasury would further purchase other consumer goods when the prices were low and sell them when the prices were high at profit, thus replenishing the treasury while at the same time making sure the price fluctuation would not be too great.

In 109 BC, Emperor Wu started yet another territorial expansion campaign. Nearly a century earlier, a Chinese General named Wiman had taken the throne of Gojoseon and had established Wiman Joseon at Wanggeom-seong (王險), modern Pyongyang), which became a nominal Han vassal. When Wiman's grandson King Ugeo (衛右渠, 위우거) refused to permit Jin's ambassadors to reach China through his territories, Emperor Wei sent an ambassador She He (涉何) to Wanggeom to negotiate a right of passage with King Ugeo, but King Ugeo refused and had a general escort She back to Han territory. When they got close to Han borders, She assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the military commander of the Commandery of Liaodong (modern central Liaoning). King Ugeo, offended, made a raid on Liaodong and killed She. In response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack (one by land and one by sea) against Joseon. Initially, Joseon offered to become a vassal, but peace negotiations broke down by the Chinese forces' refusal to let a Joseon force escort its crown prince to Chang'an to pay tribute to Emperor Wu. Han took over the Joseon lands in 108 BC and established four commanderies.

Also in 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent an expeditionary force against the Kingdom of Dian (modern eastern Yunnan), planning on conquering it. When the King of Dian surrendered, it was incorporated into Han territory with the King of Dian being permitted to keep his traditional authority and title. Emperor Wu established five commanderies over Dian and the other nearby kingdoms.

In 108 BC, Emperor Wu sent general Zhao Ponu (趙破奴) on a campaign to Xiyu, and he forced the Kingdoms of Loulan on northeast border of the Taklamakan Desert and Cheshi (modern Turpan, Xinjiang) into submission. In 105 BC, Emperor Wu gave a princess from a remote collateral imperial line to Kunmo (昆莫), the King of Wusun (Issyk Kol Basin) in marriage, and she later married his grandson and successor Qinqu (芩娶), creating a strong and stable alliance between Han and Wusun. The various Xiyu kingdoms also strengthened their relationships with Han. An infamous Han war against the nearby Kingdom of Dayuan (Kokand) erupted in 104 BC. Dayuan refused to give in to Emperor Wu's commands to surrender its best horses, Emperor Wu's ambassadors were then executed when they insulted the King of Dayuan after his refusal. Emperor Wu commissioned Li Guangli (李廣利), the brother of a favorite concubine Consort Li, as a general to direct the war against Dayuan. In 103 BC, Li Guangli's army of 26,000 men (20,000 Chinese & 6,000 steppe cavalry),[19] without adequate supplies, suffered a humiliating loss against Dayuan, but in 102 BC, Li with a new army of 60,000 men,[20] was able to put a devastating siege on its capital by cutting off water supplies to the city, forcing Dayuan's surrender 3,000 of its prized horses.[20] This Han victory further intimidated the Xiyu kingdoms into submission.

Emperor Wu also made attempts to try to intimidate Xiongnu into submission, but even though peace negotiations were ongoing, Xiongnu never actually submitted to becoming a Han vassal during Emperor Wu's reign. In 103 BC, Chanyu Er surrounded Zhao Ponu and captured his entire army — the first major Xiongnu victory since Wei Qing and Huo Qubing nearly captured the chanyu in 119 BC. Following Han's victory over Dayuan in 102 BC, however, Xiongnu became concerned that Han could then concentrate against it, and made peace overtures. Peace negotiations failed when the Han deputy ambassador Zhang Sheng (張勝) was discovered to have conspired to assassinate Chanyu Qiedihou (且鞮侯). The ambassador, the later-famed Su Wu, would be detained for two decades. In 99 BC, Emperor Wu commissioned another expedition force aimed at crushing Xiongnu, but both prongs of the expedition force failed. Li Guangli's force became trapped but was able to free itself and withdraw, while Li Ling (李陵), Li Guang's grandson, surrendered at the end after being surrounded and inflicting large losses on Xiongnu forces. One year later, receiving an inaccurate report that Li Ling was training Xiongnu soldiers, Emperor Wu had Li's clan executed. Li's friend, the famed historian Sima Qian (whom Emperor Wu already bore a grudge against because Sima's Shiji was not as flattering to Emperor Wu and his father Emperor Jing as Emperor Wu wanted), who tried to defend Li's actions, was castrated.

