Liu Xuan

Biography

Flight and service with the Pinglin forces

The Book of the Later Han records that after Liu Xuan's brother was killed, he gathered followers to seek revenge. When one of them broke the law, Liu fled the officials, who detained his father Liu Zizhang. Liu feigned his own death and thereby secured his father's release. Amid famine and rebellion at the end of Xin rule, he joined the Pinglin group led by Chen Mu and Liao Zhan and became an administrative officer. In 22 (third year of Dihuang), Pinglin forces coordinated with the Xinshi and Xiajiang groups. Liu Xiu and his brother Liu Yan also took up arms and joined the wider coalition.

Accession and new capitals

In 23 (first year of Gengshi), after Green Forest forces defeated the Xin commanders Zhen Fu and Liangqiu Ci, their leaders first named Liu Xuan General Gengshi and then proclaimed him emperor beside the Yu River. He appointed commanders from the coalition and entered Wan in the sixth lunar month. As Liu Yan's military reputation grew, Liu Xuan ordered his execution. He subsequently sent Wang Kuang against Luoyang and Shentu Jian and Li Song toward Wuguan Pass. Rebels in Chang'an killed Wang Mang, ending the Xin dynasty, and Liu Xuan established his court at Luoyang in the tenth lunar month. He moved to Chang'an in 24 (second year of Gengshi). His accession, the capture of cities, and Wang Mang's death were accomplished by different forces; Liu Xuan did not personally kill Wang Mang.

Government in Chang'an and collapse

In Chang'an, Liu granted princely titles to members of the imperial clan and to commanders outside it. Zhu Wei cited the Han founder's rule against granting kingdoms to non-Liu families and declined his own title. Li Song and Zhao Meng took leading roles in government. After Liu married Zhao Meng's daughter, he delegated much business to Zhao. The Book of the Later Han describes officials unable to gain an audience, Zhao exercising power independently, and Liu disregarding Li Shu's advice on careful appointments. Regional commanders made their own appointments, while central authority weakened.

In 25 (third year of Gengshi), the Red Eyebrows approached Chang'an and Liu's commanders Zhang Ang and Shentu Jian became involved in internal fighting. Chen Mu and Cheng Dan were executed. After the Red Eyebrows entered the city, Liu fled and then surrendered to Liu Penzi, handing over his seals. He was first made Marquis of Weiwei and later Prince of Changsha. Concerned that rival forces might rally around him, Xie Lu ordered his strangulation. Liu Gong recovered his body; Liu Xiu directed Deng Yu to bury him at Baling. other accounts specifies the year of Liu's death as 25 (third year of Gengshi), while another account additionally gives the tenth lunar month. The month is not treated here as an uncontested date.

His Family's Troubles, His Feigned Death, and His Joining the Pinglin Force

After Wang Mang's usurpation the Liu imperial house fell low and was oppressed by the commandery and county officers. When the post-station chief of the Futing pavilion in Caiyang got drunk and abused Liu Xuan's father Liu Zizhang, the father in a rage killed him; and more than ten years later the chief's son killed Liu Xuan's younger brother Liu Qian to avenge his father. Liu Xuan therefore made friends among retainers to take revenge, and being implicated when one of them broke the law he fled from the officers into Pinglin; and when the officers arrested his father Liu Zizhang, Liu Xuan pretended to be dead and sent men home to Chunling with a coffin, so that the officers released his father and he himself went into hiding. At that time the south was famine-stricken and the people went in crowds into the marshes to dig for water chestnuts, robbing one another; and Wang Kuang and Wang Feng of Xinshi, settling disputes for the people, were made their chiefs with several hundred men, and fugitives such as Ma Wu, Wang Chang and Cheng Dan joined them, and together they attacked the villages and hid in the green woods, growing to seven or eight thousand in a few months. In the second year of Dihuang (21) the governor of Jingzhou sent twenty thousand picked troops against them, and Wang Kuang and the rest met them at Yundu, broke them heavily, killed several thousand, took all their baggage, and so stormed Jingling, then raided Yundu and Anlu, "seizing many women," and returned to the green woods with more than fifty thousand souls, so that the commanderies could not control them. In the third year of Dihuang (22) a great pestilence killed near half, and the bands dispersed: Wang Chang and Cheng Dan went west into Nanjun as the Lower River force, Wang Kuang, Wang Feng, Ma Wu with Zhu Wei and Zhang Ang went north into Nanyang as the New Market force, all calling themselves generals; and in the seventh month, when Wang Kuang's attack on Suizhou failed, Chen Mu and Liao Zhan of Pinglin gathered more than a thousand men as the Pinglin force in answer. Liu Xuan thereupon went to join Chen Mu and became the pacification officer of his army; and at the same time Guangwu and his elder brother Liu Yan rose at Chunling and joined the several bands in their advance.

