漢武帝 - 中國哲學書電子化計劃

中國哲學書電子化計劃數據維基

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關係	對象	文獻依據
type	person
name	漢武帝	default
name	武帝
name	劉徹
died-date	漢武帝後元二年二月丁卯 -87/3/29	《漢書·卷六·武帝紀第六》：丁卯，帝崩于五柞宮，
father	person:漢景帝	《漢書·卷六·武帝紀第六》：景帝中子也，母曰王美人。
ruled	dynasty:西漢
from-date 漢景帝後元三年正月甲子 -141/3/9
to-date 漢武帝後元二年二月丁卯 -87/3/29
authority-wikidata	Q7225
link-wikipedia_zh	汉武帝
link-wikipedia_en	Emperor_Wu_of_Han
name-posthumous	孝武皇帝

漢武帝劉徹（前156年 - 前87年），西漢第七位皇帝，是中國歷史上著名和傑出的皇帝⼂政治家和軍事家，常被後世爭相效法明君的典範之一。於7歲時被冊立為儲君，16歲登基，在位達53年345天。其正式諡號為「孝武皇帝」，後世省略「孝」字稱「漢武帝」，是清聖祖以前在位最長的中國皇帝，也是中國歷史上在位第三長的皇帝，也是中國歷史上在位最長的漢人皇帝，更是第一個使用年號的皇帝。武帝即位初期，適逢國家休生養息了70年，商業貿易達臻鼎盛，接著因擴張戰略，疆域大幅增加，但導致民生凋零、經濟衰敗，深遠影響兩漢的國勢。

對內政策上，開創了察舉制並興太學，培養出許多的名臣良將；頒布《推恩令》，削弱地方諸侯的勢力；將鹽鐵和鑄幣權收歸中央專賣；另外罷黜百家，獨尊儒術，儒學從此成為中國社會主流思想，另有開闢絲綢之路、使用年號、設立刺史、加強內官權力等劃時代的措施。

對外政策上，漢武帝一改漢高祖劉邦白登之圍以後朝廷所奉行的和親傳統，以武力對付匈奴，發動第二次漢匈戰爭，先後攻取了多處以前秦朝的領土；不過終其一世未能解除戰國以來匈奴於河西走廊以至中原的威脅。

漢武帝又以武力先後攻破東甌國、南越國、閩越國、衛滿朝鮮等，並且置郡縣治理，冊封夜郎國、滇國；同時兩次派遣張騫出使西域，開闢絲綢之路、遠征大宛，使漢帝國的影響力和控制力遠播中亞，為漢朝武功的極盛時期。

然而長年累月的窮兵黷武，對人民造成了浩大的負擔，中年以後的漢武帝性情也變得迷信多疑，最後致使巫蠱之禍發生，動搖了朝廷的根基。他也對臣下擅用權力，司馬遷和李陵家族都在他的盛怒下遭難。駕崩前兩年，漢武帝下《輪台詔》，重拾文景之治時期的與民生息的政策，方使後來的昭、宣二帝國家的治理得以重回正軌。

早年經歷

據《史記》、《漢書》的武帝本紀以及《漢武故事》，漢武帝生于漢景帝前元年（前156年）；母王氏，漢景帝中子，具體排序不詳。其母王氏在懷孕時，漢景帝尚為太子。王氏夢見太陽進入她的懷中，告訴景帝後，景帝說：「此貴徵也。」劉徹還未出生，他的祖父漢文帝就逝世了。漢景帝即位後，劉徹出生，他亦是王氏唯一的兒子。一說劉徹的乳名為劉彘，根據漢武故事記載劉徹被立太子時方才改名，但此說與史書說法有出入。

前元四年（前153年），劉徹以皇子的身份被封為膠東王。同年，景帝的長子、他的異母長兄劉榮獲封為太子。前元六年（前151年）秋九月，無子無寵的薄皇后被廢。第二年（前150年）春正月，廢慄太子劉榮為臨江王；夏四月乙巳，其母王氏被立為皇后，丁巳，劉徹被立為太子。他成為太子與其母孝景王皇后和其姑母館陶公主劉嫖有很大關係。劉嫖許諾將她的女兒陳氏嫁給當時四歲（古代按虛歲計算）的膠東王劉徹。劉徹後娶陳氏為妃，兩人成婚的時間無考。

後元三年正月甲子（前141年3月9日），景帝逝世，太子劉徹即位，尊皇太后竇氏曰太皇太后，皇后王氏曰皇太后。太子妃陳氏後獲封為皇后（具體時間不詳）。

君臨天下

政治

設立內朝

漢武帝建立了內朝削弱相權，鞏固皇權。「內朝」又稱「中朝」，由一些親信、侍從如尚書、常侍等任職「大司馬、左右前後將軍、侍中、常侍、散騎諸吏組成宮中的決策中樞；相對丞相以下至六百石則為「外朝」」。中、外是相對皇帝居住的宮禁而言，中朝（內朝）官員享有較大的出入宮禁的自由，可隨侍皇帝左右且能在宮中辦公，外朝官員則無此特權。藉由此來培植一批立足于宮中、與以丞相為首的原有朝臣有所分別的內廷官員。重要政事，在「中朝」宮室之內就先作出了決策，再交由「外朝」的丞相來執行。尚書，本來是皇帝身邊的秘書，掌管文書員。「中朝」形成之後，尚書的地位日益重要。尚書和一般只參與朝廷議政的官員不同，由于既有官署、官屬，又有具體的職司，在「中朝」逐漸居于核心地位。

監察制度

漢武帝在地方設十三州部，即冀、兗、豫、青、徐、幽、並、涼、荊、揚、益、朔方、交趾共13州，置刺史，京師七郡則設立司隸校尉；每年8月巡行所部，用以加強治理地方、打擊地方豪強。歲終至京師向御史中丞稟報。此時的刺史為監察官，秩六百石，較郡守的秩比二千石為低。

推恩令

西漢初，諸侯王的爵位，封地都是由嫡長子單獨繼承的，其他子孫得不到尺寸之地。雖然文景兩代採取了一定的削藩措施，但是到漢武帝初年，「諸侯或連城數十，地方千里，緩則驕，易為淫亂；急則阻其強而合從，謀以逆京師」，嚴重威脅著漢朝的中央集權。因此元朔二年正月，武帝採納主父偃的建議，頒行「推恩令」。推恩令吸取了晁錯削藩令引起七國之亂的教訓，規定諸侯王除以嫡長子繼承王位外，其餘諸子在原封國內封侯，新封侯國不再受王國管轄，直接由各郡來管理，地位相當于縣。這使得諸侯王國名義上沒有任何的削藩，避免激起諸侯王武裝反抗的可能。于是「藩國始分，而子弟畢侯矣」，導致封國越分越小，勢力大為削弱，從此「大國不過十餘城，小侯不過十餘里」。

察舉制

察舉制為中國古代有系統選拔人才制度之濫觴，對後世影響極大。主要用于選拔官吏。它的確立是從漢武帝元光元年（公元前134年）開始的。察舉制不同于以前先秦時期的世襲制和從隋唐時建立的科舉制，它的主要特徵是由地方長官在轄區內隨時考察、選取人才並推薦給上級或中央，經過試用考核再任命官職。察舉制此後成為漢代聘用官吏的制度，有的學者曾經指出，漢武帝「初令郡國舉孝廉各一人」的元光元年，是「中國學術史和中國政治史的最可紀念的一年。」

徵辟制是漢武帝時推行的一種自上而下選拔官吏制度，就是徵召名望顯赫的人士出來做官，主要有皇帝徵聘和府、州郡闢除兩方面，皇帝徵召稱「征」，官府徵召稱「闢」。用以作為察舉制的補充。

創立年號

在中國歷史上，年號由漢武帝發明及首先使用，首個年號為建元（前140年—前135年）。此前的帝王只有年數，沒有年號。據滿清趙翼的《二十二史札記》考證，年號紀年是在漢武帝十九年首創的，年號為「元狩」，並追認元狩前的年號建元、元光和元朔。《漢書》上記載說，前122年十月，漢武帝出去狩獵，捉到一隻獨角獸白麟，群臣認為這是吉祥的神物，值得紀念，建議用來記年，於是立年號為「元狩」，稱那年（前122年）為元狩元年。可是，過了六年，又在山西汾陽地方獲得一隻三個腳的寶鼎，群臣又認為這是吉祥的神物，建議用來紀年，於是改年號為「元鼎」，稱那年為元鼎元年。後來，人們把這記錄年代的開始之年稱為「紀元」，改換年號叫做「改元」。此後，每次新皇帝登基，常常會改元。一般改元從下詔的第2年算起，也有一些從本年年中算起。