In 106 BC, in order to further better organize the territories, including both the previously-existing empire and the newly conquered territories, Emperor Wu divided the empire into 13 prefectures (zhou, 州), but without governors or prefectural governments. Rather, he assigned a supervisor to each prefecture, who would visit the commanderies and principalities in the prefecture on a rotating basis to investigate corruption and disobedience with imperial edicts.

In 104 BC, Emperor Wu built the luxurious Jianzhang Palace (建章宮) — a massive structure that was intended to make him closer to the gods. He later resided at that palace exclusively, rather than the traditional Weiyang Palace (未央宮), which Xiao He had built during the reign of Emperor Gao.

About 100 BC, due to the heavy taxation and military burdens imposed by Emperor Wu's incessant military campaigns and luxurious spending, there were many peasant revolts throughout the empire. Emperor Wu issued an edict that was intended to suppress the peasant revolts: he made officials whose commanderies saw unsuppressed peasant revolts liable with their lives. However, this edict had the exact opposite effect, since it became impossible to suppress all of the revolts, officials would merely cover up the existence of the revolts. He executed many people who made fake coins.[21]

In 96 BC, a series of witchcraft persecutions began. Emperor Wu, who was paranoid over a nightmare of being whipped by tiny stick-wielding puppets and a sighting of a traceless assassin (possibly a hallucination), ordered extensive investigations with harsh punishments. Large numbers of people, many of them high officials, were accused of witchcraft and executed, usually along with their entire clans. The first trial began with Empress Wei Zifu's elder brother-in-law Gongsun He (公孫賀, the Prime Minister at the time) and his son Gongsun Jingsheng (公孫敬聲, also an imperial official, but arrested under corruption charges), quickly leading to the execution of their entire clan. Also caught in this disaster were Crown Prince Ju's two elder sisters Princess Yangshi (陽石公主, who was said to have a romantic relationship with her cousin Gongsun Jingsheng) and Princess Zhuyi (諸邑公主), as well as his cousin Wei Kang (衛伉, the eldest son of the deceased general Wei Qing), who were all accused of witchcraft and executed in 91 BC. These witchcraft persecutions later became intertwined in succession struggles and erupted into a major catastrophe.

Crown Prince Ju revolt

In 94 BC, Emperor Wu's youngest son Liu Fuling was born to a favorite concubine of his, Consort Zhao. Emperor Wu was ecstatic in having a child at such an advanced age (62 years old), and because Consort Zhao purportedly had a post-term pregnancy that lasted 14 months (the same as the mythical Emperor Yao), he named Consort Zhao's palace gate "Gate of Yao's mother." This led to speculation that the emperor, due to his favor of Consort Zhao and Prince Fuling, wanted to make Liu Fuling the crown prince instead. While there was no evidence that he actually intended to do anything as such, over the next few years, conspiracies against Crown Prince Ju and Empress Wei arose that were inspired by such rumors.

Up to this point, there had been a cordial but somehow fragile relationship between Emperor Wu and his crown prince, who perhaps was not as ambitious as his father wished. As he grew older, the Emperor came to be less attracted to Ju's mother, Empress Wei Zifu, though he continued to respect her. When he left the capital, the Emperor would delegate authority to Crown Prince Ju. Eventually, however, the two began to have disagreements over policy, with Ju favoring leniency and Wu's advisers (harsh and sometimes corrupt officials) urging the opposite. After Wei Qing's death in 106 BC and Gongsun He's execution, Prince Ju had no strong allies left in the government. The other officials then began to publicly defame and plot against him. Meanwhile, Emperor Wu was becoming more and more isolated, spending time with young concubines, often remaining unavailable to Ju or Wei.

Conspirators against Prince Ju included Jiang Chong (江充), the newly appointed head of secret intelligence, who had once had a run-in with Ju after arresting one of his assistants for improper use of an imperial right of way. Another conspirator was Su Wen (蘇文), chief eunuch in charge of caring for imperial concubines, who had previously made false accusations against Ju, claiming he was joyful over Wu's illness and had an adulterous relationship with one of the junior concubines.

