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Sinitic Civilization-Book 1 
Sinitic Civilization-Book 2 
Tribute of Yu 
Heavenly Questions 
Zhou King Muwang's Travels 
The Legends of Mountains & Seas 
The Bamboo Annals - Book 1 
The Scourge-of-God-Tetralogy: From the Khitans to the Jurchens & Mongols: A History of Barbarians in Triangle Wars and Quartet Conflicts (available at iUniverse; Google; Amazon; B&N) |
HAN DYNASTYEarly Han Dynasty was a restoration of Zhou Dynasty's feudal system. Numerous independent statelets were in existence. The Chen Sheng & Wu Guang rebellion against the Qin dynasty resulted in restoration of some of the ex-Zhou principalities. General Xiang Yu declared himself the 'Hegemony King of the Western Chu Principality' (206-202 B.C.), with a domain of nine prefectures of the former Liang and Chu principalities, in addition to conferrals of 18 kings. During and after the Chu-Han Wars, Han Emperor Gaozu or Gaodi (Liu Bang) had conferred kingship onto numerous generals who contributed to the overthrow of the Qin Empire and the later campaigns against General Xiang Yu. Early Han Dynasty, however, was also commented to have inherited the Qin empire's cruel system and layout without any fundamental changes or reform. Numerous ministers and generals of the time, who enjoyed the Zhou dynastic lords' title of 'gong', were at one time county magistrates or county prison officials. Han Emperor Gaozu had an official called Xiao He who had once served as an ex-Qin clerk in a county. Xiao He, being conferred the post of 'xiangguo', i.e., prime minister, would be responsible for maintaining the existing layout of the Qin system. Three branches of the ex-Qin governance were utilized, namely, chief counselor (chengxiang [assistant to prime minister, strictly; and divided into leftside and rightside posts sometimes] or xiangguo [prime minister]), grand marshal (taiwei), and imperial inspector-in-chief (yushi dafu). Chief Counselor was supposed to rule over nine chief ministers (jiu qing) and thirteen departments. By Emperor Wudi's times, censor-in-chief was in charge of inspecting on 13 circuits (zhou or fu) with circuit censors or inspector (cishi) in charge of 100 commanderies and 1200 counties. Qin's cruel laws began with reformer-legalist Shang Yang and got much crueler under Li Si. In the early Han times, cutting off the feet, peeling off the noses as well as inscribing the black ink marks on faces were still common. General Haan Xin was killed via five peelings and cuts, for example. The criminal law reform would begin with Han Emperor Wendi (commonly-taken wrong reign 179-157 B.C.; nominal October 180-Sept 164 B.C.; actual leap September 180-Sept 164 B.C.), during Wendi's 4th year, i.e., 176-175 B.C., when a renowned doctor called Chunyu Yi offended some powerful patient and was sentenced for 'bodily penalty'. Since Chunyu Yi once served as a county magistrate in Taicang County, he was sent to the nation's capital for incarceration ('bodily penalty'). Chunyu Yi had five daughters, with the youngest one called Tiying. Tiying submitted a request to Emperor Wendi, singing the poems of Ji Ming (rooster cuckoo) and Chen Feng (morning breeze) of Shi Jing and saying she would be willing to be sold to the government as a slave for substituting her father's bodily punishment. Hence, Emperor Wendi was moved by Tiying and decreed that 'bodily penalty' be abolished. Later Han Dynasty historian Ban Gu, who was twice imprisoned and died in prison the second time, wrote the first purported five character poem "Yong Shi" praising Tiying's bravery and filiality, not counting eunuch-musician Li Yannian's song about the beauty of northern China ['beifang you jiaren']. (In the Jinn Dynasty, poems were made up about the Li Ling and Su Wu stories of parting on top of He-liang [a wood stump kind of quasi-bridge over the river] in today's Outer Mongolia to infer that Li Ling and Su Wu first initiated the five-character format poetry, as seen in Western Jinn Dynasty scholar Zhi Yu's book Wen-zhang Liu-bie Zhi. A Ming Dynasty book collector, Lang Ying, believed that Latter Han Dynasty scholar Ban Gu had the records on the names of Li Ling and Su Wu's poems in Yi-wen Zhi of Han Shu, and further cited Tang poet Du Fu (Du Zimei)'s praising the duo as Du's teacher. One interesting thing about the poems would be the juxtaposition of 'qin' and 'hu' for the two camps of the Han Chinese and the Huns, which was apparently different from the post-Qin dynasty usage of the 'Qin-hu' characters for some kind of barbarian mercenaries serving under the Chinese emperors. That is, the poems had some peculiarity and possible authenticity.) The domain of early Han China was not as extensive as the Qin Empire. Independent statelets would be the Nan-yue Statelet, Min-yue Statelet and Dong-yue Statelet. The non-Chinese statelets would include Dian-Yue, Yelang and etc. After a defeat in the hands of the Huns, Han Emperor Gaozu (or Gaodi) adopted a pacifying policy by sending over the Han princess for inter-marriage with the Huns. Emperor Huidi and Empress Lühou as well as Emperor Wendi and Emperor Jingdi followed through with the old policies. It would be during the times of Han Emperor Wudi (commonly-taken wrong reign 140-87 B.C. or 140-86 B.C.; nominal October 141-Dec 87 B.C.; actual Jan 141-Feb 87 B.C.) that Han China's territories would expand in all direction. Wudi launched the military offensives against the Huns, retaking the control of southern China, and invading today's Manchuria and Korea. Han Dynasty's notable deeds would be the restoration of Confucianism as the creed for ruling the nation. This compliment, widely quoted by the modern historians, should be looked at through a different perspective. As Lin Yutang said, the Chinese practiced Legalism in essence while Confucianism on surface. More than that, Daoism had much more effect than the former two. In the early Han dynasty, only Daoist philosophy was allowed at the court, and it would be after the death of dowager-empress Dou-tai-hou that Emperor Wudi, meaning the "Martial Emperor", was able to hire the Confucians for the court jobs, such as civilian Gongsun Hong being appointed the post as 'cheng xiang' [prime minister] in 124 B.C. (See Confucianism versus Daoism below. It would be in Eastern Han Dynasty, after the White Tiger Hall Meeting, that Confucianism was to become the state-sanctioned creed.) Under Emperor Wudi, the 'Recommendation System' was adopted for the purpose of having the talented people sent to the prefecture capitals and the nation's capital as reserve for the officialdom. Emperor Wudi, around 124 B.C., decreed to have 'Tai Xue' (the Grand School), i.e., university, created for attracting the talents. 50 doctoral students were enrolled. The Five Classics gradually became the official moral and political ideology of the state. By 50 B.C., the palace school had 3000 students enrolled, and by 1 A.D., the graduates would staff the bureaucracy. Han Dynasty's 'Tai Xue' would be the model for the Western Jinn Dynasty's 'Guo Zi Xue' academy, Tuoba Wei Dynasty's 'Si Meng Xue' academy, and Sui-Tang and Yuan's 'Guo Zi Jian' academy. In 112 B.C., Emperor Wudi ordered the establishment of 'yue [music/song/poems] fu [ministry]' to collect the music and ballads across the country, especially the areas of the former Zhao, Dai, Qin and Chu territories, in a similar fashion to what the Zhou and Qin dynasties did. Among the 50-60 'yue fu' poems that survived to today, that were missing the music score, would be numerous five-character format or seven-character format poems, with the most famous one being 'Qi Xi {lunar July 7th}': tiaotiao [remotely afar] qian-niu [the man who pulls the ox] xing [the river drum star {Altair} or of the ox mansion], jiaojiao [bright and starry] he-han [the Milky Way] nü [weaving girl star {Vega} of the ox mansion]. Back in 116 B.C., Li Yannian was asked by the emperor to make music for the outskirts oblation ceremony. Famous literati figures such as Sima Xiangru were hired for making the poems and prose. During the Yuanfeng Era (110-105 B.C.), Li Yannian, i.e., author of the song about the beauty of northern China ['beifang you jiaren'], was appointed the post as 'xie-Lü [concordance temperament] duwei [captain]' in charge of the collection and composition of poems at the 'yue fu' bureau. The Taichu-li Calendar Han Emperor Wudi was also credited with inception of the imperial eras. The definition of the Chinese New Year, i.e., the second New Moon after the winter solstice, could be dated from the inception of the "Taichu Era", with an imperial decree to design the Taichu calendar in May of 104 B.C., with lunar January ('jian yin') adopted as the start of the year in lieu of the Lord Zhuanxu's calendar which was used by the Qin Dynasty to make the lunar October ('jian hai') as the first month of the year. That is, the 1st year of Taichu, which was the year 104 B.C., theoretically had 15 months, including the three months of October, November and December from the 7th year of the Yuanfeng era --that were given back to 105 B.C. on the calendar, but not in the Han Dynasty chronicle. 
Han Emperor Wudi issued a decree to name the epoch 'jia-yin' as a symbol of propitiousness for the new Taichu-li calendar.
Sima Qian's Shi-ji, naming the epoch/eon 'jia-yin', called 'jia' by 'yan-feng' and 'yin' by 'nie-ti-ge [yin]', namely, the newly-coined terms for the heavenly stem 'jia'.
The 'jia-yin' eon, according to Huai Nan Zi, repeated itself after three epochs of 1520 years, namely, a 'jia-yin' epoch taking twenty cycles of seventy-six years to run the course, followed by 1520 years of the 'jia-xu' epoch and 1520 years of the 'jia-wu' epoch.
(The wording like 'nie-ti-ge' was speculated to have some relations to the non-Sinitic people, which could be mere speculation.
Chu Principality poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States time period, in Li Sao, possibly adopted the 'grand duke iplanet [planet] time reckoning' method, in which the poet stated that he was born in the year of 'nie-ti', i.e., the year the grand duke iplanet was at the 'yin' position and the Jupiter was at the 'xing ji' ecliptic --something that was disputed by Soong Dynasty scholar Zhu Xi and 20th century scholar Lin Geng as some 'nie-ti' stars [that flanked the Arcturus of the herdsman constellation, or the 'da-jiao' or great horn star in the celestial king's throne], not a 'nie-ti-ge' {Jupiter} planet.
In the early Han dynasty, Lu Jia mentioned the three epochs of the remote ancient world, the middle ages, and the then contemporary world, with the epochs not anything close to the
three 'jia-yin' epochs of 1520 years each as seen in Huai Nan Zi.
Modern historians further pointed to one statement from Haan Fei Zi about an epoch of 4560 years as evidence that the sexagenary calendar could be in usage in the late Warring States time period, much earlier than the invention of the Sifen-li (quarter remainder) calendar in A.D. 85, which was a premise built on the age of Haan Fei Zi to be an authentic book from the Warring States time period.)
The propitiousness was said to be the identification of the 'jia-zi' day from the start day 'shuo-dan' or day 1 of the first month of November of the natural year 105 B.C. on the 60-day sexagenary calendar. The 'jia-yin' propitious name, that was tagged to the actual 'ding-chou' year or 104 B.C. on the Zhuanxu-li calendar, was to imitate the [virtual] "Yin-li" (the Shang dynasty calendar) or the anterior quarter remainder calendar's setting the first 'jia-yin' 60-year sexagenary cycle at 427 B.C. (i.e., Zhou King Kaowang's 14th year). The actual 'jia-yin' years in the neighborhood were 127 B.C. or 67 B.C. According to Zhang Ruzhou, who discovered the embedded anterior quarter remainder calendar, the 'jia-yin' propitious name meant for Han Emperor Wudi's identifying the patented 'jia-yin' epoch of the virtual "Yin-li" calendar. (Tang Dynasty astronomers, in Ri-di Yi of Xin Tang Shu, claimed that the 'jia-zi' day identified by the Taichu-li calendar was already three days late versus the actual astral day and should be the 'xin-you' day, and that another four days' error occurred from the Taichu-li calendar to the Tang Dynasty's Linde-li calendar. Namely, the errors related to lunisolar precession and equatorial precession.) There was some confusion about the Taichu-li calendar versus the Yin-li calendar in Shi-ji, with modern historians speculating that the Han dynasty's calendar name 'Taichu' was inadvertently added to the Li Shu [calendro-astronomy book] Jia Zi Pian, which was about the Yin-li calendar, not the Taichu-li calendar. Li-shu [calendro-astronomy book] Jia Zi Pian in Shi-ji, which was cited by Zhang Ruzhou to have the full contents of the 427 B.C. Yin-li calendar (i.e., the virtual or proxy Shang dynasty calendar), stated that the emperor issued a decree to name the 'year' (i.e., epoch), namely, 104 B.C., by 'jia-yin' as a symbol of propitiousness. That is, Sima Qian did not mean that year 104 B.C. was a 'jia-yin' year, but the emperor's concurrence with the 'jia-yin' epoch as something propitious. Sima Qian's Shi-ji called the month by 'bi [net] ju [converging]', namely, a name said to have mutated from the 'ju zi' section division of the ecliptic, which was the net, room and wall lunar lodges. The term 'bi ju' was taken to be January of the calendar, not January of the lunar year. Namely, January or the first month of the calendar year, something determined by the Dipper Establishment rule, could mean the month used with the year, day and hour of the 'jia-yin' epoch's 'yuan' or No. 1 year of 1567 B.C., which was the month of '[jia-]zi' month (lunar November) --not lunar January of the new Taichu-li calendar which adopted the purported Xia Dynasty's 'jian-yin' Dipper Establishment rule. The calendar reform in 104 B.C. did not address the issue in regards to the Jupiter's chronogram as the same 'grand duke iplanet calendar system' was used till A.D. 85. The concept of chronogram was not discovered till the late Western Han dynasty time period, when Liu Xin assumed that it took 144 years for the planet to exceed one chronogram. The astronomers' concern was about the procession of the equinoxes. The calendar reform was about setting lunar January as the first month of a year and adopting astronomer Deng Ping's method of 365 days and 385/1539 extra for one year and 29 days and 43/81 extra for one month; inserting the 24 solar terms; and making the new rule of placing the intercalary month in a month that had the 'jie' (nodal) solar term but no 'zhong' (medial) solar term, etc. Luoxia Hong made a prediction that the new calendar, i.e., the Taichu calendar, would err by one day after 800 years -- something corrected by Zhang Zhouxuan's Daye-li of the Sui dynasty 710 years later. Sima Qian's Shi-ji Serving under Wudi would be the historian Sima Qian (Szu-ma Ch'ien, 145-90 B.C.) who, having undergone castration for offending Wudi on the matter of absolving Li Ling's surrender to the Huns, lived with humiliation to finish his history book, Shi-ji ["Historian's Records"], in about eighteen years. Shi-ji had 130 volumes in total, with over 520,000 characters and covering about 3000 years of history that extended from the Yellow Overlord to Han Emperor Wudi's Yuanshou Era of 122 B.C., which were subdivided into 12 biographies on the kings and lords, 30 biographies on the notables and nobles, and 30 biographies on the generals and princes. Sima Qian underwent castration for lack of surrendering the financial resources to redeem the conviction. Han Dynasty usually allowed people to either pay money or undergo castration in exchange for being absolved from the death penalty. Also note that in ancient China, the death row convicts would be absolved from execution during the year a new emperor was enthroned. It is called the 'imperial amnesty'. Death convicts were usually executed in the autumn of the year, i.e., autumnal execution. (Shi Ji was not officially sanctioned by the court. It would be Yang Yun, a junior son of Sima Qian's daughter-in-law Yang Chang, who was to discover Sima Qian's works and surrendered the masterpiece to the court. Later, during the times of Latter Han Dynasty, another historian, Cai Yong, was executed by Wang Yun for sake of stopping him from compilation of a history book.) Han Dynasty possessed the typical characteristics as far as the pattern of power corruption was concerned. There would appear the 'empress power' ('in-law power'), 'eunuch power' and 'warlord power'. Gradually, the tripartite functions lost their influences, and the departments like 'shangshu sheng' (state affairs) and 'zhongshu sheng' (secretariat) would weigh on the emperors. The influence from people in palaces, the 'empress power', led to the demise of the Western Han. Wang Mang, who usurped the Western Han dynasty and founded the Xin Dynasty, derived his power from Empress Wang. All three forms of power corruption led to the demise of the Eastern Han dynasty. We would touch on this in the sections below. The Demise Of Qin & the Chu-Han Wars Emperor Shi Huangdi, Qin's First Emperor, was enthroned at the age of 13. During the 26th year of his reign, by 221 B.C., Shihuangdi completed the unification of China and he established the so-called 'Jun-Xian System', namely, the commandery-county system, at the advice of his prime minister, Li Tsu (Li Si). Shihuangdi re-zoned his country into 36 commanderies in lieu of conferring the title of dukes and kings onto his sons. In the next 11 years, Shihuangdi would be responsible for attacking the Huns in the Hetao [sheath] and Ordos areas, building the Great Wall, standardizing the writing system, coins and measures, paving the highways across the country, and digging the canals to link up the water system. But, three years after Shihuangdi's death, by 209 B.C., rebellion, touched off by the Chen Sheng & Wu Guang Mutiny of 209 B.C., would overthrow the Qin rule. In 207 B.C., Qin's eunuch prime minister, Zhao Gao, killed the second emperor, Hu Hai, in an attempt to negotiate peace with rebel Liu Bang. Zhao Gao sent an emissary to seeing Liu Bang. Liu Bang declined the request to divide the Qin land into two parts. Liu Bang, knowing that it was a trick, took Zhang Liang's advice and dispatched Lih Yiji (Lih Sheng, ? - 203 B.C., who was conferred the title of Prince Guangye-jun by Liu Bang) and Lu Jia (? - 170 B.C.) to the Qin camp for dissuasion and dissension. Liu Bang's army hence stealthily took over the Wuguan Pass without a battle. Prince Zi Ying, who killed eunuch Zhao Gao with the help of two sons, succeeded as the third emperor. In this year, 206 B.C., Zi Ying surrendered to Liu Bang after being on the throne for 46 days. Liu Bang was able to take over Qin's capital because General Xiang Yu had entangled the major Qin armies in the former Zhao Principality territories. Xiang Yu subsequently entered Qin's capital, Xian'yang, and killed Qin's last emperor, Zi Ying and the Qin's royal family members. Xiang Yu, with a stronger army, pushed Liu Bang into a fief in the Hanzhong territory. Xiang Yu then divided the land of China into over a dozen fiefs, with him proclaimed as the hegemony king under a nominal Chu Emperor Yidi's rule. Before long, the fiefdoms fought against each other; Xiang Yu killed Chu emperor Yidi; and Liu Bang successfully defeated all rivals, and established a unified Han dynasty. The Chen Sheng & Wu Guang Rebellion In July of 209 B.C., 900 recruits from Yangcheng [Fangcheng, Henan] in the ex-Chu Principality area were on the way of being dispatched to the northern post of Yuyang (Jixian [Tientsin], near today's Beijing) or the ancient Viscount Wuzhong-zi's country. However, at Daze-xiang [big lake land, i.e., Suzhou of Anhui Province] of Qi-xian County, the rainy season stopped them from going further. Fearing the Qin's punishment of death penalty for missing the schedule, two team leaders, Chen Sheng & Wu Guang, killed two Qin 'wei' [captains] and declared an uprising in the name of restoring Chu as well as in the name of the dead elder Qin prince Fu-su and Chu general Xiang Yan. Chen Sheng called himself by 'jiang jun' [general] and Wu Guang by 'du wei' [major general]. Chen Sheng & Wu Guang took over the Qixian County. Chen Sheng sent someone called Ge Ying on a campaign to the east, and Chen himself went to attack the Chenxian County with tens of thousands of rebels he assembled in a matter of months. Two Confucians, Zhang Er & Chen Yu, came to see Chen Sheng and recommended that Chen Sheng should restore the ex-Zhou principality descendants as kings of the various principalities so as to create multiple enemy targets for the Qin empire. Chen Sheng, however, declared himself King of 'Zhang-Chu', namely, king for expanding Chu. (Zhang Er was at one time a hanger-on guest under Honorary-Prince Xinling-jun and magistrate for Waihuang, while Chen Yu treated Zhang Er as proxy-father. Liu Bang, still a civilian, came to visit Zhang Er for several months after Qin eliminated the Wei state.) Chen Sheng dispatched Wu Guang as 'proxy king' on a northward campaign against today's Henan Province. Zhang Er & Chen Yu requested with Wu Guang for 3000 soldiers to attack the ex-Zhao territories. In August, Wu Guang sent Wu Chen as head of this expedition into north of the Yellow River. When Ge Ying arrived at Jiujiang, on the Jiangxi [west] side of the Yangtze River, he met an ex-Chu royal descendant, Xiang Jiang. Ge Ying enthroned him as King of Chu at Dongcheng (Dingyuan, Anhui). Hearing that Chen Sheng already declared himself King of Zhang-Chu, Ge Ying killed Xiang Jiang. But Ge Ying still got executed by Chen Sheng for his mistake. Chen Sheng sent Deng Zong to the Jiujiang-jun Commandary (Shouxian, Anhui), instead, and he also sent Zhou Shi to the ex-Wei territories to fight the Qin armies. Wu Guang, failing to take Xingyang of today's Henan Province, took advice from someone called Cai Ci and sent Zhou Wen on a western expedition against the Qin capital in today's Shenxi Province. On the road to the Qin capital, Zhou Wen was joined by tens of thousands of people. Confucius' 8th generation grandson, Kong Fu, recommended to Chen Sheng that he should make preparations for bitter fights with the Qin armies. Wu Chen, after crossing the Yellow River at Baimajin, took over more than 30 towns and counties in a matter of months and in August occupied the ex-Zhao capital of Handan. Wu Chen was able to take over the Zhao-di land as a result of Kuai Che lobbying with Xu-gong, i.e., magistrate for Fanyang-xian, to surrender to Wu Chen. With Xu-gong setting an example, over 30 cities surrendered consecutively. Kuai Che, per Sima Qian, ranked among the top of 81 strategicians and lobbyists who were versatile with the expedient tactics of the Warring States time period. Zhang Er & Chen Yu persuaded Wu Chen into declaring himself King of the Zhao Principality. Zhang Ao, who was Zhang Er's son, received Chen Sheng's conferral as Prince Chengdu-jun. Wu Chen, against Chen Sheng's order to go west to aid Zhou Wen, sent Haan Guang to the ex-Yan territories in the northeast, Li Liang to Changshan of today's northern Shanxi, and another general to Shangdang of today's Shanxi Province. Haan Guang self-declared himself King of Yan. When Wu Chen, i.e., King Zhao-wang, travelled north, Haan Guang had Wu Chen arrested, and demanded to halve the Zhao land. After numerous emissaries were killed by Haan Guang, one person volunteered to go to see Haan Huang with a claim that Zhang Er and Chen Yu could declare themselves kings to compete against the Yan king. Hence Haan Guang released Wu Chen. Qin Emperor Huhai took the advice of Zhang Han in arming the convicts on the Lishan Mountain. Zhou Wen's rebels, after sacking the Han'gu'guan Pass, pushed to the Xi-shui River area, i.e., Xi-di or today's Lintong. Zhang Han faced up with Zhou Wen and drove Zhou Wen out of the Han'gu'guan Pass. In Peixian County, today's Jiangsu Province, 48 year old Liu Bang, an ex-Qin shire-level official who was hiding in Mount Dangshan (in today's Anhui Province) for setting free the Lishan-destined convicts, answered Chen Sheng's uprising by killing the county magistrate. (Hiding in the Dang-shan mountains and lakes, wife Lü-zhi often delivered food and supplies to the fugitive(s), with a claim that she could often locate where her husband was by looking at the cloud and mist above the hiding place.) The county magistrate had remorse about the rebellion and closed the gates. Liu Bang shot an arrow into Peixian with a message invoking the people to rise up or face slaughter after the city was to be sacked. Xiao He and Cao Can, after killing the county magistrate, welcomed Liu Bang as the rebel leader. Liu Bang made sacrifice to the Yellow Overlord and war god Chi-you at Pei-ting, namely, the Peixian county government office. The rebels made drums, and red flags. Riding the chariot for Liu Bang was Xiahou Ying who was a former county official at Pei-xian but befriended Liu Bang, a 'ting zhang' (a ten-li distance official in the countryside) for the Si-shui-ting post. (Later, Liu Bang conferred a fief at Teng onto Xiahou Ying.) (Later, Liu Bang conferred a fief at Teng onto Xiahou Ying. Xiahou Ying (Marquis Ruying-hou), a childhood pal of Han Emperor Liu Bang, was a descendant of Tuo, a brother of last Qi3 Lord Jian'gong. Should we use the DNA analysis on Cao Cao's descendants, then Cao Cao, who was a Xiahou family member, was of the O2-haplotype, meaning the Xiahou clan or the Qi3 lords [who were the successors to the Xia dynasty kings] were not the O3 Sinitic people but of the origin of the coastal Nine Yi people.) Having arrived at Gaoyang, Liu Bang obtained Lih Yiji, a scholar, as his adviser. Liu Bang took over Chenliu and its warehouse as a result of Lih Yiji's lobbying with the Chenliu county magistrate. In the Yangtze Delta, Xiang Liang and his nephew, Xiang Yu, killed governor Yin Tong of the Kuaiji Commandery. They assembled an army of 8000 men, the later so-called 'brother-soldiers from east of the Yangtze River'. (In the ancient times, the Wu-Yue people around the Yangtze Delta were famous for carrying the swords and their belligerency, similar to the Japanese samurai.) Zhou Shi attacked the ex-Wei city of Dicheng. In October, an ex-Qi royal descendant, Tian Dan, killed the county magistrate for Di-cheng, rose up with brothers Tian Rong and Tian Heng, and declared himself King of the Qi Principality. Tian Dan went on to drive Zhou Shi away. Zhou Shi, rejecting a request from his soldiers to be a king, sought from Chen Sheng (the Zhang-Chu King) an ex-Wei royal descendant, Prince Jiu, as King of the Wei Principality. Wu Chen's general, Han Guang, declared himself King of the Yan Principality after defeating the Qin armies in the ex-Yan territories. By this time, the Chu-Zhao-Qi-Wei-Yan statelets were restored. After Li Liang took over Changshan of today's Shanxi, King Zhao, i.e., Wu Chen, ordered his general to attack west against Taiyuan of today's Shanxi. The Qin armies played a trick of dissension. Li Liang killed Zhao King (Wu Chen). What was said was that Li Liang retreated east after getting no reinforcements from Wu Chen; Li Liang, while travelling towards Handan, was outraged by Wu Chen's sister whom he mistook as the Zhao king; and after killing Wu Chen's sister, Li Liang went back to Handan to kill Wu Chen. Zhang Er & Chen Yu located an ex-Zhao royal descendant, Zhao Xie, and made him the new King of the Zhao Principality at Xindu (Xingtai, Hebei). Li Liang, after being defeated by the new Zhao king, surrendered to Qin General Zhang Han. Qin General Zhang Han had earlier defeated the western expedition led by Zhou Wen. Three months later, Zhou Wen first retreated to Caoyang (Lingbao) and then to Mianchi where he committed suicide after a defeat. Proxy King Wu Guang was still encircling Xingyang at this time, but he refused to listen to opinions from two of his generals. Wu Guang failed to breach Xingyang which was defended by Li You. Li You, the Qin 'sanchuan shou' prefecture magistrate for three rivers, was Li Si's son. Hearing of Zhou Wen's defeat, the two generals under Wu Guang killed Wu Guang with a pretext of an order from King Chen Sheng. Soon, the two generals (Tian Zang and Li Gui) were defeated at Aocang by Qin General Zhang Han and got killed. After defeating Deng Shui and Wu Feng, Qin General Zhang Han went on to attack Chen Sheng. In December of 209 B.C., Zhang Han attacked Chen-di (Huaiyang, Henan). Cai Ci, who was Chen Sheng's 'shang-zhu-guo' minister, was killed. Near Xingyang, Chen Sheng was killed at Xiachengfu (Guoyang [Woyang], Anhui) by his driver, Zhuang Jia, after being a king for 6 months. Zhuang Jia surrendered to the Qin army. Chen Sheng's general, Lü Chen, counter-attacked Chenxian, killed Zhuang Jia, and buried Chen Sheng on Mount Dangshan. (Later, Han Emperor Liu Bang would order 30 families to guard Chen Sheng's tomb, and Chen Sheng, with the posthumous title of King Yin-wang [the king who lost luster], was treated as the 'father of revolution'.) After the death of Chen Sheng in December ('la yue') of 209 B.C., someone called Qin Jia, who declared himself 'da sima' at Pengcheng, located an ex-Chu royal descendant, Jing Ju, and make him King of Chu. Qin Jia sent emissary Gongsun Qing to inviting Tian Dan, the self-proclaimed Qi king, for a joint military action against Qin, which Tian Dan declined. Tian Dan did not agree with the erection of the proxy Chu king, i.e., Jing Ju, who was of the Jing clan of the Chu's Mi royal house. Lü Chen met a rebel called Qing Bu (Ying Bu). Together, they retook Chenxian County from the Qin armies. Hearing that Xiang Liang & Xiang Yu had crossed the Yangtze River, Qing Bu went to join their camp. The Xiang army, numbering 8000, was cheated across the Yangtze by a Zhang-Chu general who issued an order in the name of dead King Chen Sheng. Chen Ying, an ex-Qin clerk of Dongyang County, combined forces with Xiang Liang. Together with Chen Ying & Qing Bu, the Xiang army swelled to 40-50,000 men. Another rebel, by the name of General Pu(3), led 10-20,000 people to the Xiang camp. The Xiang armies went on to route the new Chu king at Pengcheng. Xiang Liang claimed that Qin Jia had made Jing Ju a Chu king without knowing whether Chen Cheng, i.e., King of Zhang Chu, was alive or dead. In April, Xiang Liang defeated Qin Jia, chased to Huling, and killed Qin Jia. Xiang Liang entered the Xue-di land over 100,000 troops. Jing Ju fled to the Liang-di land where he was killed. The Xiang army then had a first battle with the Qin army, but Xiang Liang was defeated by Zhang Han. Xiang Liang then attacked Xiecheng. At this time, Liu Bang, together with Zhang Liang whom he met en route, came to Xiang Liang to borrow soldiers. Xiang Liang invited Liu Bang to a meeting for selection of a new Chu king. An old man called Fan Zeng recommended finding an ex-Chu royal for the post. The grandson of Chu King Huaiwang, a shepherd at the time, was enthroned and entitled as Chu King Huaiwang. Chu King Huaiwang conferred Xiang Yu the title of Marquis CHang'an-hou and the honorific title of Lu-gong, while Liu Bang the title of Marquis Wu'an-hou and the post of Dang-jun-zhang., i.e., magistrate for the Dang-jun Commandery Zhang Liang proposed to Xiang Liang for restoration of the Haan Principality. Zhang Liang located an ex-Haan royal called Cheng and restored the Haan(2) Principality. Qin General Zhang Han attacked the rebels in the Wei Principality. In June, Zhang Han encircled King Wei-wang (Prince Jiu) at Linji. The Qi-Chu joint armies went to the relief. Zhang Han killed Qi's King (Tian Dan) as well as Wei General Zhou Shi. Tian Rong fled to Dong'a. The Wei King (Prince Jiu) committed suicide. Zhang Han went on to attack a Qi city which was guarded by Tian Rong. Xiang Liang stopped Zhang Han from attacking Tian Rong at Dong'a. The Xiang armies helped Tian Rong in defeating the Qin armies. But Tian Rong would not follow Xiang Yu in pursuit of the Qin armies. Xiang Yu further rescued Jiu's brother, Prince Bao. The Qi people enthroned Tian Jia, the brother of pre-Qin-era ex-Qi King Jian, as the new king. Tian Dan's brother, Tian Rong, did not obey to the new Qi king. The Tian Dan family enthroned the son of the dead Qi King (Tian Dan) as another new Qi king. Tian Rong did not join the Chu army as a result of Chu and Zhao harboring the asylum seekers Tian Jia, and Tian Jiao and Tian Jian. In 208 B.C., Xiang Liang's army went on to take over the Dingtao City and killed Qin General Li You (son of dead Qin prime minister Li Tsu). In an ensuing battle, in September of 208 B.C., Xiang Liang, without taking Soong Yi's advice, was defeated by Zhang Han and got killed at the Battle of Dingtao. Zhang Han then crossed the Yellow River to combined forces with Wang Li to attack the Zhao territory. Hence, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang retreated towards the south and moved Chu King Huaiwang to Pengcheng from Xuyi. Hearing that Qin general Zhang Han and 400,000 Qin army went northward to attack the Zhao territories, King Huaiwang sent Prince of Wei, Bao, to retake the Wei territories. King Huaiwang decreed that whoever entered the Qin capital first would be conferred the title of King of the Qin Principality. Both Liu Bang and Xiang Yu requested for the task to attack Qin. However, Chu King Huaiwang took the advice of elderlies to send Liu Bang west to collecting the remnants of Chen Sheng and Xiang Liang's troops in preparation for the job to pacify the Qin territory. Zhao King Xie, being attacked by Qin General Zhang Han, requested for relief. Hence, Xiang Yu, with about 60,000 troops, was eager to go to the Zhao territories to fight Zhang Han for sake of avenging his uncle's death. Emperor Huaidi issued order to have Xiang Yu ('ci jiang'), Soong Yi ('shang-jiangjun') and Fan Zeng ('mo jiang') to render aid to the Julu Siege. Liu Bang, with less than 10,000 troops, campaigned towards the Qin capital. Liu Bang failed to take Changyi (Heze/Juye/Jining, Shandong), even with Peng Yue's help. Using Lih Yiji's proposal, Liu Bang went on to take Chenliu instead. The Demise of Qin In the land of the Zhao Principality, Zhang Er, Zhao's prime minister, was unhappy that his blood-brother pal (Chen Yu) did not send enough relief army to him. The two would become feuds after the war. In December of 208 B.C., Chen Yu deserted the Zhao Principality for the mountains. Zhang Er's son, Zhang Ao, came to Julu to aid the Zhao Principality. Soong Yi had dispute with Xiang Yu about the battle plan, and stayed put at An-yang (Caoxian, Shandong) for 46 days. In 208, Xiang Yu killed Soong Yi and took over the command of the Chu army. Xiang Yu crossed the river to attack the Qin army which was encircling Juye. Once General Xiang Yu arrived in Julu, the allied armies began to battle with the Qin armies. Xiang Yu ordered Ying Bu to cut off the grain supply of the Qin army. Zhang Gan dispatched Sima Xin [a Qin deputy prison official at Liyang County] to seeking the grain supply. Xiang Yu took over Sanhujin [three household crossing], and cut off Zhang Gan's return path. After nine battles, including the Battles of Zhang-shui and Wu-shui Rivers, Qin General Wang Li was captured, and his deputy Sheh Jian committed suicide, and another deputy Su Jiao was killed in battle. Qin General Zhang Han and his 200,000 army surrendered to Xiang Yu after the mediation of Sima Xin. Sima Xin had once rescued Xiang Liang from Qin's prison dozens of years ago. In November, Xiang Yu, on the way westward, killed the 200 thousand Qin prisoners of war. Liu Bang was able to take over Qin's capital in October because General Xiang Yu had entangled the major Qin armies in the Zhao Principality. Earlier, on the road, Liu Bang was joined by Peng Yue and his thousands of rebels. An old Confucian called Li Yiji came to serve Liu Bang. Li Yiji helped Liu Bang in taking over the crossroad town of Chenliu by lobbying with the county magistrate. Li Yiji's brother (Lih Shang) led 4000 men to attack Kaifeng. Zhang Liang came to join Liu Bang at this time. Hearing that Zhao General Sima Mao had crossed the Yellow River to attack Qin. Liu Bang hastened his war efforts for sake of being the first to enter the Qin capital. Liu Bang went south to attack Luoyang first. Using Zhang Liang's tactic, Liu Bang defeated Qin General Yang Xiong and took over Baima (white horse). Liu Bang's army subsequently took over Nanyang of today's Henan Province.
