Liu Clan Member (Former Young Emperor of Western Han)

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

The Former Young Emperor was a son of Emperor Hui of Han, Liu Ying, and a palace woman; his exact year of birth is not recorded. In the tenth month of 192 BCE, the fourth year of Emperor Hui, Empress Lü sought to strengthen the political marriage ties between the Liu and Lü families by making her eleven-year-old granddaughter Zhang Yan—the daughter of Princess Luyuan and Zhang Ao, Marquis Xuanping—Emperor Hui's Empress. Empress Lü hoped that Zhang Yan would bear a son, but Zhang Yan was very young and did not become pregnant. Empress Lü therefore arranged for Zhang Yan to feign pregnancy, seized a son born to Emperor Hui by a palace woman, claimed that the child had been born to Zhang Yan, killed his birth mother, and had the boy made Crown Prince. Records of the Grand Historian, in the “Basic Annals of Empress Lü,” explicitly records that the daughter of the Marquis of Xuanping, while Empress of Emperor Xiaohui, had no son, feigned pregnancy, took the son of a palace woman as her own, killed the mother, and established the child as Crown Prince.

Accession and Empress Lü's Regency

In the eighth month of 188 BCE, the seventh year of Emperor Hui, Emperor Hui died at Weiyang Palace at the age of twenty-three. After he was buried at Anling in the ninth month, Empress Lü enthroned the Crown Prince, later known as the Former Young Emperor. Because the emperor was still a child, Empress Lü ruled at court as Empress Dowager and held actual control of government. During the Former Young Emperor's reign, she extensively enfeoffed members of the Lü clan as kings and marquises and greatly expanded their power. Lü Tai, Lü Chan, Lü Lu, and others were made kings, and the Lü family took control of the northern and southern imperial guards, creating a political structure dominated by the Lü clan. The Former Young Emperor was effectively a puppet in Empress Lü's hands, and major affairs of state were decided by her.

Discovery of His Birth and Deposition

By 184 BCE, the fourth year of Empress Lü, the Former Young Emperor had grown older and learned that Zhang Yan was not his birth mother and that his biological mother had been killed. He then voiced resentment, asking how the Empress could kill his mother and raise him as her own son, and declaring that although he was still young, he would seek revenge after growing up. When Empress Lü learned of this, she became deeply alarmed, fearing that he might act against her in the future. She therefore confined him in the Yongxiang quarters of the rear palace and publicly announced that the emperor was ill and could not receive visitors.

Empress Lü then summoned the ministers and declared that the emperor had suffered from a prolonged illness, was mentally disordered, could not perform the ancestral sacrifices, and was therefore unfit to rule the empire. The officials followed her wishes and agreed to depose him. The Former Young Emperor was removed from the throne and was soon secretly killed by Empress Lü. In the fifth month of the same year, Empress Lü enthroned another son of Emperor Hui, Liu Yi, Prince of Changshan, whose name was changed to Liu Hong; he became the Later Young Emperor.

After His Death

After the Former Young Emperor's death, Empress Lü continued to rule at court. In 180 BCE, the eighth year of her rule, she died. A coalition of senior merit officials led by Chen Ping and Zhou Bo joined members of the Liu imperial clan to destroy the Lü faction and enthroned Liu Heng, Prince of Dai, as Emperor Wen of Han. During the purge of the Lü clan, the ministers asserted that Emperor Hui had had no sons and regarded the Former and Later Young Emperors and Emperor Hui's other supposed sons as being of uncertain parentage and not genuine members of the Liu imperial family. They therefore killed the Later Young Emperor Liu Hong together with his brothers Liu Chao, Liu Wu, Liu Tai, and others. The Former and Later Young Emperors were consequently not recognized by the Han court as legitimate emperors, and historians usually referred to them simply as “Young Emperor” without recording a personal name.

Major Activities

Birth Status and Establishment as Heir

The Former Young Emperor was a political instrument created by Empress Lü to control imperial succession. To strengthen marriage ties within the ruling family, Empress Lü had made her granddaughter Zhang Yan Empress of Emperor Hui, but Zhang Yan could not bear a child. Empress Lü therefore seized Emperor Hui's son by a palace woman, falsely presented him as Zhang Yan's child, killed his birth mother, and made him Crown Prince. The episode demonstrates Empress Lü's complete control over succession and the brutality of struggle within the Han imperial harem.