名臣良將

• 衛青

• 霍去病

• 霍光

• 董仲舒

• 張騫

• 司馬遷

• 司馬談

• 李廣

• 李陵

• 桑弘羊

• 主父偃

• 蘇武

• 司馬相如

• 東方朔

• 汲黯

• 竇嬰

• 韓安國

• 田千秋

• 李敢

• 公孫弘

• 金日磾

漢武盛世

漢武盛世是西漢的全盛時期。

軍事

漢匈戰爭

匈奴自秦末以來一直威脅中國北邊，使農耕生產的受到嚴重影響。武帝即位之後，自前133年馬邑之戰起，結束漢朝初期對匈奴的和親政策，決心設法解決匈奴的外患問題。從元光六年（前129年）開始對匈奴作戰。經過衛青和霍去病等人的反擊後，西漢西北邊境上的威脅暫時解除。中原北邊農耕經濟從匈奴造成嚴重破壞的局面中得以恢復。匈奴在軍隊主力以及人畜資產受到嚴重損失的情況下，繼續向北遠遁，並有七年時間即從公元前119年至前112年漠南無王庭，不過其後匈奴又南下與羌人組織聯盟攻擊漢朝。而西漢軍隊占領從朔方至張掖、居延和廷間的大片土地，設置酒泉、武威、張掖及敦煌四郡，並且命令關東地區人民移民這一地區，此舉不但保障河西走廊的安全，使西部地區的得到開發，更打通了中原文化和西域文化交通的通路。

開疆拓土

漢武帝除了北伐匈奴之外，也武力平定四方，大幅開擴領土，在西南，漢朝消滅夜郎及南越國，先後建立七個郡，使到今日的兩廣地區自秦朝後第二次歸納中國版圖。而海南島在歷史上，也首次納入中國的版圖。在東方，他於公元前109年至前108年派兵消滅衛氏朝鮮，並且將衛氏朝鮮的國土分為四郡──樂浪郡、真番郡、臨屯郡及玄菟郡。

外交

漢武帝派遣了張騫出使西域，張騫的兩次出使打通了中原文化和西域文化交通的通路。即絲綢之路，極大促進了中國同西方經濟及文化的交流。

文化

獨尊儒術

建元元年（辛丑，公元前140年）詔舉賢良方正直言極諫之士，上親策問以古今治道。廣川董仲舒上天人三策，對曰「《春秋》大一統者，天地之常經，古今之通誼也。今師異道，人異論，百家殊方，指意不同，是以上無以持一統，法制數變，下不知所守。臣愚以為諸不在六藝之科、孔子之術者，皆絕其道，勿使並進，邪闢之說滅息，然後統紀可一而法度可明，民知所從矣！」。漢武帝採用了董仲舒的建議，「罷黜百家，獨尊儒術」。結束先秦以來「師異道，人異論，百家殊方」的局面，于是「令後學者有所統一」。為儒學在中國古代的特殊地位鋪路，亦使到儒學成為了中國社會的基礎思想。對中國後代的政治、社會及文化等領域產生了深遠的影響。但是，亦有人認為他利用儒學敦化民風，同時採用法術及刑名鞏固政府的權威，即是所謂儒表法骨或儒表法裏。

創建太學

漢武帝元朔五年，創建太學，是接受當時儒家學者董仲舒的建議。董仲舒指出，太學可以作為「教化之本原」，也就是作為教化天下的文化基地。他建議，「臣願陛下興太學，置明師，以養天下之士」，這樣可以使國家得到未來的人才。所謂「養天下之士」，體現出太學在當時有為國家培育人才和儲備人才的作用。漢武帝時期的太學，雖然規模很有限，只有幾位經學博士和五十名博士弟子，但是這一文化雛形，代表著中國古代教育發展的方向。太學的成立，助長民間積極向學的風氣，對于文化的傳播，成為重要的推手，同時使大官僚和大富豪子嗣壟斷官位的情形有所轉變，一般人家子弟得以增加入仕的機會，一些出身社會下層的人才，也有機會到朝廷做官。

建立樂府

樂府一名本指管理音樂的官府。漢武帝在掌管雅樂的太樂官署之外，另創立樂府官署，掌管俗樂，收集民間的歌辭入樂。「採詩夜誦，有趙、代、秦、楚之謳」、「以李延年為協律都尉，多舉司馬相如等數十人造為詩賦，略論律呂，以合八音之調，作十九章之歌」。後人把樂府機關配樂演唱的詩歌，也稱樂府。

頒布太初曆

太初曆是中國曆史上曾經使用過的一種曆法，亦是中國曆史上第一部完整統一，而且有明確文字記載的曆法。在天文學發展歷史上具有劃時代的意義。在漢武帝太初元年（前104年），由鄧平、唐都、落下閎及司馬遷等根據對天象實測和長期天文紀錄所制訂。《太初曆》的制訂是中國曆史上具有重要性的一次曆法大改革。《太初曆》的科學成就，首先在于曆法計算上的精密準確。中國漢初以前，主要採用「古六歷」（黃帝、顓頊、夏、殷、周、魯）中的《顓頊曆》。這個古歷，計算一年為三百六十五又四分之一日，一月是二十九天又九百四十分之四百九十九。由于這種古歷計算不夠精密，常出現月初是無月光的朔日，但實際天空中卻有圓滿的月光；月中是有月光的望滿之日，夜晚卻並沒有月亮。為了改變這種不對照的現象，司馬遷主持制訂《太初曆》時，重新進行了反覆地周密地運算和實踐驗証。還在于第一次計算了日月蝕發生的周期和精確計算了行星會合的周期。

經濟

改革幣制

指中國西漢武帝統治時期進行的幣制改革。西漢自建立以來，幣制混亂，郡國鑄幣失控又是漢景帝時期七國之亂發生的原因之一。漢武帝統治時期，由于對外征伐不斷，中央財政從此前「京師之錢累巨萬，貫朽而不可校」的豐盈一變而為入不敷出的困局。「而富商大賈或蹛財役貧，轉榖百數，廢居居邑，封君皆低首仰給。」富商大賈富可敵國，恰與窘困的中央財政形成了鮮明對比。中央政府除了靠鬻武功爵等方式快速增加財政收入外，「冶鑄煑鹽，財或累萬金，而不佐國家之急，黎民重困。于是天子與公卿議，更錢造幣以贍用，而摧浮淫併兼之徒。」增加中央財政收入，打擊大商人，此即漢武帝幣制改革的初衷。故漢武帝即位後，為了中央政府在經濟管理和政治統治上的需要，便十分重視解決幣制問題，先後進行了六次幣制改革，基本解決了漢初以來一直未能解決的幣制問題。一方面穩定了金融，另一方面將地方的鑄幣權重新統一于中央。六次改革後三官五銖的發行一舉解決了困擾西漢金融多年的私鑄、盜鑄問題，漢武帝的幣制改革至此取得了較大成功。

鹽鐵國營

中央政府在鹽、鐵產地分別設置鹽官和鐵官，實行統一生產和統一銷售，利潤為國家所有。這項制度實施，使國家獨占國計民生意義最重要的手工業和商業的利潤，可以供給皇室消費以及巨額軍事支出。當時，人民的賦稅的負擔沒有增加，國家的收入大增，不但彌補財政上的赤字，並且還有盈餘。不過官營鹽鐵卻給社會經濟和民眾生活帶來負面的影響。例如官鹽價高而味苦，鐵製農具粗劣不合用等。

漢武帝元封元年，桑弘羊針對「諸官各自市（購買），相與爭，物以故騰躍，而天下賦輸，或不償其僦費」的情況，在全國推行均輸法，下令各郡設均輸鹽鐵官，將上貢物品運往缺乏該類貨物的地區出售，然後在適當地區購入京師需求的物資。此法既能解決運費高昂的問題，又可調節物價。更重要的是均輸法舒緩漢武帝晚年的財政危機，桑弘羊對此曾有所讚揚：「山東被災，齊趙大饑，賴均輸之蓄，倉稟之積，戰士以奉，饑民以賑」。然而，均輸法卻被批評未能解決物價問題，「輕賈奸吏，收賤以取貴，未見準之平也」。

重視農業

在經濟方面，漢武帝為推動農業，採取了一系列措施。他在全國修了不少水利工程，例如：龍首渠，六輔渠等等，以便農田灌溉。再加上新式耕種技術的提倡，農業生產得到進一步發展。

