Liu Hong

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Liu Hong came from a collateral branch of the imperial clan and was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhang of Han, Liu Da. His lineage was: Emperor Zhang Liu Da → Prince Xiao Liu Kai of Hejian → Marquis Liu Shu of Jiedu Village → Marquis Liu Chang of Jiedu Village → Liu Hong. His father Liu Chang died early, and Liu Hong inherited the title Marquis of Jiedu Village. His mother was Lady Dong, later honored as Empress Xiaoren. The Book of the Later Han, “Annals of Emperor Xiaoling,” records: “Emperor Xiaoling was named Hong and was a great-great-grandson of Suzong. His great-grandfather was Prince Xiao Kai of Hejian, his grandfather Shu, and his father Chang. The family had for generations held the title Marquis of Jiedu Village, which the emperor inherited. His mother was Lady Dong.”

Liu Hong's early life was poor, in marked contrast with the luxury he enjoyed after becoming emperor. According to the Book of the Later Han, citing the Continuation of the Book of Han, his family was impoverished and he often remarked that Emperor Huan had not known how to manage his household property. The source presents this experience as an important influence on his later drive to accumulate wealth.

In the winter of 167, the first year of Yongkang, Emperor Huan Liu Zhi died without a son. Empress Dou Miao took control of the court. Her father, Dou Wu, then Commandant of the City Gates, summoned Attendant Censor Liu Tiao, a member of the Hejian royal branch, and asked which member of that line was most worthy. Liu Tiao recommended Liu Hong, Marquis of Jiedu Village. Dou Wu reported this to Dou Miao, who dispatched Attendant Censor and acting Grandee of Splendid Happiness Liu Shu, Colonel of the Imperial Carriages Cao Jie, and others to Hejian to escort Liu Hong to the capital.

Early Reign and the 168 Coup Attempt

In the first month of 168, the first year of Jianning, Liu Hong arrived with the imperial escort at Wanshou Pavilion outside the Xiamen Gate of Luoyang, where Dou Wu led the civil and military officials in welcoming him. The next day Liu Hong ascended the throne and adopted Jianning as the era name. Grand Tutor Chen Fan, General-in-Chief Dou Wu, and Minister over the Masses Hu Guang were appointed to jointly participate in the affairs of the Masters of Writing. Liu Hong posthumously honored his father Liu Chang as Emperor Xiaoren, named his tomb Shenling, and made his mother Lady Dong Noble Lady of Shenyuan.

At the beginning of Liu Hong's reign, Empress Dowager Dou acted as regent. Following the advice of Chen Fan and Dou Wu, she executed the eunuchs Su Kang and Guan Ba, who had helped initiate the first Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions under Emperor Huan. Court politics briefly improved. Dou Wu, rewarded for arranging the succession, was enfeoffed as Marquis of Wenxi, while members of his clan received offices and titles and the Dou family became extremely powerful. Chen Fan restored many scholars punished in the first partisan prohibition and worked with Dou Wu to recruit noted men such as Li Ying, Du Mi, Yin Xun, and Liu Yu. Contemporary scholars looked hopefully toward a restoration of good government.

Empress Dowager Dou, however, created female offices within the Masters of Writing and cultivated eunuchs personally loyal to her. This aroused the dissatisfaction of Chen Fan and Dou Wu. Chen Fan urged Dou Miao to eliminate all eunuchs, but she refused. In the eighth month of 168, Palace Attendant Liu Yu cited disordered celestial signs unfavorable to great ministers and urged Dou Wu and Chen Fan to act quickly. Dou Wu appointed his allies Zhu Yu as Colonel Director of Retainers, Liu You as Intendant of Henan, and Yu Qi as Prefect of Luoyang. He also petitioned to remove Wei Biao as Yellow Gate Director and replace him with his ally Shan Bing. Zheng Sa, a Master of Writing of Changle Palace, was then arrested and tortured in the Northern Prison, where he implicated Cao Jie, Wang Fu, and other eunuchs.

On the xinhai day of the ninth month, after Dou Wu had left the palace, officials brought one of his memorials to Changle Palace, where it was seen by Zhu Yu, an official of the palace. Zhu Yu angrily declared that unruly eunuchs could naturally be punished but that innocent eunuchs should not all face extermination. He then shouted that Chen Fan and Dou Wu had petitioned the Empress Dowager to depose the emperor and were committing high treason. That night Zhu Yu formed an alliance with Wang Fu, Cao Jie, and seventeen other eunuchs, won Liu Hong's support, and brought the emperor to the front hall of Deyang Palace. Protected by his wet nurse Zhao Rao, Liu Hong drew his sword, produced the palace credentials, closed the gates, and compelled the Secretariat to prepare an edict. Wang Fu was appointed Yellow Gate Director and sent under credentials to the Northern Prison to arrest Shan Bing. Shan Bing refused the order and was killed by Wang Fu. The eunuchs released Zheng Sa, seized Empress Dowager Dou, took possession of the imperial seal, and issued orders for Dou Wu's arrest.