Qin Prime Minister, Zhao Gao, attempted to negotiate a peace with Liu Bang's Chu army. In August of 207 B.C., Zhao Gao, killed the second emperor, Hu Hai, in an attempt to negotiate peace with rebel Liu Bang. Zhao Gao sent an emissary to seeing Liu Bang. Liu Bang declined the request to divide the Qin land into two parts. Liu Bang, knowing that it was a trick, took Zhang Liang's advice and dispatched Lih Yiji (Lih Sheng, ? - 203 B.C., who was conferred the title of Prince Guangye-jun by Liu Bang) and Lu Jia to the Qin camp for dissuasion and dissension. Then, in August, Liu Bang went westward, taking over the Wuguan Pass (Danfeng of today's Shenxi Province) and entered the Qin land. In September, Prince Zi Ying succeeded as the third emperor. Zi Ying killed eunuch Zhao Gao with the help of two sons. Zi-ying sent the Qin army to defending the Yao-guan pass. Using Zhang Liang's tactic, Liu Bang's army stealthily detoured around the Yao-guan Pass (i.e., Lantian-guan or Qingni-guan) and crossed Mt. Kui-shan (a mountain to the north of the Yao-guan pass). Liu Bang's army defeated the Qin army south of Lantian, and defeated the Qin army again north of Lantian. In November, Liu Bang's army pushed to Ba-shang, i.e., the Upper Ba-shui River, next to the Qin capital. Zi Ying surrendered to Liu Bang after being on the throne for 46 days. Liu Bang was able to take over Qin's capital because General Xiang Yu had entangled the major Qin armies in the former Zhao Principality territories. Xiang Yu subsequently entered Qin's capital, Xian'yang, and killed Qin's last emperor, Zi Ying and the Qin's royal family members. 
Shi-ji, in the biography section on Zhang Er and Chen Yu, stated that when King Han-wang entered the Hangu'guan Pass, five planets converged in the 'Dong-jing' [eastern well] constellation, namely, the well mansion or the Gem in the zodiac.
'Dong-jing' was where the Qin people's sector division of the ecliptic was.
There were two separate five planet conjunction events of 207 B.C. and 206 B.C., when the five planets were possibly more pronounced in their positions of conversion the second year --which was described by the Jupiter's linear scale to be into the 22 degrees of the Eastern Well constellation, with the grand duke iplanet at the 'Da-li' or 'Da-liang' position.
It was more likely that the 207 B.C. was a flashback speculation.
20th century astronomer Xi Zezong believed that the five planets' event was moved up by one and half years, including the non-existent one-year differential due to misunderstanding of the adoption of the Zhuanxu-li calendar versus the Yin-li calendar.
The Wu-xing Zhan book, with the Jupiter's linear scale log, was unearthed from the Mawangdui Mausoleum, albeit using a different [and realtime] grand duke iplanet calendar system.
When General Xiang Yu arrived at the Han'gu'guan Pass, he met with Liu Bang's soldiers who refused to allow him to enter Qin's land. Xiang Yu, with soldiers four times more than Liu Bang, ordered Ying Bu (Qing Bu) to attack the Han'guguan pass. Liu Bang, using the tips from Zhang Liang, bribed Xiang Yu's uncle, Xiang Bo, for reconciliation. There was a banquet called the Hongmen (Xinfen) Banquet from which Liu Bang slipped away alive. Xiang Yu entered Qin's capital, Xian'yang, and killed Qin's last emperor (Zi Ying) and Qin's royal family members. After pillaging Qin's "Er Pang Gong Palace" which ran for 300 Chinese li distance, Xiang Yu ordered that the palace be burnt. The fire went on for three months. Xiang Yu sent soldiers to the Lishan Mountain to dig up Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's tomb as well. The lootings took one month to move to Xian'yang. In February of 206 B.C., Xiang Yu made Chu King Huaiwang into Emperor Yi-di (righteous emperor) and ordered that Emperor Yidi (Xiong Xin) leave Pengcheng for Chen[1] (Chen[1]zhou, Hunan) to the south of the Yangtze so that he could come back to the Pengcheng city. In April, Xiang Yu ordered the King of Jiujiang (Ying Bu) to send assassins to killing Chu Emepror Yidi [righteous emperor] who was en route to Chen[-zhou] of today's Hunan Province. Wu Rui (King Hengshan-wang), Ying Bu (King Jiujiang-wang) and Gong Ao (King Linjiang-wang) were implicated in the killing of the emperor. Thereafter, in March, Xiang Yu proclaimed himself the King of Xichu Ba Wang, namely, i.e., hegemony king of the Western Chu Principality, with control of nine commanderies. General Xiang Yu rezoned the country into the following eighteen vassalage states:
King of Yong for Zhang Han, with domains covering west of the ex-Qin capital, Xianyang; King of Sai for Sima Xin, with domain covering the areas between east of Xianyang and the Yellow River; King of Di for Dong Yi, with domain covering Shangjun and the capital city set at Gaonu (Yan'an/Yenan, Shenxi); King of Xiwei (Western Wei) for King Bao of Wei, with domain moved to the east of Yellow River; King of Henan for Shen Yang, with domain covering Luoyang city, today's Henan Province; King of Haan for King Cheng of Haan, with domain at the Yangdi city; King of Yin for Sima Mao, with domain inside of the Yellow River Bend; King of Dai for King Xie of Zhao, with domain around the Dai Prefecture; King of Changshan for Zhao Er, with domain at the ex-Zhao Principality; King of Jiujiang for Qing Bu, with domain around Dangyang; King of Hengshan for Wu Rui, with domain in the middle Yangtze River areas; King of Linjiang for Gong Ao, with domain covering Jiangling, today's Hubei Province; King of Liaodong (east of the Liao-he River, today's eastern Liaoning Province) for King Han Guang of the Yan Principality, with domain moved to today's southern Manchuria; King of Yan for Zang Tu, with domain covering today's Beijing, Hebei Province; King of Jiaodong for King Tian Shi of the Qi Principality, with domain relocated to today's eastern Shandong Province; King of Qi for Tian Du, with domain covering the ex-Qi principality; King of Jibei for Tian An, with domain covering today's northern Shandong Province. Liu Bang's Han Dynasty would come from the title as King of Han(4). Liu Bang was allowed thirty thousand troops to take to the Han-zhong territory. Using Zhang Liang's tactic, Liu Bang ordered the cliff road be burnt while relocating to Nanzheng. General Xiang Yu, after pillaging the Qin capital, left for Pengcheng. On the way, Xiang Yu took the King of Haan(2), Haan Cheng (Prince Hengyang-jun of the Haan Principality), into custody for his allowing Zhang Liang to escort Liu Bang westward. Haan Cheng, who did not receive the conferral of land, was given the title of Marquis Rang-hou. The King of Yan, Haan Guang, refused to relocate to today's eastern Liaoning Province. King Zang Tu, who received the king conferral from Xiang Yu, expelled Haan Guang and chased him to death at the Wuzhongshan Mountain. Zang Tu took over both the Yan land and the Liao-dong [east of the Liao-he River] land. Xiang Yu conferred Zang Tu the Liaoning land as well. Tian Rong was not given any conferral from Xiang Yu for his refusal to join the allied army against the Qin capital, and hence was to see his domain subdivided into three parts. The King of Jiaodong, Tian Shi, was killed by his general Tian Rong. Tian Rong sent an army to defeat the King of Qi, Tian Du. Tian Rong further killed the King of Jibei, Tian An, and declared himself King of the Three Qi Lands ('San Qi'). Chen Yu, who received three counties near Nanpi from Xiang Yu, came out of seclusion at Nanpi (Cangzhou, Hebei), sent emissary Xia Shui to Qi, and requested for aid from Tian Rong in attacking the King of Changshan, Zhao Er, his one time sworn brother. Tian Rong gave some soldiers to Chen Yu. Chen Yu welcomed the King of Dai (previously King Xie of Zhao) back to Zhao as the king, and King Xie conferred Chen Yu the kingship of Dai. Tian Rong also conferred the seal of a general on Peng Yue and ordered Peng Yue to attack the Liang (Wei) places. Peng Yue, who did not participate in the campaign to the west, did not enjoy the conferral from Xiang Yu, either. Xiang Yu ordered a campaign against Peng Yue. Liu Bang delivered a letter to Xiang Yu, with a promise not to go beyond the Han'gu'guan Pass. Liu Bang passed the Qi and Liang rebels' letters to Xiang Yu, with a claim that Qi and Zhao had collusion to rebel against Chu. Xiang Yu hence decided to attack Qi first. Thinking that Peng Yue received the backing from Tian Rong of Qi, he would concentrate on fighting the Qi armies first. Xiang Yu ordered Ying Bu to send the Jiujiang troops northward to assist with the campaign against Qi. However, Ying Bu refused to obey the order. Peng Yue, who possessed over ten thousand troops, defeated Xiang Yu's Chu army which was headed by Xiao-gong-jiao (Xiao-ling per Su Lin, i.e., the county magistrate for Xiao). Xiang Yu defeated Tian Rong at Chengyang, driving the latter to Pingyuan where he was killed. Liu Bang, at Xiao Heh's recommendation, first used Haan Xin as 'zhi-li [grain management] duwei [captain], and when Haan Xin fled again, Xiao Heh chased him and persuaded him to return to work as 'Da Jiangjun', i.e., the grand marshal, for Liu Bang. Haan Xin was earlier let go from the death penalty by Teng-gong Xiahou Ying (Marquis Zhaoping-hou) after he broke the military law. Before that, Haan Xin joined the Xiang Liang rebellion while living in the lower Yangtze area, and disliking the job as 'chiji [halberd holding] langzhong [officer]', fled the Chu army camp for the Hanzhong territory. Haan Xin, pretending that the Han(4) armies were busy repairing the so-called 'zhan dao', wood and bamboo roads carved in the middle of the cliffs, had the Han army circumvent to Nanzheng. (The 'zhan dao' road was burnt by Zhang Liang earlier to show to Xiang Yu that Liu Bang had no ambition for the east.) Haan Xin would soon arrive at Chencang. In August of 206 B.C., the Han army was impeded at Chencang. The Yong army lined up along the Wei-shang [upper Wei-shui River] area. Zhao Yan, i.e., Marquis Xuchang-hou, suggested to Liu Bang to take an alternative route. At Haochou (Qianxian/Qianzhou), the Han army defeated the King of Yong, Zhang Han. The Han army, under Zhou Bo, further laid siege of Zhang Han at Feiqiu. Within one month, King of Sai (Sima Xin) and King of Di (Dong Yi) both surrendered, and Liu Bang retook the old Three Qin Lands ('San Qin'). Then, Liu Bang dispatched Lih Shang on a campaign against the Longxi, Shangjun and Beidi commanderies. Later, in June of 205 B.C., Zhang Han committed suicide after the han army launched a water-flooding attack at Feiqiu. In September of 206 B.C., Liu Bang dispatched a column, headed by Xue Ou, Wang Xi and Wang Ling, out of the Wuguan Pass for fetching his father (Liu-tai-gong) and wife (Lü Zhi) from Peixian. In 205 B.C., the contingent was stopped by Xiang Yu's army. Upon hearing that Liu Bang had exited the Han-zhong territory, Xiang Yu killed King Cheng of Haan(2) at Pengcheng shortly thereafter. Xiang Yu ordered that Zheng Chang, the former 'ling' (magistrate) for Wu-xian County, be the new King of Haan(2) for sake of countering Liu Bang's Han(4) armies. In October of 206 B.C., Liu Bang's army reached Shen (Shenxian, Henan). Liu Bang dispatched Haan-wang-xin (?-196 B.C.), an ex-Haan(2) royal who descended from Haan King Xiangwang, to the old Haan(2) land as "Haan-guo [the Haan Principality] tai-wei [grand captain {or lieutenant general}]' and promised to make him the new King of Haan(2) once he was to take over the territory. Liu Bang conferred Marquis Chengxin-hou onto Zhang Liang. In March of 205 B.C., Liu Bang defeated Shen Yang, i.e., King He-nan (south of the Yellow River). In 205 B.C., with Liu Bang's army pushing to Henan (south of the Yellow River), the King of Haan(2), Haan-wang-xin, defeated Zheng Chang. In November, Liu Bang officially made Haan-wang-xin the King of Haan(2). The King of Henan (Shen Yang) surrendered to Liu Bang. Liu Bang devised the 'three elderly' system for each county he occupied. The King of Wei, Bao, answered Liu Bang's decree. After pacifying today's Shenxi Province, Liu Bang crossed the Yellow River at the Linjin-guan Pass and arrived at the He-rui land. The King of Yin (Sima Mao), after defeat, fled to his capital city, Chaoge. Liu Bang dispatched Fan Kuai against Chaoge. At Chaoge, Han2 Xin tricked Sima Mao out of the city by pretending a retreat and then ordered that Fan Kuai, Guan Ying and Zhou Bo to ambush Sima Mao. Sima Mao was captured, and he surrendered to Liu Bang. Liu Bang's army then crossed the Yellow River for the south, and reached Luoyang, where he heard of the death of Emperor Yi-di. Upon arriving at Luoyang of today's Henan Province, Liu Bang met an elderly called Dong-gong who proposed that Liu Bang uphold the slogan that his army was to fight Xiang Yu on behalf of Chu Emperor Yidi who was assassinated by Xiang Yu. Liu Bang ordered his army to mourn Yidi for three days and sent decrees across the nation. In today's Shandong Province, Xiang Yu defeated Tian Rong. Tian Rong fled his capital Chengyang for Pingyuan where he was killed by the civilians. Xiang Yu erected Tian Jia as the new king of Qi. The Qi people located Tian Heng (Tian Rong's brother) as their king, drove off Tian Jia and re-took Chengyang. A Chu du wei, Chen Ping, who received Xiang Yu's conferral as Prince Xinwu-jun for cracking down on King Yin-wang, fled to the Han camp [over fear that Xiang Yu would punish him for Liu Bang's taking King Yin's land] and was recommended to Liu Bang by General Wei Wuzhi. Chen Ping first answered Chen Sheng's rebellion and then joined the ranks of Xiang Yu before coming to Liu Bang's camp. Chen Ping proposed that Liu Bang should lead a surprise attack at Pengcheng by taking advantage of Xiang Yu's entanglement in today's Shandong Province. Chen Ping was conferred the post of hujun zhongwei, i.e., captain or 'brigadier general' for pacifying the army. More kings answered Liu Bang's call. King of Zhao followed. Altogether, five vassalage kings' armies obeyed Liu Bang. Liu Bang assembled an army of 500-600,000, comprising of soldiers from the Sai, Di, Haan, Wei, Yin, Zhao and Henan principalities. At Waihuang (Lankao), the Han army defeated Chu General Cheng Chu and Wang Wu. Peng Yue, with 30,000 troops, sought vassalage with Liu Bang. When Peng Yue reported that he had defeated the Chu army, Liu Bang appointed Peng Yue the post of prime minister (Wei-xiangguo) for the King of Wei. Peng Yue was ordered to attack the Liang-guo territory. Fan Kuai was ordered to attack Zouxian, Luxian, Xuexian and Xiaqiu. Lü Ze was ordered to guard Xiayi for guarding against Xiang Yu's possible relief to Pengcheng. Xiang Yu, who had killed Tian Rong, failed to pacify the Qi territory. In April of 205 B.C., Liu Bang's 560,000-strong allied army, plus Lü Ze's column from the east and Cao Can and Guan Ying's column from the north, converged on Pengcheng from three direction, took over Dangxian and Xiaoxian, and then sacked Pengcheng, i.e., Xiang Yu's capital city, without much fight. The Chu Army remnants fled to Chengyang to report to Xiang Yu. From Qufu, Xiang Yu personally led 30,000 cavalrymen back towards Pengcheng via Huling (Ji'nan, Shandong) and Xiaoxian. At daybreak, Xiang Yu attacked the Han army, and defeated the Han army at noon. Xiang Yu drove Liu Bang out of Pengcheng, chasing to the Gu-shui and Si-shui River. Altogether over 100,000 Han army were destroyed by Xiang Yu, and another 300-400,000 fled the battle scene. The Chu army continued on against the Han army. The Chu army chased the Han army to the Sui-shui River (to the east of Lingbi), where another 100,000 Han army troops were drowned in the river. While Xiang Yu won the Battle of Peng Cheng, Tian Heng wrestled over the control of the Qi land. Liu Bang barely escaped after begging two Chu generals for mercy. Liu Bang's family members at Fengxiang were captured by Xiang Yu. While passing through a village, Liu Bang met an old man by the name of Qie who married his daughter to Liu Bang. (Concubine Qie would be tortured to death by Empress Lühou later.) Liu Bang converged with his General Xiahou Ying, and the two met two of Liu Bang's children (Liu Ying and Princess Lu-yuan) en route. When being chased by Chu General Ji Bu, Liu Bang tried to rid his children of the chariot multiple times. Xiahou Ying rescued the two children and carried them back several times, and rescued the children on his horseback. Ji Bu was a native of Xiaxiang (Suqian, Jiangsu), about the area as General Xiang Yu. King Yin, i.e., Sima Mao, died in this battle; King Sai (Sima Xin) and King Di (Dong Yi) surrendered to Xiang Yu. King Zhao et al., fled home. Liu Bang's father, Liu-tai-gong, mother Liu-wen and wife Lü-zhi, were captured by Xiang Yu. At Xiayi, Liu Bang re-assembled his remnant troops. Liu Bang converged with the army led by Lü Ze, the brother of later empress Lühou. Zhang Liang proposed that Liu Bang was to confer the lands east of the Han'gu'guan Pass onto General Haan Xin, General Peng Yue and Chu General Ying Bu for sake of fighting Xiang Yu. An emissary was sent to seeing Peng Yue. At Yu (Yucheng, Henan), Liu Bang dispatched emissary Sui Heh to Jiujiang for seeking an alliance with Ying Bu. At Jiujiang, Han emissary Sui Heh successfully persuaded Ying Bu into an alliance with Liu Bang against Xiang Yu. Ying Bu, after being defeated by Xiang Sheng and Long Qie, followed Sui Heh in a move to Xingyang in the north. Liu Bang rendered aid to Ying Bu at Wanxian (Nanyang) and Yexian. The Chu army hence took over the Jiujiang territory. Ying Bu then mounted the guerrilla warfare against the Chu army. Xiao He, whose homeland army just completed the Feiqiu campaign, led reinforcements, including the elderly and young people, to the east. Liu Bang relocated to Xingyang for re-organization in May of 205 B.C. Haan Xin led the remnant army to Xingyang at the time Xiao He dispatched the homeland soldiers to the aid of Liu Bang. The move to Xingyang was a proposal from Lih Yiji, which was to take control of the Qin dynasty's Aocang Grain Barn and the Yellow River dock, to the northeast of Xingyang. The Han army built a corridor to the Aocang barn. Haan Xin took charge of the Han army and defeated the Chu army at Xingyang, Nan-jing (Jingxian) and Suocheng (Jingsuo). At Jingxian (Yulong-zhen, Xingyang, Zhengzhou, Henan) and Suoting (Xingyang, Henan), Haan Xin and Xiao He's joint army defeated the Chu army [which was chasing behind] at the Battle of Jingsuo.
Returning to Liyang (Lintong) in June, Liu Bang conferred the title of crown prince on his five year old son, Liu Ying, and ordered that Xiao He and the crown prince guard the homeland inside of the Han'gu'guan Pass. Xiang Yu arrested the mother of a Han general called Wang Ling; Wang Ling's mother committed suicide for sake of having his son serve under Liu Bang instead of surrendering to Xiang Yu. King Wei, Bao, requested for going home on the pretext that his mother was ill; Liu Bang released Bao; Bao then defected to the Xiang Yu camp and rebelled against Liu Bang upon return to Pingyang. Wei Bao refused to listen to Lih Yiji's persuasion, and blockaded Puban (Puzhou, Shanxi). Liu Bang dispatched Haan Xin against King Wei Bao. In August of 205 B.C., Haan Xin and Can Can attacked Wei. Haan Xin further frustrated Xiang Yu's attempt at crossing the Yellow River to aid Wei Bao. Haan Xin deliberately prepared ships at Linjin to attract the attention of the Wei army, while he secretly made the wooden cauldron, crossed the river at Xiayang and defeated the Wei army at Dongzhang. Cao Can, as deputy leftside prime minister, crossed the river at Pujinguan to defeat Sun Chi's Wei army at Linjin. A Han General under Haan Xin, Cao Can, defeated Wei General Wang Xiang and took over the city of Anyi. At Quyang, Haan Xin and Cao Can defeated Wei Bao at Quyang. The Han army captured Wei King Bao at Wuyuan. The Han army went to take over the Wei capital of Pingyang. Wei Bao's family was sent to Liu Bang, and Liu Bang took over Bao's concubine (Bo-shi) as his own and bore Liu Heng (i.e., later Han Emperor Wendi). Liu Bang set up the three commanderies of Hedong, Taiyuan and Shangdang in the Wei-di [Wei State] land. Cao Can was given Pingyang as his fief. (Wei Bao was said to have rebelled against Liu Bang because a necromancer stated to Bao and wife Bo-shi that Bo-shi's son would be an emperor in the future.) Haan Xin requested for 30,000 men for sake of fighting the Zhao principality. Haan intended to take over Zhao, Yan and Qi one by one before fighting against Xiang Yu. At Pingyang, Haan Xin was joined by Zhang Er. Chen Yu, prime minister for Zhao, rebelled against Haan Xin because he heard that his feud Zhang Er (a one time blood brother) was serving Haan. Before tackling Zhao, Haan Xin went on to attack Dai, the land that was conferred onto Chen Yu. Three columns of army led by Cao Can, Guan Ying and Zhang Er defeated the Dai prime minister and took over the Dai-cheng city. In September, the Han army defeated Dai, and captured Dai prime minister Xia Shui at Eyu. Cao Can was recalled by Liu Bang. The Han army further attacked to the west, and in October of 205 B.C., took over Herui (Huaixian), Chaoge (Qixian), Anyang, and Handan. In October of 204 B.C. (Qin calendar), Haan Xin recruited more soldiers locally and then went to fight the Zhao army of 200,000 at the Jingjingkou Pass. A Zhao counsellor, Li Zuoche, proposed to lead an army of 30,000 to cut off the Han army's grain supply. Chen Yu failed to adopt the advice. The road to the Jingjingkou Pass was said to be so narrow that only one chariot could pass at one time. Haan Xin secretly ordered that qi duwei [cavalry captain or 'brigadier general'] Jin Xi circumvent to the back of the pass, that zuo qi jiang Fu Kuan and Zhang Cang (tai shou of Changshan) set up an ambush near the front of the pass, and a column of the Han army stand against the bank of a river. In the early morning, Haan Xin told soldiers that they could have breakfast after finishing off the Zhao army. When the Zhao army came out of the pass to fight Haan Xin, Haan Xin pretended to flee towards the river. For the whole morning, the two armies fought bitterly near the river bank. Meantime, the Han army sent 2000 cavalry to taking over the Zhao army camp. When Chen Yu called for a retreat, he was ambushed by Fu Kuan and Zhang Cang near the pass. Chen Yu (Prince Cheng'an-jun) was defeated and killed by the Han army at the Zhi-shui-shang. Jin Xi took over the pass. King Zhao Xie fled to Xiangguo. Zhang Er and Haan Xin attacked Xiangguo from north, while Liu Bang attacked from the south. Haan Xin ordered that the Zhao King be executed. Xie, i.e., the King of Zhao, was killed. Zhou Bo and Zhao Ou were to continue the campaign against the Hengshan, and Julu commanderies as well as the Yan-guo state. Haan Xin gave a 1000 grams of copper reward to have Li Zuoche captured. Haan Xin personally set free Li Zuoche and pacified him. Li Zuoche proposed to Haan Xin that he should send a messenger to Yan for pacifying King Yan (i.e., Zang Tu) instead of driving the weakened Han army soldiers to the Yan land and that after that, the Han army could then go to the east to fight the Qi Principality. The King of Yan, i.e., Zang Tu, surrendered to Haan Xin. At Wucheng, Tang Li's Han army also defeated the Chu relief army to Zhao. At the suggestion of Haan Xin, Liu Bang in December of 204 B.C. made Zhang Er into the Zhao king and allowed Haan Xin to stay on in the Zhao land to quell the remnant King Xie's forces. Liu Bang, after making Zhang Er into the new Zhao king, then ordered Haan Xin to fight Qi. Meanwhile, after the Han army was to pacify the Yan-Zhao land, Lih Yiji tacked on the task of going to Qi-guo for winning over King Qi-wang (Tian Guang). Around Xingyang, Xiang Yu's army disrupted the grain corridor to Aocang several times. In October, Ying Bu came to Xingyang to assist with the city defense. In April of 204 B.C., the Chu army fully surrounded Xingyang. Liu Bang pretended to seek peace with an offer of yielding the land to the east of Xingyang. Liu Bang played a trick of dissension by having Chen Ping bribe Xiang Yu's subordinates with 40,000 grams of 'jin' [copper]. Xiang Yu's tactician, Fan Zeng, whom Xiang Yu called by 'ya fu' [secondary father], resigned. Fan Zeng died en route to Pengcheng. In July, through the nü-zi-dong-men Gate, Liu Bang broke out of the starved Xingyang with 2000 men. Being encircled by the Chu army, Liu Bang adopted Ji Xin's advice to have Ji Xin fake a surrender in his image while Liu Bang himself, Chen Ping and about ten cavalrymen, fled via the west gate. Liu Bang earlier had decreed to leave Zhou Ke, Cong-gong (? magistrate for Cong or an elderly from Cong) and Wei Bao for the defense of Xingyang. In August, Zhou Ke and Cong-gong killed Wei Bao for fearing the latter's possible defection. Liu Bang returned to the west of the Han'gu'guan Pass via Chengao (i.e., Hulaoguan). Xiang Yu ordered to burn Ji Xin to death. The Chu army continued to lay siege of Xingyang and took over Chengao. Liu Bang was dissuaded by Yuan Sheng from attacking east with the new recruits. To break the impasse at Xingyang, Liu Bang marched south by exiting the Wuguan Pass for Wan (Nanyang) and Ye (Yexian). Xiang Yu hence led part of the troops to counter Liu Bang. However, Liu Bang refused to engage in battles. Liu Bang ordered Jin Sheh to cut off the Chu army's grain path from Xiangyi to Xingyang, and Guan Ying to cut off the path from Yangwu to Xiangyi. The Han army was to attack Lu-xia (Lucheng) at the hind of the Chu army. Jin Sheh took over Zeng1, Dan, Xiapi (Gupizhen, Suining, Jiangsu), Qi and Zhuyi. Peng Yue raided the Chu army towards the east, crossed the Sui-shui River, defeated Xiang Sheng and Xue-gong (Gao2, ? county magistrate for Xue or an elderly from Xue), and took over Xiapi to pose threat to Pengcheng. Xiang Yu diverted the troops for attacking Peng Yue to the east. Liu Bang took advantage of Xiang Yu's absence to recover Chengao. After defeating Peng Yue, Xiang Yu returned west. Back in Xingyang, Xiang Yu took over Xingyang, and captured Haan-wang-xin. Xiang Yu ordered to kill Zhou Ke via steaming. Cong-gong was also killed. Xiang Yu, after sacking Xingyang, continued on to take Chengao, forcing Liu Bang into retreating across the Yellow River for Xiuwu to the north. Liu Bang and Teng-gong fled