其他

晚年時期

巫蠱之禍

征和元年（西元前92年）十一月，巫蠱之禍興起。丞相公孫賀之妻使用巫術詛咒及在馳道埋木偶人的事件被告發，公孫賀一家被斬殺，同時還牽連到陽石公主和皇后衛子夫所生的女兒諸邑公主。其後漢武帝又發動了三輔騎士在皇家園林進行搜查，並且在長安城中到處尋找，過了11日才收兵。征和二年七月，與太子劉據結怨的武帝寵臣江充指使胡巫，說宮中有蠱氣。武帝命令江充與按道侯韓說等入宮追查，江充誣告太子宮中埋的木人最多，又有帛書，所言不守道法。太子得知後非常恐懼，聽從少傅石德的計策，派人詐稱武帝使者捕殺江充等人。漢武帝命令丞相劉屈氂派兵擊潰太子，太子舉兵對抗。激戰五日，太子兵敗逃亡，被漢武帝所廢，被圍捕，乃自殺，滅族，唯其曾孫劉病已得親信保全。征和三年，此謀反案的根源巫蠱案真相漸明，大臣上書直言進諫，武帝感悟，下令族滅貳師將軍李廣利、丞相劉屈氂、太監蘇文、江充家族。

輪台詔

漢武帝將鹽鐵酒國營專賣，實行平準均輸政策，防止商人從中漁利，從而增加政府收入，達到了調節物價及防止市場壟斷的功效，但是亦造成了與民爭利的局面。商人遂將注意力轉移至土地買賣，導致土地兼併嚴重。雖然漢武帝武功極盛，但是到處征伐也造成了國庫空虛，大量人民被徵召從軍，死傷甚重，也影響了經濟發展。由於民生困苦、社會動盪不安、人民流離失所及民怨沸騰，天漢二年（前99年），齊、楚、燕、趙和南陽等地相繼爆發大規模農民起義；征和四年（前89年）漢武帝頒下了《輪台詔》，辛德勇認為，輪台詔不是罪己詔，關于漢武帝罪己是資治通鑑的虛構，漢武帝死後並未改變西漢對外戰爭的基本國策。而田餘慶認為漢武帝晚期改弦易轍。

臨終託孤

漢武帝晚年得子劉弗陵，甚愛之。劉據於巫蠱之亂死後，漢武帝立劉弗陵為太子。太子即位前不久，其生母鉤弋夫人被處死，避免未來再有太后涉政的現象。前88年，漢武帝命令畫工畫了一張《周公背成王朝諸侯圖》送予霍光，意思是讓霍光輔佐他的小兒劉弗陵作為未來皇帝。對此，中國史學家呂思勉對《漢書·霍光傳》的此記載頗有異議，認為漢武帝於臨終前殺掉劉弗陵生母是為了避免母后幹政、托孤說的「立少子，君行周公之事」和畫周公輔政圖完全屬于捏造。

前87年3月29日（二月丁卯），漢武帝駕崩於五柞宮，享年70歲。4月15日（三月甲申），葬于茂陵，謚號為孝武皇帝。本始二年（前72年），漢宣帝為曾祖父漢武帝上廟號為世宗。

文學造詣

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漢武帝愛好文學，為提倡辭賦的詩人。他個人的文學造詣甚高，在南北朝以前的皇帝中屬於文採一流的人物，顏之推把他歸類為曹操、曹丕一級文才的君主。明朝王世貞以為，其成就在「長卿下、子雲上」（《藝苑卮鹽》）其他存留的詩作，《瓠子歌》、《天馬歌》、《悼李夫人賦》都「壯麗鴻奇」（徐禎卿《談藝錄》），為詩詞評論家所推崇。

評價

• 夏侯勝：武帝雖有攘四夷廣土斥境之功，然多殺士眾，竭民財力，奢泰亡度，天下虛耗，百姓流離，物故者半。蝗蟲大起，赤地數千里，或人民相食，畜積至今未複。亡德澤於民，不宜為立廟樂。

• 桓譚：漢武帝才質高妙，有崇先廣統之規，故即位而開發大志，考合古今模範，獲前聖代故事，建正朔，定製度，招選俊傑，奮揚威怒，武義四加，所征者服，興起六藝，廣進儒術，自開闢以來，惟漢家最為盛圖，故顯為世宗，可謂卓爾絕世之主矣。

• 崔駰：昔孝武皇帝始為天子，年方十八，崇信聖道，師則先王，五六年間，號勝文、景。及後恣己，忘其前之為善。

• 劉歆：孝武皇帝愍中國罷勞，無安寧之時，乃遣大將伏波、樓船之屬，滅百越七郡。北攘匈奴，降昆邪之眾，置五屬國，起朔方，以奪其肥饒之地。東伐朝鮮，起玄菟、樂浪以斷匈奴之左臂。西伐大宛，並三十六國，結烏孫，起敦煌、酒泉、張掖、武威，以隔氐羌，裂匈奴之右肩。單于孤將遠遁漠北，四垂無事，斥地遠境，起十餘郡。功業既定，乃封丞相為富民侯，以安天下，富實百姓，其規模可見。又招集天下賢俊，與協心同謀，興制度，改正朔，易服色，立天地之祀。建封禪，殊官號，存周后，定諸侯之制，永無逆爭之心，至今累世賴之。單于守蕃，百蠻服從，萬世之基也。中興之功，未有高焉者也。

• 何去非：孝武帝以雄才大略，承三世涵育之澤，知夫天下之勢將就強而不振，所當濟之以威強而抗武節之時也。」是以孝武抗其英特之氣，選待習騎，擇命將帥，先發而昌誅之。蓋師行十年，斬刈殆盡，名王貴人俘獲百數，單于捧首窮遁漠北，遂收兩河之地而郡屬之。刷四世之侵辱，遺後嗣之安強。

• 班固：漢承百王之弊，高祖撥亂反正，文、景務在養民，至於稽古禮文之事，猶多闕焉。孝武初立，卓然罷黜百家，表章《六經》，遂疇咨海內，舉其俊茂，與之立功。興太學，修郊祀，改正朔，定歷數，協音律，作詩樂。建封禪，禮百神，紹周後，號令文章，煥然可述，後嗣得遵洪業而有三代之風。如武帝之雄材大略，不改文、景之恭儉以濟斯民，雖《詩》、《書》所稱何有加焉！

• 曹丕：孝武帝承累世之遺業，遇中國之殷阜，府庫余金錢，倉廩畜腐粟，因此有意乎滅匈奴而廓清邊境矣。故即位之初，從王恢之畫，設馬邑之謀，自元光以迄征和四五十載之間，征匈奴四十餘：舉盛餘，逾廣漢，絕梓嶺，封狼居胥，禪姑幕，梁北河，觀兵瀚海，刈單于之旗，剿閼氏之首，探符離之窟，掃五王之庭。納休屠昆邪之附，獲祭天金人之寶。斬名王以千數，馘酋虜以萬計。既窮追其散亡，又摧破其積聚，虜不暇于救死扶傷，疲睏于孕重墮殞。元封初，躬秉武節，告以天子自將，懼以兩越之誅，彼時號為威震匈奴矣。

• 曹植：「世宗光光，文武是攘。威震百蠻，恢拓土疆。簡定律歷，辨修舊章。封天禪土，功越百王。」

• 虞世南：「漢武承六世之業，海內殷富，又有高人之資，故能總攬英雄，駕御豪傑，內興禮樂，外開邊境，制度憲章，煥然可述。方於始皇，則為優矣。」

• 唐太宗：「近代平一天下，拓定邊方者，惟秦皇、漢武。」

• 司馬貞的《史記索隱》：「孝武纂極，四海承平。志尚奢麗，尤敬神明。壇開八道，接通五城。朝親五利，夕拜文成。祭非祀典，巡乖卜征。登嵩勒岱，望景傳聲。迎年祀日，改歷定正。疲秏中土，事彼邊兵。日不暇給，人無聊生。俯觀嬴政，幾欲齊衡。」

• 司馬光的《資治通鑑》：「孝武窮奢極欲，繁刑重斂，內侈宮室，外事四夷，信惑神怪，巡遊無度，使百姓疲敝，起為盜賊，其所以異于秦始皇無幾矣。然秦以之亡，漢以之興者，孝武能尊王之道，知所統守，受忠直之言，惡人欺蔽，好賢不倦，誅罰嚴明，晚而改過，顧托得人，此其所以有亡秦之失而免亡秦之禍乎！」

• 李綱：「茂陵仙客，算真是，天與雄才宏略。獵取天驕馳衛霍，如使鷹鸇驅雀。戰皋蘭，犁庭龍磧，飲至行勳爵。中華疆盛，坐令夷狄衰弱。追想當日巡行，勒兵十萬騎，橫臨邊朔。親總貔貅談笑看，黠虜心驚膽落。寄語單于，兩君相見，何苦逃沙漠。英風如在，卓然千古高著。」

