The History of China - #41 - E. Han 8: A Farewell To Hans

Episode Date: October 5, 2014

We reach the end of the road for the Han Dynasty... well, sort of... it's complicated. In any case, there will be two emperors and a king by the time this episode is over. The Three Kingdoms are officially here. 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. The great walls of the history of China grow strong, but they're nothing without the soldiers who defend it. Atop those high walls, on their lonely vigils against barbarian incursion, it is only your support that keeps those soldiers at their posts. Whether it's through financial support through PayPal or Patreon to improve those defensive borders, or through iTunes reviews to embolden the defenders' morale and fighting spirit, you can do your part to ensure that the history of China will remain in tranquility and harmony

for a thousand years or more. Only you can help us stave off the savagery beyond our outer borders. So please, do what you can. And thank you. Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 39. A Farewell to Hans. Last episode, the tide of war shifted dramatically between the warlords Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and Cao Cao when the Chancellor of the North dramatically miscalculated in his march on the south. On the muddy waters of the Yangtze River along the red cliffs of Qibi, Cao's army was decimated by the combined forces of Liu and Sun, but even more so by command ineptitude, battlefield unfamiliarity, and the ravages of fatigue and disease. By the end of 209, Cao Cao

had gone from being poised to reunify all of China under his grasp to having lost hundreds of kilometers of territory north of the Yangtze and reduced to being but one of three roughly equal power blocks. Today, life after red cliffs. How the de facto post-battle zones of control would solidify into more or less de jure borders between the emergent states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Sun Wu. Moreover, after more than four centuries in power, never mind that 16-year hiccup in the middle, the Han dynasty will breathe its last with the

overthrow of the now thoroughly powerless Emperor Xian in 220. With the threat of imminent destruction no longer acting as glue, the allies Liu Bei and Sun Quan quickly settled back into their old feuds and tit-for-tat bickering. Indeed, as we saw last week, Liu-Sun unity didn't even last long enough to see the end of the Battle of Red Cliffs, as the two sides started fighting amongst themselves over who would get to cross the river first. In the aftermath of their victory, though it had been Sun Quan's commander, Zhou Yu, who had successfully retaken Jiangling Harbor for the Southern Coalition, with Zhou's death the following year, Liu Bei was able to successfully exert control over the city

as well as the southern half of Jing province. all this in spite of Sun Quan's frequent objections. In 211, Liu Zhang, the governor of Yi province, which is much of modern Sichuan and Chongqing provinces, sent word to Liu Bei that Cao Cao was once again planning to attack southward, this time by capturing Hanzhong, a pivotal gateway from the central plains of China into Yi province and from there the rest of the south. To prevent its capture, Liu Zhang wished to unite with Liu Bei and capture the prefecture before Cao Cao's forces could. Liu Bei agreed and led his expeditionary force to Sichuan, leaving behind several of his

top-level advisors, including Zhuge Liang, to govern and protect his holdings in Jing province. Liu Bei was received warmly by the governor of Yi and was provided with additional troops and supplies for his campaign against Hanzhong. But Liu Bei had other plans. He had been in contact with a number of Zhang's officials who considered Liu Bei to be more worthy of serving than their current warlord. Together, they had plotted to take Yi province by force from Liu Zhang. Now with his army freshly resupplied, Liu Bei was presented with three options. First, to send out a strike force and capture Yi's capital, Chengdu, directly. Second, was to take command of the Yi province's

armies along its northern border first, and then move against Chengdu. And the third would be to withdraw to the Temple of the White Emperor, or Bai Di Cheng, along the banks of the Yangtze River and reassess the situation from there. Liu of course had no plans to withdraw, and so chose the second course. He sent word to Governor Liu Zhang, explaining that he needed additional forces to help distract Cao Cao's armies away from the east, and requested an additional 10,000 soldiers be sent to him to aid in the defense of Jing province. This was all a lie, of course, and it may have been perceived as such by Liu Zheng,