Chengao via the north gate (i.e., the jade gate). Zhou Bo, Cheng Hei and Guo Meng were ordered to defend Aocang. While defending the northern riverbank, Liu Bang ordered Zhang Er to go north to recruit troops and sent Haan Xin to attacking the Qi land in the east. In August, Lu Guan and Liu Jia were ordered to cross the river for Baimajin with 20,000 troops for harassing the Chu hinterland in cooperation with Peng Yue. Liu Bang and Guan Ying defeated Chu general Wang Wu at Yanxian, and defeated Chu general Huan Ying at Baimajin (white horse crossing on the southern bank of the Yellow River, Huaxian). The Chu army was impeded by the Han army at Gongxian. Zang Tu, the Yan king, dispatched Wen Jie and troops to aiding Liu Bang. In September of 204 B.C., Xiang Yu went to the east upon learning that Peng Yue had sacked Suiyang (Shangqiu), and Waihuang (Lankao), about 17 cities. Xiang Yu left Cao Jiu, 'da sima' and Marquis Haichun-hou, who was a former Qin prison clerk, for the defense of Chengao, with a promise to return within fifteen days. Xiang Yu defeated Peng Yue and drove him to Gucheng. At the advice of Lih Yiji, Liu Bang mounted a counterattack to recover Xingyang and Chengao for solidifying the control of the grain barns. In October of 204 B.C., Lih Yiji himself travelled to Licheng of the Qi land for lobbying with the Qi king (Tian Guang), claiming that he could persuade the Qi king's 200,000 army to change camp with an offer of making the Qi king a vassal of the east ('dong fan'). Tian Guang defected to the Han camp. Lih Yiji, citing the control of the Baima-jin river-crossing and the Feihu-guan pass, believed that the war could be won after winning over the Qi king. However, Haan Xin, who was jealous of Yih Liji and heard that Liu Bang had lost Xingyang and Chengao, took Kuai Tong's advice to march the troops to Pingyuan to attack the Qi king. The Qi king, after the defeat at Lixia and Linzi, was angered into steam-killing Lih Yiji in November. Liu Bang had to send reinforcements to the Qi land to help Haan Xin against the Qi king. Guan Ying, Cao Can, Fu Kuan and Chai Wu assisted Haan Xin in fighting the Qi king. The Qin king requested aid with Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu sent Long Qie and Zhou Lan, about 200,000 troops, towards the Qi-di [Qi state] land for countering Haan Xin. The Chu and Qi allied army was defeated by the Han army at the Wei[2]-shui River. In November, Guan Ying killed Chu general Long Qie. Guan Ying and Cao Can assisted Haan Xin in taking over Licheng and Linzi. Tian Guang relocated to Gaomi. After Tian Guang's death, Tian Heng proclaimed himself the Qi king. Guan Ying defeated Tian Heng at Yingxian. Tian Heng went to the Peng Yue's side. Later, in February of the following year, Haan Xin proclaimed the proxy King of Qi, i.e., Jia-Qi-wang, for which Liu Bang was unhappy initially but later conferred the true king's title onto Haan Xin. It was said that Kuai Che had made the proposal, for which Sima Qian blamed the death of both Lih Yiji and Haan Xin on him. Xiang Yu sent Wu She to instigating Haan Xin with an offer to divide the country into three parts. tactician Kuai Che advocated for Haan Xin to divide the country with Xiang Yu. Haan Xin declined it. Haan Xin later did not answer Liu Bang's call for the post-Honggou-Truce campaign against Xiang Yu, till the last stage of the war, i.e., the Battle of Gaixia. Back at the Xingyang-Chengao front, the Han army played trick to get Cao Jiu come out of Chengao for fighting the Han army. In October, the Han army cursed Cao Jiu for five to six days to stir up agitation. While Cao Jiu half-crossed the Si-shui River, Liu Bang's Han army launched an attack. Cao Jiu (a former 'yu'[deputy] prison official for Q1 [Qichun, Hubei]), Sima Xin and Dong Yi all committed suicide. Liu Bang, stationing the army at Guangwu (north of Xingyang), laid siege of the Chu army at Xingyang, which was under the command of Zhongli Mo. Xiang Yu heard of Cao Jiu's death when arriving at Suiyang. Xiang Yu, after recovering the cities in the Liang-di land, returned to the west to assist with Zhongli Mo for the defense of Xingyang. At Guangwu, the Han and Chu armies confronted each other. Xiang Yu, after the loss of the Qi land, attempted to seek truce with Liu Bang with an offer to return Liu Bang's father and wife. At the Guangwu front, Xiang Yu wounded Liu Bang with an arrow shot after Liu Bang refused to take the offer. Later, in the Western Jinn dynasty, Ruan Ji, a pro-Cao-Wei-dynasty loyalist, wrote a poem in commemoration of the old Guangwu battleground, with a sentence to the effect that the damned son was to become famous [as the victor from the Chu-Han War] because there was no hero at the time. Without naming either Xiang Yu or Liu Bang as the damned son, Ruan Ji could be hinting at the Sima family who usurped the Cao-wei dynasty. (This webmaster, since the high school days, always had the ears echoing Xiang Yu's proclamation about his swear to overthrow Qin Emperor Shihuangdi: 'ke qi er dai zhi'. Though Xiang Yu ultimately lost the war to Liu Bang, people all along had sympathy with Xiang Yu more than Liu Bang. In this sense, the damned son should mean for Liu Bang.) To the south, Ying Bu recovered some Jiujiang territory. In July of 203 B.C., Ying Bu was proclaimed the King of Huainan. Peng Yue continued to harass the Chu army. Guan Ying mounted a campaign against Guangling (Yangzhou) through the Huai and Yangtze River area. Xiang Yu sent Xiang Sheng and Xue-gong against Guan Ying. Guan Ying defeated Xue-gong at Lu-bei [north of the Lu-di place]. Guan Ying went south to defeat Xue-jun-zhang [magistrate for the Xue-jun Commandery], and took over Boyang. Guan Ying crossed the Huai River to take over Guangling. Back to the north, Guan Ying defeated Xiang Sheng, Dan-gong and Xue-gong at Xiapi. Chu general Xue-gong was killed. Guan Ying further defeated the Chu cavalry at Pingyang (Zouxian/Zoucheng, Shandong) and took over Pengcheng. Chu general Xiang Tuo ('zhu guo' [pillar]) and Zhou Lan were captured successively. Guan Ying and Liu Bang converged forces at Yixiang (Luyi, Henan). Liu Bang sent Lu Jia (? - 170 B.C.) to Xiang Yu for talks. Xiang Yu declined it. Liu Bang dispatched Hou-sheng to Xiang Yu for another talk. Xiang Yu then returned Liu Bang's family members and agreed to the Honggou [swan canal] Truce. Liu Bang conferred Hou-sheng the title of Prince Pingguo-jun. In September of 203 B.C., Xiang Yu retreated south. In October of 203 B.C., Liu Bang adopted Zhang Liang and Chen Ping's advice to break the truce agreement for a chase against the Chu army. In the subsequent battles of Yangxia, Guling and Chenxia, the Han army defeated Xiang Yu successively. In October of 203 B.C., the Han army defeated the Chu army to the south of Yangxia (Taikang, Henan), and caught Chu General Zhou-jiangjun. At Guling, the Han army caught up with the Chu army. Meanwhile, Liu Jia obtained the defection of Chu 'da sima' Zhou Yin at Shouchun, and took over Jiujiang. With Guan Ying and Jin Sheh's cavalry arriving from Pengcheng, the Han army forced Xiang Yu into retreating to Chenxia. At Guling, Ding Yi (Marquis Xuanqu-hou) and Jin Qiang (Marquis Fenyang-hou) defeated Chu general Zhongli Mo. At Chenxia, Chu general Li Ji (Chen-gong, i.e., former county magistrate for Chenxian County) surrendered to the Han army. Chu general Ling Chang also surrendered. Li Ji was later killed for rebellion. The Han army chased Xiang Yu to Chenxian. To the south, Peng Yue took over the majority cities of the Chang-yi domain. From the south, Liu Jia stationed at Chengfu; Zhou Yin took over Luxian (Luhe, Anhui); and Yingbu cut off Xiang Yu's retreat path towards the south. Xiang Yu fled southeastward to Gaixia (Lingbi, Anhui) in the attempt at returning to the Kuaiji Commandery. Peng Yue and Haan Xin took their armies to Gaixia, respectively. In December of 'wuxu' year 203 B.C. (or the 4th Han year; or early January of 202 B.C. using the modern calendar) Xiang Yu, with about 100,000 troops, was defeated by the 600,000-strong Han army. Haan Xin, commanding 300,000 troops, acted as the frontal attack force, while Kong Ju led the leftside column and Chen Heh (General Fei-jiangjun) as the reserves. Haan Xin defeated the Chu army in a three-prong pincer attack, pressing Xiang Yu into the Gaixia city. Haan Xin adopted a tactic to have the Han soldiers sing the song of the Chu land to create an illusion that the Chu land was already taken by the Han army. At Gaixia, Chu General Ji Bu fled after a defeat; Chu general Heng Chu was killed; and Chu generals Zhongli Mo, Xiang Bo and Ding-gong (Ding Gu, a relative of Ji Bu) surrendered. Ji Bu was wanted for his head at thousand ounce of 'jin' {copper --disputed to be real gold by some historians who claimed that China's vast amount of gold was still in existence in the Han dynasty time period} but pardoned by Liu Bang after his friends, who hid him in Puyang and the Lu-di (Shandong peninsula) areas consecutively, lobbied with Xiahou Ying [who admonished the emperor as to pardoning Ji Bu instead of pushing the former adversary to the Hunnic territory or the Southern Yue land. Xiang Yu, after making his concubine Yu-ji commit suicide, fled to Wu-jiang with 800 cavalrymen. This is a scene of the Peking Opera 'ba-wang [hegemony king] bie [bidding farewell to] ji [concubine]'. After crossing the Huai River, Xiang Yu had over hundred men left. Guan Ying, with 5000 cavalry, chased behind Xiang Yu. At Dongcheng (Dingyuan, Anhui), Xiang Yu charged back at the chasers several times, with 26 cavalrymen left. Xiang Yu refused to take the advice of a local official, 'ting-zhang' of Wujiang (Hexian, Anhui), to step onto a boat. This was disputed to be an early episode of some 'ting-zhang' (i.e., a ten-li distance official in the countryside) advising Xiang Yu to cross the river rather than the general's being advised to take ride of the boat at the actual riverbank. Xiang Yu ordered his cavalrymen to dismount to fight the chasers as infantry. All 26 cavalrymen died after killing over 500 chasers. Xiang Yu, seeing his former subordinate Lü ma [Sima] Tong at the Han army side, claimed to give him a favor with offer of his head and committed suicide at Wu-jiang (Hexian, Anhui), saying that he had no face to see the elderly people to the east of the Yangtze River. Lü ma Tong and four others were awarded the marquisdom for cutting Xiang Yu into pieces as bounty for Liu Bang. After the victory over Xiang Yu, Guan Ying crossed the Yangtze, defeated Wu-jun-zhang, i.e., magistrate for the Wu-jun (Suzhou)Commandery), decapitated 80,000 defenders, and took over Wu-xian (Suzhou, Jiangsu). The Han army, under Lu Guan, Liu Jia and Jin Sheh, continued on to attack Linjiang. Gong Wei, i.e., King Linjiang-wang, was caught and later killed at Luoyang. The Chu army at Lu [where Xiang Ji enjoyed the conferral from Chu King (emperor) Huaiwang as Duke Lu-gong] refused to surrender till Xiang Yu's head was delivered there. In January of the following 'jihai' year (or early January of 202 B.C. using the modern calendar), Liu Bang was asked by the vassals to be emperor. Haan Xin (King Qi) was changed to be King of Chu, with the capital city at Xiapi (Suining, Jiangsu; the ancient Tan-guo {Dan-guo} territory of viscount Tan-zi {Dan-zi}); Peng Yue (Marquis Jiancheng-hou) was made into King Liang-wang, with the capital city at Dingtao; Haan-wang-xin was to be King Haan, with the capital city at Yangdi; Wu Rui (King Hengshan-wang) was moved to be King Changsha-wang, with the capital city at Linxiang (Changsha); and Ying Bu (King Huainan-wang), Zang Tu (King Yan-wang) and Zhang Er (King Zhao-wang) remained at their domains. While travelling to the southern bank of the Si[4]-shui River in February, near today's Dingtao, all generals requested for Liu Bang to declare himself an emperor. Liu Bang(256-196 B.C.) declared himself emperor of the Han dynasty. Stopping at Luoyang, Liu Bang received a visit from Lou Jing. Lou Jing successfully persuaded the emperor into establishing the nation's capital at Chang'an, in lieu of Luoyang. The temporary capital was set at Li[4]yang, the former Qin capital city, before relocation to the rebuilt Chang'an city in February of 200 B.C.
Western Han Dynasty (Former Han Dynasty) Han Emperor Gaozu continued the practice of General Xiang Yu by conferring the kingship to the non-Liu generals and ministers. For example, King Lu Wan of the Yan Principality, was one of the non-Liu kings. At one time, Lu Wan sent his general Zhang Sheng to Modu (a Hunnic king) in the attempt of stopping Modu from aiding Chen Xi. But, Zhang Sheng, incited by the son of ex-Yan king Zang Tu who had been seeking asylum with the Huns, had decided to go against Lu Wan's will. King Lu Wan acquiesced when he thought to himself that the non-Liu kings had now been reduced to only two, himself and King of the Changsha Principality while Han Emperor Liu Bang had conferred 8 king titles onto his own kinsmen (6 being Liu Bang's own sons and 2 the sons of his two brothers). The 8 kings would be for Qi, Chu, Dai, Wu, Zhao, Liang, Huaiyang and Huainan. Han Emperor sent his general Fan Kuai to campaign against King Lu Wan when he heard of the Yan Principality's collusion with the Huns. The Han Emperor passed away shortly. King Lu Wan, hearing about the emperor's death, led his people northward and surrendered to Hunnic King Mote (Modu). King Lu Wan was conferred the title of 'Eastern Hun Ru King'. By that time, only one non-Liu king was in existence. Among the non-Chinese statelets would be the Nan-yue or Nan Yue Statelet led by Zhao Tuo, an ex-Qin general. Here, the prefix 'Nan' means southern. Also in existence would be Min-yue Statelet and Dong-yue Statelet. Among the southern nomads, the Yelang Statelet, located in the southwestern mountains of today's Sichuan Province, was the biggest of all. Further to the west will be a statelet called Dian-yue, located in today's Yunnan Province. North of Dian-yue would be a statelet called Qiongdu. Half a dozen small statelets existed to the southwest of Sichuan Province at that time. 
The Huns recovered the 'He-nan' (south of the North Yellow River Bend) and 'He-xi' (west of the West Yellow River Bend) territories. To the west, the Huns raided towards the start point of the Qin Great Wall, i.e., the Qin ancestors' homeland in today's Tianshui, Gansu. When the Huns raided northern China, first Han Emperor Liu Bang sent Xin (Haan-wang-xin), King of the Han(2) Principality, to resisting the Huns. However, Xin (Haan-wang-xin), after being encircled by 100-200 thousand Huns, decided to negotiate with the Huns for peace. Emperor Liu Bang accused Xin of being a coward, and Xin, for fear of punishment, surrendered to Mote (Modu). In September of the 6th Han year (October 202-September 201 B.C.), Haan-wang-xin surrendered to the Huns. In October or the first month of the 7th Han year, the emperor personally travelled to Tong-di to attack Haan-wang-xin. Haan-wang-xin fled to the Huns for asylum. A descendant of the former Zhao Principality, by the name of Zhao Li, was made into the Zhao king.
The emperor continued to battle the rebels from Jinyang to the north, reached Loufan, where the troops suffered a cold attack. At Pingcheng, the Han army encountered the Huns. The Huns, with an army of 400 thousand, then encircled a whole army led by first Han Emperor Liu Bang (i.e., Han Gaozu) on Mount Baideng for seven days.
Note this webmaster's correction of the Battle of Mayi to year 201 B.C.
All history books had error in the Han dynasty's reign years.
Professor Gernet hedged himself in pinning the Hunnic-Han War, namely, Emperor Liu Bang's defeat at the Baideng mountain, to the period "201-200 B.C.", which should be November 201 B.C. when strictly observing the Zhuanxu-li calendar's ordinal months.
The Huns' military activities could have happened any time between 209 B.C. and 202 B.C. Xu Guang, in Shi-ji Yin-yi, claimed that Mote was enthroned in the 'ren-chen' year or Qin Emperor Ershidi's 1st year, which was year 209 on the virtual Yin-li calendar -that deviated from the actual Zhuanxu-li calendar by one year early. Xu Guang, who mistook the existence of a 'yi-mao' Zhuanxu-li calendar, could not have knowledge of the actual Jupiter's position on the ecliptic to pinpoint a 'ren-chen' sexagenary year. In the 1998-1999 online draft of the book The Sinitic Civilization, that was posted to imprialchina.org, an attempt was made to estimate the year for Mote's attack of the Eastern Hu nomads to be 206 B.C. and the attack of the Yuezhi about 203 B.C. or Mote's 7th year reign, with the year 206 B.C. based on Wang Zhonghan's research and the estimated year 203 B.C. based on the writings on the Huns by Cai Dongfan and Wang Zhonghan. Nicola Di Cosmo (Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History, Cambridge University Press (2002)) claimed that the attacks of Donghu and Yuezhi happened in 208 B.C. and 203 B.C, respectively. Note that the Han dynasty's reign years in the prevalent history books deviated from the actual Zhuanxu-li calendar by one year. Either Wang Zhonghan's number or Di Cosmo's number could have double-jeopardy error as there could be further deviation due to misreading of the Han dynasty calendars. For example, Thomas Barfield (The Perilous Frontier, Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell (1989)) stated that the Han founder-emperor's 201 B.C. Baideng debacle happened in year 200 B.C., not knowing that the early Han emperors' reign years started in October of a prior year and ended in September of the consecutive year. See this webmaster's 2nd edition of The Sinitic Civilization --that realigned Han dynasty's reign years strictly observing the Zhuanxu-li calendar of October of a prior lunar year to September of the following lunar year. Mote placed 4 groups of horses with respective colors in four directions, arranging his battle engagement in a strategical way. The siege was ended only after Liu Bang's counsellor, Chen Ping, bribed Mote's wife by bragging about the number of beauties in the Chinese court palace and hinting that they could replace her should Mote succeed in capturing the Chinese capital. Being attacked by the Huns, Liu Bang's counsellor, Liu Jing, proposed that the elder princess be married over to Mote. Liu selected a court maid of honor and sent her to Mote as his own daughter. (Lou Jing further proposed that the prestigious families of the former Zhou principalities, Chu-Zhao-Jing(3) families of Chu in southern China and the Tian-Huai families of Qi in today's Shandong Province, be relocated to Chang'an for sake of defense against the Huns as well as for easy management of those remnant Zhou Dynasty people. Altogether over 100 thousand people, including many dispatched by the other kings in their respective principalities, were forcefully relocated to Chang'an. Previously, the Qin Empire had forcefully resettled 120,000 households of countrywide wealthy people in Xian'yang.) In 202 B.C., Zhang Ao (241-182 B.C.) succeeded father Zhang Er's title as King Zhao-wang. In 201 B.C., or the 7th year rule of Emperor Liu Bang, Haan Xin, who took in former acquaintance Zhongli Mo at the Battle of Gaixia, was asked by Emperor Liu Bang to surrender the asylum-seeker. Haan Xin refused. Emperor Liu Bang hence called for a vassal assembly at the Chen (Huaiyang) place. Haan Xin, seeing that the emperor could rally an army against him, forced Zhongli Mo to commit suicide. Zhongli Mo, before death, claimed that the emperor did not attack him because the two were together. Haan Xin (230-196 B.C.) took Zhong's head to the emperor and was downgraded to Marquis Huaiyin-hou. In 200 B.C., Emperor Liu Bang, while passing son-in-law Zhang Ao's residence in Waihuang, had insulted the non-Liu King Zhao-wang, for which Guan Gao and the king's followers attempted to assassinate the emperor to avenge the king's humiliation. In 199 B.C., beauty Zhao-ji, whom Zhang Ao surrendered to the emperor, had born son Liu Zhang and then committed suicide over Zhao Ao's imprisonment as a result of implication in the assassination scheme. Shen Yiji was later blamed for not saving Zhao-ji's life. After Haan-wang-xin, i.e., King of the Han (2) Principality defected to the Huns, prime minister of the Dai Principality, Chen Xi (a friend of Marquis of Huaiying, Haan Xin), rebelled against the Han (4) Emperor in 198 B.C., or the 10th year rule of Emperor Liu Bang. Haan-wang-xin, in the Hunnic Tui-dang-cheng fort, born a son called Haan Tuidang who returned with his mother to the Han territory during Lü-hou's reign years and was conferred the old Haan-wang-xin's title of Marquis Gonggao-hou. (Haan Tuidang born sons Haan Ru and Haan Ying. Haan Ying, a 'bo shi' [doctorate] in Emperor Wendi's times, was to become the founding master of the Haan school of thought on Shi Jing. Haan Ru was to have son Haan Yan who studied together with Han Emperor Wudi during the days of King Jiao-dong-wang.) Chen Xi himself defected to the Huns after losing battles to the Han Emperor, while Haan Xin (who had earlier encouraged Chen Xi to plot the rebellion out of anger at the Han Emperor for demoting him to marquis from king) was executed together with his wife and mother's lineages, i.e., the so-called 3 lineage extinction, by Han Empress Lü Hou. Empress Lü Hou and Xiao Heh, while Liu Bang was campaigning to the north, faked a news report to call on Haan Xin to come to the palace to celebrate the victory over the killing of Chen Xi. On the pretext of collusion with Chen Xi and in fact fearing that Haan Xin could act as an insider to stage the rebellion at the capital, Empress Lü Hou and Xiao Heh arrested Haan Xin. Haan Xin was executed via five peelings and cuts. Liu Bang later pardoned Kuai Tong over the earlier advice to Haan Xin to divide the country into three parts with Liu Bang and Xiang Yu. Kuai Che (Kuai Tong), who was caught by the emperor, was spared death by frying at the wok after he made a claim that he had advocated for Haan Xin to divide the country with Xiang Yu at the time of war because he was just a dog barking on behalf of the master. Sima Qian commented that Kuai Che befriended An Qisheng, a hermit who had discourse with Qin Emperor Shihuangdi on the elixirs, while An Qisheng's prophecy was not taken by Xiang Yu. Kuai Che liked to read military strategist Yue Yi's letter to the Yan king, i.e., Bao Yan-wang shu, with Sima Qian making comment to the effect of shedding tears whenever he read Yue Yi's letter to Yan king Huiwang. King Peng Yue of the Liang Principality did not answer the call to quell the Chen Xi rebellion. He was arrested by Emperor Liu Bang and was ordered to be exiled to the Shu-di land. Empress Lü Hou, who met Peng Yue en route, brought him back to the capital, and managed to persuade the emperor to get Peng Yue put to death instead of letting him go at large. In 195 B.C., Emperor Liu Bang mounted an eastern campaign against Ying Bu (Qing Bu), i.e., King of Huainan. King Ying Bu of the Huainan Principality was accused by his minister of plotting to rebel against the Han emperor. During the battle, he wounded Han Emperor Liu Bang with an arrow shot. Ying Bu was killed by his relative, King Wu Chen of the Changsha Principality. It was said that prime minister Li Cang (?-185 B.C.), whose wife Xin Zhui was the subject of a dried corpse at the Mawangdui Ruins (a name mislabeled as that of King Ma Yin of the Chu state during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms time period), had lobbied with King Wu Chen in killing Ying Bu, a brother-in-law. En route of return, the emperor passed through hometown Peixian, where he assembled the old acquaintances for a drinking party, on which occasion he beat the drums and in tears, sang the famous 'Da Feng Ge' [whirlwind] song: dafeng [strong wind] qi [kicking up] xi [modal word] yun [clouds] fei-yang [flying astray]; wei [awe] jia [imposed on] hai-nei [within the seas] xi [modal word]gui [returning] guxiang [home]; an [how to] de [obtain] yongshi [brave men] xi [modal word] shou [guard] sifang [the four borders]? During the Chen Xi rebellion, Chen had requested for aid from King Modu; Modu, however, did not assist Chen Qi at the beginning because of his inter-marriage with the Han Dynasty court. King Lu Wan of the Yan Principality sent his general Zhang Sheng to Modu in the attempt of stopping Modu from aiding Chen Xi. But, Zhang Sheng, incited by the son of ex-Yan king Zang Tu who had been seeking asylum with the Huns, had decided to go against Lu Wan's will. King Lu Wan acquiesced when he thought to himself that the non-Liu kings had now been reduced to only two, himself and King of the Changsha Principality while Han Emperor Liu Bang had conferred 8 king titles onto his own kinsmen (6 being Liu Bang's own sons and 2 the sons of his two brothers). The 8 kings would be for Qi, Chu, Dai, Wu, Zhao, Liang, Huaiyang and Huainan. In 195 B.C., the emperor dispatched Shen Yiji and Zhao Xiao ('yushi dafu') to fetching Lu Wan to the nation's capital. Lu Wan called in sick. Han Emperor sent his general Fan Kuai to campaign against King Lu Wan when he heard of the Yan Principality's collusion with the Huns. The Han emperor passed away shortly. Dowager-empress Lü-hou contemplated on killing the generals for solidifying the rule. Lih Shang lobbied with Shen Yiji to have the gigolo admonish the dowager-empress against it, after detecting no announcement of mourning four days after the emperor's death. The Han emperor passed away in April of the 12th year (October 196-September 195 B.C.) [April of 195 B.C. on the Zhuanxu-li calendar]. A will was left to instruct the crown prince to respect the four elderly ministers with the ritual of bowing down the head and body, and to exert efforts into learning and study --what the father-emperor was unable to do. The will also asked the crown prince to protect brother Liu Ruyi. Dowager-empress Lü-hou contemplated on killing the generals for solidifying the rule. Lih Shang lobbied with Shen Yiji to have the gigolo admonish the dowager-empress against it, after detecting no announcement of mourning four days after the emperor's death. King Lu Wan, hearing about the emperor's death, drove his people northward and surrendered to King Modu. King Lu Wan was conferred the title of 'Eastern Huns Ru King'.
