reigned as Guangwu Di

reigned as Guangwu Di

Liu Xiu (January 15, 5 BC - March 29, 57 AD) was born in Caiyang County, Nanyang County (now Zaoyang City, Hubei Province). The founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, and the descendant of Liu Fa, King Ding of Changsha, son of emperor Jingdi of the Han Dynasty.

He was born in Jiyang palace in Chenliu County in the second year of Jianping (5 BC) of the Western Han Dynasty. In the face of Wang Mang's usurpation of the new dynasty, he acted against his will, and the world was in chaos. He joined his brother Liu Yan in Nanyang, known as the "Chongling army". Wang Mang's army was defeated in the battle of Kunyang. He succeeded to the throne, governed Hebei area with integrity, granted the great Sima and canonized King Xiao. In the 25th year of the third year of the reign of emperor Gengshi, he broke with emperor Gengshi publicly. He was located in the South Qianqiu Pavilion of He county, Hebei Province. He honored emperor yuan of the Han Dynasty as emperor Kao and restored the Han Dynasty. His capital was set in Luoyang. After 12 years of unification war, the separatist forces in Hebei, Guandong, Longyou, and Xishu were successively eliminated, and the peasant war, warlord scuffle, and local separatist situation ended. After calming down the turmoil, we worked hard for governance. Politically, it advocates "judo" to govern the country, reforms the official system, straightens out the official administration, streamlines the structure, and gives preferential treatment to meritorious officials; economically, it recuperates and develops the economy; culturally, it promotes Confucianism and praises integrity, and creates an era of "Guangwu Zhongxing" in ancient history with "the most beautiful and prosperous Confucianism" (Sima Guang and Liang Qichao).

In the second year of Zhongyuan (57), he died at the age of 62, posthumous title Guangwu, temple Title Shizu, buried in Yuanling.

Overview photo reference source: cover page of biography of Emperor Guangwu edited by Feng Guochao

Life of the characters

Early experience

Liu Xiu is the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, the emperor of Han Dynasty. He came from the lineage of Liu Fa, the king of Changsha, the emperor of Han Dynasty. Liu Xiu's ancestors were demoted from the princes because of the principle of "Tuen en Ling". To his father Liu Qin's generation, he was just a small official like the magistrate of Jiyang County.

Liu Xiu was born in the second room of the back hall of Jiyang palace in Jiyang County, Chenliu County, on the sixth day of December in the first year of Jianping in the Western Han Dynasty (January 15, the previous five years). There was no light on the night of his birth, but there was red light shining all over the room. The father was surprised and immediately called Gong Cao shichonglan and sent him to ask the diviners. Chong LAN and Ma xiazu Su Yong go to the residence of Wang changsun. After divination, Wang changsun said to Su Yonghe and chonglan, "it's a lucky thing. Don't say more." This year, in front of Liu Qin's house where Sedum was planted, millet grew out. There were three plants, each with nine spikes and one root. It was 12 feet longer than ordinary millet. It was really good millet. His father Liu Qin named him "Xiu". As for Liu Xiu's appearance, historical records say that he is seven feet three inches long, has beautiful beard and eyebrows, and is quite different from others.

In the first three years (3 years), his father Liu Qin died as magistrate of Nantong county (now Xiangcheng city in Henan Province). Liu Xiu, who was only 9 years old, became an orphan with his brother and sister. He was raised by his uncle Liu Liang in CaiYang county (now Zaoyang in Hubei Province) and became an ordinary civilian.

Because Liu Xiuqin is engaged in farming, and his brother Liu Yanhao is a good chivalrous scholar, he often makes fun of Liu Xiu and compares him to Liu Xi, Liu Bang's brother. During the reign of Tianfeng in the new dynasty (14-19 years), Liu Xiu went to Chang'an to study the book of history, and had a little knowledge of great righteousness.

