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Introduction
Summary of the period
The reign of Emperor P'ing (1 B.C.-A.D. 6), is the
period during which Wang Mang consolidated his control of the government in
such a fashion that he could not later be removed. Emperor P'ing was only in
his ninth year when he came to the throne and he died before he was capped (the
ceremony marking the attainment of a youth's majority), so that during this
whole period Wang Mang actually wielded the imperial authority. He eliminated
the influence of any imperial relatives, except his own clan. He raised himself
from one honor to another by the ingenious use of Confucian humility. He
married his daughter to the Emperor, against the opposition of the Grand
Empress Dowager. He secured the loyal cooperation of Confucians, especially the
famous Liu Hsin(1a). This period was thus one of conspicuous success on the part
of Wang Mang. After Emperor P'ing had died, Wang Mang was charged with
regicide, but that allegation may have been merely propaganda. These matters
will be discussed seriatim.
The nature of this "Annals"
This chapter, like the other "Imperial Annals,"
does not pretend to be what we would call a history of the period. It is
actually an expanded chronological summary, useful for purposes of convenient
reference. The actual history is to be found in the other parts of this large
book, especially in the "Memoirs," and most of all in the "Memoir of Wang
Mang," a translation of which is appended to this chapter. The part of that
"Memoir" devoted to these six years is more than twice as long as are these
"Imperial Annals." That "Memoir" should accordingly be read in connection with
these "Imperial Annals."
Wang Mang's orderly solution of a
dynastic crisis
This reign began with a dynastic crisis, for at the
death of Emperor Ai there was no heir to the throne. Emperor Wen had
established the dynastic practice that the reigning Emperor designates one of
his sons as his successor by making him Heir-apparent (4: 5b-6b). Emperor Ai
however had no sons and appointed no Heir-apparent. There were, moreover, no
living descendants of his predecessor, Emperor Ch'eng. Fortunately such a
crisis had occurred twice before in Han Times: at the death of the Empress
Dowager nee Lü and at the death of Emperor Chao. Each time the high officials
had deliberated over the matter and had selected the nearest suitable relative
of the deceased monarch. Ho Kuang had legitimized his choices of emperors by
enacting them in imperial edicts issued by the Empress Dowager. Wang Mang
followed this precedent: he selected the grandson and only surviving descendant
of Emperor Yüan, Liu Chi-tzu, a first cousin of Emperor Ai, and enthroned him.
This boy was only in his ninth year, so could not rule in person; the Grand
Empress Dowager nee Wang, his step-grandmother, who, as the "mother of the
dynasty" and regent, had been ruling for the two months between the death and
the enthronement, continued to attend court and decide matters. She entrusted
the government to Wang Mang, her grand-nephew, who was now in his forty-fifth
year.
Wang Mang's revenge upon Emperor
Ai's maternal relatives
Before the new Emperor was enthroned, Wang Mang
began his revenge upon Emperor Ai's maternal relatives, who had previously
turned Wang Mang out of power and out of the court. The Empress Dowagers nee Fu
and nee Ting had both died; the only lady remaining of their clans was the
Empress nee Fu of Emperor Ai. She had had no children, so Wang Mang had the
Grand Empress Dowager issue an edict commanding the Empress to retire to
another palace, because of the crimes of her elder cousin, the deceased Empress
Dowager nee Fu. Some months later she was dismissed from her rank and made a
commoner, whereupon she committed suicide. At the death of Emperor Ai, the Fu
and Ting clans possessed no male relatives who could intercede with the ruler
for them, hence these clans became helpless. Fu Yen, the brother of the Empress
Dowager, was dismissed from his marquisate and exiled to Ho-p'u Commandery, in
the southernmost peninsula of the present Kuangtung. The members of the Ting
clan were sent back to their natal commanderies. The Grand Empress Dowager nee
Fu and the Empress Dowager nee Ting were posthumously degraded in their titles
and merely entitled the Mother (nee Fu) of King Kung of Ting-t'ao and the
[Royal] Concubine nee Ting. In 5 A.D., Wang Mang argued the Grand Empress
Dowager nee Wang into permitting him to have the tombs of these two ladies
opened, their official seals taken away and destroyed, the body of the lady nee
Fu transported from the capital to Ting-t'ao, and to have them both reburied in
simple wooden coffins, like concubines (which had been their original rank).
Their tumuli were levelled and thorns were planted at these places. Wang Mang
did not forget an injury.
The Empress Dowager nee Chao was degraded and
removed from the imperial palace at the same time as was the Empress nee Fu.
This famous beauty, Chao Fei-yen, was the sister of the Favorite Beauty nee
Chao, who had been responsible for Emperor Ch'eng's infanticides. She would
have been punished for her sister's crimes when they were discovered at the
beginning of Emperor Ai's reign, except for the fact that Emperor Ai was
indebted to her. Wang Mang was not so indebted, and had her removed to the
palace for dismissed empresses. She was later dismissed from her title,
whereupon she too committed suicide.