After the death of Han Emperor Liu Bang in 195 B.C., King Modu (Mo-te) sent over a letter humiliating Han Empress Lü Hou via proposition of a marriage between him and Empress Lü Hou and hence a combination of the Hunnic Empire and the Han Empire. Mote claimed that he was born in the 'ju-ze' (entrapped lakes) area and occasionally toured the area bordering China, which somehow manifested the Huns' origin as being in the Minusinsk Depression, i.e., today's Kobdo. Empress Lü Hou initially called a military meeting, with 'shang jiangjun' [highest general] Fan Kuai volunteering to take a 100,000 army to attacking the Huns. 'zhong lang jiang' Ji Bu, who was pardoned by Emperor Liu Bang and further conferred the post as 'lang zhong' [head of the palace guards], rebuked Fan Kuai, saying that the empress could order Fan Kuai to be executed as it would bring disaster to China, knowing that the late emperor, with 400,000 troops, had been at one time encircled by the Huns at Mt. Baideng. Empress Lü Hou declined the Hunnic king's proposal and sent over some other Liu family girl to continue the inter-marriage with the Huns. Dowager-empress Lü-hou rounded up all the late emperor's concubines and locked them up in the palace, but let go Concubine Bo-ji who was mocked at by the other concubines. Concubine Bo-ji, who was mother to future emperor Liu Heng, was allowed to go to the Dai prefecture to live with his son. Concubine Bo-ji was formerly a concubine with Wei Bao (King of the Wei Principality). Han Emperor Huidi (210-188 B.C.; commonly-taken wrong reign 194-188 B.C.; nominal October 195-Sept 188 B.C.; actual May 195-Aug 188 B.C.) Han Emperor Huidi had no actual power as a result of his mother dowager-empress Lü-hou's control. Dowager-empress Lü-hou, half a year after her husband's death, took actions to kill the fellow concubines, being noted for the torture of Qie-fu-ren (Madam Qie4) - who was cut off limbs and put into a pottery container. This was because Qie-fu-ren had at one time tried to get her son, Liu Ruyi, to replace Lü-zhi's son (Liu Ying) as the crown prince. Emperor Huidi, who was shocked by the death of brother Liu Ruyu and Madame Qie-fu-ren, hence no longer attended to the court affairs, indulged himself in the pleasure and drinking, and died at age 23 after a nominal reign of seven years. Though, Emperor Huidi at one time ordered to arrest and kill Shen Yiji (Marquis Piyang-hou), i.e., his mother's lover, for which Lü-hou had to send someone to lobby with Hong Jiru (Hong Ru), i.e., the emperor's gigolo, for help. Shen Yiji served as the emperor's leftside prime minister in 187 B.C. In the 4th year of Han Emperor Huidi's nominal reign, Han Emperor Huidi, son of dowager-empress Lü-hou, was married with niece Zhang Yan, i.e., Princess Lu-yuan, at the arrangement of Lü-hou. Princess Lu-yuan was a daughter of Lü-hou's eldest daughter and minister Zhang Ao. With no child born due to the close blood affinity, Lü-hou took a son of some court of maid as the crown prince. This crown prince was later killed by Lü-hou after being put on the throne for a short time. Consecutively, Huidi was said to have six more 'illegitimate' sons born, i.e., Liu Jiang (Liu Qiang, King Huaiyang-wang), Liu Buyi (King Changshan-wang), Liu Shan (Marquis Xiangcheng-hou), Liu Chao (a Marquis Zhi-hou), Liu Wu3 (Marquis Huguan-hou), and Liu Tai (Marquis Pingchang-hou). (In Tang Dynasty, scholar Liu Bozhang claimed that Lü-hou first ordered to impregnate the beauties with the Lü-shi clansmen and then sent them in to Emperor Huidi as concubines. This was probably made up on basis of a sentence in Shi-ji, to the effect that the ministers, such as Chen Ping, et al., after eliminating the Lü clansmen, claimed that the young emperor ['shao di'], who was the second enthroned purported son of Emperor Huidi, plus King Liang-wang, King Huaiyang-wang, and King Changshan-wang, were all non-authentic sons born by Emperor Huidi.) Qi King Daohuiwang, i.e., Liu Fei, was the founder emperor's eldest son but was born by a Cao-shi woman who had a lower ranking than Empress Lü-hou. In 201 B.C., Liu Fei was conferred the Qi land, with 70 cities. In 193 B.C., Qi King Daohuiwang, i.e., Liu Fei, came to the nation's capital, and had a banquet with Emperor Xiaohuidi (Huidi), over which dowager-empress Lü Hou wanted to use poison to kill Liu Fei for sitting together with the emperor. The emperor, who so much loved his elder half-brother, had yielded the master's seat to the guest, which angered the dowager-express to the extent of trying to send a cup of poison wine to get Liu Fei killed, which the emperor managed to stop. Liu Fei proposed to surrender the Chengyang-jun Commandery to Princess Luyuan as the Tangmu-yi fief, and hence got permission to leave the capital. In 188 B.C., Emperor Huidi passed away. Huidi was buried at the Anling Mausoleum. Lü-hou took over the power as regency ruler. Initially, Lü-hou had no tears. After the ministers took the advice of Zhang Pijiang (son of Zhang Liang) to support Lü Lu4 as 'shang jiang-jun' (the upper general) and Lü Chan as 'xiang-guo' (highest prime minister), Lü-hou became relieved and burst into tears over the death of her son. Wang Ling was deprived of the rightside prime minister's post, and the two imperial garrison army barracks were taken over by the Lü family. Among Lü-hou's maids would be a woman called Dou-ji who was later released from the palace for service in the Dai-guo state. King Dai-wang, i.e., Liu Heng, born one daughter and two sons with Dou-ji, namely, daughter Liu Piao, and sons Liu Qi and Liu Wu. During Emperor Huidi's reign, minister Lu Jia retired. However, Lu Jia secretly paid a visit to Chen Ping, and suggested that Chen Ping befriend Zhou Bo for sake of making a united stand against the possible usurpation by the empress Lü-hou's family. The Lü Family Interregnum (7 years under Huidi and 8 years under two 'Shao-di [junior emperors]') In the 1st year of Han Emperor Huidi's reign, Lü-hou already started the purging of the Liu-surnamed kings. King Zhao-yin-wang, Liu Ruyi, and his mother, were killed by Lü-hou. Liu You, i.e., King Huaiyang-wang, was made into King Zhao for marrying a Lü family woman. Lü-hou initially chose two of the late emperor's purported sons for the job as an emperor. The first one was Princess Lu-yuan's fake son, whom Lü-hou killed four years later after the boy claimed that he would do something once he grew up after learning about Lü-hou's killing of his birth-mother and his real identity. Liu Yi, i.e., King Changshan-wang, was made into an emperor. In 187 B.C., Lü-hou conferred his brother's son, Lü Tai, the land of Ji'nan-jun commandery and named it the Lü-guo country, which was later renamed to King Jichuan (Liu Tai)'s fief after Lü Chan was to take over the Liang-guo land as the Lü-guo kingdom during the 7th year reign of Lü-hou. The next year, son Lü Jia took over Lü Tai's title as King Lü-wang. In 186 B.C., Liu Zhang, i.e., Qi King Aiwang Liu Xiang's brother, came to the nation's capital. Lü Hou conferred Liu Zhang the title of Marquis Zhuxu-hou, and years later further made Liu Xingju, i.e., Liu Zhang's brother, Marquis Dongmou-hou. In 181 B.C., Lü-hou upgraded Marquis Yingling-hou Liu Ze (Liu Bang's cousin) to King Langya-wang. Liu Ze was married with a daughter born by Lü-hou's sister and Fan Kuai. Hence, the Qi land was subdivided into Tangmu-yi (i.e., the former Chengyangjun commandery), Jichuan (i.e., former Chang-guo), the Langya-jun Commandery, and the remnant Qi land under Liu Xiang (son of Liu Fei). In 180 B.C., Lü-hou put King Zhao-wang Liu You under house arrest at the nation's capital. Liu You was starved to death for bad relations with the wife. Liu Hui, i.e., the late emperor's 5th son, took the 6th son's title of King Zhao for having a Lü-family wife but committed suicide after the Lü wife killed a favourite concubine. With all three Zhao kings revoked the rankings, Lü-hou assigned three Lü family members as King Yan-wang, King Zhao-wang, and King Liang-wang. Later, when the Liu kings staged the counter-coup to overthrow the Lü family, the notoriety of the killing of the three Zhao kings was cited by Liu Xiang, i.e., Qi King Aiwang. During Lü-hou (Lü Zhi)'s 6th year, Lü-hou revoked Lü Jia's kingship and awarded it onto Lü Tai's brother, i.e., Lü Chan. With Liu Hui (King Liang-wang) moved to King Zhao, Lü Chan was given the title of King Lü-wang at the Liang-guo domain, which was renamed to the Lü-guo State. After the death of Liu Hui, Lü-hou made Lü Lu as King Zhao, after King Dai-wang (Liu Heng) declined the invitation to relocate to the Zhao-di land. In the 7th year reign of Lü-hou, Liu Jian (King Yan-ling-wang), i.e., the youngest son of Liu Bang's, died. Lü-hou, who managed to get Liu Jian's son killed, then conferred the title of King Yan-wang onto Lü Tong, for which the later Liu family bundled the crime together with the elimination of the Liang, Zhao and Yan kingdoms. After Lü-hou (Lü Zhi) died in 180 B.C., among Liu Bang's eight sons, only King Dai-wang (Liu Heng) and King Huainan-wang (Liu Zhang) survived at that time. The senior kings, like King Chu-wang (Liu Jiao, i.e., Liu Bang's 4th brother) and King Wu-wang (Liu Bi, i.e., a son of Liu Bang's 2nd brother), were not harmed by the Lü family for their location beyond the immediate reach. (Serving under Lü Lu4 would be a minister called Yuan Ang who was to continue the court service throughout the Lü family's rule and demise, and two succeeding Han emperors.) Liu Zhang, who learnt of the Lü family's scheme from his wife, sent a messenger to King Qi to have King Qi take an army to the nation's capital for cracking down on the Lü family. The Qi king, using 'zhong wei' (court captain or 'brigadier general') Wei Bo's scheme, managed to have his principality prime minister Zhao Ping put under control. Further, the Qi king induced the Langya king to come to Linzi, and put him under house arrest. The Qi king then took control of the Langya king's army. Qi King Aiwang then pronounced the march against the capital, claiming that the Lü family had killed three Liu-surnamed Zhao kings, eliminated the Liu-surnamed Zhao-Liang-Yan states, and divided the Qi land into four parts. Lü Chan, 'xiang-guo' (prime minister), dispatched Guan Ying to countering the Qi army. Guan Ying, upon arrival at Xingyang, stopped to make liaison with the Qi king, instead, but did not allow the Qi army to go west either. The Qi king then attacked to take over the Ji'nan-jun territory from the Lü family. Chen Ping ('cheng xiang') and Zhou Bo ('tai wei' or 'lieutenant general'), who were confined under Lü Lu4 ('shang jiang-jun' [the upper general]) and Lü Chan ('xiang-guo' [highest prime minister]), revolted against the Lü family. The ministers made a claim that the four remaining sons of late Emperor Huidi were all Lü family's fakes. Liu Zhang killed Lü Can at the capital. Zhou Bo, with the pass from Ji Tong (Marquis Xiangping-hou), personally went to the northern army barracks to issue the action order. Zhou Bo, 'tai wei' (grand captain or 'lieutenant general'), then eliminated the Lü clansmen. Liu Xingju (Marquis Dongmou-hou) went to take out the puppet emperor, Liu Hong (Liu Yi, i.e., the former King of Changshan-wang). While the majority of the Lü family members were eliminated, Liu Zhang and Liu Ze's Lü-surnamed wives were exempt. King Langyang-wang, who persuaded the Qi king into releasing him, arrived at the capital, and suggested to Liu Zhang and the Liu family loyal members that the Qi king could not be made into an emperor because the king's father-in-law was very cruel and ferocious, like the Lü family. The choice, which was a compromise among all parties, was for King Dai-wang to be emperor. King Dai-wang, after ascending the throne, made an announcement to the nation but omitted the details of Liu Xingju's contribution which was to take out Liu Hong [Liu Yi] - the emperor 'Shao-di [junior emperor]' and three other sons of late Emperor Huidi. Emperor Xiaowendi (Wendi) did not mention anything about the elimination of Huidi's lineage in his enthronement. Han Emperor Xiaowendi (Wendi) (202-157 B.C.; reign B.C. 179-157) After the elimination of the Lü family kings, King Jichuan-wang moved to assume the territory of King Liang-wang; Liu Sui (son of late King Zhao-you-wang) was conferred the Zhao territory as King Zhao-wang; King Lu-wang Zhang Yan's domain was deprived; and Lü Tong, i.e., King Yan-wang, was ordered to be killed, with the territory taken. In 179, Emperor Xiaowendi (Wendi), i.e., King Dai-wang (Liu Heng), was enthroned. Emperor Xiaowendi made Dou-ji into an empress at the suggestion of dowager-empress Bo-tai-hou. Dou Guangguo, who was separated from his sister from childhood onward, came to the nation's capital to inquire about the identity of the empress. Emperor Wendi was moved by the recital of the stories about Dou Guangguo's buying the fruit juice for washing his sister's hair and securing the food for his sister prior to the childhood separation. In 177 B.C., i.e., the emperor's 3rd year, 'cheng xiang' [prime minister] Guan Ying was ordered to take an infantry-chariot army of 85,000 against the Hunnic rightside virtuous king at Gaonu (Yan'an/Yenan, Shenxi), namely, the former domain of Dong Yi, the King of Di. The Hunnic king fled back across the border for the Hunnic territory. Gaonu, namely, today's Yan'an/Yenan plus Yichuan, remained the land of the Di barbarians through the Sui dynasty, by which time the locals were called as the Bai-zhi (Bai-di) of the Dan-zhou prefecture with the Hu appearance ('dan zhou bai-zhi') but speaking the Sinitic tongue ('hu-tou han-she'). Jia Yi (200-168 B.C.), a prodigy, was made into 'bo shi' [doctorate] and consecutively 'tai [imperial] zhong [court] dafu' [which was subordinate to lang-zhong-ling or guang-lu-xun]. Jia Yi was taken as an inheritor of Lu Jia and Sun-shu Tong's Confucian legacy. Jia Yi was a student of Zhang Cang who was in turn a disciple of Xun-zi (Xun Kuang), and worked under Wu-gong (magistrate for the Henan-jun Commandery). When Hen Emperor Wendi called in Wu-gong to serve as 'ting wei' at the court, Wu-gong recommended Jia Yi to the emperor who appointed him the post as 'bo shi'. A proponent of the prose literature, Jia Yi wrote famous articles such as Guo Qin Lun (discourse on the blunders of Qin). At one time in 176 B.C., owning to the jealousy from the Zhou Bo and Guan Ying gang, Jia Yi was sent to the King of Changsha to be a tutor, where he wrote Diao [mourning] Qu Yuan [Chu poet Qu Yuan] Fu [prose] {for which historian Sima Qian later bundled Qu Yuan and Jia Yi in one section in Shi-ji}. Jia Yi also wrote Fu-niao [owl] Fu [prose] to express his thoughts on the longevity and shortness of life, in the style of fable philosophers Zhuang-zi and Lie-zi. In 175 B.C., Jia Yi submitted an article to the capital, which led to the emperor's decision to ban Deng Tong and the Wu king from manufacturing the non-governmental coins. Back to the capital, Jia Yi was appointed tutor for King Liang-huai-wang (Liu Ji). Jia Yi made proposals to the emperor regarding the Huns (i.e., 'wu er' [five baits, including jewelry, food, music, money, and bestowment]), the system, and the princely states. His point was that the less intimate princes could pose dangers to the emperor while the more intimate princes could create troubles for the emperor. The solution, in his opinion, was to subdivide the fiefdoms among the inheritors to the extent that the fiefs became tiny after many generations. In 177 B.C., Liu Chang, i.e., King Huai-nan-wang, killed minister Shen Yiji (Marquis Piyang-hou) with a hammer while visiting the emperor. Shen Yiji was at one time marked for kill by Emperor Huidi but escaped death after Lü-hou sent someone to lobby with the emperor's gigolo. The emperor did not take Yuan Ang's advice to rein in the prince. Liu Chang had killed Shen Yiji over the old feud related to the death of his birth mother in the hands of dowager-empress Lü-hou. In 174 B.C., Liu Chang was implicated in a rebellion plot involving a son of Chai Wu (Marquis Jipu-hou). In 173 B.C., the emperor banished Liu Chang, i.e., King Huai-nan-wang, to Shu-jun, i.e., the Shu {Sichuan} commandery], over the rebellion plot. Liu Chang died en route at the Yong-di land, over which the emperor was deeply sorrowful. The next year, the emperor, at Yuan Ang's advice, made all sons of late King Huai-nan-wang into marquis, to which Jia Yi expressed objection. After King Liang-huai-wang accidentally dropped dead from a horse, en route to the court, Jia Yi died of depression at age 33. The emperor adopted Jia Yi's advice to move his intimate kinsmen southward to be King Liang-wang (Liu Wu) and King Huai-nan-wang (Liu Xi). During the later rebellion of seven kings, King Liang-wang played a vital role of defending the emperor. In 162 B.C., Zhang Cang was replaced by Shentu Jia as 'cheng xiang' [prime minister]. Emperor Wendi was originally planning to make Dou Guangguo into prime minister. Shentu Jia (? - 155 B.C.), who followed the first Han dynasty emperor Gaozu as a teenager, was the youngest surviving senior minister at the court. Shentu Jia was noted for punishing Emperor Wendi's court jester Deng Tong. When Emperor Wendi was enthroned, he returned the Qi land, that was subdivided by late dowager empress Lü-hou, back to the Liu-surnamed kings and princes. The emperor returned the land of Chengyang, Langyang and Jinan back to the Qi state, with King Langyang reassigned to be King Yan. Qi King Aiwang (Liu Xiang) hence took back the former Qi land. After Qi King Aiwang (Liu Xiang) died, son Liu Ze succeeded as Qi King Wenwang. The emperor gave the Chengyang-jun commandery to Liu Zhang as King Changyang, and in 178 B.C. assigned Jibei-jun to Liu Xingju as King Jibei. King Jibei was later killed for rebellion as a result of resentment over the unfair treatment. Namely, Liu Zhang and Liu Xingju thought they should be awarded the kingship for the Zhao and Liang land. In 177 B.C., Liu Xingju, taking advantage of Emperor Wendi's trip to Taiyuan, launched a rebellion, which was quelled by Marquis Jipu-hou (Chai Wu). Two years after quelling King Jibei's rebellion, the emperor made the late Qi King Daohuiwang (Liu Fei)'s seven sons into marquis. When Qi King Wenwang died after fourteen years, there was no son to inherit the land. Emperor Wendi took back King Wenwang's land. The emperor subdivided the Qi land again for Qi King Daohuiwang(Liu Fei)'s sons, making them into kings. The Qi-guo territory was made into seven states. Later in 154 B.C., when King Wu (Liu Bi4) rebelled, four Qi kings answered the call of King Wu and King Chu, including King Jiao-xi, King Jiao-dong, King Zai-chuan and King Ji'nan. Shi-ji carried a statement stating that a yellow dragon was spotted at Chengji, to the west of today's Xi'an. The emperor called an elderly, Lu-gong (an elderly from Lu) Sun-chen, to the nation's capital, and offered him the post as 'bo shi' (doctor). The emperor was asked to personally travelled to the Yong land to pray to the five sovereigns. Xinyuan Ping (? - 163 B.C.), a fortune teller ('fang shi'), was made into 'shang [upper] dafu' after making a claim in 165 B.C. to the emperor that there was five-color mist to the northeast of the capital city. The emperor ordered to construct the Wei-yang [north of the Wei-shui River] wu-di [five sovereigns] oblation temple. Xinyuan Ping further proposed to retrieve the nine cauldrons of the Zhou dynasty, with a claim that the caldrons that were lost in the Si-shui River could have moved to the Yellow River and that there was the gold and treasure mist in the Fen-yin [south of the Fen-shui River] area. Hence, a temple was built between the Yellow River and the Fen-shui River for making prayers. Zhang Cang ('cheng xiang' or prime minister) and Zhang Shizhi ('ting wei' or justice minister) investigated the trickeries of Xinyuan Ping, which led to the extermination of the latter's three lineages. The emperor was no longer interested in ghosts and spirits afterwards. Han Emperor Jingdi (188 - 141 B.C.; commonly-taken wrong reign 156-141 B.C.; nominal October 157-Sept 141 B.C.; actual Jun 157-Jan 141 B.C.) Emperor Jingdi, Liu Qi (188 - 141 B.C.), was the fifth son of Emperor Wendi. Jingdi's mother was dowager empress Dou-tai-hou. Emperor Jingdi was noted for his pro-agriculture and the pro-horse-husbandry policies. Emperor Jingdi, while not expanding wars with the Huns, sought to establish the military farming in the border areas. Among the able generals would be Li Guang, Cheng Bushi and Zhi Dou. Later, historians called the reign years of Emperor Wendi and Emperor Jingdi as the 'wen-jing [two father and son emperors] zhi [whereof] zhi [rule]']. In 155 B.C., Liu De was conferred the title of King Hejian-xian-wang. King Hejian-xian-wang was a brother of Liu Rong and a half-brother of later Han Emperor Wudi. Liu De was a noted scholar and a collector of classics, who built the Ri-hua-gong {sunshine palace} to house the scholar visitors from all over the country. 58 years after the 213 B.C. book-burning, the king started the project of rebuilding the lost classics. His noted accomplishment included the completion of compiling the lost book Zhou Li. The other contribution included the compilation work on Shi Jing, Zuo Zhuan, Zhou Guan, Shang Shu, Meng Zi (Mencius) and Lao Zi. Under King Hejian-xian-wang {Liu De, ?-130 B.C.; king's reign 155-130 B.C.} would be Mao Chang and Guan Changqing who were 'bo shi' and Wang Ding who acted as 'shi cheng' (history assistant prime minister). Guan4 Gong later passed Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan to son Guan4 Changqing ("ling" or magistrate for Dangyin). Mao Chang, together with uncle Mao Heng, propagated the Qin big seal script version of Shi Jing. Emperor Jingdi, who was fond of brother Liu Wu (King Liang-wang), had at one time in 154 B.C. made a claim to pass the throne to Liu Wu after his death. 'zhang shi' Dou Ying, who was a nephew of dowager-empress Dou-tai-hou, objected to the idea. Later, in 150 B.C., when Liu Wu came to the capital again, dowager-empress Dou-tai-hou mentioned the brotherly succession again. Yuan Ang (? - 150 B.C.), who was serving King Chu-wang at the time, raised the objection, over which Liu Wu later sent an assassin to get Yuan Ang killed outside of the city gate of Anling. Liu Qi, as crown prince, at one time received the visit of prince Liu Xian, a son of King Wu (Liu Bi). During an argument over chess games, Liu Qi accidentally killed Liu Xian with chessboard. When Emperor Wendi sent Liu Xian's coffin to the Wu Principality, King Wu returned the coffin, with a claim that the kingdom was of the Liu family and hence his son should be buried in the capital where he died. Han Shu recorded that the Wu king hence harboured resentment towards Liu Qi. Emperor Jingdi, to rein in the various Liu kings, appointed Chao Cuo first as 'nei shi' and then 'yushi dafu', i.e., one of the three duke-equivalent ministers. The emperor adopted Chao Cuo's 'xue [eliminate] fan [vassalage kings]' proposal to revoke the kingship, numbering about 26 commanderies which were down from the maximum 42 commanderies from Han Emperor Gaozu's time period. The Kuaiji-jun and Yuzhang-jun commanderies, which were under the King Wu-wang's control, were first revoked. In 154 B.C., King Wu, Liu Bi, rebelled against the emperor on the pretext of helping the emperor purge the evil ministers. Altogether seven Liu-surnamed kings from Wu, Chu, Zhao and Qi land joined the rebellion. This came to be known as the rebellion of the seven states. Chao Cuo attempted to persecute Yuan Ang over some pretext that Yuan Ang had taken in bribes from the Wu king. Yuan Ang went to see the emperor with the help of Dou Ying. At the advice of Yuan Ang who at one time served as prime minister to the Wu king, Han Emperor Jingdi, to appease the rebels, ordered the execution of minister Chao Cuo at the Dong-shi market. Yuan Ang, as 'tai chang' [imperial attache], was sent to the Wu-guo state for pacifying the rebellion. However, the King of Wu refused to quit the rebellion. Yuan Ang, who was detained by the Wu king and ordered to be executed, was let go by an officer whom Yuan Ang at one time spared while he was serving the Wu king on a previous assignment. Scholar Mei Cheng, who had advised against the Wu king's rebellion before it erupted, authored a second article of advice for the Wu king. The Wu king continued the rebellion. In the later times, scholar Su Zhe pointed out the emperor's lack of compassion by listing the death of ministers Zhang Shizhi, Deng Tong, Chao Cuo, and Zhou Yafu. (Zhang Shizhi, who offended crown prince Liu Qi, died while he was demoted to be prime minister of the Huaiyang-guo state. Zhou Yafu, who offended Emperor Jingdi during a banquet, was accused of rebellion for buying helmets for the afterlife burial, and committed suicide via fasting at the prison. Deng Tong, a court jester who enjoyed the privilege to make the bronze coins in the Sichuan basin over the favor from sucking the swollen purulence of Emperor Wendi, was ordered to have assets confiscated by Emperor Jingdi, and ultimately died of starvation.) With the rebel army approaching the Han capital, Emperor Jingdi promoted 'cheqi [chariot/cavalry] jiangjun [general]' Zhou Yafu to 'tai wei [grand captain]', and empowered him with leading an army against the Wu-guo and Chu-guo rebels. Lih Ji, i.e., Marquis Quzhou-hou, was ordered to attack the Zhao-guo state, while General Luan Bu was to attack the Qi-guo state. Dou Ying stationed troops in Xingyang to monitor the situation. Zhou Yafu (? - 143 B.C.), who was son of Zhou Bo and at one time reprimanded Emperor Wendi for the fast driving at the Xiliu (thin willow) army camp, defeated the rebels within three months. King Wu fled to the Yue land, where he was killed. (Tang Shanchun of Nanking Polytechnical University, even speculated that the southern minorities' legends about the dog of Panhu taking the head of a king by the name of Wu could be about the Han dynasty's colluding with the minority southern barbarians in cracking down on the 154 B.C. rebellion of King Wu-wang, Liu Bi.)