Jiang and others made many accusations of witchcraft against important people in the Han court. Jiang and Su decided to use witchcraft as the excuse to move against Prince Ju himself. With approval from Emperor Wu who was then at his summer palace in Ganquan (甘泉, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), Jiang searched through various palaces, ostensibly for witchcraft items, eventually reaching Prince Ju's and Empress Wei's palace. While completely trashing the palaces up with intensive digging, he secretly planted witchery dolls and pieces of cloth with mysterious writings. He then announced that he had found the items there during the search. Prince Ju was shocked, knowing that he was framed. His teacher Shi De (石德), invoking the story of Ying Fusu of the Qin dynasty and raised the possibility that Emperor Wu might already be dead, suggesting that Prince Ju start an uprising to fight the conspirators. Prince Ju initially hesitated, wanting to speed to Ganquan Palace to defend himself before his father. But, when he found out that Jiang's messengers were already on their way, he decided to follow Shi's suggestion.

Prince Ju sent an individual to impersonate a messenger from Emperor Wu to lure and arrest Jiang and the other conspirators. Su escaped, but Ju accused Jiang of sabotaging his relationship with his father, and personally killed Jiang. With the support of his mother, Ju enlisted his guards, civilians, and prisoners in preparation to defend him.

Su fled to Ganquan Palace and accused Prince Ju of treason. Emperor Wu, not believing it to be true and correctly (at this point) believing that Prince Ju had merely been angry at Jiang, sent a messenger back to Chang'an to summon Prince Ju. The messenger did not dare to proceed to Chang'an, but instead returned and gave Emperor Wu the false report that Prince Ju was conducting a coup. Enraged, Emperor Wu ordered his nephew, Prime Minister Liu Qumao (劉屈犛), to put down the rebellion.

The two sides battled in the streets of Chang'an for five days, but Liu Qumao's forces prevailed after it became clear that Prince Ju did not have his father's authorization. Prince Ju was forced to flee the capital following the defeat, accompanied only by two of his sons and some personal guards. Apart from a grandson Liu Bingyi, who was barely a month old and thrown into prison, all other members of his family were left behind and killed. His mother, Empress Wei, committed suicide when Emperor Wu sent officials to depose her. Their bodies were carelessly buried in fields without proper tomb markings. Prince Ju's supporters were brutally cracked down on and civilians aiding the crown prince were exiled. Even Tian Ren (田仁), an official city gatekeeper who did not stop Prince Ju's escape, and Ren An (任安), an army commander who chose not to actively participate in the crackdown, were accused of being sympathizers and executed.

Emperor Wu continued to be enraged and ordered that Prince Ju be tracked down. After a junior official, Linghu Mao (令狐茂), risked his life to speak on Prince Ju's behalf, Emperor Wu's anger began to subside. However, he waited to issue a pardon for Prince Ju.

Prince Ju fled to Hu County (湖縣, in modern Sanmenxia, Henan) and took refuge in the home of a poor peasant family. Knowing that their good-hearted hosts could never afford the daily expenditure of so many people, the Prince sought help from an old friend who lived nearby. However, this move exposed their whereabouts, and he was soon tracked down by local officials eager for a reward. Surrounded by troops and seeing no chance of escape, the Prince hung himself. His two sons and the family housing them died with him after the government soldiers eventually broke into the yard and killed everyone. The two local officials who led the raid, Zhang Fuchang (張富昌) and Li Shou (李寿), wasted no time in taking the Prince's body to Chang'an to claim a reward from the emperor. Emperor Wu, although greatly saddened to hear the death of his son, had to keep his promise and rewarded the officials.

Late reign and death

Even after Jiang Chong and Prince Ju both died, the witchcraft affairs continued. One final prominent victim was the general Li Guangli, who was Consort Li's brother and had prior victories over Dayuan and Xiongnu despite causing unnecessary losses with his military incompetence. In 90 BC, while Li was assigned to a campaign against Xiongnu, a eunuch named Guo Rang (郭穰) exposed how Li and his political ally, Prime Minister Liu Qumao, were conspiring to use witchcraft on Emperor Wu. Liu and his family were immediately arrested and later executed. Li's family was also taken into custody. Li, after learning the news, used risky tactics to attempt a major victory against Xiongnu in order to build up a future standoff against Emperor Wu, but failed when some of his senior officers mutinied. On his retreat, he was ambushed by Xiongnu forces. He defected to Xiongnu and Emperor Wu executed his clan soon after. Li himself later fell victim to the infighting with older Han traitors in Xiongnu, especially one named Wei Lü (衛律), who was extremely jealous of the amount of Chanyu's favor that Li gained as a new, high-profile defector.

