Pining for the West: Chang'an in the Life of Kings and their Relatives during Chengdi's Reign (33-7 BCE) Griet Vankeerberghen.

Transcription

1 Pining for the West: Chang'an in the Life of Kings and their Relatives during Chengdi's Reign (33-7 BCE) Griet Vankeerberghen McGill University Draft April 12, 2011 Introduction There is wide recognition that kings (zhuhouwang ) played an important role in the history of the Western Han until the large-scale rebellion of 154 BCE. After the revolt of the Seven Kingdoms of that year, however, the story usually told about the kings becomes one of decline: their lands much reduced in size, and engaged in seemingly endless legal battles with officials in Chang an, the kings lost the military and political power to rule over their kingdoms, left only with entitlement to the tax income yielded by the lands they were supposed to rule. This story of the kings descent into insignificance is so persuasive that modern-day historians, with few exceptions, have paid scant attention to the Han dynasty kings after 154 BCE, even though the institution remained in existence until the end of Eastern Han. 1 In contrast, historians writing about 1 Loewe, The Kingdoms of Western Han, and The Investiture of Three Kings in 117 BCE, in The Men Who Governed Han China; Wang Hui, Han wangguo yu houguo zhi yanbian (Taipei: Zhonghua shuju, 1984); Dong Pingjun, Chutu Qin lü Han lü suojian fengjun shiyi zhidu yanjiu.. (Harbin: Heilongjian renmin, 2007). I should note my indebtedness to Michael Loewe s A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods, as this relatively new research guide greatly facilitates research on individuals whose biographies are often scattered over many chapters of the histories. This paper is largely based upon materials contained in Han shu. I hope to expand it by taking into account archaeological accounts on the tombs and palaces of the kings who were active during Chengdi s reign wherever available, and by examining the history of the princesses (the sisters of former emperors) during Chengdi s reign; even though for them the textual sources are scarce. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 1

2 the Han during the dynasty or in the centuries following it, did make ample room for the kings as they structured their works, both in the tables (biao) and in the biographical sections (liezhuan), indicating that in their minds the kings were significant figures. There are a few good reasons why the institution of kingship continued to be supported. First, there was a strong ideological framework in place that supported the institution throughout the Han: not only had the dynasty s founder, Gaozu, explicitly stressed the importance of the kings, but most, if not all, texts known in the Han treated the presence of lords (zhuhou) as an integral part of a well-ordered political community. 2 No texts questioned that the existence of the kingdoms as such, even though the problem of how to assert appropriate control over the kings was raised repeatedly. Second, the kings, after the demise of Wu Rui, the King of Changsha in 157, were all members of the Liu imperial family, and founding kings were almost always brothers or sons of a reigning emperor. The institution, therefore, served an, at times, useful function, as sonless emperors could draw upon the kings and their descendants when they needed an heir, and as potentially troubling siblings of a reigning emperor could be placed at a safe distance from the capital. Lastly, the kings were perceived as a needed buffer against the continued threat posed by distaff families in Western Han the Lü, Huo, and Wang families were particularly assertive against the coveted position of the Lius as the empire s first family. Hence, it seems that the considerable cost that the imperial treasury incurred by maintaining the kingdoms was offset by some important benefits. The benefits came not in the form of the kings continued contributions to the routine governance of the empire, but were a form of insurance against the potential removal 2 A strong articulation of that view can be found in the arguments used by officials who persuade the future Wendi to accept the position of emperor; Han shu Griet Vankeerberghen, page 2

3 from power of the Liu imperial family. Not until the Eastern Han do we have textual records that indicate that emperors were trying to control the costs involved in maintaining the kingdoms. 3 Within this general framework, each emperor s reign could present significant variation. A reigning emperor might or might not have sons of his own, and might be more or less willing to treat with leniency kings who were accused of crimes, or reappoint heirs for kings whose lines had died out; a reigning emperor s relations with his siblings might be fraught with anxiety, good-will, or both; the rhetoric used in written communications between the kingdoms and the capital too changed over time. 4 Also the kings themselves had their idiosyncrasies, not just in terms of their own talents, or their personal likes and dislikes, but also in the networks of relationships, stretching into the capital, that they managed to build up, networks in which male relatives from their mothers or spouses families often played pivotal roles. However, the most important factor determining a king s ability to make a mark on the period seems to have been close kinship. This paper will focus on the kings of Chengdi s reign (33-7 BCE). More specifically, it will seek to present the history of the relations between Chengdi and his kings as it played out in geographical and cultural space. For the duration of Han history, kingdoms were associated with the area east of the passes, the territory occupied by the state of Qin s rivals in the pre-unification period, or, to go even further back in history, 3 For the cap placed on funeral expenses in 107 CE (100,000 cash and 10,000 rolls of silk for first-generation enfeoffments and half that amount for their successors), see Hou Hanshu and DeCrespigny, Biographical Dictionary, What is especially striking for the first century BCE is the increased use of quotations from the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety. The Zhouli appears to have been first used in a memorial of 121 CE. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 3