The dynastic principle that there
should be only one imperial line of descent
Probably Wang Mang's motive in removing these
ladies was not merely revenge, but also to eliminate the evil effect of
imperial maternal relatives in the court. He was not willing to yield up his
power to a new clan. The moral corruption, extravagance, and misuse of the
government to enrich themselves on the part of the Wang and Chao clans in the
reign of Emperor Ch'eng and of the Fu and Ting clans in the reign of Emperor Ai
had convinced many intelligent persons that imperial maternal relatives were
injurious to the state. When, at the death of Emperor Ai, the Grand Empress
Dowager nee Wang asked the ministers to recommend someone to control the
government, the General of the Van, Ho Wu, and the General of the Left,
Kung-sun Lu, had both become convinced that the government should be in the
hands of neither the imperial clan nor of any imperial maternal clan. They
therefore independently recommended each other for the post of
Commander-in-chief. But this policy was contrary to the Confucian moral
principle that people generally (including the ruler) should favor their
relatives, and the circumstance that these two ministers recommended each the
other proved fatal. The other ministers all
recommended Wang Mang, who was accordingly given the position. Wang Mang had Ho Wu and Kung-sun Lu accused of
plotting to advance each other; they were dismissed and sent to their homes.
Four years later Ho Wu was arrested in connection with the affair of Wang Yü,
whereupon Ho Wu committed suicide.
Because of his unhappy experience with the Fu and
Ting clans, Wang Mang did not even allow the new Emperor's mother, the
Concubine nee Wei, nor her relatives to come to the imperial capital. The Wei
clan had previously been connected with the imperial court: it had furnished
Emperors Hsüan and Yüan each with a Favorite
Beauty, who bore each a child, as well as furnishing a concubine for Emperor
Ch'eng's half-brother. This latter girl was the mother of Liu Chi-tzu, Emperor
P'ing. Wang Mang evidently feared the power of such a clan, which knew well the
customs in the imperial court and had old connections in the capital.
Instead of allowing this Wei clan to repeat the
exploits of the Fu clan, Wang Mang had its members all kept in the kingdom of
Chung-shan, where Liu Chi-tzu had been King. His intention was to establish the
principle that there is only one imperial family, and that when, because of the
failure of a natural heir, some scion from another branch of the imperial clan
was elevated to the throne, this person should become exclusively a member of
the imperial family, so that his own close relatives must not be considered
close imperial relatives or treated as such. Thus the number of imperial
maternal relatives, who might interfere in the government, was to be restricted
(and the Wang clan continued in power without any rivals). Emperor Ch'eng had
attempted to put this principle in force just before his death (possibly at the
instigation of Wang Mang), but Emperor Ai, through the influence of his
grandmother, had rejected and acted contrary to it.
Wang Mang appointed another scion of the imperial
clan as King of Chung-shan to act as the son of Liu Chi-tzu's father, and sent
to his mother, the Concubine nee Wei, a royal seal and cord, installing her as
the Queen of King Hsiao of Chung-shan, with a whole county as her private
estate, from which she received the income. Her uncle and younger brother were
both made Marquises of the Imperial Domain, and her three younger sisters were
given the title of Baronetess, with an estate of two thousand households. Her
first cousin was made Queen to the new King of Chung-shan. But honor and wealth
would not make up to her for her absent son. Unlike the Concubine nee Ting,
who, without objecting, allowed her son, Emperor Ai, to be taken from her, the
Queen nee Wei was said to be disconsolate, weeping day and night for her child,
who had no near relative by him to guard or care for him.
Wang Yü, Wang Mang's eldest son, disapproved of his
father's policy. He was afraid that there would come to be a feud between the
Wei and Wang clans, which would be disastrous to the Wang clan when the new
Emperor came of age. Wang Yü secretly communicated with the Wei clan, urging
them to ask permission to come to the imperial court. Wang Yü's clique
furthermore attempted to terrify Wang Mang into acceding to their request by
playing upon his superstition with false portents (99 A: 16a, b). When the
matter was discovered (A.D. 3), Wang Mang had his
son executed, together with the Wei clan and hundreds of others. Only Liu
Chi-tzu's mother was left alive, retaining her title and estate. When Wang Mang
usurped the throne, she was dismissed from her title and made a commoner; a
year or so later she died. Thus Wang Mang was left unchallenged in control of
the imperial court.