By this time, Emperor Wu realized that the witchcraft accusations were often false accusations, especially in relation to the crown prince rebellion. In 92 BC, when Tian Qianqiu (田千秋), then the superintendent of Emperor Gao's temple, wrote a report claiming that Emperor Gao told him in a dream that Prince Ju should have only been whipped at most, not killed, Emperor Wu had a revelation about what had led to his son's rebellion. He had Su burned and Jiang's family executed. He also made Tian prime minister. Although he claimed to miss Prince Ju greatly (he even built a palace and an altar for his deceased son as a sign of grief and regret), he did not at this time rectify the situation where Prince Ju's only surviving progeny, Liu Bingyi, languished in prison as a child.

With the political scene greatly changed, Emperor Wu publicly apologized to the whole nation about his past policy mistakes, a gesture known to history as the Repenting Edict of Luntai (輪台悔詔). The Prime Minister Tian he appointed was in favor of retiring the troops and easing hardships on the people. Tian also promoted agriculture, with several agricultural experts becoming important members of the administration. Wars and territorial expansion generally ceased. These policies and ideals were those supported by Crown Prince Ju, and were finally realised years after his death.

The story of Jin Midi. Wu Liang Shrine, Jiaxiang, Shandong province, China. 2nd century AD. Ink rubbings of stone-carved reliefs as represented in Feng Yunpeng and Feng Yunyuan, Jinshi suo (1824 edition), n.p.

By 88 BC, Emperor Wu had become seriously ill. With Prince Ju dead, there was no clear heir. Liu Dan, the Prince of Yan, was Emperor Wu's oldest surviving son, but Emperor Wu considered both him and his younger brother Liu Xu, the Prince of Guangling, to be unsuitable, since neither respected laws. He decided that the only suitable heir was his youngest son, Liu Fuling, who was only six at that time. He therefore also chose a potential regent in Huo Guang, whom he considered to be capable and faithful, and entrusted Huo with the regency of Fuling. Emperor Wu also ordered the execution of Prince Fuling's mother Consort Zhao, out of fear that she would become an uncontrollable empress dowager like the previous Empress Lü. At Huo's suggestion, he made ethnic Xiongnu official Jin Midi and general Shangguang Jie co-regents. He died in 87 BC, shortly after making Prince Fuling crown prince. Crown Prince Fuling then succeeded to the throne as Emperor Zhao for the next 13 years.

Because Emperor Wu did not make anyone empress after Empress Wei Zifu committed suicide, and he left no instruction on who should be enshrined in his temple with him, Huo chose to enshrine Consort Li with Emperor Wu. They lie buried in the Maoling mound, the most famous of the so-called Chinese pyramids. Huo Guang sent 500 beautiful women there for the dead emperor.[22] According to folk legend, 200 of them were executed for having sex with the guards. Huo's clan was later killed and the emperor's tomb was looted by Chimei.

Legacy

Historians have treated Emperor Wu with ambivalence, and there are certainly some contradictory accounts of his life. He roughly doubled the size of the Han empire of China during his reign, and much of the territory that he annexed is now part of modern China. He officially encouraged Confucianism, yet as did Qin Shi Huang, he personally used a legalist system of rewards and punishments to govern his empire.

Emperor Wu is said to have been extravagant and superstitious, allowing his policies to burden his population. As such he is often compared to Qin Shi Huang.[23] The punishments for perceived failures and disloyalty were often exceedingly harsh. His father paroled many participants of Rebellion of the Seven States from execution, and made some work in constructing his tomb.[24] Emperor Wu killed ten thousands of people and their families over the Liu An affair, Hengshan,[25] his witchcraft prosecution, and killed members of both sides in the Prince Ju revolt.[26]

He used some of his wives' relatives to fight Xiongnu, many becoming famous generals.