His Accession on the Xu River, the Ceremony, and the Killing of Liu Yan

In the first month of 23 the bands broke the Wang Mang commanders Zhen Fu and Liangqiu Ci and killed them, and gave Liu Xuan the title general Gengshi. The host being many but without a single command, the generals took counsel and agreed to set Liu Xuan up as Son of Heaven; and on the xin-si day of the second month they raised an altar on the sands of the Xu river and drew up the army in a great assembly, where Liu Xuan took the imperial throne, standing with his face to the south to receive the homage of the ministers, being, as the histories say, "always weak by nature, so that he sweated with shame and raised his hands but could not speak." He then proclaimed a general amnesty, changed the era to the first year of Gengshi, and appointed all the generals: his clansman Liu Liang as the three elders of the state, Wang Kuang as duke Dingguo, Wang Feng as duke Chengguo, Zhu Wei as grand marshal, Liu Yan as minister of education, Chen Mu as minister of works, and the rest as the nine ministers or generals. In the fifth month Liu Yan took Wan; in the sixth month Gengshi entered and made Wan his capital, enfeoffing the imperial kin and the generals as marquises, more than a hundred of them; but Gengshi, jealous of Liu Yan's fame, killed him and made the grand master of light Liu Ci minister of education. Meanwhile the former marquis of Zhongwu, Liu Wang, rose and seized Runan, and Wang Mang's generals Yan You and Chen Mao, having been beaten at Kunyang, went over to him; and in the eighth month Liu Wang made himself Son of Heaven with Yan You as grand marshal and Chen Mao as chancellor.

The Taking of Luoyang and the Wu Pass, the Death of Wang Mang, and the Move of the Capital

Wang Mang had the grand tutor Wang Kuang and the state general Ai Zhang hold Luoyang; and Gengshi sent the duke Dingguo Wang Kuang against Luoyang and the general of the western screen Shen Tuijian with the chancellor's assistant Li Song against the Wu pass, so that the three metropolitan districts were shaken. At this time "the bold men of the empire rose as one, all killing their governors, calling themselves generals, using the Han era name and awaiting the imperial commands, so that within ten days to a month they were everywhere." In Chang'an troops rose and attacked the Weiyang palace; and in the ninth month Gongbin Jiu of Donghai killed Wang Mang on the Jian terrace, took the seals and sent his head to Wan. Gengshi, then seated in the Yellow Hall, took it and looked at it and said with pleasure that had Mang not done so he would have stood with Huo Guang; and his favourite consort Lady Han laughed and said that had he not done so how should the emperor have got him, at which Gengshi was pleased and hung Wang Mang's head in the market of Wan. In the same month Luoyang was taken and Wang Kuang and Ai Zhang were taken alive and brought to Wan and beheaded; and in the tenth month the general of the advancing might, Liu Xin, killed Liu Wang at Runan and put Yan You and Chen Mao to death. Gengshi then made Luoyang his northern capital with Liu Ci as chancellor; Shen Tuijian and Li Song sent the imperial carriages and robes from Chang'an and the Yellow Gate attendants came to welcome the move. In the second month of 24 Gengshi went west from Luoyang; and as he set out, Li Song leading the way, the horse bolted and struck the iron pillar gate of the northern palace, and three horses were killed. It is also recorded that after moving to Chang'an he lived in the Changluo palace and, mounting the front hall, "was ashamed and buried his head against the mat, not daring to look up"; and that when the generals came late he asked them how much they had plundered, at which the attendants about him, long-serving palace men, looked at one another in astonishment.

