Liu Hu

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Liu Hu was a member of the Eastern Han imperial clan. His grandfather was Emperor Zhang of Han, Liu Da, and his father was Liu Qing, Prince Xiao of Qinghe. Liu Qing had originally been Crown Prince under Emperor Zhang but was deposed and made Prince of Qinghe after being framed by Empress Dou. Liu Hu was Liu Qing's second son and his mother was Zuo Xiao'e. He was born in 94, the sixth year of Yongyuan.

Liu Hu was regarded as intelligent from childhood. According to Dongguan Hanji, he was “intelligent, perceptive, benevolent and gentle, broad-minded and compassionate, and fond of giving.” In 104, the sixteenth year of Yongyuan, the ten-year-old Liu Hu was adept at historical writings and fond of the Classics. Emperor He of Han, Liu Zhao, greatly favored and valued him, called him a “student,” repeatedly summoned him to court, and gave him special gifts unmatched by those of other princes' sons.

Accession to the Throne

In 105, the first year of Yuanxing, Emperor He of Han died and his young son Liu Long became Emperor Shang, with Empress Dowager Deng ruling at court. She specially ordered Liu Hu to remain at the Qinghe residence in the capital Luoyang, intending him as a reserve successor. In the eighth month of 106, the first year of Yanping, Emperor Shang died in infancy. Empress Dowager Deng and her elder brother Deng Zhi, General of Chariots and Cavalry, decided the succession within the palace and brought Liu Hu in that night under a royal carriage canopy.

Empress Dowager Deng issued an edict praising Liu Hu as loyal and filial by nature, cautious in conduct, versed in the Poetry and Analects, devoted to learning and antiquity, and benevolent toward those below him. She designated him heir to Emperor Xiaohe and enthroned him at age thirteen.

After taking the throne, Liu Hu behaved modestly and respectfully and applied himself to Classical learning, while government remained in the hands of Empress Dowager Deng at Changle Palace. She ordered the scholar Deng Hong to enter the palace and teach Liu Hu the Ouyang tradition of the Book of Documents. In 107, the first year of Yongchu, Liu Hu was fourteen and still did not personally hold court. The Gentleman Du Gen submitted a memorial asking the Empress Dowager to return power. Enraged, she ordered him beaten while wrapped in a silk sack; Du Gen feigned death and escaped to Mount Yicheng, where he lived as a tavern keeper for fifteen years. In the same year, Minister of Works Zhou Zhang secretly plotted to depose both Empress Dowager Deng and Liu Hu and install Liu Sheng, Prince of Pingyuan. When the plot was exposed, Zhou Zhang committed suicide.

Period of Empress Dowager Deng's Rule

During Empress Dowager Deng's administration, natural disasters were frequent and frontier peoples launched attacks, but she governed diligently and frugally, provided disaster relief, pacified the Western Qiang, and stabilized Eastern Han politics. She nevertheless continued ruling at court throughout her life and did not return power to Liu Hu. As Liu Hu reached adulthood, Empress Dowager Deng became increasingly dissatisfied with him. Liu Hu's wet nurse Wang Sheng and the eunuchs Li Run, Jiang Jing, and others frequently criticized the Empress Dowager in his presence, leaving him resentful and fearful.

In 119, the sixth year of Yuanchu, Empress Dowager Deng summoned sons of the princes of Jibei and Hejian to the capital. She admired the appearance of Liu Yi, a son of the Prince of Hejian, adopted him as heir to Liu Sheng, Prince of Pingyuan, and kept him in the capital. Wang Sheng and others seized on this to spread rumors that the Empress Dowager intended to depose Liu Hu and enthrone Liu Yi. Liu Hu consequently became both angry and afraid. In 120, the first year of Yongning, Empress Dowager Deng established Liu Hu's eldest son Liu Bao as Crown Prince.

Personal Rule and Purge of the Deng Clan

In the third month of 121, the first year of Jianguang, Empress Dowager Deng died and Liu Hu took personal control of government at age twenty-eight. At the beginning of his personal rule, he posthumously honored his father Liu Qing, Prince Xiao of Qinghe, as Emperor Xiaode; his mother Zuo Xiao'e as Empress Xiaode; and his grandmother Noble Lady Song as Empress Jingyin. He simultaneously bestowed extensive honors on consort relatives. Geng Bao, elder brother of his nominal mother Lady Geng, was made Marquis of Muping and placed in command of the left wing of the Feathered Forest cavalry. Four brothers of his grandmother's Song family were made marquises, and more than ten members of the Song clan became senior officers or Palace Attendants. The brothers of Empress Yan Ji—Yan Xian, Yan Jing, and Yan Yao—were appointed to senior military posts and given charge of palace guards. Contemporaries remarked that the favor shown to consort clans was without equal since the beginning of the Han.

