Han Lingdi

Family name :	Liu (劉; liú)
First name :	Hong (宏, hóng)
Posthumous title : (complete)	Xiaoling (孝 靈, xiào líng)
Reign:	168-189
Era names :	Jianning (建寧) 168-172 Xiping (熹平) 172-178 Guanghe (光和) 178-184 Zhongping (中平) 184-189

Emperor Ling von Han ( Chinese  漢靈帝  /  漢灵帝 , Pinyin hàn líng dì , W.-G. Han Ling-ti ), born as Liu Hong (* 156 ; † 189 ), was an emperor of the Han dynasty . His accession to the throne was legitimized by the fact that he was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhang .

Under Emperor Ling's rule, the influence of the eunuchs at the imperial court in Luoyang strengthened for the last time after they had overthrown the clan of the empress mother Dou Miao under the leadership of Zhang Rang . Emperor Ling, who ascended the throne at the age of twelve, showed no particular interest in government affairs even in adulthood and indulged in women and decadence. He even sold public office to finance his lifestyle. The officials were therefore forced to increase the taxes for the tenants and farmers enormously. Peasant revolts broke out across the country and eventually united in the Yellow Turban Movement . In order to end this threatening situation, Emperor Ling gave the generals and provincial governors extensive civil and military authority, which led to the dissolution of the central power.

Emperor Ling died at the age of 34 after reigning 21 years. Soon after his death, power struggles broke out between his widow He's clan and the eunuchs, which were soon ended by the unscrupulous warlord Dong Zhuo , who deposed the new emperor Liu Bian and put his brother Liu Xie on the throne as a puppet.

Life

Family background and accession to the throne

Liu Hong came from the hereditary counts and bore the title of Marquis of Jieduting (a ting marquis owned a mark that sometimes comprised two or three, but usually only one village). He carried this title in the third generation, because he had inherited it from his father Liu Chang ( Chinese  劉 萇 ), who had inherited it from his father Liu Shu ( Chinese  劉淑 ). Liu Shu was the son of Liu Kai ( Chinese  劉 開 ), the prince of Hejian , who was a son of Emperor Zhang. Nothing is known about the origins of Liu Hong's mother Dong .

After Emperor Huan died in 168 without leaving an heir, his widow Dou Miao received the title of Empress Mother and took over the government. She examined the younger members of the imperial family to determine the successor. For unknown reasons, her assistant Liu Shu ( Chinese  劉 儵 ) recommended the young Liu Hong, and after consulting her father Dou Wu and the Confucian scholar Chen Fan, the empress mother made the twelve-year-old emperor. Emperor Ling bestowed imperial titles on his father and grandfather posthumously, but he could only appoint his mother as imperial wife because Dou Miao was already the mother of empress.

Early Rule (Jianning and Xiping)

Dou Wu and Chen Fan were the most powerful officials in the government. They tried to reduce the influence of the eunuchs and even proposed that the most powerful of them should be executed. The Empress Mother and Regent Dou Miao refused to take such drastic steps, but the plan got through to the eunuchs, and they acted quickly because they saw their situation seriously threatened. They kidnapped the regent and the emperor (whom they led to believe was for his protection) and then captured Chen Fan, who they executed. Dou Wu resisted for a long time, but was eventually beaten and committed suicide. The Dou clan was wiped out and the Empress mother ousted. The eunuch faction, led by Cao Jie ( Chinese  曹 節 ) and Wang Fu ( Chinese  王甫 ), took power in the government.

After the destruction of the Dou clan, Emperor Ling made his mother, Dong 169, empress mother. However, he did not deprive Dou Miao of this dignity and treated her with respect until her death. Members of the Dong family began to come to the court and hold offices without being too influential.

In the same year the eunuchs convinced Emperor Ling that the partisan movement , which consisted of Confucian officials and students, was intriguing against the imperial court. Many partisans were killed and others deprived of their civil rights. This period was later known as the second partisan prohibition .

Empress mother Dou Miao died in 172. Despite the eunuchs who only wanted to bury her like a concubine, Emperor Ling had her buried with her husband Huan with the honors of an empress mother. Some time later, strangers wrote on the palace door:

Everything under heaven is in overthrow. Cao and Wang killed the empress mother. The main officials only know how to behave like officials and have nothing credible to say.

The eunuchs were furious and arrested over 1,000 people in the course of the investigation in order to find the culprit. However, they did not succeed. In the same year they accused Emperor Huan's brother Liu Li (劉 悝), the prince of Bohai, of treason. Although it was pure slander, Prince Li committed suicide with all of his household. The eunuchs made the imperial court increasingly unpopular with the people by levying ever higher taxes. Emperor Ling grew up, but did not care about the disruptive politics of the eunuchs. A painful defeat to the Xianbei in 177 put an additional strain on the household.

Emperor Ling's consort Song , whom he had made empress in 171 but without particularly loving her, fell victim to the eunuchs in 178. Her aunt's connection to the outlawed Prince Liu Li led the eunuchs to believe that she harbored feelings of revenge and sought to use her power against them. The imperial concubines allied with the eunuchs, and together they accused the empress of sorcery. Emperor Ling believed them and deposed his wife. She was imprisoned and died in despair. Her father Song Feng ( Chinese  宋 酆 ) and her brothers were executed.