The Enfeoffments, His Delegation of Power to Zhao Meng, and the Case of Li Shu

Li Song and Zhao Meng of Jiyang urged Gengshi to make all the meritorious ministers princes, and Zhu Wei opposed it, holding to the founder's covenant that none but a Liu might be king. Gengshi therefore first enfeoffed the imperial kin: Liu Zhi as prince of Dingtao, Liu Ci as prince of Wan, Liu Qing as prince of Yan, Liu Xi as prince of Yuanshi, Liu Jia as prince of Hanzhong and Liu Xin as prince of Ruyin; and afterwards made Wang Kuang prince of Biyang, Wang Feng prince of Yicheng, Zhu Wei prince of Jiaodong, Zhang Ang prince of Huaiyang, Wang Chang prince of Deng, Liao Zhan prince of Rang, Shentu Jian prince of Pingshi, Hu Yin prince of Sui, Li Tong prince of Xiping, Li Yi prince of Wuyin, Cheng Dan prince of Xiangyi, Chen Mu prince of Yinping, Song Tiao prince of Yingyin and Yin Zun prince of Yan. Zhu Wei alone declined, saying that he was not of the Liu clan and dared not offend the statutes, and refusing the fief, so that he was moved to be grand marshal of the left and Liu Ci to be grand marshal of the front, that they with Li Yi, Li Tong and Wang Chang might hold the east of the passes; and Li Song was made chancellor and Zhao Meng grand marshal of the right, to share the government at home. Gengshi took Zhao Meng's daughter as a consort and, doting on her, delegated the government to Zhao Meng while he feasted day and night with the women in the inner apartments: when ministers wished to speak of business he was usually too drunk to receive them, and when he could not avoid it he had an attendant sit within the curtain and answer for him, so that the generals, recognizing that the voice was not Gengshi's, complained as they came out that the outcome was still unknown and he was already giving himself up to such licence. Lady Han was especially fond of drink, and whenever she attended him at wine and saw an attendant memorializing she would fly into a rage and ask why business must be brought at that very moment, rising and breaking the writing table. Zhao Meng monopolized power and made his own authority and favours felt; when a gentleman of the palace spoke plainly of his licence Gengshi in anger drew his sword and struck at him, after which none dared speak; and when Zhao Meng in private resentment had an attendant dragged out and killed, Gengshi's plea for him was refused. At that time Li Yi and Zhu Wei held power in Shandong and Wang Kuang and Zhang Ang were violent in the three metropolitan districts, while the ranks and offices conferred went to "petty men and pedlars, and some to cooks and kitchen hands, many wearing embroidered coats, silk trousers and gowns, abusing one another in the streets," so that Chang'an had a saying that a kitchen hand was a general of the household guard, a rotten sheep's stomach a cavalry commandant, and a rotten sheep's head a marquis of the passes. The general of the army Li Shu of Yuzhang memorialized in remonstrance, saying that the rebels had but just been destroyed and the kingly teaching was not yet practised, that the three excellencies answered to the constellations above and the nine ministers to the rivers and seas below, so that "the work of heaven is done by men," and that though the emperor had based his rule on the strength of the Lower River and Pinglin forces, that was a temporary expedient not to be kept once the empire was at peace; that now the high places of the three excellencies were all filled from the ranks and the conspicuous offices of the Secretariat given to common soldiers, so that men fit only to be post-station chiefs or thief-catchers were set in the work of sustaining the framework of government, whereas "name and office, which the sages held most dear," were thus given to the wrong men, so that to hope for their help even in a ten-thousandth part, and for the transformation of manners and the attainment of order, was "like climbing a tree to seek fish or going up a mountain to gather pearls"; that the empire, seeing this, would begin to reckon the fate of the Han; and that he himself was not moved by envy or a wish for promotion but grieved for the emperor's act, for "to spoil good timber and injure fine brocade" was a thing to weigh carefully; and he asked that the past errors be cut away and the excellence of King Wen of Zhou's multitude of talents be sought. Gengshi was furious and threw Li Shu into prison; and "from that time Guanzhong was estranged and the four quarters resented and rebelled, and the generals going out on campaign set up their own governors, so that the commanderies were at cross purposes and knew not whom to obey." In the twelfth month the Red Eyebrows entered the passes from the west.