The nature of Wang Mang's position
and power
During the reign of Emperor P'ing, Wang Mang was
not the legal ruler of the state, but merely its most important minister. He
was the Commander-in-chief and Intendant of Affairs of the Masters of Writing,
who could be dismissed at will by the actual regent, the Grand Empress Dowager
nee Wang. By this time, the Commander-in-chief concerned himself little with
the army; this official had become the dominating minister in the civil
government. He made appointments in the bureaucracy, cited officials for
promotion or demotion, proposed governmental policies, and acted as chief
consultant to the ruler. The other ministers had become for the most part
virtual executive officers to the Commander-in-chief. The latter's authority
over the other ministers was exercised by memorializing the throne that they be
ordered to execute certain policies, and then advising the throne to consent to
the proposal. Since the rejection of an important official's advice in an
important matter meant that this official must resign or be dismissed, a great
official was consequently often reluctant to offer advice, and, when asked to
do so, often allowed less important members of the court to propose the policy
he favored. At the same time, this custom made the throne very reluctant to
refuse an important minister's advice, since the throne might find it difficult
to discover another person who would be as suitable as the dismissed minister.
Thus a minister could sometimes compel the throne to accept an unwelcome
policy. On the other hand, under an aggressive ruler, ministers could
frequently be dismissed and sometimes punished for offering suggestions that
were unpleasant to the throne. Thus Wang Mang could wield the imperial power,
even though he was not actually the regent.
The Grand Empress Dowager nee Wang had no taste for
ruling; she was a quiet old lady, who upheld the best traditions of Chinese
wifely virtue, being loyal to her husband and her relatives, complaisant to her
husband's relatives, going her own quiet way without interfering with others.
She had originally supported Wang Mang in 8 B.C. because her brother, Wang Ken,
had recommended him as Commander-in-chief. But she was not altogether blind to
his faults, and did not trust him completely. Since she was
a woman, she was immured in her palace, and Wang Mang saw to it that only those
favorable to him had access to her. Thus she was brought around to accede to
his plans.
How Wang Mang established himself
securely and obtained a following
Wang Mang's gradual rise in power and popularity is
so well recounted in his "Memoir" that it is unnecessary to repeat it here. It
will be sufficient to point out the steps he took and the general principles
upon which he operated, stressing nuances that may not be so clear to a casual
reader and mentioning facts not found in these two chapters.
When Wang Mang was first put into power, he took
care to surround himself with people whom he could influence. The pliant K'ung
Kuang, a descendant of Confucius, had been Grand Minister Over the Masses and
had recommended Wang Mang to the Grand Empress Dowager. Wang Mang treated him
respectfully, retained him in office, and promoted his son-in-law, Chen Han,
who later became one of Wang Mang's intimate followers. Wang Mang also attached
Wang Shun4b to himself, because the latter was loved and trusted by the Grand
Empress Dowager. This man was a son of the Grand Empress Dowager's first cousin
who had been the Commander-in-chief, Wang Yin. Then Wang Mang proceeded to get
rid of his possible opponents.
The person whose influence with the Grand Empress
Dowager Wang Mang most feared was Wang Li(5a), who was own half-brother to her
and her closest living relative. There was also her nephew, Wang Jen, a son of
Wang T'an(2b), another half-brother of the Grand Empress Dowager. Wang Jen bore
the same relationship to her that Wang Mang did. Both Wang Li(5a) and Wang Jen
were courageous and plain-speaking; as close relatives they had access to her,
so that Wang Mang needed to remove them in order to establish his own power
securely. Wang Li(5a) was perhaps the worst reprobate in the Wang clan, so much
so that he had been passed over when, in the reign of Emperor Ch'eng, the post
of Commander-in-chief had been passed about among the brothers of the Grand
Empress Dowager. Wang Mang prepared a petition to the Grand Empress Dowager,
enumerating the crimes of Wang Li5a and Wang Jen, and had Chen Han take it to
K'ung Kuang, with the request that he memorialize those matters in his own
name. K'ung Kuang was timid and did not like to refuse, so did as he was told.
Wang Mang liked to act by indirection; he would hint to his followers what he
wanted done and allow them to propose these matters for action. Then he could
approve or disapprove as the circumstances dictated
and yet not seem to have been taking the initiative.
When the petition regarding Wang Li(5a) and Wang Jen
reached the Grand Empress Dowager, Wang Mang advised her to assent to it. When
she did not want to part with her last independent sources of information, Wang
Mang insisted, putting her in the position of either having to reject K'ung
Kuang and himself or send away her brother and nephew. She yielded, and thus
gave herself into the control of Wang Mang. Three years later, Wang Mang
involved Wang Li(5a) and Wang Jen in the affair of Wang Yü, and compelled them
both to commit suicide.
Thus Wang Mang, partly by persuasion and partly by
a relentless use of the governmental power, eliminated any possible rivals. He
filled the court with his own followers, eliminating all who would oppose him.
Most of the bureaucracy willingly followed Wang Mang. He was the legal deputy
of the imperial power; the custom of delegating the imperial power to the
outstanding imperial maternal relative had regularly been practised for half a
century, consequently it may be said to have become part of the (unwritten)
constitution. The people had been trained to follow the imperial authority, so
that any reforms, short of a rebellion, had to be authenticated by the emperor.