Dou Wu refused the edict, rode to the Infantry Camp, and with his nephew, Colonel of the Foot Soldiers Dou Shao, shot the eunuchs who came to summon him. He rallied several thousand men from the five regiments of the Northern Army and occupied the Luoyang pavilion. On hearing of the crisis, Chen Fan led more than eighty subordinates with drawn swords through Chengming Gate. He encountered Wang Fu, was denounced, arrested, taken to the Northern Prison, and executed. At the time, Zhang Huan, General of the Gentlemen of the Household Protecting the Xiongnu, had been recalled to the capital and did not know the full circumstances. Believing the eunuchs' version of events, he led troops to assist Wang Fu against Dou Wu. After a night of fighting, Dou Wu was defeated and killed himself. Empress Dowager Dou was moved to the Southern Palace and her relatives were exiled to Rinan Commandery. This episode was the 168 coup attempt by Dou Wu and Chen Fan against the eunuchs.

Eunuch Domination and the Partisan Prohibitions

After the 168 coup attempt, eunuchs gained comprehensive control of court politics. Liu Hong enfeoffed his wet nurse Zhao Rao, who had protected him, as Lady of Pingshi. The source states that “her honor was weighty throughout the realm, her stored wealth rivaled the imperial treasury, her two sons received fiefs, and her brothers governed commanderies.” Gentleman Xie Bi remonstrated and was demoted to Assistant of Guangling. Cao Jie was promoted to Commandant of the Guard of Changle Palace and enfeoffed as Marquis of Yuyang; Wang Fu became a Regular Palace Attendant. Zhu Yu, Gong Pu, Zhang Liang, and three others became full marquises, while eleven more received lesser marquisates. “Petty men gained their will, and the scholar-officials lost heart.”

In 169, the second year of Jianning, a green snake appeared on the imperial throne. Minister of Agriculture Zhang Huan and Gentleman Xie Bi memorialized requesting the rehabilitation of Chen Fan and Dou Wu, angering the eunuchs. Zhang Huan confined himself in the Court of Judicial Review for several days. Xie Bi was expelled from court and later arrested and executed on other charges by Cao Shao, Governor of Dong Commandery and a nephew of Cao Jie. In the tenth month of the same year, the Second Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions began. Cao Jie, serving as Grand Prolonger of the Autumn Gate, induced the responsible offices to petition for the arrest of Li Ying, Du Mi, Fan Pang, and other alleged partisan associates. Liu Hong asked Cao Jie what a “linked party” was. Cao Jie replied that it meant a rebellious faction. Liu Hong then asked what crime such men had committed and whether they had to be killed. Cao Jie answered that they had formed secret associations and were preparing disloyal action. Asked what this meant, Cao Jie said they planned to overthrow the government. Only then did Liu Hong approve the memorial. Li Ying, Fan Pang, and others eventually died in prison.

In 172, the first year of Xiping, officials accused the eunuch Hou Lan of arrogant abuse of power and extravagance. Liu Hong ordered his seals recalled, forcing Hou Lan to commit suicide. In the same year, Prince Liu Kui of Bohai was falsely accused of rebellion by men acting at the instigation of Regular Palace Attendant Wang Fu and killed himself in prison. In 176, the fifth year of Xiping, Governor Cao Luan of Yongchang submitted a memorial asking that the partisan ban be ended. Liu Hong was enraged; Cao Luan died in prison and the persecution of the partisans was expanded. The ban was not lifted until 184, the first year of Zhongping, after the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

Personal Rule and the Sale of Offices and Titles

On the third day of the first month of 171, the fourth year of Jianning, Liu Hong performed the coming-of-age ceremony, proclaimed a general amnesty, and formally assumed personal rule. Cai Yong praised him in ceremonial language as possessing a sacred bearing and complete imperial dignity, with a face radiant “like the sun and stars.” In the seventh month, Liu Hong made Lady Song Empress.