In the Shandong peninsula, King Jiao-xi-wang (Liu Ang), King Jiao-dong-wang (Liu Xiongqu), King Zichuan-wang (Liu Xian) and King Ji'nan-wang (Liu Piguang) had answered the Wu and Chu kings' call for rebellion. Three kings laid siege of Qi King Xiao-wang's capital city, Linzi. When Han army generals Luan Shi and Cao Qi came to the relief, the rebel kings were all eliminated while King Qi-xiao-wang committed suicide over his attempt at striking a deal with the rebels prior to the lift of the siege. Son Liu Tao succeeded Qi King Xiao-wen-wang as King Qi-yi-wang. After quelling the seven kings' rebellion, King Huaiyang-guo, i.e., Liu Yu (?-128 B.C.), was moved to the Shandong peninsula to be King Lu-wang (Lugong-wang). Later during the Wudi's reign, King Lu-wang, to expand his palaces, ordered to demolish the old mansion belonging to Confucius, and found between some double walls a set of rotten tadpole script books which included Lun Yu (Analects), Shang Shu (16 chapters per Liu Xin), [Yi-]Li, Li Ji, Chun-qiu (30 chapters per Wang Chong), and Xiao Jing. Hearing the sound of bells, chime stone, zither, and zithern from the walls, the king dared not continue to dismantle the building. Kong An'guo, a Confucius descendant, got to keep those books and later surrendered them to the court. Emperor Jingdi hence revoked the kings' administrative and legislative powers. Zhou Yafu, for his contribution, was made into a prime minister before the emperor found an excuse to get him killed. Dou Ying was conferred the title as Marquis Weiqi-hou. Brother Liu Wu, who was implicated in the assassination of Yuan Ang, was called to the capital. At the Han'gu'guan Pass, Liu Wu got off the cart, which made the emperor and the dowager-empress think that Liu Wu had committed suicide. The dowager-empress said that the lord had killed her [junior] son. Liu Wu was pardoned but ultimately died of depression. The dowager-empress again said that the lord had killed her [junior] son. To appease dowager empress Dou-tai-hou, the emperor divided the Liang-guo domain into five parts for King Liang-wang's five sons to inherit. After dowager-empress Bo-ji died in 154 B.C., Emperor Jingdi revoked the Bo family empress four years later, and in 151 B.C., made concubine Wang Zhi into an empress. Empress Wang Zhi's son would be Liu Che, i.e., future Emperor Wudi. Among Emperor Jingdi's son would be Liu Fa (the 6th son, King Ding-wang of Changsha, who was the 5th generation ancestor of the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty), and Liu Sheng (the 9th son, King Jing-wang of Zhongshan, who was the purported ancestor of the Shu-han Dynasty of the Three Kingdom time period). Han Emperor Wudi (156-87 B.C.; commonly-taken wrong reign 140-87 B.C. or 140-86 B.C.; nominal October 141-Dec 87 B.C.; actual Jan 141-Feb 87 B.C.) Han Emperor Wudi, at age seven, was renamed to Liu Che, with the word 'che' meaning the uttermost in praise of his extraordinary memory of the classics he studied and the wisdom and virtues accompanying him. While at age 3, he had replied that he would allow the heaven to determine while he would merely wish to play under the father's knees when his father-emperor asked the son about ever harboring a wish to become an emperor in the future. In 153 B.C., Liu Che conferred the title of King Jiao-dong-wang. In 150, son Liu Rong was deprived of the crown prince status and downgraded to King Lin-jiang-wang, while son Liu Che was crowned instead. Studying together with Liu Che would be Sang Hongyang, a math prodigy and a son of some prominent merchant in Luoyang. Sang would serve as Wudi's finance minister throughout the reign. In 141 B.C., Han Emperor Wudi, the 10th son of Emperor Jingdi, was enthroned at the age of seven. The next year, 140 B.C., was to be the 1st year of the imperial Jianyuan Era. Han Emperor Wudi was able to ascend to the throne as a result of his good relations with cousin A-qiao, a daughter of Eldest Princess Liu Piao [who was a sister of Emperor Jingdi]. However, Ah-qiao was not able to bear any child for the emperor, possibly due to the cousin blood relationship. Emperor Wudi later took in Wei-zi-fu who was a singer under Princess Pingyang, a sister. Emperor Wudi later banished A-qiao to the Changmen-gong [long gate] Palace over the 91 B.C. 'wugu' [poisonous {bugs} magic witchcraft] incident. (A-qiao asked Sima Xiangru write a prose Chang-men Fu to present to the emperor.) Another woman, Wei-zi-fu, i.e., Madame Wei-furen, born son Liu Ju who was to become a crown prince - who ultimately did not survive to ascend the throne. Because of Lady Wei (Wei-zi-fu), brother Wei Qing was appointed as a general for leading the campaign against the Huns. Huo Qubing, i.e., Wei Qing's nephew, also took part in the campaigns and scored major victories against the Huns. Later, the Wei family lost favor with the emperor after Crown Prince Liu Ju committed suicide over implication in the 'wugu' [poisonous {bugs} magic witchcraft] incident. Emperor Wudi initially did not succeed in hiring the Confucians for managing the country. After Wudi replaced Wei Guan with Dou Ying (nephew of Dowager Empress Doutaihou), Dou Ying and Tian Fen located two Confucians for Wudi: Zhao Guan and Wang Zang, i.e., two of the thousand students of an eighty-year-old Shen-gong of the ex-Chu Principality. Shen-gong, renowned for his research into ancient Shi Jing [classics of poems], was invited to the capital by Wudi. Dowager-empress Dou-tai-hou, who vehemently opposed the non-Daoist thoughts, managed to Zhao Guan ('yushi dafu') and Wang Zang ('langzhong ling') arrested in 139 B.C. It was after the death of Dou-tai-hou in 135 B.C. that Wudi got the exercise the unchallenged power. In 130 B.C., at the age of 80, Gongsun Hong, was recommended to the court again. In 127 B.C., Zhufu Yan, using Jia Yi's ideas in Zhi-an [peaceful administration] Ce [tactics], proposed to Wudi to have the various Liu kings divide their domain into smaller fiefs among their brothers and sons. In 124 B.C., Gongsun Hong, a civilian, was appointed the post as 'cheng xiang' [prime minister]. In 120 B.C., the emperor adopted Zheng Dangshi's advice to monopolize the iron and salt trade under the Da-nong-ling [agricultural ministry], with merchants Duoguo Xianyang and Kong Jin as ministers. In 115 B.C., Sang Hongyang was promoted to be 'da nong cheng', i.e., deputy agricultural minister. Sang Hongyang was responsible for the imperial decrees to extract taxes, levies and confiscation from the merchants (114 B.C.) - which was an idea from Zhang Tang, as well as the implementation of the military farming policies (111 B.C.) at the frontiers and the centralized coin moulding policies (113 B.C.). In 115 B.C., Sang Hongyang was promoted to be acting agricultural minister. Sang continued with the standardization policies regarding the transportation of commodities, the equalization policies regarding the price fluctuation, and the monopolization policies regarding the liquor and wines. In 110 B.C., the emperor travelled to Mt. Taishan, where he ordered the erection of stones and monuments, and after touring the coast, the emperor returned to Mt. Taishan, where he conducted the conferral of sainthood in imitation of Qin Emperor Shihuangdi. Sima Qian participated in Han Emperor Wudi's trip to Mt. Taishan, where further conferral of sainthood was conducted, with discussion of a mythical personified 'Tai-di' (Mt. Taishan Overlord) possessing one cauldron, the Yellow Overlord possessing three cauldrons and Lord Yu possessing nine cauldrons --a product of post-book-burning forgery. This would be a sacrificial ceremony called 'feng shan', with 'feng' meaning oblation for heaven and 'shan' [which mutated to a word for the later zen school of Buddhism] meaning oblation for earth. Lacking any records as to how the ancient sacrifice on Mt. Taishan was conducted, the ministers imagined how Qin Emperor Shihuangdi might have appropriated the white-god-worship 'Yong[zhou] prefecture' practice to Mt. Taishan, which started from Qin Lord Wen'gong when he in 756 B.C. ordered to build a white god monastery on a terrace in Fu-yi and started the heaven reverence, which was reserved as a Zhou king's privilege. The white god was taken to be Qin's ancestor Shao-hao-shi. Qin Lord Xuan'gong later added the green god reverence. By the late Qin era, four different colored gods were in revered in Qin. Both Shi-ji and the forgery book Guan Zi carried a similar passage about the conferral of sainthood, to the effect that for millennia beyond, the ancient rulers and lords had inscription left on Mt. Taishan. Though, there was no record showing that any Zhou king ever travelled to Mt. Taishan. For the Zhou kings, there was the royal veneration site of 'Xu-tian' (near today's Xuchang, Henan) for venerating Mount Taishan, meaning the kings did not need to travel to the east. Furthermore, there was no personification of a so-called Overlord Tai-di prior to Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's coining his title 'huang-di' from the Mt. Taishan Huang and the five prehistoric sovereign lords. (Soong Dynasty scholar Shao Bo, in Shao-shi Wen-jian Hou Lu, stated that a Sui Dynasty erudite, by the name of Wang Tong [who was a descendant of Wang Xuanmo of the Liu-Soong Dynasty] concluded that 'feng shan' was an "extravagant heart" product of the Qin-Han dynasties.) In 106 B.C., the emperor ordered to set up thirteen circuits for the nation, with 'ci shi' [imperial censor] in charge of twelve prefectures and the 'zhongyang [central] xiaowei [colonel captain {or lieutenant general}]' post in charge of the center prefecture. Later in 104 B.C., the emperor declared the Taichu Era, which changed the start of the lunar near year to be on the 1st month instead of October of the Zhunxu-li calendar. Emperor Wudi, in his high age, had superstition and suspicion. The women in the palaces, for sake of winning favor, had hired witches to exert the witchcraft. In 92 B.C., near the Jianzhang-gong palace, the emperor, after spotting a person entering the Zhong-longhua-men gate with a sword, ordered the execution of the gatekeeper and a search of the Shanglin-yuan imperial garden for the swordsman. The cavalry of the three imperial garrison areas combed through the area for days but could not locate the swordsman. Meanwhile, Zhu Anshi, a so-called 'chivalry man' of Yangling [sunnyside mausoleum {with the 'luo [compass] jing [longitude] shi [tablet stone]} in today's Jing-shui and Wei-shui delta, Xianyang, Shenxi], was at large after many robbery acts. Gongsun He4, for saving son Gongsun Jingsheng from prison over the appropriation of military funds, requested for the task of capturing the robber. The robber, after capture, accused the prime minister of hiring witches to plant the wood figurines along the road to the Ganquan-gong Palace for cursing the emperor. Gongsun Jingsheng was also accused by Zhu Anshi of adultery with Princess Yangshi [sunnyside stone]. In January of 91 B.C., Gongsun He4 was arrested over the 'wugu' [poisonous {bugs} magic witchcraft]. Both father and son were imprisoned and later killed in prison. Several princesses, together with Marquis Wei Kang (a son of Wei Qing) were ordered to be executed. Liu Qumao, 'tai shou' [magistrate] for the Zhuo-jun Commandery, was made into the prime minister and Marquis Peng-hou. The emperor, who dreamt of being attacked by thousands of wood figurines, ordered an investigation of the 'wugu' [poisonous {bugs} magic witchcraft]. Jiang Chong, a prosecutor, used torture to extract confession, which led to death of over several tens of thousands of people. Jiang Chong, together with Haan Shui (Marquis Andao-hou), 'yu shi' [censor] Zhang Gan, and 'huang men' [eunuch team lead] Su Wen et al., tried to implicate the crown prince by searching the palaces for evidence of buried paulownia wood figurines. Jiang Chong was afraid that the crown prince could harm him after succession. The crown prince, who was accused of possession of a lot of wood figurines underneath the floor of his residence, resisted Jiang Chong at the urge of 'shao fu' [tutor] Shi De who cited the story of the death of Fu Su, the Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's eldest prince. The crown prince ordered to have Jiang Chong and his Hu witches killed. The crown prince then notified the empress of the action. Eunuch Su Wen fled to Ganquan-gong to report to the emperor. The emperor first sent a messenger to recall the crown prince for questioning, but the messenger dared not enter the capital city and reported to the emperor about the crown prince's rebellion. Prime minister Liu Qumao fled the city without seal after finding out that the crown prince had issued order to open the weapons' depot and take arms. The capital city swirled with rumors that the crown prince had rebelled. The emperor organized an army to crack down on the crown prince. The emperor returned to Jianzhang-gong to direct the troops in the three capital city districts against the crown prince. The emperor called on the Hu cavalry mercenaries from the Changshui and Xuanqu area to come to the aid. Liu Ju, the crown prince who was called by 'li [violent] taizi [prince]' in history, had to organize the civilians into an army after Ren An, a military leader of the Northern Barracks, refused to answer the order to fight. After five days' battles against the prime minister's army near the west gate of the Changle-gong [happy always] Palace, the crown prince was defeated and fled the city. The emperor sent Liu Chang {'zong zheng' [superintendent in charge of the Liu ancestral lineage]) and Liu Gan {'jinzhi-wu/jinzi-yu' [garrison commander]} to the Weiyang-gong Palace to revoke the empress' seal. Lady Wei-zi-fu committed suicide. Citing Qing Ying of Shi Jing, Linghu Mao, a 'san lao' [three elderly] official at the Hu-guan [kettle] Pass, petitioned with the emperor to pardon the crown prince, putting blame on Jiang Chong. While the emperor realized his mistake, he did not take action to restore the status for the last remaining baby grandson of the crown prince. The baby, i.e., future Han Emperor Xuandi, hence grew up in the imperial vassalage prison "jun-di-yu" which was subject to the 'da-hong-lu' foreign ministry. At one time in 87 B.C., the emperor was advised to execute all prisoners by a cunning minister over some necromancy saying that there was the rising of an emperor's mist from above the prison. The prison superintendent, Bing Ji, refused to open up the gate to allow the imperial commissioner {Guo Rang) to come in, and hence safeguarded the young prince's life. Emperor Wudi, at the deathbed, pardoned the boy and later allowed the boy to relocate to the Liu family's ancestral hall in the Ye-ting [armpit] Palace, where he grew up with good tutoring. Crown Prince Liu Ju, who fled to seek asylum with a commoner in Huxian but divulged his whereabouts after sending a messenger to seeking assistance with a friend, committed suicide when the local officials laid a siege of his hiding place. Liu Ju's two young sons also died with him in the manhunt. Liu Ju's wife and her family all died in Chang'an, the nation's capital, except for an infant grandson, Liu Bingyi, who was born by son [shi-huang-sun'] Liu Jing4. In 90 B.C., at the urge of Tian Qianqian, a 'lang guan' official in charge of Emperor Gaozu's pilgrimage, submitted another petition to seek redress for the crown prince, claiming that he dreamt of a white-haired old man telling him to do so. The emperor came to realize that it was a setup by Jiang Chong. The emperor made a 'Si-zi-gong' Palace for the remembrance of his son. At about this time, the emperor reprimanded son Liu Dan (King Yan-wang) for the proposal to come to the capital as a garrison commander, Prime minister Liu Qumao, who was accused by 'nei shi' Guo Rang of cursing the emperor and conspiracy with Li Guangli in making Liu Bo2 (King Changyi-wang, i.e., the emperor's 5th son) into a crown prince, was executed via the waist decapitation. Li Guangli, whose wife was arrested, hastily launched a battle against the Huns at the frontier upon learning of the upheaval at the nation's capital, and after a defeat, surrendered to the Huns. Han Shu recorded that in the 5th year of the Zhenghe (disputed as Yanhe with four years) Era, the Huns' emissaries escorted the Xian-ling Qiangic emissaries back and relayed a message to Yuezhi Minor that General Ershi surrendered to the Huns with over 100,000 troops, and that they should ally to recover the Zhangye-Jiuquan land which was the Huns' land in the first place. Li Guangli was killed one year later by the Huns after Wei Lü [another Han defector of the Hu background] vilified him for envying the favor that Li Guangli received from the Hunnic chanyu. In 89 B.C., the emperor issued a decree to take blames for the past blunders, i.e., the 'zui ji zhao' decree[, with the 'zhao' character meaning an order since Qin emperor Shihuangdi's era], similar to Shang Dynasty founder Shang Tang's self-blaming article Tang Gao. In the emperor's 89 B.C. Luntai Zhao repentance decree, the emperor mentioned that the Hunnic prisoners later disclosed that the Hunnic shamans had a practice of burying the dead sheep and cattle along the roads that the Han army passed and in the wells, and that the bound-feet horses were for cursing the Han army. This was speculated to be the Hunnic biochemical war using the typhoid virus from the dead animals of the frozen Siberia land. In 88 B.C., the emperor ordered to make a drawing of Archduke Zhougong Shouldering Zhou King Chengwang for Huo Guang, with intention to have the senior minister take care of the succeeding emperor. In 87 B.C., the emperor made son Liu Fuling a crown prince. At the time of Wudi's death, the emperor ordered the prominent ministers of the 'zhong [central] chao [court meeting]' to assist with son Liu Fuling, i.e., Han Emperor Zhaodi. Madame Zhao Jieyu (i.e., Madame Gouyi-furen), i.e., the jade hook mother of son Liu Fuling, was ordered to die. The ministers included Huo Guang ('da [grand] jiangjun [general]'), Jin-mi-di ('cheqi [chariot/cavalry] jiangjun [general]', son of Hunnic King Xiutu-wang), Shangguan Jie ('zuo [leftside] jiangjun [general]') and Sang Hongyang ('yushi dafu'). Prime minister Tian Qianqiu, who belonged to the 'wai [outer] chao [court meeting]', was not involved. (Jin-mi-di was initially favoured by the emperor to assist with the crown prince; however, Jin-mi-di yielded the job to Huo Guang, saying that the appointment of him could lead to the Huns' contempt of the Han dynasty. Hence, Huo Guang was given the job to assist with the crown prince.) Under Han Emperor Wudi's reign, the positive polices included Zhufu Yan-proposed 'tui [push] en [grace {to the second and third sons] ling [imperial order]', which led to the subdivision of the princely states. Other policies, which were devised by Sang Hongyang, included the 'jun [average] shu [transport] ling [order]' and 'ping-zhun [equalization] ling [order]' that adjusted the national price fluctuation. To collect more taxes, Sang Hongyang devised the 'gao [informer] min [property tax on the merchants] ling [order]'. Han Emperor Zhaodi (94-74 B.C.; reign 87-74 B.C.) Emperor Zhaodi, i.e., Liu Fuling, was Wudi's younger son born by Lady Zhao Jieyu (i.e., Madame Gouyi-furen), known for holding a blue jade hook in the palm when born. Among the emperor's men, conflicts arose after Jin-mi-di died. Jin-mi-di (134-86 B.C.) died of illness in 86 B.C., for whose funeral Emperor Zhaodi made a parade of chariot army soldiers all the way to the Maoling Mausoleum. Jin-mi-di's two junior sons were given the job of living together with the emperor. Huo Guang, a half-brother of Huo Qubing but did not get to learn about it between the brothers in the early days, had the late emperor's favor. Huo Guang's daughter was married with Shangguan Jie's son, which later led to the implication in the court conspiracy. Sang Hongyang had conflicts with Huo Guang concerning the leavy-handed state-controlled economic policies. In 83 B.C., Shangguan An, i.e., son of Shangguan Jie, attempted to get his six-year-old daughter selected for the emperor; however, Huo Guang was against it. Hence, the Shangguan family went around Huo Guang to Princess E-yi-zhang-gongzhu, a daughter of late Emperor Wudi, to approve the marriage. Shangguan An contacted Ding-wai-ren, i.e., the princess' lover ('main shou') for help. After the girl was taken in as Empress Shangguan, the Shangguan family made the lover into a marquis, over which Huo Guang expressed opposition. Shangguan An was upgraded to be 'qi [cavalry] duwei [captain] {or major general}' and conferred the title as Marquis Sangle-hou. Hence the feud ensued between the two families. Shangguan Jie colluded with Sang Hongyang against Huo Guang. In 81 B.C., at the suggestion of Du Yannian, the emperor approved the convening of a national salt, iron and liquor meeting. Tian Qianqiu ('cheng xiang' [prime minister]), and Sang Hongyang ('yushi dafu' [inspector]) debated the regional representatives who were known as the 'Xianliang [virtuous] Wenxue [literati]' scholars. The meeting decided to loosen the state's monopolization control on the liquor and wines at the prefecture level. In July, the 'que-gu guan' liquor administrators were abolished, and an alcohol tax of four coins was implemented. The Jincheng-jun commandery was carved out of Tianshui, Longxi and Zhangye. In 81 B.C., Shangguan Jie colluded with King Yan-wang (Liu Dan) and Sang Hongyang et al., in accusing Huo Guang of rebellion. Liu Dan claimed in the letter to the emperor that Huo Guang, who had sought for the release of Su Wu from the Hunnic captivity and assigned the post of 'dian-shu-guo' [foreign ministry official] onto Su Wu, intended to borrow an army from the Huns for a coup. The 14-year-old emperor dispelled it, after recalling Huo Guang to the court meeting and telling him that the Yan king could not have the knowledge of the rebellion in the allowed time for the messenger to travel back and forth. In September of 81 B.C., Shangguan Jie colluded with Princess E-yi-zhang-gongzhu to invite Huo Guang to a banquet for assassination so as to make King Yan-wang (Liu Dan) into an emperor. The emperor and Huo Guang, after receiving a tip from Yan Cang, a grains official under the princess, arrested and executed the Shangguan rebels, including Sang Hongyang and his family. King Yan-wang (Liu Dan) and Princess E-yi-zhang-gongzhu committed suicide. In 78 B.C., there were some strange phenomena recorded. On the Shandong peninsula, and in the area of Mt. Taishan, there was a huge stone erected from nowhere, with three stones acting as pods. Other reports sent to the nation's capital city included some words that were formed of tree leaves that were bit by the bugs, with characters saying 'gong-sun [the lord's grandson] bing-yi [by the name of 'bingyi'] li [be erected {as the ruler}]'. Sui Hong, who was a court official called by "fu-jie ling" [that was in charge of the talisman and seals], interpreted it as an omen that some commoner, i.e., a saint, could become the new ruler, and submitted a petition to the emperor for yielding the throne as the ancient sovereigns did. In the petition, Sui Hong cited grandmaster Dong Zhongshu of the Gong-yang school of Chun-qiu Zhuan to state that one should not hinder the saint from succeeding the mandate of heaven, and further claimed that even though the Han royal house had the fortune of inheriting the rule for their heritage as Lord Yao's descendants (namely, 'han-jia [the Han royal house] Yao {Lord Yao] hou [descendants]'), the Han emperor should locate the Shang-Zhou dynasty descendants for passing the mandate of heaven. Huo Guang ordered the court captain (i.e., 'ting wei') to have Sui Hong arrested and executed. Sui Hong was a 2nd-generation disciple of Dong Zhongshu. Sui Hong had a disciple called Yan Pengzu who was to become master of the Yan-shi school of Chun-qiu Gong-yang Zhuan, namely, Yan-shi Chun-qiu. The necromancy note was fulfilled later when Liu Bingyi, i.e., an infant grandson of Prince Li-tai-zi from the witchcraft incident time period, who grew up among the civilians, was made into Han Emperor Xuandi in place of the fatuous Han Emperor Feidi (Liu Heh). As to the huge stone with three stones acting as pods, it was ascertained by the modern archaeology to be a so-called 'shi-peng' or the stone shed religious site that was observed to have spread from the Chinese coast to the Pacific Islands, something to do with the ancestors of the modern Micronesians and Polynesians. Han Emperor Feidi (Liu Heh, 92-59 B.C.; reign 74 B.C.) When Zhaodi passed away, Liu Heh, a grandson of Emperor Wudi and the 5th son of King Chang-yi-ai-wang (Liu Bo2), was enthroned for 27 days but was deposed by Huo Guang and Zhang Anshi for bad behavior, after a nominal consultation with dowager-empress Shangguan-shi. Liu Bo2 (King Changyi-wang) had numerous well-known tutors, including Wang Shi who was spared death for his taking blame for not been able to correct the deposed emperor's deeds. In 63 B.C., Liu Heh was deprived of the title of King Chang-yi-wang and the Chang-yi (Juye, Shandong) fief for relocation to Yongxiu in today's Jiangxi as Marquis Haihun-hou, i.e., the fatuous marquis at the [south] sea (Lake Poyang-hu).