Soon afterward, palace women who had previously been punished by Empress Dowager Deng falsely accused Deng Hui, Deng Hong, and Deng Lü of having plotted to depose the emperor. Liu Hu used the accusations to purge the Deng clan. Deng Hui and others were reduced to commoner status. Although Deng Zhi had not participated in any conspiracy, he was stripped of his special rank and sent to his fief, where he eventually starved himself to death. Members of the Deng clan were killed or exiled. Zhu Chong, Minister of Agriculture, bared his torso, had his coffin carried with him, and submitted a memorial protesting the injustice done to the Deng family; he was dismissed and sent home. Only after pressure from public opinion did Liu Hu allow Deng Zhi and the others to be properly buried at Beimang.

Later Years and Death

After taking personal power, Liu Hu heavily favored his wet nurse Wang Sheng and enfeoffed her as Lady of Yewang, establishing a precedent for an emperor granting a noble title to his wet nurse. Relying on the emperor's gratitude for her upbringing, Wang Sheng acted without restraint and joined the eunuchs Jiang Jing, Fan Feng, and others in manipulating government. The celebrated official Yang Zhen repeatedly submitted forceful remonstrances, but Liu Hu ignored him; Yang Zhen was eventually dismissed and committed suicide.

In 124, the third year of Yanguang, Wang Sheng, Fan Feng, Jiang Jing, and others framed Crown Prince Liu Bao, and Liu Hu deposed him as Prince of Jiyin. In the third month of 125, the fourth year of Yanguang, Liu Hu fell seriously ill while touring south at Wan. He died at Ye County on the return journey to the capital at the age of thirty-two. Empress Yan Ji and her elder brother Yan Xian concealed the death and hurried back to the capital before announcing it. Liu Hu was buried at Gongling and received the posthumous title Emperor Xiao'an. He also received the temple name Gongzong, which was removed in the first year of Chuping under Emperor Xian of Han.

His Accession

The Han emperor An, Liu Hu, was the second son of Liu Qing, the filial prince of Qinghe. By the Dongguan Hanji he was from youth intelligent and quick of understanding, kind, humane, generous and amiable, broad-minded and loving, and fond of giving; and while he dwelt in the princely residence there were often auspicious signs of divine light and red serpents shining in his chamber and coiling about the beams and his bed, which the filial prince thought strange. At ten he was skilled in the scribes' writing and loved the classics; and Emperor He thought much of him, calling him "the scholar," and several times received him within the palace, granting him gifts beyond all the other princes, down to playthings. When Emperor Shang came to the throne and Empress Deng held the court, because Liu Hu was young she had him kept in the Qinghe residence, meaning him for the heir. In the eighth month of the first year of Yanping Emperor Shang died, and Empress Deng with her brother, the general of chariots and cavalry Deng Zhi, settled the succession within the palace; that night she sent Deng Zhi with the tally to bring Liu Hu in a prince's blue-canopied carriage, and he fasted in the palace. The empress dowager held court in the Chongde hall, the hundred officials in auspicious dress and the ministers in attendance, and had Liu Hu made marquis of Chang'an. She issued a decree that the marquis Hu was by nature loyal and filial, careful and reverent, able in the Odes and the Analects, earnest in learning and fond of antiquity, kind and beneficent to his inferiors, already thirteen and with the will of a grown man, so that of all who might continue the line none was fitter than he. And she made a second decree, saying that on the guichou day of the eighth month of the first year of Yanping the empress dowager addressed the marquis of Chang'an, that Emperor Xiaohe's virtue was lofty and shone over the four seas, that the late emperor had not been granted his years, and that the marquis, as the lineal grandson of Emperor Xiaozhang, was humble, reverent, kind and obedient, diligent in childhood, and fit to serve the suburban and ancestral altars and inherit the great work; that he was therefore made heir to Emperor Xiaohe, to govern the Han realm and hold fast the mean, for when one man has felicity the myriad people depend on it. When the decree had been read the grand commandant presented the seal and cord, and he took the throne at thirteen, the empress dowager still holding the court.

