The History of China - #36 - E. Han 3: Live Fast, Die Young

Episode Date: August 24, 2014

Coming on the heels of Han's last Golden Age, emperors will begin dropping like flies, opening the Empire up to corruption from its empresses, military commanders, and the newly-empowered eunuch-lords. Also, paper will be invented. 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. Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 34, Live Fast, Die Young Last episode, we went over the reigns of Emperors Ming and Zhang, in what was to be the last golden age of the Han Dynasty. Today, as we transition from the 1st to the 2nd century CE, we'll watch a veritable parade of young, curiously death-prone emperors allow their empire to slip once again into decline. But on the other hand, we'll also get to see invented

one of the most far-reaching and transformative informational technologies ever, so we've got that going for us, which is nice. We left off last week with the surprising death of Emperor Zhang at only 31 years old in year 88. And the following year, we campaigned to finally crush the last remnant of the hostile Xiongnu tribes under the victorious command of General Dou Xian. But I had left out two key details. First is that while Emperor Zhang was only 31, he will be one of the oldest emperors for a long while in the Han dynasty. And second was why Doshian had been sent to the front lines in the first place. He was one of

Empress Dowager Dou's brothers, after all, and you surely remember that she had manipulated the imperial court to make her own clan the preeminent power in the capital. But Doshian had really, really messed up, to the point where even his own sister wanted him dead. You see, in late 88, he had organized the assassination of one of the Empress Dowager's favorite marquise, Liu Chang, and then attempted to blame the murder on Liu's brother. Dou Xian held great power in the capital. Several judges were not afraid of him and persisted in investigating the murder. In short order, they found that it was the Empress's brother behind it all. Empress Thao Jidel was furious and ordered Doshien's arrest.

In a desperate bid to save his own skin, he offered to lead the campaign against the horsemen tribes, a task which he knew could well have claimed his life in the process. But as we covered last time, he led his coalition army to the smashing victory instead, and with it not only forgiveness from the Empress, but also even more power. The Empress Dowager Do had, since the death of her husband, Emperor Zhang in 88, been the effective power behind the throne, along with her four brothers. But sitting on that throne was her adoptive son, Liu Zhao, who had been enthroned at age 8 or 9 as Emperor He of Han. But young as he was, Emperor He would turn out to be considerably more clever and resourceful than he first appeared.

By 92 CE, the now 13-year-old had had just about enough of his adopted mother and uncle's manipulations, and moreover, apparently began to fear that they might eventually decide that they had no further use for him and arrange his assassination. Looking back, there does not appear to be any significant evidence that such a plot was afoot, and indeed there would have been little if any motivation or benefit to such an action. Nevertheless, Emperor He's distrust of his adoptive relatives grew to the point that he felt compelled to act, and had amassed allies of his own against them. One member of this core of imperial conspirators was He's own half-brother, Prince Liu Qing, who had a pretty good reason himself to want to see Empress Dou laid low.

You'll remember that he had, after all, been the crown prince first, and had only been replaced by Dou's adoption of the eventual Emperor He. Moreover, both his mother and aunt, the consort's Song, had been driven to poison themselves through the Empress's machinations. The two royal half-brothers were joined by a court eunuch named Zheng Zhang, a longtime ally and faithful servant to the royal family, imperial attendant, director of the imperial gardens, and one of the palace's few emasculated servants who had not made pains to endear

himself to the Empress Dowager or her powerful clan. It doesn't seem to be the case that Zhen Zhang joined the anti-Dou Cabal out of any particular enmity toward the Dou clan, though of course he clearly held no great love for them either. Rather, he seems to have joined up out of a deep devotion to the young monarch himself. By using historical records of previous imperial overthrows as their guide, the triumvirate set their plan in motion in the summer of 92. Emperor He issued an imperial edict ordering his palace guards to go on high alert and seal off the imperial palace, as well as the outer gates of Luoyang itself.