Liu Hong had lived in poverty when young. After becoming emperor he often mocked Emperor Huan for failing to manage his household wealth, and he began to sell offices and noble titles on a large scale, treating the proceeds as private funds. In 178, the first year of Guanghe, he established an office in the Western Garden and began openly selling appointments and titles. In 180 he built the Bigui and Lingkun parks. In 181 he constructed market stalls inside the harem, ordered palace women to trade goods, steal from one another, and quarrel, and amused himself by wearing merchant clothing and drinking at their market. He also rode a white donkey through the Western Garden. The fashion was copied across the capital and donkey prices reportedly rose sharply.

In 185, the second year of Zhongping, fire damaged the Cloud Terrace and Lecheng Gate of the Southern Palace in Luoyang. Regular Palace Attendants Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong persuaded Liu Hong to levy an additional ten cash per mu of land as a “palace-repair contribution.” Officials also imposed exacting requirements for construction materials and extracted wealth from the provinces and commanderies. Later, inspectors, governors, and other officials were required to make “military assistance contributions” or “palace-repair contributions” when offices changed hands. Only after Sima Zhi, Governor of Julu, submitted a memorial condemning the government and then killed himself by poison did Liu Hong stop collecting the palace-repair levy. In the same year, Cui Lie paid five million cash to become Minister over the Masses. Liu Hong remarked to his attendants that he should have held out, because the office could have been sold for ten million.

In his later years Liu Hong favored Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong, and the other eunuchs later known as the Ten Attendants, reportedly saying, “Zhang Rang is my father and Zhao Zhong is my mother.” On one occasion Liu Hong wished to climb the watchtower of Yong'an Palace. The eunuchs feared that he would see their luxurious residences and had the courtier Shang Dan tell him that the Son of Heaven should not ascend to high places because doing so would cause the people to scatter like stars. Liu Hong thereafter avoided climbing tall towers and pavilions.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion and Final Years

In 184, the first year of Zhongping, Zhang Jiao, leader of the Way of Great Peace, launched the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Thirty-six regional commands rose on the same day and uprisings spread widely. Liu Hong appointed Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, and others to suppress them. Zhang Jiao died that same year. Most major rebel commanders were defeated by government forces, but remnants continued to fight across the empire, and the foundations of Eastern Han rule were badly shaken. In the same year, because of the uprising, Liu Hong accepted proposals by Huangfu Song and others and lifted the partisan prohibitions.

Local rebellions continued afterward. In 185, Qiang rebels of Beidi and insurgents from Fuhan and Heguan rose, initially recognizing Beigong Boyu and Li Wenhou as generals and later coercing Bian Zhang and Han Sui into leading the movement. In 187, former Chancellor of Zhongshan Zhang Chun, former Administrator of Taishan Zhang Ju, and the Wuhuan leader Qiuliju rebelled. Zhang Ju proclaimed himself emperor, while Zhang Chun styled himself “General Who Covers Heaven” and Prince of Anding, announcing that Zhang Ju would replace the Han. In 188 Liu Hong ordered Cavalry Commandant Gongsun Zan to campaign against them. Gongsun Zan defeated Zhang Chun at Shimen, but in pursuit was surrounded by Qiuliju at Guanzi City and his army collapsed. In 189, after Liu Yu took office as Governor of You Province and sent envoys to the Xianbei tribes, Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju fled beyond the frontier and Qiuliju submitted to the court, bringing the revolt to an end.

In 188 Liu Hong adopted Liu Yan's proposal to replace provincial inspectors with governors and reestablish powerful provincial governorships. This later contributed to the rise of regional warlords. In the same year he created the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden, appointing the eunuch Jian Shuo as Colonel of the Upper Army, Yuan Shao as Colonel of the Central Army, and Cao Cao as Colonel of the Army Standards in an effort to balance the power of General-in-Chief He Jin, a member of the imperial in-law clan.

On the second day of the fourth month of 189, the sixth year of Zhongping, Liu Hong died in Jiade Hall of the Southern Palace at the age of thirty-three, or thirty-four by traditional East Asian age reckoning. He received the posthumous name Emperor Xiaoling and was buried at Wenling. Crown Prince Liu Bian succeeded him and became the Young Emperor of Han.