The Empress Dowager's Regency and the Fall of the Deng

Because Empress Deng held the court all her life and would not willingly return the government, Liu Hu dared not look her in the face and could only gather his robes and hold an empty throne, and being sick at heart he hung a writing in the palace. Deng Zhi was general of chariots and cavalry, and his brothers Hong, Kui and Chang were all enfeoffed as marquises from the rank of commandant, holding the power of the state. In the first year of Yongchu Deng Zhi was made marquis of Shangcai, Deng Kui marquis of Ye, Deng Hong marquis of Xiping and Deng Chang marquis of Xihua, each with ten thousand households, and Deng Zhi for his service in settling the succession had three thousand more, which he declined without success. The master of works Zhou Zhang, being discontented, plotted with Wang Zun and Shu Yuanmao to close the palace gates, support the Deng brothers, kill the attendants Zheng Zhong and Cai Lun, seize and stab the secretaries, depose the empress dowager and enfeoff the emperor as king of a distant state; the matter came out and Zhou Zhang killed himself. In the first year of Jianguang the empress dowager died, and before the body was laid out Liu Hu renewed the former decree, making Deng Zhi marquis of Shangcai with the rank of special advance. And when the empress dowager died, palace women who had formerly been punished, nursing their resentment, falsely accused Deng Kui and the others of having taken the precedent of a deposed emperor from the director Deng Fang and plotted to set up the prince of Pingyuan; and Liu Hu, hearing it, was moved to anger and had the officials memorialise that Deng Kui and the rest were treasonable, so that the marquises of Xiping, Ye, Xihua, Yang'an and Duxiang, Guangde, Guangzong, Zhong, Zhen and Fude, were all reduced to commoners. Deng Zhi, not being of the plot, lost only his rank of special advance and was sent to his fief; the clan were all dismissed and returned to their old commandery, and the wealth, lands and houses of Deng Zhi and the others were confiscated and Deng Fang and his household exiled to a distant commandery. Guangzong and Zhong both killed themselves; Deng Zhi was moved to a fief at Luo, and he and his son Deng Feng starved themselves to death; and Deng Zhi's cousin the governor of Henan Deng Bao, the general of the crossing of Liao, the marquis of Wuyang Deng Zun, and the master of works Deng Chang all killed themselves, only Guangde and his brother being kept in the capital because their mother was of the empress's kin. The grand minister of agriculture Zhu Chong, grieved that Deng Zhi had met disaster without guilt, bared his shoulders and carried a coffin and memorialised that the empress Hexi's holy and good virtue had been to Han as Mother Wen, that the brothers were loyal and filial and of one heart in caring for the state, that having done their work they retired and yielded their fiefs, unmatched among the consorts of all ages, yet had been overthrown by a single word from a palace woman, one house and seven men all losing their lives with their bones scattered and their wronged souls unreturned; and that their graves should be restored and their orphans cherished to appease the dead. Zhu Chong, knowing his words were cutting, gave himself up to the commandant of justice, and Chen Zhong impeached him further, and by decree he was dismissed and sent home. The multitude, however, spoke much of Deng Zhi's wrong, and the emperor's mind was somewhat awakened, and he reproved the province and commandery, had Deng Zhi and the rest reburied at Beimang, and all his cousins were allowed to return to the capital.

Du Gen and Cheng Yishi

Du Gen was by nature square and solid and fond of upright remonstrance; in the first year of Yongchu he was made filial and incorrupt and became a gentleman of the interior. Then, when Empress Hexi held the court and power lay with the consort kin, Du Gen, thinking the emperor grown and fit to take the government himself, memorialised with his fellow gentlemen in direct remonstrance; and the empress dowager was enraged and had Du Gen and the others seized, sewn into silk bags and beaten to death in the hall. But the officers of the law, knowing Du Gen's fame, secretly told the executioners not to use their strength, and afterwards, carried outside the city, Du Gen revived; and the empress dowager sending men to inspect, Du Gen feigned death, and three days later maggots bred in his eyes, so that he escaped and hid, becoming the keeper of a wine shop in the mountains of Yicheng, where he stayed fifteen years, and the wine-seller, knowing him worthy, treated him with great respect. When the Deng were destroyed, all about spoke of Du Gen's and the others' loyalty, and the emperor, thinking Du Gen dead, issued a decree proclaiming it through the realm and enrolling their sons and grandsons; and Du Gen then returned to his village and was summoned by the public carriage and made attendant censor. Earlier Cheng Yishi, a clerk of Pingyuan commandery, had also remonstrated against the empress dowager's holding the government and been punished; he was summoned with Du Gen and promoted to gentleman of the secretariat, and both were employed.

His Personal Rule and the Consort Kin and Eunuchs

Liu Hu was called clever in youth, and for that the empress dowager Deng had set him up; but as he grew he was much without virtue and gradually displeased her, and his wet-nurse Wang Sheng knew it. Wang Sheng, seeing that the empress dowager long returned no government and fearing a deposition, always with the yellow-gate Li Run and Jiang Jing watched those about him and together belittled the empress dowager to the emperor, who was ever angry and afraid. Li Run and Wang Sheng often slandered the empress dowager's brother, the bearer of the golden mace Deng Kui, and the rest, saying they meant to depose the emperor and set up the prince of Pingyuan, and the emperor was ever wrathful and afraid; and when the empress dowager died he destroyed the Deng and deposed the prince of Pingyuan. The emperor made Geng Bao, the elder brother of the honoured consort Geng, overseer of the left wing of the feathered forest with chariots and cavalry, enfeoffed all four sons of Song Yang as marquises, and made the Song family ministers, colonels, palace attendants, grandees of consultation, masters of reception and gentlemen, more than ten of them; and the brothers of Empress Yan, Xian, Jing and Yao, all became ministers and colonels commanding the forbidden troops, so that the inner favourites began to flourish, and men of the time said that the consort kin's favour now equalled that of Heaven itself, such as had not been since the beginning of Han. Yang Zhen memorialised again and again that Wang Yong and the rest shared authority, entrusted matters to the provinces, moved great ministers, and at the chancellors' summons looked only for their will, drawing in covetous men from all the realm and taking their bribes, so that black and white were confounded and clear and muddy of one source, and the realm clamoured. Empress Ansi, Yan Ji, was a woman of Xingyang in Henan; in the first year of Yuanchu she was chosen into the palace and greatly favoured as an honoured consort, and in the second year made empress. She was jealous and monopolised the bed, and when the emperor favoured the palace woman Li, who bore the prince Bao, she poisoned Li.