He forced his last queen to commit suicide. Out of the twelve prime ministers appointed by Emperor Wu, three were executed and two committed suicide while holding the post; another was executed in retirement. He set many special prisons (詔獄) and caught nearly two hundred thousand people in it.[27]

Emperor Wu is considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history, due to his effective governance which made the Han dynasty one of the most powerful nations in the world.[28]

Emperor Wu's political reform resulted in the strengthening of the Emperor's power at expense of the prime minister's authority. The post of Shangshu (court secretaries) was elevated from merely managing documents to that of the Emperor's close advisor, and it stayed this way until the end of imperial era.

In 140 BC, Emperor Wu conducted an imperial examination of over 100 young scholars. Having been recommended by officials, most of the scholars were commoners with no noble background. This event would have a major impact on Chinese history, marking the official start of the establishment of Confucianism as official imperial doctrine. This came about because a young Confucian scholar, Dong Zhongshu, was evaluated to have submitted the best essay in which he advocated the establishment of Confucianism. It is unclear whether Emperor Wu, in his young age, actually determined this, or whether this was the result of machinations of the prime minister Wei Wan (衛綰), who was himself a Confucian. However, the fact that several other young scholars who scored highly on the examination (but interestingly enough, not Dong) later became trusted advisors for Emperor Wu would appear to suggest that Emperor Wu himself at least had some actual participation.[29]

In 136 BC, Emperor Wu founded what became the Imperial University, a college for classical scholars that supplied the Han need for well-trained bureaucrats.[30]

Poetry

Various important aspects of Han poetry are associated with Emperor Wu and his court, including his direct interest in poetry and patronage of poets. Emperor Wu was also a patron of literature, with a number of poems being attributed to him.[31] As to the poetry on lost love, some of the pieces attributed to him are considered of well-done, there is some question to their actual authorship.[31] The following work is on the death of Li Furen, one of his favorite concubines.[32]

The sound of her silk skirt has stopped.
On the marble pavement dust grows.
Her empty room is cold and still.
Fallen leaves are piled against the doors.
How can I bring my aching heart to rest?

[33]

Emperor facilitated a revival of interest in Chu ci, the poetry of and in the style of the area of the former Chu kingdom during the early part of his reign, in part because of his near relative Liu An.[34] Some of this Chu material was later anthologized in the Chu Ci.

The Chuci genre of poetry from its origin was linked with Chu shamanism,[35] and Han Wudi both supported the Chu genre of poetry in the earlier years of his reign, and also continued to support shamanically-linked poetry during the later years of his reign.

Emperor Wu employed poets and musicians in writing lyrics and scoring tunes for various performances and also patronized choreographers and shamans in this same connection for arranging the dance movements and coordinating the spiritual and the mundane. He was quite fond of the resulting lavish ritual performances, especially night time rituals where the multitudinous singers, musicians, and dancers would perform in the brilliant lighting provided by of thousands of torches.[36]

The fu style typical of Han poetry also took shape during the reign of Emperor Wu in his court, with poet and official Sima Xiangru as a leading figure. However, Sima's initial interest in the chu ci style later gave way to his interest in more innovative forms of poetry. After his patronage of poets familiar with the Chu ci style in the early part of his reign, Emperor Wu later seems to have turned his interest and his court's interest to other literary fashions.[34]

Another of Emperor Wu's major contribution to poetry was through his organization of the Imperial Music Bureau (yuefu) as part of the official governmental bureaucratic apparatus: the Music Bureau was charged with matters related to music and poetry, as lyrics are a part of music and traditional Chinese poetry was considered to have been chanted or sung, rather than spoken or recited as prose. The Music Bureau greatly flourished during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han,[37] who has been widely cited to have founded the Music Bureau in 120 BCE;[38] however, it seems more likely that there was already a long-standing office of music and that Emperor Wu enlarged its size as part of his governmental reorganization, changing its scope and function and possibly renaming it and thus seeming to have established a new institution. The stated tasks of this institution were apparently to collect popular songs from different and adapt and orchestrate these, as well as to develop new material.[39] Emperor Wu's Music Bureau not only collected folk songs and ballads from where they originated throughout the country, but also collected songs reportedly based on Central Asian tunes or melodies, with new lyrics which were written to harmonize with the existing tunes, and characterized by varying line lengths and the incorporation of various nonce words.[40] In any case, he is widely held to have used the Music Bureau as an important part of his religious innovations and to have specifically commissioned Sima Xiangru to write poetry.[41] Because of the development and transmission of a particular style of poetry by the Music Bureau, this style of poetry has become known as the "Music Bureau" style, or yuefu (and also in its later development referred to as "new yuefu", or "imitation", or "literary yüeh-fu" ).

