Liu Can

Biography

Enfeoffment as King of Henan and Early Campaigns

From a young age, Liu Can exhibited outstanding talents in both literary and martial arts. On the eighteenth day of the seventh lunar month in the fourth year of Yongjia (310), Emperor Guangwen of Han died, and the Crown Prince Liu He succeeded him. Shortly thereafter, Liu Hong, the brother of Liu He and father of Liu Can, killed Liu He and declared himself emperor, enfeoffing Liu Can as the King of Henan and appointing him as Fuyu Dajiangjun and Commander-in-Chief of All Military Affairs Inside and Outside.

In October of the fourth year of Yongjia (310), Liu Can joined Shi Le and others with forty thousand troops to invade Luoyang. They defeated the Jin commander Pei Miao at Mengchi and advanced deep into Luo River territory. During this time, Liu Can campaigned through the regions of Liang, Chen, Ru, and Ying.

Killing Sima Mo and Capturing Jinyang

In July of the fifth year of Yongjia (311), Sima Mo, the Prince of Nanyang from the Jin dynasty, stationed Zhao Ran at Pufan. When Zhao Ran’s request for appointment as Governor of Fengyi was denied, he grew enraged and led his followers to surrender to the Han state; Liu Cong subsequently appointed Zhao Ran as General Who Pacifies the West. In the eighth month, Liu Cong dispatched Zhao Ran and General Anxi Liu Ya with twenty thousand cavalry to attack Sima Mo at Chang'an, with Liu Can and Liu Yao providing reinforcements. Zhao Ran defeated Sima Mo's forces at Tongguan and reached Xiaji. Meanwhile, Bei Gongqi, a general from Liangzhou, surrendered his troops to the Han state in Chang'an. As the siege intensified and supplies ran low, Sima Mo's soldiers deserted or surrendered. Zhao Ran eventually delivered Sima Mo to Liu Can, who had him executed in September.

Shortly after, Song Yizhi, an attendant of Sima Mo, conspired with Jia Pi, the Administrator of Anding, to restore the Jin dynasty. They raised fifty thousand troops toward Chang'an. While local leaders like Qu Tu and Zhu Hui refused to surrender, they were ultimately overwhelmed by the combined forces of Jia Pi and other regional commanders. Although Liu Can attempted to strike back via New Feng, he failed. Eventually, following victories by Jia Pi and others, many clansmen and former Jin subjects began to respond to the Han state.

In July of the sixth year of Yongjia (312), upon hearing reports regarding the defection of certain officers under Lingfu Sheng, Liu Cong sent Liu Can and Liu Yao to attack Bing Province, using Li Ni as a guide. Despite resistance from Jin generals Hao Fan and Zhang Qiao, Liu Can and Liu Yao successfully struck Jinyang. The Prefect of Taiyuan, Gao Qiao, and the Deputy of Bing Province, Hao Yuxian, offered their submission to the Han army. By early August, Liu Can entered Jinyang, capturing high-ranking Jin officials including Shangshu Lu Zhi and Shizhong Xu Xia.

In the first year of Jianxing (313), discussions occurred regarding potential conflicts between the Han armies and the tribes controlled by Tuoba Yilü. Various maneuvers took place across Western China involving multiple military engagements.

Appointment as Grand Councilor and Monopolization of Power

In January of the second year of Jianxing (314), Liu Cong appointed Liu Can as Chancellor, concurrently serving as General-in-Chief and holding authority over official appointments (Lu Shangshu Shi), further elevating him to the rank of Prince of Jin. In November, he was named Grand Councilor and Great Chanyu, exercising total control over civil and military administration.

After becoming Grand Councilor, Liu Can became increasingly arrogant and extravagant. He practiced autocratic rule, distancing himself from loyal and virtuous ministers while surrounding himself with sycophants. He ignored remonstrances and showed no mercy or benevolence. His preoccupation with constructing lavish palaces caused great distress among the populace, who suffered from famine and poverty due to heavy labor requirements, causing widespread resentment towards him.