Power and wealth lay in the giving of Wang Mang, hence few officials were
willing to refuse his leadership. Only a very few of the more squeamish
officials, in particular the Grand Minister of Works, P'eng Hsün, and his
successor, Wang Ch'ung(2b), were willing to sacrifice their careers because of
their dislike for the way Wang Mang was doing things. These two in succession
asked to resign. They had not actually opposed Wang Mang and were respected by
intelligent people, so he had to allow them to go. But he disliked their
leaving and refused to bestow upon them the parting gifts customarily given at
the resignation of an honored official. They could merely retire from the court
to their homes and keep quiet about their opinions. Wang Mang distributed noble
titles and positions liberally to his loyal followers and was praised on all
sides.
How Wang Mang secured unprecedented
honors and popularity
No sooner had Wang Mang established his followers
in the bureaucracy than he proceeded to seek for fame and popular support. The
method he employed was an ingenious use of a Confucian principle: the virtue of
yielding to others. He induced his followers to demand certain honors for him
from the throne and then systematically refused those honors. The custom of
first refusing great honors had long been used. Emperor
Kao refused the throne thrice when it was offered to him (Mh II, 380). Emperor Wen refused it five times (HS 4: 4a). Emperor Ai thought it best to refuse at first
(11: 1b). Wang Mang excelled them all in humility by refusing, not at merely
five times, but firmly and stubbornly.
Confucian tradition contained the statement that
when the Duke of Chou, so honored by Confucius and his followers, was regent
for the infant King Ch'eng, someone from the Yüeh-shang brought a white
pheasant as tribute. Wang Mang, who in his youth had made a thorough study of
Confucianism and its traditions, had the officials in the southernmost Chinese
commandery reminded of this fact, and, at the first New Year's court of the new
reign, some persons who called themselves Yüeh-shang accordingly appeared with
an albino pheasant. No Chinese or member of the Office for Interpreting
(Yi-guan) at the court could understand their language, so that it had to be
translated by a succession of interpreters before it could be rendered into
Chinese. To such distant regions had Wang Mang's virtue penetrated!
It made quite a stir at the court. The Confucians
were pleased to recognize this obscure tradition, and the courtiers likened
Wang Mang to Ho Kuang, who had so nobly conducted the dynasty through the
minority of Emperors Chao and Hsüan, and to the Duke of Chou himself. Thus was
confirmed Mencius' statement (IV, B, i, 3) that at intervals of a thousand
years, like sages appear. When the Grand Empress Dowager hinted her suspicions,
the courtiers had the opportunity of lauding Wang Mang to the skies, and
proposed that Wang Mang should be given the title of Duke Giving Tranquillity
to the Han Dynasty. At that time, the two highest existing noble titles were
King and Marquis. The title of king was given only to sons of emperors and
their heirs who succeeded them. Outside the Liu clan there were no kings. The
Han dynasty had not previously enfeoffed any dukes, so that this title elevated
Wang Mang above all the other nobles except the dozen-odd kings. When Wang Mang
insistently refused this honor, keeping to his bed in order to avoid it, and
the petitioners insisted that it should be granted to him, the Grand Empress
Dowager was advised and forced to do as Wang Mang had planned: to grant high
honors to Wang Mang's associates, K'ung Kuang, Wang Shun(4b), Chen Feng, and Chen
Han, and then to grant still higher honors to Wang Mang, before he could be
induced to rise and accept his title. He still however refused some of her
grants, and advised her instead to bestow titles and grants upon members of the
imperial clan and common people. Thus Wang Mang, by the simple device of
obdurantly refusing honors, was enabled, without seeming to
take the initiative, to secure important grants for his followers
and also to avoid the jealousy of the imperial clan and people by having
additional grants bestowed upon them. A more effective means to popularity
could hardly have been found.
When this scheme had been so successful, Wang Mang
sought for plenary power in the government. He again hinted his desires to his
associates. At their suggestions, the Grand Empress Dowager, who did not want
to be disturbed by the details of government, easily granted to Wang Mang full
authority to decide all except the most important matters, such as enfeoffments
to noble titles. She probably thought that this grant would make no practical
difference in the government. Thus Wang Mang controlled the whole
administration by right as well as in practise. He responded by having the
Grand Empress Dowager make a great grant to the poor people and then lauding
her extravagantly for it.
In order to make himself a close relative of the
reigning emperor, thus securing his position in case the Grand Empress Dowager
should die, Wang Mang next planned to marry his daughter to the boy Emperor.
