The History of China - #30 - W. Han 8: Getting Over Wu

Episode Date: July 13, 2014

Following the historically long reign of Emperor Wu, the Han Empire struggles to find a replacement, in light of the designated heir being dead. The first choice will die without ever having tasted real power, the second an incompetent buffoon who won't last a month in office, until finally a real alternative can be found from the most unlikely of places: prison. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. This episode is brought to you by you. Through the generosity of our phenomenal listeners, The History of China is able to continue exploring the tremendous story of the Middle Kingdom. If you, too, think that our show is worth a dollar, or to post suggestions or questions, or simply would like to join the online fun, please go to thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com,

where you'll find out how you can support the podcast. Regardless, please continue to enjoy, and be sure to go to the History of China's iTunes and Stitcher pages and rank us highly. Your ranks are very helpful, and we can always use more. Thanks again very much, and enjoy the show. Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 28, Getting Over Wu. Last time, we concluded the 54-year rule of Emperor Wu of Han, and the succession crisis generated by the rebellion and subsequent death of his designated heir, Crown Prince Liu Zhu. This week, we look at life after Wu, and how Han managed to survive and even thrive following

the exit of its longest-reigning monarch, beginning with the coronation of the child emperor Zhao. You'll remember from the last episode that the birth of emperor wu's youngest son prince old. That excitement had been compounded by the supposedly extended pregnancy of his consort, purportedly 14 months, which had been the same amount of time in utero as the mythical Emperor Yao from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period at the dawn of time. Rumors quickly circulated through the Han capital Chang'an that Wu's favor for his youngest son and the consort who bore him might lead to a change in succession, namely that Wu might disinherit his 38-year-old heir in favor of his infant son. Rumors were swiftly followed by plots against the crown prince,

and those soon blossomed into accusations of witchcraft, culminating in the failed rebellion, flight, and eventual suicide of Liu Zhu and his two sons, and the extermination of much of his family. Save for one key member, Zhu's infant grandson. But more on that later. Though it seems Wu hadn't really been thinking of replacing his heir, Crown Prince Zhu's death had pretty well forced the issue. He had had two grown sons, Prince Dan and Prince Shu, but he dismissed the both of them

from consideration outright, given that neither seemed to have any respect for the laws of the empire and would likely result in a tyrant king and internal strife. That left, yep, the now six-year-old Prince Fu Ling as the only real option. Of course, Wu wasn't about to just leave the empire in the hands of an unsupervised kindergartner. He arranged a triumvirate of his most trusted advisors to act as both regents and teachers to the soon-to-be Emperor of Han. The man he trusted most, and who would become the central authority, was Huo Guang. At Minister Huo's suggestion, Wu also appointed General Shang Guangjie and the ethnically Xiongnu official Jin Midi as co-regents. And it was fortunate that Wu made up his mind when he did,

because only two days after naming the three regents, on March 29, 87 BCE, he succumbed to old age, leaving the empire in the hands of the young prince and his three co-regents. In accordance with tradition, Liu Fuling's formal enthronement wouldn't take place until the following year. He would be given the regnal name Emperor Zhao posthumously, and would, nominally, take up the reins of empire at the tender age of eight. His older sister, Princess Eyi, moved back into the imperial palace to be his caretaker. But not all of the new emperor's siblings would be quite so helpful. His spurned eldest brother, Prince Dan of Yan, was understandably less than happy at having been

snubbed by his late father in favor of some snot-nosed half-brother. From his principality's capital city, Yanjing, which is modern Beijing, he plotted a rebellion against the child monarch, along with two other members of the imperial clan, Liu Zhang and Liu Zi. The plan was to accuse Emperor Zhao of not actually being the son of the late Wu, and then declare against him. Before it could be enacted, however, the plot was discovered and stopped by imperial agents. Curiously, though both of his co-conspirators were executed for their part in the would-be treason, Princeton himself would apparently escape punishment entirely to plot again. For a time, the triumvirate of co-regents Hu Huo, Jin, and Shangguan, worked in concert to manage the

decisions of state and guide the development of their royal charge. But that would not last long, as later the same year, Jin Mi Di died after an extended period of illness. Though ethnically foreign, Jin had been well respected by both Huo and Shangguan, and had served as a moderating influence on the other two. With his death, the relationship between the two remaining regents slowly soured, as Shangguan grew less and less content with his inferior position within the now duo. Their relationship was further complicated by the fact that Huo's daughter had been married to Shangguan's son several years prior, and the couple had a five-year-old daughter. Minister Shang Guan wanted their granddaughter to marry Emperor Zhao, but Huo

