Emperor Jingdi of Han Dynasty

Liu Qi

Liu Qi, emperor of the Han Dynasty (188 BC - March 9, 141 BC). The sixth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (157-141 BC), the eldest son of Liu HengDi, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, whose mother is empress dowager Dou.

In June of the seventh year after Emperor Wen (157 BC), he succeeded to the throne. During his reign, he continued to carry out the policy of rest with the people and light corvee and meager taxes, which further restored and developed the social economy. The land rent was changed from 15 tax to 30 tax, which became custom-made in Han Dynasty. In order to strengthen the centralization of power, Chao CuO's suggestion was adopted. The first three years (154 B.C.) of emperor Jing put an end to the chaos of the seven kingdoms of Wu and Chu. After that, he ordered the princes not to govern the people and dethroned their official system. The officials of the kingdom were appointed and removed by the emperor. Later historians called it wenjingzhi together with the reign of Emperor Wen.

Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty died in 141 B.C. at the age of 48. He was named emperor Xiaojing and was buried in Yangling.

Life experience

Early experience

Liu Qi, born in 188 B.C. in Zhongdu (now southwest of Pingyao County, Shanxi Province), is the grandson of Liu Bang, the emperor of Han Dynasty, and the son of Liu Heng, the emperor of Han Dynasty.

When Liu Qi was born, his father Liu Heng was the king of Dai state. Liu Qi is in the middle of Liu Heng's sons. When Liu Heng was a king, he had four sons. Before Liu Heng ascended the throne, the queen died.

In the second eight years of the Han Dynasty (180 BC), after Liu Heng was elected emperor, his four sons died one after another. A few months after Liu Heng ascended the throne, his ministers asked for a crown prince. Liu Qi, the biggest of all, was made the crown prince, and his mother, Dou, was made the queen.

When Liu Qi was the crown prince, Liu Xian, the crown prince of Liu Zhen, king of Wu, came to Beijing to accompany Liu Qi to drink and play six games. Liu Xian's masters were all Chu people, which made him become frivolous and aggressive. He was arrogant at ordinary times. When he played chess with Liu Qi, he fought for the way of playing chess, and his attitude was disrespectful. Liu Qi picked up the chessboard to beat Liu Xian. Unexpectedly, he was killed, and Emperor Wen sent his body back to the state of Wu for burial. From then on, Liu Bi resented Liu Qi.

Ascend to the throne as Emperor

Han Wendi died in June of the lunar calendar in the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty (157 BC). On the ninth day of June in the same year, the crown prince Liu Qi inherited the throne as emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, respected his grandmother empress dowager Bo Ji as empress dowager, and respected his mother empress dowager Dou as empress dowager.

Pacify the vassal

After Liu Qi ascended the throne, he first promoted Chao CuO to be the internal history officer, and then promoted Chao CuO to be the censor doctor, ranking among the three gongs. After analysis, Chao CuO told Liu Qi to pay special attention to the most powerful Wu King Liu.

Liu has been preparing secretly for more than 40 years. He privately made money, cooked salt and sold salt. In order to accumulate strength, he recruited fugitives, and his rebellious heart became more and more obvious. Therefore, Chao CuO strongly advocated that Liu Qi cut off the feudal lands of the kings, that is, cut off the vassal.

Liu Qi followed Chao CuO's advice and decided to take Kuaiji and Yuzhang of Wu first. Seeing that the imperial court began to take action, Liu did not want to be arrested. In 154 B.C., he joined forces with the princes and kings of various places to rebel and make trouble under the banner of killing Chao CuO and stabilizing the country. Seven princes and kings participated in this rebellion, which is known as "the rebellion of Seven Kingdoms".

When Liu Qi learned the news of the rebellion of the seven kingdoms, he sent his Taiwei Zhou Yafu to lead 36 generals to attack the states of Wu and Chu; sent Hou Liji of Qu Zhou to attack the states of Zhao; sent General luanbu to attack the states of Qi; and sent General Dou Ying to garrison troops in Xingyang to monitor the troops of the states of Qi and Zhao.

Dou Ying introduced yuan ang, who had been prime minister of the state of Wu, to Liu Qi. Liu Qi called Yuan ang into the palace to meet each other and took the opportunity to persuade Liu Qi to kill Chao CuO in order to protect national security and quell the rebellion. Liu Qi adopted yuan Ang's strategy and killed Chao Cuo.

Liu Qi dispatched Zhou Yafu and other generals to lead the rebellion. Zhou Yafu used the strategy of cutting off the food supply of the rebels and then sticking to it. Finally, he defeated the rebels and completely put down the rebellion in three months.

After the peace of the seven kingdoms, Liu Qi took the opportunity to take back the power of the vassal kingdoms to the central government, and abolished a large number of officials of the vassal states. Princes no longer have administrative power and judicial privilege. After the rebellion of the seven kingdoms, the problem of the separatist rule of the princes was completely solved.

Stand up and stand up

In 153 B.C., Liu Qi's sister, Princess Guantao, wanted her daughter to become a queen, so she wanted to marry her unmarried Prince Liu Rong. Unexpectedly, Li Ji, Liu Rong's biological mother, refused the marriage because she hated Guan Tao's repeated offering of beautiful women to Liu Qijin. Liu Chuo was very angry, so she made an engagement for her daughter and (the son of Liu Qi and Wang Zao) Jiaodong King Liu Che.

After that, Liu Chou often spoke ill of Li Ji in front of Liu Qi and praised Liu Che. Liu Qi also thinks that Liu Chede has both ability and talent, so he is especially fond of him.

