Emperor Ming of Han Dynasty

Liu Zhuang

Liu Zhuang (June 15, 28 to September 5, 75), Zi Li, was the second emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty (in office from 57 to 75), the fourth son of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, whose mother was Yin Lihua, the empress of Guanglie.

At the beginning, he was the Duke of Donghai, and later he was the king of Donghai. Jianwu 19 years (43 years), the book for the crown prince. In the second year of Zhongyuan (57 years), he officially ascended the throne. After he ascended the throne, he followed the established system of Emperor Guangwu. At home, he advocated Confucianism, paid attention to the name and grammar of punishment, scrutinized the government, and took over the power. The imperial concubine's family is strictly forbidden to be appointed as a marquis to prevent the influence of the noble relatives and meritorious officials. In order to eliminate the threat of the northern Xiongnu, he ordered Dou Gu to lead his troops in the expedition, ordered ban Chao to send missions to the western regions, set up the western regions capital, and introduced Buddhism to China. During his reign, he appeased the refugees, provided relief to the poor peasants, built water conservancy projects, made the officials clean, the territory stable, the people secure their business, and the registered permanent residence grew. During the reign of Liu Zhuang and his son Liu Ji, Emperor Zhang of Han Dynasty, it was known as "the rule of Ming Zhang".

Yongping 18 years (75 years), died in Luoyang east palace front hall, when 48 years old, 18 years in office. Temple name Xianzong, posthumous title Xiaoming emperor, buried in Xianjie mausoleum.

Source: Wang Qi, Wanli, Ming Dynasty

Life of the characters

Young wise

Liu Zhuang was born in Yuanshi County, Changshan County on May 4, the 28th year of Jianwu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was the fourth son of Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty. His mother was Yin Lihua, empress Guanglie. Liu Zhuang was wise when he was young, and he knew the spring and Autumn Annals when he was ten years old.

In the 15th year of Jianwu (39th year), Liuzhuang was granted the title of Duke of Donghai. At that time, the imperial court found that the number of cultivated land per mu and the population were not right, so it began to re check the number of cultivated land per mu, which was the famous "Dutian event" in history. When officials from various prefectures and counties went to Beijing to report their work, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu saw that Chen Liuli's slips read, "Yingchuan and Hongnong can ask, Henan and Nanyang can't ask." So he asked Chen Liuli what it was. Chen Liuli said that he didn't know what he meant. He got it on Changshou street in Luoyang. At this time, the officials of Chenzhuang county only talked about how to check the accounts. Liu Xiu asked, why can't Nanyang, Henan, ask? Liu Zhuang also said that Henan is the Imperial City, and Nanyang is the imperial township. The farmland and homestead in these two places must exceed the system, so they cannot be seriously checked. Liu Xiu then asked Hu ben to interrogate Chen Liuli. What Chen Liuli said was exactly the same as Liu Zhuang. Since then, Liu Xiu has become more and more fond of her 12-year-old son.

In the 17th year of Jianwu (41st year), Liu Zhuang was knighted as the king of the East China Sea.

In the 19th year of Jianwu (43rd year), Shan Chen and Fu Zhen rebelled, occupied the former Wucheng and hijacked its officials. Liu Xiu sent General Zang Gong and others to encircle and suppress. Because they had enough food and grass in shanchen and Fuzhen, although the Zang palace trapped them in the city and killed and injured many soldiers, they could not break through the city. Liu Xiu recruited ministers to study countermeasures, and most of them proposed to offer a reward to attack the city. Only Liu Zhuang advocated that the siege should not be too tight and urgent, so that the rebels could break through the siege, and such a pavilion leader could deal with them. As Liu Zhuang expected, the rebels were all pacified and eliminated after they broke through. In the same year, Liu Zhuang was established as the crown prince, and worshipped Dr. Huan Rong as his teacher to learn the book of history. At that time, the musicians created four poems to praise the virtue of Prince Liu Zhuang, which were as follows: sun's light, moon's wheel, star's brightness and sea's moistening.