4 the territory to which Zhou colonizers fanned out from their homeland in the West. 5 Whereas early in Western Han the whole Eastern section of the empire, from Dai in the north to Changsha in the south, was effectively ruled by kings, by Chengdi s time the kingdoms, still in the same geographic area and, in some cases, still bearing the name of kingdoms of the early Western Han period, were but pockets among commanderies administered by governors (shou ) and their staff. Still, even though, when compared to those of the second century BCE, the kingdoms of the first century BCE were small in size, together they still occupied a non-negligible part of Han territory. Normally, kings and their families would reside in palace complexes situated in their kingdom s capital, and be buried in elaborate tombs at some distance from their city of residence, but still within their kingdoms. Many tombs of Han kings have been located over the past few decades, even though it is not always possible to identify tombs with individual kings. 6 Communications between a royal capital and the imperial capital at Chang an proceeded along various channels: written messages carried back and forth over imperial roads by messengers and officials; central officials going to or returning from appointments in the kingdoms; kings and their entourage traveling to the capital for statutory court visits that could last several months; various people of greater or lesser renown who were dispatched from the royal courts to the capital, or had reason to visit a 5 Li Feng points out how these regional states were governed quite differently from the areas directly controlled by the Western Zhou bureaucracy. Of course, this early history was repeatedly reinterpreted into Han times. Li Feng, Bureaucracy and the State in Early China: Governing the Western Zhou, esp. Chap Indeed, as many spectacular examples of royal tombs have been discovered and excavated in recent decades, but as the remains of their palace cities are often buried beneath modern cities, we are much better informed about the king s accommodations in death than about their circumstances in life. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 4

5 royal court. The spatial divide between royal and imperial capital can also be analyzed in less physical ways: how did the kings experience their remove from the capital: did they regard it as a sort of banishment, or as an opportunity to exercise their autonomous judgment away from the imperial gaze? Where did Chang an and the various royal capitals stand in the shifting hierarchy, real and imagined, of urban sites? To what extent were the kings, physically removed as they were from the imperial capital, present in the political life of the empire, and how was that presence mediated? During Chengdi s reign, even though in size and power the kingdoms were but vestiges of what they had been early in Western Han, the kings were still a significant presence, and substantial funds must have gone toward their upkeep. There were a total of 21 kingdoms, some newly created, or in existence only for part of Chengdi s reign; most, however, predated Chengdi s reign and lasted without interruption for his entire reign period. For the 26 years of Chengdi s reign, there were 444 royal reign years, each such year meant that tax income for the area covered by the kingdom was diverted away from the central treasury, even if not every kingdom controlled an equal number of households. 7 During Chengdi s reign, twenty-three kings died, and needed to be provided with a funeral requiring expensive funerary gifts; 27 kings were newly installed; 7 As Loewe notes, we are not well informed as to how this worked in practice. Exceptionally, for the small kingdoms of Sishui and Zhending, created during Wudi s reign, but still in existence during Chengdi s reign, we are told that each controlled 30,000 households; Loewe, Kingdoms of Western Han, 365 and Han shu Hou Han shu notes how Mingdi (r ) sought to standardize the number of households per kingdom so that each would have a yearly income of 80 million; Fan Ye s appraisal in Hou Han shu mentions 20 million, which, going by a related quotation from Dongguan Hanji would amount to the income of 20 districts, a district yielding on average an income of 1 million. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 5

6 the kings also came for court visits, even though we have a record of only seven such visits between 33 and 7 BCE. Did the Kings Necessarily Live in their Kingdoms? In early Western Han, at the time when the kings were still de facto rulers over their territories, an appointment as king seems to have entailed almost automatically that the appointee would repair to his kingdom to take up the task of governing. 8 By the first century BCE, when kingdoms were administered in the same manner as commanderies, this had changed. Imperial sons might receive royal appointments at a very young age, but would, as a general rule, go and reside in their kingdoms only after the death of their father, at the time when the next emperor, frequently a brother, was installed. Hence, there was a divide between secondary kings, born and raised in the kingdom that they inherited from their father, and founding kings who had extensive memories of life in Chang an, and were likely to have more intimate connections with the reigning emperor. When Chengdi became emperor, secondary kings occupied the various royal lines established by Gaozu, Wendi, Jingdi, or Wudi; these kings, especially in the case of normal father-son successions, would have been resident in their respective kingdoms from birth. For this reason, and because they hailed from more distant branches of the Liu imperial family, contact between them and Chengdi was mostly formal, enacted at the time of court visits, funerals, accessions, or when kings were accused of a crime. For 8 Here the kings contrast to the marquises. To combat the marquises tendency to stay in the capital, Wendi issued an edict, ordering them to go their respective estateswith some exceptions. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 6

7 most of these kings we have few data, often we only know their personal names, their posthumous names, and their reign dates. The four sons of Xuandi who received royal appointments were Chengdi s uncles, and had much deeper roots in Chang an than the kings of older royal lines. Of Liu Qin, the King of Huaiyang, and Liu Yu, the King of Dongping, we are told that they went to their respective kingdoms at the time of Yuandi s accession in 48 BCE, several years after they received their initial appointment as kings, i.e., in 63 and 52 BCE respectively. Liu Qin was Xuandi s favorite son, and was admired by his father for being strong and tall, having an aptitude for the classics and the law, intelligent and talented. Even though we do not know his exact year of birth, Liu Qin surely spent the larger part of his childhood and adolescence at the imperial court in Chang an, where he was close to his father. His nephew, the future Chengdi, was only two years old when Liu Qin was sent to his kingdom, but still, even after Chengdi s accession, his uncle was a towering figure in the young emperor s mind. When Liu Qing asked Chengdi for a favor the return from banishment of members of his mother s family Chengdi, over the objections of his chancellor and imperial counsellor, granted Liu Qing s wish. Because he was his uncle, Han shu writes, [Chengdi] respected and loved him, treating his kingdom different from the others. Of Liu Ao, the son of Xuandi and a woman of the Wei family, we are not told exactly when he went to live in his kingdom. Appointed King of Dingtao in 51 BCE, he was transferred to Chu after three years; as his transfer to Chu coincided with the year of Yuandi s accession to the throne, it is possible that he too was sent to his kingdom at the time. What we do know is that he was in Chang an for a court visit relatively early in Griet Vankeerberghen, page 7