Han Emperor Xuandi (Liu Xun, 91-48 B.C.; reign 74-48 B.C.) Three months later, Huo Guang selected Liu Bingyi, the only survivor grandson of Liu Ju, as the new emperor. Liu Bingyi made Xu Pingjun an empress, a woman Zhang Heh (superintendent of the Ye-ting Palace) had selected for the young prince after his brother, Zhang Anshi, dissuaded him from making compliments of the young prince while Emperor Zhaodi was ruling. (Xu Guanghan, i.e., the father-in-law, invited scholar Fu-zhong-wen to be the prince's tutor for studying Shi Jing.) At the time of Han Emperor Zhaodi, military farming was conducted in the Luntai & Quli areas. In Chinese Turkestan, the new Loulan king also allied with the Huns. The Qiuci king attacked the Chinese farming station of Luntai and killed farming general Lai Dan. To punish Loulan, Fu Jiezi (?-65 B.C.), a person of the Yiqu-rong ethnic background, was sent to assassinating the Loulan king, An-gui, during a reception when visiting the Loulan kingdom. Huo Guang was noted for dispatching Fu Jiezhi to Loulan to assassinate the Loulan king, An-gui, in 77 B.C.E., for which Fu Jiezhi received the conferral of a title as Marquis Yiyang-hou. (Before that, General Zhao Ponu in 108 B.C.E. attacked Loulan with 700 cavalry and killed the Loulan king.) In 73 B.C., Huo Guang proposed to return the regency to the emperor. Phoenixes were seen in the Jiaodong-jun and Qianshen-jun commanderies on the Shandong peninsula. During the reign, the Han army allied with Wusun against the Huns. In the spring of 71 B.C., an army of 150,000, including the cavalry and chariots, commanded by five generals, i.e., Tian Guangming, Zhao Chongguo, Tian Shun, Fan Mingyou and Haan Zeng, departed the capital city to join Chang Hui in the expedition to the northwest. Chang Hui, commanding the Wusun army, defeated the Huns. Chang Hui was subsequently sent to Wusun again, and En route of return, attacked Qiuci which previously killed Han emissary Lai Dan. In this year, Empress Xu Pingjun was said to have been poisoned to death by Huo Xian, i.e., Huo Guang's wife. In 70 B.C., the emperor took Huo Chengjun, i.e., Huo Guang's daughter, as empress. In 68 B.C., Huo Guang passed away. The emperor later promoted 'yushi dafu' Wei Xiang to be 'cheng xiang' [prime minister]. Further, the emperor made Bing Ji into 'yushi dafu' and promoted his father-in-law Xu Guanghan (Marquis Ping'en-hou). In this year, Zheng Ji attacked Cheshi (Jushi), the only Hunnic vassal state north of the Tianshan Mountain. In 66 B.C., the Huo family rebellion was quelled. The emperor continued the loosening policy from the salt and iron meeting. Yang Yun, a junior son of Sima Qian's daughter-in-law Yang Chang, reported to the emperor on the Huo family conspiracy, for which he was promoted to be 'zhong lang jiang' and conferred the title of Marquis Pingtong-hou. Yang Yun surrendered Shi-ji, i.e., Sima Qian's great history book, to the emperor. Yang Yun, together with minister Gai Kuanrao, were ordered to be executed by the emperor for sarcasm, over which crown prince Liu Shi attempted to admonish the father-emperor who countered with a claim that the Han dynasty adopted both the hegemony way and the king way to manage a country, not the Confucian way or the Zhou dynasty's benevolence way. The crown prince Liu Shi's tutors included 'tai fu' Shu Guang [who succeeded Bing Ji's post after Bing Ji was promoted to be 'yushi dafu'], and 'shao fu' Shu Shou, a nephew of Shu Guang. The Shu uncle and nephew later in A.D. 63 requested for retirement, with Shu Guang noted for a saying that a wise person would have his will weakened for the excessive wealth and a stupid person would make more blunders with the excessive wealth. (During the Japanese invasion of China, the Japanese army claimed to be practicing the king way of ruling, a same word as used by the emperor.) In 65 B.C., Feng Fengshi, en route of trip to Dawan (Fergana), attacked Shache which previously killed Han emissary Xi Chongguo. In 63 B.C., phoenixes were seen on Mt. Taishan. In this year, the Qiangic tribes made an alliance. Lang-he, a chieftain from the Yuezhi Minor, i.e., Marquis Qiang-hou, attempted to borrow the troops from the Huns and planned to sever the Han dynasty's trade route at Shanshan and Dunhuang. In 61 B.C., Yiqu Anguo, also a person carrying the Yiqu-rong tribal name, cheated over thirty Qiangic chieftains to a meeting and killed them all, which led to the Qiangic rebellion. Yiqu Anguo retreated to Lingju. Zhao Chongguo and Xu Yanshou were dispatched to quelling the Qiangic rebellion. In 60 B.C., the Han army quelled the Western Qiangic land and set up the Jincheng fort. In the same year, the Han court established the Xi-yu [western territories] Duhu-fu [pacifying] office at Wulei to take charge of the countries as far as today's Central Asia. The Hunnic sun-chasing king came to surrender. Zheng Ji, commanding 50,000 troops from the Quli and Qiuci states, escorted Hunnic sun-chasing king (Xian-xian-dan) and his several tens of thousands of followers to Chang'an, with those going astray killed en route. Zheng Ji was conferred the title of Marquis Anyuan-hou (pacifying the remote land). The Huns began the intermarriage peace process afterwards. Around 60 B.C., there were five Hunnic chanyu competing against each other. In 58 B.C., the Hunnic chanyu sent his brother to the Han court. In 56 B.C., a Hunnic king was conferred marquis. In 54 B.C., the Hunnic chanyu sent brother, i.e., King Gu-li-wang, to be hostage at the Han court. In 53 B.C., Hunnic King Huyanye-chanyu sent son, i.e., the Hunnic rightside virtuous king, to the Han court as hostage. A yellow dragon was spotted in Xinfeng. Around 53 B.C., hearing that 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu' obtained the support of the Han Chinese, the last competing 'chanyu', i.e., Zhizhi, sent his son [the rightside grand general] to the Han Court as a hostage as well. In 52 B.C., 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu' arrived in the Wuyuan Garrison and went on to see Han Emperor Xuandi in the Ganquan-gong Palace in Jan of 51 B.C. In 51 B.C., Hunnic King Huyanye-chanyu (Jihoushan) came to the Han court to be a vassal minister. In 51 B.C., the emperor ordered to convene the Confucian meeting at the Shiqu-ge [stony canal] Mansion. The emperor, who was fond of the divination and sorcery, ordered Liangqiu Lin, son of Liangqiu Heh, to make lectures about the Jiang Fang school of Yi Jing. In this year, Emperor Xuandi ordered the portraits to be drawn for eleven generals and ministers and hung at the Qilin-ge [giraffe] Palace in commemoration of their feats and contribution, including Huo Guang [with the given name skipped], Zhang Anshi, Haan Zeng, Zhao CHongguo, Wei Xiang, Bing Ji, Du Yannian, Liu De [son of Liu Pijiang], Xiao Wangzhi and Su Wu. Su Wu (140-60 B.C.), after release from the Hunnic captivity, was offered a job in the foreign ministry by the predecessor emperor but was dismissed by Huo Guang over the implication of his son Su Yuan in the Sang Hongyang and Shangguan Jie's scheme, and was re-hired for the foreign ministry's job by Emperor Xuandi, with an honorary title called 'ji-jiu {wine oblation}. The emperor further inquired with Su Wu as to whether he had any child born under the Hunnic custody, and then made arrangement for son Su Tongguo to be repatriated home. Zhizhi Chanyu fled to the distant land to the west. Zhizhi made Jiankun (i.e., the later Kirghiz territory or today's Tuva land) the locality of his capital. In 49 B.C., Hunnic King Huyanye-chanyu came again. At about 48 B.C., i.e., the year Han Emperor Yuandi [r 48-32 BC] got enthroned, 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu' wrote to the Chinese court about his economic hardship. Yuandi decreed that the Yunzhong & Wuyuan commanderies transport 20,000 units of grains to the Huns. At this time, Zhizhi chanyu requested with the Han court for releasing his son. The Han court ordered Gu Ji to escort the prince to Zhizhi. However, Zhizhi chanyu killed Gu Ji without a reason. Zhizhi, being afraid of Han for his killing the Han emissary, relocated to the west, namely, the ancient Jiankun Statelet. This relocation also had to do with the request from the Kangju (Sogdia/Sogdiana) king. At about 47 B.C., the Han court returned Huhanye (Huhancha)'s son by ordering Haan Chang & Zhang Meng to escort the prince back to the Hun territory. Haan Chang & Zhang Meng inquired with Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu as to the rumor that Zhizhi Chanyu might have killed emissary Gu Ji. Hearing that the Southern Huns talked about a return to the north of Gobi, Haan Chang & Zhang Meng, on their own initiative, made a swear with Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu in the attempt of retaining the Huns for better management. Haan Chang & Zhang Meng climbed Mt. Dongshan at the Ruo-shui River with Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu and drank the blood-dripped wine via the Yuezhi king's skull which was used as a drinking utensil. During Emperor Xuandi's reign, an interesting thing happened when the emperor received a report that some ancient foot-chained and hands-bound corpse was found behind a sealed granite cave in the Shang-jun Commandery. Liu Xiang (Liu Zizheng) answered the emperor with citation of an ancient text from Shan Hai Jing, saying this would be like the Er-fu corpse which was about Wei1, a person who was ordered by the overlord to be chained to some tree on the Shushu Mountain, with right foot chained and two hands bound to the back, for the killing of Yayu (a human face and snake body person), lord of the Er-fu country. This was a story carried in the Hai-nei Bei Jing section of the said book, which listed the Er-fu country as located to the northwest of Kaiti [which was in turn juxtaposed with the Hunnic country and the Lie-ren country]. The emperor was shocked to find out about the matching description. After that, ministers flocked to locate the book in the imperial library for reading. Liu Xiu, in talking about his father's dialogue with the emperor, further claimed that Dongfang Shuo, a minister from Emperor Wudi's times, had recognized the 'Chong [repetitive] chang [ordinary]' bird on basis of the same book, namely, a bird that was sent in as a tribute but refused to eat any food till Dongfang Shuo named the bird and its food. Wang Chong, in Bie Tong (alternative learning) of Lun Heng, mentioned the Er-fu corpse story as well as the 'Chong [repetitive] chang [ordinary]' bird story; however, Wang Chong possibly erred in saying that Dong Zhongshu, another Emperor Wudi's minister, made the claim. Guo Pu, a Jinn Dynasty historian, had a slightly different recital of the excavation story from Wang Chong's. Guo Pu, in his preface to Shan Hai Jing, claimed that Dongfang Shuo knew the Bifang-niao's bird name. Han Emperor Yuandi (Liu Shi, 74-33 B.C.; reign 49-33 B.C.) At the time Emperor Xuandi was dying, he decreed to have Shi Gao, Xiao Wangzhi and Zhou Lukan (Zhou Kan) to support the crown prince. Shi Gao was a son of Shi Gong, i.e., brother of Shi-liangdi who was Emperor Xuandi's late grandmother. Xiao Wangzhi was the sixth generation grandson of Xiao Heh, and studied Shi Jing under teacher Hou Cang [who, a doctorate under Emperor Wudi, studied under Xiahou Shichang and Meng Qing]. Emperor Xuandi, who was commented by his father to be weak for sympathizing with the executed Confucian officials, was known for talents in calligraphy, music, and etc. Back in 51 B.C., Liu Shi, as crown prince, was in deep sorrow over the death of concubine Sima-liangdi. At the arrangement of the empress, Liu Shi was given a woman called Wang Zhengjun as wife. This woman's in-law family would later produce the usurper emperor Wang Mang of the Xin (New) dynasty. In 47 B.C., Xiao Wangzhi was forced to commit suicide in prison as a result of losing the power struggle to eunuch Hong Gong and 'pu she' Shi Xian. The emperor, upon hearing of Xiao Wangzhi's death, stopped eating and had tears. Xiao Wangzhi attempted to revoke the 'zhong [central court] shu [secretariat]' office that was controlled by the eunuchs. Shi Gao employed the inner court officials and eunuchs to frustrate Xiao Wangzhi's reform. Shi Xian, who was a eunuch 'zhong shu ling' succeeding Hong Gong, managed to get Jing Fang arrested and executed. A student of Jiao Yanshou, Jing Fang (Jing Junming, 77-37 B.C.) was a 'tai shou' for the Wei-jun Commandery and founder of the Jing-shi 'Yi' ['milfoil divination' (Yi Jing, Book of Changes)] school of thought, which was his teacher's application of the divination theory to the day-to-day practice of prophesying and to the political usage at the court. Jing Fang lost the power struggle to Shi Xian ('zhong shu ling') and Wulu Chongzong ('shang shu ling'). While Zhizhi Chanyu stationed in the Jiankun territory, the Kangju (Sogdia) king intended to attack the Wusun Statelet with the Hunnic assistance. The Kangju (Sogdia) king sent an emissary to Zhizhi, with a gift of several thousands of camels and horses. On the way to Kangju (Sogdia), Zhizhi Chanyu lost quite some people due to the cold weather. About 3,000 remnants arrived in the Kangju territory for the alliance. Zhizhi built a castle by the Talas River (i.e., Dulai-shui), called by the 'zhizhi-cheng' fort. In 36 B.C., the Han army attacked the Huns to the west of the Pamirs. In this year, Chen Tang tacked on the deputy 'xiao wei' post for the 'xiyu duhu fu' office. Governor-general Gan Yanshou answered the call from Wusun and sent 6 columns of armies, about 40,000 troops, to defeat Kangju (Sogdia) and 'Zhizhi Chanyu'. It was said that Chen Tang forced Gan Yanshou into launching the attack. Chen Tang, after death, received the compliment as Marquis 'po-hu zhuang-hou' from usurper emperor Wang Mang. After the death of Zhizhi, Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu was both happy and worried. Previously, Huhanye (Huhancha) wrote to the Han court that he did not visit Han emperor frequently because he was worried that Zhizhi might attack him. In 33 B.C., 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu', came to the Han capital a third time, and was married with lady Wang Zhaojun, a court maid of honour. Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu died in the second year of Emperor Chengdi's Jianshi Era, i.e., 31 B.C., after a reign of 28 years. (Lady Zhaojun, like many princesses and maids of honour married with Huns or other nomads before and after her, would later re-marry with the successor Hunnic King, a practice adopted by the nomads throughout history.) In 36 B.C., Kuang Heng, a student of Hou Cang, replaced Wei Xuancheng as 'cheng xiang' (prime minister). In 33 B.C., Emperor Yuandi, before his death, had contemplated on making a junior son, King Shanyang-wang (Liu Kang) into a crown prince. Wang Shang, who was 'you-jiangjun' and 'guanglu dafu', opposed it. Seeing Liu Kang and his birth-mother, Concubine Fu-zhao-yi, attending to the emperor, Shi Dan managed to persuade the emperor into maintaining Liu Ao's crown prince status with tears. Han Emperor Chengdi (Liu Ao, 51-7 B.C.; reign 33-7 B.C.) Emperor Chengdi, to inhibit eunuch Shi Xian, allowed Wang Feng, i.e., his mother-empress's elder brother, to ascend to power. Wang Feng overpowered the in-law background officials from the other families. Wang Feng got rid of high official Xu Jia, from the Xu family, another lineage related to Emperor Xuandi. Wang Feng subsequently in 25 B.C. manipulated to get the emperor to sack Wang Shang, who replaced Kuang Heng as 'cheng xiang' [prime minister] in 29 B.C. Wang Shang's aunt was Emperor Xuandi's birth-mother. In 24 B.C., Wang Feng managed to deprive the 'tai shou' post of Feng Yewang, who was a brother of Feng Zhaoyi [Feng Fengshi's daughter and Emperor Yuandi's concubine]. Dowager-empress Wang Zhengjun's family hence produced seven brothers with marquisdom conferral at the court. A nephew, Wang Mang, would eventually usurp the Han dynasty throne to found the Xin (New) Dynasty. Emperor Chengdi was noted for having a concubine Ban Jieyu who was a sister of Ban Zhi, i.e., grandfather of General Ban Chao and Historian Ban Gu. Ban Jieyu declined the emperor's request to ride in the same chariot by citing the precedents of those beauties that led to the downfall of the past dynasties. The 'Ban' surname derived from the Chu royal family of 'Wutu' [i.e., wu-de or a-wu-de] which meant tiger in the Chu native language. Ban Jieyu (48-2 B.C.), a literary woman, requested for relocation to the dowager-empress' palace so as to avoid being persecuted by the emperor's new favourite concubines, sisters Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede. In 16 B.C., Zhao Feiyan was made into empress. Zhao Feiyan was noted for dancing like a swallow on top of the emperor's palm. The younger Zhao sister made the emperor to order the deposed Empress Xu-hou (daughter of Xu Jia) to drink poison in 8 B.C. Lie nü Zhuan claimed that the younger Zhao sister was responsible for forcing the emperor into killing all newborns of the concubines. This would be the story of the swallow killing the emperor's sons. With no son born, Emperor Chengdi made nephew Liu Xin into an adopted son and the crown prince. The notable thing that the emperor did was to assign Chen Nong the job of collecting the books nationwide and Liu Xiang ('guanglu dafu') the job of reorganizing the books in the imperial library in 26 B.C. Liu Xiang took charge of the classics, the hundred schools of thoughts, and poems; Ren Hong the books on the military strategy; Yin Xian the arithmetics; and Li Zhuguo the medicine and craftsmanship books. The emperor reviewed the abstracts and the outlines of the reorganized books. Liu Xiang and son Liu Xin1 hence made a systematic catalogue of books, including books like Bie Lu and Qi Lüe, which laid the foundation of China's bibliography. The emperor adopted the friendly policy with the Huns. In 25 B.C., the country of Ji4 (i.e., today's Kabul) sent emissary to seeing the emperor. During Emperor Chengdi's reign, stringent laws had led to the armed uprisings. In 22 B.C., Shen Tusheng and 180 convicts at an ironsmith shop in Yingchuan (Yuxian, Henan) rose up and harassed nine prefectures before bing put down. In 14 B.C., Su Ling and 228 convicts at the Shanyang (Jiaozuo, Henan) ironsmith site rose up, and harassed 19 prefectures before being put down. In 7 B.C., Liu Xin, with Wang Mang's recommendation, tacked on the posts 'shi zhong' and 'guang-lu da-fu' for continuing father Liu Xiang's work on the bibliography work on the ancient classics and books, with the completion of the bibliography and abstract book Qi Lü e (i.e., seven abstracts). In this year, Liu Xin modified the Taichu-li calendar into the Santong-li (triple concordance system) calendar, with the 'tong' (i.e., concordance) character meaning 81 cycles of the Metonic cycle of nineteen years, namely, 19035 months. Liu Xin (Liu Zijun) was commented by the later scholars to have inserted the Shang Shu and Chun-qiu sorcery and astronomical data into the theories of the calendar, with additional details built in on top of the Taichu-li calendar, like 24 solar terms, the leap month intercalation, the new moon, circumstances of the eclipse, the five planets, and the stellar distance, etc. Liu Xin might have initiated the 60-year sexagenary cycle, if it was not adopted after the A.D. 85 Sifen-li quarter remainder calendar, i.e., the Han-dynasty posterior Julian-equivalent calendar. Liu Xin was noted for writing the book Shi [epoch or dynasties] Jing [classics], which was an attempt at calculating the reign years of the Xia and Shang dynasties, with the Xia dynasty years calculated to be 432 years, a number that was speculated to be a mimeograph typo in today's version of Lü-li Zhi of Han Shu --as all the future reference books, such as Yi [Yi Jing] Hui [the post-book-burning Wei-suffixed sorcery/prophecy books of the Han dynasty time period] Ji [examination] Lan [reading] Tu (map), or the later-modified forgery contemporary version of The Bamboo Annals, carried the years of 431 for the Xia dynasty. Han Emperor Aidi (Liu Xin, 25-1 B.C.; reign 7-1 B.C.) Emperor Aidi, who was notorious for throwing dice whenever having drinking parties, was the source of the homosexual love story of 'cutting off the sleeve' so as not to wake up gigolo Dong Xian. The emperor, at one time, awarded Dong Xian with 2000 Chinese hectares of land, which made his land-restriction and servant-restriction decrees a hollow paper. Right after assumption of the reign, the emperor adopted the measures to inhibit the power base of the Wang in-law family. Emperor Aidi ordered Shi Dan ('zuo-jiangjun') to replace Wang Mang as 'da sima' [marshal]. It was Shi Dan who proposed the land-restriction and servant-restriction laws. In 5 B.C., the emperor also ordered to revoke the 'zhou mu' post for the prefectures and re-installed the 'ci-shi' post. Later historian Su Zhe commented that the emperor had reined in the Wang family of the Chengdi era, but soon allowed the Empress Fu's family to take control of the court, plus the pampering with Dong Xian the gigolo minister. More, the emperor, at deathbed, had no ministers available for taking care of the successor emperor, unlike Emperor Liu Bang who ordained Chen Ping, Wang Ling and Zhou Bo, and Emperor Wendi who ordained Zhou Yafu. Right after the emperor's death, dowager-empress Wang-tai-hou pressured Dong Xian ('da sima') into recalling Wang Mang (Marquis Xindu-hou). Wang Mang immediately censured Dong Xian. Wang Zhengjun, as the great great dowager-empress, claimed that Dong Xian was too young to govern. Dong Xian committed suicide. Han Emperor Pingdi (Liu Kan, 9 B.C.-6 A.D.; reign 1 B.C.-6 A.D.) The nine-year-old son of Emperor Aidi was selected as an emperor by Wang Mang, with dowager-empress Wang Zhengjun ruling the regency by curtain. Wang Mang managed to get rid of 'wei wei' Chunyu Zhang (Marquis Dingling-hou) who won favor from Emperor Chengdi for helping concubine Zhao Feiyan's father to become a marquis. In A.D. 1, Wang Mang installed favourite ministers at the court, including Kong Guang, Wang Shun, Zhen Feng and Zhen Han. Wang Mang, who proposed Confucius' virtues and pushed for new policies, was touted as the Zhou Archduke equivalent, titled Duke Anhan-gong [the duke who pacified the Han dynasty]. Wang Mang located a descendant of Archduke Zhou-gong, i.e., Gongsun Xiangru, and had the emperor confer the title of Marquis Bao-lu-hou. Kong Jun, a Confucius descendant, was made into Marquis Bao-cheng-hou. (Wang Mang, when young, studied The Analects under Chen Can.) Wang Mang, when opposed by his own elder son Wang Yu on the matter of ridding off Emperor Pingdi's Wei-shi in-law family, imprisoned his own son and had him killed at prison. Many years before, Wang Mang forced a younger son, Wang Huo, to commit suicide to show unequivocal punishment to the public. In AD 3, Wang Mang made his elder daughter Wang Yan into empress for Emperor Pingdi. In AD 3, Wang Mang made himself into 'zai heng', a post above the three ancient duke-equivalents, a title taken from Shang prime minister Yi Yin's name 'Ah Heng' and Archduke Zhou-gong's title of 'tai zai'. In AD 4, Wang Mang proposed to establish the Xihai-jun Commandery for resettling the convicts. In AD 5, Wang Mang called on the prefectures and counties to send in the learned scholars of various fields for making lectures at the nation's capital. Later historian Xun Yue commented that Wang Mang's deeds were none like the Zhou duke nor like the Shang minister Yi Yin. When the emperor was ill, Wang Mang pretended to be the emperor's proxy to take the punishment of illness. In AD 6, the emperor died at the age of 14. Later, Zi Zhi Tong-jian, a Soong dynasty history book, claimed that Wang Mang poisoned the emperor to death with a kind of pepper wine. Han Emperor Ru-zi Ying (Liu Ying, 5-25 A.D.; reign 6-8 A.D.) Wang Mang, then age 51, selected the two-year-old Ru-zi Ying (Liu Ying, 5-25 A.D.), i.e., Emperor Xuandi's 'xuan sun' or King Chu-xiao-wang's great grandson, as the crown prince, with himself as 'she-huangdi', i.e., the regent-emperor. Wang Mang called himself by 'yu' [me], and named the era 'ju she' [residing regency]. In A.D. 6, Liu Chong, a Han royal family member, led a rebellion and attacked the Wancheng city. In A.D. 7, Zhai Yi, 'tai shou' for the Dong-jun Commandery, rebelled against Wang Mang, and selected Marquis Yanxiang-hou (Liu Xin) as an emperor. To the west of Chang'an, banditry under Zhao Ming erupted and harassed twenty-three counties. Wang Mang wrote an article, in imitation of DA GAO, to explain that his regency was a temporary thing and that he would return the rule to the emperor in the future. Wang Mang dispatched Wang Yi to quelling the rebellion. After quelling the rebellion, Wang Mang thought that he had consolidated the rule and acquired the mandate of heaven. In December of A.D. 8, Wang Mang deposed the young emperor and downgraded Ru-zi Ying (Liu Ying) to Duke Anding-gong, with a nominal fief of five counties of Pingyuan, Ande, Luoyin, Ge and Chongqiu. Wang Mang declared the founding of the Xin (New) dynasty, with the era of 'shi-jian-guo' [begin the building of a nation). Wang Mang officially proclaimed himself Emperor Xin-shi-zu, i.e., emperor of the Xin (New) Dynasty. Invasion into the Korean Peninsula In 128 B.C., Hui-jun (king for the Hui Korean), by the name of Nan-lü , who surrendered to Wei-man, defected from Chaoxian (Korean) King Wei Youqu and took 280,000 people to the Liaodong peninsula for seeking protection under Han Dynasty. Han Emperor Wudi approved the relocation and made the dwelling area the Hai-jun Commandery so as to weaken Wei-man Chaoxian. In 109 BC, the Han court envoy to Chosen (Korea), She He, killed the Korean escort and claimed to Wudi that he killed a Korean general. The Koreans avenged later by killing She He, i.e., "du wei" (captain) for Liaodong. Using She He's death as a pretext, Emperor Wudi dispatched two armies against Chosen in the autumn of 109 B.C., via sea and land, respectively. The Han army converged at the Lie-kou rivermouth, i.e., the estuary of both the Deadong (Datong-jiang) River and the Jeanyeong River Wudi's campaigns against Korea had to do with his worries about a possible alliance between the Huns and the Koreans. Wudi was also unhappy about Chosen's cutting off the trade routes between China and the state of Chen (Chenhan or Chinhan) which was on the southern end of the Korean peninsula. Yang Pu, with 7000 soldiers from Shandong, crossed the Bohai Sea [disputed to be the Yellow Sea] for Korea, while Xun Zhi, with 50,000 troops, consisting of some convicts, attacked from Liaodong. The land army, without coordinating with the sea route, initiated an attack and was defeated. The sea prong, not knowing the demise of the land route, pushed against today's Pyongyang with limited number of troops, and was defeated as well. Unable to subjugate Chosen in the first campaign, Wudi sent another envoy to Chosen and successfully persuaded the Korean King into sending the prince to China's court as a hostage. But a Chinese general's attempt of dismantling the Korean prince's entourage aborted the peace efforts. Renewed fighting caused Chosen to disintegrate internally. Xiang-li-xi-qing [could be 'xiang' as the surname, like Xiang Lixi, while 'qing' meaning minister] (Yok-kye), a Chosen minister, fled south to the State of Qin-han with two thousand households including metallurgists, farmers and etc. In the summer of 108 B.C., Ni-xi-gu-xiang-can or Ni-xi-xiang-can ['xiang' could be the Sinitic surname, while the name was actually Ni-xi, Xiang Can], a minister of the Chosen King, assassinated their king and surrendered to the Chinese. Wei-man Chosen and Wang'gom-song fell to Chinese. Thereafter, Wudi established four commanderies. Ni-xi-gu-xiang-can and Xiang-haan-tao were conferred the title of marquis by the Han court. In 107 BC, Lelang Commandery was set up; in 106 BC, Xuantu Commandery was set up. The four commanderies, in the order of north to south, would be Xuantu, Lindun, Lelang, and Zhenfan, with Xuantu along the Yalu River and Zhenfan to the south of today's P'yong'yang. Under the new commandery system, Chaoxian (Korea or Chosen) became merely the name of one of 25 counties of Lelang Commandery that was subject to the Youzhou Prefecture near today's Peking. When Han Emperor Wudi quelled Manchuria and Korea in 107 B.C., the Xuantu Commandery was organized, and the Koguryo territory was treated as a county. Reading through Chinese records, the conclusion would be that the domain of Korea or Chosen under Ji-Zi or Wei-Man was limited to the areas in and around today's eastern Liaoning Province and northern Korea. Emperor Wudi's control of the Korean Peninsula still failed to reach the southern tip. It would be during the time period of late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms that China would control the whole segment of the Korean Peninsula, with influences extending to the southern tip. General Gongsun Du, under the order of Dong Zhuo (who hand-picked the last Han emperor), crossed the sea to campaign in Korea and set up several commanderies including Daifang and Lelang. General Guanqiu Jian (? -255 A.D.) of the Wei Dynasty (AD 220-265), one of the Three Kingdoms of China, would be responsible for defeating Koguryo and extended China's influence to Japan. Han Emperor Wudi, the Kunlun Mountain & the Book Shan Hai Jing Han Emperor Wudi's search to the west, rather than Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's search in the seas to the east, could shed light on the age of the book Shan Hai Jing, both the mountain section and the seas section, in that the immortals in Shan Hai Jing could not have been written before Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's times. The difference between Shan Jing (the mountain part) and the seas or overseas' components of Shan Hai Jing was that the former was about sacrifice of wines, grains, fish and animals to either animal gods, or human-faced animal gods, strange-looking people, the heavenly lord and the high lord on the major mountains and hills. The seas or overseas' components of Shan Hai Jing was a motley of pictographic transcribing of animal gods, human-faced animal gods and strange-looking people which were in turn transformed into the names of countries or tribes. Huai Nan Zi, a Han dynasty book, which still failed to trace the Yangtze's origin and its southern flow into the Sichuan basin, made a summary tally of thirty-five "overseas" countries, like one-arm country, three-body country, through-chest country, etc. For example, the heelless and tiptoe-walking country could have its origin in the owl-like 'qi-zhong' bird on Mt. Fuzhou-zhi-shan, with one leg and pig's tail, as described the Zhong-shan Jing section. The yardstick would be to treat whatever books that talked about the 'guo' or state-suffixed names with the unearthly names, like in the seas' component of Shan Hai Jing, in the Wang-hui [Jie] of Yi Zhou Shu, or in Huai Nan Zi, to be a Han dynasty forgery. This betrayed itself as a Han dynasty book to the disappointment of people, both ancient and today, that Shan Hai Jing was from the remote antiquity like the times of Lord Yu and his assistant Bo-yi4. There was no exception to applying the yardstick to the Wang-hui [Jie] section of Yi Zhou Shu. For details, refer to THE SINITIC CIVILATION Book II, available on Amazon, B&N. Additionally, the seas or overseas' components of Shan Hai Jing pretentiously recorded the lineage history of the ancient thearchs, the barbarians, and the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties --which had deviation from what was described in the Wu-di De (on the five thearchs' virtues) as well as Di Xi (the thearchs' lineages) sections of Da-dai Li-ji, that Sima Qian partially adopted in Wu-di Ben-ji of Shi-ji. Among the comprehensive list of the ancient thearchs in the seas or overseas' components of Shan Hai Jing would be Lord Di-jun, a name seen in the Shang oracle bones, which then gave people a false impression that the book could be very ancient. In the "within-seas" section, Da-hao (i.e., Tai-hao) was said to have a great grandson called Hou-zhao, who was the ancestor of the Ba-ren people in western China; and Shao-hao was said to have sired someone called Ban1 who was the inventor of bows and arrows. The other claims of original inventors were: musical instrument inventors Gu3, Yan2 and Shu1 who were sons of Bo-ling and great grandsons of the Fiery Thearch; boat inventor Panyu who was a great grandson of Lord Di-jun; dancing inventors who were eight sons of Lord Di-jun; artisan tools' inventor Qiao-chui who was a grandson of Lord Di-jun; and ox-tilling inventor Shu-jun who was a grandson of Hou-ji, etc. The invention history in the "within-seas" section of Shan Hai Jing were the patented words of the book Shi Ben (i.e., lineages), which rendered the book Shi Ben to be an untrustworthy source for seeking the thearchs' lineage. The topic like inventor Qiao-chui was also mentioned in sophistry book Lü-shi Chun-qiu in the context of ordinary people's loving their own fingers, not that of [Qiao-]Chui. Count Bo-ling was seen in Guo Yu to be a remotely ancient ancestor of the Jiang surname people, whose descendants included Pang-gong who in turn was a nephew of Madame Tai-jiang, i.e., the wife of Zhou King Taiwang [i.e., Gu-gong-dan-fu]. The Divination Nature and Age of the Seas' Component in The Legends of Mountains & Seas Shan Hai Jing, in the "within-seas" and "great [overseas] wilderness sections, contained three interesting matters, namely, an alternative history of the thearchs that differed from the five thearchs' lineage in Shi-ji and Da-dai Li-ji; the wind gods that had the trace from the oracle bones of the Shang dynasty time period; and the divination topics such as Xia King Qi3's bestriding the flying dragons to rise to the heaven. It could be speculated that the mythic writings in the seas' components of Shan Hai Jing were the result of the emperor's seeking the panacea or elixir. Note that dozens of diplomatic missions were sent to the west, with an apparent side order for ascertaining the locality of the legendary Kunlun Mountain where the immortals lived. If the mountain sections of Shan Hai Jing was written before Zhang Qian's trip to the west, the writer(s) of the sea sections, possibly following the "mountains" component of Shan Hai Jing (i.e., The Legends of the Mountains and Seas), expanded the writings on Kunlun, the Queen Mother (old woman), and the origin of the Yellow River, etc., into the chapters known as "The Book on the Within-Seas", "The Book on the Inner Seas", "The Book on the Outer Seas", and "The Book on the [Overseas] Wilderness" --a highly speculative book that talked about the panacea, the immortals, the various gods, as well as the ancestral human gods like Tai-hao the Senior (i.e., wind or phoenix-surnamed ancestor), Huang-di the Yellow Thearch, Yan-di the Fiery Thearch, Shao-hao the Junior (i.e., Ji3-surnamed ancestor), Overlord Zhuanxu, Overlord Di-ku, Overlord Yao, Overlord Shun, the founder-kings of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, as well as mythical figures like Lord Di-jun, et al. (Depending on the coverage of the overlords in different sections of the sea components of Shan Hai Jing, there were unfounded claims among the modern historians that those particular sections of the book were from some particular past dynasties like Xia or Shang.) The mountain part of Shan Hai Jing, while having its geographical layout built on top of Yu Gong (Lord Yu's Tributes), was not written as a geography book but with possibly two purposes, namely, a proclivity for expounding sacrifice and primitive prophecy conducted on the mountains and hills, and a description of the treasures and wealth of the mountains. The second purpose was similar to the forgery Han dynasty political economy book Guan Zi --which, like the "Salt & Iron Debate" of the Han dynasty, contained chapters on the mountains such as 'Shan-guo Gui' (mountain nations' track, i.e., finance management), Shan Quan Shu (mountain's whimsical mathematical strategy), and Shan Zhi Shu (mountain's utmost mathematical strategy), containing similar description of the treasures and wealth of the mountains. The writings sharing the common geographical data or similar raw materials with the mountain part of Shan Hai Jing included Qu Yuan's poems like Tian Wen (asking heaven); Mu-tian-zi Zhuan (Zhou King Muwang's travelogue); and Lü-shi Chun-qiu. (The four eastern mountain ranges were mistakenly appropriated to North America by Henriette Mertz in the 1958 book Pale Ink, which was the author's overzealous pursuit of the topic of Asiatic fathers of the Amerindians. Henriette Mertz also had the wild imagination about the deep gully beyond the east sea, stating that it was the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Henriette Mertz, who had erroneously appropriated the mountains and valleys in Shan Hai Jing to North America, had some validity as to the link of monk Hui-shen to Quetzalcoatl.) In contrast, the seas or overseas' components of Shan Hai Jing transcribed the unearthly animals, human-faced animal gods and strange-looking people in the mountain part of Shan Hai Jing into the names of countries or tribes as seen in Lü-shi Chun-qiu and Han dynasty book Huai Nan Zi, exhibiting the seas or overseas' components to be later than the mountain part. The seas or overseas' components could be further separated into two groups, namely, the "inner seas" and the "outer seas" sections that were compiled by Liu Xin of the Han dynasty and the "within-seas" and the "overseas wilderness" sections that were collected by Guo Pu of the Jinn dynasty, with the former two sections possibly synchronizing with the Han empire's military expansion, and the latter two sections sharing similar contents seen in the divinatory books Lian-shan Yi and Gui-cang Yi, including the Wangjiatai excavated divination texts of the 3rd century B.C. and possible materials from the Ji-zhong tomb excavation materials that were possibly a few decades earlier than the Wangjiatai texts. Gui-cang Yi, like what the seas' component of Shan Hai Jing did in extensively copycatting Qu Yuan's and the other Chu Principality poems, had taken some of the poems' concepts as part of the divination texts, such as the "Feng-xue" (wind cave) in poem Bei Hui-feng [feeling sad about the percolating wind], and the "Yun-zhong[-jun]" (god in the cloud) and "Dong-jun" (eastern god) deities in poem Jiu Ge (nine songs), for example. While the divination in the seas or overseas' components of Shan Hai Jing could be relatively old, like the age of the Ji-zhong tomb and Wangjiatai excavation texts, the materials had apparently undergone revision through the Zhou, Qin, Han and Jinn dynasties, for about half millennium's time, as seen in Guo Pu's citation of eight polars in Qi3-shi1 of Gui-cang Yi to describe Xi-he2's reign in the empty mulberry land under the 'cang-cang' blue sky, as well as in the erroneous interpretation of Xia King Qi3's rising to the sky to be a high lord's guest as some theft of heavenly music, not an award from the high lord. Simply speaking, the seas or overseas' components of Shan Hai Jing, though carrying the names of countries like in today's Korea, Chinese Turkestan and India, etc., were not about geography at all but divination. The divination materials, similar to those in Shi1 Fa, Gui-cang Yi, the Wangjiatai divination script, and the divination in Mu-tian-zi Zhuan, served the same augury purpose of the late Warring States time period, albeit possessing their separate freelance or freewheeling traits. For example, The one eyed son of Lord Shaohao in the "great northern wilderness" (Da Huang Bei Jing) section of Shan Hai Jing, like the one-hand and one-eye 'shen-mu-guo' (the deep eye socket) state in the "Northern Outer Seas" section, which was speculated to be the legendary one-eyed state Arimaspi that was described by Herodotus in Histories as located north of Scythia and east of Issedones and linked to the three-eye stone statutes of the Okunev Culture in Minusinsk, could have its source in some one-eye bird in the northern mountain range of Shan Hai Jing, and the one-eye and three-tail 'huan' foxlike animal on Mt. Yiwang-zhi-shan in the western mountain range. Some conclusive statement could be made about the alternative divination methods other than Zhou Yi (i.e., Yi-jing). No matter Gui-cang Yi, Shi1 Fa, the Wangjiatai divination script, Mu-tian-zi Zhuan, or the mountain part and seas' part of Shan Hai Jing, they served the same augury purpose of the late Warring States time period, that possessed their separate freelance or freewheeling traits in the land of the Wei Principality in the case of the Ji-zhong tomb's type of Gui-cang Yi divination or in the land of the Chu Principality in the case of Shi1 Fa and Wangjiatai divination bamboo slips. The line augury objects in Shi1 Fa under the stalk numbers "eight", "five" and "four", with similarity to the augury topics in Zhou Yi and Gui-cang Yi's four trigram images or diagrams, could be said to be like what was seen as the primitive prophecy in the mountain part of Shan Hai Jing. Roughly, Shi1 Fa matched the primitive prophecy in the mountain part of Shan Hai Jing, while Gui-cang Yi, namely, the Wangjiatai scripts or the Ji-zhong tomb's type of Gui-cang Yi divination, matched the seas' part of Shan Hai Jing as far as divination was concerned. For details, refer to THE SINITIC CIVILATION Book II, available on Amazon, B&N. Relationship with the Huns In the early time period of Former Han Dynasty (202 B.C. - A.D. 220), the Han emperors used to marry princess to the Hunnic kings in exchange for peace, which proved to be futile. Many times, the Han emperors used the court maids of honour in lieu of princess. In contrast, the later Tang Dynasty sent over the orthodox princess to Tibet. It would be during the reign of Han Emperor Wudi (commonly-taken wrong reign 140-87 B.C. or 140-86 B.C.; nominal October 141-Dec 87 B.C.; actual Jan 141-Feb 87 B.C.) that the Chinese fought back against the Huns. Emperor Wendi and Emperor Jingdi were renowned for their frugality. Their policies as to the Huns would be intermarriage. Han Emperor Wudi, however, embarked upon a policy of expansion. From the mouth of a defector Hun, Han Emperor Wudi learnt about a country called the Yüeh-chih Major which was situated to the west of the Huns. Hence, in 138 B.C.E., Han Emperor Wudi sent emissary Zhang Qian, a Hun guide called Tangyi-fu (Gan-fu) and 100 people on a trek across the west. The Hun guide, with the Tangyi-shi prefix, was a prisoner sold to some family in the Tangyi area before he was to become a free man. Soon after departing Longxi, Zhang Qian was arrested by the Huns soon, and he was forced to live among the Huns for numerous years. Zhang Qian had married and born two children. However, Zhang Qian, not forgetting about Emperor Wudi's order, fled with his Hun guide to the west and reached the state of Dawan (Kokand, the Fergana Valley) at about 128-127 B.C.E. With the assistance from the Dawan king, Zhang Qian was escorted to Kangju where the Kanju king assisted him further on his trip to Bactria where the Yüeh-chih Major settled down. After a stay of about one year, Zhang Qian returned east after like a span of thirteen years. Zhang Qian returned to China after another arrest by the Huns. About one year later, when the Huns were in turmoil and the Hunnic leftside gu-li-wang king attacked the Hunnic successor, ensuing from Junchen Chanyu's death on 126 B.C., Zhang Qian fled back to China with the Hunnic wife, and the Hun guide. Sima Qian and history chronicles called Zhang Qian's travel to the west by the term of "piercing the vacuum" as a eulogy of his personal verification of the West. In the spring of 121 B.C., Emperor Wudi ordered expeditions to the west. Departing from Longxi (Gansu/Shenxi borderline), Huo Qubing, with over 100,000 cavalry, attacked the Huns in and around Yanzhi [Yanqi] Mountains and killed or captured 8,000 Huns. Huo Qubing killed two Hunnic kings, i.e., King Zhelan and King Luhou, captured a prince of Hunnic king Hun-ye (Kun-ye), and grabbed the gold statute [which was speculated to be a Buddhist or some religious idol] of King Xiutu (Xiuzhu). In the summer, Huo Qubing and Gongsun Ao [Marquis Heqi-hou] departed from the northern border of Long-xi and Bei-di for attacking the Huns, while Li Guang and Zhang Qian departed from You-beiping for attacking the Hunnic leftside virtuous king. Huo Qubing waded Junqi, crossed Juyan, arrived at Yuezhi Minor, and attacked the Huns at the "Qilianshan" mountain, taken by Lin Meicun to be Mt. Balikun near Hami, with 30,200 Huns either captured or killed, including five kings [King Chihan killed, and Shanhuan, Jiju, Huyutu and Qiutu caught], the kings' mothers, chanyu's wife, 59 princes, and 63 high officials. This appeared to have capsized the Huns' western court at today's Hami. Wudi-ji of Han Shu stated that Huo Qubing's victory displayed the awe at Lide (possibly the Bogeda peak). King Chang-qiang of the Dian-guo statelet purportedly dispatched over a dozen search teams to the west on behalf of the Han emissaries in search of a path but reported back one year later to state that they were obstructed by the Kunming-guo statelet. King Chang-qiang, who had a hobby and preoccupation with Buddhism, lost control of his rule. The Bai-ya-guo (white cliff state) selected Hou-guo-ren, a descendant of the Meng-ju-song tribe, as a separate king with the capital city set at Baiya (the white cliff). Hou-guo-ren sought vassalage with the Han court and received conferral as king of the Bai-zi-guo (Viscount Bai-zi's State) or the later Jianning-guo State. Legends carried in the Ming Dynasty book Nan-zhan Ye Shi stated that Hou-guo-ren descended from the A-yu-guo (Ashoka) state. Zhang Qian told Emperor Wudi that Han should marry over a princess to the Wusun Statelet so that the Huns would lose their support in Western China, a strategy called 'cutting off the right arm of the Huns'. Zhang said that Wusun originally dwelled around Dunhuang, and the areas around the Qilian Mountains, together with the Yüeh-chih; the Yüeh-chih attacked them; and the son of Wusun king would ask the Huns to help them in defeating the Yüeh-chih. Wudi sent expeditions into the Hunnic territories frequently. Zhang was ordered again to go west with hundreds of messengers. When those messengers returned to the capital, they did a calculation and derived the number of 36 statelets across the west of China. Historians said Emperor Wudi had used up his royal savings in waging the war on the Huns. The emperor's missions then changed from that of seeking the allies against the Huns to obtaining the stallions as well as checking out the source of the Yellow River, with the exploration into the river's origin something to do with seeking the panacea or elixir and ascertaining the locality of the legendary Kunlun Mountain where the immortals lived. The Wusun horses were originally called 'Tian Ma', namely, the Heavenly Horses, but later Emperor Wudi renamed the Wusun horses to 'Xi Ji Ma' or the western-most horses while the Da'yuan horses were given the name of 'Tian Ma'. The geological discovery was that there were two inputs of water, from the High Pamirs and the Tibetan mountains, into the Salty Lake (Yanze, or the Lopnur Lake), where the water, with no exit, did not rise or fall, remained unchanged in the level, and was postulated to travel underground to be the source of the Yellow River. The unchanged water level was more likely the result of evaporation of water, similar to the Mono Lake of California. (The Yellow River's origin theory could actually be used to timestamp the age of at least the seas' section of the book Shan Hai Jing to be no earlier than Zhang Qian's trip to the west. The myth about the Yellow River's origin could be used to ascertain the age of the book Shan Hai Jing as both the seas' section and the mountains' section carried passages after passages of writing about the Yellow River. In 'Shan Jing', the middle mountain ranges, which covered the territory of today's northeastern Sichuan, northern Hubei and western Henan provinces, appeared to be the most credible and accurate. The Xiong'er-shan {bear's ears) mountain, Mt. Tai-shi4-zhi-shan and Shao-shi4-zhi-shan (namely, today's Mt. Songshan near Luoyang, Henan), the legendary Mt. Jing-shan [at the foot of which Xia Lord Kai [Qi] ordered Feilian to cast the cauldrons], and Mt. Min-shan [the origin of the Han-shui Rivers], were included in this section.) Between 130 and 121 B.C., the Chinese armies drove the Huns back across the Great Wall, and weakened the Huns in today's Gansu Province as well as on what is now Inner Mongolia. Famous Chinese generals, like Wei Qing and Li Guang would emerge in this time period. In the spring of 121 B.C., General Ho Chu-ping (Huo Qubing), with 10,000 cavalry, crossed the Yanzhi-shan Mountain to attack the Huns and took a gold statute, which the Huns used for revering the heaven, as bounty. In summer, the Han army passed the Juyan Lake to attack Hunnic King Huye-wang and Xiutu-wang around the Qilian-shan Mountain. In autumn, Hunnic King Huye-wang killed King Xiutu-wang, and surrendered the territory together with over 40,000 people. After General Ho Chu-ping (Huo Qubing) defeated the Huns and pushed into Ferghana Valley in 102 B.C., the Huns suffered setbacks and made peace with Han. General Huo Qubing set up the Jiuquan Commandery in Gansu Province, and later three more commanderies were set up, Wuwei, Zhangye (said to be a soundex for Zhaowu [Shaowu if treating the first character the same as the word used in the Nan-chao/Nan-zhao kingdom of southwestern China) and Dunhuang. For the first time, Chinese colonized in non-Chinese territories. Civilians were relocated to guard the posts along with the army. After General Li Guangli campaigned against the ancient state of Dawan in Central Asia, more posts were set up on the Silk Road. From Dunhuang to the Qinghaihu Lake, hundreds of 'farming soldiers' were stationed. 
When the small statelets, like Gushi and Loulan, tried to harass the Han emissaries, Emperor Wudi sent General Zhao Puonu on a campaign against the two statelets. General Zhao caught the King of Loulan and conquered the Gushi state. When Dawan refused to trade their horses with Han, and further killed the Han emissary and robbed the gold horse, Emperor Wudi sent General Li Guangli on a long-distance campaign against Dawan in 104 BC.
In the 1st year of the Taichu Era, Emperor Wudi, who was fond of Empress Li (Li Furen), conferred Li Guangli the job as General Ershi for the campaign against the Dawan-guo State.
Ershi was the name for the capital city Ershi-cheng of Dawan, namely, today's Osh of Kyrgyzstan.
General Li Guangli's first campaign, with tens of thousands of convicts, failed to capture a city called Yucheng somewhere near the Peacock River of today's Chinese Turkestan. General Li Guangli returned with less than 20% of the forces in about 2 years. Emperor Wudi stopped him from coming inside of the Yumen-guan [jade gate] Pass. General Li Guangli stayed in Dunhuang.