He then leveled accusations against virtually the entire Dou clan of plotting to murder the emperor and ordered them all executed. An imperial messenger was sent to strip Dou Xian. By then the commander of the armed forces of his seal of office and all four of Empress Dowager Dou's brothers were exiled from the capital and marched back to their home provinces under heavy guard. But He went one further. He had planned to have his uncles executed all along, but simply hadn't wanted to do so publicly. Thus, once the Dou brothers had been returned to their respective marches, he ordered three of them to commit suicide, bearing only Dou Gui, who had always

been the most humble among his arrogant and autocratic brothers. As for Empress Dowager Dou, she was stripped of all governmental power, although He did continue to honor her as his mother, even though more and more information had begun to suggest to He that she was not, in fact, related by birth. She would die in 97, and it was only then that the full truth of He's birth, adoption, and the identity of his true birth mother revealed to him. He would posthumously promote consort Liang to empress, and found her brothers, his biological uncles,

and rewarded each of them with powerful positions. From then on out, the Liang clan would be one of the preeminent powers of the Eastern Han. And keep them in mind because they will be coming back in this episode. Many supporters of the Dou clan also found themselves summarily fired from their posts in the post-coup purge of government, most notably including Dou Xian's chief assistant, Bang Gu. Bang Gu is worth mentioning for two reasons. First, and most famously famously was that he was a historian and poet who had inherited his father, Ban Biao's, partially completed historical

compilation of the Western Han Dynasty, a work which was both in form and tone the spiritual successor to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. Bangu had spent much of his life continuing his father's work, which would come to be known as Han Shu, or the Book of Han. The Book of Han is where the vast majority of our information of the time period comes from. Though Bangu

would contribute much to the work, his summary removal from office for his association with the Do's, and subsequent imprisonment, torture, and execution, meant that the final sections of Han Shu would need to be completed by Ban Gu's sister, Ban Zhao. Beyond being a trove of historical accounts in its own right, its particular style and focus on geography, as well as viewing Chinese history through a dynastic framework,

would serve as the model for many subsequent Chinese histories, including this very podcast. a dynastic framework would serve as the model for many subsequent Chinese histories, including this very podcast. So yes, we owe quite a bit to the three historians Ban. The second reason to mention Banggu, as if the first wasn't already enough by itself, is actually to bring up his brother, Ban Chao. And yes, that name should sound at least a little bit familiar. Last episode, after all, we did spend a great deal of time going over Ban Chao's exploits

in the western Xihu region, up to and including reuniting the region under Han control, refusing to abandon it when Burjong told him to, and during his long stint as protector general, dispatching his assistant to, unsuccessfully, try to reach Rome in 97. Ban Chao would remain unaffected by the unfortunate fate of his brother and retain the support of the throne as the governor of Xiyu, though he'd already more than proved that he didn't need backing from Luoyang to control the western regions. So with the coup d'etat against the Dou clan successfully concluded,

Emperor He took up control of his own government and rewarded those who had helped him. Zhen Zhong would be made the first eunuch marquis of the Eastern Han in 102, and both he and Prince Qing would be He's most trusted advisors for the rest of his reign. It should be noted, however, that though Marquis Zheng was the first Eastern Han eunuch granted real political power, he will be far from its last. And in fact, the precedent set by Emperor He in this regard will be setting off an escalating trend of eunuchs being promoted to powerful positions within the imperial system. And I'll give you two guesses

right now as to how well that eventually plays out. For now, though, things improved under He's guiding hand, and his reign is generally considered free of major corruption, although rather undistinguished and lackluster when compared to his father's and his grandfather's. Hey, it's not easy to come after a golden age. In 96, Emperor He declared one of his favorite concubines, Consort Yin, as his empress. Empress Yin is described as coming from a noble lineage and very beautiful, but also as short, clumsy, and infamously jealous. In particular, she just out and out could not stand one of He's other favored consorts, Deng Sui, the granddaughter of Emperor Guangwu's close friend, commanding general, and eventually prime

minister, Deng Yu. Empress Yin's unquenchable jealousy got so out of hand that in 102, she was discovered, along with her grandmother, casting spells to curse the other imperial consorts, Deng Sui in particular. And as you're by now no doubt well aware, witchcraft was one of the biggest no-nos there was at the time. Yin's family was arrested and interrogated, with both her grandmother and brother dying from torture. The remainder of her family was exiled, her father committed suicide, and she was deposed as empress and died soon thereafter. The moral of the story?

