The joy of reading Tongjian with children: The story of Liu Heng being summoned to become emperor

   
I dis­cov­ered by chance that read­ing clas­si­cal Chi­nese to my daugh­ter before bed­time can help her sleep, so late­ly I’ve been using the Zizhi Tongjian as a bed­time sto­ry. I read a pas­sage from the orig­i­nal text and casu­al­ly explain it (skip­ping over any unclear expla­na­tions or parts I don’t under­stand myself). Some­times I skip explain­ing alto­geth­er. My daugh­ter chimes in when she finds it inter­est­ing, then clos­es her eyes and rests when she finds it bor­ing. She usu­al­ly falls asleep soon after.
 
   
Some­times, how­ev­er, I’d find some­thing so cap­ti­vat­ing that even chil­dren would find it so engag­ing that they’d for­get about sleep. One evening, I found the sec­tion about Liu Heng (then Prince of Dai, lat­er Emper­or Wen of Han) being recruit­ed to become emper­or quite fas­ci­nat­ing, espe­cial­ly because it so thor­ough­ly (and quite suc­cinct­ly, actu­al­ly) described Liu Heng’s excep­tion­al­ly cau­tious char­ac­ter.
 
   
The sto­ry takes place in 180 BC. After the death of Empress Lü, Liu Bang’s wife, Empress Lü, dis­con­tent with the Lü fam­i­ly’s pow­er, the Liu fam­i­ly’s kings, led by the King of Qi, revolt­ed. The min­is­ters, led by Prime Min­is­ter Chen Ping and Grand Mar­shal Zhou Bo, seized the oppor­tu­ni­ty to launch a palace coup, destroy­ing the Lü fam­i­ly’s pow­er fos­tered by Empress Lü. At this time, there was a lit­tle emper­or, Liu Hong (12 years old), in the palace. How­ev­er, that child was giv­en to her daugh­ter-in-law (also her grand­daugh­ter) to raise. The min­is­ters were afraid that he would be detri­men­tal to every­one when he grew up (such as set­tling scores after the autumn har­vest), so they said that he was not the bio­log­i­cal son of Emper­or Hui of Han (God knows if it was true), and planned to find some­one to replace him as emper­or to ensure the puri­ty of the Liu fam­i­ly’s blood­line and their own safe­ty. So they dis­cussed -
 
   
The min­is­ters con­spired togeth­er and said, “The Shao­di and the kings of Liang, Huaiyang, and Heng­shan are not the true sons of Emper­or Xiao­hui. Empress Lü schemed to false­ly claim the sons of oth­ers, killed their moth­ers and raised them in the harem, then made the sons of Emper­or Xiao­hui and estab­lished them as empress­es along with the oth­er kings in order to strength­en the Lü fam­i­ly. Now all the Lü clans have been wiped out, and the eldest has been appoint­ed as the queen and is in charge of affairs. We are no longer of the same kind. It would be bet­ter to estab­lish the most vir­tu­ous among the kings.” Some­one said, “The King of Qi is the eldest grand­son of Emper­or Gao, and he can be estab­lished.” The min­is­ters all said, “The Lü fam­i­ly is evil because of their rel­a­tives and almost endan­gered the ances­tral tem­ple and dis­turbed the mer­i­to­ri­ous offi­cials. Now the uncle of the King of Qi is Si Jun, who wears a tiger crown. If the King of Qi is estab­lished, the Lü fam­i­ly will return to the fam­i­ly. The King of Dai is the eldest son of Emper­or Gao, who is kind, fil­ial, and gen­er­ous. The Queen Moth­er’s fam­i­ly, Bo, is cau­tious and good. Besides, estab­lish­ing the eldest son is in har­mo­ny with the peo­ple, and he is known through­out the world for his kind­ness and fil­ial piety!” So they con­spired togeth­er and secret­ly sent some­one to sum­mon the King of Dai.
   