8 Chengdi s reign in the Heping reign period, so that, at least from the time of Chengdi s accession, his regular residence was in the Chu capital. The youngest of Chengdi s uncles, even though bearing the title of king for a total of thirteen years, never lived in his kingdom. Liu Jing, Xuandi s son by Rong Jieyu, was appointed King of Qinghe in 47 BCE, and transferred to Zhongshan three years later; Han shu tells us that because of his young age, he had not yet repaired to his kingdom. Liu Jing, who cannot have been born long before the death of his father in 48, must have been very close in age to his nephew, the future Chengdi, who was born in 51 BCE. He died a few years before Chengdi s accession, in 35 BCE, at which time he was at least fourteen years of age. Two different rules seem to have governed the time at which Xuandi s son left Chang an for their respective kingdoms: first, siblings were expected to leave the capital at the time one of them was elevated to become the next emperor; second, their departure from the capital might be delayed if they had not yet reached the age of manhood. Chengdi also had two brothers, Liu Kang and Liu Xing. Both had already received appointments as kings at the time of his accession in 33 BCE. Liu Kang was appointed King of Jiyang in 41 BCE, transferred to Shanyang in 33 BCE, and then to Dingtao in 25 BCE. Just as Liu Qin had been a serious rival to the future Yuandi for their father s love, Liu Kang overclassed the appointed heir-apparent, the future Chengdi, in the affections of their father. Already from childhood, Liu Kang was Yuandi s darling, and Yuandi s affection did not diminish as he saw his son grow up to become a young men endowed with many talents and abilities, and a thorough understanding of music. We are told that Yuandi very nearly appointed Liu Kang as heir Griet Vankeerberghen, page 8

9 apparent, to replace the future Chengdi, who, we are told, was already addicted to alcohol and sex. He had to be repeatedly dissuaded from this move by the courtier Shi Dan, who had been appointed as a guardian (hu ) of the heir apparent and his family. Liu Kang and his mother, née Fu, were also much closer to the Yuandi as he lay dying than the heir apparent and his mother, née Wang, who were barely allowed to enter his bedroom (qin ). Thus it appears that Liu Kang, though appointed King of Jiyang, rarely if ever was to be found in his kingdom, spending all his time at Chang an. Given Liu Kang s strong hold on the affections of Yuandi, it seems logical that the young Chengdi and his entourage would send Liu Kang to his kingdom as soon as possible after Chengdi s establishment as emperor. In 33 BCE Liu Kang was transferred from Jiyang to the neighboring Shanyang. We know, indirectly, that Liu Kang resided at Shangyang, because, while there, he impregnated a daughter from a prominent local family with the future Aidi. A few years into Chengdi s reign he was transferred once more, this time to Dingtao. There he died in 22 BCE, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Liu Xin, who was only three years old at the time. Liu Xin was also Chengdi s cousin, and was chosen in 8 BCE to be the latter s heir apparent. Chengdi s other brother, Liu Xing, was less of a rival. Appointed King of Xindu in 37 BCE, he was transferred to Zhongshan in 23. Certainly by 9 BCE he resided in his kingdom, as for that year a court visit of his is recorded. However, he is likely to have been removed from Chang an much earlier, perhaps in 33 BCE, at the time of Chengdi s accession, or in 23 BCE when he became King of Zhongshan. Liu Xing himself was considered to succeed the sonless Chengdi, but ultimately his candidacy was rejected in favor of their nephew, Liu Xin. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 9

10 Chengdi had no sons of his own to appoint as kings, but keep at his side as long as he lived. Also, probably from the time of his accession, all of his own brothers and uncles lived in their kingdoms rather than in the capital. In that sense, he was, apart from occasional court visits, almost entirely cut off from male members of his own lineage. Embassies in Chang an Most members of the Liu imperial family who had received a royal appointment spent some time in the imperial capital, either when they came for court visits, or before they were ordered to leave Chang an and repair to their kingdoms. During their time in Chang an, they were housed in official residences associated with their kingdom, called di. Not only did each kingdom have such an official residence in Chang an, every commandery had one too, for use by commandery officials when they came, once a year, to present their accounts (shang ji ). Also non-chinese groups had a residential base in Chang an, called the Manyidi, and, from Wudi s reign (r ) onward, a specially designated residence, called Shanyudi, was created for the Xiongnu. 9 As all these residences are connected with areas outside of the metropolitan region with different degrees of foreignness, and seem to have been regarded as home-turf for delegations on an official mission to Chang an, it is apt to designate them as embassies. 10 Textual sources provide little or no information on the location of these embassies. We don t know whether they were clustered into one particular area, perhaps in the area North of the Weiyang Palace Complex and West of the Northern Palace 9 Wang Shejiao, Han Chang an cheng, 119 vv. 10 Dubs and Loewe use the term lodge. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 10