Wang Sheng and Her Daughter, and the Death of Yang Zhen

Wang Sheng and her daughter Bo Rong stirred up all within and without, vying in extravagance and cruelty, and Bo Rong came and went in the palace apartments and passed on bribes and intrigues. The minister over the masses Yang Zhen memorialised that the nurse should quickly be sent out to live in an outside house and Bo Rong cut off so that they should not come and go, whereby grace and virtue would both be abundant and high and low alike beautiful. The memorial was presented and the emperor showed it to the nurse and the rest, and the inner favourites were all resentful. Bo Rong was the more proud and licentious, and had commerce with Liu Gui, elder cousin of Liu Hu, the former marquis of Zhaoyang, and Liu Gui took her as wife and came to be palace attendant and to inherit Liu Hu's fief. The emperor several times sent yellow-gate attendants and the envoy Bo Rong to Gantling, and Bo Rong, relying on favour, was proud and overbearing, and the commanderies and kingdoms she passed all welcomed her with homage; kings and marquises and the two-thousand-shi officers even bowed alone below her carriage, with ceremony usurping that of the sovereign, yet Liu Hu did not restrain her. The master of the secretariat Chen Zhong memorialised that the envoys she passed had authority blazing and shook the commanderies and counties, that even the prince of Hejian as an uncle and the shrine of Qinghe and the officers holding tallies all bent below Bo Rong's carriage, and that "Bo Rong's authority is heavier than Your Majesty's, and Your Majesty's handle lies in a servant." At that time a decree sent envoys to build a great mansion for the nurse inside the Jin gate, joining two wards into one, wall to wall along the street, carved and ornamented with the utmost cunning, and the chief eunuch Fan Feng with the palace attendants Zhou Guang and Xie Yun stirred each other up and shook the court, and Yang Zhen memorialised again that disasters were now spreading, the people empty and unable to support themselves, and the treasury of the grand minister of agriculture exhausted, so that it was no time of peace for the altars of state. And Fan Feng and the rest, seeing that Yang Zhen's repeated earnest remonstrances were not heeded, had no scruple, but forged a decree and drew on the money and grain of the minister of agriculture and the timber and workmen of the master of works to build their own houses, gardens, ponds and lodges, with endless labour and cost. In the spring of the third year, when the emperor made his eastern progress to Mount Tai, Fan Feng and the others, the carriage being away, vied in building mansions; and Yang Zhen's clerk Gao Shu called the clerk of the master of works to examine and got the forged decree of Fan Feng and the rest, and prepared a memorial to present on the emperor's return. Fan Feng and the others, hearing it, were terrified, and when the grand astrologer reported that a star had gone against its course they joined in slandering Yang Zhen, saying that since Zhao Teng's death he had been deeply resentful and that, being an old officer of the Deng, he bore a grudge. And when the carriage returned and halted at the imperial college, they sent an envoy by night to take back Yang Zhen's seal and cord as minister over the masses, and he barred his gate and cut off his guests. Fan Feng and the others, hating him further, had the general-in-chief Geng Bao memorialise that Yang Zhen as a great minister did not accept his guilt and harboured resentment, and by decree he was sent back to his own commandery; and coming to the Jiyang pavilion west of the city, Yang Zhen said generously to his sons and disciples that death was the common lot of a scholar, that he had been graced with a high post and hated the cunning of treacherous ministers without being able to punish them, and hated the disorder of favoured women without being able to forbid it, and with what face could he again see the sun and moon; and on the day of his death they should use a plain wood coffin and a single cloth enough to cover him, and not bring him to the family graves nor set up sacrifices. And he drank poison and died, being over seventy. The governor of Hongnong, Yi Liang, taking the will of Fan Feng and the others, sent officers to stop the coffin at Shan county and expose it by the roadside, and degraded Yang Zhen's sons to carry the post; and all on the roads wept. Again, Zhao Teng, a common man of Hejian, came to the palace and memorialised, pointing out the gains and losses of the government; and the emperor, enraged, had him seized and tried in the imperial prison and convicted of deceiving the sovereign with reckless words. Yang Zhen memorialised again to save him, begging that the penalty be reduced and his life spared to draw out the words of the wood-gatherers; but the emperor did not heed him, and Zhao Teng's corpse lay in the market.