Witchcraft not even once. Soon after, Consort Deng was promoted to Empress. Curiously, though both Empresses Yin and Deng were well-documented to have been favored by Emperor He, neither one seems to have ever become pregnant, and for much of his reign, He was completely childless. That's not to say he didn't sire children. He did. But almost all of them died in either infancy or as young children. This will quite obviously become a major problem for the imperial Liu clan as we move forward. Between 103 and 105, however, he is documented as having had two sons, Liu Sheng and Liu Long. Those before both proved very sickly.

In an attempt to save the pair, they were given to foster parents outside of the capital. But in 105, Emperor He died at age 26, and his two sons were welcomed back to the imperial capital once again. Though Prince Sheng was the eldest, although still no more than a few years old at the time though his exact age was not recorded, his continual sickliness led Empress Deng to pass him over in favor of the 100-day-old Prince Long. Thus, he was first declared crowned prince and then that same night crowned Emperor Sheng of Han. Before moving on to Shang's reign, however, the year 105 has one other important historical figure we ought to cover. His name is Cai Lun.

Cai was another eunuch and political official who held from Guiyang in modern Hunan province. He had begun serving the imperial palace as a court eunuch in 75 at 25 years old, and had first served Empress Dowager Dou, and then following her death in 97, Empress Deng. But in 105, he unveiled the invention that would immortalize him to history, historians, and anyone who has ever jotted down a note. Paper. Now, of course, writing had been a major part of Imperial China, stretching back more than 1600 years to at least the Shang Dynasty's oracle bone carvings. Since then, writing formats had undergone a variety of changes in both writing style,

such as the forcible standardization of characters under Qin Shou Huang, and mediums. When I've talked about the annals of the Grand Historian, or the Book of Han, or the Book of Changes, you may have had something in your mind resembling our modern notion of a book, a bound tome of leather and paper. But in fact, up through and even beyond 105, publications were either painted onto lengths of silk or onto strips of bamboo bound together into scrolls. In fact, in 1972, the oldest known copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War was excavated in Shandong province on strips of bamboo, the so-called Yunche Shan Han slips, proving that the text existed in its current form as early as the 3rd century BCE, and with incomplete slips dating as far back as the mid-warring states period. Clearly, silk and bamboo were high-quality materials to write on,

but the problem was that silk was really expensive to make, and bamboo was rather heavy in bulk. So, Ceylon's process of suspending wood pulp fibers in water, then collecting and compressing them onto felt sheets, and then allowing the accumulation to dry into thin, matted sheets proved revolutionary. In fact, that's almost exactly the same process we still use today the world over for paper production. And it was quickly a huge and lasting success. By the 3rd century, paper had become the dominant writing medium throughout China.

Its easy and relatively cheap production would allow Chinese civilization to thrive and fueled rapid and widespread literacy and literature across the empire. By the 7th century, its use had spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. And in 751, Chinese papermakers of the Tang Dynasty were captured by Arab soldiers of the Abbasid Caliphate, and their techniques were subsequently exported westward. Between 1041 and 1048, during the Song Dynasty, a Chinese commoner named Bi Sheng would invent a movable typeface printing press out of porcelain, further accelerating the East's literacy revolution, and doing so more than two centuries before Europe had even heard of paper,

and more than 400 years before Johannes Gutenberg would invent Europe's own printing press. It wouldn't be until the 12th century that there were any indications of Europeans using paper as a writing medium, and it is generally thought to have been one of the few positive effects of European-Arabian interactions during the Crusades. Oh, but what am I doing? I'm getting well ahead of myself. Let's rewind, back to the 1st century CE and the reign of Emperor Shang of Han. Shang's reign would end, sadly, almost as soon as it began. Though he had appeared the more likely of the two imperial brothers to survive by the now Empress Dowager Deng, at no more than a year old, the infant emperor died in August or September of 106.

So naturally, Empress Deng placed his older brother on the throne next, right? Well, no. The Empress Dowager got it in her head that the barely out of diapers Prince Liu Sheng would hold some kind of a grudge against her for passing him over the first time in favor of his late little brother. To prevent that paranoia-induced possibility, Empress Deng decided to pass over Prince Sheng again, this time in favor of his cousin, Prince Hu, the 12-year-old son of Prince Liu Qing. Prince Hu was enthroned as Emperor An under Empress Dowager Deng's regency, which would continue until her death in 121. To ensure that neither An's father nor his wife, who was An's stepmother,

could unduly influence the government or wrest control of power from her, Empress Dowager Deng ordered them out of the capital and back to Prince Jing's principality. Deng's reign as regent was conducted ably, and for the next decade and a half, she would guide the empire with a skilled and balanced hand. She was highly intolerant of official corruption, even among her own family, and carried out significant criminal law reforms. Notably, in 107, she extended the period available for convicts to appeal their death sentences. She also significantly cut imperial expenditures and reduced tax rates in turn. But it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops for Deng's regency.