Family, His Elevation, and the Coup of the First Jianning Year

The Later Han History records that "the Xiaoling emperor was named Hong and was a great-great-grandson of Suzong; his great-grandfather was Liu Kai, king Xiao of Hejian, his grandfather Shu and his father Chang. The family held the marquisate of Xiedu pavilion from generation to generation, and the emperor inherited the title; his mother was Lady Dong." When Emperor Huan died without issue, Dou Wu summoned the attendant censor Liu Tiao of Hejian "to inquire which of the princes and marquises of that state were worthy," and Liu Tiao named Liu Hong, marquis of the Xiedu pavilion, whereupon Dou Wu told the empress dowager Dou Miao and he was summoned and installed. In the first month of 168 the court "sent the acting grand master of imperial ceremonies Liu Shu with the staff of authority and the left and right guards to Hejian to welcome him," bringing him into the hall in the prince's carriage with blue canopy; on the gengzi day he took the throne at twelve, changing the era to Jianning, with the former grand commandant Chen Fan made grand tutor "to take part in the seals and the secretariat together with Dou Wu and the minister of education Hu Guang"; in the intercalary month he honoured his grandfather as emperor Xiaoyuan, his father as emperor Xiaoren and his mother Lady Dong as lady of Shenyuan.

In the first years of the reign the government lay with Dou Wu and Chen Fan: "when the empress dowager Dou was made empress, Chen Fan had had much to do with it; and when she came to the court, all business great and small was given to Fan. Fan and Dou Wu laboured with one mind to exalt the royal house, summoning to court the worthy men of the empire, Li Ying, Du Mi, Yin Xun and Liu Yu among them, to take part in the government; and so the scholars of the empire all stretched their necks toward a Great Peace." Against them stood "the emperor's wet-nurse Zhao Rao and the various women secretaries, who were day and night at the empress dowager's side, and the regular attendants Cao Jie, Wang Fu and the rest, who joined in factions and flattered the empress dowager, who trusted them and issued edicts and grants at their wish, which Fan and Wu hated." Chen Fan said privately to Dou Wu that "Cao Jie and Wang Fu have handled the state's power since the late emperor's day and muddied the empire; if they are not destroyed now, they will be hard to deal with later"; and when an eclipse occurred he argued from the case of Xiao Wangzhi's being ruined by a single Shi Xian, asking what was to be done when there were dozens of Shi Xians, and urged Dou Wu to use the eclipse to dismiss the eunuchs. Dou Wu accordingly told the empress dowager that the yellow gates and regular attendants should only keep the doors and the stores, whereas now they took part in government and their sons and brothers were everywhere, "so that the empire is in an uproar; they should all be destroyed to cleanse the court," and she answered that "since the beginning of Han there have always been eunuchs, and only those who have done wrong should be killed — how can they all be abolished?" Dou Wu had Guan Ba and Su Kang arrested and put to death, and asked again and again for Cao Jie and the rest, but "the empress dowager hesitated and could not bear it, and so the plan long went unexecuted." Liu Yu then memorialized her from the stars, saying that "the palace gate should be shut, and the generals and ministers are in danger, for wicked men are beside the ruler," and wrote to Dou Wu and Chen Fan that "the stars are disordered and the great ministers are in danger; decide quickly." On the xinhai day of the ninth month of 168, when Dou Wu had gone home to sleep, "the keeper of the documents first informed Zhu Yu, the officer of the long joy palace," who opened Dou Wu's memorial by stealth and cursed: "The loose eunuchs may indeed be killed, but what crime is ours that we should all be wiped out to the last?" and cried out that "Chen Fan and Dou Wu have memorialized the empress dowager to depose the emperor, which is high treason," and summoned his sworn braves, more than seventeen of them, to smear their lips with blood and swear to kill Dou Wu. Cao Jie then told the emperor that "there is whispering outside; let Your Majesty come out to the front hall of Deyang," had him leap up with a drawn sword, set the wet-nurse Zhao Rao and others about him, took the tallies and closed the gates, called the secretariat officers and "threatened them with bare blades to make them write the edict tablets," made Wang Fu a yellow gate commissioner and sent him with the staff of authority to the northern temple prison for Yin Xun and Shan Bing; Shan Bing, "suspecting the edict, would not receive it," and was struck dead, and Yin Xun also killed. They brought out Zheng Sa, "turned the troops to coerce the empress dowager and seize her seals," had the palace ushers hold the southern palace with the gates shut and the gallery closed, and sent Zheng Sa with the staff of authority to arrest Dou Wu and the rest. Dou Wu would not accept the edict, galloped into the infantry camp and with his brother's son, the colonel Dou Shao, shot the envoys dead, called together several thousand of the five camps of the northern army at the pavilion, and ordered his men that "the yellow gates and regular attendants are in revolt; whoever gives his strength shall be made a marquis with rich reward." Chen Fan, hearing of the crisis, "led more than eighty of his officers and students, all with drawn blades, bursting in through the Chengming gate" to the secretariat door, and cried aloud: "The great general is loyal and guards the state; the yellow gates are rebels — how say you that the Dou house is without the Way?" Wang Fu, meeting him, reproached him that "the late emperor has but newly left the empire and the tomb is not made; what merit has Wu that his brothers and sons are all made marquises? And he makes music and feasts and takes many palace women... and you, a chief minister, abet him — whom then do you seek as a traitor?" and had his swordsmen seize him; Chen Fan drew his sword and cursed Fu "with words and looks the more vehement," and was taken to the northern temple prison, where the grooms of the yellow gates kicked him and said: "Dead old devil! Can you still cut our numbers and take away our allowances?" and he was killed that day. Just then Zhang Huan, colonel of the interior guarding the Xiongnu, returned to the capital, and Cao Jie and the others, because he was "newly come and knew nothing of the plot," forged an order making Zhou Jing acting general of chariot and horse and, joining Zhang Huan with the five camps, attacked Dou Wu; Wang Fu with the tiger braves and the guards, more than a thousand in all, joined Zhang Huan and faced Dou Wu, and had his men shout: "Dou Wu is a rebel! You are all guards, whose duty is to keep the palace — why go with rebels? Whoever surrenders first has reward!" and "the camp troops, long used to fear the eunuchs, drifted over to Wang Fu one by one, so that by breakfast time nearly all had surrendered"; Dou Wu and Dou Shao fled, were surrounded and "both killed themselves, their heads hung at the Luoyang pavilion." The empress dowager was moved to the southern palace and Dou Wu's household deported to Rinan, while Cao Jie became commandant of the long joy palace and marquis of Yuyang, Wang Fu a regular attendant, and Zhu Yu, Gong Pu, Zhang Liang and three others marquises and eleven others marquises of the passes — "and so the petty men had their way and the scholar-officials all lost heart."