Lü Clan Domination During His Reign

During the Former Young Emperor's reign from 188 to 184 BCE, Empress Lü ruled at court and broadly enfeoffed members of the Lü clan as kings. Lü Tai became King of Lü, Lü Chan King of Liang, and Lü Lu King of Zhao, while the clan controlled the northern and southern imperial guards. Empress Lü also compelled intermarriage between Liu princes and women of the Lü family—for example, Liu You, Prince of Zhao, married a Lü woman as his princess. The Liu imperial clan and the old merit-official group were heavily constrained. Throughout this period the Former Young Emperor remained a puppet and state affairs were controlled by Empress Lü.

Deposition and Death

After learning the truth of his birth, the Former Young Emperor threatened to seek revenge when he grew older. This alarmed Empress Lü. She confined him in Yongxiang, announced publicly that the emperor was seriously ill, then deposed him on the grounds that he could no longer perform the ancestral sacrifices, and had him secretly killed. The source text describes him as the first emperor in Chinese history to be deposed and killed, and his fate illustrates the extreme weakness of imperial authority during Empress Lü's period of dominance.

Personal Relations

• Father: Emperor Hui of Han, Liu Ying, second emperor of the Western Han
• Birth mother: an unnamed palace woman, killed by Empress Lü
• Nominal mother: Empress Xiaohui Zhang Yan, daughter of Princess Luyuan
• Grandmother: Empress Lü, Lü Zhi, the actual ruler who later had him killed
• Brothers: Liu Qiang (Prince Huai of Huaiyang), Liu Buyi (Prince Ai of Hengshan), Liu Hong (Later Young Emperor), Liu Chao, Liu Wu, Liu Tai
• Empress Lü: actual ruler; enthroned him and later deposed and killed him
• Zhang Yan: nominal mother and Empress of Emperor Hui
• Chen Ping, Zhou Bo, and other merit officials: destroyed the Lü faction after Empress Lü's death and rejected the Young Emperor's status as a member of the imperial clan

Historical Assessment

Han and Contemporary Accounts

• Ban Gu, in the “Annals of Empress Gao” in the Book of Han, referred to the Former and Later Young Emperors together simply as “Young Emperor,” did not record their names, and did not treat them as legitimate emperors, reflecting the official Han denial of their status.
• Sima Qian, in the “Basic Annals of Empress Lü” in Records of the Grand Historian, recorded the Former Young Emperor's deposition and death in restrained language, stating that the emperor was removed from his position and secretly killed by the Empress Dowager. The account offers no explicit praise or blame, but by placing the episode under Empress Lü's annals it presents the young emperor as subordinate to her exercise of power.
• After Emperor Wen came to the throne, the ministers declared that “Emperor Hui had no sons” and killed those regarded as Emperor Hui's sons, completely excluding them from the Liu imperial lineage.

From the Post-Han Period through the Qing

• Tang historian Liu Zhiji discussed the Han Young Emperors in Shitong, arguing that although both had been deposed and killed, they had nevertheless occupied the imperial throne and historians should not erase their existence entirely.
• Qing scholar Liang Yusheng, in Shiji Zhiyi, examined the Former Young Emperor's personal name, noting that neither the Records of the Grand Historian nor the Book of Han records it, and criticized as unfounded Liu Bozhuang's account concerning a woman connected with the Lü family entering the palace while pregnant and giving birth there.
• Qing scholar Zhao Yi, in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, discussed Empress Lü's government and regarded the deposition and killing of the Young Emperor as an inevitable result of her ambition to monopolize power; in this view the Young Emperor was a victim of political struggle.

Modern Assessments

• Qian Mu used the name “Liu Gong” in Outline of Chinese History without providing textual verification; the source text states that this name ultimately derived from a mistaken reading in Japanese historical writing.
• Japanese scholar Yamada Takahito, in “On the Personal Name of the Former Young Emperor of the Former Han” (2017), specifically examined the problem of the emperor's name and argued that “Liu Gong” may have originated in a chronological table in a 1909 Japanese history, where a form meaning “a certain Liu” was misread.
• Works such as The Cambridge History of China: The Ch'in and Han Empires have used a form equivalent to “Young Emperor Gong,” while noting that his personal name is unknown.
• Modern scholars generally regard the Former Young Emperor as a puppet under Empress Lü whose entire life was controlled by her, making him a tragic example of conflict between imperial authority and the power of an empress dowager in ancient China.