Beginning in 107, there were significant problems along the borders of Han. Though Ban Chao had successfully held and controlled the Shiyu kingdoms until his retirement in 102, his successors had proved far less capable, and had prompted sustained resistance to Han domination ever since. In 107, Empress Dowager Deng declared that the Shiyu region was to be, once again, abandoned by the Han Empire. That same year, Qiang tribes, who had been oppressed by Han officials for more than a decade and fearful that they would be ordered to quell the uprisings in Shiyu, themselves

rebelled. This was a fairly major rebellion, affecting a wide region over modern Shanxi, Gansu, and northern Sichuan. And Qiang forces even made incursions into modern Shanxi and threatened the capital itself at one point. The situation became so severe along the border that the governor of Liang province actually considered abandoning his post, a proposal that Empress Dowager Deng wisely rejected. The rebellion would not be put down until 118, by which point the Western Empire was in shambles. And just to compound the headache,

the period between 107 and 109 also saw a wave of successive natural disasters all across the empire. Floods, droughts, and hailstorms ruined crop harvests and placed great strains on the imperial government's ability to effectively manage the crises. Seeing that Han apparently had its hands full already, the Chanyu of the southern Xiongnu also decided to throw one more ball in the mix and rebelled as well. This proved short-lived, however, and following a strong show of force from Luo Yang, decided to throw one more ball in the mix and rebelled as well. This proved short-lived, however, and following a strong show of force from Luo Yang,

No, Xiongnu, we are still more than able to make time for any of your shenanigans. The Chanyu ended what would be the last gasp of hostility from the northern tribes and submitted once again. Over the course of her regency, Empress Dowager Deng permitted An little, if any, input into state affairs. Though he is remembered as being a precocious and intelligent child, relatively quickly he lost interest in such things altogether, and fell under the influence of his wet nurse and two of the palace eunuchs. Instead, An busied himself with liquor, women, and partying. In 115, he declared his favored consort, Yan Ji, his empress. This in spite of the fact that she had just poisoned

another of his consorts in retaliation for burying what would turn out to be his only son earlier that year. Purportedly, the Empress Dowager was so disappointed with An's behavior and circle of friends that she seriously considered deposing and replacing him with one of his cousins, though she ultimately decided against such a drastic course of action. When Empress Dowager Deng died in 121 at age 40, Emperor An at last took up the reins of administration in his own right. And the sharks that had been circling around him for decades, convincing him that they were really his friends, moved in for the feeding frenzy. Initially, An continued the policies

of his former regent, including leaving many of the officials appointed by Deng in their respective positions. He honored his father, Prince Qing, by posthumously declaring him Emperor Xiao De and his mother, Empress. In short order, however, his inner circle of confidants, namely the eunuchs Jiang Jing and Li Run, his former wet nurse Wang Sheng, and Empress Yan, convinced him to strip the Deng clan of their power and positions and force many of its members to suicide in late 121. Though Emperor An would eventually reconsider this order, by then it was too late. The Deng clan had been decimated,

and Empress Yan's own family was now the power in Luoyang. The eunuchs Jiang and Li talked their way into promotions, both to Marquis, along with the wetner's Wang. Emperor An would tolerate no criticism of these, his trusted friends, and given free reign, they became exceedingly corrupt. An would listen to their suggestions to the exclusion of virtually everyone else, and it quickly became so intolerable that the commander of the armed forces, Yang Zheng, committed suicide in protest after being forced out of office. The Qiang rebellions kicked up once again starting in 121

and would plague An for the rest of his reign. But on the bright side, Ban Chao's son, Ban Yong, was able to reassert Han control over at least parts of Xiyu. In 125, Emperor An fell ill while traveling and decided to return early to Luoyang. However, before he could even reach the capital, he died at age 31. As mentioned before, he had but a single son, Prince Liu Bao, who was then ten. But due to what was frankly... But due to what is frankly a ridiculous and convoluted scheme by the eunuch marquise,