Major Activities

Political Measures

Liu Hong's reign saw several institutional innovations. He established an Office of Palace Attendants, described in the source as a precursor of the Menxia Province of the Sui and Tang. In 188 he created the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden in an attempt to use a eunuch-led military command to balance the power of the imperial in-laws. That year he also adopted Liu Yan's proposal to replace provincial inspectors with governors and expand their authority. The stated intention was to strengthen local defense and suppress uprisings, but in practice the reform helped create institutional conditions for the regional warlordism of the late Han.

Eastern Han influence in the Western Regions also declined further during his reign. In 170, Liang Province Inspector Meng Tuo ordered his subordinate Ren She, together with Wuji Colonel Cao Kuan and Chief Clerk of the Western Regions Zhang Yan, to mobilize more than thirty thousand troops from Yanqi, Kucha, and the Former and Later Kingdoms of Jushi against Shule. After failing for more than forty days to capture Zhenzhong City, they withdrew, and Eastern Han was thereafter unable to intervene effectively in Shule. In 177, because of repeated Xianbei raids, Liu Hong sent Xia Yu from Gaoliu, Tian Yan from Yunzhong, and Zang Min with Southern Xiongnu forces from Yanmen in a three-pronged campaign. They were decisively defeated by Tanshihuai, and Xia Yu, Tian Yan, and Zang Min were reduced to commoner status.

Cultural Contributions

In 175, the fourth year of Xiping, Cai Yong argued that the Confucian classics had accumulated many textual errors. Together with Regular Palace Attendant Li Xun, Gentleman of the Household of the Five Offices Tangxi Dian, Grandee of Splendid Happiness Yang Ci, Remonstrant Counselor Ma Ridi, Gentlemen Zhang Xun and Han Shuo, and Grand Astrologer Shan Yang, he petitioned for an official collation of the classics. Liu Hong approved the project. The corrected texts of the Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Lu Odes, Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, Spring and Autumn Annals, Gongyang Commentary, and Analects were carved on forty-six stone slabs and erected outside the National University as authoritative texts. The Book of the Later Han, citing the Record of Luoyang, likewise states that there were forty-six stelae. The Xiping Stone Classics established a tradition of officially sanctioned stone texts of the Confucian canon and, according to the source, also stimulated the development of rubbing techniques that later served as a precursor to printing.

In 178, the first year of Guanghe, Liu Hong established the Hongdu Gate School. It was initially presented as a place for studying the Confucian canon but later gathered literary men engaged in rhapsody, calligraphy, and other arts. Because it emphasized literary and artistic production over the orthodox classics, many officials opposed it. The source presents this as a break with the exclusive dominance of Confucian education and as a precedent for later specialized schools.