who only sent 4,000 additional troops and half the requested supplies to Liu Bei. And in fact, it was shortly after those men and supplies had been sent that the cat slipped out of the bag. One of Liu Bei's co-conspirators was discovered, and he and his family were executed for treason. Liu Zhang attempted to close off communication with Liu Bei, and ordered his generals guarding the passes not to let any word reach Liu Bei that he had any knowledge of such treachery. However, Bei already had several spies within Liu Zhang's fortress and had already been informed that the jig was up. Thus, before Liu Zhang's messages to his two generals guarding the Bozi Pass could even reach them, Liu Bei summoned them

to his camp and executed them on charges of disrespect. He was then able to take over their troops and launch his offensive into the heart of Yi province. In the spring of 213, Liu Zhang launched a counter-offensive to break Liu Bei's grasp on Boshui Pass. At its helm was Zhang's most trusted vassal, Wu Yi. But in a chilling sign of things to come, Wu Yi soon flipped allegiances and went over to Liu Bei. Zhang attempted to replace Wu with two of his other generals, but they promptly surrendered to Liu Bei as well, along with their forces. The defense of Yi would fall to Liu Zhang's son, Liu Xun, who took what forces remained in his army and opted to retreat to the walled city of Luo, northwest of Chengdu.

Liu Bei's army surrounded Luo and laid it to siege, and in spite of the hopelessness of the situation, Luo's defenders were able to fight quite impressively, killing one of Liu Bei's top commanders in the course of the fighting, and forcing Liu Bei to call for reinforcements from Jing province. Finally, in 214, the city fell, and Liu Bei was at last able to turn toward his prize, Chengdu. The citizens of Chengdu were, rightly, terrified seeing the invaders surround their capital, and all the more so because a large chunk of them were their own supposedly defending armies. But to their credit, they insisted that they fight to the last, even against such impossible odds. And to Governor Liu Zhang's credit, he ignored them.

Stating that there was already enough blood shed on his account, he surrendered the capital of Yi province to Liu Bei without a fight. And Liu Bei, to his credit, was honorable in victory. His troops entered Chengdu peaceably, and he conferred onto his defeated opponent an honorary seal and tassel engraved as the general who inspires awe. He then had Liu Zhang exiled from the province, but otherwise allowed him to live out his days unmolested. To shore up his claim to Yi province, Liu Bei, now 53 years old, took the defector general Wu Yi's sister as his fourth wife.

He then issued a general round of promotions for his staff, both old and new, with Zhuge Liang becoming the ever-so-worthy Grand Advisor in Charge of the Office of the General of the Left, or for our purposes, the Prime Minister. It was around this time that, to the east, Sun Quan decided that he really, really wanted Jing province back from Liu Bei. And since Liu was otherwise occupied in Sichuan, now seemed a perfect time to force the issue. After yet another failed emissary mission, Sun dispatched an army of some 20,000 soldiers to attack and seize southern Jing province. The push proved a great success and resulted in the capture of three prefectural cities, Tangsha, Guiyang, and Lingling. Liu Bei rushed back to Jing at the head of 30,000 men to confront this brazen assault

on his interests, when once again, the north came a-knocking. Oh yeah, did you forget about that impending northern invasion? No, of course you didn't, but Liu Bei apparently had. As such, in 215, Cao Cao attacked the Hanzhong Prefecture, which, with Liu Bei's men and material tied up in the Jing province conflict rather than assisting it as promised, was quickly captured. Two of Cao Cao's advisors urged him to press onward and seize Yi province to the south as well. After all, Liu Bei's grasp on the Sichuan Basin was still tenuous at best, and its new

warlord wasn't even there to defend it. But Cao Cao dismissed their urgings, saying, quote, we should not be discontent. We have already conquered Longyou, referring to the region around Hanzhong City, yet you still long to merge with Shu, which was another name for Yi province, end quote. Instead, he withdrew north and left the city under the control of three of his generals, who, recognizing the prolonged war that was to come, forcibly relocated many of the surrounding city's population to Hanzhong itself. For his part, Liu Bei may have forgotten about Cao Cao's invasion, but he certainly didn't take it lying down.