The term “con­spir­a­cy” isn’t meant to be pejo­ra­tive; it sim­ply meant a secret dis­cus­sion, one that the young emper­or could­n’t know about. Hence the “secret sum­mons to the King of Dai,” a move that meant secret­ly send­ing some­one to invite him. The min­is­ters con­sid­ered the two best can­di­dates: Liu Bang’s eldest grand­son, Liu Xiang, the King of Qi, and his old­est son, Liu Heng, the King of Dai. Liu Heng was cho­sen, not only for his rep­u­ta­tion for benev­o­lence and fil­ial piety, but also pri­mar­i­ly because his moth­er, the Bo fam­i­ly, was known for its low-key, envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly, and pol­lu­tion-free approach.
 
   
Now, let’s move on to the reac­tion of King Dai, Liu Heng. While there aren’t many words about him, they’re pow­er­ful, clear­ly and con­cise­ly out­lin­ing his char­ac­ter. The com­ments in brack­ets are from some­one named A.
 
   
When the King of Dai asked his atten­dants (Liu Heng had no reac­tion when he heard that the min­is­ters had sum­moned him to the cap­i­tal, so he imme­di­ate­ly lis­tened to the opin­ions of those around him), the Impe­r­i­al Physi­cian Zhang Wu and oth­ers said, “The min­is­ters of Han are all for­mer gen­er­als of the Emper­or Gao, expe­ri­enced in mil­i­tary affairs, and full of deceit. Their inten­tions are not lim­it­ed to this, they are just afraid of the pow­er of the Emper­or Gao and the Empress Dowa­ger Lü. Now that the Lü clan has been exter­mi­nat­ed and the cap­i­tal has just been drenched in blood, they are using the name of wel­com­ing the King to see the King, which is real­ly not cred­i­ble. I hope the King will feign ill­ness and not go, so as to see how the sit­u­a­tion devel­ops.” (The Impe­r­i­al Physi­cian was in charge of guard­ing the inner court. Judg­ing from this opin­ion, Zhang Wu tend­ed to be con­ser­v­a­tive.) Lieu­tenant Song Changjin said, “The opin­ions of the min­is­ters are all wrong. When the Qin Dynasty lost its pow­er, the princes and pow­er­ful peo­ple rose up, and every­one thought they had won the throne, and it was the Liu fam­i­ly who final­ly ascend­ed to the throne. The world was hope­less, that’s one thing. The Emper­or Gao grant­ed titles to his princes and broth­ers, and the lands were con­trolled by each oth­er. This is what is called a rock-sol­id clan, and the world was sub­dued by its strength, that’s two. When the Han Dynasty rose, it abol­ished the harsh poli­cies of the Qin Dynasty, made laws and decrees, and bestowed ben­e­fits on every­one, so that every­one was at peace. It’s dif­fi­cult to shake, for the third time. Empress Dowa­ger Lü’s strict rule estab­lished the Lü clan as the Three Kings, allow­ing them to usurp pow­er and dic­tate the dic­ta­tor­ship. Yet, the Grand Com­man­dant, with a sin­gle call to arms, entered the North­ern Army, and the sol­diers all sided with the Liu clan, rebelled against the Lü clan, and ulti­mate­ly destroyed them. This was a gift from Heav­en, not human effort. Even if the min­is­ters desire change, if the peo­ple are unwill­ing to fol­low their lead, how can their fac­tions tru­ly unite? Inter­nal­ly, we have close allies with Zhuxu and Dong­mu, while exter­nal­ly, we fear the might of Wu, Chu, Huaiyang, Langya, Qi, and Dai. Of Emper­or Gao’s sons, only the King of Huainan and the Great King remain. The Great King is also the eldest, renowned through­out the land for his virtue, benev­o­lence, and fil­ial piety. There­fore, the min­is­ters, guid­ed by the will of the peo­ple, want to wel­come and enthro­nize the Great King. The Great King should not doubt it. (Lieu­tenant Song Chang, with scant infor­ma­tion, accu­rate­ly guessed the inten­tions of the court min­is­ters through log­i­cal rea­son­ing. The Lieu­tenant com­mand­ed the gar­ri­son at the cap­i­tal. Song Chang’s words demon­strate his excel­lent judg­ment and sug­gest that he is more suit­ed to over­see­ing for­eign affairs. His advo­ca­cy on this mat­ter was very pos­i­tive.)
 