• 洪邁：「漢之武帝、唐之武后，不可謂不明。」

• 朱熹：「武帝天資高，志向大，足以有為。末年海內虛耗，去秦始皇無幾。輪台之悔，亦是天資高，方能如此。」

• 王夫之：「武帝之勞民甚矣，而其救饑民也為得。虛倉廥以振之，寵富民之假貸者以救之，不給，則通其變而徙荒民於朔方、新秦者七十餘萬口，仰給縣官，給予產業，民喜於得生，而輕去其鄉以安新邑，邊因以實。」

• 王夫之：「武帝之發覺而捕弗滿品者，二千石以下至小吏，主者皆死，則欲吏之弗匿盜不上聞、而以禁其竊發也，必不可得矣。……漢武有喪邦之道焉，此其一矣。」

• 趙翼：「仰思帝之雄才大略，正在武功。」

• 吳裕垂：「武帝雄才大略，非不深知征伐之勞民也，蓋欲複三代之境土。削平四夷，盡去後患，而量力度德，慨然有捨我其誰之想。于是承累朝之培養，既庶且富，相時而動，戰以為守，攻以為御，匈奴遠遁，日以削弱。至于宣、元、成、哀，單于稱臣，稽玄而朝，兩漢之生靈，並受其福，廟號『世宗』，宜哉！」

• 夏曾佑：「有為漢一朝之皇帝者，高祖是也；有為中國二十四朝之皇帝者，秦皇、漢武是也。」

• 白壽彞：「促進了經濟繁榮與國家統一。」

• 翦伯贊：「用劍猶如用情，用情猶如用兵」。

• 黃仁宇：「有專制魔王的毛病。」

• 錢穆：「『王莽代漢』源自漢武帝種下的惡果。」

• 孫中山：「「秦皇漢武、元世祖、拿破崙，或數百年，數十年而斬，亦可謂有志之士矣。拿破崙興法典，漢武帝紀贊，不言武功，又有千年之志者。」

• 毛澤東：「漢武帝雄才大略，開拓劉邦的業績，晚年自知奢侈、黷武、方士之弊，下了罪己詔，不失為鼎盛之世。」

• 傅樂成：「武帝的一生行事，真是多採多姿，但也充滿矛盾。他尊重儒家，但他的好大喜功以及迷信神仙又無不與儒家思想相背馳。...他有時表現的異常果敢，如痛懲匈奴及遊俠；一方面卻又非常怕死，時時提防別人的暗算。他有過人的聰明，但有時又被人愚弄如孩提....他一生興高採烈的致力於開邊事業，最後又在痛悔中結束。總之，在中國歷代的帝王中，很難再找到像武帝這樣一位矛盾人物。」

家庭成員

后妃

漢帝自劉邦以降，皇帝擇夫人，多由美色而定，如高祖擇薄姬、武帝幸衛子夫等；迥異於先秦之際，周代天子、諸侯間后妃婚配，女子多來自異姓諸侯間宗室，皆受過良好的教育，是故較無「外戚亂政」之問題。西漢開國後，漢高祖曾立誓曰：「非劉氏而王，天下共擊之」，於是漢代天子既無諸侯王女婚配，立后妃標準但憑帝王喜惡，外戚格局自西漢產生質變，其中以漢武帝立寒門出身的衛子夫為皇后為誌，在此之前，西漢諸帝固然寵愛寒門，卻不致封后。

皇后

• zh-hant:陳皇后;zh-hans:陈皇后;，一說名阿嬌，母館陶長公主劉嫖，武帝姑表姐。武帝元配，太子妃，後為皇后。後因無子失寵加上涉嫌巫蠱被廢居於長門宮。死後以館陶公主之女的身份葬在漢文帝霸陵的郎官亭東。

• 思后衛子夫（？－前91），弟衛青、姨甥霍去病、霍光。為平陽公主府歌姬，入宮有孕封夫人，生衛長公主、諸邑公主、石邑公主。元朔元年生戾太子劉據，立為皇后。在皇后位38年，是中國在位第二長的皇后。巫蠱之禍中支持劉據起兵，被武帝繳其印璽後自殺。蘇文以小棺葬於長安城南桐柏。曾孫漢宣帝即位後以皇后之禮改葬曾祖母，上謚號，並設置思后園。

• 孝武皇后李氏，兄李延年、李廣利。生昌邑王劉髆。武帝逝世後被霍光追封為孝武皇后，配饗漢武帝，葬於茂陵。其孫海昏侯劉賀曾短暫即帝位。

• 皇太后趙氏（前113年－前88年），姿色美豔，稱拳夫人，又稱鉤弋夫人，封婕妤。生漢昭帝劉弗陵。以子幼母壯，被武帝賜死，葬於雲陵，昭帝即位後被追封為皇太后。

妃嬪

• 王夫人，生齊懷王劉閎。去世後武帝哀痛，追贈齊王太后，方士少翁曾詐用皮影為漢武帝召喚王夫人的鬼魂。

• 李姬，生鄂邑公主、燕刺王劉旦、廣陵厲王劉胥。無寵，以憂死。

• 尹婕妤，漢武帝寵妃。

• 邢娙娥，漢武帝寵妃，氣質出塵，令尹婕妤自愧不如。

據《史記·外戚傳》，漢武帝即位後數年沒有生育：「武帝初即位，數歲無子。」漢武帝的有生育的后妃皆出身低微：「及李夫人卒，則有尹婕妤之屬，更有寵。然皆以倡見，非王侯有土之士女，不可以配人主也。」「故諸為武帝生子者，無男女，其母無不譴死。」可見《史記》這裡寫的「生子」「無子」，是生兒生女都算上。

子女

兒子

• 戾太子劉據，母衛子夫。巫蠱之禍時被迫起兵誅江充，兵敗後逃亡至湖縣自縊，其全家被殺，唯有孫子劉病已得以保全，後改名劉詢，即漢宣帝。

• 齊懷王劉閎，母王夫人。早薨，無子，國除。

• 燕刺王劉旦，母李姬。漢昭帝即位，他與宗室劉長、劉澤及大臣上官桀、桑弘羊等謀奪取帝位，失敗，自殺，國除。

• 廣陵厲王劉胥，母李姬。昭帝時，覬覦帝位，使女巫祝詛。宣帝即位，複與楚王延壽私通書信，後謀叛事發覺，又藥殺當事人二十餘人以滅口，為漢中央追窮治罪，自殺，國除。

• 昌邑哀王劉髆，母李夫人。其子為漢廢帝劉賀。當過27天皇帝，後被廢。

• 漢昭帝劉弗陵，母趙婕妤。

女兒

（由于歷史記載不詳，漢武帝之女未有明確排序，而且很可能部分女兒未曾在史書留名。）

• 衛長公主，又稱當利公主，母衛子夫。先嫁與表哥曹襄，曹襄早死，後嫁與欒大，欒大被漢武帝腰斬。

• 諸邑公主，母衛子夫。死于巫蠱之禍。

• 石邑公主，母衛子夫。

• 鄂邑蓋長公主，又稱蓋主，生母無明確記載，可能是蓋姓妃嬪或李姬。曾撫養昭帝。後與燕王劉旦、上官桀、上官安及桑弘羊等合謀誅除霍光，事發後自殺。

• 陽石公主，生母不詳，死于巫蠱之禍。

• 夷安公主，生母不詳。下嫁隆慮公主之子昭平君。

逸事典故

雙性戀

根據《史記》和《漢書》的描述，漢武帝為雙性戀。記載于史書上的佞幸（有公職或者貴族身份的男性情人）有韓嫣、李延年和韓說。《佞幸列傳》紀錄李延年「與上臥起，甚貴幸。」大臣金日磾之子亦曾經為弄兒（孌童）。

代漢者當塗高

漢武帝巡遊汾河，在船上和群臣飲宴，漢武帝突然對群臣說：「漢朝有六七之厄，六七四十二，漢朝傳到第42代皇帝，會有當塗高取代漢朝。」群臣說：「漢朝應天受命，王朝長過商周，永世不絕，陛下為何說這種亡國之言？」漢武帝表示「只是醉言，但是自古以來沒有一姓可以一直擁有天下，不過即使漢朝滅亡，不要滅亡在我父子手上就行。」

