Genealogy of Later Han Emperors
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260 WANG MANG AND LATER HAN TABLE 9 Genealogy of Later Han emperors Liu Hsiu (b.5 B.C.) = (i) Empress Kuo 26-41 KUANG-WU-TI = (ii) Empress Yin 41-57 (d. 64) 25-57 1 (i) Liu Ch'iang (ii) Liu Yang (b. 28) = (i) Empress Ma 60—75 W- 79) MING-TI 57-75 (ii) Consort Chia Liu Ta (b. 57) (i) Empress Tou 78-88 (d. 97) CHANG-TI 75-88 (ii) (Name unknown) 1 (iii) Consort Sung (d. 82) (iv) Consort Liang (d. 83) I (v) Consort Shen I I (ii) Liu K'ang d. 93 (iii) Liu Ch'ing = (i) Consort Keng (iv) Liu Chao ; (i) Empress Yin d. 07 (ii) Concubine Tso (b. 79) 96—102 HO-TI (ii) Empress Teng 88-106 102-106 (d. 121) 1 (iii) Concubine 1 1 (name unknown) 1 I Liu Chuing (Fu-hu) (ii) Liu Yu (b. 94) = (i) Empress Yen (iii) Liu Lung d. 121 AN-TI "5-125 SHANG-TI 106-125 W- I26) (b. 105) 1 (ii) Consort Li Feb.-Sept. 106 I Liu Hung = Consort (ii) Liu Pao (b. 115) = (i) Empress Liang d. 141 Chen SHUN-TI 132-144 (d. 150) 125—144 (ii) Consort Yii I I Liu Tsuan (b. 138) (ii) Liu Ping (b. 143) CHIH-TI CH'UNG-TI 145-146 M4-I45 'Date of birth unknown. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 THE LATER HAN DYNASTY 261 (v) Liu Shou (v) Liu K'ai I I I Liu !• Liu I = (i) Consort Ma Liu Shu "SHAO-TI" (ii) Concubine Yen May-Dec. 135 (ii) Liu Chih (b. 132) = (i) Empress Liang Liu Ch'ang-Tung HUAN-TI i47->59 146-168 = (ii) Empress Teng 159-165 (d. 165) = (iii) Empress Tou 165-168 (d. 172) Liu Hung : (i) Empress Sung (b. 156) 171-178 (d. 178) LING-T1 (ii) Empress Ho 168-189 181-189 (iii) Consort Wang (d. 181) I (ii) Liu Pien (iii) Liu Hsieh (b. 181) (i) Empress Fu (b. 173 or 176) HSIEN-TI (d. 234) 195-215 SHAO-TI 189-220 (ii) Empress Ts'ao May-Sept. 189 (d. 190) 215-220 (d. 260) Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 262 WANG MANG AND LATER HAN spent days and nights drinking with the women of his harem, often being too drunk to give audience.98 It is true, of course, that imperial succession was manipulated and abused, but this was due to power struggles and not to a moral and physical enfeeblement of the imperial line. What might look like increasing degeneration of the rulers is rather the historiographical attempt to justify the coming and passing of the Mandate of Heaven. Neither is there conclusive evidence that emperors raised within the court were prone to be weaklings. Wu-ti (r. 141-87 B.C.) of the Former Han was the most energetic ruler of his dynasty, and several Later Han emperors proved themselves competent in spite of this supposed han- dicap. Hsiian-ti (r. 74-48 B.C.), who had been brought up as a commoner, was certainly an excellent ruler." But An-ti (r. A.D. 106-125), who also spent his formative years outside the palace, was the worst sovereign of the two Han dynasties. Evidence is lacking, therefore, to show that the moral caliber of the imperial house progressively declined. The capital The founder of Later Han chose Lo-yang as his capital on 27 November A.D. 25.'°° With an area of 10.1 square kilometers (3.9 square miles), the roughly rectangular Lo-yang was, after Ch'ang-an and Rome, the third- largest walled city in the world. The walls were constructed by the tamped earth method, and their remains still measure up to ten meters in height today. The city was oriented along a north-south axis, the streets forming a rough grid, and the wards being surrounded by walls. Two walled palace compounds were located within and at opposite ends of the city; these were the Northern and Southern Palaces, each measuring about 125 acres. They were connected by an elevated, covered passageway. The city itself was filled with ministries, offices, an arsenal, shrines, two gardens, a granary, probably one market, and the residences of nobles and officials. Outside the city wall, with its twelve gates, was a moat. A canal connecting with it from the east served for shipping supplies to the capital. Pumps and norias on the southern moat supplied the city with water. 98 For the view that imperial lines degenerate, see Edwin O. Reischauer and John K. Fairbanlc, East Asia: The great tradition (London, 1958), pp. 115-16; and John K. Fairbank, The United Slates and China (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), p. 90. For criticism of indulgences, see, e.g., US 99C, p. 4180 (Dubs, HFHD, Vol. Ill, pp. 439-40). 