   
Liu Heng received two opin­ions: Zhang Wu’s and Song Chang’s. Judg­ing from Song Chang’s com­ments, Zhang Wu’s opin­ion was like­ly the major­i­ty, as few sup­port­ed Song Chang’s view at the time. How­ev­er, Song Chang’s opin­ion clear­ly moved Liu Heng, per­haps align­ing with his own judg­ment, and he began to be tempt­ed. Even so, he did­n’t take action. He then con­sult­ed rel­e­vant indi­vid­u­als.
 
   
The King of Dai report­ed this to the Queen Moth­er. (At the time, Liu Heng was 23, and it was only nat­ur­al to con­sult his moth­er, Lady Bo, regard­ing such a major mat­ter. Besides, Liu Heng was a renowned fil­ial son.) Unde­cid­ed, he con­sult­ed a div­ina­tion (even his moth­er hes­i­tat­ed, sug­gest­ing a genet­ic pre­dis­po­si­tion). So they con­sult­ed a div­ina­tion. The pre­dic­tion was “Da Heng.” The div­ina­tion said, “Da Heng Geng Geng, I will be the Heav­en­ly King, and Xia Qi will be the Light.” The King of Dai replied, “I am already a king, so what king am I?” The div­ina­tion replied, “The Heav­en­ly King is the Son of Heav­en.” (Whether this div­ina­tion was true or false, a clas­sic exam­ple of suc­cess­ful pre­dic­tion, or sim­ply a sim­plis­tic pre­dic­tion by the for­tune teller? Only God knows. How­ev­er, it is true that the Han peo­ple believed it.)
 
   
After con­sult­ing his moth­er and receiv­ing a favor­able div­ina­tion, 23-year-old Liu Heng should have tak­en action. Not yet! He still felt it was­n’t safe enough and con­tin­ued to test the waters.
 
   
So the King of Dai sent the Queen Moth­er’s broth­er, Bo Zhao, to meet with Mar­quis Jiang. (This time, he asked his uncle to go first and ask ques­tions, specif­i­cal­ly to Mar­quis Jiang, Zhou Bo, who had been most instru­men­tal in exter­mi­nat­ing the Lü clan. The choice of Zhou Bo over Prime Min­is­ter Chen Ping was sig­nif­i­cant: Zhou Bo was known for his hon­esty and dis­liked the round­about ways of schol­ars, while Chen Ping was known for his cun­ning and schem­ing. To inquire about the sit­u­a­tion, one nat­u­ral­ly sought the most direct.) Mar­quis Jiang and the oth­ers explained to Zhao their inten­tion to wel­come the king. Bo Zhao replied, “It is true, beyond any doubt.” The King of Dai smiled and said to Song Chang, “It is just as you said.”
   
After send­ing his uncle to ask Zhou Bo, Liu Heng was basi­cal­ly con­vinced that Song Chang’s judg­ment was cor­rect. He decid­ed that it was time to set off, but was it just a sim­ple mat­ter? No, he still need­ed to make some prepa­ra­tions.
 