Cultural depictions

Emperor Wu is one of the most famous emperors of ancient China and has made appearances in quite a lot of Chinese television dramas, examples include:

Emperor Wu is also a major character in Carole Wilkinson's novel Dragonkeeper and its sequels, Garden of the Purple Dragon and Dragon Moon. The three novels, which center on the journeys of a former slave girl and the dragons in her care, loosely depict the first years of Emperor Wu's reign and includes a number of references to his quest for immortality.

Family information

Ancestry

Era names

Footnotes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  1. ↑ Had his name changed into the more suitable Che when he was officially made crown prince in April 150 BC.
  2. ↑ Literally meaning "martial".
  3. ↑ Literally meaning "filial and martial".

Notes

  1. ↑ This courtesy name is reported by Xun Yue(荀悅) (148–209),
    the author of Records of the Han Dynasty     (漢紀), but other sources
    do not mention a courtesy name.
  2. ↑ Pollard, Elizabeth (2015). Worlds Together Worlds Apart. 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10110: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.
  3. 1 2 Paludan, 36
  4. 1 2 3 Paludan, 37
  5. ↑ Cosmo 1999, pp. 892–893.
  6. ↑ Yü 1986, 390
  7. ↑ Cosmo 2002, 237–239.
  8. ↑ Paludan, 38
  9. ↑ Tucker 2010, p. 109
  10. ↑ Yü 1986, p. 390
  11. ↑ Cosmo 2002, p. 240.
  12. ↑ Barfield 1981, 58.
  13. ↑ Hawkes, 98
  14. 1 2 Hawkes, 100
  15. ↑ Hawkes, 42 and 97
  16. ↑ Hawkes, 118
  17. ↑ Hawkes, 119
  18. ↑ However, note that there is no historical record of Emperor Wu actually being aware of Buddhism. The first confirmed contact between a Chinese emperor and Buddhist doctrines would not happen until a century later, during the reign of Emperor Ming. Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 45.
  19. ↑ C. Peers, Imperial Chinese Armies: 200 BC – 589 AD, 7
  20. 1 2 C. Peers, Imperial Chinese Armies: 200 BC – 589 AD, 8
  21. ↑ Hanshu, vol.24
  22. ↑ 漢武故事
  23. ↑ Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 22.
  24. ↑ 院重大B类课题"东汉洛阳刑徒墓"完成结项
  25. ↑ Hanshu, vol.44
  26. ↑ Hanshu, vol.45
  27. ↑ Zhao Yi's 廿二史劄記, vol. 3
  28. ↑ Bo Yang's commentary in the Modern Chinese edition of Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 7, and Zhao Yi (趙翼)'s commentary included therein.
  29. ↑ Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 17.
  30. ↑ Pollard, Elizabeth (2015). Worlds Together Worlds Apart. 500 Fifth Ave New York, NY: W.W. Norton Company Inc. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.
  31. 1 2 Rexroth, 133
  32. ↑ Morton, W. Scott. China: "Its History and Culture". p. 54. ISBN 0-07-043424-7.
  33. ↑ Translation, Arthur Waley, 1918 (in One Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems)
  34. 1 2 Hawkes, 29
  35. ↑ 39
  36. ↑ Hawkes, 97
  37. ↑ Birrell, 5-6
  38. ↑ Birrell, 7
  39. ↑ Birrell, 6-7
  40. ↑ Watson, 53
  41. ↑ Birrell, 6

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  • Xun Yue. Han Ji:
Emperor Wu of Han
Born: 156 BC Died: 86 BC
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Emperor Jing of Han		 Emperor of China
Western Han
141–87 BC 		Succeeded by
Emperor Zhao of Han
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