99 For a different appraisal of Wu-ti, see Chapter 2, p. 153. For Hsiian-ti's upbringing and his first attention to affairs of state after the death of Huo Kuang (68 B.C.), see HS 68, p. 2951; Loewe, Crisis and conflict, p. 131. 100 HHS iA, p. 2;. For a full-scale study of Lo-yang, see Hans Bielenstein, "Lo-yang in Later Han times," BMFEA 48 (1976), 1-142; see also Wang Zhongshu, Han civilization, trans. K. C. Chang et. al. (New Haven and London, 1982), Chapter 2. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 THE LATER HAN DYNASTY 263 ALTAR OF EARTH YUNG-AN PALACE Stone Bridge Shang-tung IMPERIAL® SHRINE 'Altar to gods ol soils and of grains. __ Mansion of • Liang Chi Chin-chtong gate . II I L Ping- Kai- cn'eng yang gate gate SPIRITUAL TERRACE CENTRAL SUBURBAN ALTAR ® fT) ALTAR OF ^ HEAVEN Map 13. Lo-yang, capital of Later Han After H. Bielenstein. BMFEA 48 (1976). Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 264 WANG MANG AND LATER HAN Beyond the moat were sprawling suburbs, divided into the usual wards. Greater Lo-yang measured roughly 24.5 square kilometers, and had a population of probably no less than half a million. This made it the most populous city in the world at that time. A number of important buildings were situated within the suburbs south of the city, including the Spiritual Terrace, which was the imperial observatory, the Bright Hall (Ming-t'ang), which was a cosmological temple, and the Academy (T'ai-hsiieh), which eventually had more than 30,000 students.101 There were two additional markets in the suburbs, another granary serving the purpose of price stabil- ization, and a lodge built to house two famous bronze statues. Among the farmlands in the open country were the Altars of Heaven and Earth, five cosmological altars, lesser shrines, imperial parks and funeral workshops, two great hunting preserves, mansions of the rich and power- ful, and the imperial tombs. Lo-yang was more compact and austere than the Ch'ang-an of Former Han times, and it was, like all Chinese cities, constructed of perishable materials.102 While it lasted, it must have been a magnificent city. The end came soon after the massacre of the eunuchs in A.D. 189. The troops of the warlord Tung Cho looted Lo-yang for weeks, and finally destroyed it utterly on 1 May A.D. 190. The ruin of the city was so complete that the Wei dynasty had to rebuild it from the ground up within the still existing walls.103 Borders and neighbors The borders of Later Han were the traditional ones (see Maps 12 and 16). In the north, the empire was defended by the Great Wall. In the west, it petered out in the wilderness of the Tibetan and Burmese borderlands. In the south, it reached along the coast into what is now Vietnam. In Korea, it held the lowlands facing China, roughly as far south as the area of present-day Seoul. But all parts of the empire were not under the same firm control; in some territories, Chinese authority was loose or even nominal. Fukien was entirely outside the border. Separated from the interior of China by a barrier of mountains, it was absorbed late, through a gradual and relatively peaceful immigration of Chinese farmers that began at the end of the second century A.D. There existed only one Chinese town in 101 This figure is given for the reign of Huan-ti (A.D. 146-168): HHS 67, p. 2186; HHS 79A, P- 2547- 102 For Ch'ang-an, see Stephen James Hotaling, "The city walls of Han Ch'ang-an," TP 64:1-3 (1978), 1—46; Wang Zhongshu, Han civilization. Chapter 1; and Chapter 2 above, pp. 13if. 103 HHS 9, p. 370; HHS 72, p. 232;; Bielenstein, "Lo-yang," pp. 8gf. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 THE LATER HAN DYNASTY 265 Fukien, near the mouth of the Min River, which served as a port for shipping along the coast.ItM As in the past, China's most formidable neighbors were the Hsiung-nu in Central Asia. They interfered actively in the civil war, supporting one of the pretenders and frequently raiding the northern Chinese countryside.I05 Kuang-wu-ti's military attitude was entirely defensive, even though with the end of the civil war in A.D. 36 he was strong enough to take the offensive. That year, he had new fortifications constructed in order to block the traditional invasion route into Shansi. From A.D. 38, a second line of defense was built across central Shansi, a third to shield the Great Plain against attacks through Shansi, and a fourth and fifth for the protection of northern Shensi and the lower Wei River valley.