Again he proceeded by indirection. He first proposed that the Emperor be
married, in order that the imperial line be continued. The Grand Empress
Dowager agreed, and ordered the presentation of suitable girls. It was the
custom that the mother of the Emperor should choose his wife. The Grand Empress
Dowager, who was the young Emperor's legal mother, did not approve of her
nephew too whole-heartedly; Wang Mang was afraid that she would pass over his
own daughter, so called attention to this girl by publicly refusing to offer
her under a plea of humility. The Grand Empress Dowager really opposed the
match in her heart and seems to have thought it would be a good thing to check
his growing power by putting another clan in power, for she issued an edict
withdrawing all girls of the Wang clan from the competition.
But Wang Mang had become too popular. His daughter
was of the right age; he outranked all other nobles in the empire, except those
of the Liu clan, whose daughters could not be espoused because they bore the
same surname as the Emperor; and he had acquired a great fame through his
distribution of favors and grants to the people. It was then the custom that
any one could come to the imperial palace and present petitions advising the
ruler. Many families of those who hoped to enter the bureaucracy had moved to
the capital commanderies, in order to study at the Imperial University or with
the many Confucian masters who had congregated there, so that there was
probably a larger proportion of literate persons in that region than elsewhere
in the empire. These people hoped to attract the
attention of the ministers and so attain office. Since Wang Mang controlled the
giving of offices, and the proposal suited them, these people crowded to the
portals of the Grand Empress Dowager at the rate of more than a thousand a day,
offering petitions which protested that the daughter of Wang Mang was the most
suitable person to be made the Empress. The ministers and grandees prostrated
themselves in her courts, making similar requests. Wang Mang politely sent his
personal attendants to turn them away, but the petitioners naturally paid no
attention. Thus popular opinion, mobilized by Wang Mang's refusal, forced the
Grand Empress Dowager to discontinue the competition among the girls and select
Wang Mang's daughter. The other families were placated by selecting eleven of
their girls as imperial concubines. It was an outstanding victory of intrigue,
directed by a master mind, in which Wang Mang completely outmaneuvered his
great-aunt.
There was a Confucian tradition that in Chou times,
when the Son of Heaven took a wife from a noble whose state was small, the Son
of Heaven augmented that noble's fief to be at least a hundred li square, i.e.,
nine million mou or over four hundred thousand acres. A sycophant marquis of
the Liu clan accordingly memorialized that Wang Mang's fief should be augmented
to that size, and the courtiers added that he should be given two hundred
million cash as a betrothal present. He declined both presents, accepting only
forty million cash, and distributing most of that among the new imperial
concubines. Then the courtiers said that he had not received enough, so he was
given a further sum, whereupon he distributed part of it among his own poor
relatives. After the marriage had been celebrated, the ministers likened Wang
Mang to Yi Yin and the Duke of Chou, the two greatest ministers in ancient
history, and proposed that Wang Mang be given the same title as they had had,
that his sons be ennobled, and he be given honors similar to those the Duke of
Chou had received. Wang Mang again refused, the matter was again debated by the
ministers, and petitions again poured in from the people. His two remaining
sons were made marquises, his mother was made a Baronetess, he was given an
official title higher than any other previous minister, and a special seal with
the title, "Ruling Governor, Grand Tutor, and Commander-in-chief." The other
ministers were ordered to address him in special humble terms. Ten chariots and
a host of elite troops and attendants formed his train. Altogether some 487,572
persons signed petitions, urging that he be honored. (This number was likely
taken from a memorial to the Grand Empress Dowager, summarizing these
documents.) Thus Wang Mang, by a showy Confucian humility
and generosity, captured the imaginations of the people. No one
before his time and few since then have excited so much enthusiasm.
How Wang Mang secured the loyalty
of Liu Hsin(1a)
Among those whose loyalty he secured was the famous
scholar, Liu Hsin(1a). Even after Wang Mang usurped the throne and took away
imperial and royal honors from the Liu clan, Liu Hsin still remained loyal,
until just before Wang Mang's death, when the mounting resentment against Wang
Mang, together with an astrological portent and a prophecy, led Liu Hsin
finally to head an abortive rebellion (cf. 99 C: 22b-24a). The fact that an
outstanding member of the imperial clan and a famous Confucian scholar should
have become one of Wang Mang's most loyal supporters and highest officials is
so remarkable that it is worth while studying the means by which Wang Mang
secured this man's loyalty.
During the reign of Emperor Ch'eng (in 28-25 B.C.),
Liu Hsin(1a) had been ordered to assist his father, Liu Hsiang(4a), in cataloging
the imperial private library. Emissaries were sent about the country to collect
ancient manuscripts, and people were encouraged to present their books to the
imperial library. Thus there was gathered the magnificent imperial collection,
whose catalog, extracted from that published by Liu Hsin, is to be found in
HS ch. 30, the "Treatise on Arts and Literature."