當塗高的意思是路上有很高的東西，後來的公孫述、袁術和曹丕等都用「代漢者當塗高」這句讖言為自己稱帝造勢。

微服外出

漢武帝建元年間，漢武帝和隨從微服外出打獵，麻煩事不斷。一天夜晚漢武帝和隨從投宿旅社，旅社主人覺得一行人來者不善，對漢武帝等人非常傲慢。旅社主人準備和門客一同殺死漢武帝等人，但是主人妻子覺得漢武帝等人氣勢非凡，不像強盜，于是將她丈夫灌醉，偷偷放走漢武帝等人。後來又不慎踩傷農民莊稼，引發糾紛，農民叫來縣令。漢武帝自稱平陽侯，縣令本想拜謁，漢武帝隨從卻想鞭打縣令。縣令大怒，扣押漢武帝隨從，拒絕他們離開。漢武帝不得已，向縣令展示皇家身份，縣令才予以放行。後來漢武帝微服外出的舉動被眾人得知，地方政府紛紛建立行宮招待漢武帝。漢武帝認為微服外出會擾民，乾脆建立上林苑，專供皇家打獵。

爭議

名稱

漢武帝曾經以彘為名的說法出自於志怪小說《漢武故事》。《史記》和《漢書》則明確紀錄劉徹於被封為膠東王前，名字為徹，無彘字。即使是後世由司馬光編纂的《資治通鑒》，亦無採信《漢武故事》的說法。

出生日期爭議

《史記》王太后傳雲「未生而孝文帝崩，孝景帝即位，王夫人生男。」而索隱《漢武故事》雲「帝以乙酉年七月七日生於猗蘭殿」，《漢書》王太后傳雲「未生而文帝崩，景帝即位，王夫人生男。」，《史記》與《漢書》皆以武帝生于景帝即位後而孕于文帝去世前，漢文帝崩于後七年六月己亥（前157年7月6日）時武帝在孕期內，六月丁未（前157年7月14日）景帝即位。若據《漢武故事》雲「帝以乙酉年七月七日生於猗蘭殿」，則武帝生于景帝元年乙酉年七月七日（前156年7月31日），與《史記》、《漢書》所記「未生而文帝崩，景帝即位，王夫人生男」相差一年，且孕期超過十三個月（前157年7月6日文帝去世之前懷孕至前156年7月31日武帝出生）非一般正常孕期。《史記》漢武帝本紀雲「孝景四年，以皇子為膠東王。孝景七年，慄太子廢為臨江王，以膠東王為太子。孝景十六年崩，太子即位，為孝武皇帝。」，《漢書》漢武帝紀雲「年四歲立為膠東王。七歲為皇太子，母為皇后。十六歲，後三年正月，景帝崩。甲子，太子即皇帝位。」，以《史記》和《漢書》所記武帝當生于景帝元年（前156年）而為周歲，至孝景四年四歲立為膠東王，至孝景七年七歲立為皇太子，孝景十六年十六歲太子即位為孝武皇帝，武帝當生于漢景帝元年（前156年）而當在三月份或三月前應不出十個月的孕期，《漢武故事》所記日期「乙酉年七月七日」當不可信。

藝術形象

• 《大漢春秋》黃香蓮飾演漢武帝劉徹〈1990年〉

• 《漢武帝》周里京飾演漢武帝〈1990年代〉

• 《大漢天子》系列黃曉明飾演漢武帝劉徹〈2000年代〉

• 《漢武大帝》陳寶國、杜淳飾演漢武帝〈2005年〉

• 《東方朔》靳東飾演漢武帝劉徹〈2008年〉

• 《美人心計》茅子俊飾演漢武帝劉徹〈2010年〉

• 《衛子夫》林峰飾演漢武帝劉徹〈2014年〉

• 《大漠驃騎—霍去病》黃維德飾演漢武帝劉徹〈2016年〉

引用

以上介紹摘自維基百科；若有錯漏，敬請在維基百科上修改來源條目。

Emperor Wu of Han (30 July 157 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (孝武皇帝), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years – a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later and remains the record for ethnic Chinese emperors. His reign resulted in a vast expansion of geopolitical influence for the Chinese civilization, and the development of a strong centralized state via governmental policies, economical reorganization and promotion of a hybrid Legalist-Confucian doctrine. In the field of historical social and cultural studies, Emperor Wu is known for his religious innovations and patronage of the poetic and musical arts, including development of the Imperial Music Bureau into a prestigious entity. It was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly and indirectly.

As a military campaigner, Emperor Wu led Han China through its greatest territorial expansion. At its height, the Empire's borders spanned from the Fergana Valley in the west, to Korea in the east, and to northern Vietnam in the south. Emperor Wu successfully repelled the nomadic Xiongnu from systematically raiding northern China, and dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian into the Western Regions in 139 BC to seek an alliance with the Greater Yuezhi and Kangju, which resulted in further diplomatic missions to Central Asia. Although historical records do not describe him as being aware of Buddhism, emphasizing rather his interest in shamanism, the cultural exchanges that occurred as a consequence of these embassies suggest that he received Buddhist statues from Central Asia, as depicted in the murals found in the Mogao Caves.

Emperor Wu is considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history due to his strong leadership and effective governance, which made the Han dynasty one of the most powerful nations in the world. Michael Loewe called the reign of Emperor Wu the "high point" of "Modernist" (classically justified Legalist) policies, looking back to "adapt ideas from the pre-Han period." His policies and most trusted advisers were Legalist, favouring adherents of Shang Yang. However, despite establishing an autocratic and centralised state, Emperor Wu adopted the principles of Confucianism as the state philosophy and code of ethics for his empire and started a school to teach future administrators the Confucian classics. These reforms had an enduring effect throughout the existence of imperial China and an enormous influence on neighbouring civilizations.

Names

The personal name of Emperor Wu was Liu Che (劉徹). The use of "Han" (漢) in referring to emperor Wu is a reference to the Han dynasty of which he was a part. His family name is "Liu"; the ruling family or clan of the Han dynasty shared the family name of "Liu", the family name of Liu Bang, the founding father of the Han dynasty. The character "Di" (帝) is a title: this is the Chinese word which in imperial history of China means "emperor". The character "Wu" (武) literally means "martial" or "warlike", but is also related to the concept of a particular divinity in the historical Chinese religious pantheon existing at that time. Combined, "Wu" plus "di" makes the name "Wudi", the emperor's posthumous name used for historical and for religious purposes, such as offering him posthumous honours at his tomb.

Regnal years

One of Han Wudi's innovations was the practice of changing reign names after a number of years, as deemed auspicious or to commemorate some event. Thus the practice for dating years during the reign of Wudi was represented by the nth year of the Year Name (where nth stands for an ordinal integer) and "Reign Year Name" for the specific name of that regnal year.

Early years

Liu Che was the 11th son of Liu Qi, the oldest living son from Emperor Wen of Han. His mother Wang Zhi (王娡) was initially married to a commoner named Jin Wangsun (金王孫) and had a daughter from that marriage. However, her mother Zang Er (臧儿) (a granddaughter of one-time Prince of Yan, Zang Tu, under Emperor Gao) was told by a soothsayer that both Wang Zhi and her younger sister would one day become extremely honoured. She then got the idea to offer her daughters to the then crown prince Liu Qi, and forcibly divorced Wang Zhi from her then husband. After being offered to Liu Qi, Wang Zhi bore him three daughters – Princess Yangxin, Princess Nangong (南宫公主) and Princess Longlü.

On the day of Liu Qi's accession to the throne as Emperor Jing of Han (upon the death of his father Emperor Wen in 156 BC), Wang Zhi gave birth to Liu Che, and was promoted to a consort for giving birth to a royal prince. While she was pregnant, she claimed that she dreamed of a sun falling into her womb. Emperor Jing was ecstatic over the divine implication, and made the young Liu Che the Prince of Jiaodong (胶东王) in 153 BC. An intelligent boy, Liu Che was considered to be Emperor Jing's favourite son from a very young age.

Crown prince

Emperor Jing's formal wife, Empress Bo, was childless. As a result, Emperor Jing's oldest son Liu Rong, born to Lady Lì (栗姬, Emperor Jing's favorite concubine and mother of three of his first four sons), was made crown prince in 153 BC. Lady Li, feeling certain that her son would become the future emperor, grew arrogant and intolerant, and frequently threw tantrums at Emperor Jing out of jealousy over him bedding other women. Her lack of tact provided the opportunity for Consort Wang and the young Liu Che to gain the emperor's favour.

When Emperor Jing's older sister, Eldest Princess Guantao (馆陶长公主) Liu Piao (刘嫖), offered to marry her daughter with the Marquess of Tangyi Chen Wu to Liu Rong, Lady Li rudely rejected the proposal out of her dislike of Princess Guantao, who often procured new concubines for Emperor Jing and was diffusing the favor received by Lady Li. Insulted by the rejection, Princess Guantao then approached the next favorite of Emperor Jing's concubines – none other than Consort Wang, who had been observing these developments quietly from the sidelines. Guantao offered to marry her daughter to the consort's young son, Liu Che, then aged only 5. Seizing the opportunity, Consort Wang accepted the offer with open arms, securing a crucial political alliance with Princess Guantao.

