Dynasties of ChinaWestern HanWestern Han lineage
Reign 157–141 BCE
Continuing Emperor Wen's strategy of recuperating and recuperating, he quelled the chaos in the Seven Kingdoms and took over the kingdom's governance. Together with Emperor Wen, he was known as the "Rule of Wen and Jing".
Liu Qi is the son of Emperor Wen and his mother is Douhuanghou. The queen died early when Emperor Wen was the king, and her four sons died of illness one after another before Emperor Wen came to the throne. As the eldest prince, Liu Qi was established as Crown Prince in 179 BC. When he was the Crown Prince, he had a chess dispute with the Crown Prince of Wu who entered the court, and killed him with a chessboard. From then on, Wu King Liu Bi resented the court and refused to go to court because of illness. Emperor Wen died in 157 BC and he ascended the throne as emperor.
At the beginning of his accession to the throne, he set the land rent at thirty-one tax and reduced the flogging twice, continuing Emperor Wen's policy of resting with the people. In 154 BC, he adopted Chao Cuo's strategy of cutting down the vassal vassal, which triggered the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu. He beheaded Chao Cuo in order to persuade the rebels to stop their troops, and finally relied on Zhou Yafu to put down the rebellion within three months. After that, he took away the political power of the princes and the power of appointing and removing officials. There was no essential difference between the kingdom and the county, and the centralization of power was greatly strengthened.
He continued to make peace with the Huns, and there were still occasional incursions on the border. In the later period of his reign, he deposed Crown Prince Liu Rong and replaced him with Liu Che, the son of Queen Wang. He also forced Zhou Yafu, the hero of the rebellion, to death because of suspicion. In 141 BC, he died of illness in Weiyang Palace and was buried in Yangling. The wealth accumulated by the Wen and Jing generations laid the material foundation for Emperor Wu's great achievements.
Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty continued Emperor Wen's light corvee and low taxation, setting land rent at thirty to one tax, and took decisive measures to put down the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms and seize the kingdom's power. This solved the biggest political danger in the early Han Dynasty and paved the way for the prosperity of Emperor Wu's period. However, he was mean and suspicious. He unjustly killed Chao Cuo to seek peace, and forced Zhou Yafu, the hero of the rebellion, to death. He also repeatedly dealt with the Crown Prince and the King of Liang. Later generations did not evaluate him as well as Emperor Wen.
PoliticsEstablished as Crown Prince
A few months after Emperor Wen ascended the throne, the minister requested that he be crowned Prince. All the sons born to King Dai and the old queen had died of illness one after another. Liu Qi, the eldest son born to Dou Ji, was made Crown Prince, and Dou Ji was immediately made Queen.
EconomyLand rent thirty and one tax
The year after he came to the throne, he ordered that the land rent be halved and the tax rate was changed from 15 to 30 taxes. Since then, this tax rate has become Western Han's customization and will be used for a long time.
Societyreduce flogging
Emperor Wen used flogging instead of corporal punishment, and the victims were often beaten to death. Emperor Jing first reduced the number of floggings from 500 to 300, and from 300 to 200. In 144 BC, the number was further reduced to 200 and 100. He also promulgated the "Fu Order" to stipulate the specifications of the torture instruments. Only flogging on the buttocks was allowed, and no substitutions were allowed midway.
PoliticsChao Cuo proposed to reduce the vassal status
Chao Cuo was promoted to the imperial censor, and he wrote a letter pointing out that "cutting it will cause the opposite, and not cutting it will also cause the opposite." Emperor Jing adopted his suggestion and successively captured the commanderies and counties of Chu, Zhao, Jiaoxi and other countries, and also ordered the capture of Kuaiji and Yuzhang counties of Wu.
MilitaryPut down the chaos of the Seven Kingdoms
In the first month of the first month, King Liu Bi of Wu united the six kingdoms of Chu, Zhao, Jiaoxi, Jiaodong, Sichuan, and Jinan, and raised an army under the name of "Execute Chao Cuo, Qing Jun Side". Liang Wang Liu Wu stood firm in Suiyang, while Taiwei Zhou Yafu stood firm and refused to fight. He sent Qingqi to cut off Wu and Chu's food routes. The rebels were starved to death and were put down in three months.
PeopleChao Cuo was beheaded in Dongshi
At the beginning of the rebellion, Yuan Ang, who had a rift with Chao Cuo, offered a plan, saying that as long as Chao Cuo was killed and the fiefdom restored, Wu Chu could stop his troops. Emperor Jing sent people to lure Chao Cuo to Dongshi, where he was beheaded in court uniform. The rebels did not retreat because of this, and Emperor Jing regretted it too late.
PoliticsRenamed Crown Prince
Emperor Jing originally made Liu Rong, the son of Li Ji, the Crown Prince. Later, due to jealousy of Li Ji Jiao, he fell out of favor. In 150 BC, he deposed Liu Rong as the King of Linjiang, established Mrs. Wang as the Queen, and his son Liu Che, King of Jiaodong, as the Crown Prince. Liu Rong later committed suicide in prison after being summoned for interrogation for occupying the open space of the ancestral temple.