Military Actions

In 168, Protector of the Qiang Duan Jiong led more than ten thousand troops from Pengyang toward Gaoping and defeated Xianling Qiang groups at Fengyi Mountain. He then advanced through Qiaomen Valley and successively defeated remaining Qiang forces at Sheyan Marsh, Luochuan, and Lingxian River, before inflicting a decisive defeat in Lingwu Valley. In 169 Duan Jiong defeated the remaining Qiang at Fanting Mountain and destroyed them in Shehu Valley, bringing the eastern Qiang disturbances under control. In the seventh month of the same year, as General Who Breaks the Qiang, he again defeated Xianling Qiang outside Shehu Pass, after which the eastern Qiang were fully pacified.

When the Yellow Turban Rebellion erupted in 184, Liu Hong sent Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, and others on separate campaigns. Huangfu Song used fire attacks at the Battle of Changshe to defeat Bo Cai's Yellow Turbans and later defeated Bu Ji's force at Cangting. Zhu Jun defeated the forces of Zhao Hong and Han Zhong at Wancheng. Lu Zhi besieged Zhang Jiao at Guangzong, but was dismissed after eunuch Zuo Feng slandered him. Dong Zhuo replaced him and was defeated, after which Huangfu Song took command. Zhang Jiao died of illness and the main Yellow Turban forces were eventually suppressed.

Activities and Excursions

In 181, Liu Hong built market stalls in the harem and ordered palace women to sell goods, steal from one another, and quarrel while he wore merchant clothing, drank, and amused himself. The Book of the Later Han: Annals of Emperor Xiaoling records that in that year “the emperor built rows of market stalls in the rear palace, had the palace women trade goods and steal from and quarrel with one another, while he wore a merchant's dress, drank, feasted, and took pleasure in it.” He also rode a white donkey through the Western Garden, which prompted imitation in the capital until donkey prices reportedly equaled those of horses.

According to Wang Jia's Eastern Jin work Records of Gleanings, Liu Hong built a thousand-room pavilion for nude recreation and selected palace women between fourteen and eighteen years old to swim naked in its pool. This comes from a collection of marvel tales rather than an official history and is preserved in the source only as an anecdotal reference.

The Palace, the Sale of Office, the Stone Classics and the Hongdu School

After he took the government into his own hands, the records of his court and his appointments are concentrated and by no means favourable. In 178 the empress Song, "unloved yet set in the place of honour, was slandered by the favoured concubines of the inner palace, who accused her of curses and imprecations"; the emperor believed them and took back her seals, "and she went of herself to the prison of the women's quarters and died of grief, and her father and brothers were all executed," while "the regular and lesser attendants in the palace, pitying the Song house's innocence, joined in contributing money to bury the empress and the father and sons in the old Song graveyard at Gaomen pavilion." Afterwards the noble consort He was made empress — "she was of a butcher's family of Nanyang, chosen into the palace, and bore the prince Bian, and so was made empress." There were purges among the eunuchs too: in 179 the colonel of the capital Yang Qiu impeached Wang Fu and his sons Wang Meng and Wang Ji, "and all died in prison," the court gentleman Shen Zhong holding that this came of "the guilt of Zhu Yu and the rest"; and in the winter of the same year "the minister of education Liu He, the young treasurer of Yongle Chen Qiu, the commandant of the guards Yang Qiu and the colonel of infantry Liu Na plotted to destroy the eunuchs; the plot leaked and all were imprisoned and died." The second proscription of the partisans began from a private quarrel: Zhang Jian, visiting his mother's grave, "was ostentatious and oppressed the people, and pulled down the house and even the ancestral graves of Hou Lan," whereupon Hou Lan had Zhu Bing memorialize that Zhang Jian and twenty-three other worthies of Shanyang had formed a faction with treasonable designs; the emperor, asking the eunuchs' counsel, heard Cao Jie "take the occasion to explain that the partisans endangered the state and ask that the purge be extended to the whole empire," and approved it, "and in the end this political disaster drove great numbers of scholars into flight and brought about six or seven hundred deaths." When Cao Luan memorialized on the partisans' behalf, the emperor was enraged, "had him tortured to death in prison and extended the proscription to the partisans' kin and friends." He also "set up market stalls in the inner palace, having the palace women sell and buy and contend with one another", and "put on a merchant's dress and feasted for his pleasure," and on the prompting of his mother and the regular attendants began to sell office: it was publicly announced that posts from marquis of the passes down to the tiger braves and guards under the minister of imperial attendance could be bought, with posts in the provinces dearer than those at court, "the highest bidder taking the post," the price "raised or lowered with the buyer's standing and property," and men of Duan Jiong's fame and merit "paid in full before mounting to the ducal offices," until at last "any transfer, promotion or new appointment required payment of a third or a quarter of the price of the office — that is, an official must pay on taking up his post the equivalent of more than twenty-five years of lawful income." Such records make the reign after he took power the most concentrated single chapter of the Eastern Han's dissolution.