   
He ordered Song Chang to accom­pa­ny him on the jour­ney, and Zhang Wu and six oth­ers to ride on the car­riage to accom­pa­ny him to Chang’an. (Liu Heng did not bring many peo­ple with him, but they were all his most trust­ed peo­ple.)
At Gaol­ing, they rest­ed, while Liu Heng sent Song Chang ahead to Chang’an to observe the sit­u­a­tion. (Gaol­ing was still dozens of miles from Chang’an, so Liu Heng stopped here to send Song Chang, his most dis­cern­ing advi­sor, to scout the route. This way, in case of dan­ger, there would still be a chance for escape.) Chang arrived at Weiqiao, where he was greet­ed by the prime min­is­ter and his sub­or­di­nates. Chang returned with his report. (Song Chang report­ed that all the high-rank­ing offi­cials, from the prime min­is­ter down, had arrived; there was clear­ly no sign of a trap to cap­ture him!) The King of Dai rushed to Weiqiao, where his min­is­ters paid their respects and swore their loy­al­ty. The King of Dai dis­mount­ed and bowed in return. Grand Mar­shal Bo stepped for­ward and said, “I would like to ask for a brief­ing.” Song Chang replied, “If you are speak­ing pub­licly, I will speak pub­licly; if you are speak­ing pri­vate­ly, the king is impar­tial.” (Zhou Bo’s state­ment like­ly meant that he invit­ed the King of Dai to a qui­et place to dis­cuss pri­vate­ly, pre­sum­ably sug­gest­ing that he still felt the need to “secret­ly” present the impe­r­i­al seal and mil­i­tary tal­is­man. How­ev­er, Song Chang imme­di­ate­ly stopped him, which was actu­al­ly Liu Heng’s inten­tion.) The Grand Mar­shal knelt and pre­sent­ed the impe­r­i­al seal and tal­is­man. The King of Dai thanked him, say­ing, “We will dis­cuss this mat­ter at the Dai res­i­dence.”
   
Liu Heng’s jour­ney to Chang’an was a dan­ger­ous one. If a trap were set, or if some­one (like the King of Qi, who knew the news) inter­cept­ed him, he might nev­er return. There­fore, he was extreme­ly cau­tious. But when Zhou Bo knelt and pre­sent­ed the impe­r­i­al seal, he did­n’t hap­pi­ly accept this gift. Instead, he polite­ly said, “Let’s dis­cuss it at the Dai State Guest­house.” Why? On the one hand, he was indeed very low-key. On the oth­er hand, only the Grand Mar­shal Zhou Bo and a few min­is­ters pre­sent­ed the impe­r­i­al seal. What about the more impor­tant civ­il offi­cial, the Prime Min­is­ter Chen Ping? Liu Heng still felt uneasy.
 
   
On the last day of the ninth month of the fol­low­ing year, the King of Dai arrived in Chang’an and took up res­i­dence in the Dai Palace, accom­pa­nied by his min­is­ters. Prime Min­is­ter Chen Ping and oth­ers bowed twice and said, “Zi Hong and oth­ers are not sons of Emper­or Xiao­hui and should not serve in the ances­tral tem­ple. Your Majesty, as the eldest son of Emper­or Gao, should be the heir. May Your Majesty ascend the throne.” The King of Dai ges­tured west­ward three times and south­ward twice, then ascend­ed the throne. The min­is­ters fol­lowed the cour­te­ous orders.
   
Arriv­ing at the Dai King­dom Hotel, which was, in a sense, the Dai King’s per­son­al ter­ri­to­ry (the equiv­a­lent of a con­sulate), Prime Min­is­ter Chen Ping led the civ­il and mil­i­tary offi­cials in plead­ing with him to become emper­or. He should have agreed, and indeed he did, but he had to offer his seat fac­ing west three times, then twice more for a seat fac­ing north and south, before final­ly, “reluc­tant­ly,” agree­ing. How tir­ing!
 