Elevation to Crown Prince and Execution of Liu Xi

In March of the third year of Jianxing (315), during a political struggle within the court, Liu Ci tried to seize power. However, Sun Yu denounced the conspirators Cui Wei and Xu Xia, accusing them of attempting to persuade Imperial Younger Brother Liu Xi to rebel. Consequently, Liu Cong imprisoned and executed these advisors on fabricated charges. To secure the position of the heir apparent, supporters used deception and torture to frame Liu Xi for treason. This resulted in the mass execution of numerous officials associated with the Eastern Palace and thousands of soldiers. Later, in the seventh month, Liu Cong formally designated Liu Can as Crown Prince.

By late 317, Liu Can influenced his father to eliminate remaining threats. In December, Liu Cong ordered the assassination of the captive Emperor Min of Jin.

Accession and Indulgence

On July nineteenth, the seventeenth year of Taixing (318), Liu Cong passed away. On the twentieth, Liu Can ascended the throne, establishing Empress Dower Renren (Jin clan) and raising the era name to Hanchang. He lived a life characterized by extreme debauchery and neglect of state duties, often spending his days in revelry with concubines without showing grief for his father.

As tensions rose, powerful figures like Jin Zhun expressed concerns about being purged by the central authorities. Influenced by rumors of conspiracies, Liu Can preemptively moved against various senior statesmen, executing prominent officials such as Minister of State Liu Jing and Grand Marshal Liu Ji. These actions left the actual governance of the empire almost entirely in the hands of Jin Zhun.

Internal Rebellion and Death

The situation escalated when Jin Zhun planned a coup. Realizing the danger, some officials attempted to warn the monarch, but they were intercepted and seized. Jin Zhun eventually mobilized his troops and stormed the Guangji Hall. There, he confronted Liu Can, read out a list of grievances and crimes, and personally oversaw his murder. Following the killing, Jin Zhun orchestrated a massacre of the Liu imperial family members and desecrated the tombs of Liu Yuan and Liu Cong. Jin Zhun himself was later killed by his own subordinates in 319.

As a young man Liu Can was reckoned a man of parts, accomplished in both letters and arms. In the seventh month of 310 the Han emperor Guangwen, Liu Yuan, died and the heir Liu He took the throne; soon after, Liu He's brother Liu Cong killed him and made himself emperor, enfeoffing Liu Can as prince of Henei. In the tenth month of that year Liu Can and the prince of Shian, Liu Yao, led forty thousand men against Luoyang, joining Shi Le's twenty thousand cavalry at Dayang; they beat the Jin supervising general at Mianchi and drove straight into the Luo plain, and Liu Can, marching out by the Yuan road, raided the districts of Liang, Chen, Ru and Ying, becoming one of Han's foremost commanders in the southward war.

In 311 Zhao Ran, a doorkeeper under the Jin prince of Nanyang, Sima Mo, angered at being refused the governorship of Fengyi, defected to Han with his troops, and Liu Cong employed him. In the eighth month Liu Cong sent Zhao Ran and the general Liu Ya with twenty thousand cavalry against Chang'an while Liu Can and Liu Yao followed in support. Zhao Ran defeated Sima Mo's army and came up to the walls of Chang'an; his men having scattered and his granaries emptied, Sima Mo surrendered, and Zhao Ran delivered him to Liu Can, who had him killed in the ninth month. The position in Guanzhong then turned against Han: Sima Mo's former subordinates raised Jia Ya as general of the west and marched on Chang'an with fifty thousand men, joined by the governor of Yongzhou, Qu Te, the administrator of Xinping, Zhu Hui, and the administrator of Fufeng, Liang Zong, with a hundred thousand more. Liu Can, then in the Chang'an region, sent Liu Ya and Zhao Ran against Xinping without success; the Jin commander Suo Chen relieved the city, fought the Han forces in more than a hundred engagements large and small, and drove Liu Ya back. Liu Yao was heavily defeated by Jia Ya at Huangqiu, and Jia Ya killed the Han governor of Liangzhou; Qu Te beat Liu Can at Xinfeng, and he retired to the capital. The Hu and Jin of the western passes rallied to Jia Ya and Han's hold on Guanzhong was shaken.