11 Complex that housed the Class A residences, or whether they were scattered throughout the city. For example, the Dai embassy, where Wendi (r ) accepted appointment as emperor, and where he stayed the night before moving to the Weiyang Palace Complex, might well have been near to Heng Gate in the North, the gate through which he, still as King of Dai, entered the capital. 11 Many of the kings would have entered the capital through Xuanping Gate, 12 as that gate gave access to major roads leading to the east, perhaps their embassies were located in the North-Eastern sector of the city? 13 The most detailed description of such an embassy is in Han shu s biography of Zhu Maichen, who, just before traveling to take up the governorship of Kuaiji, attended a party at the Kuaiji commandery embassy. The passage mentions an inner courtyard (zhongting ), a hall (shi ), and a gate (hu ). The Kuaiji embassy had a caretaker, called shoudizhe, who looked after the premises even when they were unoccupied, and helped to organize the party Zhu Maichen attended. When, before his appointment as governor, Zhu was jobless in the capital, he received, as a native of Kuaiji, food and lodging from the embassy. 14 This indicates that these embassies might have had a much wider function than merely housing official delegations, and one wonders whether it was the central government, or the local areas themselves, that funded and administered them. That is, did they, removed from the center in varying degrees, 11 Then the area of the Class A residences would still be a convenient location, as the road from Heng Gate runs to the West of it. 12 This is documented for Liu He, the King of Changyi, who entered through there when called upon to succeed Zhaodi. 13 The Manyidi, according to Wang Shejiao p. 121, was not far from the North Gate of the Weiyang Palace Complex, on Gao Street 藁. (Wang does not provide a source.) 14 Han shu Griet Vankeerberghen, page 11

12 represent an outer sphere nested within the inner sphere? Did they make the capital into a mirror image of the world at large, albeit in inverted proportions? In Han shu, royal embassies (guodi ) are mentioned at four separate occasions in connection with Chengdi. Liu Jing, the King of Zhongshan who because of his young age never progressed to his kingdom, is said to have died in his embassy (hong di ) to be subsequently buried in Duling, his father Xuandi s mausoleum. Liu Jing died before Chengdi acceded to the throne, but, being close in age, they grew up together. Assuming that Liu Jing not only died in the embassy of Zhongshan, but that it together with the Qinghe embassy--was his main residence since his early appointment as king, it is interesting to read in Han shu that he and the future Chengdi went out to study together, and grew up alongside one another.. 15 Chengdi, while heir apparent, probably lived in the Northern Palace; even though they lived at different addresses, the boys were raised and educated together. One wonders whether the going out to study (youxue ) implied trips outside of the city to study with masters elsewhere, and whether the boys would have spent more time in the Northern Palace or in the Qinghe/Zhongshan embassy. Yuandi s disappointment at the lack of grief the future Chengdi showed when Liu Jing passed away, despite their supposed closeness, is one of the reasons why Yuandi seriously contemplated deposing him. Liu Kang, the son Yuandi had favored over Chengdi, was said to reside in his kingdom s embassy when he came for a court visit a few years into Chengdi s reign. Empress Dowager Wang and Chengdi seemed to make nothing of the fact that Liu Kang 15 Han shu vv Griet Vankeerberghen, page 12

13 had very nearly been appointed emperor, and treated him very generously. As Chengdi was recovering from an illness, Liu Kang is said to have been in attendance on the emperor day and night (danxi ). 16 Clearly, residence in a royal embassy did not preclude easy and frequent access to the imperial chambers. Similarly, when Liu Kang s eldest son, the future Aidi, came for a court visit near the end of Chengdi s reign, and was considered as heir apparent, he requested that he be allowed to extend his stay in his kingdom s residence so that he could surround the emperor with small attentions until such time as he would have produced an heir of his own. 17 Liu Kang s mother, née Fu, had accompanied the future Aidi on this last court visit, and had been instrumental in providing the bribes and lobbying to get him chosen. She too stayed in the Dingtao Embassy, and was still there when her grandson became emperor. Whereas it was clear to everybody that she could not stay there, given that her grandson was now emperor, a debate arose as to where in Chang an she should live so that she would not meddle too much in the affairs of the state. 18 Court Visits In the lore about pre-imperial times, court visits by the Lords (zhuhou) to the Son of Heaven (tianzi ), were an important signifier of the health and harmony of the relations between center and periphery. A passage in Shangshu dazhuan, for example, posits that the ritualized visits of the Lords to the Son of Heaven s court allow the Son of 16 Han shu vv. 17 Han shu vv 18 Han shu Griet Vankeerberghen, page 13