At about the same time, a Han general lost 20,000 men to the Huns. Emperor Wudi decided to conquer Dawan first before concentrating on the Huns. He ordered 60,000 second-class citizens and convicts, 100,000 buffalos, and 30,000 horses on a new campaign against Dawan. After a siege of over 40 days, Dawan killed their king and surrendered to Han. The Han army retrieved a dozen top-class horses and over 3,000 middle-class horses and returned. When Gen. Li Guangli was en route of return, his brother Li Ji, together with eunuch brother Li Yannian [who was a court musician enjoying a 2,000-bushel equivalent stipend] were exterminated over the lascivious activities at the palaces. In 101 B.C., Emperor Wudi, in light of the late Concubine Li (Li Furen), conferred Li Guangli the title of Marquis Hai-xi-hou [west of the sea] as condolence for the death of his brothers. (Lady [Concubine] Li Yan, i.e., Li Fu-ren, was fetched from Princess [sister] Pingyang's residency by the emperor after eunuch Li Yannian sang the song about a beauty of northern China ['beifang you jiaren'] who could capsize a person at the first sight and capsize a country at the second sight. At the time Lady Li died, she refused to turn towards the emperor for preserving her image of beauty. Lady [Concubine] Li born Liu Bo2, i.e., King Chang-yi-ai-wang.) Friction with the Huns continued. A Han emissary, Su Wu, was detained and sent to Lake Bajkal to be a shepherd for 19 years, only to be returned after Huo Guang (General Ho Chu-ping's brother) requested for Su with the Hunnic king who had initially cheated Huo in saying that Su was long dead. In 100 B.C., Wudi sent a mission of over 100 people, led by an emissary called Su Wu, to the Huns, and Su Wu was detained by the Huns. Wudi later dispatched an army to punish the Huns. One contingent of 5000 arrow soldiers from southern China, led by General Li Ling (grandson of Li Guang), was encircled by the Huns numbering 30000. General Li Ling surrendered to the Huns after exhausting all arrows. In 99 B.C., Sima Qian, who inherited his father Sima Tan's 'tai-shi ling' [head of the national history archives] post, was imprisoned over the Li Ling incident, for which he went through castration. In 90 B.C., General Li Guangli and his 70,000 troops, departing Wuyuan for the north, were defeated by the Huns. Li Guangli himself surrendered to the Huns and he was killed by the Huns later as a result of manipulation by Hunnic official Wei Lü . Emperor Wudi ordered the extermination of Li Guangli's family. Li Ling was asked to see Su Wu by the Hunnic king. Li told Su that Su's wife had already remarried and Su's two brothers had died in China. But Su Wu refused to surrender. Li gave a Hun woman to Su as his wife. When Su returned to China, he had only eight of his previous companions with him. Li Ling, who declined to return to China, wrote a poem to express his anguish: "lu [roadpath] qiongjue [ending] xi [modal] shiren [arrows and blades] cui [destroyed], shizhong [troops] mie [died] xie [modal] ming [fame] yi [already] tui [ruined]." In the later times, poems were made up about the Li Ling and Su Wu's stories of parting at He-liang [a bridge over a river] in today's Outer Mongolia to infer that Li Ling and Su Wu first initiated the five character format for poetry. (Poets made a parallel of the He-liang farewell to assassin Jing Ke's parting with Yan Prince Dan at the upperstream Yi-shui River. Some of Li Ling's descendants later came back to China during the Three Kingdoms' time period, and was conferred the last name of 'Bing'. During the Tang dynasty time period, the Kirghiz barbarians, when paying a visit to China, claimed to be descendants of LI Ling who was assigned to the westernmost Jiankun territory by the Hunnic chanyu.) By the time of Emperor Xuandi (reign 73-48 B.C.), south of Tianshan Mountains was under the Han Chinese control. A Hunnic king called 'Rizhuowang' (the king of sun chasing) offended the Hunnic chanyu or king, and hence he defected to Han China, yielding to Han the original Hunnic control of the northern part of today's Chinese Turkistan. The Hunnic internal turmoil once led to the existence of five 'chanyu'. By 62 B.C., north of the Tianshan Mountains was firmly controlled by the Chinese as well. Colonization went as far as the ancient state of Sache. This post was responsible for reporting on the situation in such Central Asia states as Kangju and Wusun. The defection of 'Rizhuowang' had to do with Hunnic Youxianwang (rightside virtuous king) taking over the power with the help of an ex-queen. 'Rizhuowang' was the brother of the dead Hunnic king. 'Rizhuowang' sent an emissary to Han governor-general at Quli, Zheng Jie, for help. Zheng Jie sent an army of 50,000 and escorted 'Rizhuowang' to the Han capital, Chang'an. When the new Hunnic chanyu killed two brothers of 'Rizhuowang', a son of the old Hunnic chanyu set up an independent court, calling himself 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu'. After the death of the usurping Hunnic chanyu, three more Hunnic leaders proclaimed themselves 'chanyu', leading to co-existence of five 'chanyu'. Around 53 B.C., hearing that 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu' had obtained the support of the Han Chinese, the last competing 'chanyu', Zhizhi, sent his son to the Han Court as a hostage as well. Zhizhi, being afraid of Han for his killing a Han emissary, relocated to the west, namely, the ancient Jiankun Statelet. This relocation also had to do with the request from the Kangju king who intended to use the Huns to attack the Wusun Statelet. Then governor-general Gan Yanshou answered the call from Wusun and sent 6 columns of armies to defeat Kangju and 'Zhizhi Chanyu'. Zhizhi's descendants would later call themselves the Kirghiz, a soundex-mutated name. During the reign of Emperor Yuandi, 48-32 B.C., one of the Hunnic kings, 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu', surrendered to the Chinese, and colonization reached Cheshi (Jushi). The Hunnic empire split into two hordes in 51 B.C., with the Eastern Horde (or Southern Horde) subject to China. In 33 B.C., 'Huhanye (Huhancha) Chanyu', came to the Han capital for the second time and was married with lady Wang Zhaojun, a court maid of honor. Peace ensued for dozens of years. (Lady Zhaojun, like many princesses and maids of honour who were married with the Huns or other nomads before and after her, would later re-marry with the successor Hunnic kings, a practice adopted by the nomads throughout history. Lady Wang Zhaojun had one poem talking about her living among the 'Jie-hu' barbarians, with the 'Jie' work later designating the Central-Asian origin barbarians among the five nomadic groups ravaging China during the late Western Jinn Dynasty time period.) At one time, two daughters of Lady Wang Zhaojun were invited by Wang Mang to visit the Han court, and Hunnic king promptly sent over one of the Lady Wang's daughters to the Han Court. This girl stayed in Han court for one whole year. After Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, and named his dynasty Xin, namely, new, he would re-cast the seals bearing his new dynastic names and sent those seals to the Hunnic kings in exchange for the old seals conferred by Han Emperors. Later, the Huns found out about the trick and rebelled against the Wang Mang's Xin Dynasty. Wang Mang would fail to quell the Hunnic rebellion. He called upon the two sons of the brother of Lady Wang Zhaojun and sent them to the Huns frequently as 'ambassadors of friendship'. The two sons of the brother of Lady Wang Zhaojun would often contact the husband of the elder daughter of Lady Wang Zhaojun to broker peace. Wang Mang, however, continued his tricks and he at one time took the husband of the elder daughter of Lady Wang Zhaojun as a hostage, intending to support him as the new Hunnic king. During Wang Mang's reign, the Hun-Han relationship was the worst. Subsequent turmoil and rebellion which overthrew the Xin Dynasty would allow the Huns to re-take control of parts of Chinese Turkistan. Relationship with the Southern Statelets In southern China, When uprisings occurred against Qin throughout China, Ren Xiao, at death bed, instructed that Zhao Tuo (Zhao Ta) take over the 'wei [captain] {or brigadier general}' post. Zhao Tuo was hence called by 'Wei [captain] Ta' or 'Wei [captain] Tuo'. Zhao Tuo seized and blocked the passes through the Nan Ling (southern ridges), killed the Qin imperial designatories, and declared himself an emperor when he heard about the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprisings against the Qin Empire. In 207 B.C., Zhao Tuo campaigned against the Guilin and Xiang-jun commanderies, united the three commanderies, and declared the statehood of Nan-yue. Han Emperor Liu Bang sent Lu Jia and a seal to the Nan-Yue Statelet. Zhao Tuo downgraded his title to that of a king. Liu Jia (? - 170 B.C.) admonished the Yue king about the barbarian customs of "tuijie [tapered bundling of hair] jiju [sitting with legs spread]". Han Dynasty then rescinded the previous conferral of southern territories from King Wu Rui of Changsha. Several conflicts broke out between Nan-yue and the King of Changsha in the ensuing dozen years. At the time of Empress Lü-hou, Zhao Tuo again upgraded his title to that of an emperor. This was because Empress Lü-hou, in the spring of 183 B.C., decreed that ironworks and female [she] cattle, sheep and horses be forbidden from export to Nan-yue. Zhao Tuo suspected that it was the King of Changsha who gave Empress Lü-hou the idea of embargo. Zhao Tuo's emissary was retained in Chang'an the capital; Zhao Tuo's ancestral tombs were dug up; and Zhao Tuo's kinsmen were persecuted and executed. To counter King Changsha, Zhao Tuo allied with the chieftains of Min-yue, Xi-ou and Luo-yue. Zhao Tuo mounted an unsuccessful campaign against Changsha. In September of 181 B.C., Lü-hou rescinded the seal of the King of Nan-yue and dispatched troops [under Rong Lühou] against the south. One year later, the Han army failed to advance while Empress Lü-hou passed away. Zhao Tuo sought for peace again. Emperor Wendi agreed to it. Zhao did not downgrade his title till he was visited by emissary Lu Jia of the new emperor, i.e., Han Emperor Wendi (commonly-taken wrong reign 179-157 B.C.; nominal October 180-Sept 164 B.C.; actual leap September 180-Sept 164 B.C.). Wendi won back Zhao Tuo by repairing Zhao's ancestral graves in Zhending [i.e., Dingzhou of Hebei Province] of northern China. In 137 B.C., Zhao Tuo passed away at the age of over 100. Grandson Zhao Hu succeeded him. Zhao Ying-qi assumed the kingship from Zhao Hu till 112 B.C. In 113 B.C., Emperor Wudi sent Anguo Shaoji to Nan-yue for the emissary's relationship with Yue Queen Jiu-wang-hou. Zhao Xing, a son born in Chang'an while his father was a hostage with Han China, succeeded Zhao Ying-qi. Nan-Yue rebelled as a result of its prime minister killing the young king, Zhao Xing, who was the great grandson of Zhao Tuo. This had to do with the adultery of the Han emissary with the mother of the Nan-Yue king, two acquaintances during the Chang'an days. Anguo Shaoji failed to take out Yue prime minister Lü Jia. Hen Emperor Wudi previously dispatched Anguo Shaoji [i.e., a lover of Zhao Xing's mother] to Nan-yu as well as stationed Luo Bode's troops at Guiyang to serve as military detente. Prime minister Lü Jia barely escaped from the assassination attempt by Zhao Xing's mother. Wudi then dispatched Haan Qianqiu and 2000 soldiers to the south. Lü Jia and his brother then took initiatives, laid siege of the palace, and killed Zhao Xing, the dowager queen, and the Han emissary. Lü Jia erected Zhao Jiande, a son born by Ying-qi with a southern Yue woman, as the new king. Han Qianqiu and 2000 soldiers were destroyed about 20 kilometers away from the Nan-yue capital city of Fanyu [i.e., Canton], a Lord Yu or Count Yu connotation name that was said to have been adopted from some mythical place naming in Shan Hai Jing, which was a mutation of the legendary Mt. Panzhong-shan tomb mountain [with 'pan' speculated to be soundex for 'bo' {count} or Lord Yu] of northwestern China. Han Emperor Wudi sent Lu Bode and several columns of armies, about 100,000 strong, to campaign in southern China. A naval fleet arrived at Panyu, namely, today's Canton, at the mouth of Zhujiang Delta, to attack Nan-Yue from the sea. When the Nan-yue remnants fled to the sea, the fleet pursued them to the Gulf of Tongking in Vietnam. Lu Bode's army sacked Canton in the winter of 111 B.C., and killed Lü Jia and Zhao Jiande. The Nan-yue land, including central and northern parts of today's Vietnam, were made into the commanderies of Nanhai, Cangwu, Yulin [Guilin], Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, Rinan, Zhuya and Dan'er. In 202 B.C., Wuzhu was conferred the title as King of Min-Yue by Han Emperor Gaodi (Liu Bang). In 192 B.C., Yao was conferred the title as King of Donghai (East Sea) by Han Emperor Huidi. The capital city was in Dong'ou and hence he was referred to as King of Dong'ou. Sima Qian, in comments about the length of the Min-Yue & Dong-Yue Statelets, said that the 'Yue' People must have inherited Lord Yu's spirits. Min-Yue & Dong-Yue were related to so-called 'Gu-yue' or the Ancient Yue Statelet located in today's Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. One claim would put all the Yue people, i.e., Bai Yue or the Hundred Yue People, in the same lineage as Lord Yu's descendants. In 135 B.C., namely, the Jianyuan 6th year of Han Emperor Wudi, however, Min-Yue attacked Dong-Ou, and besieged the Dong-Ou capital. Dong-Ou asked for help from the Han court. The Han court relocated the Dong-Ou (Dong-Yue) people northward, to the area between the Yangtze River and the Huai River. Min-Yue took over the vacant land of Dong-Ou (Dong-Yue). In August of 135 B.C., King Zou Ying of Min-yue attacked Nan-yue. King Zhao Hu reported to Han Emperor Wudi. Han dispatched an army against Min-yue. Brother Yu-shan killed King Zou Ying with short spear and surrendered Zou Ying's head to Han Emperor Wudi. A grandson of Min-yue founder king Wu-zhu, i.e., Yao-jun [Prince Yao], by the name of Chou, was made into the new king. Since Yu-shan had attempted at kingship, the Han court relocated Yu-shan to Dong-ou to be King of Dong-yue. Another generation later, after the conquest of Nan-Yue by Han Emperor Wudi, Min-Yue, now also known as Dong-Yue, would be attacked by the Han armies under the pretext that they tried to take advantage of the Han's war with Nan-Yue. Zhu Maichen, when King Dong-yue-wang disobeyed the central court, was dispatched by the emperor to the Kuaiji-jun Commandery as 'tai shou' to quell the rebellion. At Kuaiji, Zhu Maichen deliberately humiliated his ex-wife to death for divorcing him while was in poverty. In 110 B.C., Zhu Maichen, with General Haan Shui (i.e., Haan Yan's brother), departed Juzhang to attack Yu Shan via sea. A combined force of armies from Yuzhang and ships from the Hangzhou Bay destroyed the state. King Min-yue (Yao-wang), i.e., Ju Gu, cooperated with the Han army in killing Yu Shan who proclaimed himself Emperor Dong-yue-wudi. The Min-Yue people were relocated northward to the areas of the Huai and the Yangtze rivers. The southern barbarians in today's Guizhou and Sichuan provinces were called upon as auxiliaries in the campaign against Nan Yue. Han emissary, Tang Meng, when visiting today's Canton area, noted that Nan-Yue or the Southern Yue was using some 'jujiang' (betel pepper) soy sauce --which Han emissary Zhang Qian had observed while visiting today's Afghanistan in Central Asia. Tang Meng inquired about the source, and came up with the idea of conquering the Nan-yue state by borrowing an army from the barbarians in Southwest China to sail down the Zangke River, which probably connected with the West River of today's Guangdong Province. The Han emissary said that the Zangke River, by which the Yelang Statelet dwelled, flew into Panyü of today's Guangdong Province. In 135 B.C., Tang Meng was dispatched to the Yelang Statelet as a magistrate. The Han court, prior to zoning the Zangke-jun Commandery, had organized part of the southwestern territory into two counties of Nan-yi and Ye-lang, with one 'du wei' in charge. The Yelang Statelet, with 100,000 strong army, was targeted by Han as an ally in the war on the Southern Yue. Later, on the pretext that the Yelang state killed a Han emissary, the Han army killed a chieftain of the southern barbarians and took over the territory as the Zangke (Yangke?) Commandery, namely, today's Guizhou Province, in 111 B.C. During Han Emperor Chengdi's reign (28-25 B.C.), the Yelang state rebelled against the Han rule. The Han armies, commanded by Chen Lishen the new magistrate for the Zangke-jun Commandery, killed chieftain Xing4 of the southern barbarians and took over the territory of the Zangke (Yangke?) Commandery, namely, today's Guizhou Province. Four more commanderies were set up southwest of today's Sichuan, including the Yuesui Commandery (today's southwestern Sichuan and northern Yunnan), Shenli Commandery (today's Daduhe River area in Sichuan Province), Wenshan Commandery (today's Wenchuan and Songpan of western Sichuan Province) and Wudu Commandery (today's southern Gansu and southern Shenxi Province). The Yelang Statelet was pacified and conferred kingship. Dian, aka Shoumi-guo, which Scholar Zhan Quanyou stated was built upon a Shoumi tribal statelet, was the next target. Two years later, the Han Emperor mobilized the armies of Ba and Shu (i.e., Sichuan) for a southern campaign, exterminated the tribal statelets of Laojin (i.e., today's Malong) and Mimo (today's Qujing) in today's eastern Yunnan Prov, and amassed the army forces onto the Dian Kingdom and forced it into submission. In 109 B.C., the Dian Kingdom was conferred the title as king, with a gold seal. 
The Yizhou Commandery, with governor office at today's Jinning of Yunnan, was set up to control the domain. In western Yunnan, Buwei County, i.e., today's Baoshan, was setup, and in the south, Laiwei County (today's Laizhou Prov of Vietnam) was set up.
Confucianism vs Daoism During Early Han Dynasty Mr Lin Yutang proposed during early 20th century the notion that the 'ancient Chinese were Confucian superficially, a Daoist innerside, and a legalist in governance.' A careful perusal of the early Han Dynasty history will show the kind of intertwining nature of the three schools of thought in governance and philosophy. Should China ever possess a legalist philosophy, it was very much overturned during the Han Emperor Wudi's reigh, when the Confucian ranking system in regards to the king, the father and son etc., was adopted. However, the Confucian and Daoist thoughts were never in conflict with each other for the Chinese intellectuals of the next two thousand years. Late Professor Mou Runsun, in Hai [Hongkong] Yi [leftover survivor {from the previous Republic of China dynasty}] Za [miscellaneous] Zhu [writings], called Emperor Xuandi's rebuke of his son, saying that the Han dynasty had adopted the mixed king's way and hegemony [king]'s way to rule the country, by 'yang' [on the surface] 'ru' [Confucian] 'yin' [innerside] 'fa' [legalist]. Mou Runsun did give credit where it was, namely, the Han emperors' appointing the Confucians the court posts against the non-Confucians. Han Dynasty founder (Han Emperor Gaodi, Liu Bang) was never fond of the Confucians. When receiving a 60-year-old Confucian by the name of Li Yiji, Gaodi deliberately had two maids wash his feet; when Li Yiji challenged Gaodi on the matter of not showing respect for the old Confucian, Liu Bang called the name of 'shu ru' (i.e., damned Confucian); Liu Bang did not show respect for Li Yiji till Li Yiji cited the success and failure stories in history as examples for Liu Bang to win the war against Qin Empire. Liu Bang employed Shu-sun Tong, a Qin-era 'bo-shi' (doctorate), for making the imperial rituals, and appointed him the post of "tai chang", i.e., imperial attache. Shu-sun Tong, to appease Liu Bang's despisement of Confucians, had changed to the Chu natives' clothes, i.e., short waist clothes, in lieu of the Confucian robe. Shu-sun Tong later served the Crown Prince as "tai fu", i.e., imperial tutor. (Later, Qing historian Hong Liangji commented that the Qin empire had its demise in the hands of Shu-sun Tong. Why so? Because, Shu-sun Tong, as Qin Emperor Hu-hai's doctorate official, had told Hu-hai not to worry about the Chen Sheng & Wu Guang rebellion while he himself fled the capital to join Xiang Liang's rebellion.) After the unification of China, per Han Shu, Emperor Gaodi (Liu Bang) ordered Xiao He to work on 'Lü ling' [laws], Haan Xin on 'jun fa' [martial laws], Zhang Cang on 'zhang cheng' [regulations], Shu-sun Tong on 'li yi' [rituals and protocols], and Lu Jia on 'xin yu' [new statements]. Before that, at one time, Liu Bang claimed that he did not need the intellectuals to help administer the country with Shi[-jing] [poems] and [Shang-]Shu [remotely-ancient history] as he rode the horse to have taken the country. Lu Jia countered him, saying that the country could not be administered from the horseback, citing the ancient saint of Lord Yu-shun who was said to have ruled the country with the playing of five-chord zither and the singing of the Nan Feng ('southerly winds') poem. The emperor then asked Lu Jia to write articles about why the Qin lost its rule and why he obtained it. Lu Jia wrote twelve articles which Liu Bang named as 'xin [new] yu [statements]', with one article, 'dao [way] ji [basis]' citing Xun-zi's statement that the heaven bore the tens of thousands of temporal things, which the earth was to raise and nurture, and the saint was to accomplish and perfect. Lu Jia named Confucius by 'hou [last] sheng [saint]', i.e., the last of the saints of the three epochs of the remote ancient world, the middle ages, and the then contemporary world. Qing Dynasty scholar Dai Yansheng succinctly analyzed Lu Jia's thoughts to point out that Lu Jia, who studied under Foqiu-bo (Fo-bo-qiu/Bao-qiu-zi, a disciple of Xun Qing/Xun-zi and a teacher to Shen-gong/Shen Peigong {219-135 B.C.}), could be the forerunner master of Gu-liang Chun-qiu Zhuan. Shen-gong/Shen Peigong {219-135 B.C.}) was said to have passed Gu-liang Chun-qiu Zhuan to student Xiaqiu-jiang-gong. Lu Jia was said to have authored the book Chu-Han Chun-qiu, which was lost into oblivion in history.) Per Lulin Zhuan of Han Shu, at the very beginning of the Han dynasty, there was a revival of studies of Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan. Zhang Cang, Jia Yi, Zhang Chang, and Liu Gong-zi ("taizhong dafu" {imperial admonition minister, which was subordinate to 'lang-zhong-ling'}, with the name Liu Gong-zi literally meaning Prince Liu but not necessarily a Liu royal family prince who should be termed 'wang" or a king, instead) all liked to edit Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan. Though, the book was never given the imperial attention till the Xin dynasty time period. One version of Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan was said to be passed down from Zhang Cang (Marquis Beiping-hou), a former Qin-era "yu shi" (imperial censor), who was said to be a disciple of scholar Xun Qing. Zhang Cang was said to have passed Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan to Han Dynasty scholar Jia Yi ("tai fu" or tutor for the Liang state); Jia Yi passed to grandson Jia Jia; Jia Jia passed to Guan4 Gong ("bo shi" for King Hejian-xian-wang); Guan4 Gong passed to son Guan4 Changqing ("ling" or magistrate for Dangyin); Guan4 Changqing passed to Zhang Chang ("jing-zhao yin", magistrate of the capital) & Zhang Yu ("yu shi" or a censor); Zhang Yu passed to Xiao Wangzhi ("yu shi" or a censor; and "tai fu" or tutor for the crown prince) and Yin Gengshi; Yin Gengshi passed to son Yin Xian, Di Fangjing, and Hu Chang; Hu Chang passed to Jia Hu; and Jia Hu passed to Chen Qin whose son Chen Qin passed to Xin Dynasty usurper emperor Wang Mang. It was said that Liu Xiang and Liu Xin1 had studied Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan from Yin Xian and Di Fangjing. Also, the Zuo family lineage book claimed that the Zuo family descendants fled the Wang Mang imperial recall by changing the surname and seeking anonymity in the related Qiu-surnamed hometown. At the time of Emperor Xiaohuidi and dowager-empress Lü Hou, a few scholars were appointed some nominal posts, such as Yuan Gusheng and Haan Ying in the area of Shi Jing, Zhang Sheng and Ou Yang in the area of Shang Shu, Hu Wusheng and Dong Zhongshu in the area of Chun-qiu. At the time of Emperor Jingdi (commonly-taken wrong reign 156-141 B.C.; nominal October 157-Sept 141 B.C.; actual June 157-Jan 141 B.C.), Confucians Hu Wusheng (a former Qi territory person) and Dong Zhongshu (a former Zhao territory person) were made into 'bo shi', i.e., doctorate officials, for the research into Confucius' book Chun-qiu (Springs & Autumns). It was said that Hu Wusheng and Gongyang Shou (who was a descendant of Gongyang Gao, a student of Confucian student Zi-xia) who were responsible for putting the Gongyang school of interpretation of Chun-qiu into the book format. However, history said that Emperor Wendi liked 'xing ming' (the legal system) while Emperor Jingdi did not make any Confucian appointments. More, dowager-empress Doutaihou (Dou-tai-hou) had a personal preference for the Yellow Elderly school of thought, namely, the Laoism, which was also interpretated to be longevity studies attributed to the Yellow Emperor and Lao-zi. At one time, Yuan Gusheng offended dowager-empress Doutaihou when commenting on the Lao-zi books as being shallow. Dowager-empress Doutaihou cursed the Confucian books as belonging to the "cheng-dan" people, a term referring to Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's decree to force whoever was in possession of Shi Jing, Shang Shu and the books related to the hundreds of schools of thoughts to work as the citywall builders. More, Dowager-empress Doutaihou ordered Yuan Gusheng (Yuan Gu) to fight the wild boars as punishment. Yuan Gusheng (Yuan Gu) was the progenitor of the [former] Qi [Principality] school of Shi Jing, on par with Shen Pei (Shen Peigong)'s [former] Lu [Principality] school and Haan Ying's Haan [family] school. In 140 B.C., when Emperor Wudi got enthroned at the age of 16, he made a decree that local governors send in the learned persons to the capital. Over one hundred intelligentsia, include Dong Zhongshu of Guangchuan, Gongsun Hong of Zichuan, and Yan Zhu of Kuaiji, came to the capital. (Yan Zhu later recommended to the emperor his native friend, Zhu Maichen, who happened to be ordered to the capital for an assignment as the county cart escort; the emperor, when King Dong-yue-wang disobeyed the central court, dispatched Zhu Maichen to the Kuaiji-jun Commandery as 'tai shou' to quell the rebellion.) Wudi disapproved of the old officialdom policy which was to have officials (worthy of a pay of 2000 units of grains) recommend their sons and nephews for various posts. The new decree, 'advocating thrift people and recommending filial people', discounted the family origin. A good story about Wudi would be his assigning Yan Si (an old man who went through two prior emperors' rule without any promotion) for the post of du wei (governing captain {or brigadier general}) of the Kuaiji Commandery. Wudi was impressed by Dong Zhongshu's article which advocated Confucianism as the creed for ruling a nation. Wudi conferred Dong a post as prime minister for King of Jiangdu (Liu Fei). Prime Minister Wei Guan suggested to Wudi that only a few Confucian intelligentsia like Gongsun Hong and Yan Zhu should be retained while the rest non-Confucians could be sent back to their homes. After Wudi replaced Wei Guan with Dou Ying (nephew of Dowager Empress Doutaihou), Dou Ying and Tian Fen would locate two Confucians for Wudi: Zhao Guan and Wang Zang. Zhao Guan and Wang Zang were two of the thousand students of an eighty-year-old Shen-gong of the ex-Chu Principality. Shen-gong was renowned for his research into ancient Shi Jing [classics of poems]. Shen-gong was invited to the capital by Wudi, but Shen-gong somehow performed modestly for sake of avoiding palace struggles. Though, Confucianism did not get developed until much later. Dowager-empress Dou-tai-hou still vehemently opposed the non-Daoist thoughts. In 139 B.C., when minister Zhao Guan suggested to Emperor Wudi that he did not have to consult with the dowager-empress about the practice of new policies, Dou-tai-hou pressured the emperor into having Zhao Guan ('yushi dafu') and Wang Zang ('langzhong ling') arrested. Dowager Empress Doutaihou, who previously intended to kill 'bo shi' Yuan Gu who served under Emperor Jingdi, would force Wudi into having Zhao Guan and Wang Zang arrested for propagation of Confucianism. Dowager Empress made an analogy of the Confucian proponents to fortune-teller Xinyuan Ping who was executed by the predecessor emperor for fabricating the supernatural phenomenon and objects. Dowager Empress Doutaihou was fond of Daoism and hated Yuan Gu, Zhao Guan and Wang Zang for advocating Confucianism. Zhao Guan and Wang Zang, who offended Doutaihou for advising Wudi on prevention of the empress intervention in politics, committed suicide inside the prison. Under the pressure of Doutaihou, Wudi deprived Dou Ying and Tian Fen of their posts. Dou Ying ('chengxiang' or prime minister) and Tian Fen ('tai wei') were deprived of their posts. Xu Chang (Marquis Bozhi-hou) and Zhuang Qingdi (Marquis Wuqiang-hou) took over the prime minister and 'yushi dafu' posts, respectively. Zhao Guan ('yushi dafu') and Wang Zang ('langzhong ling') died in prison, and teacher Shen-gong, i.e., Shen Pei/Shen Pei-gong, claimed illness and went home. The new deal polices were revoked. Nothing was achieved till after Dou-tai-hou died in 135 B.C. After the death of Dowager Empress Doutaihou, Tian Fen was assigned the post as prime minister. Dong Zhongshu, who was conferred a post as prime minister for the King of Jiangdu (Liu Fei), was impeached by an official called Zhufu Yan in 135 BC. Han General Guan Fu tried to mediate over the relationship of Tian Fen and Dou Ying, but he offended Tian Feng in a marriage banquet in 131 B.C. With the help of Dowager Empress Wangtaihou, Tian Feng made Wudi order that both Guan Fu and Dou Ying be executed. Guan Fu's whole family were exterminated. Wudi's brother, King of Lu, discovered some surviving books hidden by the 8th generation grandson of Confucius (Kong Zixiang) inside of the walls of Confucius' house. Zhang Tang, a censor or inspector under Wudi and a cruel criminal law official, would order 'bo shi' scholars to research into Shang Shu and Shi Jing. (Zhang Tang was notorious for his childhood article 'Interrogating Mice' on which occasion he caught and interrogated mice after digging through the mice's underground caves to catch the mice for mice's stealing his family's grains.) In 130 B.C., at the age of 80, Gongsun Hong, who claimed illness after returning from the Huns as an emissary, was recommended to the court again. Yuan Gu was over the age of 90 by that time. Gongsun Hong was conferred the post as yushi dafu, i.e., censor-in-chief. In 127 B.C., Zhufu Yan, using Jia Yi's ideas in Zhi-an [peaceful administration] Ce [tactics], proposed to Wudi to have the various Liu kings divide their domain into smaller fiefs among their brothers and sons so that the various Liu kings would not be strong enough to pose a threat to the central government. This was the so-called 'tui [push] en [grace {to the second and third sons] ling [imperial order]', namely, preventing the elder son from taking the fief altogether, a tactic that was adopted by the imperial houses for the next two thousand years. The inheritors, as marquis ('lie hou'), were subject to the commandery on the same par as counties. Zhufu Yan also proposed the pacifying policies with the Huns; but, after General Wei Qing and General Li Xi defeated the Hunnic kings in Loufan and Baiyang and took over the Hetao land south of the Yellow River in 127 B.C., Zhufu Yan changed his mind and proposed to Wudi to have a castle built on the north bank of the North Yellow River Bend in the same way as Qin Emperor Shihuangdi did. Gongsun Hong advised against Zhufu Yan's proposal by citing the futile attempts of Qin Shihuangdi in mobilizing 300,000 people for building the castle. Wudi concurred with Zhufu Yan in relocating over 100,000 people to the north bank. Zhufu Yan impeached King of Yan for his lasciviousness, namely, adultery with sisters and daughters. King Yan was ordered by Emperor Wudi to commit suicide. The Qi king, who was son of King Qi-yi-wang, was controlled by his mother-empress Ji-tai-hou who cursed Xu Jia, an eunuch who was sent by the dowager-empress to the Qi state on a match-making mission on behalf of daughter Xiu-cheng-jun. Angry that his daughter could not be with princess Xiu-cheng-jun as King Qi-li-wang was not allowed to marry the princess, Zhufu Yan volunteered for the job to be dispatched to King of Qi as prime minister for an investigation. Zhufu Yan impeached King Qi for King Qi's affairs with a sister. King Qi committed suicide. King Zhao-wang impeached Zhufu Yan over his personal agony towards the dead Qi king. Gongsun Hong impeached Zhufu Yan for King Qi's death. Emperor Wudi ordered Zhufu Yan and his family be executed. Wudi deprived Xue Ze of the prime minister post; Gongsun Hong was conferred the post of prime minister (the post that belonged to three so-called 'san gong' or three duke-equivalents) and the title of Marquis Pingjin in 124 B.C. Gongsun Hong, following the practice of eminent princes of the Warring States time period, set up several guest houses for attracting talents and counsellors. Gongsun Hong appeared thrifty and pious, but were jealous of talents and extravagant inside. Dong Zhongshu had criticism of Gongsun Hong. Gongsun Hong somehow inhibited Wudi's attempt to recall Dong Zhongshu. With Gongsun Hong as prime minister, Emperor Wudi instituted the position of wu jing bo shi, i.e., Five Classics Doctorals and ordered that prefectures and the various Liu kingdoms dispatch learned youths to the capital as doctoral students. Confucius' ninth generation grandson, Kong An'guo, was among the doctorals teaching the students. Kong An'guo studied Shi Jing under Shen-gong and studied Shang Shu under Fu-sheng (Fu Sheng4), a Qin-era doctorate. Gongsun Hong recommended Ji An for the post of rightside nei shi and recommended Dong Zhongshu for the post of prime minister for the King of Jiaoxi (Liu Rui), in the attempt of ridding the two political enemies by means of a 'borrowed knife'. Dong Zhongshu resigned his post for retirement shortly thereafter and then finished a 100,000 character book entitled Chunqiu Fanlu (miscellaneous dews from Spring & Autumn era). Dong Zhongshu, who was called Dong-zi, was described by Wang Chong and Huan Tan to be someone keen on studying Chun-qiu at age 60 without casting a glimpse of the garden. The Lu Lin Zhuan section of Han Shu claimed that Dong-zi was versed in the five classics. In retirement, Dong-zi extensively lectured to students in his private school. Huwu Sheng [and his disciple Gongsun Hong] and Dong Zhongshu had been responsible for making Chun-qiu Gong-yang Zhuan a state teaching textbook. Among the two compendium-nature annotation books for Chun-qiu, namely, Gong-yang-gao's 11-volume Chun-qiu Gong-yang Zhuan [a Han dynasty book covering 242 years of the Lu state], and Gu-liang-chi's 11-volume Chun-qiu Gu-liang Zhuan [another Han dynasty book covering 242 years of the Lu state], the latter appeared to be of the nature of rebuttal against the former. Both books, which were postulated to have been passed on from the disciples of Confucian student Zi-xia, were in the format of questions and answers, apparently a compilation of the classroom teachings. (Zuo-qiu Ming's 35-volume Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan was not given the proper status during the Former Han Dynasty time period. During the Han dynasty, two other Chun-qiu versions of Zou-shi and Jia-shi at one time existed before they were lost into oblivion.) Zhang Tang, who was 'yushi dafu' serving under Zhu Maichen at one time, was conferred the post of ting wei (justice minister). Zhang Tang and Gongsun Hong colluded with each other, but Ji An refused to show respect for the two. Zhang Tang had under his service a learned doctoral student called Ni Kuan; Ni Kuan was known to Wudi for his article that Zhang Tang submitted to Wudi. In 124 B.C., Wei Qing was conferred the post of Da Jiangjun (Grand General or Generalissimo) for defeating the Hunnic 'rightside virtuous king' and capturing 150,000 Huns; Wei's three babies and his generals were conferred the marquisdom titles; Wei Qing married with a 40 year old widow, Princess Pingyang. Though, Ji An still showed no respect for Wei Qing. The next year, Wei Qing led 6 columns against the Huns. General Zhao Xin surrendered to the Huns. General Huo Qubing, however, had a small victory. Wudi, to enrich the depleted royal savings spent on the campaigns against the Huns, decreed that officialdom could be bought with money. The King of Huainan, Liu An (179-122 B.C.), hired eight elderly intelligentsia: Su Fei, Li Shang, Zuo Wu, Chen You, Wu Bei, Mao Zhou, Lei Bei and Jin Chang, and completed the alchemy and legends book, Huai Nan Zi, a.k.a. Hong (swan) Lie (ardent). The eight elderly intelligentsia, called by 'ba [eight] gong [grandpa]', had their name set for the Bagong-shan Mountain on the northern bank of the Fei-shui River. The alchemy work accidentally led to the invention of tofu, for which Liu An was accredited with being the founding master of the tofu industry. Ben Cao Gang Mu confirmed this invention. Coming to the nation's capital, Liu An submitted the book to the emperor. Among the series of books written by Liu An's hanger-on guests, there was a Chu Ci style poem which called for the return of the king's grandson from the wilderness: Wangsun (king's grandson or a royal) you (going into the wilderness) xi [modal word] bu (no) gui (return), chuncao (spring grass) sheng (growing) xi [modal word] qiqi (luxuriant). Liu An, a grandson of the founding emperor Liu Bang, assumed from his father in 64 B.C. one of the three subdivided fiefs of the original Huainan-guo territory which was assigned to in 203 and taken back from Ying Bu in 196 B.C. For his raising a few thousand hanger-on guests, Liu An was susceptible to being accused of rebellion. King Huainan later committed suicide when he was accused by Lei Bei, one of the eight renowned scholars, and one of his own grandsons, of attempting to rebel against Wudi. Zhang Tang, who was related to Han strategician Zhang Liang, accused Yan Zu and King Huainan-wang (Liu An) of conspiracy to rebel against the emperor. Zhang Tang tried the accomplices and exterminated the families of the people involved, including Liu An's wife and two daughters. The Huainan fief was downgraded to the Jiujiang Commandery. The King of Hengshan, Liu Ci, followed the suit of Liu An. The Hengshan fief was reduced to a commandery. The emperor's seven year old prince was made a crown prince. Marquis Bowang-hou (Zhang Qian) was dispatched to the west again. With Yan Zu ordered to be executed, Zhu Maichen et al., hated Zhang Tang. Zhu Maichen was 'chengxiang zhangshi', i.e., an assistant minister to Zhuang Qingdi, i.e., the prime minister. Over the theft of the sacrificial coins and money in late Emperor Wendi's tomb, Zhang Tang tried to implicate the prime minister. Zhu Maichen, Wang Chao and Bian Tong, three assistant ministers, sowed dissension to have Zhuang Qingdi torture a merchant (Tian Xin) into confession against Zhang Tang. Jian Xuan, who was responsible for prosecuting the Zhufu Yan and King Huainan-wang cases, also accused Zhang Tang of being responsible for the death of Li Wen ('yushi zhongchen'). The emperor ordered Zhao Yu, a successor to Li Wen, to try the case of Zhang Tang. Zhang Tang committed suicide at prison. Only 500 grams of 'jin' (copper) money were confiscated from Zhang Tang's residency. Once the emperor read Zhang Tang's note that was written before Zhang Tang's suicide, the emperor regretted about it. Hearing that Zhang Tang's mother buried his son with a simple coffin, the emperor felt moved and then ordered to have the three guys killed. Zhang Tang had several sons, including Zhang Heh and Zhang Anshi. Zhuang Qingdi committed suicide at prison thereafter. (Han Shu claimed that Yan Zu and Zhu Maichen were responsible for propagating the Chu Ci literature.) Also notable during this period would be a figure called Dongfang Shuo who, per research of some scholar, had been speculated to have travelled to the Arctic area more than 2000 years ago. The basis of this claim would be Dongfang Shuo's writings in the preface to Hai-nei [around the seas] Shi Zhou [ten prefectures] Ji [records] in regards to travelling to Zhu-ling [red hill], Fu-sang and Shen-hai [mirage sea] to have experienced the 'extreme darkness' at 'ming-ye [dead night] zhi [of] qiu [hill]' and the 'extreme daylight' at chun-yang [pure sun] zhi [of] ling [hill]' for six months, respectively. Furthermore, in the section Bei Huang Jing [northern wilderness] of Shen Yi Jing [supernatural], Dongfang Shuo talked about a kind of frozen 'xi shu' mice] inside of the [arctic] ice that was as thick as one hundred 'zhang' [ten feet]. Dongfang Shuo, however, was noted for infatuating Han Emperor Wudi in saying the emperor had exceeded the three sovereigns and five overlords. Dongfang Shuo, a humorous person from Yanci of the Pingyuan-jun Commandery, was hired by the emperor after he sent in a resume claiming to have the courage of Meng-ben, the agility of Qing-ji, the no-bribe-taking quality of Bao-shu, and the trustworthiness of Wei-sheng (a fictional Zhuang Zi fable figure who was drowned under a bridge for the promise to wait for a woman). For his highest post as 'tai-zhong da-fu', his writings were collected under various books, including Dongfang Taizhong Ji. The Xin (New) Dynasty (8-23 A.D.) In December of A.D. 8, Wang Mang (45 B.C. - 23 A.D.), after downgrading Emperor Ru-zi Ying (Liu Ying) to Duke Anding-gong, declared the founding of the Xin (New) dynasty, with the era of 'shi-jian-guo' [begin the building of a nation), and called himself Emperor Xin-shi-zu. Wang Mang renamed Chang'an [long peace] to Chang'an [constant peace]. Wang Mang deprived the Liu royals of the kingship and marquisdom titles by dozens and hundreds. In A.D. 9, Marquis Xuxiang-hou (Liu Kuai) staged a rebellion. [Wang Mang descended from Tian An, who received the title of King Jibei-wang from Xiang Yu, while Tian An in turn descended from Qi-wang-jian or Qi King Tian Jian, son of Qi King Xiangwang (Tian Fazhang).] During his reign, Wang Mang conducted several drastic reforms as well as initiated the restoration movement. Later historian Xia Yan claimed that the persons who misled the country with the Zhou dynasty rituals would include Wang Mang, Lin Xin, Su Zhuo and Wang Anshi. Huo Tao put Wang Mang, Yuwen Tai and Wang Anshi in the same category. Modern scholar Hu Shi made a wild claim, stating that Wang Mang was the first socialist. Another modern scholar Heh Ziquan claimed that Wang Mang was a reformist. Fu Lecheng claimed that Wang Mang was a martyr to the vintage thoughts. Among the domestic policies, Wang Mang adopted the Zhou dynasty's system in zoning the land according to the Zhou square shape, and prohibited the sale and purchase of land. Wang Mang ordered the equalization of assets. Wang Mang prohibited the sale of servants. Wang Mang monopolized salt, iron, liquor, coins, forests and lakes under the state control. Wang Mang prohibited the circulation of the wu-zhu-qian coins, which had the weight of five 'zhu' or 0.208 Chinese gram, and reverted back to the Zhou dynasty coins. The currency reform led to the spiraling inflation, a fundamental cause of the demise of the Xin dynasty. For the foreign relations, Wang Mang took the condescending and patronizing superiority towards the barbarian states and tribes. While still working as a regent for the Han emperor, Wang Mang created the Xihai-jun or the west sea commandery for sake of juxtaposing with the north sea, east and south sea concepts as known in the book Shan Hai Jing. Wang Mang further downgraded the barbarian and foreign kingship to marquisdom. To campaign against the barbarians, Wang Mang ordered the exaction of labor and resources, which led to the eruption of banditry. In A.D. 11, banditry swelled the Bingzhou prefecture. In A.D. 15, locals in the Wuyuan and Dai-jun area, under the constant attacks by the Huns, rose up against the government. In A.D. 17, Gua Tianyi led a banditry in Changzhou of the Kuaiji Commandery. In Haiqu of Langya, a woman called Mother Lü (Lü-mu) led a pirate banditry in AD 14, and killed the Haiqu county magistrate over the execution death of his son. In this year, locusts and famine fell on the nation. In A.D. 18, Li Zidu of the Donghai (Dancheng, Shandong) area rose up. This was followed by dozens of banditry groups roaming the country throughout. Two groups of rebels, who snowballed to a headcount of 1 million plus, would be the Chi-mei [red brow] Army and the Lu-lin [green forest] Army. In 18 A.D., Fan Chong, in the ancient Ju-guo area of today's eastern Shandong, rose up against the Xin dynasty, and set up a base in Mt. Tai[4]-shan. Soon, Fan Chong converged with rebels Feng An, Xu Xuan (a former county prison official), Xie Lu and Yang Yin. After the rebels failed to sack the Ju-xian county capital, they moved to Gumu where they defeated the Xin dynasty's army led by Tian Kuang (Marquis Tantang-hou). Going north to Qingzhou, the rebels returned to Mt. Tai-shan. With the government troops' reinforcements coming, Fan Chong led a duel. For dying the eyebrows into the redness, the rebels were called by the Chi-mei [red eyebrow] Army. The rebels defeated the government troops, chased to Wuyan [no salt] where they killed the government army general Lian Dan, i.e., Duke Pingjun-gong. The rebels failed to sack Ju-xian again, abandoned the idea after someone said this was after all the country of our fathers and mothers, and they moved on towards central China to the east. In Xinshi (Jingshan, Hubei), Wang Kuang (?-25 A.D.) and Wang Feng, in A.D. 17, organized a rebellion army of close to 10,000 men, with base set at the Lu-lin [green forest] Mountain, , i.e., today's Mt. Dahongshan, for which they were called by the Lu-lin bandits. After defeating the Jingzhou-mu's prefecture force and occupying Jingling (Tianmen) and Anlu counties in 21 A.D., the rebels developed into several tens of thousands. In 22 A.D., the Lu-lin army split into a Xia-jiang-bing force towards Nanjun of the Jiangling area to the west and a Xinshi-bing force towards Nanyang to the north. When attacking Suixian, the Xin-shi-bing force obtained an allied army called by the Pinglin-bing force [from north of Anlu]. Liu Xuan, a grandson of Liu Li ('tai shou' for Cangwu), joined the rebels and was assigned the job as 'an-ji-yuan' [clerk]. In A.D. 22, Wang Mang started to roll back the reforms in face of the nationwide revolts. In Nanyang, Liu Yan and Liu Xiu brothers, i.e., descendants of the Liu royal family, also rose up against the government by killing the Xinye county official 'wei' [captain]. The Liu brothers, for their ancestral origin and rebellion from hometown Chongling (Zaoyang, Hubei), was called by the Chongling-jun army. The Liu brothers, after a defeat in the hands of the government troops, joined the Xin-shi Lu-lin-jun Army in repelling Wang Mang's imperial army at B[3]i-shui and Yuyang and killing government generals Zhen Fu and Liang Qiuci. Historian Liu Xin, who edited and compiled the book Shan Hai Jing, served Wang Mang as 'xi-he guan' (official in charge of the calendar) and 'guo-shi-gong' (Duke of the State's Tutor), committed suicide for an aborted attempt at abducting Wang Mang for forcing the usurper to return the throne to the Han family. Liu Xin, who was angry with usurper-emperor Wang Mang for the death of his two sons, took for granted daoist Ximen Junhui's prediction that he was to ascend the throne to restore the Liu family's rule. Liu Xin conspired with Wang She and Dong Zhong against Wang Mang. Wang She, under monk Ximen Junhui's instigation, believed in the argot that Liu Xiu, who was Liu Xin's original name, would become an emperor. Wang She, a Wang Mang family relative, was the palace bodyguard general for Wang Mang. Dong Zhong was a 'da si-gong' minister.) In A.D. 23, at Qing[1]yang, the combined Lu-lin Army selected Liu Xuan, a Liu family royal, as an emperor, restored the Han dynasty rule, called its army by the Han-jun army, and declared the era of Geng-shi [restart]. Wang Kuang and Wang Feng received the title of 'shang gong', Liu Yan the title of 'da sima', and Liu Xiu the title of 'taichang pian-jiangjun'. Emperor Wang Mang dispatched Wang Yi ('da sikong') and Wang Xun ('da situ'), and about 420,000 army, against the rebels in the Wancheng and Kunyang area. Historian Liu Xin1, who edited the book Shan Hai Jing, served Wang Mang as 'xi-he-guan' (official in charge of the calendar) and 'guo-shi-gong' (Duke of the State's Tutor), was killed for an attempt at abducting Wang Mang for forcing the usurper to return the throne to the Han family.)