His Internal Feuds, His Flight, and His Strangling

Beyond the Gengshi state, Fang Wang had already foreseen its fall: he told Gong Lin of Anling and others that the former duke Ding'an, Liu Ying, was of the line of Emperor Xuan of Han, that though Wang Mang had usurped the throne Liu Ying had once been lord of Han, and that men now said the legitimate heir of the Liu should receive the mandate, so that they might together establish a great work; and Gong Lin and the rest agreeing, they found Liu Ying at Chang'an, took him to Linjing and set him up as Son of Heaven, gathering several thousand partisans, with Fang Wang as chancellor and Gong Lin as grand marshal. Gengshi sent Li Song with the general for the suppression of difficulties against them; and in the third month of the following year he sent Li Song to join Zhu Wei against the Red Eyebrows at Maoxiang, where Li Song and the rest were heavily defeated, abandoned the army and fled with more than thirty thousand dead. Wang Kuang and Zhang Ang, holding Hedong, were beaten by Deng Yu and fled back to Chang'an, and Zhang Ang took counsel with the generals, saying that the Red Eyebrows were in the country of Zheng and Huayin and would be there in a day, that with only Chang'an left they would soon be destroyed, and that it would be better to lead the army to plunder the wealth of the town, then turn on the country along the way, go east to Nanjun and gather the troops of the prince of Wan, and if that failed, return to the lakes and marshes as bandits; and Shentu Jian and Liao Zhan approved, and together they urged it on Gengshi, who in anger refused, so that Zhang Ang and the rest dared not speak again. When the Red Eyebrows set up Liu Penzi as emperor, Gengshi posted Wang Kuang, Chen Mu, Cheng Dan and Zhao Meng at Xinfeng and Li Song at Ruocheng against them. Zhang Ang and the others plotted to seize Gengshi by force at the autumn sacrifice, and the attendant Liu Nengqing told Gengshi of it; and Gengshi, feigning illness, did not leave the palace but summoned Zhang Ang and the rest, meaning to kill them all, only Wei Ao not coming, at which Gengshi, suspicious, had Zhang Ang and three others wait in an outer room; and Zhang Ang, Liao Zhan and Hu Yin, suspecting a trap, rushed out, leaving only Shentu Jian, whom Gengshi killed. Zhang Ang, Liao Zhan and Hu Yin then led troops to plunder the eastern and western markets, and at nightfall burned the gates and fought within the palace, where Gengshi was heavily beaten; and the next morning he fled east with his wife and a hundred-odd carriages to Zhao Meng at Xinfeng. Gengshi, suspecting Wang Kuang, Chen Mu and Cheng Dan of plotting with Zhang Ang, summoned them all; and Chen Mu and Cheng Dan coming first were beheaded, at which Wang Kuang in fear led his troops to Chang'an and joined Zhang Ang. Li Song, returning to Gengshi, with Zhao Meng attacked Wang Kuang and Zhang Ang within the city, and after more than a month's fighting Wang Kuang and the rest fled, Gengshi moving to the Changxin palace. When the Red Eyebrows reached Gaoling, Wang Kuang and the others surrendered to them and joined forces with them; and Gengshi, holding the city, sent Li Song out, who was beaten with more than two thousand killed and taken alive by the Red Eyebrows. Li Song's younger brother Li Fan being colonel of the city gates, the Red Eyebrows sent an envoy to tell him that if he opened the gate his brother's life would be spared, and Li Fan opened the gate. In the ninth month the Red Eyebrows entered the city, and Gengshi fled alone by the kitchen gate; and many women called after him that the emperor should dismount and thank the city, whereupon he dismounted, bowed his thanks and mounted again and fled. Xie Lu, fearing that if Gengshi escaped the Red Eyebrows would not spare him, kept his troops outside the city, nominally to guard Gengshi but in fact to hold him prisoner; and the Red Eyebrows sent word that if the duke Sheng would submit he would be made prince of Changsha, but that after twenty days it would not be accepted; and Gengshi sent Liu Gong to ask terms. In the tenth month Gengshi, with Xie Lu, bare-armed entered the Changluo palace and gave the imperial seals to Liu Penzi; and the Red Eyebrows, charging him with his crimes, set him in the courtyard to kill him, and though Liu Gong and Xie Lu pleaded for him they were refused and he was led away, Liu Gong calling after him that he had done his utmost to protect the duke Sheng and asking to die before him, and drawing his sword to kill himself. The three metropolitan districts, suffering under the cruelty of the Red Eyebrows, pitied Gengshi, and Zhang Ang and the others were much troubled and told Xie Lu that all the commanders wished to seize the duke Sheng, and that if he were lost they would join forces against Xie Lu and destroy him; and so Xie Lu sent his own guards with Gengshi to herd horses in the country and secretly ordered them to strangle him. Liu Gong came by night to take up his body; and Liu Xiu, hearing of it, was grieved, and remembering that Gengshi was a legitimate descendant of the Liu and his own elder kinsman of one ancestry, ordered the grand minister of education Deng Yu to bury him.