Princess Guantao's daughter Chen Jiao, also known by the milk name A'Jiao (阿嬌), was of marriageable age (which was legally marked at the time by menarche), making her at least eight years older than the young prince. Due to this age difference, Emperor Jing initially did not approve of this union. According to the Wei-Jin era fable Hanwu Stories (漢武故事 / 汉武故事 also called Stories of Han Wudi), during a subsequent royal gathering, Princess Guantao held the 5-year-old Liu Che in her arms and asked the nephew whether he wanted to marry his first cousin A'Jiao. The young prince boasted that he would "build a golden house for her" if they were married. Princess Guantao then used the boy's response as a divine sign to convince Emperor Jing to finally agree to the arranged marriage between Liu Che and Chen Jiao. This inspired the Chinese idiom "putting Jiao in a golden house" (lang=zh-hant金屋藏嬌).

Now sealed in the marriage alliance with Consort Wang, Princess Guantao began incessantly criticising Lady Li in front of Emperor Jing. Over time, Emperor Jing started to believe his sister's words, so he decided to test out Lady Li. One day he asked Lady Li whether she would happily foster-care the rest of his children if he were to pass away, only to have her rudely refuse to comply. This made Emperor Jing angry and worried that if Liu Rong were to inherit the throne and Lady Li to become empress dowager, many of his concubines might suffer the tragic fate of Consort Qi in the hands of Empress Lü. Princess Guantao then began to openly praise her son-in-law-to-be to her royal brother, further convincing Emperor Jing that Liu Che was a far better choice for heir apparent than Liu Rong.

Taking advantage of the situation, Consort Wang put in place the final step to defeat Lady Li — she persuaded a minister to officially advise Emperor Jing that he make Lady Li empress, as Liu Rong was already the crown prince. Emperor Jing, already firm in his view that Lady Li must not be made empress, was enraged and believed that Lady Li had conspired with government officials. He executed the clan of the minister who had made that proposal, and deposed Liu Rong from the crown prince to the Prince of Linjiang (臨江王) and exiling him from the capital city Chang'an in 150 BC. Lady Li was stripped of her titles and placed under house arrest; she died of depression not long after. Liu Rong was arrested two years later for illegal seizure of imperial shrine lands and committed suicide while in custody.

As Empress Bo had been deposed one year earlier in 151 BC, the position of empress was left open and Emperor Jing made Consort Wang empress four months later. The seven-year-old Liu Che, now legally the oldest son of the Empress, was made crown prince in 149 BC.

In 141 BC, Emperor Jing died and Crown Prince Liu Che ascended to the throne as Emperor Wu at the age of 15. His grandmother Empress Dowager Dou became the grand empress dowager, and his mother became Empress Dowager Wang. His cousin-wife A'Jiao from the political child marriage officially became Empress Chen.

Early reign and reform attempt

The Han dynasty up to this point was run according to a Taoist wu wei ideology, championing economic freedom and government decentralization . With regard to foreign policy-wise, periodic heqin was used to maintain a de jure "peace" with the powerful Xiongnu confederacy to the north. These policies were important in stimulating economic recovery following the post-Qin dynasty civil war, but had their drawbacks. The non-interventionist policies resulted in loss of monetary regulation and political control by the central government, allowing the feudal vassal states to become powerful and unruly, culminating in the Rebellion of the Seven States during Emperor Jing's reign. Nepotism among the ruling class also stagnated social mobility and encouraged nobles' rampant disregard of laws, leading to the rise of local despots who bullied and oppressed the population. The heqin policy also failed to protect the Han borders against nomadic raids, with Xiongnu cavalries invading as close as 300 li (100 miles, 160 km) from the capital during Emperor Wen's reign, and over 10,000 border residents abducted or enslaved during Emperor Jing's reign. Prominent politicians like Jia Yi and Chao Cuo had both previously advised on the necessity of important policy reforms, but neither Emperor Wen nor Emperor Jing was willing to risk implementing such changes.

Unlike the emperors before him, the young and vigorous Emperor Wu was unwilling to put up with the status quo. Only a year into his reign in late 141 BC, Emperor Wu took the advice of Confucian scholars and launched an ambitious reform, known in history as the Jianyuan Reforms (建元新政). The reforms included:

• Officially endorsing Confucianism as the national philosophy (乡儒术). Previously, the more libertarian Taoist ideals were held in esteem;

• Forcing noblemen back to their own fiefdoms (令列侯就国). A large number of noblemen were living in the capital Chang'an, lobbying court officials while exploiting the central government's budget to cover their expenses despite already having gained great wealth from their own feudal land tenure taxation. Emperor Wu's new policy dictated that they could no longer live off the government's spending and must leave the capital if lacking any justifiable reason to keep staying;

• Removal of non-central government sanctioned checkpoints (除关). Many lords of vassal states had established checkpoints along main state roads that went through their territory with the purpose of collecting tolls and restricting traffic. Emperor Wu wanted to seize the control of transportation from local authorities and return that control back to the central government;

• Encouraging the reporting and prosecution of criminal activities by nobles (举谪宗室无行者). Noblemen engaged in illegal activities would be impeached and punished and their assets or lands could be confiscated back as state property;

• Recruitment and promotion of talented commoners into government positions (招贤良) in order to reduce the administrative monopoly by the noble class.

However, Emperor Wu's reforms threatened the interests of the nobles and were swiftly defeated lead by his grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Dou, who held real political power in the Han court and supported the conservative factions. Most of the reformists were punished: Emperor Wu's two noble supporters Dou Ying (窦婴) and Tian Fen (田蚡, Empress Dowager Wang's half-brother and Emperor's uncle) lost their positions, and his two mentors Wang Zang (王臧) and Zhao Wan (赵绾) were impeached, arrested and forced to commit suicide in prison.

Emperor Wu, deprived of any allies, was now the subject of conspiracies designed to have him removed from the throne. For example, his first wife Empress Chen Jiao was unable to become pregnant. In an attempt to remain his first love, she had prohibited him from having other concubines. Emperor Wu's political enemies used his childlessness as an argument to seek to depose him, as the inability of an emperor to propagate a royal bloodline was a serious matter. These enemies of Emperor Wu wished to replace him with his uncle Liu An, the King of Huainan, who was renowned for his expertise in Taoist ideology. Even Emperor Wu's own maternal uncle Tian Fen switched camps and sought Liu An's favor, as he predicted the young emperor would not be in power for long. Emperor Wu's political survival now relied heavily on the lobbying of his aunt and mother-in-law, Princess Guantao (Liu Piao), who served as a mediator in seeking the Emperor's reconciliation with his powerful grandmother. Princess Guantao took every opportunity to influence the Grand Empress and constantly made demands on behalf of her son-in-law.

Emperor Wu, already unhappy with his lack of an heir and Empress Chen's spoiled behavior, was further enraged by her mother Liu Piao's greed. However, Emperor Wu's mother, Empress Dowager Wang, convinced him to tolerate Empress Chen and Liu Piao for the time being, as his aging grandmother was declining physically and would soon die. He spent the next few years pretending to have given up any political ambition, playing the part of a docile hedonist, often sneaking out of the capital Chang'an to engage in hunting and sightseeing and posing as an ordinary nobleman.

Solidifying power

Knowing that the conservative noble classes occupied every level of the Han court, Emperor Wu changed his strategy. He secretly recruited a circle of young loyal supporters from ordinary backgrounds and promoted them to middle-level positions in order to infiltrate executive ranks in the government. These newly established officials, known as the "insider court" (内朝), took orders and reported directly to Emperor Wu. They had real influence over the operation of government affairs though lower in rank. They became a powerful counter against the "outsider court" (外朝) made up of the Three Lords and Nine Ministers that, at the time, were mostly composed of anti-reformists. Furthermore, Emperor Wu sent out nationwide edicts appealing to grassroots scholars such as Gongsun Hong to enrol in government services in an attempt to break the stranglehold that the older-generation noble class had on the nation's levers of power.

In 138 BC, the southern autonomous state of Minyue (in modern-day Fujian) invaded the weaker neighbouring state of Dong'ou (in modern-day Zhejiang). After their king Zuo Zhenfu (驺贞复) died on the battlefield, the battered Dong'ou desperately sought help from the Han court. After a heated court debate over whether to offer military intervention for such a distant vassal state, Emperor Wu dispatched a newly promoted official Yan Zhu (严助) to Kuaiji (then still located in Suzhou, rather than Shaoxing) to mobilize the local garrison. However the tiger tally, which was needed to authorize any use of armed forces, was in Grand Empress Dowager Dou's possession at the time. Yan Zhu, as the appointed imperial ambassador, circumvented this problem by executing a local army commander who refused to obey any order without seeing the tiger tally and coerced the governor of Kuaiji to mobilize a large naval fleet to Dong'ou's rescue. Seeing that superior Han forces were on the way, Minyue forces became fearful and retreated. This was a huge political victory for Emperor Wu and set the precedent of using the Emperor's decrees to bypass the tiger tally, removing the need for cooperation from his grandmother. Now with the military firmly in his control, Emperor Wu's political survival was assured.