In culture and education he left two measures of lasting effect. The first is the Xiping stone classics: since the examinations took the lacquered palace copy as standard and some candidates even bribed clerks to alter it, Cai Yong and others proposed that the standard text of the classics be published and cut in stone — the famous Xiping stone classics, which "became the textbooks of the Eastern Han national academy"; they were written by Cai Yong in the three scripts of ancient, great seal and clerical, and "when the stones were first set up, the carts coming to see, copy and transcribe them numbered more than a thousand a day, filling the streets and lanes." They "for the first time cut the Confucian classics in stone, beginning the later tradition of stone classics," and "gave great stimulus to the invention of printing, for the mass copying produced the technique of taking rubbings." The second is the Hongdu school: within it "the Confucian classics were not studied; what was studied was rhapsody and calligraphy — the subjects that interested Liu Hong" — and its students were employed "as governors, presidents of the secretariat, attendants, and even made marquises," while the scholars of the national academy "commonly despised them and refused to associate with them"; it was founded because, with the centrifugal tendency of the great families growing in the later Eastern Han, "the emperor saw that to gain real control of the government he must break out of the old habit of strengthening the inner court to balance the outer," and so brought in the Hongdu students as a new political force to "strike at and even break through the power structure long held by the great official families at both the central and local levels." The school "took in sons of commoners, breaking the monopoly of the schools by nobles and landlords," and is held to have "opened the way for the examinations and the specialised schools of later ages, above all the Tang." When the Yellow Turbans rose, the court gentleman Zhang Jun memorialized that "the ten regular attendants should be beheaded and their heads hung in the southern suburb to satisfy the people," and the emperor angrily called him "a mad fellow indeed," whereupon the censors, at the eunuchs' wish, "falsely accused Jun of studying the Yellow Turban doctrine and had him tortured to death in prison"; and when the regular attendants Feng Xu and Xu Feng were discovered and executed, the emperor angrily questioned Zhang Rang and the rest, who all bowed their heads and attributed it to "the late regular attendants Wang Fu and Hou Lan," "and the emperor let it be." In the fourth month of 189 Liu Hong died in the Jiade hall of the southern palace, and the prince Bian took the throne; he was buried at Wenling.

Personal Relations

• Emperor Zhang of Han, Liu Da: great-great-grandfather
• Prince Xiao Liu Kai of Hejian: great-grandfather
• Liu Shu: grandfather, Marquis of Jiedu Village
• Liu Chang: father, Marquis of Jiedu Village; posthumously honored as Emperor Xiaoren
• Lady Dong (Empress Dowager Dong): mother, Empress Xiaoren
• Empress Song: empress; falsely accused by Wang Fu in 178, deposed, and later died in the palace prison
• Empress He: empress from Wan in Nanyang; mother of Liu Bian
• Lady Wang: mother of Liu Xie, later Emperor Xian of Han; poisoned by Empress He
• Liu Bian: son, later Young Emperor of Han
• Liu Xie: son, later Emperor Xian of Han
• Hu Guang: Grand Tutor; in 168 jointly handled affairs of the Masters of Writing with Chen Fan and Dou Wu, and later instructed Liu Hong
• Yang Ci: Defender-in-chief; instructed Liu Hong after Hu Guang's death in 172
• Liu Kuan: Defender-in-chief; instructed Liu Hong
• Cai Yong: Gentleman; petitioned for the carving of the Xiping Stone Classics and was later exiled to Shuofang after criticizing the eunuchs
• Dou Wu: General-in-Chief; arranged Liu Hong's accession and killed himself after the failure of the 168 coup attempt
• Chen Fan: Grand Tutor; conspired with Dou Wu to eliminate the eunuchs and was killed when the plan failed
• Cao Jie: Regular Palace Attendant; a central figure in the 168 coup attempt and later Marquis of Yuyang
• Wang Fu: Regular Palace Attendant; dominated the court after the coup and was executed in 179 following Yang Qiu's memorial
• Zhang Rang: Regular Palace Attendant; leading member of the late-reign Ten Attendants, whom Liu Hong reportedly called his “father”
• Zhao Zhong: Regular Palace Attendant; one of the Ten Attendants, whom Liu Hong reportedly called his “mother”
• Duan Jiong: General Who Breaks the Qiang; suppressed the eastern Qiang and later died in prison after being implicated in the Wang Fu case
• Huangfu Song: General of the Gentlemen of the Household of the Left; a principal commander in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Rebellion
• Lu Zhi: General of the Gentlemen of the Household of the North; campaigned against Zhang Jiao and was dismissed after eunuch accusations
• Zhu Jun: General of the Gentlemen of the Household of the Right; suppressed the Yellow Turbans and a rebellion in Jiao Province
• He Jin: General-in-Chief; became regent after Liu Hong's death and was later killed by eunuchs
• Dong Zhuo: General of the Van; took part in campaigns against the Liang Province rebels during Zhongping and later seized power in the capital
• Empress Dowager Dou: seized by the eunuchs and moved to the Southern Palace; died in 172
• Li Ying: eminent scholar; killed during the Second Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions
• Fan Pang: eminent scholar; killed during the Second Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions
• Zhang Huan: Minister of Agriculture; opposed by the eunuchs after requesting rehabilitation for Chen Fan and Dou Wu
• Xie Bi: Gentleman; demoted after urging Liu Hong to dismiss his wet nurse Zhao Rao, and later killed by a nephew of Cao Jie
• Yang Qiu: Colonel Director of Retainers; memorialized for the execution of Wang Fu and his son, and was later killed after a failed plan against the eunuchs