In 312 the Jin governor of Bingzhou, Liu Kun, killed his army supervisor Linghu Sheng, whose son Linghu Ni fled to Han and set out Liu Kun's weaknesses in full. Liu Cong, delighted, sent Liu Can and Liu Yao against Bingzhou with Linghu Ni as guide. Learning of it, Liu Kun gathered troops eastward at Changshan and Zhongshan and sent Hao Shen and Zhang Qiao to block them; both were defeated and killed. Liu Can and Liu Yao took Jinyang by surprise, its commander Gao Qiao and the assistant governor Hao Yu opening the city, and on the first day of the eighth month Liu Kun, returning too late, fled to Changshan with a few dozen riders; the next day the Han commanders entered Jinyang and sent the Jin officials Lu Zhi, Xu Xia and Cui Wei to Pingyang. In 313, when Liu Kun and the duke of Dai, Tuoba Yilu, met north of the Xing pass to concert an attack, Liu Cong again sent Liu Can by separate roads to block them, and Liu Kun withdrew on hearing of it. In the first month of the following year Liu Cong made Liu Can chancellor and general-in-chief; in the eleventh month he was made regent.

As regent Liu Can became haughty, extravagant and arbitrary, keeping honest men at a distance and favoring flatterers, harsh and stingy by temper, refusing advice and hiding his errors. He loved building: his residence was modeled on the imperial palace, and while the people labored day and night and starved, he showed them no pity. In 317, to seize the succession, he destroyed the imperial uncle and heir-apparent Liu Yi. His follower Wang Ping first deceived Liu Yi with word that a secret edict warned of trouble in the capital and that armor should be worn beneath the robes; Liu Yi believed it and had his household wear mail under their clothes. Liu Can then had Jin Zhun and Wang Shen report to Liu Cong that Liu Yi was about to rebel. Liu Cong ordered Liu Can to surround the eastern palace, and Liu Can had more than ten Di and Qiang chiefs attached to it arrested and tortured until they confessed falsely to conspiring with Liu Yi. The staff of the eastern palace were then slaughtered, together with several dozen ministers who had been close to Liu Yi and were hated by Jin Zhun and Wang Shen, and fifteen thousand soldiers were buried alive. In the fourth month Liu Cong deposed Liu Yi as heir, made him prince of Beihai, and soon after Liu Can had Jin Zhun murder him. That year Liu Can was made crown prince.

In 318 Liu Cong died and Liu Can took the throne in his own right, changing the era name to Hanchang. He reigned barely two months, given over to wine and women — he is said to have taken up with Liu Cong's empresses of the Jin family — and put several of the regents to death, so that power fell to the consort kin Jin Zhun. In the eighth month Jin Zhun rose in revolt, recited his crimes and killed him, giving him the posthumous title of the Hidden Emperor. The histories record that he succeeded in the sixth month, changed the era in the seventh and was killed in the eighth, one of the shortest reigns among the rulers of the Sixteen Kingdoms. In the Jin Zhun rising the Liu clan was largely massacred and Liu Cong's tomb was opened; when it was over Liu Yao took the throne at Chang'an and changed the dynastic name to Zhao, so that the Han state passed into the Former Zhao. Liu Can's death, bound up as it was with the Jin Zhun revolt, came at once of his own license and cruelty and of the mutual devouring of clan, consort kin and generals within the Han-Zhao regime.

The men Liu Can relied on before and after his accession were almost all representatives of the different forces within the Han-Zhao state. In the last years of his father Liu Cong's reign, the kinsman Liu Yao held Guanzhong, Shi Le held Hebei, and each commanded strong troops of his own, while at court consort kin and favorites such as Jin Zhun and Wang Shen worked their influence. As regent, while he built palaces on a great scale, Liu Can conspired with Jin Zhun and Wang Shen in the struggle over the succession to destroy the imperial kinsmen, cutting away most of the one force capable of restraining the consort clan. That structure meant that when he took the throne he had neither a reliable screen of kinsmen nor any hold on the non-imperial generals who commanded the guards; once he gave himself to drink and women, put the regents to death and left the government in the hands of his wife's family, the fuse of the coup was already lit.