disapproved, feeling that both were too young to marry yet. Shang Guan, however, would not be dissuaded, and he next turned to Zhao's older sister, Princess E Yi. He managed to convince E Yi that such a marriage would both cement the relationship between the Liu and Shangguan clans, as well as promising that he would assist the princess in legitimizing her long-standing relationship with her mutual friend. Princess Ayi at last agreed, her status as legal guardian of the emperor overriding Hua's objections, and in 84, the six or seven-year-old Lady Shangguan was declared an imperial consort, and the next year promoted to empress. Under Huo's regency, Emperor Zhao's government began

rolling back the wartime measures set in place by his predecessor. After acrimonious debate, the imperial monopoly on wine and iron was at last lifted, once again allowing the merchant classes to profit from their sale, and the people began to economically recover from the enormous burdens of the prior decades. Not everyone was a fan of such economic liberalizations, however. In particular, certainly not those who controlled the highly profitable monopolies, such as the Vice Prime Minister, Sang. This, combined with Huo Guang's continually brusque refusal to approve the promotion to officialdom Shangguan had promised for Princess Ayi's lover, made him increasingly unpopular among a certain cabal of court insiders. In 80 BCE, the group decided that enough was enough,

and it was time for Huo's permanent exit. The conspirators, consisting of the Shangguan clan, Princess Ayi, Prince Dan of Yan, still playing at espionage in spite of his first brush with headlessness, and the vice prime minister, collectively drafted a missive to Emperor Zhao, accusing Huo Guang of improperly utilizing imperial authority and calling for his arrest and removal from office. Their plan hinged on Emperor Zhao doing what his office was expected to do, which was order an investigation into Minister Huo, at which point Zhang Guangjie and the Vice Prime Minister would step in to arrest and immediately execute Huo. But the now 14-year-old Zhao shocked the conspirators by dismissing the allegations, a serious offense,

completely out of hand. And it wasn't out of adolescent rashness either. Zhao, upon reading the missive, noted that Prince Dan's signature and seal was prominently displayed as one of the complainants against Huo. The emperor reasoned that Dan, so far away from Chang'an in his capital Yanjing, could not possibly have known about the allegations against Huo so soon, and certainly wouldn't have had time to fix his name to such charges. Therefore, he concluded the report had to have been a forgery. Lo Zhao's final conclusion allowed the anti-Huo conspirators to evade detection for the time being. He had spared his chief regent a grisly death, and proved to his court and empire that he was quite wise for his age, having immediately put together that the document was a trick, even if he hadn't quite figured out yet what the trick really was.

The conspirators, however, simply couldn't leave well enough alone, and later that year tried once again to take down Huo Guang, this time planning to also depose that meddling kid Emperor Zhao in the process. Princess Ayi was to invite Huo to a feast, and then ambush him and kill him over dinner, depose the young monarch, and install his half-brother Prince Dan as the new emperor. There are allegations that the Shangguan clan had conspired further amongst themselves, planning to double-cross their princely allies and assassinate Prince Don when he entered the capital to claim the throne, and for Shangguan Jie to subsequently declare himself emperor, deposing the imperial Liu clan entirely. All of this scheming and subterfuge, however, would be undone by the loose lips of

one of Princess Eyi's servants. She informed Huo Guang and Emperor Zhao of the vile plan against them and its perpetrators, and Han justice came swiftly. Princess Eyi and Prince Dan committed suicide, and their family branches were exterminated, as was the entire Shangguan clan, save for Empress Shangguan herself, owing to her young age, which was around nine at the time,

and her being Huo Guang's granddaughter. Huo was understandably shaken at learning that so many of those close to him, even one of his oldest friends, Shang Guanjie, was conspiring to have killed him. He would conduct a thorough purge against anyone else who might have had a part in the plot against him and Zhao. This would earn him a reputation across the empire for autocratic rule and heavy-handed punishments, but he and Zhao became, if anything, closer as a result of having survived such a plot together. Hua's turn to heavy-handedness would be put on display some three years later in 77 BCE in an incident that would unfold in the western region of the empire,