The Deposing of the Heir Liu Bao

At that time the heir apparent was frightened and ill at ease, and took refuge in the house of the emperor's wet-nurse Wang Sheng, the lady of Yewang. The heir's nurse Wang Nan and the kitchen supervisor Bing Ji held that Wang Sheng's house was newly built and offended the earth taboo and could not long be dwelt in; and Wang Sheng and her daughter Yong with the grand long-autumn Jiang Jing and the chief eunuch Fan Feng on one side and Wang Nan and Bing Ji on the other disputed with each other, and Wang Sheng and Wang Yong slandered Wang Nan and Bing Ji, so that they were imprisoned and died and their households exiled to Bijing. The heir, thinking of Wang Nan and the rest, sighed for them many times. Jiang Jing and Fan Feng, fearing harm in after days, joined with Empress Yan in fabricating falsehood and slandering the heir and the officers of the eastern palace as plotting with him to kill his father and set himself up. The emperor, hearing the charge, was enraged and summoned the ministers and all below to discuss deposing the heir, and Geng Bao and the rest, taking his will, all held that he should be deposed; but the grand coachman Lai Li with the grand master of ceremonies Huan Yan and the commandant of justice Zhang Hao argued that by the classics, before fifteen a man's faults are not reckoned to him, and that the heir could not have known of the plot of Wang Nan and Bing Ji, so that loyal and good tutors should be chosen to guide him with propriety, and that deposition was a weighty matter on which His Majesty's grace should pause; but the emperor would not follow. Zhang Hao, retiring, memorialised again that the heir was but ten and had not learned from tutors, and how could he be blamed at once; but the memorial was not considered. In the ninth month, on the day dingyou, the heir apparent Bao was deposed to be king of Jiyin and dwelt beneath the western bell of the Deyang hall. Lai Li then joined with the overseer of the imperial insignia Zhi Feng, the imperial clan director Liu Wei, the master of works Xue Hao, the palace attendants Lüqiu Hong, Chen Guang, Zhao Dai and Shi Yan and more than ten others, and all went to the Hongdu gate to testify that the heir was guiltless. The emperor and those about him were troubled, and sent a chief eunuch with a decree to threaten the ministers, at which none of the remonstrants could keep countenance. Xue Hao first bowed and said it was indeed right to obey the decree; but Lai Li, in fury, reproached him in the court, asking what he had said when they agreed to remonstrate and how he could now go back on it, and whether a great minister riding in the court carriage and charged with the state's affairs could turn about so. And they each gradually drew off, but Lai Li alone kept to the palace gate and for days would not leave. The emperor, not angered, had the master of the secretariat Chen Zhong with the gentlemen of the secretariat impeach Lai Li and the others, and thereupon deprived Lai Li and his brothers of office, cut their fief's revenue, and degraded his mother, the princess of Wu'an, so that she might not be received.

His Southern Progress, Sudden Death and Afterlife

In the third month of the fourth year of Yanguang, on the first day wuwu, there was an eclipse of the sun; on gengshen he went to Wan and fell ill; on xinyou he had the general-in-chief Geng Bao act as minister over the masses and sacrificed at the tombs and shrines of Zhangling; and on yichou, his illness worsening, he had to order his return to the capital Luoyang, and summoned the sons of the princes of Jibei and Hejian aged fourteen and under and seven and over to the capital. On dingmao he died at Ye at thirty-two. His death was then kept secret, and food was offered and his health inquired after as before; on gengwu he returned to the palace, and only on the evening of xinwei was mourning declared. The empress was honoured as empress dowager, who held the court and made her brother, the grand herald Yan Xian, general of chariots and cavalry, and settling the succession within the palace set up Liu Yi, the northern district marquis, son of Shou, the Hui prince of Jibei and grandson of Emperor Zhang; and on yiyou the northern district marquis took the throne. And when he had returned to the palace, the empress with her brother Xian and the chief eunuchs Jiang Jing and Fan Feng joined in a pretence, not wishing the ministers to know that the emperor had died on the road, and wished to feign illness, sending the minister over the masses and others separately to the suburban and ancestral altars to announce to Heaven and pray for his life, deceiving the spirits and taking the dead for living; and only that evening was mourning declared, when the officials and people mourned as for a father or mother, and the barbarians beyond the frontier made sacrifice and wept. He was buried that year at the Gong tomb with the temple name Gongzong and the posthumous name Emperor Xiao'an. In the time of Emperor Xian the officials memorialised that the four emperors He, An, Shun and Huan had no merit or virtue and should not be called ancestors, and all their honorific titles were asked to be removed, and the decree said it was granted.

Major Activities

Purge of the Deng Consort Clan

After Empress Dowager Deng died in 121, Liu Hu used accusations made by palace women to carry out a thorough purge of the Deng clan. Deng Zhi died by self-starvation; his brothers Deng Hui, Deng Hong, Deng Lü, and others were reduced to commoners; members of the lineage were dismissed and sent back to their home commanderies; and family estates were confiscated. The purge had the political purpose of freeing the emperor from consort-clan constraints, but Deng Zhi himself had not been guilty of rebellion and opinion throughout the empire regarded his treatment as unjust. Zhu Chong carried his coffin with him and memorialized the throne in defense of the Deng family and was dismissed from office.