In the course of this study, Liu Hsin came upon
some books that had previously been neglected, particularly the Tso-chuan and
some writings in ancient characters said to have been discovered about 150
B.C., when tearing down the wall of Confucius' house. These writings were said
to have been presented to Emperor Wu about 100 B.C. by K'ung An-kuo. The
ancient writings secured then or at other times included some 39 chapters of
the lost Book of Rites (i.e., part of the present
Chou-li), and 16 chapters of
the Book of History. As a good Confucian, who esteemed
everything that came from the ancient Chou period, Liu Hsin was deeply
impressed, especially by the Tso-chuan. It was in the form of a commentary upon
the Spring and Autumn, which latter was thought to have been compiled by
Confucius. (The Tso-chuan, according to Maspero and Karlgren, actually dates
from the end of the iv century B.C. It has been dated in Han times, but I see
no adequate evidence for that dating. There are however doubtless minor
interpolations datable in Han times, such as the data for the ancestry of
Emperor Kao; cf. HFHD I, 148, n.1.) Tso Ch'iu-ming, its reputed author, is
mentioned in the Analects; Liu Hsin(1a) argued, with a young man's enthusiasm,
that Tso Ch'iu-ming had talked personally with Confucius, so that his
commentary on the Spring and Autumn
should be elevated to a place above those by Kung-yang and Ku-liang, which had
previously been the only authorized commentaries, for the latter authors had
not known Confucius in person, hence were not so likely to have transmitted his
conceptions. Liu Hsin sought out those persons who knew the traditional
explanation of the Tso-chuan, studied with them, and made new discoveries by
comparing its text with that of the Spring and Autumn. His father, Liu Hsiang,
was however an adherent of the orthodox Ku-liang Commentary, and remained
unimpressed by Liu Hsin's arguments.
In his youth, Wang Mang had known Liu Hsin, as he
had known every other person of any consequence in the capital. The two had
been associated when they were Gentlemen at the Yellow Gate, and Wang Mang had
been impressed by the scholar. When Emperor Ai came to the throne, Wang Mang
recommended Liu Hsin to the new Emperor. He was given some honorary positions
and asked to complete his father's work in the imperial private library. Liu
Hsin now proposed to set up the books he esteemed as authoritative Confucian
books for study in the Imperial University, i.e., as authoritative Classics:
the Tso-chuan, the Mao text of the
Book of Odes (the one now extant), the
Chou-li, and the ancient text chapters from the Book of
History. When this matter was presented to the Erudits, who were the
professors in the Imperial University, they opposed the innovation, and did not
even deign to discuss the matter. Liu Hsin felt the cut deeply, and sent a
letter to the court, reproaching the Erudits bitterly. They resented his words,
one eminent scholar even asking to resign. One of the three highest ministers,
a Confucian scholar, was so enraged that Emperor Ai had to intervene in order
to protect Liu Hsin. The latter left the court in order to save his life and
spent the remainder of Emperor Ai's reign in disgrace as an administrator of
distant commanderies.
When Wang Mang came to power after the death of
Emperor Ai, he recalled Liu Hsin and gave him an honorary position at the
capital. Wang Mang then granted what Liu Hsin had been fighting for---the
establishment of the Tso-chuan, the Mao text of
the Odes, the Chou-li, and the
ancient text of the Book of History as authoritative
subjects for study at the Imperial University and for the civil service
examinations (88: 25b, 26a). Thus Liu Hsin became attached to Wang Mang through
his Confucian loyalties. Wang Mang made him his Hsi-and-Ho, which was Wang
Mang's title for the state treasurer, and had him build a Ming-t'ang and a
Pi-yung, two Confucian ceremonial buildings. Thereupon he was made a marquis
and was put in charge of divination, fixed the
calendar, and wrote out his famous San-t'ung astronomical theory. He became an
influential advisor of Wang Mang, recommending the Confucian precedents that
guided Wang Mang's conduct. He fixed the new regulations for officials'
marriages, burials, betrothments, etc. Thus Wang Mang really gave Liu Hsin the
opportunity to do his life's work and rewarded him with high office and great
honors. In addition, the Confucian doctrine of the five elements, which had
become accepted in part through the efforts of Liu Hsin's father, plainly
pointed to Wang Mang as the next emperor. It is hence not surprising that when
Wang Mang usurped the throne, Liu Hsin should have continued to be loyal.
Most of the influential Confucians were likewise
loyal to Wang Mang, because the latter had shown himself loyal to Confucian
principles. He not only erected Confucian ceremonial buildings, he also
enlarged the Imperial University, increasing the number of authorized classics
and establishing five Erudits for each classic. Ten thousand houses were
erected for its students, a thousand students and teachers were appointed, a
market-place and government granary were established for this new town. Each
year, a hundred of its best graduates were taken into the government service by
competitive examination. In A.D. 4, Wang Mang also summoned to the capital all
the teachers of the empire who had as many as eleven pupils, all those who
could teach and explain ancient books on the classics, astronomy, divination,
revelations, music, the calendar, military arts, and philology. Thus he
gathered thousands of the most learned men in the empire, collected and
supported them at the imperial palace, and made use of their learning. In the
previous summer, he had ordered the establishment of public schools in
commanderies, prefectures, districts, and even in villages; now he probably
sent most of these teachers to the government schools. Thus he gathered
thousands of the empire's scholars, collected and supported them at the
imperial palace, and then gave them government positions. In this way he
attached to himself practically the entire body of learned people in the
empire. Wang Mang thus invented the method, used so effectively by the Ch'ing
and other dynasties, of reconciling learned people to a new ruler or dynasty by
giving them scholarly employment in government enterprises.