along the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, in a kingdom called Luolan. Round about the time of the plot against Huo Guang and Emperor Zhao, the elder king of Luolan had died, and his son, An Gui, had ascended to the throne. With this change in local leadership came a marked shift in foreign policy. Whereas the elder king had been content to submit to the might of chang an angwe began supporting the sheung nu khanate to the north and east while resisting the han government straddled one of the main routes to Western trade. The Han Empire had spent decades and hundreds of thousands of lives to wrest the Western regions from the horse lords' control, and it wasn't about to let any of them defect now. Thus, Minister Huo dispatched Imperial Messenger Fu Jiezi to meet with King Angui,

under the pretense of rewarding the Western vassal with jewels and precious items. His true objective, however, was to put an end to this threat to trade stability once and for all. After a private meeting with the Luolan king, Fu stabbed him through the heart before turning and warning the ministers present that they were not to do anything or offer any resistance against him. If they harmed or detained him, an enormous Han imperial army was ready to sweep in and crush their tiny kingdom. It was almost certainly a bluff, but one the Luolan took quite seriously. Messenger Fu convinced the nobility to make the late King Angui's brother,

Wei Tuqi, a known friend of Han, king in his stead. With order restored in the west, Huo prepared to hand off the reins of power to his charge the now almost seventeen-year-old emperor zhao but fate it seemed had different ideas in seventy four b c e at only twenty or twenty-one years old emperor zhao died unexpectedly and for unknown reasons as both he and now empress dowager shang guang were so young she was about fourteen at the time of her husband's death rendering her the youngest ever chinese empress dowager they had produced no children and the empire was once again thrown into a succession crisis half-brother, Prince Liu Shu of Guanling, Huo Guang rejected him as a potential successor, citing the fact that his own father had deemed Shu unworthy of the throne, so who was he to overrule that decision? Instead, Huo settled on Zhao's nephew, the grandson of Emperor Wu, Liu He, the Prince of Chang'e. The date of his birth is not definitively known, but 92 BCE is often kicked around as his year of birth which would have made prince he about two years younger than prince jiao although discussion of his inheritance of the principality of chang'i in eighty six b c e suggests he may have actually been older than his uncle emperor not all that important. When Prince He received the news that he was to inherit the empire, he raced at full speed to the capital city, at such a pace that his horse supposedly dropped dead from exhaustion. He was urged to slow down, and that such haste during a period of mourning for the recently deceased Zhao would be seen as highly inappropriate. He dismissed this warning,

and upon arrival at Chang'an, he stayed in the Chang'e Imperial Embassy before attending a formal session of mourning for Emperor Zhao. Subsequently, he officially accepted the throne of Han. Upon taking office, Liu He wasted no time in making himself completely at home. During periods of official mourning, sexual relations, marriages, political promotions, and feasts were all taboo throughout the Han Empire. Liu He, however, was having none of this mopey business, and immediately began handing out promotions like they were candy to his subordinates from Chang'e. In celebration of his ascension, he feasted day and night, and had even before arrival in Chang'an been demanding women from the local magistrates whose townships he had passed through. This casual disregard for ancient, outright holy customs shocked and deeply

disappointed Huo Guang. Only 27 days into the new emperor's reign, it had become undeniably clear that Huo had made a huge mistake in selecting Liu He. Thus, in league with Army General Zhang Anshi and Prime Minister Yang Chang, Huo called a top-level meeting to announce his plan to depose the new emperor, and compelled the others present to accept this decision on pain of death. As a group, the whole meeting proceeded to Empress Dowager Shangguan's palace to report Liu He's offenses and ask her to approve his overthrow. The 14-year-old Empress Dowager agreed with their reasoning and decision, and immediately ordered that Liu He's supporters from Chang'e be barred from the imperial palace, effective immediately. She then summoned Liu He

to her palace, him still none the wiser as to any of these goings-on. It became apparent that he was in hot water, though, when he arrived at Shangguan's palace to find her seated on her diadem in full regalia, and with the imperial officials lined up at her side. Displaying once again what an uncommonly large degree of power Empress Dowagers could wield, Huo and the assembled officials offered their drafted articles of impeachment against the stunned Liu He, and they were read aloud to the Empress Dowager. These articles were no little laundry list. They ran a total of 1,127 misconducts against the Office of Emperor, which is quite an impressive number given that Liu He had only had 27 days to accomplish them.