Enfeoffment of Consort Relatives and Wet Nurse

After taking personal power, Liu Hu posthumously honored his parents and bestowed extensive titles on three groups of relatives—his nominal mother's Geng family, his grandmother's Song family, and Empress Yan's family. He also made his wet nurse Wang Sheng Lady of Yewang, setting a precedent for an emperor enfeoffing a wet nurse. Consort relatives and eunuchs increasingly shared political influence, and government became progressively corrupt. Yang Zhen, Zhai Pu, and other officials repeatedly remonstrated, without effect.

Deposition of Crown Prince Liu Bao

In 124, the third year of Yanguang, Wang Sheng and the eunuchs Fan Feng and Jiang Jing framed Crown Prince Liu Bao, and Liu Hu deposed him as Prince of Jiyin. The decision violated dynastic expectations of succession and destabilized court politics. After Liu Hu's sudden death the following year, Empress Yan established Liu Yi, Marquis of Beixiang, as emperor. Liu Yi soon died, and the eunuch Sun Cheng and others launched a coup and placed Liu Bao on the throne as Emperor Shun of Han.

Frontier Policy

In foreign affairs, after taking personal power Liu Hu sent Ban Yong to station troops in the Western Regions, prompting the local states to submit again to Han authority. He pursued a conciliatory policy toward Goguryeo, which submitted. However, he unjustly executed the general Deng Zun, who had defeated the Xianbei, contributing to renewed Xianbei rebellion and the revival of frontier troubles.

Disasters and Rebellions

During Liu Hu's reign natural disasters were frequent, including earthquakes, floods, droughts, and locust infestations. During the Yongchu years the Western Qiang invaded, and uprisings led by Du Qi and others continued for more than ten years. Social crisis deepened. Empress Dowager Deng had worked actively to relieve disasters and stabilize the population while she ruled at court, but after Liu Hu assumed personal government his responses were weaker, the treasury was depleted, and popular livelihoods deteriorated.

Managing the Western Regions and the Posting of Ban Yong

In the late Han there was once a proposal in court to abandon the Western Regions, but the governor of Dunhuang, Zhang Dang, and the master of the secretariat Chen Zhong held that troops should be increased to maintain Han rule there. In the second year of Yanguang Zhang Dang memorialised with three plans for the Western Regions: the northern enemy Huyan Wang moved constantly between Pulei and the Qin sea, monopolising the Western Regions and joining in raids, and if two thousand odd officers and men of the dependent state of Jiuquan were gathered at the Kunlun barrier, Huyan Wang could be struck first and his root cut off, and then five thousand troops of Shanshan could be raised to press the rear division of Jushi, which was the best plan; if troops could not be sent out, one might appoint a master of horse with five hundred officers and men, with the four commanderies supplying plough oxen and grain, and hold Liuzhong, which was the middle plan; and if even that could not be done, one should abandon the city of Jiaohe and gather Shanshan and the rest all within the passes, which was the worst plan. The court referred it for discussion, and Chen Zhong memorialised that the Western Regions had submitted long since and many times looked east and knocked at the passes, which was the proof that they did not love the Xiongnu but admired Han; that if the northern enemy, having broken Jushi, must attack Shanshan to the south, and Han abandoned them without rescue, all the states would follow, and then the enemy's wealth would grow and his daring and power increase, overawing the southern Qiang and joining with them, so that the four commanderies of Hexi would be in danger; and that a commandant should be set up at Dunhuang and the garrisons of the four commanderies increased as of old to soothe the states of the west. Liu Hu accepted it, and Ban Yong was again made long secretary of the Western Regions, leading five hundred convict soldiers to camp at Liuzhong in the west; and Ban Yong then broke and pacified Jushi. From the Jianwu period to Yanguang the Western Regions were three times cut off and three times opened.