After Wang Mang took the throne, he continued to
honor Liu Hsin, finally making him the State Master, one of the four greatest
ministers, and ennobling him as a Duke. Liu Hsin recommended to Wang Mang, as
models for government, various practises mentioned in the Chou-li and elsewhere
in Confucian tradition, and Wang Mang adopted these Confucian
precedents. Many of his famous economic reforms came about in this
manner. Wang Mang married his son and heir to Liu Hsin's daughter. In these
ways, Wang Mang bound Liu Hsin to him by the greatest honors and the closest
possible ties. Only when these ties were broken by Wang Mang himself, did Liu
Hsin think of rebelling. Liu Hsin was Wang Mang's guide and advisor in
Confucian matters. Liu Hsin thus owed his fame, his opportunity, and his
fortune to Wang Mang. Under the circumstances, he could hardly have been
otherwise than loyal to such a benefactor.
Did Wang Mang murder Emperor P'ing?
When Emperor P'ing died on Feb. 3, A.D. 6, he was
still a minor. He was born in 9 B.C., so that he may have been fully fourteen
years old. When, in Oct., A.D. 7, Chai Yi raised the standard of revolt against
Wang Mang, the rebels sent messengers about the country alleging that Wang Mang
had poisoned Emperor P'ing. This charge was almost universally believed in
Later Han times, but we may well discount the prevalence of that belief, for a
sequent Han dynasty would be likely to encourage it.
It is of course impossible to determine the truth
of such a charge, for we have absolutely no direct evidence on this matter.
Events inside the palace could hardly be known except through the testimony of
its inmates, most of whom could not leave the place; Wang Mang controlled the
palace and its inhabitants for a subsequent period long enough to have silenced
any possible witnesses. The absence of any testimony does not thus afford any
presumption in either direction.
There were reasons enough to have predisposed Wang
Mang to such a murder. He was not above committing such a deed. To hush up his
son's adultery, he had the commissioner who investigated the matter murdered
and buried in the jail (99 C: 11a). He was not slow in demanding the lives of
any who opposed him, even of the highest families; he even executed three of
Liu Hsin(1a)'s children (99 C: n. 23.2), and did not hesitate to execute his own
son together with hundreds of persons in connection with the plot of Wang Yü
(99 A: 16b). Wang Mang showed an utter callousness concerning human affections;
he kept Emperor P'ing's mother away from her son, even though she is said to
have wept day and night.
Wang Mang furthermore had adequate motives for
murdering Emperor P'ing. Wang Mang had prevented any of Emperor P'ing's
maternal relatives from coming to the imperial capital, and, when the plot of
Wang Yü was discovered, he had executed all these
relatives, except Emperor P'ing's mother. The young Emperor P'ing hence had a
serious grievance against Wang Mang, and may well have expressed his feelings
in his adolescent years. Wang Mang might have suspected he would be unable to
control the Emperor, once the latter came of age, and that he might even be
made to suffer on some trumped-up charge. The capping of the Emperor, which
ceremony marked his coming of age, was moreover delayed until after his death.
(That circumstance does not however indicate any delinquency on Wang Mang's
part. The regular age for capping, according to Confucian principles, was the
fifteenth year; in Han times, however, the age of capping varied: Emperor Chao
was not capped until his eighteenth year, while Emperor Ho was capped in his
thirteenth year.) Wang Mang loved power and may well have planned to continue
his power by initiating another regency. There is a circumstantial account of
the poisoning (12: n. 10.2), but it was not used by Pan Ku and is intrinsically
questionable. (A dose of poison does not act only fourteen days after it was
administered.) Thus there is some evidence tending to show that Wang Mang may
have committed regicide.
There are however certain circumstances that lead
us to doubt whether Wang Mang really did murder his lord. He probably realized
the grave difficulties that would arise concerning the succession to the
throne. Emperor P'ing was the last of Emperor Yüan's living descendants; a
successor would have to be picked from among the descendants of Emperor Hsüan,
who was Emperor Ch'eng's grandfather, so that the successor would be four or
five generations removed from his imperial ancestor (Liu Ying was actually the
fifth generation). There was also the danger that further pretended sons of
Emperor Ch'eng would appear to claim the throne. Wang Mang's uncle, Wang Li(5a),
had sponsored one such pretender. Wang Mang may well have furthermore
anticipated opposition to an infant successor and a serious rebellion, such as
that actually raised by Chai Yi. While the imperial clan had been rendered
powerless by the separation of its members, giving them only quite small fiefs,
and watching them carefully (long the imperial policy), other officials might
nevertheless rebel. The empire had so long been faithful to the Liu clan that
its loyalties could not be changed easily. These reasons of state would likely
have deterred Wang Mang from attempting an assassination.