PoliticsThe king of Liang sent Yuan Ang to be assassinated
Doutaihou favored his youngest son Liu Wu, King of Liang, and wanted Emperor Jing to pass on to his younger brother. Yuan Ang and other ministers insisted that they could not do so, but the king of Liang held a grudge and sent assassins to kill Yuan Ang and more than ten ministers. Emperor Jing pursued the case, and King Liang fell out of favor.
PoliticsSeize control of the kingdom
It was ordered that the princes and kings should no longer govern the feudal country, and the officials of the kingdom should be appointed by the imperial court. The royal censors, court lieutenants, Shaofu and other officials of the kingdom should be abolished and the prime minister should be replaced by the prime minister. The princes and kings were only responsible for food, clothing, rent and taxes, and the kingdom was actually no different from a county.
PeopleZhou Yafu was imprisoned and died
After Zhou Yafu suppressed the rebellion, he became prime minister. However, he gradually lost favor with Emperor Jing and was dismissed because he opposed the abolition of the Crown Prince and the designation of Wang Xin, the brother of the king and queen, as a marquis. His son bought a shield for his father's burial and was accused of treason. After being imprisoned, Zhou Yafu went on a hunger strike for five days and died of vomiting blood.
CultureWen Weng Xingxue
In the last years of the Emperor Jing Dynasty, Wen Weng from Lujiang was appointed as the governor of Shu County. He sent junior and middle-level officials from the county to Chang'an to study Confucian classics and laws. He also built a school in Chengdu and recruited children from various counties. Those who completed the studies were appointed to official positions. The literary style of Shu flourished.
Lasting legacyToday's Chengdu Shishi Middle School is based on the Shishi built by Wen Weng as its predecessor, and it is still running in the area of Wenmiao Qian Street.
EconomyThe accumulation of literature and scenery
According to "Historical Records Pingzhunshu", by the early years of Emperor Wu, the capital accumulated a huge amount of money, and the ropes on which the money was tied were rotten and could not be counted; the grain in Taicang was piled up in the open air and rotted. This is the result of the recuperation of the Wen and Jing generations.
Lasting legacyThe idiom "Chen Chen Xiang Yin" comes from this record, and its current meaning refers to following stereotypes and lacking innovation.
PoliticsDied of illness and buried in Yangling
He died of illness in Weiyang Palace in the first month, and Crown Prince Liu Che came to the throne. He was buried in Yangling on the Xianyang Plain. A large number of pottery figurines originally wearing clothes and equipped with wooden arms, as well as animal figurines and daily necessities were unearthed in the Waizang pit around the cemetery.
Lasting legacyIn 2016, research confirmed that the tea remains unearthed from the Yangling Tomb of Han Dynasty were once considered to be the earliest physical tea leaves. The study of the ancient city of Zhu State published in 2021 advances the physical evidence of tea to the early Warring States period.
Sources:Shandong University: Research on Tea Remains in the Ancient City of Zhu State (checked 2026-10-16)
When Emperor Jing was the Crown Prince, he was deeply trusted. After he came to the throne, he was promoted from internal historian to imperial censor. He advocated the reduction of vassals and updated the decree to thirty chapters. After the Seven Kingdoms raised an army in the name of "Qing Jun Side", they were killed in Dongshi by Emperor Jing as a sacrifice for peace.
Son of Zhou Bo. During the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, Yi Taiwei led the troops, refused to rescue the besieged Liang State, stood firm in Changyi, cut off Wu and Chu's food routes, and put down the rebellion in three months. He later served as prime minister, but was dismissed from office for repeatedly speaking out against the imperial decree. He was eventually imprisoned and died on a hunger strike.
Emperor Wen was a native of Chu and was famous for his direct advice. He once served as the prime minister of Wu State and had never been on good terms with Chao Cuo. During the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, he proposed a plan to kill Chao Cuo. He was sent as an envoy to the State of Wu as Taichang, but failed to persuade the King of Wu to retreat. Later, he was killed by assassins sent by Liang Wang because he opposed the establishment of Liang Wang as the crown prince.
The son of Liu Bang's brother Liu Zhong, he was granted the title of King of Wu for more than forty years. The state of Wu cast money in the mountains and boiled the sea into salt. The state was rich and the people did not pay taxes. Because the Crown Prince was killed by Liu Qi, he resented the imperial court and united the six countries to raise an army when he cut off the vassal state. He was defeated and fled to East Vietnam, where he was killed by the East Vietnamese.
Emperor Jing has the same mother and brother, and is deeply loved by Doutaihou. During the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, he stood firm in Suiyang and blocked the westward advance of the Wu and Chu armies, which was a great achievement. He built Dongyuan extensively and recruited scribes such as Sima Xiangru and Meicheng. When he failed to seek a throne, he assassinated the ministers and died in depression.
A native of Shu County, Lujiang, Emperor Jing served as the governor of Shu County in his last years and established a school in Chengdu to cultivate local talents. The "Book of Han" states that Emperor Wu ordered all counties and counties in the world to set up school officials, and it was Wen Weng who started this.