What followed his death makes the point plainer still. In the Jin Zhun rising the Liu kindred were largely slaughtered and Liu Cong's tomb was dug up, so that the governing core of the Han state was all but torn out by the roots; when the rising was over Liu Yao took the throne at Chang'an and changed the dynastic name to Zhao, while Shi Le soon styled himself king of Zhao and stood against him, so that Han-Zhao was split in two and the north entered the age of the Former and Later Zhao. Liu Can's death was thus not merely the end of one of the shortest reigns among the rulers of the Sixteen Kingdoms but the turning point at which Han-Zhao passed from unity into division. Later historians, while accepting the record that he was a man of parts in both letters and arms when young, point to his arrogance, cruelty and refusal of advice after he became regent, and hold that his rise and fall were bound up with a regime that depended wholly on the personal capacity of its ruler and lacked firm institutional foundations.

In the line of Han-Zhao, Liu Can was the fourth ruler after Liu Yuan founded the state, and the last of the Liu house to hold the imperial title. Liu Yuan, claiming descent from the Han imperial house, had named his state Han; Liu Cong succeeded him, took Luoyang and Chang'an, and destroyed the Western Jin; Liu Can inherited his father's prestige, took the throne, and within two months was dead and his state in chaos. After him Liu Yao ascended the throne at Chang'an and changed the dynastic name to Zhao, no longer appealing to "Han" but resting on the Xiongnu Liu as such, while Shi Le stood apart in Hebei and some years later styled himself king of Zhao, so that the two Zhaos, east and west, faced each other. Liu Can's death stands exactly at that turning point: he was both a product of the clan politics of the Han state and a victim of its collapse. The histories call him a young man of parts in both letters and arms, in contrast with his license as ruler; later writers have taken him as a warning, holding that he fell because, once secure on the throne, he gave way to self-satisfaction and refused advice, while the war of clan and consort kin left him no chance to correct himself.

Major Activities

Military Achievements

• Raiding the Luoyang Region: In 310, alongside Liu Yao and Wang Mi, he attacked Luoyang, defeating the Jin forces and raiding territories in Liang, Chen, Ru, and Ying.
• Capture of Chang'an: In 311, he assisted in the conquest of Chang'an, forcing Sima Mo to surrender before having him executed.
• Conquest of Jinyang: In 312, he exploited strategic openings to capture Jinyang, securing significant prisoners and territorial gains.

Political Maneuvers

• Framing Liu Xi: Used intelligence provided by Jin Zhun and others to orchestrate the downfall of Imperial Younger Brother Liu Xi, thereby solidifying his status as successor.
• Purging Ministers: Upon ascending the throne, he succumbed to factional pressures and executed key stabilizing ministers, which inadvertently consolidated absolute power in the hands of the eunuch/general class.
• Execution of Emperor Min of Jin: Persuaded his father to execute the captive Jin ruler, removing a symbolic obstacle to complete dominance.

Personal Relations

• Grandfather**: Emperor Guangwen of Han, Liu Yuan
• Father**: Emperor Zhaowu of Han Zhao, Liu Cong
• Brothers**: Including Liu Yi, Liu Yi, Liu Kui, etc.
• Wife**: Empress Jin
• Son**: Crown Prince Liu Yuangong
• Powerful Official**: Jin Zhun (who ultimately assassinated him)

Historical Assessment

• Fang Xuanling: Described him as talented in youth but noted that once he held office, he acted according to personal whims, alienated the worthy, and neglected state affairs in favor of pleasure.
• Sima Guang: Noted that although highly capable in his youth, his reign as Chancellor was marked by extravagance, tyranny, and the alienation of wise men.
• Xie Caibo: Grouped him with several "notorious" rulers of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, characterizing his regime as one defined by cruelty and excessive slaughter.