The primary offenses, though, were five items. 1. Refusal to abstain from meat and sex during the period of mourning. 2. Failure to keep the imperial throne safe and secure. 3. Improperly promoting and rewarding his Chang'e subordinates during the period of mourning. 4. Engaging in feasts and games during the period of mourning. 5. Offering sacrifices to his father during the period of mourning for his uncle. When the exhaustive list of complaints was at last read to completion, Empress Dowager Shangguan verbally rebuked Liu He before approving the articles and officially ordering him deposed.

He was stripped of all titles and position and ordered to be escorted back to Chang'e under heavy guard. So complete was his failure, not to mention the tenure of less than a month that he would not even be bothered to be included on the official listings of han emperors ouch what was unique about liu he's dismissal and what you may have already picked up on was that very much unlike just about every other emperor who found himself deposed thus far, He was not imprisoned or executed after the fact. Even though he was returned to his home unstripped of his titles, the Empress Dowager still went so far as to allot Prince He a small fief of about 2,000 families to pay him tribute, the ancient Chinese equivalent of a golden parachute, especially considering the typical severance package that accompanied overthrow.

Liu He would live out the rest of his days in Changi and eventually be reinstated as an imperial official upon being granted the semi-pejorative title Marquis of Haihun, or the Marquis of Maritime Incompetence. So, with the 27-day emperor safely away from the levers of power and back where he belonged, Huo Guang once again was faced with the dilemma of who would be the new successor. And it is here that the story takes a wholly unexpected turn. A riches-to-rags-and-back-to-riches

tale. At the beginning of this episode, you'll recall we recapped the circumstance that had led to Emperor Zhao's coronation, specifically the failed rebellion of his elder half-brother, the crown prince Liu Ju, against Emperor Wu. In the aftermath of the conflict, the crown prince and his two sons were dead through either suicide or execution, and most of his family had either been killed in the conflict or was executed after the fact. In fact, the sole surviving member of Liu Ju's family line had been his grandson, the infant Liu Bingyi, who had been spared from the sword solely because of his age.

But even then, Emperor Wu wasn't so trusting as to think his baby great-grandson might not be conspiring to cast spells against him, and so just to be safe, he locked the infant away in prison. His princely status was revoked, and he was cast down to live life as a commoner, under lock and key within the Ministry of Vassal Affairs. The warden of the prison, Bing Ji, seeing that this was clearly a baby and not some hardened criminal sorcerer, took the tiny former prince under his care and assigned two female prisoners to be his caretakers and wet nurses. As young Bing Yi grew up, Warden Bing deemed that the prison system was, surprise, unfit for an

innocent child to live in, especially following the abortive attempt on the child's life by the ever-crazier Emperor Wu before he thought better of it. But the city government refused to care for the outcast child, and thus Warden Bing was forced to keep him under his own protection, even going so far as to pay for Liu Bingyi's living expenses out of pocket. Later, for a period, he was raised by a distant surviving relative before once again coming to the attention of the imperial throne, now occupied by Bingyi's granduncle, Emperor Zhao.

Zhao ordered that his Ministry of Imperial Clan Affairs take custody of his grandnephew and raise him in the palace, where he was well taken care of and educated in state affairs and politics. He married the daughter of one of the court eunuchs. Hey, he hadn't always been a eunuch. And being still disinherited and dirt poor, depended on her family's wealth to support him. Having lived the vast majority of his life among the populace as a commoner, he had developed a strong sense of social justice and a hatred for official corruption

that was very uncommon indeed within the rarefied halls of the imperial palace. The 27-day Emperor debacle occurred when Liu Bingyi was 17 years old, and following Prince He's expulsion from the throne and capital, Minister Huo Guang once again scoured the Liu family tree for someone who could competently fill the role of Han emperor. At Warden Bing's suggestion, Huo decided to offer the throne to the no doubt completely surprised Bingyi. Empress Dowager Shangguan approved the decision, but there was just one little catch. You see, Liu Bingyi was a member of the imperial clan, but he had been stripped of his nobility and was merely a commoner.