Empress Yan, who despised the crown prince for not being her son and wished to retain her grasp on power, and involving an assassinated chef and wet nurse, Emperor An had actually been talked into demoting his own and only son out of his position as crowned prince the year prior. Thus, the throne would be passed by Empress Yan to An's very young cousin, Liu Yi, the Marquis of Beixiang. It's not known exactly how old the child emperor was, but he is noted as having been much younger than Liu Bao, who was again 10. With her puppet thus elevated, Empress Yan promoted her two brothers to the most powerful positions in the capital and dominated the politics of Luoyang.

This situation, however, would last less than seven months before the young Emperor Liu Yi would also die. In the succession crisis that followed, a group of eunuchs loyal to the snubbed Prince Bao initiated a coup d'etat against the Yan clan. Led by Sun Cheng, the eighteen eunuchs stormed the palace, killed the eunuch Marquis Jiang, and declared Prince Bao emperor. The battle between the Empress Dowager Yan's forces and Liu Bao's eunuchs raged for several days before the Yan forces were finally defeated.

In the aftermath, the Empress's brothers were executed and the entire Yan clan slaughtered, save for the Empress herself who was locked away in the palace under house arrest until her death in 126. Liu Bao formally ascended to the throne of Han as Emperor Shun, and somehow, in spite of the rapid-fire succession of bitter disappointment, corruption, and violence the imperial clan had devolved into, the people seemed to have had high hopes for his rule. After all, anything had to be better than the violent and corrupt Yan clan, right? And at least to an extent, he was indeed better than a family of violent mafia-esque thugs, although talk about setting the bar low. The preteen Shun proved to be a kind-hearted monarch

who at least personally allowed the harried people of Han a measure of peace and rest. However, he was like many of his immediate predecessors in his vast incompetence at governance. And when one refers to a Chinese emperor as kind, it is almost invariably followed up by the rejoinder, but weak-willed and easily manipulated. And so it was with Xun, who simply had neither the chutzpah nor the apparent interest to do what had to be done to pull both his ruling clan and the empire itself out of its death spiral. Just how indecisive was the young emperor Xun? Well, consider this. In 131, the now 15-year-old had decided, or possibly simply been told, that the time had come for him

to choose an empress from among his consorts. But Shun didn't want to play favorites, and instead seriously considered leaving the decision up to a lottery. He was only dissuaded from such a course of non-action when his close officials pointed out just how incredibly weak that would make him look, and so he finally selected one of his consorts at his official's direction, Liang Na, because she was considered the most rational and virtuous, as clearly someone in this marriage was going to have to be. The ringleader of the eunuchs who had restored Shun to power, Sun Cheng, tried to guide his emperor on the path to righteousness and urged him to stamp out the corruption that still plagued the government.

But in 126, the young emperor's mind was poisoned against Sun by the very corrupt officials he was trying to warn against, and ultimately dismissed Sun Cheng from the capital on the grounds of being so arrogant as to presume to tell the emperor what the best course of action was. In 135, a major change to succession laws further empowered the eunuch officials, which had swiftly become a mainstay of the dynasty. The eunuch marquise, long having been entrusted with courtly access and a measure of power, specifically because they were barred from passing their positions on to any family they might have, now became legally able to pass their marches on to their adopted sons. The power of imperial eunuchs had reached an important tipping point and had gone from a worrisome anomaly to a systemic rot within the Eastern Han.

Moreover, the rebellions around the peripheries of the empire had never really gone away. Although they'd died down for a while following a demonstration of force by the Han military, they had always continued to smolder. Under Xun, however, they would flare up once again, especially among the Qiang tribes of Sichuan, who managed to decimate an imperial army sent to quell them, and set fire to several tomb gardens of Western Han emperors outside of Chang'an, a blatant act of effrontery to the imperial throne. They, along with several agrarian rebellions brought about through official incompetence