In May of A.D. 23, the imperial army departed Luoyang for the south. Among the special forces would be a giant called Ju-wu-ba (i.e., giant no-adversary) who was recorded to have a height of one Chinese yard (i.e., 10 Chinese feet) and commanded an army with beasts. Liu Xiu withdrew the rebels back to Kunyang from Yangguan (Yuxian, Henan). With the government troops converging on Kunyang, Liu Xiu and a small cavalry force exited the city for seeking the relief army in Dingling (Wuyang, Henan) and Yanxian. With over 10,000 cavalry and infantry reinforcements, Liu Xiu attacked the government troops which were laying the siege of Kunyang (Yexian, Henan). Liu Xiu then led a 3000-men force to cross the Kun-shui (Huishui, Yexian, Henan) River to attack the hind of the government troops. Liu Xiu's army killed Wang Xun. Meanwhile, the rebels charged out of the Kunyang city to pincer-attack the government troops, which led to a collapse of the government troops. The government troops, when fleeing across the Zhi-shui River, were drowned by the overflowing water. At Wancheng, Emperor Liu Xuan (i.e., Geng-shi-di) killed Liu Yan for disobedience but conferred the title of Marquis Wuxin-hou to pacify Liu Xiu. Liu Xuan killed Liu Yan at the suggestion of subordinates Zhu Wei ('da sima') and Li Tie. Later, when Liu Xiu, i.e., Eastern Han Emperor Guangdwu-di, encircled the Luoyang city, he sent a note to Zhu Wei in the suggestion of a pardon should the city be surrendered. Zhu Wei, having himself bound with ropes, ordered his followers to deliver him to Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu spared Zhu Wei. Emperor Guangwu-di, like Soong Dynasty emperor Tai-zu, was one of the rare Chinese founding emperors who had good terms with his generals throughout the life. On the Shandong peninsula, the red eyebrow rebels, after the failure to sack the Ju-xian county capital again, relocated towards the east. With Lü-mu's troops dissipating into the Chi-mei, Qing-du [green calf] and Tong-ma [bronze horse] bands, Fan Chong, with the extra headcounts, raided Donghai. In the battle against government official 'da-yin' for Yi-ping, the rebels suffered a defeat. The rebels then rampaged through the area of Chu, Pei, Runan and Yingchuan, returned to take Chenliu, sacked Lucheng, and went against Puyang. Liu Ci suggested to Liu Xuan to allow Liu Xiu to go to 'he-bei', i.e., north of the Yellow River, to pacify the rebel groups, to which Zhu Wei was opposed. At the advice of Feng Yi, Liu Xiu bribed Cao Jing ('zuo chengxiang') to lobby with Emperor Geng-shi-di. Liu Xiu was approved for the mission to the north. On the way of crossing the river for the north, Liu Xiu was joined by acquaintance Deng Yu. North of the Yellow River, Liu Xiu obtained the help of Geng Yan, son of Geng Kuang who was 'tai shou' for Shanggu, and obtained the cavalry force from the Yuyang and Shanggu commanderies. Liu Xiu also obtained the support of King Zhengding-wang (Liu Yang). Liu Xiu went as north as today's Peking-Tientsin area as a result of the emergence of rivalry-Liu regimes in the land north of the Yellow River, where Liu Lin supported Wang Lang [who claimed to be son Liu Ziyu of late Han Emperor Chengdi] as Emperor Han-di [Han-ji-di] in Handan, and Liu Jie [a son of former Han King Guangyang-wang] echoed Liu Lin's regime. In August, the Lu-lin army, after the Battle of Kunyang, dispatched two columns of army against the Xin Dynasty strongholds of Luoyang and Chang'an. In September, Wang Kuang's prong sacked Luoyang and killed Xin Dynasty generals Wang Kuang and Ai Zhang. In October of 23 A.D., Emperor Geng-shi-di relocated to Luoyang from Wan (Nanyang, Hebei). Liu Ci was appointed the post as prime minister ('cheng xiang'). At Luoyang, the emperor sent an emissary to pacifying the Chi-mei [red eyebrow] rebels. At Puyang, Fan Chong sought suzerainty with Emperor Gengshi-di who was to set up the capital at Luoyang. Fan Chong and about twenty Chi-mei rebel leaders came to Luoyang and received the nominal titles with no fiefdoms. Fan Chong returned to Puyang where over 300,000 Chi-mei rebels started rebellion over the unfair treatment. Liu Gong, a brother of Liu Pengzi, did not return east with Fan Chong but stayed on to serve Emperor Gengshi-di for his special learning and knowledge in classics Shang Shu. The Chi-mei rebel attacked west and south. The western prong, under Shen Tujian and Li Song, pushed to the Wuguan pass, where they pacified the Xin dynasty general Zhu Meng and killed the Xin dynasty general Soong Gang. In A.D. 23, the Lulin-jun Army, under Deng Ye and Li Song, defeated Wang Mang's nine tiger-suffixed generals at Huayin. Deng Ye, after failing to sack Wei-kou, sent Wang Xian and a contingent across the Wei-shui River to take over Zuo-fengyi and attack Chang'an from the north direction. Li Song meanwhile ordered Haan Chen to attack Xinfeng (Lintong). Haan Chen defeated Xin dynasty general Dou Rong and chased to the Changmen-gong Palace of Chang'an. Wang Mang released the convicts from prisons for Shi Zhan to command. The convicts mutinied. On October 1, the Lu-lin army intruded into Chang'an through the Xuanping-men gate. Wang Mang escaped to Cangchi-Jiantai, a terrace inside of the Weiyang-gong palace, after the Lulin-jun Army sacked Chang'an and defeated Wang Yi and Wang Xun's garrison army after a three-day battle. At the Jiantai Terrace, a merchant by the name of Du Wu killed Wang Mang. Gong Bin, a 'jiao wei' officer, cut off Wang Mang's head, with public exhibition at the Wan-shi market. The Lulin-jun Army escorted Liu Pengzi, i.e., Emperor Gengshi-di, into Chang'an. With the support of the Yuyang and Shanggu commandery cavalry forces, the army from King Zhengding-wang (Liu Yang), and Xie Gong's reinforcement troops from Emperor Gengshi-di, Liu Xiu was able to defeat and kill Wang Lang at Handan. After quelling the 'he-bei' territory, Liu Xiu got rid of the superintendent Xie Gong who was sent by Emperor Geng-shi-di as well as the governors and magistrates assigned by Emperor Geng-shi-di. Liu Xiu defeated the rebels as well as the Xin dynasty officials, and after absorbing the Tong-ma [bronze horse] rebels, Liu Xiu was called by Lord (Emperor) Tong-ma-di. In June of 25 A.D., in Haocheng (Boxiang, Xingtai, Hebei), Liu Xiu declared himself an emperor, with the era of Jianwu [building up the martialness].
Emperor Geng-shi-di's Xuan-han Dynasty (23-25 A.D.) & Emperor Jianshi-di's Chimei-han Dynasty (25-27 A.D.) In February of 24 A.D., Emperor Geng-shi-di further moved the capital to Chang'an. The emperor conferred kingship onto the various rebel generals. At Zhu Wei's insistence, the non-Liu kings were downgraded to marquisdom. Li Song was appointed the post as prime minister ('cheng xiang') while Liu Ci took the post of 'qian-da-sima' and Zhao Meng the post of 'you-da-sima'. The emperor sent a decree to make Liu Xiu into General 'po-lu-jiangjun' and concurrent 'da-sima'. Emperor Geng-shi-di, who took in Zhao Meng's daughter as wife, did not take care of the business. Geng-shi-di arrested Li Jiao over admonition. By late 23 A.D., rebellion erupted across the country again, with Wang Lang, who claimed to be son Liu Ziyu of late Han Emperor Chengdi, called himself Emperor Han-di [Han-ji-di] in Handan, and Liu Yong, who received Geng-shi-di's conferral as King Liang-wang, also called himself an emperor [i.e., Liu-liang-wudi] as well. (After Liu Xiu quelled the Wang Lang rebellion, Emperor Geng-shi-di conferred Liu Xiu the title of King Xiao-wang. However, Liu Xiu refused to answer Emperor Gengshi-di's call to go back to the capital city.) In 24 A.D., Fang Wang, a person from Pingling, failed to stop Kui Qi and the Kui family members from going to Chang'an to support Emperor Geng-shi-di. In January of 25 B.C., while Emperor Geng-shi-di was in reign in Chang'an, Fang Wang (Fang Wangzhi) and Gong Lin sent a mission to fetch Ru-zi Ying (Liu Ying) to Linjing (Zhenyuan, Gansu) from Chang'an, and supported the last Western Han Dynasty emperor as the lord. In 25 B.C., Restoration Emperor Geng-shi-di (Liu Xuan) dispatched Li Song ('cheng xiang') and Su Mao to defeating Fang Wang and Ru-zi Ying. Emperor Ru-zi Ying was killed in battle. The Chi-mei rebels, at Puyang, decided to attack Emperor Geng-shi-di's regime in lieu of returning to the Shandong peninsula to the east. The rebels split into two groups, with Fan Chong and Feng An taking over Changshe (Changge, Henan) and attacking Wancheng, while Xu Xuan, Xie Lu and Yang Yin taking Yangdi (Yuxian, Henan) and attacking Liang (Linru, Henan). In winter of A.D. 24, Fan Chong's prong crossed the Wuguan pass while Xu Xuan's prong penetrated the Luhun-guan [Yiyang, Henan] pass. Emperor Geng-shi-di sent Wang Kuang (King Biyang-wang), Cheng Dan (King Xiangyi-wang) and Liu Jun ('kangwei jiangjun') against the Chi-mei rebels. In January of A.D. 25, the Chi-mei rebels pushed to Hongnong (Lingbao, Henan). Restoration Emperor Geng-shi-di sent Su Mao to Hongnong, where Su Mao was defeated by the Chi-mei army. In March, Restoration Emperor Geng-shi-di further sent Li Song and Zhu Wei to Maoxiang, where they were defeated by the Chi-mei army and lost over 30,000 troops. Meanwhile, at He-dong (east of the Yellow River), Wang Kuang and Zhang Ang, after a defeat in the hands of Deng Yu, fled to Chang'an. Zhang Ang suggested a relocation to hometown Nanyang. In June, the Chi-mei rebels reached Zhengxian (Huayin, Shenxi). At the advice of Fang Yang (Fang Wangzhi's brother), the rebels, to counter Emperor Geng-shi-di, selected a Liu-surnamed teenager 'cowboy', Liu Pengzi, as the new Han emperor [i.e., Emperor Jianshi-di], and declared the era of Jian-shi. Among about six dozen Liu-surnamed descendants of King Jing-wang of the former Chengyang-jun commandery, 15-year-old Liu Pengzi, with bare feet and unbridled hair, was made into an emperor after he drew the ballots the last, for his youngest age, using a method of sortition ballot, i.e., the drawing of lots from a jar with one pre-written note of emperor, mixed with the blanks. Liu Pengzi was called a cowboy for the 'niu [cow] li [official]' job he held in the army. It was said that he could communicate with the cows and buffalos. Xu Xuan, who at one time served as a county prison official, was made into prime minister for his knowledge of YI JING, while Fan Chong himself took the post of 'yushi dafu' for lack of abilities to read and write. Fan Chong and the rebels decided to rebel against the restoration emperor as a result of the Qi [the Shandong peninsula] witches' repeating prophecy statements about the rebels' destiny to act as county magistrates rather pure bandits. Further, Fang Wang, to avenge his brother Fang Wangzhi's death in the hands of the restoration emperor, instigated Fan Chong on the matter of replacing the regime. Emperor Gengshi-di, after diffusing the subordinates' attempt at fleeing south for Nanyang, sent Wang Kuang, Chen Mu, Cheng Dan, and Zhao Meng to Xinfeng, and Li Song to Zhoucheng, for countering the Chi-mei army. After pushing to the Gao-ling (? Emperor Gaozu's mausoleum) area, the Chi-mei rebels obtained the defection of Zhang Ang, a general under the restoration emperor. The cause was to do with the discord between the restoration emperor and the ministers. The ministers, including Shen Tujian, Zhang Ang and Liao Zhan wanted to abandon Chang'an for hometown Nanyang, and colluded with Hu Yin and Kui Xiao in a scheme to abduct the emperor for a homecoming trip. The emperor, having detected the plot, killed Shen Tujian. Zhang Ang and Liao Zhan then attacked the palace. The emperor fled to Zhao Meng's camp, where he suspected the loyalty of other ministers and ordered the killing of Chen Mu and Cheng Dan. Wang Kuang fled to join forces with Zhang Ang, and fought a citywide battle against the emperor, Zhao Meng and Li Song for one month. Combining the troops with Zhang Ang, the Chi-mei rebels penetrated into the Dong-du-men city gate in September. Li Fan, to save brother Li Song's life, surrendered the city gate. After intrusion into Chang'an, Emperor Gengshi-di fled the city through Chucheng-men, where women ridiculed the emperor with a request for dismounting the horse to express gratitude for the pass to leave. At the advice of Liu Gong who chased behind the emperor to Gao-ling, where general Yan Ben had put the emperor under restricted freedom custody, Gengshi-di was persuaded by Liu Gong to surrender to Liu Pengzi, i.e., Emperor Jianshi-di in October. The Chi-mei rebels, with no discipline, ransacked inside of the palaces. Zhuge Zhi, a 'wei wei', could not stop the rampage after killing hundreds of soldiers. In the footsteps of Emperor Jianshi-di's Lu-lin army, Liu Xiu (i.e., Emperor Guangwu-di) relocated his capital to Luoyang in October of 25 A.D. Emperor Gengshi-di was downgraded to Marquis Weiwei-hou and then upgraded to King Changsha-wang but was strangled to death by the Chi-mei rebel leader Zhang Ang and Xie Lu shortly afterwards. Zhang Ang and Xie Lu killed their former lord for fear that rivals could have used the deposed emperor against them - since the people of the capital city area had good feelings for the emperor after reflecting on the lootings by the troops of the new Chi-mei emperor. Hundreds and up to a thousand court maids of honor and late Emperor Gengshi-di's concubines locked themselves up in the Ye-ting [armpit] Palace, where they were to be starved to death after finishing up the meagre supply of grains from Emperor Jianshi-di. In January of A.D. 26, Emperor Jianshi-di initially took brother Liu Gong's advice in proposing to Fan Chong for abdication. When Fan Chong promised to rein in the troops, the teenager emperor was forced to stay on. Twenty days later, the rebel army soldiers again began the lootings. After finishing up all the grains inside of Chang'an, Fan Chong, Emperor Jianshi-di, and the rebels attacked west towards Longyou [i.e., the former Qin land or the Wei-shui River plains, between Xi'an and Gansu], where Kui Xiao and the locals had held up and built a stronghold. The rebels then moved to Mt. Nanshan, pushed to Yangcheng, returned to the outskirts of Chang'an, where they fought against and killed Restoration Emperor Army General Yan Chun at Mei2 (Mei2-xian, Shenxi). The rebels moved to Anding and Beidi, and continued on to Yangcheng and Fanxu for a campaign against strongman Kui Xiao's army, where they lost a lot of ranks to the frozen cold weather. The rebels dug up Emperess Lü-hou's tomb en route. Deng Yu ('da situ'), a general under Liu Xiu, was sent across the Yellow River for the Guan-zhong territory. Deng Yu, after taking the empty Chang'an city, continued on to attack the Chi-mei rebels at Yuyi. After a defeat, Deng Yu fled back to Chang'an. The Chi-mei army returned to Chang'an, pushing Deng Yu into a retreat to Yunyang. In September, Emperor Jianshi-di was back in Chang'an. Liu Xiu sent Feng Yi to reinforcing Deng Yu. The Chi-mei army defeated Feng Yi at Huixi (percolating creek, i.e., Luoning, Henan) after faking a defeat. Feng Yi was to revenge on the defeat at the later Battle of Xiao-di. Emperor Jianshi-di faced numerous enemies, including the former restoration emperor's remnants, the strongmen to the west of Chang'an, and the independent banditry forces to the south, as well as Liu Xiu's Han army. From the Han-zhong area, Yan Cen exited Sanguan Pass to reach Du-ling. Emperor Jianshi-di dispatched Feng An and over 100,000 strong army against Yan Cen. Taking advantage of this, Deng Yu attacked Chang'an, thinking that the weak and old troops were guarding the city. Xie Lu led a relielf army to Chang'an to defeat Deng Yu at Gao-jie [Gao street]. Yan Cen, combining forces with Restoration Emperor Army General Li Bao, battled against Feng An at Du-ling. Yan Cen was defeated, and Li Bao surrendered to Feng Yan. Li then colluded with Yan to defeat Feng An from inside out. Seeing the base flying the white flags, Feng An's troops were shocked and going stray, got drowned in the mountain rivers. With over 100,000 deaths from the battles, Feng An and several thousands of men fled to Chang'an, where the three capital districts were already in the mode of cannibalism. In December, the Chi-mei rebels, still over 200,000 troops, out of grain supply, then decided to return east towards the sea coast in December. Emperor Guangwu-di (Liu Xiu), to intercept the Chi-mei rebels, ordered Hou Jing to station at Xin'an to stop the Chi-mei army's eastern move and Geng Yan to station at Yiyang to stop the Chi-mei army's southern move. In January of 27 A.D., Deng Yu crossed the river to attack the Chi-mei army but was defeated. The Chi-mei army exited the pass for a southern move. Feng Yi, having his soldiers wear the Chi-mei uniforms, defeated the Chi-mei army at the Battle of Xiao-di [Mianchi, i.e., foot of the Xiaoshan Mountain]. Over 80,000 CHi-mei soldiers surrendered. Liu Xiu personally went to Yiyang to intercept the Chi-mei army. Fan Chong and Emperor Liu Pengzi, using Liu Gong as a mediator, surrendered to Liu Xiu at Yiyang, with the weapons stacking as high as the Xionger-shan [bear ear] Mountain. Emperor Guangwu-di challenged Fan Chong to regroup the army for a duel, to which Xu Xuan kowtowed to express the complete subordination. Liu Xiu pardoned the Chi-mei rebels for their keeping alive the lord instead of killing the lord to surrender the lord's head as the other rebels did. Fan Chong and Feng An were said to have attempted rebellion in summer, for which they were killed. Latter Han Dynasty In June of 25 A.D., in Haocheng (Boxiang, Xingtai, Hebei), Liu Xiu declared himself an emperor, i.e., Eastern Han Emperor Guangwu-di, with the era of Jianwu [building up the martialness] and the posthumous title of Han-shi-zu. In the footsteps of Emperor Jianshi-di's Lu-lin army which attacked Emperor Gengshi-di at Chang'an, Liu Xiu (i.e., Emperor Guangwu-di) relocated his capital to Luoyang in October of 25 A.D. In January of 27 A.D., Liu Xiu's army defeated the Chi-mei army at the Battle of Xiao-di [Mianchi], i.e., foot of the Xiaoshan Mountain, followed by the surrender of Emperor Gengshi-di and the Chi-mei army at Yiyang. Meantime, Liu Xiu's Han army, under the command of Gai Yan, campaigned and defeated King Liang-wang (Liu Yong) at Suiyang. General Geng Yan separately quelled Zhang Bu at Qingzhou on the Shandong peninsula in a bloody duel, leaving corpses along the 80-90 li distance battle field. Later, Emperor Guangdu-di personally led a campaign to the east, and quelled King Hai-xi-wang (Dong Xian). In April of A.D. 30, Kui Xiao (Wei Xiao) refused to allow Emperor Guangdu-di to borrow a path in Long-xi (west Gansu) to attack Gongsun Shu in the Sichuan basin. Kui Xiao ordered General Wang Yuan to defend Longchi (Longxian, Shenxi). The Han army, crossing Mt. Longshan to attack Longchi, was defeated. On the Western Corridor, Dou Rong sought suzerainty with Emperor Guangdu-di and attacked Kui Xiao's Qiangic allied and Kui Xiao. Ma Yuan, a general under Kui Xiao, surrendered to the Han army. In spring of A.D. 31, Gongsun Shu conferred Kui Xiao the title of King Shuoning-wang, and dispatched reinforcements to aiding Kui Xiao. In autumn, Kui Xiao attacked the Anding-jun commandery (Guyuan, Ningxia) and pushed to Yinjia (Jingchuan, Gansu). Another prong attacked Ganxian. Han generals Feng Yi and Ji Zun defeated Kui Xiao's army. In spring of A.D. 32, Lai She, with a small Han contingent army, detoured to sack Lüeyang to pose threat to Kui Xiao. Meanwhile, Dou Rong pincer-attacked Kui Xiao's army with the Han army. The Han army took over the Tianshui-jun commandery. Kui Xiao fled to Xicheng. Wang Yuan defeated Cen Peng's Han army which was flooding the Xicheng city. The Han army pulled out of Long-xi. Kui Xiao was succeeded by son Kui Chun in 34 A.D. Kui Chun surrendered to Han after the Han army, under Geng Yan, Kou Xun, Lai She and Gan Yan re-launched the campaign against Long-xi. Wang Yuan fled to seek asylum with Gongsun Shu. The Han army under Wu Han ('da sima'), in March of A.D. 35, attacked Yizhou, the domain of Cheng-jia Dynasty emperor Gongsun Shu [who first declared himself King Shu-wang and then simulatenously with Liu Xiu's enthronement, declared himself Emperor Bai-di or the white/western emperor]. Wu Han and Cen Peng attacked west along the Yangtze, while Lai She and Gan Yan attacked south from Long-xi. The Yangtze force pushed all the way to Jiangzhou (Chungking, Sichuan). Cen Peng, leaving an army to lay siege of Jiangzhou, attacked Dianjiang and Pingqu, i.e., today's Hechuan. In June, Lai She defeated Wang Yuan, took over Xiabian (Chengxian, Gansu) and Hechi, and intruded into today's northern Sichuan. Gongsun Shu sent an assassin to killing Lai She. Liu Shang, a royal member, took over the command to continue attacking south. Gongsun Shu's army defended Guanghan, Zizhong (Ziyang) and Huangshi (Fuling). Cen Peng circumvented around the battle line by moving along the upperstream Yangtze to sack Huangshi (Fuling) and then travelled over 2000-li distance to the midstream Min-jiang River to take over Wuyang (Pengshan, Sichuan) and threaten Guangdu (Chengdu). Gongsun Shu sent an assassin to have Cen Peng killed. Wu Han took reinforcements to the Guangdu front. (Note in the ancient times, the Chinese took the Min-jiang River as the origin of the Yangtze.) In January of A.D. 36, Wu Han defeated the Shu army at the Min-jiang crossing of Yufujin (fish belly crossing, i.e., Meishan, Sichuan). Wu Han laid siege of Wuyang, sacked Guangdu, and threatened Chengdu. Wu Han, with 20,000 infantry and cavalry, was defeated by the Shu emperor. Combining forces with Liu Shang on the southern bank of the Jin-jiang River, the Han army engaged with the Shu army several times on the plains between Guangdu and Chengdu. (Jin-jiang was the source of the Kin Kong Hotel's name in Shanghai, and Guangdu was a name widely used in Shan Hai Jing.) Zang Gong, after taking Fan (Pengxian) and Pi[2] (Pixian), converged with Wu Han. In November, the Han army encircled Chengdu. Yan Cen, with 5000 dare-to-die commandos, defeated Wu Han's Han army at Shiqiao, somewhere to the south of Chengdu. The Han army induced Gongsun Shu into a proactive attack, and defeated and wounded Gongsun Shu. Yan Cen, after Gongsun Shu's death, surrendered to Wu Han. Wu Han conducted a massacre of the city. China was reunited again. Emperor Guangwu-di was one of the few Chinese founding emperors who had good terms with his generals throughout the life. Later, son-emperor Liu Zhuang (Han Emperor Ming-di), in 60 A.D., ordered to make a drawing of Guangwu-di's twenty-eight generals at the Yuntai-ge Palace Building. Fan Ye, in Hou Han Shu, made biographies for all twenty-eight Yuntai [cloud terrace] generals. Emperor Guangwu-di, himself an intellectual who went to the nation's capital for studies while a kid, also had special fondness for the Confucian teachings. Grandson-emperor Liu Da (Han Emperor Zhang-di), a calligrapher, further hosted a "Bai-hu [white tiger] Guan [palace auditorium]" conference", in which the emperor and the Confucians officially reached a compromise of ruling the nation under the Confucian doctrines, a feat comparable to the Magna Carta Libertatum of Britain. That is, an ideological contract or consensus that the Confucians uphold the sanctity of the imperial sovereignty while the emperor obey the moral guidelines and the mandate of heaven. (Also see Tang Emperor Taizong's 24 Ling-yan-ge generals and ministers.) Han Emperor Mingdi (Liu Zhuang) Han Emperor Zhang-di (Liu Da) Han Emperor Zhangdi Han Emperor Hedi Han Emperor Shangdi Han Emperor Andi Marquis Beixiang-hou Han Emperor Shundi Han Emperor Chongdi Han Emperor Zhidi Han Emperor Huandi Han Emperor Lingdi Han Emperor Shao-di (Liu Bian) Han Emperor Xiandi
Written by Ah Xiang
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![Though, Anna Wang [Anneliese Martens], in her memoirs, expressed jealousy over Gong Peng by stating that the Anglo-American reporters had flattered the Chinese communists and the communist movement as a result of being entranced with the goldfish-eye'ed personal assistant of Zhou Enlai](GongPeng.jpg)