14 Heaven to evaluate the performance of each Lord, and confirm or withdraw his support accordingly: In ancient times, the gui jade had to be accompanied by a mao jade. This expresses that those below needed a mao jade. Without it, they did not dare to communicate with the Son of Heaven. The Son of Heaven holds the mao jade when he receives the Lords at his court. When he interviews them, he puts his mao over their gui. Therefore with the mao and the gui the Son of Heaven makes a pact (rui) with the Lords. The Lords hold the gui they have received to pay their respects to the Son of Heaven. A pact (rui) signifies belonging. Those who have no deviant behavior, are allowed to have their gui back and to return to their states. The gui of those with defiant behavior is retained, and is given back to them when they are able to rectify their behavior. It they haven t received it back after three years, their noble rank is slightly reduced. After six years, their territory is slightly reduced. After nine years, their territory is completely taken away. This describes the Lords court visits to the Son of Heaven. If they behave properly then they will be seen as subordinate, if they do not behave properly, they will not be seen as subordinate. 19 Whereas the ritual of the gui and mao that the Shangshu dazhuan proposes was, as far as we know, never actually implemented, regular visits by the kings to the imperial court (the Han incarnation of the Lords of pre-imperial times) were a fixture of political life throughout the Han dynasty. For the period until 101 BCE, the period covered by Shi ji s Table of kings since the Establishment of the Han Dynasty we are relatively well informed about the schedule of court visits adopted by each king. This particular table in Shi ji is organized on a year-by-year basis, and enters court visits particular kings made during particular years. Even though we cannot be sure that every court visit was noted in the Table, and even though no regular schedules can be discerned in the record, it seems that most kings, even those only distantly related to a reigning 19 Shangshu dazhuan zhuzi suoyin, 3 (lines 4 7). Griet Vankeerberghen, page 14

15 emperor, came to court on intervals stretching from about five to ten years. The Table of Kings in Han shu (zhuhouwang biao ) is organized by generation rather than by year, in part for reasons of space, in part for ideological reasons; 20 because of this more limiting format, it only mentions royal appointments, deaths, and dismissals, and has no entries for court visits. This means that for the period after 101 BCE, we are left with accidental records in the annalistic and biographical sections of Han shu from which to glean information on court visits. The table below lists the court visits during Chengdi s reign that we know of. Given that all these court visits are part of narrative passages, each instance is able to inform us on one or other aspect of court visit proceedings. Name of King Liu Yu, King of Dongping (r ) Liu Kang, King of Dingtao (r ) Liu Ao, King of Chu (r ) Liu Xin, King of Dingtao (r ) Liu Xing, King of Zhongshan (r. 23-8? 7?) Liu Yan, King of Chu (r. 23-2) Liu Li, King of Liang (r CE) Family Branch Year of court visit Significant event Xuandi Ca. 27, four years after 31, Requests access to when his kingdom was books; refused on the reduced due to crime advice of Xuandi A few years after Chengdi wants him to Chengdi s accession stay longer; Wang Gen refuses Xuandi Ill, edict allowing him to bring one of his sons to audience Yuandi 9 Appointed heir apparent in 8 BCE Xuandi 9 Rejected as heir apparent Xuandi 7 BCE Death of Chengdi Wendi 7 BCE Death of Chengdi 20 See Loewe, Tables of the Shiji and Han shu: Forms and Contents, in The Men who Governed Han China, ; my article in Bray book Griet Vankeerberghen, page 15

16 For Chengdi s reign, the most accidental entry regarding royal court visits, surely is the one concerning the two kings who were treated by the emperor to a farewell banquet in White Tiger Hall on the eve of the emperor s death. During Spring the following year, Chengdi passed away. Chengdi had always been in good health and did not suffer from any illness. 21 At that time Liu Yan, King of Chu, and Liu Li, King of Liang had come for a court visit. As they were due to depart the next morning, those on night duty had set out tents [for a banquet] at White Tiger Hall. He was also planning to promote the General of the Left, Kong Guang to Chancellor, and had already carved a seal he would receive as a noble, and written his speech. Hence, late at night he was still in good shape. However, when towards dawn, he wanted to put on his clothes and get up, his clothes fell off. He was also unable to speak. He died that morning, at the tenth division of the clepsydra. 絝韤 One of the kings present at the banquet, Liu Yan, the King of Chu, was a cousin of Chengdi. Liu Yan was son of the aforementionned Liu Ao of Chu, who as a son of Xuandi, was enfeoffed as the founder of a new line of Chu kings. Interestingly, the other king, Liu Li, King of Liang, came from a much more distant branch, being a descendent in the eighth generation of the famous Liu Wu, a son of Wendi and Empress Dowager Dou, who had inspired both love and anger in his brother Jingdi. He is the only member of a distant branch of the imperial family we know made a court visit to Chang an during Chengdi s reign. Others must have done so as well, but remained under the radar of the historiographers. 21 This seems contradicted by the account of Liu Kang s court visit, where Chengdi is said to suffer repeatedly from illness. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 16