causing food shortages, would plague Shun's administration for the rest of his life. Which in keeping with the whole theme of this episode, won't be very long. By 144, Shun had apparently become gravely ill, or at least enough so that he felt compelled to name his only son, the one-year-old Liu Bing, his heir. He turned out to have been right to have done so, too, as later that year, just shy of age 30, he succumbed to his illness. Prince Liu Bing, who would reign from his cradle as Emperor Chong, meaning the young ruling,

would do so for only six months before he too joined his father in death. Empress Dowager Liang had considered keeping the news of the baby emperor's death from the public, but was convinced that the news would be bound to get out regardless, and it would look pretty bad for her if she hadn't announced it. Given that Chong obviously had no children of his own, nor any siblings, the Empress Dowager had to look for candidates among the cadet branches of the Leo clan. She and her half-brother, Liang Ji, who had inherited the position of Grand Marshal of the Armed Forces from their father, summoned the two most eligible contenders for the throne to Luoyang to determine who would be next to sit on the throne.

The late emperor's third cousins, Liu Xuan and Liu Zuan, arrived, and the Empress Dowager and Grand Marshal assessed them. Prince Suan was either already an adult or near enough, and is remembered as being solemn and proper. He was heavily favored by the imperial court. However, Commander Liangji convinced his sister that they would want an emperor they could control. And let's be honest, it probably didn't take that much convincing for the Empress Dowager to agree to keep all the power of the empire between her and her brother.

Thus, in spite of the court's overwhelming favor towards Liu Suan, the Empress Dowager and Grand Marshal Liang announced that it would instead be the seven-year-old Prince Zuan who would become the next monarch, who would ascend to the throne as Emperor Zhi in 146. The Empress Dowager officially functioned as regent to Zhi, but in fact it was Liang Ji who held supreme authority of the empire at this point, and he wielded his absolute power with self-serving violence and intimidation. Though it seemed that the Empress Dowager remained largely ignorant of her brother's misdealings, and perhaps willfully so, the young Emperor Zhi was not so blind. And as children are often so capable of doing, he spoke the absolute, harsh truth at an inopportune time. Emperor Zhi was

keenly aware of Liang Ji's abuses of power, but not yet aware of how that might be turned against him. At a gathering, he spoke against his commander of the armed forces, calling Liang an arrogant general. Marshal Liang was not one to suffer a slight like that, certainly not from a child, and he also grew concerned. If at seven years old the emperor was already speaking against him, what would become of him down the road, were Zhi allowed to take power in his own right? To avoid this unsettling outcome, in the summer of 146, Liangji had a bowl of pastry soup poisoned and served to young emperor Zhi. The boy drank the envenomed broth and began to suffer great pain and cried out for water. But Liangji didn't even bother to hide his murder of Zhi, and ordered that no water be brought to the suffering child, who promptly died.

Once again, Prince Suan was pushed to become the next emperor. And once again, Liangji rejected the idea, again persuading his sister to make someone younger and more pliable the head of state. They settled this time on the 14-year-old Marquis Liu Zhi as Emperor Huan. After Huan's ascension, Empress Dowager Liang continued to serve as regent. However, Marshal Liang Ji had become more and more in effective control, even over the Empress Dowager herself. For a time, things did go according to the Liang siblings' plan.

In 147, Huan married the Empress Dowager and Grand Marshal's sister, Liang Nuyin, and made her Empress. But while the Liangs were in control, Emperor Huan was not a complete puppet. Or at least, not to them. Instead, in an ominous sign of things to come, he placed his trust with his eunuchs to make his decisions. In 150, Empress Dowager Liang announced that she was retiring and returning imperial authority to the now 18-year-old Huan. Later that year, she died at age 44. However, in truth, the Grand Marshal Liang remained in effective sole command of the Imperial government, perhaps now even more powerful without his sister to soften his sharp edges.