   
Dong­mu Mar­quis Xingju said, “I have no mer­it in exter­mi­nat­ing the Lü clan. I request to be removed from the palace.” He entered the palace with Grand Coach­man Ruyin Mar­quis Teng­gong and addressed the young emper­or, say­ing, “You are not a descen­dant of the Liu clan, so you should not be enthroned!” He then turned and ordered the hal­berd bear­ers around him to with­draw their weapons. Sev­er­al refused to dis­band, but the eunuchs ordered Zhang Shi to announce their deci­sion, and they too with­drew. Teng­gong then sum­moned the impe­r­i­al car­riage to take the young emper­or out. The young emper­or asked, “Where do you want to take me?” Teng­gong replied, “I will go to my res­i­dence.” He then left the palace with the Grand Cham­ber­lain. Then, in the impe­r­i­al car­riage, he wel­comed the King of Dai to his res­i­dence and announced, “The palace has been removed.”
   
——This para­graph talks about how Liu Xingju, Mar­quis of Dong­mu, and Xia­hou Ying, Duke of Teng, moved out of the palace, that is, they moved the 12-year-old Emper­or Shao­di Liu Hong out of the palace to make room for Liu Heng.
 
   
That evening, the King of Dai entered the Weiyang Palace. Ten her­alds hold­ing spears were guard­ing the Duan­men Gate, say­ing, “The Emper­or is here. Why are you enter­ing?” The King of Dai then spoke to the Grand Mar­shal. The Grand Mar­shal went to explain, and the ten her­alds all drew their weapons and left, allow­ing the King of Dai to enter.
   
This pas­sage is also quite inter­est­ing. After the palace was cleared, Liu Heng and his men attempt­ed to enter the Weiyang Palace, but ten armed guards barred their entry. Log­i­cal­ly, hav­ing already seized the impe­r­i­al seal, Liu Heng could have ordered them exe­cut­ed or dri­ven away. How­ev­er, he polite­ly sum­moned the Grand Mar­shal Zhou Bo, who gave the order before allow­ing Liu Heng into the palace.
 
   
That night, Song Chang was appoint­ed Gen­er­al of the Guards to paci­fy the armies of the north and south; Zhang Wu was appoint­ed Impe­r­i­al Sec­re­tary to march through the palace. Offi­cials dis­patched troops to exe­cute the kings of Liang, Huaiyang, and Heng­shan, as well as the young emper­or, at his res­i­dence. Emper­or Wen returned to the front hall, and that night, he issued an impe­r­i­al edict grant­i­ng amnesty to the entire nation. (From Vol­ume 13 of “Zizhi Tongjian”)
   
— Ear­li­er, we’ve dis­cussed how Liu Heng hes­i­tant­ly fol­lowed his min­is­ters into Chang’an and the palace to become emper­or. How­ev­er, once inside, he imme­di­ate­ly made sev­er­al deci­sions: first, he appoint­ed Song Chang as com­man­der-in-chief of the cap­i­tal’s gar­ri­son, com­mand­ing both the South­ern and North­ern armies (when the Lü fam­i­ly was exter­mi­nat­ed, Zhou Bo had sim­ply swin­dled the North­ern army’s mil­i­tary pow­er to seize con­trol, demon­strat­ing the impor­tance of this posi­tion). He then appoint­ed the rel­a­tive­ly con­ser­v­a­tive yet equal­ly loy­al Zhang Wu as com­man­der of the palace guard. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, he dis­patched var­i­ous depart­ments to imme­di­ate­ly exe­cute the young emper­or, Liu Hong, and sev­er­al oth­er Liu princes sus­pect­ed of hav­ing Lü ties, essen­tial­ly erad­i­cat­ing the prob­lem at its roots—a strat­e­gy like­ly echoed by the min­is­ters them­selves. And that very night, he ascend­ed to the throne as emper­or, unable to wait even for the next day! Just look at how thrilling this day was!
 
   
From this last para­graph, we can see that Emper­or Wen of Han, Liu Heng, was very low-key, hum­ble and respect­ful on the sur­face, but his polit­i­cal tal­ent was also extra­or­di­nary. He han­dled things very quick­ly and neat­ly. This aspect may have been inher­it­ed from his father, Liu Bang.
 
Jan­u­ary 4, 2012, Argen­tine Primera Diary in Bei­jing