Recognizing the greater threat, he quickly entered into peace negotiations with Sun Quan, and the two southern warlords drew up a treaty which formally ceded Changsha and Guiyang to Sun while returning Lingling to Liu Bei, and set the border between the two warlords along the Xiang River. Over the course of 216, the uneasy balance between the three warlords would remain fairly stable, but 217 would see that equilibrium broken once again. One of Liu Bei's advisors had been repeatedly pointing out that it was still strategically vital to take and hold Hanzhong City, as again it acted as a gateway to Sichuan and the majority of Liu's territories. Liu agreed and led his army on a campaign to

drive Cao Cao's forces out of the area. But almost immediately, it was met with heavy resistance by Cao's generals, with Liu's sub-commander forced to retreat after taking heavy losses at Wudu, and Liu himself unable to cut off the supply lines going through Yanping Pass. What had aimed to be a quick capture ground into a brutal stalemate over the course of 217 and 218, and all the while Cao Cao himself marshaled his reserve forces at the former imperial capital, Chang'an. Before he could mobilize them to reinforce the flagging defenders of Hanzhong, however, Liu Bei was able to break the stalemate in his favor. Though he had been unable to break through Hanzhong's defensive lines, Tatao's commanders had likewise been unable to restrict his freedom of movement across the area.

As such, in the spring of 219, Liu ordered a two-pronged night attack. A force of 10,000 men were dispatched to set fire to the region's defensive barricades, and while Hanzhong's defenders were struggling to put out the fires, Liu and his generals struck from two sides, routing the distracted enemy force and killing both Cao Cao's commander and his chief inspector of the region. The remaining army was forced to retreat north of the Han River to await Cao Cao's reinforcements, effectively ceding all of Hanzhong to Liu Bei. It had been a stunning victory, and in its afterglow, Liu Bei decided that a little self-promotion was in order. Nothing too crazy.

You know, just crowning himself the king of Hanzhong and setting up his capital in Chengdu. He declared his eldest son, the 12-year-old Liu Shan, his heir apparent. We'll be back to Liu Bei's new kingdom in a bit, but first, let's shift our focus northward, because major changes will soon be sweeping through the state of Cao Wei. Following the outcome of the Battle of Red Cliffs, Cao Cao, seeing that a total reunification of China was probably not going to happen under his watch, focused instead on consolidating his hold on the territories he already possessed. He'd already been made chancellor by the emperor, but if anyone had doubted his desire to rule in

his own name before, 213 had made it bleedingly obvious. That year, Cao Cao had been presented with the Nine Bestowments by Emperor Xian, which you may recall from the short and unhappy reign of Wang Meng two centuries prior, was generally only sought out by those seeking to usurp the throne. In addition, Cao Cao was given rule over ten cities as a fiefdom called Wei, and proclaimed the Duke of Wei. And again, becoming a duke in an era with no such title was exactly the path to usurpation taken by Wang Meng. In 216, he promoted himself from duke to the king of Wei, because hey, why not?

But on March 15th, 220, at the age of 65, Cao Cao at last died while stationed in Luoyang. He had left instructions that he was to be buried without gold or jade treasures, in spite of his auspicious titles, and that his generals were to remain at their posts rather than attend his funeral, as the country remained unstable. It would be Cao Cao's second son, though the eldest that was still alive, who would inherit the kingdom of Wei, Cao Pi. Cao Pi was born in 187 to the concubine who would later become Cao Cao's wife, Lady Bian. Not much is known about his early life, as after the collapse of imperial authority in

190, neither he nor his mother's whereabouts were recorded. The sole reference to Cao Pi from his father's early period of conquests appears to be in 204, when he was married to Yuan Shao's granddaughter at age 17. He's next mentioned in 211, when he was named vice chancellor by his father, making him the second-in-command of the north. But his status as heir wouldn't be made official until 217, due to Cao Cao seeming to favor his third son, but then deciding on the advice of his strategist that now was not the time to be messing with primogenitor inheritance customs.

