Han Xiandi

Han Xiandi (漢献帝)
Family name :	Liu (劉; liú)
First name :	Xie (協, xié)
Posthumous title : (short)	Xian (獻, xiàn)
Posthumous title : (complete)	Xiaoxian (孝 獻, xiào xiàn)
Reign:	189-220

Han Xiandi , Chinese 漢獻帝 / 汉献帝, Pinyin Hàn Xiàndì , or Emperor Xian von Han , real name Liu Xie 劉 協 / 刘 协(* April 2, 181 ; † April 21, 234 ) was from 189 to 220 the last emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty . He abdicated in favor of Cao Pi and was made Prince of Shanyang (Shanyang gong).

Life

Childhood and youth

The future Emperor Xian was born in 181 as the son of Emperor Ling and his concubine Wang. During her pregnancy, Wang used drugs to induce a miscarriage, fearing the powerful Empress He , but her attempt was unsuccessful. Soon after she gave her life to Prince Liu Xie, she was poisoned by Empress He. When Emperor Ling found out about this, he grew angry and wanted to depose her, but the eunuchs pleaded in their favor, and she remained empress. Prince Xie was raised personally by Empress Mother Dong and was given the dubious title of Marquise Dong . This is a superstitionowed, because Emperor Ling had previously lost many sons, which is why Prince Xie and his brother Liu Bian received female titles. Prince Bian was raised by the magician Shi Zimiao and was called the Marquise Shi . Prince Bian was older and also a son of the Empress, but Emperor Ling was annoyed by his less than solemn behavior and considered making Liu Xie Crown Prince, but hesitated.

When Emperor Ling died in 189, his confidante, the influential eunuch Jian Shuo , planned to kill the brother of the Empress Dowager He ( He Jin ) and make Prince Xie emperor. He set a trap for He Jin at a meeting, but it was exposed. He Jin rashly appointed Prince Bian as emperor. In the same year the young emperor made Prince Xie Prince of Bohai , and later Prince of Chenliu .

Rise to the throne and collapse of the Han regime

Dong Zhuo's rise

After Prince Bian became emperor, He Jin became the most powerful court official, and he and his adviser Yuan Shao soon conspired against the powerful eunuchs to eliminate them. The Empress Dowager He did not want to support them, and the two gave a number of generals secret orders to go to the capital Luoyang and to force the Empress Dowager to cooperate. One of these generals was the insidious Dong Zhuo , who saw an opportunity to take control of the central government.

He Jin's plans were discovered by the eunuchs. They set a trap for him and killed him. Yuan Shao then led his force into the palace and killed the majority of the eunuchs. The remaining took the young Prince Xie hostage, but were forced to commit suicide by the outcome of the fight. When Dong Zhuo arrived at the scene, he forced the young emperor to abdicate in favor of his brother Xie (there was no family relationship with the empress mother Dong). He put Liu Xie on the throne as Emperor Xian of Han , murdered the Empress mother He and the young previous emperor and determined politics from then on.

Dong Zhuo's death

In the spring of 190 a loose coalition was formed against Dong Zhuo, led by Yuan Shao, and which was soon joined by generals, governors and warlords from across the country. Though the coalition did not have the means to attack the powerful Dong Zhuo in Luoyang itself, feared their combined strength, Dong Zhuo decided to move the capital west - to Chang'an , the capital of the Western Han Dynasty . It was closer to his power base, Liang Province (now Gansu ). In 191 he forced the emperor to go to Chang'an and set great fires in Luoyang, of which only ruins remained.

Later that year, Dong Zhuo was murdered by his officials, led by Wang Yun and his adopted son, Lü Bu . It seemed for a while that the Han regime was returning to normal, but Wang Yun quickly teamed up with a few neighboring warlords. But because they could not win Dong Zhuo's court for themselves, they were murdered in a riot. With that the anarchy was complete.

Return to Luoyang

Dong Zhuo's previous officers, led by Li Jue and Guo Si, suppressed Emperor Xian and his officials. But they had no serious ambitions, and their political inadequacy hastened the breakup of the empire into numerous smaller empires led by warlords. In 195 there was a rift between Li Jue (who took the emperor hostage) and Guo Si (who took the court officials prisoner). After a losing battle, they made peace and allowed Emperor Xian to return to the capital, Luoyang. But when he had just left Chang'an, they regretted it and pursued him with their troops. Han Xiandi escaped with his court to Luoyang, but there they lacked all equipment to survive. Many imperial officials starved to death.

At that time, Yuan Shao's strategist Ju Shou proposed to invite the emperor to their province and thereby gain control of the central government. But the strategists Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong advised against it because they would then have had to leave the most important decisions to the emperor himself. Yuan Shao listened to them and dropped the plan. Ju Shou's proposal should have gone to a man more capable and ambitious than Yuan Shao.

Under Cao Cao's control

Chancellor Cao Cao (left, with sword) has concubine Dong arrested after the unsuccessful assassination attempt. The emperor (above left) has to stand idly by.