Major Activities

Liu Xuan's accession gave the Green Forest coalition a shared claimant from the Han imperial family. His forces advanced on Luoyang and Wuguan, and after Wang Mang's death, local leaders adopted the Gengshi era name and awaited his decrees. This shows the temporary reach of his regime. The Book of the Later Han and both encyclopedias also describe disputed grants to non-Liu princes, disorderly appointments, and his reliance on Zhao Meng. These developments coincided with independent action by commanders and growing disaffection in Guanzhong. His fall also depended on the Red Eyebrow advance and the expansion of Liu Xiu's forces, so it cannot be reduced to a single cause.

The Gengshi Regime's Nominal Function, the Concrete Signs of Misgovernment, and the Division of Opinion

The significance of Liu Xuan's accession lay first in giving the several Green Woods bands a common nominal claim as kinsmen of the Han house. The Gengshi armies moved by separate roads against Luoyang and the Wu pass, and after Wang Mang's death "the bold men of the empire rose as one, all killing their governors, calling themselves generals, using the Han era name and awaiting the imperial commands," so that within a month they were everywhere — the concrete sign of the regime's brief expansion, as the local strongmen adopted the Gengshi era and waited for orders. It must also be noted that the taking of Luoyang and the Wu pass and the killing of Wang Mang were done by different forces (Wang Mang being killed by Gongbin Jiu of the rising in Chang'an), and should not be written up as Liu Xuan's own act. The signs of misgovernment are equally concrete: after the move to Chang'an he enfeoffed the meritorious ministers of other surnames as princes, Zhu Wei alone refusing on the ground of the covenant that none but a Liu might be king; he took Zhao Meng's daughter as a consort and delegated the government to Zhao Meng, so that ministers often could not be received for drink, and an attendant was even made to answer from within a curtain; and when Li Shu memorialized for careful appointments and the recruiting of talent, he suppressed the memorial and imprisoned him, after which "Guanzhong was estranged and the four quarters resented and rebelled, and the generals set up their own governors." The ranks and offices went largely to "petty men and pedlars" and even to cooks, and the Chang'an saying about the kitchen hand who was a general is a satire on that cheapening of name and office. That local commanders appointed their own officers and the commanderies were at cross purposes and knew not whom to obey shows that the centre had lost control of military and civil power. As to the causes of the collapse, no single one should be given: the advance of the Red Eyebrows, the expansion of Liu Xiu's power, and the internal feuds of the Gengshi generals (Zhang Ang's plan to seize him and the fighting in the palace) were concurrent military and political factors. Later historians have mostly held Liu Xuan a transitional ruler who rose on the tide, and the Later Han History therefore says of him that "of the duke Sheng nothing was heard; he borrowed our wind and cloud, at first followed the returning sequence, and in the end broke apart." Others have observed that "one who is honoured for a name has no firm will, and one who is honoured by others for a name has no firm foundation," and that Xiang Liang's setting up of the prince of Huai and the New Market and Pinglin forces' setting up of Gengshi are of the same kind: that the empire, resenting the fall of Chu and hoping for the revival of the Liu, was a common human feeling, but not the true feeling of Zhang Ang, Wang Feng and Zhu Wei; so that "following an unstable will and raising an unstable foundation, now doubting and now trusting, there is no step that is not a door to disaster." Such analysis traces the fragility of the Gengshi regime to the mismatch between the name and the reality as between those who raised him and the man raised, and it agrees with the concrete record of his misgovernment.

Personal Relations

• Liu Zizhang and Lady He: His parents. The Book of the Later Han records how Liu's feigned death led to his detained father's release.
• Liu Xiu: His younger kinsman, who once served under the Gengshi regime, later founded Eastern Han, and ordered Liu Xuan's burial.
• Liu Yan: Liu Xiu's brother and a coalition commander whom Liu Xuan executed after his accession.
• Wang Kuang, Wang Feng, and Zhu Wei: Green Forest leaders involved in Liu's elevation and the regime's campaigns.
• Zhao Meng: Father of one of Liu's consorts and a leading figure in government.
• Liu Penzi: Emperor raised by the Red Eyebrows, to whom Liu Xuan surrendered.
• Liu Gong and Xie Lu: Liu Gong pleaded for Liu and recovered his body; Xie Lu ordered him killed.

Historical Assessment

Fan Ye, author of the Book of the Later Han, portrayed Liu Xuan as a ruler carried upward by circumstances whose coalition ultimately broke apart. Wang Fuzhi argued that the commanders' support rested on an unstable foundation and that Liu lacked the means to restrain them. These are historical interpretations, not proof that every development was a result of Liu's personal ability. His position in the sequence of Han emperors has also been disputed: the Book of the Later Han places his life in a biography rather than in imperial annals.