And they couldn't have some filthy commoners behind touching the holy throne of Han. Fortunately, for all parties, there was a quick and easy way around the issue. Less than a month after the throne had been made vacant once more, Liu Bingyi was elevated by the Empress Dowager to the Marquis of Yangwu, thereby restoring his nobility. The stain of commonness lifted. The same day, he was officially offered and accepted the imperial seal of office and throne. You don't get too many promotions bigger than that. Liu Bingyi's regnal name was Emperor Xuan of Han, and he was enthroned in 74 BCE, and his wife, Xu Pingjun, was initially declared the imperial consort. Initially, the court officials had had their own ideas about the now emperor's love life in particular pressuring him to take huo guang's daughter lady cheng jun as his primary wife and declare her empress

hsuan however was having none of this political marriage garbage he didn't reject the proposal outright mind you but simply nodded his head in contemplation before issuing an order to seek out and bring to the emperor the sword he had used while a commoner. It was a perfect blend of subtlety and terror, and his court officials took the hint, immediately changing their recommendation to Consort Xu being named the empress, which she was later that same year. The following year, the aging Huo Guang offered his resignation as regent to the young Emperor Xuan, having been suitably convinced that he had at last chosen the right man for the job.

And quite frankly, he was getting too old for this stuff. But Xuan refused the resignation, and ordered that all important matters of state should still be directed first to Huo. And it's clear that the Emperor both respected and remained somewhat intimidated by the level of power Huo possessed. For the rest of the minister's life, the de jure absolute monarch of China would remain humble and deferent to the aging minister. He would instate Huo's son, grandsons, and son-in-laws with high officialdoms across the empire.

And that same year, Emperor Xuan aimed to remove what was left of the stain on his family's honor by restoring the posthumously stripped titles and honors to his father and grandfather. Possibly out of respect for the decrees of his predecessor though, he did give crowned Prince Liu Ju the rather unflattering posthumous name Li, meaning unrepentant. Following the ceremony, they were all reinterred with the honors befitting their positions. And so, it seemed that all of the empire's ducks were finally in a row, and Emperor Xuan in a position to reign with peace and justice. And so, assuming you've been paying attention to the story so far, you'll know that that couldn't possibly last very long.

Guo Guang and the court officials had accepted Xuan's decision to not abandon his wife in favor of Hua's daughter, but her mother hadn't been nearly so understanding. She would stop at nothing to see her beloved daughter seated on the throne as empress. And so, in 71 BCE, while Empress Xu was pregnant, Lady Hua bribed the empress's doctor to poison her patient shortly after she gave birth, under the guise of administering medicine.

When Empress Xu died suddenly, the doctor was arrested and an investigation into the death launched. Lady Huo grew alarmed at this, apparently not having realized beforehand that there would probably be some suspicion with such a sudden death. Thus, she revealed her plot to her husband, Huo Guang. Huo didn't have the heart to turn in his own wife, and so ended up signing the doctor's release order and writing off Empress Xu's death as a tragic accident. The following year, Lady Huo finally got the wish she was willing to kill for, when her daughter, Huo Cheng Jun, married Emperor Xuan and was declared empress. Two years later, in 68 BCE, Minister Huo Guang died following a period of illness, having served as imperial regent for 19 years. As a testament to his power, influence, and the respect he had commanded throughout his life, Emperor Xuan and Empress

Dowager Shangguan took the unprecedented step of personally attending Minister Hua's wake, and built for him a massive mausoleum. The remainder of the Hua clan retained their powerful positions and lived lives of luxury on par with the royal family itself. Following Hua's death, Xuan took a far more direct hand in the affairs of state, retaking many of the powers he had long entrusted to the elder statesmen. In 67, his young son, Liu Shi, who had been born only a few months before Xuan had accepted the throne, was named the crown prince. And this threw a monkey wrench into Lady Huo's grand scheme, because so long as the now seven-year-old son of the late Princess Shu held that title, her own potential grandson could never be the next emperor, regardless of her daughter's status as

empress. Apparently, she and her daughter Empress Huo Chongjun were of like mind on the issue, because soon thereafter the empress began taking potshots at the crown prince. After multiple attempts on the young crown prince's life failed, rumors began reaching the concerned Emperor Xuan's ears that the Huo clan, and potentially even his very wife, might be involved in such treachery, and had possibly even murdered his first wife. Deeply suspicious, but still lacking a smoking gun, the emperor began to strip the Huo clan members of real power, while hiding the action by granting them impressive sounding titles. But the rumor mill around the Hua clan kept churning,

and in 66, the Lady Hua admitted to her son and grandnephews that it all was true. She had been behind the murder of Empress Xu and the attempts against the crowned prince. Now, regardless of what they might have personally felt about Lady Hua's actions, it was well understood that they were all in this mess together. As remember, treason against the imperial family was still punishable by extermination of the entire clan. And so, together, they hatched a plan to depose Xuan once and for all, and seize the imperial throne for themselves. This went about as well as one might expect from a family who couldn't even successfully murder a seven-year-old.