Wancheng rises

Since emperor yuan of the Han Dynasty, the government of the Western Han Dynasty has been declining day by day. By the time of emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Cheng was dazzled and appointed his mother family to govern. As a result, the group of Wang's relatives headed by the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun monopolized the power of the court, and favored Zhao's sisters, thus forming a situation that "Zhao's family was in disorder at home, and foreigners were good at the court".

After the death of emperor AI of Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, the nephew of Wang Zhengjun, established two young masters, Emperor Ping of Han Dynasty and ruziying of Han Dynasty. His status has gone through "anhanggong" and "Shidi", which is almost a repeat of the Regent of Zhougong in the past. In the first year (8 years), Wang Mang abandoned ruziying (Liu Ying) as the Duke of Ding'an. He formally became emperor of Han Dynasty and established a new dynasty. Jianyuan "started to build a country". After 214 years of rule, the Western Han Dynasty finally perished.

In the last years of Xinmang, because of its blind and unrealistic reform, it also touched the interests of the powerful, the lower and the common people. In addition, natural disasters such as floods and droughts continued, and the vast central plains was covered with thousands of miles of land and sorrows. Finally, during the reign of Xinmang Tianfeng, dozens of peasant armies, such as Chimei, Lvlin, Tongma and so on, sprang up one after another, and a large number of powerful landlords took advantage of the situation and began to overthrow mang. All of a sudden, the sea collapsed and the world was in chaos.

Although Liu Xiu is a descendant of the royal family, his branch belongs to the distant branch. Liu Xiu is different from his elder brother Liu Yan. Liu Yan doesn't live in his family, goes bankrupt and makes friends with the world's heroes. He and many of Nanyang's children want to take advantage of the chaos and fight for big things. Liu Xiu is a "multi power man" and is extremely cautious. After careful consideration, Liu Xiu saw that the world was in chaos, and then decided to fight.

In October of the 22nd year of the emperor's reign, Liu Xiu and Li Tong's younger brother, Li Yi, and others, set up troops from Wancheng, under the banner of "restoring the cause of Gaozu and determining the autumn of all ages". In November, Liu Xiu led the guests from Wancheng to Chongling (today's Wudian Town, Zaoyang City, Hubei Province), when his elder brother Liu Yan and his congregation began to fight. Liu Xiu, Li Tong and others came to chaijie. They met Wang Mang's army and fled back to Jiyang County where they were born.

The battle of Kunyang

Liu Xiu brothers and the children of Nanyang clan started to fight in Chongling, Nanyang County. The army of Liu Xiu brothers is called Chongling army in history. The main force of Chongling army is Liu clan of Nanyang and heroes of the county. At that time, there were few major generals with poor equipment. Even in the early days, Liu Xiu rode on oxen. After killing Xinye Wei in fierce battle, Liu Xiucai had a war horse.

In order to expand the momentum and strengthen the anti mang forces, the Chongling soldiers united with Xinshi, Pinglin and Xiajiang, which were the three main forces of the green forest army, thus expanding their mutual strength. They fought with Xinmang's expedition army in Jishui, Yuyang and other places successively, defeated the mang army, and killed Xinmang's generals, such as Zhenfu and Liang Qiuci.

In the first year of Gengshi (23 years), Liu Xuan, the patriarch of the Western Han Dynasty, was supported as emperor by the main generals of the green forest army. Liu Yan and Liu clan in Nanyang were extremely dissatisfied with this, but they had to give up for a while because they were forced to join the coalition forces, because there were many powerful soldiers in the green forest and there were strong enemies in front of them. Liu Yan was granted the title of grand situ, while Liu Xiu was granted the title of Taichang Pian general. Wang Mang sent 420000 elite soldiers from all prefectures and counties to Kunyang and Wancheng, trying to put out the new regime at one stroke.