In spite of having been Cao Cao's formal crowned prince of the Kingdom of Wei for almost three years, there was initially some confusion about just what would happen next upon the elder Cao's death. This was made all the worse when the Qingzhou Corps, up and deserted, leaving their posts in Luoyang en masse and heading home. Not a great start. Taopi, who was stationed at the capital city of Ye province, hastily declared himself the new king of Wei, and issued an edict saying as much in his mother's name, the now queen dowager, Bian. Emperor Xian, also in Ye, soon confirms the decision, because, like, what else was he gonna do?

In spite of initial fears that one or more of his brothers might use the confusion to claim power for themselves, none stepped forward to challenge Cao Pi's succession, and King Cao Pi of Wei soon ordered the lot of them to return to their respective fiefs. As 220 ground on, the political situation within Wei stabilized. And soon, Cao Pi began eyeing that position his father had long been angling towards, but had never lived quite long enough to seize outright. In the winter of 2020, Cao Pi sent a letter to Emperor Xian, strongly, uh, suggesting?

Yeah, let's call it suggesting, that the imperial throne looked awfully uncomfortable, and he should really consider letting Cao Pi sit in it for a while, if he knew what was good for him. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Emperor Xian agreed, because again, seriously, what else was he going to do? And offered the throne to the King of Wei. And Cao Pi, as ridiculous as it sounds,

coming from someone who literally just pulled a shakedown for the imperial throne, declined the offer. Not once, not twice, but three times, before finally shrugging his shoulders and saying, well, gee whiz, if you're really sure you want me to take it from you, I guess I have no choice. Twist my arm, why don't you? And just like that, the four-century-old Han dynasty was ended. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. Cao Pi officially declared his territory the State of Wei. Though to avoid confusion with the various other ways throughout history, it's pretty standard to call it Cao Wei. Impostumously promoted both his father and grandfather to emperors. He gave his grandfather, Cao Song, the posthumous title Emperor Tai of Wei, and his father, Cao Cao, Emperor Wu of Wei. Naturally, his mother likewise went from being Queen Dowager

to Empress Dowager, and Emperor Cao Pi, in a bid to establish the legitimacy of his thoroughly illegitimate claim to the imperial throne, returned the capital to Luo Yang from Shu City. As for the former emperor Xian, Cao Pi granted to Liu Xian the title of Duke of Shanyang, as a kind of consolation prize, thanks for playing. We're not going to see much more of the Duke formerly known as Emperor, so as a send-off,

we'll just say that he lived another 14 years as the duke of Shanyong, and died in 234 at age 52 or 53. Though he would have a total of seven sons, they would all precede him in death, and as such the duchy of Shanyong would pass to his grandson, Liu Kang. He was buried with full honors due to an emperor, and among the mourners was Cao Cao's grandson, Cao Rui, the then reigning emperor of Wei. The duchy of Shanyang would exist for more than 75 additional years until 309, when Xiongnu invaders in the early Jin dynasty at last exterminated the family line. Alright, so that's one kingdom officially accounted for, so let's

move back south to get the other two on the game board. The two southern warlords reacted very differently to the overthrow of the Han dynasty and Cao Pi's accession to the throne. In Wei, Sun Quan neither immediately submitted to this new emperor's authority nor did he actively oppose Cao Pi's actions. Instead, he adopted what amounts to a wait-and-see attitude to the whole situation. Inside Chengdu, however, Liu Bei, the king of Hanzhong, had a markedly different reaction.