Middle Rule (Guanghe)

Emperor Ling made a decision in 178 that corruption broke out across the country: he sold offices for all kinds of money, and the officials who got their posts were deeply corrupt and tormented the people. Emperor Ling did nothing and even offered them installments if they didn't have enough money for office.

Emperor Ling elevated his wife He to empress in 180 and gave her brother He Jin a high post at court. Legend has it that the He clan bribed the eunuchs to get into this position. Presumably He was only chosen as empress because she had given birth to the emperor's only surviving son, Liu Bian .

Over the years, Kaiser Ling's interests shifted to horticulture, and he spent a great deal of money on it. To finance his extravaganzas, he ordered the commandant houses and principalities to pay tribute to him. The officials, in turn, have had to resort to unfair methods to bring these tributes together while conducting their business. Court officials who gave useful advice to Emperor Ling were increasingly concerned that the Emperor, while agreeing to them, never put their advice into practice.

The Yellow Turban Revolt

Main article: Yellow Turban Revolt

Around the year 182 a Daoist movement had formed in Ji Province (冀州, today's central Hebei ) : the Taiping sect ( Chinese 太平 教 ) under the leadership of Zhang Jiao , who claimed the magical power of miraculous healing for himself. His teachings had spread to eight provinces of the empire by 183: Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan and Yu (about today's provinces of Anhui , Beijing , Hebei, Henan , Hubei , Jiangsu , Jiangxi , Liaoning , Shandong , Tianjin and Zhejiang - an area of ​​at least one million km ² ). The officials were extremely concerned about this development and warned the emperor to dissolve the sect, but to no avail.  

Zhang Jiao's plan was to overthrow the emperor. He hired 36 generals, formed a shadow government and proclaimed programmatically:

The blue sky is dead. The yellow sky will now rise. This year will be Jianzi . The world would be good.

According to the traditional Chinese calendar cycle, this year would be 184. Zhang Jiao's followers wrote Jianzi in large letters in all possible places, including many imperial offices in Luoyang and other cities. Ma Yuanji ( Chinese  馬元義 ), follower of Zhang Jiao, infiltrated the imperial court with two eunuchs in order to destroy the dynasty from within.

In the spring of 184, Ma Yuanji was exposed and executed. Emperor Ling ordered the dissolution of the Taiping sect and the execution of its members, and Zhang immediately started the uprising. Each follower wore a yellow headscarf as a sign, which is why the uprising bears his name. Within a month, Zhang Jiao controlled much of the empire. On the advice of the eunuch Lü Qiang (呂 強), Emperor Ling issued an amnesty for the partisans so that they would not join the yellow turbans. Lü Qiang was later slandered by the eunuchs for wanting to depose the emperor and committed suicide.

Emperor Ling sent many generals into the field against the Yellow Turbans, which, however, also fought and wiped out one another. These included Huangfu Song ( Chinese  皇甫嵩 ), Cao Cao ( Chinese  曹操 ), Fu Xie ( Chinese  傅 燮 ), Zhu Jun ( Chinese  朱? ; Nickname not Unicode- compatible), Lu Zhi ( Chinese  盧植 ), Gongsun Zan and Dong Zhuo ( Chinese  董卓 ). The fighting raged most violently in Liang Province ( Chinese  涼州 , today's Gansu ), where Dong Zhuo's troops were already hardened by the fighting with the Qiang . Zhang Jiao died of an illness in 188, and the riot cells died out over the years.

Late Rule (Zhongping)

Even after these events, Emperor Ling's lavish rule did not change. Peasant revolts flared up again and again throughout the empire. On the advice of Liu Yan ( Chinese  劉焉 ), in 188 the emperor provided the provincial governors with extensive civil and military powers in order to be able to fight the revolts more effectively. He also appointed many powerful officials to be provincial governors.

In 189 Emperor Ling fell ill and there was disagreement about the successor. Emperor Ling had two surviving sons: Liu Bian, son of Empress He, and Liu Xie , son of his concubine Wang. Liu Bian had the higher legitimacy because of his age and birth status, but the emperor did not appreciate his inappropriate behavior and therefore hesitated to appoint him crown prince and successor.

When Emperor Ling died in the same year, there was fighting between the eunuchs under the leadership of Jian Shuo and the He clan with the Empress Dowager and He Jin, who prematurely proclaimed Liu Bian emperor.

Era names

• Jianning ( Chinese  建寧 , Pinyin jìan níng ) 168–172 (until the death of the Empress mother Dou Miao)
• Xiping ( Chinese  熹平 , Pinyin xī píng ) 172–178 (until the deposition of his wife Song)
• Guanghe ( Chinese  光和 , Pinyin gūang hé ) 178–184 (until the uprising of the Yellow Turbans)
• Zhongping ( Chinese  中平 , Pinyin zhōng píng ) 184–189

progeny

• Princess Wannian (birth name unknown), appointed 180
• Liu Bian (* 176; † 190), son of Empress He
• Liu Xie (* 181; † 234), son of concubine Wang

predecessor	Office	successor
Huan	Emperor of China 168–189	Prince of Hongnong