In May of the same year, Wang Yi and Wang Xun led their troops out of Luoyang in the West and down to Yingchuan (now Yuzhou City, Henan Province). They joined Yan you and Chen Mao, forcing Liu Xiu's troops to withdraw from Yangguan (now northwest of Yuzhou City, Henan Province) to Kunyang (now ye County, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province). There were only 9000 Han troops in Kunyang. They were afraid of defeat and wanted to abandon the city and retreat to Jingzhou. Liu Xiu convinced the generals to stick to Kunyang on the ground that "the United forces can still win and the scattered forces can hardly be preserved". At this time, Wang Mang's army was approaching the north of the city. Liu Xiu led 13 cavalry out of the city at night to mobilize reinforcements in Dingling county and Kuan county. Later, 17000 elite infantry and cavalry troops came to Kunyang.

Relying on their strong military strength, Wang Yi and others threatened: "a million troops should be destroyed. Now they are slaughtering the city, marching forward with blood, singing before and dancing after. They are not happy." Wang Yijun launched an attack on Kunyang city and dug tunnels to make cloud cars. Kunyang Garrison has no other way to retreat and stick to the dangerous city. At this time, Wang Mang's army was tired after a long battle, and his spirit was greatly reduced. On June 1, Liu Xiu led more than ten thousand foot riders to Kunyang. Liu Xiu personally led more than a thousand elite as the vanguard, repeatedly stormed and killed more than a thousand people of Wang Mang's army, which greatly boosted the morale of the Han army. After that, three thousand warriors went back to the enemy's side, crossed the kunshui River (now Huihe River in Yexian County) and launched a fierce attack on Wangyi base camp. Wang Yi still belittled the enemy and ordered the soldiers of each battalion to fight against Wang Xun and ten thousand people without permission. Wang Yi's troops were in trouble and Wang Xun died, but the generals did not dare to help. The Kunyang garrison saw that the Han Army outside the city won and took advantage of the situation to attack. Wang Mang's army was in chaos. They scrambled for their lives, trampled on each other and accumulated corpses everywhere. At this time, there was a sudden gale, a torrential rain, and the flood rose sharply. More than 10000 people of Wang Mang's army waded and drowned, and the flood did not flow.

The main force of the new dynasty's millions of troops was destroyed under the city of Kunyang. Sanfu was shocked and Xinmang regime collapsed. In September of the first year of reform (23 years), the green forest army invaded Chang'an, Wang Mang died in the scuffle, and the new dynasty was destroyed.

Hebei Province

Liu Xiu, who made the first contribution in the Kunyang war, went south ceaselessly to capture the city and land. Liu Yan, the eldest brother of Liu Xiu, was killed by the reformer emperor. Liu Yan was killed for no reason, which is a great blow to Liu Xiu. However, Liu xiuneng forbeared grief, kept a low profile, and forbeared to bear heavy burdens. In order to avoid the suspicion of the reformer emperor, he quickly returned to Wancheng to thank Liu Xuan, the reformer emperor. Although Liu Xiu is the first one to make Kunyang's contribution, he doesn't show Kunyang's contribution, and says that his elder brother has committed a crime and he is also at fault. Because Liu Yan was always against the emperor's authority, he killed him. Seeing Liu Xiu's humility, he felt a little ashamed. Therefore, Liu Xiu not only was not guilty, but was granted a military letter. Not long after Liu Xiu returned to Wancheng and was granted the title of Marquis of Wuxin, he married Yin Lihua, a famous family in Xinye, whom he had admired for many years.

However, Liu Xiu knew that even if the emperor did not suspect himself for a while, he might end up with the same fate as his elder brother Liu Yan. After all, he had a great reputation.

At that time, although the Xinmang Dynasty collapsed, all the States and counties north of the Yellow River held a wait-and-see attitude and did not belong to the reformed regime. The red eyebrow army developed rapidly in Shandong and became increasingly powerful. There were also "three kings of Hebei", Tongma, Youlai, kaixiao, Gongsun Shu and other separatist forces. Liu CI said to Liu Xuan, "Liu Xiu is the best candidate to go to Hebei to appease. And it's only suitable for Liu Xiu to go to Hebei. "

Chinese PinYin : Liu Xiu