Good governance

In 57, Emperor Guangwu died and Liu Zhuang succeeded to the throne.

After Liu Zhuang ascended the throne, he continued to pursue the policies of Emperor Guangwu in order to consolidate the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty. They severely punished their relatives and ministers who depended on their power and power. For example, Dou Lin, the commander of the school of protecting Qiang, is a relative of Dou Rong, the great Sikong. He is not only the son of a meritorious official, but also the family of his relatives.

In the second year of Yongping (59th year), Dou Lin was sentenced to death for the crime of "deceiving the king and neglecting the law". Liu Zhuang punished Dou Rong several times for his lax discipline of his children. Later, Liu Ying, the brother of Liu Zhuang, king of Chu, Liu Jing, king of Guangling, situ Yuyan, and situ Xingmu all committed suicide. Yin Xuezhao of Hedong, Wang Kang, commander of Sili, and Han Guang, commander of the emperor's son-in-law, all died one after another. It can be seen that Liu Zhuang had a very strict control over his relatives, ministers and even the kings of the imperial clan. Once he broke the law, he would be punished severely, and he would never be lenient because of his high official position and close status. So the officials were shocked and the court was in awe.

Liu Zhuang also paid attention to rectifying the administration of officials and strictly inspected and dismissed local officials. Starting from the careful election of officials, we should rectify the administration of officials. In the ninth year of Yongping (66th year), he also "ordered Sili Xiaowei and bu Shishi to take charge of the affairs of the chief officials of Mo Shou, who were over three years old, and each of them had a special reason to go up with Ji Kai; and those who were not in charge of politics also heard about it." The system of inspecting and dethroning local officials was established once a year. In the selection of officials and personnel, Liu Zhuang strictly prohibited the power to ask for help. His sister, Princess Guantao, begged for his son's help and gave him tens of millions of dollars.

During the reign of Liu Zhuang, he issued many edicts to reduce taxes and corvee, to reduce penalties, to persuade officials to supervise agriculture and mulberry, to control diseases and pests, and to give or give public land to the poor. In addition, Liuzhuang vigorously built irrigation and water conservancy, of which the biggest project is harnessing the Yellow River. Since the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the Yellow River has been in disrepair for a long time. The Ming emperor ordered famous water conservancy experts Wang Jing and Wang Wu to lead hundreds of thousands of people to control the water. From the east of Xingyang to qianchenghaikou, there is a water gate in ten miles, which makes gengtong run back and forth without the risk of collapse and leakage, thus ensuring the normal agricultural production in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Liu Zhuang advocated frugality, and the court life was not extravagant. For a while, the superior and the inferior.

Therefore, at that time, people settled their business and registered permanent residence. In the last years of emperor Guang Wu, the population in registered residence in the country was about twenty-one million, which rose to about thirty-four million in less than twenty years to the end of Liu Zhuang's rule. During the reign of Liu Zhuang and his son Zhang Di Liu Ji, there was a prosperous situation, which was known as "the rule of Ming Zhang".

explore and expand

On the basis of the enhancement of national strength, Liu Zhuang actively managed the frontier and competed with the northern Huns for the western regions. During the reign of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, because he was busy restoring social production and stabilizing social order, he was unable to manage the frontier, so he temporarily adopted the policy of Jimi to the northwest. At the end of Yongping, when the country was strong and prosperous, Liu Zhuang changed his ways and changed his past negative fetters into active management.

In the 15th year of Yongping (72nd year), Liu Zhuang sent Dou Gu, the commander of Fengche, and Geng Bing, the commander of his son-in-law, to garrison Liangzhou in order to prepare for running the northwest.