The Soothing of the Northeast and the Northern Frontier

In the spring of the first year of Jianguang, the inspector of Youzhou Feng Huan, the governor of Xuantu Yao Guang and the governor of Liaodong Cai Feng led troops beyond the frontier against the Hui and Mo, beheaded their chiefs and took horses, weapons and goods. The king of Goguryeo, Gong, then sent his heir Suicheng with two thousand odd men against Yao Guang and the rest, and sent envoys feigning surrender; and Yao Guang and the others believed him, and Suicheng, holding the defiles, blocked the great army while secretly sending three thousand men against Xuantu and Liaodong, burning the cities and killing more than two thousand. Thereupon three thousand odd cavalry of the dependent states of Guangyang, Yuyang, Youbeiping and Zhuo were sent to relieve them, and the Mo had already gone. In summer Goguryeo with eight thousand odd Xianbei of Liaodong attacked Liaodui and killed and plundered officers and people, and Cai Feng and the others pursued them at Xinchang and died in battle, the clerk of merit Geng Hao, the clerk of military affairs Long Duan and the clerk of horses and weapons Gongsun Pu shielding Cai Feng with their bodies and all dying in the array. In autumn Gong with several thousand horsemen of Mahan and the Hui and Mo besieged Xuantu, and the king of Fuyu sent his son Wei Choutai with more than twenty thousand men to join the province and commandery in attacking and breaking them, beheading more than five hundred. That year Gong died, and the governor of Xuantu, Yao Guang, memorialised to raise the troops of the three commanderies of Liaodong and Lelang and strike in the mourning; and the councillors all thought it should be allowed, but Chen Zhong alone said that Gong had been fierce and crafty, that Yao Guang had been unable to punish him, and that to strike at him when dead was not right, but that envoys should be sent to condole and to reproach him for his former crimes, proclaiming the amnesty and not punishing, to obtain his later goodness. Liu Hu followed him, and Goguryeo submitted. The next year Suicheng returned Han captives and came to Xuantu to submit, and Liu Hu decreed that from then on those who did not fight the officers of the state but of themselves came to submit and returned captives should be given ransom, forty bolts of fine silk for a man and half for a child. On the northern frontier, in the autumn of the first year of Jianguang the Xianbei chief Qizhijian rebelled again and raided Juyong, and the governor of Yunzhong, Cheng Yan, attacked him and was defeated, and the clerk of merit Yang Mu shielded Cheng Yan with his body and died with him; and the Xianbei then besieged the protector of the Wuhuan colonel Xu Chang at Macheng. The general of the crossing of Liao, Geng Kui, with the inspector of Youzhou Pang Can raised the armoured troops of Guangyang, Yuyang and Zhuo in two columns to relieve him, and Xu Chang slipped out by night and joining Geng Kui and the rest attacked the rebel lines and broke the siege. The Xianbei, having killed many governors, grew bolder and had tens of thousands of horsemen; in the winter of the first year of Yanguang they raided Yanmen and Dingxiang and attacked Taiyuan, plundering and killing the people; in the winter of the second year Qizhijian himself with more than ten thousand riders entered the eastern ridge post and in several columns attacked the southern Xiongnu at Manbo, killing the Yujian Rizhu king and more than a thousand men; and in the autumn of the third year they raided Gaoliu and broke the southern Xiongnu, killing the Jianjiang king.

Reforms of Law and Ritual

In the Eastern Han the harsh laws were many and the people could not bear them. In the Yongchu period of Liu Hu's reign Empress Deng promoted Chen Zhong, versed in the law, to be master of the secretariat and took his advice to strike out twenty-three harsh statutes, abolish the castration punishment, release the pollution of the three generations of corrupt officials, allow those mad and violent who killed to have their penalty reduced, and permit mothers and sons, brothers to die in one another's place, pardoning the substitute; and all was carried out. The abolition of castration was another great reform of criminal law after Emperor Wen of Han abolished the corporal punishments. By the old rule the ministers, the two-thousand-shi and the inspectors might not wear three years' mourning, and so the mourning rites fell into disuse among officers within and without; in the middle of Yuanchu the empress dowager decreed that officers from the chief clerks down who did not wear mourning for their parents might not hold cities or elect men, and when someone proposed that the governors and inspectors should be subject to the same rule and it was referred to the ministers, they thought it inconvenient. The minister over the masses Liu Kai alone argued that the decree establishing mourning was meant to exalt transformation and spur custom and to spread filial piety, and that the inspector was the model of a province and the two-thousand-shi the teacher of a thousand li, whose office was to make clear to the people and beautify custom, so that they above all should honour the rites and lead by their own persons. The empress dowager followed him. In the third year of Yuanchu a decree allowed the great ministers to wear three years' mourning and return to office when it was ended, and Chen Zhong thereupon memorialised that by the old ordinance of Emperor Xiaoxuan those who followed the army or served the government should not be called to labour within three months of a grandparent's death, so that they might bury them and see them off; and the empress dowager followed him. In the middle of Jianguang the master of the secretariat Zhu Feng and the secretary Meng Bu memorialised to restore the practice of Jianwu, and Chen Zhong memorialised against it, but since three years' mourning was inconvenient to the eunuchs about Liu Hu, his memorial was shelved and theirs adopted, and it was written into the ordinances. Moreover, when the chancellor of Qinghe, Shusun Guang, was convicted of corruption, his descendants were barred for two generations, the taint reaching his son; and when the commandant of Juyan, Fan Bin, again committed corruption, it was referred to the three excellencies and the commandant of justice, and the minister over the masses Yang Zhen, the master of works Chen Bao and the commandant of justice Zhang Hao held that the precedent of Shusun Guang should be followed. Liu Kai alone argued that by the Spring and Autumn the good should extend to sons and grandsons and the evil stop at the man himself, so as to lead men to goodness; and that to bar the descendants of corrupt officials, making the light follow the heavy and fearing to touch good men, was not the ancient kings' careful use of punishment. The decree said the grand commandant's view was right.