The plan was uncovered well before implementation, and the entire clan from Lady Huo on down was arrested and executed. Empress Huo Chen Jun was spared from death but deposed as empress. She would remain under house arrest in the capital for another 12 years before finally being exiled, whereupon she committed suicide. Throughout the middle and later portions of what would be Xuan's quarter-century reign, he was characterized as having been economically prudent, caring towards his populace, and with a tendency to deal fairly and honestly with his vassal states, especially those of the Hexi Corridor and the far western region,

engendering close ties between their kings and the throne of Chang'an. The one major rebellion between 62 and 60 BCE among the Qiang tribes of the far west would be quelled in a method very much unlike Xuan's great-grandfather Wu the Warlike. Rather than rallying his armies and crushing the uprising, Xuan heeded his general Zhao Chongguo's advice to just treat them better, while establishing fortified military bases in the region to make them think twice about any future civil unrest. While the former empress Huo Chengjun still languished in her house arrest, Xuan would declare his third and final empress huo cheng jun still languished in her house arrest hsuan would declare his third and final empress at that time he favored consorts hua chang and wei each of whom had bore him children

he almost settled on consort chang as his new empress however as the old saying goes once bitten twice shy and remembering how empress Huo had tried to murder the crown prince, he resolved to have an empress who was childless and kind. He decided on consort Wang, and declared her empress in 64 BCE. Empress Xuan put Prince Shi in her care, and she cared for him well. However, she would never earn the favor of Emperor Xuan, and they rarely saw one another outside of official functions. In 59 BCE, a major civil war broke out between three factions within the northern Xiongnu confederacy, which had continued to splinter following its crushing defeat by Wu decades prior. By 56, the once-unified empire had fractured into three separate and mutually unfriendly regimes,

ruled by the Chanyus Ren Zhen, Hu Hanyi, and Zhizhi, respectively. As they vied for power amongst themselves, all three Chanyus sought peace with Han, allowing Emperor Xuan to draw down his military defenses along the northern border by as much as one-fifth, and eased the cost levied on his people as a result. In 54, Ren Zhen Chanyu was killed and his territory annexed by Zhezhe Chanyu, who was seeking to reunify the empire. As Zhezhe turned to attack his younger brother, Hu Hanyue Chanyu, in 53 BCE, Hu Hanyue journeyed south to Chang'an, where he formally requested to become an imperial vassal and sought the protection of the emperor. His request was granted, and he was given status within the Han Empire as above that of even imperial princes, and the promise of military assistance against his elder brother.

With Han backing, Hu Hanyi was able to turn the tables on Zhizhi Chanyu and was able to force him westward into effective exile. In 51 BCE, in what is considered to be one of his greatest moments, Emperor Xuan looked back on his rise to power and ordered portraits of the 11 men he considered instrumental in that process created. This was absolutely unprecedented in China up to that point. Imagine, the son of heaven acknowledging the earthly means through which he achieved power. Among the eleven, though, Huo Guang was placed above the rest, and in an act of ultimate respect, Huo's portrait was the only one in which its subject was referred to only by his titles rather than by name. You might think of it like a sports team retiring a number. Two years later, in 49 BCE, Emperor Xuan would fall terminally ill at the age of 42. Upon his death, he was interred within the Du Ling Pyramid Mausoleum, which is about

15 kilometers southeast of modern Xi'an. Next time, we'll cover the reign of Xuan's successor, Crown Prince Liu Shi, as Emperor Yuan of Han, his promotion of Confucianism as the guiding principle of government across the empire, and exactly how that philosophy had changed, and in what ways it hadn't, since last we really touched on it 500 years ago in episode 13. Thank you for listening. a free audiobook download along with a free 30-day trial of the service. With over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle, or MP3 player, Audible is the nation's leading seller and producer of spoken audio content.