17 That the two kings were in Chang an at the same time is revealing. Given that the Kingdom of Chu lay directly to the east of the Kingdom of Liang, and given that they were due to depart on the same day, it is quite likely that the two kings would travel back to their respective kingdoms in each other s company, and, perhaps, we might speculate that they also made the journey to Chang an together. To group the kings for court visits might have made economic sense, as it might have reduced the costs involved in hosting them at court; 22 on the other hand, whereas a degree of cohesion among members of different branches of the Liu imperial family might have been desirable, kings would certainly have to avoid creating the perception that they were forging potentially seditious alliances among themselves, so the groupings needed to be made with care. 23 From a legal case dated around 47 BCE, that involved Liu Qin, the King of Huaiyang, it appears that kings needed to request a court visit (qiu chao ); if this was indeed a case, imperial officials would have been able to time and organize the royal visits as they saw fit by granting or denying such a request. Whereas the Superintendent of the Imperial Clan (zongzheng ), one of the Nine Ministers of State, was likely involved in these decisions, officials and advisors close to the emperor must have frequently intervened, depending on the political needs of the moment. 24 However, the wording of an edict 22 To give some other examples of other cases were kings were in Chang an together, Han shu describes a banquet in 138 BCE (early in Wudi s reign) at which four kings were present; in 9BCE, both Liu Xing, King of Zhongshan, and Liu Xin, King of Dingtao, were in Chang an for a court visit. 23 As at the time of the Seven Kingdom Rebellion; see also Huainanzi. 24 An entry for 5 CE mentions how in the first month of that year, sacrifices were held at the Mingtang, and how 28 kings, 120 marquises, and more than 900 other members of the imperial clan were present for the occasion. Such a gathering of what seems like the entire imperial clan at Chang an seems unprecedented, and must be related to Wang Mang s pending usurpation; Han shu Loewe, Kingdoms of Western Han, 368 points out that the number of kings at that time was only 22. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 17

18 issued in 61 BCE, during Xuandi s reign, forbidding those among the kings, marquises and Han-appointed rulers of non-chinese groups who were due to come for a court visit during the second year [of that reign period], to come to Chang an that year, seems to suggest that court visits proceeded along regular ritual schedules, from which the central court or the kings could only deviate under special circumstances. 25 It is well possible that there were two kinds of court visits, some following a regular schedule, others per special request. Composition of royal delegations Earlier I mentionned how the King of Dingtao s grandmother, a consort of Yuandi née Fu, accompanied her grandson on his court visit of 9 BCE, and, while there, lobbied successfully for his appointment as Chengdi s heir. Who else was allowed to accompany a king on a visit to Chang an? We learn that, during that same visit, the King of Dingtao had also brought along the three highest officials who served in his kingdom, namely his Tutor (fu ), his Chancellor (xiang ), and the Superintendent of his Capital (zhongwei ), all ranked at the 2000 picul level. That the King of Zhongshan, with whom the King of Dingtao was in competition for the title of heir apparent, had brought only his tutor, became a factor in Chengdi s decision not to award him the title. The King of Dingtao, who was known for his love of the law (falü ), claimed that his decision to bring all three officials had been based on an Ordinance (ling) that stated that When kings come for a court visit, the officials in their kingdom ranked at the 2000 picul level are allowed to accompany him ; the King of 25 Han shu 8.261; Loewe, Kingdoms of Western Han, 372 n.41. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 18

19 Zhongshan, on the other hand, was unable to invoke an ordinance in favor of his decision to bring his tutor only. 26 It is likely that many aspects of the relationship between the kings and the emperor were regulated via statutes or ordinances. 27 The 9 BCE court visit of the Kings of Dingtao and Zhongshan certainly was not a regular one, and seems to have been orchestrated to settle the question of imperial succession. An earlier court visit by Liu Ao, the King of Chu, too was irregular because the king was known to be ill. In response, the emperor issued an edict to commend the king for his exemplary and unfailing filiality; 28 the edict, furthermore, explicitly allowed the king to bring along one of his sons. Now the king will come for a court visit during the first month. I proclaim that he is allowed to bring along one of his sons. That this edict was issued at all indicates that, under normal circumstances, a king was not supposed to come to the capital in the company of one or more of his sons. 29 The son chosen by Liu Ao to accompany him, Liu Xun, was not his heir apparent, and received an appointment as marquis in the second month. 26 Han shu vv. 27 In the Zhangjiashan laws of 186 BCE, the zhuhouwang are mentioned twice; strip 221 regulations the titles of wives in the royal harems; strip 223 forbids the kings from giving their daughters the title of princess. 28 The king died the next year; that his posthumous name was the filial must be related to this edict. 29 Han shu Several things about this passage are unclear to me: did the emperor learn of the king s illness while he was still in his kingdom, or did he fall ill after he had come to the capital? In the latter case, does chao zhengyue then refer to an audience at the occasion of New Year s? I also believe that the sentence about Liu Xun receiving a marquisate, included as part of the edict in current editions, actually cannot be part of the edict. Why else would the edict order an unnamed son to come? According to Han shu 15B.507 Liu Xun received his appointment as marquis in the second month of the 26 BCE, so whay would the emperor announce it in his edict, which must have been issued before the first month? See Yan Shigu s note to Han shu which also makes a connection between court visits, and the first month ( ). Griet Vankeerberghen, page 19

