Liu Wu, Prince Of Liang
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Liu Wu (刘武) ( - May 144 BC), posthumously named Prince Xiao of Liang, was a Han
prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
. He was a son of Emperor Wen and Empress Xiaowen, and a younger brother of Emperor Jing. He played a prominent role in the suppression of the Rebellion of the Seven Princes. He was also responsible for the assassination of the minister Yuan Ang.
Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...
. ''
Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...
'' in ang Xiuliang 'Shiji Cidian'' p. 698. Shandong Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Jinan), 1991 in Theobald, Ulrich. ''China Knowledge''. "Persons in Chinese History
Liang Xiaowang Liu Wu
. 2011. Accessed 29 November 2013.
Ban Biao & al. ''
Book of Han The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...
'' in ang Xiuliang 'Hanshu Cidian'' p. 946. Shandong Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Jinan), 1991 in Theobald, Ulrich. ''China Knowledge''. "Persons in Chinese History
Liang Xiaowang Liu Wu
. 2011. Accessed 29 November 2013.


Life

Liu Wu was initially created prince of Dai () in 178 BC. In 176, he became prince of Huaiyang () instead and his brother
Liu Can Liu Can (died September 318( 兴元年月,粲治兵于上林,谋讨石勒。以丞相曜为相国、都督中外诸军事,仍镇长安;靳准为大将军、录尚书事。粲常游宴后宫。军国之事,一决于准。准矫诏 ...
() replaced him as prince of Dai. In 168, this was changed again to Liang.


Rebellion of the Seven Princes

After Emperor Jing ordered the execution of Chao Cuo at the urging of Yuan Ang, Liu Wu was besieged at his capital Suiyang by the armies of Wu and Chu during the Rebellion of the Seven States. His mother the
empress dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother; ) is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a monarch, especially in regards to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese monarchs in the Chines ...
Xiaowen urged the emperor to send the imperial army to relieve him. General Zhou Yafu succeeded in counselling against a direct assault: instead, his force took advantage of disorder among the rebels to establish a strong camp at Xiayi (, modern Dangshan in
Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...
) athwart their line of supply and communication along the Si River. Ignoring Liu Wu's pleas for help and imperial orders to advance to the city, he occupied his time strengthening his defenses and sending Han Tuidang's cavalry raiders to disrupt what little overland supply the rebels could manage from Chu. Having wearied their armies assaulting Suiyang, the rebel princes were forced to fall back for supplies and their assaults on Xiayi were defeated with such prepared ease that Zhou initially refused to be woken from bed. This was effectively the end of the rebellion: the Prince of Chu took his own life and Liu Pi was killed by Yue natives as he fled.Whiting, Marvin. ''Imperial Chinese Military History: 8000 BC–1912 AD''
pp. 143 ff.
Accessed 30 Nov 2013.
Luan Bu followed this by defeating the other rebel princes, who chose either death or execution. The successful strategy earned Zhou Yafu the wrath of the Prince of Liang and his mother, however. They eventually succeeded in poisoning the emperor against him: he was imprisoned on minor issues involving his son's dispute with a supplier and, in the end, chose to fast to death in prison.


Patron of the arts

For his support during the rebellion, his brother Emperor Jing gave him many honors and privileges. His private gardens rivaled the emperor's
Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...
. ''
Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...
'', 58 2087 in Wang
pp. 161 f
and the prince expanded his number of retainers, bringing in Yang Sheng (), Gongsun Gui (), and Zou Yang (). He became a famous patron, particularly of '' fu'' poets such as
Sima Xiangru Sima Xiangru ( , c. 179117BC) was a Chinese musician, poet, and politician who lived during the Han dynasty#Western Han, Western Han dynasty. Sima is a significant figure in the history of Classical Chinese poetry, and is generally regarded as ...
. One particularly influential piece was the "Memorial from Prison to the Prince of Liang", whereby Zou Yang successfully pleaded his case against the slander of other courtiers and freed himself from a death sentence not by addressing the charges against him but by multiplying historical examples of the disaster of gossip and libel.