He became ever more violent and corrupt, stamping out any dissent and making it absolutely clear that to oppose him meant certain death. But though Huan had been significantly smarter in his approach to Liang Ji than his predecessor, as time went on, he grew ever more dissatisfied at the military commander's blatant abuse of power, as well as that of his own wife, Empress Liang Nuyin, whose wasteful excesses far exceeded that of any previous empress, and who was exceedingly jealous and petty. Though she remained childless, for instance, she had the propensity to murder any other imperial consort

who became pregnant. Though because of her brother's protection, Huan was unable to directly move against her insanity, he did manage to spite the both of them by rarely having sexual interactions with Nuying, and thus keeping her childless and the Liang clan without a clear path to the throne itself. In 159, angry and depressed that she had lost her husband's favor, gee you infanticidal maniac, I wonder what could have caused that, Empress Liang died. The Grand Marshal Liang Ji held almost total command of the Han Empire. Yet he was still apparently unsatisfied with this nearly limitless power, and took a number of actions that seem to have been taken directly from the playbook of Wang Mang

prior to his usurpation of the Han throne. These actions included ordering officials to recommend to the emperor that his march be enlarged to be as big as the Duke of Joes, to grant him special dispensation to walk slowly into the imperial meeting hall. By Han regulations, it should be said, all officials were required to walk quickly into imperial meeting halls. He was also granted dispensation to carry his sword into meetings, to keep his shoes on, and to have the master of ceremonies refer to him only by rank and title rather than by name, and to be seated above all other imperial

officials. All this lit the capital on fire, with rumors and expectations that Liang himself might be interested in eventually usurping the throne. Whatever his ultimate goal, though, he wouldn't really have the chance to find out, as his brazen actions had set in motion a chain of events that would lead to his downfall later that year. In order to continue to control Emperor Huan, Liang Ji had adopted his wife's beautiful cousin as his own daughter and changed her family name from Deng to Liang. He then gave Lady Liang Mengnu to Emperor Huan as an imperial consort, and after Empress Liang's death, had hoped that she would eventually be made empress. In order to completely control her, Liangji planned to have his mother, Lady Xuan, killed,

and in fact had sent assassins against her. But the assassination plot had been foiled by the powerful eunuch Yuan She, who was a neighbor of the Lady Xuan. Having narrowly avoided death and with evidence of who sent her assassins, Lady Xuan reported the assassination attempt to Emperor Huan, who was greatly angered.

Knowing that he couldn't directly move against Liang Ji by himself, however, he entered into a conspiracy with five of his trusted eunuchs to at last overthrow the Grand Marshal, and the six of them swore a blood oath to see their plan through to completion. Liang Ji had some suspicions about what Emperor Huan and the eunuchs were up to, and he launched his own investigation. In response, the five eunuchs reacted quickly. They and Emperor Huan openly announced that he was taking back power from Liang Ji and mobilized the imperial guards to defend the palace against any counterattack that Liang might launch.

They then surrounded Liang's house and forced him to surrender. Unable to mount a response, Liang Ji committed suicide. Thereafter, the entire Liang clan was arrested and executed, as well as the Sun clan of Liang Ji's wife, and a large number of officials for close association with Liang. So many, in fact, that the government ground to a near standstill until they were able to be replaced. Liang properties were confiscated by the imperial treasury, which were so large that the seizure allowed the taxes of the entire empire to be reduced by 50% for a year. The people of Luoyang greatly celebrated Liangji's death, blissfully unaware that their situation was not about to improve any time soon, and the coup against

Liang had simply traded one monster they knew for five they had only just met. Though we've burned through eight emperors of Han, and though we are far from finished just yet, in the interest of time I'll leave off here for now. Next time, Emperor Huan spirals into corruption himself, and his eunuch lords will come to the fore as preeminent power players within the empire. All while the Han dynasty continues to lose altitude, bleed its fortunes dry trying to suppress the fires of rebellion that are becoming more and more frequent, and lose the faith of the Chinese people altogether.

Thank you for listening. equipment. To those of you who've already given, my gratitude is boundless and please feel free to ignore this message. If you are perchance still on the fence about the whole idea of donating, consider all we ask is a dollar per show. A cup of regular black coffee often costs more. I promise you'll never miss it, but it helps us out more than you realize. And we've tried to make the donation process as painless as possible with our two options, both available through thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com.

First is a lump sum donation via PayPal. The other is by pledging to donate per episode through our Patreon link. Either way works, and either is appreciated ever so much. Please, and thank you. Special thanks this week goes to patron Paul Franzen, who has pledged at least $2 per show through our Patreon link. Whether or not you're

able to donate monetarily, please do go to the History of China's iTunes and Stitcher pages and rate us. High ratings are what let us stay afloat in the whirling sea of podcasts and help attract more people interested in the epic saga of Chinese history. So please, help us stay afloat both monetarily and in the podcast rankings.