Since he was, very distantly, related to the imperial Han bloodline, he announced that he intended to carry on that lineage and restore the overthrown dynasty once again. I mean, hey, it had worked the first time this had happened. To that end, he rejected this so-called new emperor, Cao Pi, and declared himself the emperor of the third Han dynasty based in Shu, or more simply, Shu Han. So, two kingdoms down, one to go. But at this point, we actually have to go backwards a few years to make sense of what happens next. Because while we were up north watching Cao Cao steadily amass

power over the course of the 210s, the political relationship between Sun Quan and Liu Bei had gone from not great to blood feud. In spite of the treaty agreed to by both in 215, establishing the border between Shu and Wu along the Xian River, Sun Quan had decided in the meantime that no, he really did want all of Jing province after all. In 219, he dispatched his armies into the contested region, led by his general Liu Meng. Their objective was partly strategic, but also vindictive, specifically against the commander of Jing province under Liu Bei, General Guan Yu, one of the heroes of the Battle of Red Cliffs, who had recently been

promoted by the newly crowned king of Hanzhong as the general of the vanguard. Sun Chen was especially hateful towards General Guan because Sun held him personally responsible for his loss of Jing province. Guan Yu had then compounded matters by seizing Sun's grain supplies and humiliating the warlord by rejecting and berating his offer to marry his son to Guan's daughter. In 219, Guan Yu was otherwise occupied, however, following up on Liu Bei's victory at Hanzhong by attacking Cao Cao's holdings at Fan City in the north of Jing province. His victory at Fan was so devastating to Cao Cao's operations that Cao was forced to consider abandoning Shu city, his capital, if Guan Yu pressed any further north.

Ironically, this victory would set in motion Guan Yu's eventual downfall, since as a result Cao Cao was forced to enter into a pact of alliance with Sun Quan, recognizing the legitimacy of his holdings in Jiangdong, which is the southern banks of the lower Yangtze River including modern Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanjing. In return, Sun would invade Jing province and lift Guan Yu's ongoing siege of Fan. As such, Sun's general Lu Meng sailed towards Jing province and the preoccupied Guan Yu. He ordered his men to disguise themselves as civilian and merchant ships to avoid alerting Guan of their advance,

as well as infiltrating and disabling Guan Yu's riverside watchtowers. Once within Jing, General Liu was able to convince Guan Yu's subordinate commanders, tasked with the defense of the province, to surrender without a fight. Nice going, subcommanders. As Guan Yu pulled back from his siege of Fan City, he and his soldiers realized that Sun Chuan's army now occupied Jiangling, as well as having captured most of their families within. The bulk of Guan Yu's soldiers deserted and surrendered to reunite with their families. Now pretty much alone, Guan Yu was captured as he attempted to retreat eastwards and executed on Sun Quan's orders. So back in the present, that is the year 221, Liu Bei, the now emperor of Shu Han, was making his final preparations for a retaliatory

strike against Sun Quan for both taking Jing province and killing his top commander and sworn brother. Fearing the potential for a two-front war against both Cao Wei and Xu Han, Sun opted to submit as a vassal to the northern emperor Cao Pi. In fact, Cao's advisors had told the emperor to do exactly that, attack Wu alongside Xu Han and divide it up with Liu Bei, which would then give Cao Wei unfettered access to the south and the eventual conquest of Xu Han and divided up with Liu Bei, which would then give Cao Wei unfettered access to the south and the eventual conquest of Xu Han as well. In a fateful choice, however, Cao Pi declined to betray Sun Quan and named him the vassalized King of Wu, in addition to granting him the Nine Bestowments, a decision that many historians have concluded virtually ensured that Cao Wei would only ever control the north and central parts of China. Liu Bei marched from Chengdu at the head of an

army of 40,000 infantry and 2,000 to 3,000 cavalry. Though Wu's army was significantly larger, with estimates at around 50,000 strong, early engagements decisively favored the Shu Han invaders, and Wu's armies were forced to cede Wu County as well as their fortifications on Mount Ba and Mount Xing. By January of 222, the Shu Han army had advanced to the city of Yiling and captured it, and pushed outside of Xiaoting. That, however, would be as far as Shu Han would ever advance, and the issue which would slow and ultimately halt Liu Bei's invasion should by this point be old hat. I'm referring, of course, to supply line problems.