20 Rituals The Shangshu dazhuan passage quoted earlier mentions how a lord, after the appropriate time and the appropriate checks, would receive back his gui, the symbol of his investiture, and allowed to return to his state. The passage therefore seems to outline a formal departure ritual for the lords, at which, reversing the proceedings of the arrival ceremony, the lords gui and the emperor s mao were separated. In the case of the visit of the kings of Chu and Liang at the time of Chengdi s death, it seems that the farewell consisted of a banquet in honor of the kings, held in a tent set out in White Tiger Hall, 30 Chengdi s preferred location for affairs of state. Did, in this case, the banquet replace the ritual, or was a formal ritual incorporated as part of the banquet. 31 As every royal court visit was also a gathering of members of the imperial clan, banquets presumably several over the course of a royal visit might have been seen as appropriate occasions to reaffirm the cohesion of the clan. To speculate further, formal visits of the kings to the 30 On White Tiger Hall, see Xu Weimin 2008 (Xi Han Weiyang gong), See also He Qinggu s Sanfu huangtu, 118 n5 that lists all the relevant passages (apparently the hall was especially important from Chengdi s reign onward). He believes the hall to have been on Jian terrace, in the middle of Cang Pond. Sanfu Huangtu, 160, indicates the White Tiger as one of the four directional animals (sometimes depicted on end tiles). 31 It also seems possible to read the passage as meaning that the night crew set out tents at night for two ceremonies to take place in the White Tiger Hall in the early morning, one appointing Kong Guang as chancellor, the other a farewell ceremony for the two kings. That scenario does make sense of the fact that the kings were never suspected of a role in the emperor s death, unlike Wang Zhaoyi who committed suicide on popular suspicion that she had poisoned the emperor. Some scholars (Xu Weimin 2008 (Xi Han Weiyang gong), 68-9; Dubs II, 372) posit that Chengdi spent the night in White Tiger Hall (in the presence of the kings?), but I believe their interpretation rests on a misreading of the term shangsu. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 20

21 shrines and tombs of previous emperors, particularly the ones that enfeoffed the founding member of their branch, must have been part of any king s schedule as well. Gift Exchanges When Chengdi and his mother, Empress Dowager Wang, hosted Liu Kang, King of Dingtao for a court visit a few years into Chengdi s reign, they treated him generously, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Liu Kang had nearly been appointed heir apparent in Chengdi s stead. Their generosity included an attempt to keep Liu Kang at Chang an longer than the time normally allotted for a court visit, The emperor had him stay, rather than send him back to his kingdom. This attempt was thwarted by Wang Gen, who, not eager to host a potential rival at court longer than necessary, invoked an eclipse of the sun as a pretext to send him back to Dingtao. They also bestowed rich rewards on the King of Dingtao, endowing him with ten times as many gifts as the other kings. The fact that Liu Kang was Chengdi s brother, and that they regarded him as a potential heir for the childless Chengdi, 32 might explain why he received more than the other kings. Important for our purposes here, however, is that the phrasing implies that also kings of a less formidable stature than Liu Kang would qualify for imperials gift, even if they received only 1/10 th of Liu Kang s allotment. Moreover, the value of the imperial gifts seems to have been somehow fixed. We do not know the nature or volume of gifts the kings were expected to offer in return. Liu Yu, the King of Dongping, expected also less material gifts during his court visit of ca. 27 BCE, and formally requested copies of the texts of the various masters and 32 In fact, as Wang Zhang, who opposed Wang Gen s move assumed, they might have wanted to cultivate him as a potential successor to the throne. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 21

22 of Shi ji (zhuzi ji taishigong shu ). As is well known, his request was opposed by Wang Feng and denied. The texts of the various masters that Liu Yu had requested, in Wang Geng s estimate, were not texts written by sages and frequently went against classical learning, the book of the Sima s contained a wealth of information on strategy, terrain, and omenology that could be dangerous in the hands of kings. Liu Yu, should allow himself to be guided, in his quest for the way by his tutor and his chancellor, both classicists (ru ), and rest content that all that is of value for mastering the Way is contained in the sages Five Classics (wujing ). In fact, his request in itself was a sign of subordination, and violated the strictly ritual bounds of a court visit (fei chaopin zhi yi ye ). 33 Wang Geng, as both interventions show, was clearly intent upon maintaining a safe distance between the emperor and the kings. Just as he was able to physically remove Liu Kang from Chang an, and deny him privileged access to the imperial chambers beyond the proper confines of a court visit, he successfully branded the royal courts as places subjugated to the imperial court as centers of knowledge and culture. Hence the mandate that the kings had to reside in their kingdoms, and return there promptly after a court visit, not only removed them from the company of the emperor, but also placed them in a more barren cultural environment in which they were supposed to submit to the moral tutelage provided by classicists sent by the central court. 34 Whereas early in the dynasty court visits were a duty that the kings performed with some 33 Han shu Han shu describes a scene at the court of Liu Yu at Dongping, ca. 40 BCE, where a tutor lectures the kings on one of the Odes ( Xiang shu, Mao #52), one that criticizes those lacking in ritual propriety. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 22

23 reluctance, often preferring to have as little business with Chang an as possible, by Chengdi s time the obligatory court visits were an opportunity for the kings to reconnect with the superior court life of the capital. This would have been all the more true for those kings who, in their childhood and youth, had had a taste of life in Chang an highest circles. The kingdoms, by the time Chengdi became emperor, had not only lost their ability to rule over their kingdoms, they were also their ability to assert themselves independently in the sphere of knowledge and culture. Instead of independent centers of power, expected to engage the central court in a sort of healthy competition, they became passive recipients of the court s material and cultural bestowals. Liu Yu was not the only king who had tried to challenge that situation. His brother Liu Qin, the King of Huaiyang, in the years before Chengdi came to the throne, had relied on the services of his maternal uncle, Zhang Bo, to obtain the services of hidden sages from outside of his kingdom, so that he could present them to the imperial throne (hence his request for a court visit). Not only were Zhang Bo, his brother Zhang Guang, and the Changes scholar Jing Fang, Zhang Bo s son-in-law, publicly executed for their role in this affair, the king himself received an official reprimand. In this reprimand, through classical citations, the point is made that court visits are occasions for the emperor to instruct his lords, not the other way around, and that the reputation of a Lord/King should not travel beyond the borders of his domain. Cultural exchange between emperors and kings was supposed to move only in one direction; the initiative had to be taken at the center. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 23