Confucian tradition, to which Wang Mang was bound,
condemned regicide and exalted faithfulness on the part of ministers.
Confucius' own model, who had come to be esteemed by all Confucians as an ideal
and sage, was the Duke of Chou, who had loyally
laid down his regency when his lord came of age. Wang Mang had frequently been
compared to the Duke of Chou and doubtless aspired for the same high reputation
as this ideal figure, who was exalted above kings and emperors. Ho Kuang, who
had ruled during the reigns of Emperors Chao and Hsüan, was highly esteemed in
recent times. Indeed, if Emperor P'ing had not died, Wang Mang would doubtless
have come down in history as the greatest minister of Han times, a model for
succeeding ages, a regent like the Duke of Chou, whose fame outshone that of
emperors themselves. Thus the death of Emperor P'ing may well have seemed a
terrible calamity to Wang Mang and he very likely considered that it deprived
him of his opportunity for a great Confucian fame.
Wang Mang had attempted to bind Emperor P'ing to
himself by secure ties. He married his daughter to the Emperor and in 5 A.D.
cut the Tzu-wu Road for the purpose of magically bringing it about that Emperor
P'ing should have a son by her. If she had had a son, Wang Mang, as the
grandfather of the Heir-apparent and father-in-law of the Emperor, the minister
who ruled during the Emperor's minority, would have been secure in his position
and untouchable, even by an emperor. Public opinion would have defended against
almost any charge a minister with such a high reputation and close
relationship.
It is somewhat unlikely that Wang Mang actually
planned to usurp the throne until some time after the death of Emperor P'ing.
The knife-cash were not issued until June/July, A.D. 7; when Wang Mang actually
came to the throne and changed the dynasty, he found these knife-cash an
embarrassment, for the word "Liu," the surname of the Han dynasty, contains the
words "metal" and "knife," so that Wang Mang had to do away with these
knife-coins in order to prevent their magical influence from injuring him (24
B: 21b). While such a magical influence of knife-cash upon the dynastic name
might possibly have been neglected in A.D. 7, yet a person so concerned with
magical influences as Wang Mang would have been likely to have known their
magical meaning, and would hardly have issued them if he had any definite plans
for changing the dynasty. Pan Ku states that Wang Mang planned to take the
throne only after Chai Yi's rebellion had quickly been crushed.
There is also the fact that Emperor P'ing had been
a sickly child, who had been "continually ill" [98: 11b(11)], so that he was not
at all strong, and could easily have been carried off by illness, just as was
Emperor Ai. Wang Mang seems to have done everything that a loyal minister
should have done to prevent this death. When, in the winter of A.D. 5/6,
Emperor P'ing was ill, Wang Mang made a vow to the
Supreme One, in which he offered his own life for that of the Emperor. The vow
was stored in a metal-bound coffer, just as the Duke of Chou had done in a
similar case when King Ch'eng was ill. The coffer was not opened until A.D. 23
(99 A: 24b; C: 22b). Wang Mang was superstitious and relied much upon magic, so
that he probably took this vow seriously. He furthermore did not kill the
succeeding Emperor, the Young Prince, Liu Ying(1a). This child grew up, and,
after Wang Mang's death, actually ascended the throne for a time. Furthermore
when Chai Yi rebelled in A.D. 7 and when the rebels finally entered Kuan-chung
in A.D. 23, Wang Mang made a dramatic appeal to Heaven for aid, in the latter
case, setting out, at the place for sacrifice to Heaven, his mandates by means
of portents, and asking Heaven to strike him dead by a thunderbolt if he had
done wrong (99 C: 25a). When a superstitious man acts thus, it is good evidence
that his conscience is clear of any such heinous sins as regicide.
There is thus much evidence to show that Wang Mang
was innocent of the charge that he had poisoned his lord, and that this charge
was propaganda on the part of those who rose in rebellion against him. It is of
course impossible to be certain, and the evidence is far from conclusive. In
the end, one's judgment will depend upon one's estimate of Wang Mang's
character. That character was evil enough: he was callous to suffering,
impatient of any opposition and ready to execute any subordinates and even his
own children and grandchildren who presumed to oppose him or even make awkward
suggestions (cf. the execution of Wang Chien(4), 98: 14b). But he was a
whole-hearted Confucian. Confucianism exalted loyalty and comdemned regicide as
a heinous sin. My own opinion is that Wang Mang was too good a Confucian to
have murdered Emperor P'ing.
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