They get longer, supplies get to the front slower, and it all costs more money. In addition, as the army of Xu Han pushed eastward towards the sea, the terrain tended to flatten out into the Yangtze Delta, nullifying their advantage in mountainous terrain. And the summer of 222 arrived early and with a vengeance, causing many of the unprepared invaders to succumb to heat stroke and their push eastward devolved into a costly stalemate. By July, Sanchuan's general Lu Xun planned a counterattack. He ordered saboteurs to travel over the river and surround the Shuhan camps.

Once behind the enemy positions, they set fire to the camps and the surrounding forests, forcing the Shu Han troops to rush to the Yangtze River in an attempt to put the fires out. But Lu Xun had stationed cadres of archers in ambush, and they mowed down the panicked Shu Han troops. Though a counter-counterattack was attempted, it soon fell into disarray, and most of the Shu Han army deserted while the rest retreated in disorder. The Wu navy pursued the retreating Shu Han ships, but it would be a rock slide at Ma'an

Hills that destroyed the majority of Liu Bei's remnant forces, forcing him to abandon his campaign and territorial gains entirely and retreat ignominiously all the way back to Yi province. There, stalemate was once again achieved, lasting until Liu Bei's death a year later in 223, while at the White Emperor's temple. On his deathbed, he named Zhuge Liang as regent for his son, Liu Shan. His body was brought back to Chengdu and interred, and he was given the posthumous name Zhao Lie. Until the Battle of Xiaoqing, Xu had fielded a large army and was rightfully among the strongest of the Three Kingdoms, if only for a brief period.

But the weakening of Xu in the cementing of Wu as a contender to both Xu and Wei further exacerbated the delicate stalemate between the three kingdoms. After Liu Bei's death, the chancellor and regent of Shu Han, Zhuge Liang, succeeded in restoring the Shu-Wu alliance in 223. With the re-establishment of the peace between the two states, Wu would come away the victor of its 15-year border dispute with Shu Han, giving them recognized control over the Jing province. And so we end today, in some ways, much as we began it. Han, giving them recognized control over the Jing province.

And so we end today, in some ways, much as we began it. Three states all in precarious balance with one another, probing for weaknesses and trying to gain the upper hand, but to little effect. In many other ways, however, the situation has dramatically shifted. Now instead of warlords, we're dealing with two emperors and a king, who will next week go ahead and make it three emperors. The Han dynasty is dead. Well, at least according to the Cao Wei dynasty. As we've seen time and time again, the right of conquest trumps any blood right, and Han's mandate of heaven was clearly lost long ago. Unless, that is, you're among the

Shu Han, who claim that they are the Han, darn it, always have been, and are still the only legitimate rulers of China. And then there's Sun Quan's Wu, still nominally allied with Cao Wei, but really just biding its time in deciding which side of this conflict exactly they want to come down on. Next time, we enter a relatively quiet period of the Three Kingdoms era, with all three states still launching invasions into each other, but very little changing on a geopolitical scale. But rest assured, in a conflict of this magnitude, where by the war's end China will have lost almost two-thirds of its population, even a relatively quiet phase is more than enough action for a podcast episode.

Emperor Cao Pi will quickly meet his end, and his son and successor, Cao Rui, will find himself increasingly at odds with his chief advisor's powerful family, the Sima clan. In Xu Han, the Leo emperors will make a very similar mistake as their forebearers and allow eunuch factions to seize more and more control of government. Because it wouldn't truly be the Han Dynasty without evil eunuch factions, right? And Wu? Wu will just keep on being Wu, right up until the death of Sun Quan in 252. After that, it's anyone's game. Thank you for listening.