24 Royal mothers and their families The King of Dingtao s grandmother, a consort of Yuandi née Fu, accompanied her grandson on his court visit of 9 BCE, and, while there, lobbied successfully for his appointment as Chengdi s heir. It was customary for mothers whose sons were appointed king to accompany their son to his kingdom, which, as we saw, usually happened shortly after their husband s death. They also tended to be buried, not near their husband s imperial mausoleum, but in a royal mausoleum within their son s kingdom. 35 Ritual ties between mother and son might have been invoked to justify the mother s relocation to her son s capital; however, such relocations must also have been an opportunity to clear the capital of the influence of potentially troublesome affines. The sources tell us most about those consorts of Xuandi who had given birth to a son. Liu Yu s mother, née Gongsun, had moved with her son to Dongping when Yuandi became emperor. Not happy with life in Dongping, reportedly because she and the king did not get along well, she sent a letter to Chang an to ask to be allowed to live at Xuandi s mausoleum town of Duling. The request was denied, and an official sent from the capital delivered a stern, formal reprimand to her, her son, and the latter s chancellor and tutor. 36 When Liu Qin moved to the Kingdom of Huaiyang when Yuandi became to the emperor, his mother, née Zhang, had already died, but his maternal grandmother (wai zumu ) was still alive. She apparently moved to Huaiyang with her grandson, and, at first, her sons made yearly visits to the Huaiyang court to pay 35 The case of Fu is unusually complicated, as she became the grandmother of an emperor, and, as such, moved back to Chang an where she exerted substantial influence over Aidi s policy decisions. As Wang Mang resented that influence, he had her disinterred from Yuandi s mausoleum, reduced the quantity and quality of her grave goods, and moved her body back to Dingtao. 36 Han shu Griet Vankeerberghen, page 24

25 their respect, each time receiving expensive gifts from the king. Perhaps because he wanted his maternal family s company all the time, the king requested, via a letter, that the entire Zhang lineage would be allowed to move to Huaiyang, a request which the throne was eager to grant. His eldest uncle, Zhang Bo, however, incurred the wrath of his nephew when he refused to come, in turn submitting a letter to the throne, arguing that he would need to stay in Chang an to tend to the family graves. Zhang Bo s younger brother, Zhang Guang, who did move to Huaiyang, was apparently relatively free to leave the kingdom and travel to the capital, presumably more so than the king himself, who had to request a court visit. Nothing is related in the sources in regards to the mother of Liu Ao, née Wei. Liu Jing, the King of Zhongshan, died in the Zhongshan embassy before he had come of age. His mother, née Rong, was sent back to live with her natal family. Officials Whereas early in the Han the kings had a lot of leeway in appointing their own officials, and hence had a strong hand in governing their kingdom, these powers had declined so dramatically after the Seven Kingdom Rebellion that, by 122 BCE, the kings no longer participated in the matters of government. 37 The administration of the kingdoms was, henceforth, in the hands of officials sent by the central government. The relations between the kings and the officials sent to administer their kingdoms were often fraught. For the kings, the officials living and working in their kingdoms must have appeared as the eyes and ears of the authorities in Chang an, and they had to tread carefully lest the officials lodge formal legal complaints against them. To the officials, 37 Han shu Griet Vankeerberghen, page 25

26 the kings must have appeared as potential liabilities, as they were often held responsible, not only for the way they administered a kingdom, but also for the personal conduct of a king. Men with great career ambitions might do well to avoid such appointments, and sometimes did. 38 Wang Zun was sent to be the chancellor of Liu Yu, King of Dongping, ca. 40 BCE, to replace former chancellors and tutors who had been impeached for crimes committed by the king they were supposed to guide. At some point he tells the king that his was appointed as his chancellor only because the central court no longer wanted him around (burong chaoting ), and that everyone felt sorry for him. We see a complicated dance in which Wang Zun repeatedly challenges the king through a variety of methods not unlike those recommended to modern parents that seek to shock the king out of his usual behavior and accept Wang Zun s authority. He uses surprise instead of waiting for the king who is not there when he arrives from the capital with his seal of appointment (xishu ), Wang Zun goes to his own private quarters (she ) to enjoy a meal. He makes sure that the stable hands will no longer allow the king to take a chariot and go on private trips in his kingdom, visiting the families of the women from his harem. He also repeatedly and consciously provokes the king s anger to teach him how to manage it, and to show him that he, Wang Zun, will not bow before it. When, ultimately he has gotten the better of the king, and gained his respect, he is accused by the Queen Dowager of Dongping for outstepping his role and not behaving as a loyal servant (bu chen ). This accusation, conveyed to the capital by a messenger as a 38 Han shu recounts how Wang Ji, who had barely escaped the death penalty in the service of a king, counselled his sons and grandsons not to serve as an official in a kingdom.. Griet Vankeerberghen, page 26