Fall from grace

When the emperor demoted his eldest son
Liu Rong Liu Rong (Chinese language, Chinese: ) (died April 148 BC) was the eldest son of Emperor Jing of Han, Emperor Jing of the Han dynasty. His mother was Lady Li (栗姬). He was made taizi, crown prince of the empire under the formal title Crown Princ ...
from
heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...
to prince of Linjiang in 150 BC, the empress dowager took the occasion of an imperial feast to demand that Emperor Jing name Liu Wu as his crown prince in preference to his other sons. He immediately agreed,Xiao, Lily & al. ''Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 BCE–618 CE''
pp. 134 ff
M.E. Sharpe ( Armonk), 2007. Accessed 29 Nov 2013.
only to be talked out of it by his advisors. Yuan Ang in particular counseled strongly against breaking the laws of succession, as the act would set a highly destabilizing precedent. Acting in support of their patron, Gongsun Gui and Yang Sheng conspired to have the elderly minister stabbed to death outside the walls of the imperial suburb of
Anling Xianyang ( zh, s=咸阳 , p=Xiányáng) is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an. Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now int ...
. They were responsible for nine related murders as well. Upon the emperor's discovering their involvement, Liu Wu ordered them to commit suicideKnechtges, David & al. ''Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature'', Vol. I
p. 277
Brill (Leiden), 2010. Accessed 29 Nov 2013.
and presented their bodies to the emperor, but he never regained his brother's favor and was only seldom received at court. Instead, following custom,
Liu Che The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as s ...
, the prince of Jiaodong, was promoted to crown prince and his mother Lady Wang to empress.
Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...
. ''
Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...
'' in ang Xiuliang 'Shiji Cidian'' p. 662. Shandong Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Jinan), 1991 in Theobald, Ulrich. ''China Knowledge''. "Persons in Chinese History
Han Jingdi Liu Qi
. 2011. Accessed 29 November 2013.
Ban Biao & al. ''
Book of Han The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...
'' in ang Xiuliang 'Hanshu Cidian'' p. 893. Shandong Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Jinan), 1991 in Theobald, Ulrich. ''China Knowledge''. "Persons in Chinese History
Han Jingdi Liu Qi
. 2011. Accessed 29 November 2013.
Afraid for her younger son's life, the empress dowager refused to eat until he was cleared of any charges. The official charged with the investigation reported back to Emperor Jing that, in his view, Liu Wu had been involved and that "sparing the Prince of Liang would break the law of Han"; nonetheless, "killing him would deeply distress the empress dowager and upset the emperor even more". He counseled the emperor to drop the issue. In discussion with the empresses, he blamed the murders solely upon the two courtiers and explained they had already been lawfully punished.


Death

Liu Wu died at home in 144 BC after a trip to
Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...
. His
memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...
to his brother asking to extend his stay at the capital was rejected and he took ill soon after returning home. He was around forty years old. His estate at his death was estimated to include 400,000 catties of gold and an equivalent amount of wealth in land — if true, and assuming the gold was pure, this fortune would be equivalent to more than US$30 billion today. His third son was the
serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
Liu Pengli. The other four were (in order) Liu Mai, Liu Ming, Liu Ding, and Liu Bushi. His mother the empress dowager was at first inconsolable, but Emperor Jing placated her by dividing the realm of Liang into five pieces and bestowing them upon Liu Wu's sons.


Tomb

The tomb of the Prince of Liang and his wife is located within Mount Mangdang in present-day Yongcheng in
Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...
. It is the site of the oldest known surviving Chinese murals, depicting the four symbols: the blue dragon, white tiger, red bird, and black turtle. The paint was composed of vermillion,
mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...
, and
malachite Malachite () is a copper Carbonate mineral, carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the chemical formula, formula Basic copper carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often for ...
.Tie Fude. "Conservation of Mural Paintings Transferred from a Royal Mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty at Shiyuan, Henan Province" in ''Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, People's Republic of China'', June 28–July 3, 2004. Getty, 2004. Accessed 30 Nov 2013. Because of the tomb's high humidity, the mural was cut into five pieces and transferred to a wooden frame in 1992. It was relocated to the Henan Provincial Museum and displayed in 1998. Within a year, the conditions at the museum had warped and cracked the frame and painting. It was somewhat repaired in 2003. The tombs also included ornate
jade Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...
burial suits and ''bi''. u Weibr>
["''Hénán Yǒngchéng Xīhàn Liángwàng Língmù Chūtǔ Zàng Yù Lí Tàn''", "An Exploration of the Burial Jades Excavated in Yongcheng, Henan, at the Tomb of the Prince of Liang during the Western Han"].  [Zhōngyuán Wénwù, ''Cultural Relics of the Central Plains''], No. 3. 2008. Accessed 1 Dec 2013.


See also

* Principality of Liang


References

{{reflist, 2 180s BC births 144 BC deaths Prince of Dai Prince of Huaiyang Prince of Liang Han dynasty imperial princes