Summoning the Men of the Way and Relieving the People

In the fourth month of summer of the first year of Jianguang Liu Hu had the dukes, ministers, special advances, marquises, the two-thousand-shi and the governors and chancellors of commanderies and kingdoms each recommend one man of the Way, and gave grain, three hu a head, to widowers, widows, orphans, the childless and the poor unable to support themselves. In the eleventh month of that winter thirty-five commanderies and kingdoms had earthquakes, some splitting open, and Liu Hu decreed that the ministers below the three excellencies should each memorialise setting out his failings, and sent grandees of the palace by light carriage to tour and inspect, giving money to the families of the dead, two thousand a head, remitting that year's land tax, and for the most severely afflicted districts also remitting the poll tax. On the day jihai of the eighth month of the first year of Yanguang Liu Hu decreed that the three excellencies and the two-thousand-shi should recommend inspectors, two-thousand-shi, magistrates, chiefs and chancellors who had served from one year up to ten, who were clean and fond of profit, able to lead those below by their own persons and to prevent wickedness and manage troubles and of benefit to the people, without regard to the official registers, the inspectors recommending those of their province and the governors and chancellors of commanderies and kingdoms recommending those with black cords, with earnest care and no seeking of the merely ornamental. When the empress dowager Deng died and Emperor An began to hold the court himself, Chen Zhong held that at the beginning of the government worthy talents should be summoned to spread and assist the transforming influence, and repeatedly recommended the recluses and upright men Feng Liang, Zhou Xie, Du Gen and Cheng Yishi and the rest, and so the public carriage honoured Feng Liang and Zhou Xie with invitations; and afterwards, when calamities and prodigies came one on another, a decree summoned men of the Way, and the dukes and ministers and the hundred officials each presented sealed memorials.

Personal Relations

• Grandfather: Emperor Zhang of Han, Liu Da
• Adoptive father: Emperor He of Han, Liu Zhao
• Biological father: Liu Qing, Prince Xiao of Qinghe
• Biological mother: Zuo Xiao'e, posthumously honored as Empress Xiaode
• Nominal mother: Lady Geng
• Grandmother: Noble Lady Song, posthumously honored as Empress Jingyin
• Empress: Yan Ji, Empress Ansi
• Palace woman: Lady Li, mother of Liu Bao, poisoned by Empress Yan and posthumously honored as Empress Gongmin
• Son: Liu Bao, Emperor Shun of Han
• Deng Hong: elder brother of Empress Dowager Deng; taught Liu Hu the Ouyang tradition of the Book of Documents inside the palace
• Empress Dowager Deng: ruled at court; had a tense relationship with Liu Hu
• Deng Zhi: senior supporter of Liu Hu's accession; forced into circumstances that ended in self-starvation
• Yang Zhen: prominent official who was dismissed after outspoken remonstrance and committed suicide
• Du Gen: urged the Empress Dowager to return power; survived an attempted execution by feigning death
• Zhou Zhang: plotted a change of ruler and committed suicide when the plot was exposed
• Wang Sheng: wet nurse, enfeoffed as Lady of Yewang; abused political influence
• Jiang Jing, Fan Feng, Li Run: eunuchs allied with Wang Sheng
• Yan Xian, Yan Jing, Yan Yao: brothers of Empress Yan, placed in charge of palace troops
• Geng Bao: elder brother of Lady Geng, made Marquis of Muping

Historical Assessment

Eastern Han and Contemporary Accounts

• Dongguan Hanji described Liu Hu in youth as intelligent, perceptive, benevolent, gentle, broad-minded, and generous, but stated that after he assumed personal government he committed many acts lacking in virtue.
• Zhai Pu submitted a memorial criticizing the unprecedented favor shown to consort relatives and warning that government authority was shifting into private households and repeating the pattern of earlier political disasters.
• Yang Zhen repeatedly submitted forceful remonstrances against the political influence of Wang Sheng, Fan Feng, and others, ultimately remonstrating at the cost of his life.

Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties

• Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han criticized Empress Dowager Deng for ruling throughout her life, leaving the successor emperor unable to exercise real authority, while also showing some sympathy for Liu Hu's position. It nevertheless criticized the failures of his personal government and the rise of inner-court favoritism.
• The “Annals of Emperor Xiao'an” in the Book of the Later Han characterized Liu Hu as intelligent in reputation but lacking benevolent government, placing trust in eunuchs and ultimately bringing the state into danger.

Tang and Song Periods

• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance gives a detailed account of Liu Hu's reign and generally criticizes his purge of the Deng clan, reliance on his wet nurse and eunuchs, and deposition of the Crown Prince, treating these failures as major causes of political deterioration.

Modern Assessments

• Lü Simian, in History of the Qin and Han, identified Emperor An's reign as a key turning point in the Eastern Han's transition from prosperity to decline, after which alternating domination by consort clans and eunuchs became entrenched.
• Qian Mu, in Outline of Chinese History, argued that Empress Dowager Deng was still able to maintain political stability while ruling at court, whereas politics deteriorated rapidly after Emperor An took personal control and Eastern Han power never fully recovered.