474 Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Epilogues and Conclusions Part I: Elegy for a Lost Capital Chronology The Afterlife of Luoyang Part II: What Went Wrong A Failure of Virtue? The Division of China The Difficulty of Reunification Part I: Elegy for a Lost Capital Chronology 220 Cao Cao dies at Luoyang Cao Cao’s son Cao Pi compels Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate and becomes emperor of the Three Kingdoms state of Wei 221 Liu Bei proclaims himself emperor of the true Han dynasty; his state is commonly known as Shu-Han … 222 Liu Bei attacks Sun Quan in Jing province but is heavily defeated 223 Sun Quan makes alliance with Liu Bei against Cao Pi death of Liu Bei, succeeded by his son Liu Shan 229 Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Wu 234 death of Liu Xie the Duke of Shanyang, last sovereign of Later Han, posthumously titled as Emperor Xian 249 Sima Yi kills Cao Shuang and takes power in Wei 263–264 Wei conquers Shu-Han and controls present-day Sichuan 266 Sima Yan compels the abdication of the last ruler of Wei and proclaims the dynasty of Jin 280 The state of Wu surrenders to Jin; China is reunified 300–307 The War of the Eight Princes destroys the military power of Jin 311 Luoyang is captured and destroyed by Shi Le and Liu Yao, generals of Liu Cong the ruler of the Xiongnu state of Han 318 Sima Rui proclaims himself emperor of [Eastern] Jin at Jianye, pres- ent-day Nanjing former capital of Wu © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/9789004325203_014 Epilogues and Conclusions 475 493–528 Luoyang as the capital of Northern Wei 589 Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui, conquers the south and reunites the empire; he establishes his capital at a new Luoyang, on the site of the present-day city The Afterlife of Luoyang Though Cao Cao had his personal headquarters at Ye city, north of the Yellow River in the southwest of present-day Hebei, the territory of Luoyang had served as a staging post for his operations in the northwest and the west, and he went there once again in 219 during the defence against Guan Yu’s attack in Jing province. Soon afterwards, in the first Chinese month of 220, he died at the former capital; the Western date was 15 March, and Cao Cao was sixty-five years old. Cao Cao had already designated his eldest son Cao Pi as his heir, but the change of ruler in a newly-established state naturally brought a degree of difficulty and uncertainty. To bolster his new position, on 11 December 220 Cao Pi compelled Liu Xie to abdicate and proclaimed himself emperor of a new dynasty.1 Granted special honours and enfeoffed as Duke of Shanyang, Liu Xie died on 8 April 234, just a few days after his fifty-third birthday by Western reckoning; the former sovereign was buried with the honours of an emperor and his posthumous title Xian 獻 commemorated his surrender of power.2 Succession to the duchy continued through four generations, until Liu Xie’s great-great-grandson Liu Qiu was killed in the barbarian attacks which brought the downfall of Western Jin – as below. The fief was not revived. A few weeks after his accession, on 27 January 221 Cao Pi transferred his official residence to Luoyang. The legacy of the former dynasty gave lustre to its successor, and even as the work of reconstruction and restoration continued fifty thousand households were transferred from Ye to confirm the change.3 In the spring of the following year the new sovereign commenced a series of traditional ceremonies, with offerings at the altars to Heaven and to Earth, a 1 HHS 9:390 and SGZ 2:62 with PC following. The discussions which preceded the abdication, and the ceremony itself, are discussed by Leban, “Managing Heaven’s Mandate,” and Goodman, Ts’ao P’i Transcendent. 2 HHS 9:390–91; Fang, Chronicle I, 430 and 443. Liu Xie had been born on Western 2 April 181: Chapter 9 at 438. According to the ritual of Han, the award of a posthumous title was made by the chief minister as the funeral procession prepared for its journey to the tomb: Chapter 2 at 76. Tang commentary to HHS 9:367, at the beginning of the Annals of Emperor Xian’s reign, quotes the Shifa 謚法 “Rule for Posthumous Titles,” which claims that Liu Xie received the title for his wisdom and intelligence. The more regular meaning of the character xian, however, relates to a sacred presentation: Karlgren, GSR 252e. 3 SGZ 25:696–97; Fang, Chronicle I, 13..