Once, the eldest princess Liu Chuo and Liu Qi said that Li Ji often let the maids in court curse the emperor's favorite concubines with witchcraft. After hearing this, Liu Qi felt disgusted with Li Ji, but because of his deep feelings with Li Ji in the past, he still had good thoughts. Later, when Liu Qisheng was ill, he tested Li Ji and said, "when I am a hundred years old, you should be kind to other concubines and their sons." At that time, Li Ji was full of resentment. Instead of agreeing to Liu Qi, she spoke ill. Liu Qi was completely disappointed with Li Ji, but forbearance did not break out.

In September of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (151 BC), Liu Qi deposed empress Bo. In the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty (150 BC), on the fourth day of the fourth month of the Xia Dynasty, Wang Ji was made queen. On the fourth day of the same month, Liu Che, Wang Ji's son, was made Prince.

He died of illness

Liu Qi was very thrifty. During his reign, he rarely built palaces and pavilions. In the first month of the third year of emperor Jing's reign (141 BC), Liu Qi fell ill and became more and more seriously ill. He knew that he couldn't do it, so he presided over the ceremony of adding the crown (rite of passage) for the crown prince Liu Che.

Soon after, Liu Qi died in Weiyang palace of Chang'an at the age of 48. He was buried in Yangling (in the north of Zhangjiawan village, Zhengyang Township, Weicheng District, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province), and was named emperor Xiaojing. The crown prince, Liu Che, was the emperor of the Han Dynasty.

Main achievements

Politics

After emperor Jingdi ascended the throne, he strengthened the centralization of power, re used Chao Cuo, the imperial historian, and vigorously promoted the reduction of vassal power. After the "Seven Kingdoms rebellion" was put down, the vast majority of kingdoms only owned one county, and their actual status had been reduced to county level, and the state and county were basically in line. The number of the leading counties of the princes decreased from 42 to 26, while the number of the central counties increased from 15 to 44, which greatly exceeded the number of the princes.

Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty belittled the status of the princes, deprived and weakened the power of the vassal states, took back the power of appointment and removal of the Kingdom's officials, only retained the right of "food tax", and seized salt, iron, copper and other profit sources and related taxes.

However, the power of the princes was not completely resolved, so that later Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty had to continue to take corresponding measures.

military

For the small harassment of Xiongnu, Jingdi didn't counterattack on a large scale, but focused on the overall situation and paid attention to active defense. In the few battles against Xiongnu, a group of generals such as Li Guang, Cheng Buzhi and zhidu emerged. When the Xiongnu people heard Li Guang's name, they were so afraid that they called Li Guang "flying general".

Economics

After emperor Jing ascended the throne, he continued to carry out the established national policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce. He repeatedly ordered the county officials to take the encouragement of agriculture and mulberry as the primary government affairs.

Emperor Jing allowed the peasants who lived in poor soil to migrate to the fertile land and rich water resources to engage in reclamation, and "rented Changling farmland" to the peasants who had no land and little land. At the same time, it issued many imperial edicts to crack down on those officials who were good at using civil power by legal means, so as to ensure the normal agricultural production. Emperor Jing twice banned the use of cereals to make wine, and also banned the use of millet to feed horses in neijun.

During the period of emperor Jing, Huang continued to take the measure of "rule by inaction" and carried out the policy of "light corvee and meager taxes, rest with the people", which restored the huge damage caused by years of war and lightened the burden of the people.

In the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (156 BC), when Emperor Jing ascended the throne, he ordered the land rent to be reduced by half, that is, the 15 tax was reduced to 30 tax. From then on, the new land rent rate became the custom of the Western Han Dynasty.

In the second year (155 BC) when the land rent was reduced, Emperor Jing ordered to postpone the age for men to start corvee for three years and shorten the time of service. This rule was still in use until the reign of emperor Zhao in the Western Han Dynasty.

After emperor Jing ascended the throne, he continued the construction of horse administration. He ordered the expansion of horse farms in the West (such as Beidi county) and the North (such as Shangjun county), and encouraged the counties and the people to raise horses. Due to the great development of horse industry in the period of emperor Jing, the production of military horses was quite large. The number of horses belonging to the government has grown to 400000, and the number of horses belonging to the folk has not been counted.

law

Emperor Jing implemented the policy of light punishment and cautious punishment in law. First, he continued to reduce the punishment and corrected some improper points in Emperor Wen's reform of abolishing corporal punishment. Second, it emphasizes the caution of usage and enhances the fairness in the judicial process. Third, some care should be given to special criminals.

The "order of selling nobility" and the "law of militarism" were carried out. These two measures were proposed by Chao Cuo, the prince's family order, and approved by Emperor Wen. After emperor Jing ascended the throne, he continued to implement these proved effective measures and made it more perfect. A large number of corvee troops not only reduced the number of peasants who were stationed in the hinterland, but also became a stable army.

Culture

In the period of emperor Jing, the recovery and development of social economy had reached a considerable degree, so the ruling class from emperor Jing to county officials gradually attached importance to the development of culture and education. In the last years of emperor Jing appointed Weng as the prefect of Shu County, and Weng founded the official school of the county.

As for thought, Emperor Jing no longer strictly prohibited the development of other schools. At that time, in the early Western Han Dynasty, Huang Lao school was popular in the imperial court, that is, the order of Huang Di and Lao Zi

Chinese PinYin : Han Jing Di