In the same year, Emperor Wu's newly favoured concubine Wei Zifu became pregnant with his first child, effectively clearing his name and silencing any political enemies who had schemed to use his alleged infertility as an excuse to have him removed. When this news reached the state of Huainan, Liu An, who was hoping the young Emperor Wu's infertility would allow him to ascend to the throne, went into a state of denial and rewarded anyone who told him that Emperor Wu was still childless.

In 135 BC, Grand Empress Dowager Dou died, removing the last obstacle against Emperor Wu's ambition for reform.

Imperial expansion

Conquest of the south

After the death of Grand Empress Dowager Dou in 135 BC, Emperor Wu had full control of the government. While his mother, Empress Dowager Wang, and his uncle Tian Fen were still influential, they lacked the ability to restrain the Emperor's actions.

Emperor Wu began military campaigns focused on territorial expansion. This decision nearly destroyed his empire in its early stages. Reacting to border incursions by sending out the troops, Emperor Wu sent his armies in all directions but the sea.

Conquest of Minyue

Following the successful manoeuvre against Minyue in 138 BC, Emperor Wu resettled the people of Dang'an into the region between the Yangtze and Huai Rivers. In 135 BC, Minyue saw an opportunity to take advantage of the new and inexperienced king of Nanyue, Zhao Mo. Minyue invaded its south-western neighbour and Zhao Mo sought help from the Han court.

Emperor Wu dispatched an amphibious expedition force led by Wang Hui (王恢) and Han Anguo (韩安国) to address the Minyue threat. Again fearing the Han intervention, Luo Yushan (雒余善), the younger brother of Minyue's King Ying, orchestrated a coup with other Minyue nobles, killed his brother with a spear, decapitated the corpse and sent the severed head to Wang. Following the campaign, Minyue was split into a dual monarchy: Minyue was controlled by a Han proxy ruler, Zou Chou (驺丑), and Dongyue (东越) was ruled by Luo Yushan.

As Han troops returned from the Han–Nanyue War in 111 BC, the Han government debated military action against Dongyue. Dongyue, under King Lou Yushan, had agreed to assist the Han campaign against Nanyue, but the Dongyue army never reached there, blaming the weather while secretly relaying intelligence to Nanyue. Against the advice of General Yang Pu (杨仆), Emperor Wu rejected a military solution, and the Han forces arrived home without attacking Dongyue, though border garrisons were told to prepare for any military conflicts. After King Yushan was informed of this, he became overly confident and proud and responded by revolting against the Han, proclaiming himself emperor and assigned his "Han-devouring generals" (吞汉将军) to invade neighbouring regions controlled by the Han. Enraged, Emperor Wu sent a combined army led by generals Han Yue (韩说), Yang Pu, Wang Wenshu (王温舒) and two marquesses of Yue ancestry. The Han army crushed the rebellion, and the Dongyue kingdom began to fragment after King Yushan stubbornly refused to surrender. Elements of the Dongyue army defected and turned against their ruler. Eventually, the king of the other Minyue state, Zou Jugu (驺居股), conspired with other Dongyue nobles to kill King Yushan before surrendering to the Han forces. The two states of Minyue and Dongyue were then completely annexed under the Han rule.

Conquest of Nanyue

In 135 BC, when Minyue attacked Nanyue, Nanyue also sought assistance from Han even though it probably had enough strength to defend itself. Emperor Wu was greatly pleased by this gesture, and he dispatched an expedition force to attack Minyue, over the objection of one of his key advisors, Liu An, a royal relative and the Prince of Huainan. Minyue nobles, fearful of the massive Chinese force, assassinated their king Luo Ying (骆郢) and sought peace. Emperor Wu then imposed a dual-monarchy system on Minyue by creating kings out of Luo Ying's brother Luo Yushan (雒余善) and nobleman Zou Chou (驺丑), thus ensuring internal discord in Minyue .

Although initially launched as a punitive expedition by Emperor Wu against the autonomous kingdom of Nanyue, the entire Nanyue territory (which includes modern Guangdong, Guanxi, and North Vietnam) had been conquered by the Emperor's military forces and annexed into the Han Empire by 111 BC.

War against the northern steppes

Military tension had long existed between China and the northern "barbarians", mainly because the fertile lands of the prosperous agricultural civilization presented attractive targets for the poorer but more militaristic horseback nomads. The threat posed to the Xiongnu by the northward expansion of the Qin Empire ultimately led to the consolidation of the many tribes into a confederacy. Following the end of the Chu-Han Contention, Emperor Gao of Han realized that the nation was not yet strong enough to confront the Xiongnu. He therefore resorted to the so-called "marriage alliance", or heqin, in order to ease hostility and buy time for the nation to "rest and recover" (休养生息). Despite the periodic humiliation of appeasement and providing gifts, the Han borders were still frequented by Xiongnu raids for the next seven decades. Following the death of his powerful grandmother, Emperor Wu decided that Han China had sufficiently recovered enough to support a full-scale war.

He first ended the official policy of peace with the Battle of Mayi in 133 BC, which involved a failed plan to trick a force of 30,000 Xiongnu into an ambush of 300,000 Han soldiers. While neither side suffered any casualties, the Xiongnu retaliated by increasing their border attacks, leading many in the Han court to abandon the hope for peace with the Xiongnu.

The failure of the Mayi operation prompted Emperor Wu to switch the Han army's doctrine from the traditionally more defensive chariot–infantry warfare to a highly mobile and offensive cavalry-against-cavalry warfare. At the same time, he expanded and trained officers from his royal guards.

After a series of defeats by Wei Qing (the half-brother of Emperor Wu's favourite concubine) and Wei's nephew, Huo Qubing between 127 and 119 BC, the Xiongnu were expelled from the Ordos Desert and Qilian Mountains. As a result of these territorial acquisitions, the Han Dynasty successfully opened up the Northern Silk Road, allowing direct access to trade with Central Asia. This also provided a new supply of high-quality horse breeds from Central Asia, including the famed Ferghana horse (ancestors of the modern Akhal-Teke), further strengthening the Han army. Emperor Wu then reinforced this strategic asset by establishing five commanderies and constructing a length of fortified wall along the border of the Hexi Corridor, colonizing the area with 700,000 Chinese soldier-settlers.

The Battle of Mobei (119 BC) saw Han forces invade the northern regions of the Gobi Desert. The two generals led the campaign to the Khangai Mountains where they forced the Chanyu to flee north of the Gobi Desert, and then out of the Gobi Desert.

The Xiongnu, destabilized and worried about further Han attacks, retreated further north into the Siberian regions where they suffered starvation due to livestock loss from harsh climates. The battle was however also costly for the Han forces, which lost almost 80% of their warhorses. The cost of the war led the central Han government to introduce new levies, increasing the burden on average peasants, and the population census of the empire showed a significant drop from famines and people fleeing to avoid having to pay the taxes.

Invasion of the Korean Peninsula

Emperor Wu carried out an invasion of the northern Korean Peninsula and established the Commandery of Canghai, but abandoned it in 126 BC. Some of the military colonies established at that time survived into the 4th century, leaving behind various particularly well-preserved funerary artefacts. After the conquest of Nanyue in 111 BC, Emperor Wu launched a second invasion of the Korean peninsula and by 108 BC completed the Han conquest of Gojoseon in what is now modern-day North Korea. Han Chinese colonists in the Xuantu and Lelang commanderies of northern Korea would later fight against frequent raids by the Goguryeo and Buyeo kingdoms. However, they would engage in mostly peaceful trade relations with surrounding Korean peoples over the centuries, the latter of whom became gradually and significantly influenced by Chinese culture.

Diplomacy and exploration

The exploration into Xiyu was first started in 139 BC, when Emperor Wu commissioned Zhang Qian to seek out the Kingdom of Yuezhi, which had been expelled by Xiongnu from the modern Gansu region. Zhang was to entice the kingdom to return to its ancestral lands with promises of Han military assistance, with the intention that Yuezhi forces would fight against the Xiongnu. Zhang was immediately captured by Xiongnu once he ventured into the desert, but was able to escape around 129 BC and eventually made it to Yuezhi, which by then had relocated to Samarkand. While Yuezhi refused to return, it and several other kingdoms in the area, including Dayuan (Kokand) and Kangju, established diplomatic relations with Han. Zhang was able to deliver his report to Emperor Wu when he arrived back in the capital Chang'an in 126 BC after a second and shorter captivity by Xiongnu. After the Prince of Hunxie surrendered the Gansu region, the path to Xiyu became clear and regular embassies between Han and the Xiyu kingdoms commenced.