What Yuan Shao was unable to do, Cao Cao succeeded . As governor of the small Yan Province (present-day western Shandong and eastern Henan ), he was one of the smaller warlords, with his headquarters at Xu (in present-day Xuchang , Henan). He saw the strategic advantage of control over the emperor, which is why he marched west to Luoyang in 1966. There he first convinced the generals Dong Cheng and Yang Fengof his devotion and then entered the city. Officially, he shared power with Dong and Yang, but in reality he was in sole command. Unlike Dong Zhuo, however, Cao Cao knew how to win over the other generals and court officials. By giving them small powers of command, he secured their honor and thus prevented the formation of an opposition against him at the imperial court. When he moved the capital to Xu, Yang Feng opposed him, but was defeated.

From then on, Cao Cao issued edicts in the name of Emperor Xian, including a rough text to Yuan Shao for his takeover of the neighboring provinces - in which he also entrusted him with the command of the border marks . Only then did Yuan Shao and other warlords see the advantage of having the emperor under their control, but it was too late now. Cao Cao did not let the emperor out of his hand until the end of his life. On the surface, Cao Cao and Han Xiandi had a warm relationship, but this did not prevent two major confrontations between the two.

In 199 (or earlier), when Cao Cao was at war with Yuan Shao, Dong Cheng claimed to have received a secret edict from Emperor Xian. This was in a belt. He conspired with Liu Bei , Zhong Ji, and Wang Fu to murder Cao Cao. Late in 199, Liu Bei began a riot awaiting Dong Cheng's next move in the capital. But in 200, Dong Cheng's plan was blown and he was executed by Cao Cao along with Zhong Ji and Wang Fu. Liu Bei was later defeated by Cao Cao and forced to flee to Yuan Shao. Dong Cheng's daughter, an Imperial concubine, was pregnant at the time and Emperor Xian stood up for her personally, but Cao Cao had her executed too. This hastened the next incident.

Empress Fu Shou , the wife of Emperor Xian, was angry and frightened about the death of concubine Dong. She wrote a letter to her father, Fu Wan, complaining about Cao Cao's cruelty and indirectly asking Fu to start a conspiracy against him. Fu Wan feared Cao Cao and did not respond to the letter, but Cao Cao found out about it in 214. He was very angry and forced Emperor Xian to depose his wife, Empress Fu Shou. Emperor Xian hesitated, and Cao Cao occupied the palace with his troops. The Empress Fu Shou hid in the palace but was found and dragged out. When she was carried away, she yelled at the emperor to save her life, but his answer was:"I don't even know what will happen to me. How am I supposed to recognize your fate, and prevent it?" She was killed with her two sons and her family. Emperor Xian survived, but his status as a puppet was now unshakable. Cao Cao soon forced him to appoint his daughter Cao Jie (who was then a concubine) empress.

Abdication and death

Cao Cao died in March 220. His heir Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to abdicate in his favor on December 11, 220 and founded the Wei Dynasty . Former Emperor Xian was made Prince of Shanyang . He died in 234 and was buried in imperial honor according to the customs of the Han Dynasty. The then Wei Emperor Cao Rui himself took part in the funeral procession.

His grandson Liu Kang inherited the princely title and passed it on to two more generations before the lineage was wiped out in the early 4th century by the incursions of the Xiongnu under Liu Cong into the empire of the Jin dynasty , with the last Han descendant Liu Qiu was killed.

Era names

• Yonghan (189)
• Chuping (190-193)
• Xingping (194-195)
• Jian'an (196-220)
• Yankang (220)

Marriage and offspring

Wives:

• Empress Fu Shou (appointed 195, died 214)
• Empress Cao Jie (appointed 214, died 237)

Concubines:

• Dong

Children:

• Liu Feng, Prince of Nanyang (appointed and died 200)
• Liu Xi, Prince of Jiying (appointed 204)
• Liu Yi, Prince of Shanyang (appointed 204)
• Liu Miao, Prince of Jibei (appointed 204)
• Liu Dun, Prince of Donghai (appointed 204)
• two sons of Empress Fu (killed 214 by Cao Cao)
• two daughters who became Cao Pi's concubines.

literature

• Rafe de Crespigny : Fire over Luoyang. A History of the Later Han Dynasty 23-220 AD. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2016, ISBN 9789004324916 , p. 438 ff.
• Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2007, pp. 554-556.
• Helwig Schmidt-Glinzer: History of China up to the Mongolian conquest 250 BC-1279 AD. Oldenbourg, Munich 1999.

predecessor	Office	successor
Liu Bian	Emperor of China 189–220	k. A.

predecessor	Office	successor
Liu Bian	Emperor of China (North) 189–220	Cao Pi

predecessor	Office	successor
Liu Bian	Emperor of China (Southwest) 189–220	Liu Bei

predecessor	Office	successor
Liu Bian	Emperor of China (Southeast) 189–220	Sun Quan