Historical Assessment

Eastern Han / Contemporary Views

• At Liu Hong's coming-of-age ceremony, Cai Yong offered a congratulatory address praising his “sacred bearing,” complete dignity, radiant imperial presence, and conduct in accord with classical norms. (Collected Works of Cai Zhonglang, vol. 3)
• Gentleman Xie Bi criticized Liu Hong's favoritism toward his wet nurse Zhao Rao, complaining that long-serving meritorious officials had not received ranks while the emperor's private nurse enjoyed a great fief. (cited in the Book of the Later Han)
• Yang Ci and Cai Yong submitted memorials criticizing those in power after a rainbow appeared at Yutang Hall in 178, condemning eunuch interference in politics.
• Governor Sima Zhi of Julu protested the “palace-repair contribution” by taking poison, forcing Liu Hong to halt its collection.

Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties

• Chen Shou in the Records of the Three Kingdoms treated the reigns of Huan and Ling as emblematic of the decline of the Han house, writing that “the Han house was collapsing and wicked ministers stole its authority.”
• Zhuge Liang's Memorial on Dispatching the Troops explicitly invoked Emperors Huan and Ling as negative examples: “Being close to worthy ministers and keeping petty men at a distance was why the Former Han flourished; being close to petty men and keeping worthy ministers at a distance was why the Later Han declined. When the late emperor was alive and discussed these matters with me, he never failed to lament and deeply regret Huan and Ling.”
• Yuan Hong's Eastern Jin Annals of the Later Han described the period as one in which Emperor Ling failed in rulership, power lay with eunuch servants, institutions were disordered, and ritual education declined.

Tang and Song Dynasties

• Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, reportedly used Emperor Ling as a warning, criticizing his enthusiasm for foreign clothing, food, and music and the way aristocrats in the capital imitated him. (Tang Huiyao)
• Sima Guang in the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance criticized Emperor Ling's sale of offices and titles and his reliance on eunuchs such as Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong, whose relatives filled provincial offices and were described as greedy and harmful to the people.
• The Southern Song historian Hu Sansheng, commenting on the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, argued that Emperor Ling's fundamental failure lay in indulging and trusting eunuchs, and asked how the state could avoid ruin under such conditions.

Ming and Qing Dynasties

• Wang Fuzhi in Du Tongjian Lun argued that Emperor Ling's regime was destroyed not by the Yellow Turbans themselves but by eunuch corruption that helped produce the uprising.
• Gu Yanwu in Record of Daily Knowledge wrote that after the reigns of Huan and Ling government deteriorated, yet moral criticism survived among the schools and contemporary eminent scholars retained broad public esteem.
• Zhao Yi in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories wrote that the Eastern Han also perished because of eunuchs, whose arrogance reached its height under Emperor Ling even as the emperor treated Zhang Rang as a father and Zhao Zhong as a mother.

Modern Views

• Lü Simian in History of the Qin and Han wrote that Emperor Ling was neither an able ruler nor a tyrant, and that although he had grown up among common people and knew their suffering, the disorders of the age could not be reversed by a single ruler or minister.
• Qian Mu in Outline of National History described eunuch power under Emperor Ling as reaching its height, with the Han house collapsing along with it.
• Fan Wenlan in A Concise General History of China characterized Emperor Ling as a ruler devoted to money and profit, selling offices and titles and extracting wealth without restraint, representative of the political corruption of the late Eastern Han.