In the spring of the 16th year of Yongping (73), Liu Zhuang ordered Dou Gu and Geng Bing to attack the northern Xiongnu in four ways. Dou Gu led his troops out of Jiuquan and defeated Hun King Huyan in Tianshan. He stationed troops in Yiwu Lucheng (now Hami west of Xinjiang), and sent 36 officials, such as Sima banchao, to defeat Pro Hun forces in Shanshan (now Ruoqiang area of Xinjiang) and Yutian (now Hetian area of Xinjiang). "So all the countries sent their sons to serve them. The western regions and the Han Dynasty had been separated for 65 years, and they were able to communicate with each other again."

In the 17th year of Yongping (74th year), Dou Gu and Geng Bing led the army to defeat the northern Xiongnu Yu Lei Hai (today's Balikun Lake in Xinjiang) again. After that, they restored the rule of the western regions by Han Dynasty.

Death

On August 6, the 18th year of Yongping (75th year), Liu Zhuang died in the front hall of Luoyang east palace at the age of 48. His posthumous title is emperor Xiaoming and his temple title is emperor Xianzong. Bo was buried in Xianjie Mausoleum (now Southeast of Luoyang City, Henan Province).

Political initiatives

Politics

After Liu Zhuang ascended the throne, he followed the Guangwu system. Liu Zhuang advocated Confucianism, paid attention to the name and grammar of punishment, scrutinized the politics, and took over the power. He strictly ordered the imperial concubine's family not to be a marquis or a political officer, and also took precautions against the meritorious officials. When he was in power, his uncles were no more than nine Qing. Princess Guantao wanted to ask a Lang Guan to do it for her son. Liu Zhuang would rather give his nephew ten million yuan than agree. Yan Zhang, the Minister of state, had outstanding talent and outstanding work, but because his younger sister was a concubine in the harem, Liu Zhuang did not promote Yan Zhang in order not to break the rule that his relatives were not appointed marquis to participate in politics.

However, at the same time, Liu Zhuang appointed Deng Yu, the founder of the country, as Taifu, and Liu Cang, the king of Dongping, as the general of Hushi. Zhao, the Taiwei of Guangwu Dynasty, retained his original position, which made the imperial clan, meritorious officials and bureaucrat groups have their own political representatives. At the same time, she showed great respect for her biological mother, Empress Dowager Yin, and her estranged mother, Guo Shengtong, and treated them equally, winning praise from her relatives and subordinates.

Liu Zhuang was very strict with the officials below, because his father Guangwu emperor was more lenient to the ministers when he was in power, because he had high prestige, while the Ming emperor did not have the same prestige as his father. It was obviously not enough to rely on his prestige to control his father's old ministers. Therefore, he was very strict with officials, which was rare among the emperors of the Han Dynasty.

The petty officials of the inner Dynasty mistakenly recorded the contributions of the western regions. After checking the accounts in person, Liu Zhuang sent someone to summon shangshulang who had made the mistake and beat him with a wooden staff. It was not until the commander of Shangshutai heard the news and asked the emperor to punish him for dereliction of duty in discipline that Liu Zhuang calmed down his anger. Although Liu Zhuang's attitude to his subordinates was too strict and his supervisors were too harsh, it effectively ensured the discipline rectification, the strict administration of officials, the improvement of administrative efficiency and the obvious achievements of the central and local governments.

During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, the restrictions on the same surname clan kings were relatively strict. Although all of his ten sons were kings, their fiefdoms were relatively small, which was much worse than the kings of the same surname in the Western Han Dynasty. And within the county, there is no real power. Liu Jing, the younger brother of Emperor Ming's mother, is one of the more talented princes of Guangwu. He wrote to the deposed Prince Liu Jiang, saying that he was innocent and deposed. He should start from his fiefdom Donghai and take the world, that is, the throne, like emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty. After receiving the letter, Liu Jiang was frightened and immediately handed it to Liu Zhuang. Liu Zhuang did not pursue the matter. Later the Qiang fought against the Eastern Han Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Han Ming Di