Another expansion plan, this one aimed at the south-west, was aimed at the eventual conquest of Nanyue, which was viewed as an unreliable vassal. The plan was to first obtain submission of the south-western tribal kingdoms—the largest of which was Yelang (modern Zunyi, Guizhou)—so that a route for a potential back-stabbing attack on Nanyue could be made. The Han ambassador Tang Meng (唐蒙) was able to secure the submission of these tribal kingdoms by giving their kings gifts; Emperor Wu established the Commandery of Jianwei (犍为, headquarters in modern Yibin, Sichuan) to govern over the tribes, but eventually abandoned it after being unable to cope with local revolts. Later, after Zhang Qian returned from the western region, part of his report indicated that embassies could more easily reach Shendu (India) and Anxi (Parthia) by going through the south-western kingdoms. Encouraged by the report, Emperor Wu sent ambassadors in 122 BC to try to persuade Yelang and Dian (modern eastern Yunnan) into submission again.

Religion

Han Gaozu, founder of the Han dynasty, had installed shaman cultists from the area of the former state of Jin (in the area of the modern province of Shanxi) as official religious functionaries of his new empire. Emperor Wu worshiped the divinity Tai Yi (or, Dong Huang Tai Yi), a deity to whom he was introduced by his shaman advisers, who were able to provide him with the experience of having this god (and other spiritual entities, such as the Master of Fate, Si Ming) summoned into his presence; the emperor even went so far as to construct a "House of Life" (shou gong) chapel at his Ganquan palace complex (in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi) specifically for this purpose, in 118 BC. One of the religious rituals that Emperor Wu organized was the Suburban Sacrifice, and the nineteen hymns entitled Hymns for Use in the Suburban Sacrifice were written in connection with these religious rites and published during Wu's reign.

It was also during this time that Emperor Wu began to show a fascination with immortality. He began to associate with magicians who claimed to be able to, if they could find the proper ingredients, create divine pills that would confer immortality. However, he himself punished others' use of magic severely. In 130 BC, for example, when the witch Chu Fu tried to approach Empress Chen to teach her sorcery and love spells to curse Consort Wei and regain Emperor Wu's affections, he dispatched Zhang Tang to execute Chu Fu for witchcraft, which was illegal at the time.

Despotism at home

Around the same time, perhaps as a sign of what would come to be, Emperor Wu began to trust governing officials who were harsh in their punishment, believing that such harshness would be the most effective method to maintain social order and so placing these officials in power. For example, one such official, Yi Zong (义纵), became the governor of the Commandery of Dingxiang (part of modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia) and executed 200 prisoners, even though they had not committed capital crimes; he then executed their friends who happened to have been visiting. In 122 BC, Liu An, the Prince of Huainan (a previously trusted adviser of Emperor Wu, and closely enough related to have imperial pretensions) and his brother Liu Ci (刘赐), the Prince of Hengshan, were accused of plotting treason. They committed suicide; their families and many alleged co-conspirators were executed.

A famous wrongful execution happened in 117 BC, when the minister of agriculture Yan Yi (颜异), was falsely accused of committing a crime, though he was actually targeted because he had previously offended the emperor by opposing a plan to effectively extort double tributes out of princes and marquesses. Yan was executed for "internal defamation" of the emperor, and this caused the officials to be fearful and willing to flatter the emperor.

Further territorial expansion, old age, and paranoia

Starting about 113 BC, Emperor Wu began to display further signs of abusing his power. He began to incessantly tour the commanderies, initially nearby Chang'an, but later extending to much farther places, worshipping the various gods on the way, perhaps again in search of immortality. He also had a succession of magicians whom he honoured with great things. In one case, he even made one a marquess and married his daughter, the Eldest Princess Wei, to him; that magician, Luan Da, was later exposed as a fraud and executed. Emperor Wu's expenditures on these tours and magical adventures put a great strain on the national treasury and caused difficulties on the locales that he visited, twice causing the governors of commanderies to commit suicide after they were unable to supply the emperor's entire train.

In 112 BC, a crisis in the Kingdom of Nanyue (modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam) erupted, leading to military intervention. At that time, the King Zhao Xing and his mother Queen Dowager Jiu (樛太后) – a Chinese woman whom Zhao Xing's father Zhao Yingqi had married while he served as an ambassador to Han – were both in favor of becoming incorporated into Han. This was opposed by the senior prime minister, Lü Jia (吕嘉), who wanted to maintain the kingdom's independence. Queen Dowager Jiu tried to goad the Chinese ambassadors into killing Lü, but the Chinese ambassadors were hesitant to do so. When Emperor Wu sent a 2,000-man force led by Han Qianqiu (韩千秋) and Queen Dowager Jiu's brother Jiu Le (樛乐) to try to assist the king and the queen dowager, Lü staged a coup d'état and had the king and the queen dowager killed. Lü then made another son of Zhao Yingqi, Zhao Jiande, king and went on to annihilate the Han forces under Han and Jiu. Several months later, Emperor Wu commissioned a five-pronged attack against Nanyue. In 111 BC, the Han forces captured the Nanyue capital Panyu (番禺, modern Guangzhou ) and annexed the entire Nanyue territory into Han, establishing ten commanderies.

That same year, one of the co-kings of Minyue (modern Fujian), Luo Yushan, was fearful that Han would attack his kingdom next and made a pre-emptive attack against Han, capturing a number of towns in former Nanyue and in the other border commanderies. In 110 BC, under Han military pressure, Luo Yushan's co-king Luo Jugu (骆居古) assassinated him and surrendered the kingdom to Han. However, Emperor Wu did not establish commanderies in Minyue's former territory; instead, he moved its people to the region between the Yangtze and Huai Rivers.

Later that year, Emperor Wu, at great expense, carried out the ancient ceremony of the Feng and Shan sacrifices fengshan (封禅) at Mount Tai; this involved the worship of heaven and earth and presumably a secret petition to the gods of heaven and earth to seek immortality. He then decreed that he would return to Mount Tai every five years to repeat the ceremony, but only did so once in 98 BC. Many palaces were built for him and the princes to accommodate the anticipated cycles of the ceremony.

It was around this time that, in reaction to the large expenditures by Emperor Wu that had exhausted the national treasury, his agricultural minister Sang Hongyang conceived of a plan that many dynasties would repeat later: creating national monopolies for salt and iron. The national treasury would further purchase other consumer goods when the prices were low and sell them when the prices were high at profit, thus replenishing the treasury while at the same time making sure the price fluctuation would not be too great.

In 109 BC, Emperor Wu started yet another territorial expansion campaign. Nearly a century earlier, a Chinese General named Wiman had taken the throne of Gojoseon and had established Wiman Joseon at Wanggeom-seong, (modern Pyongyang), which became a nominal Han vassal. When Wiman's grandson King Ugeo refused to permit Jin's ambassadors to reach China through his territories, Emperor Wei sent an ambassador She He (涉何) to Wanggeom to negotiate a right of passage with King Ugeo, but King Ugeo refused and had a general escort She back to Han territory. When they got close to Han borders, She assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the military commander of the Commandery of Liaodong (modern central Liaoning). King Ugeo, offended, made a raid on Liaodong and killed She. In response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack (one by land and one by sea) against Joseon. Initially, Joseon offered to become a vassal, but peace negotiations broke down by the Chinese forces' refusal to let a Joseon force escort its crown prince to Chang'an to pay tribute to Emperor Wu. Han took over the Joseon lands in 108 BC and established four commanderies.

Also in 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent an expeditionary force against the Kingdom of Dian (modern eastern Yunnan), planning on conquering it. When the King of Dian surrendered, it was incorporated into Han territory with the King of Dian being permitted to keep his traditional authority and title. Emperor Wu established five commanderies over Dian and the other nearby kingdoms.

In 108 BC, Emperor Wu sent general Zhao Ponu (赵破奴) on a campaign to Xiyu, and he forced the Kingdoms of Loulan on northeast border of the Taklamakan Desert and Cheshi (modern Turpan, Xinjiang) into submission. In 105 BC, Emperor Wu gave a princess from a remote collateral imperial line to Kunmo (昆莫), the King of Wusun (Issyk Kol basin) in marriage, and she later married his grandson and successor Qinqu (芩娶), creating a strong and stable alliance between Han and Wusun. The various Xiyu kingdoms also strengthened their relationships with Han. An infamous Han war against the nearby Kingdom of Dayuan (Kokand) erupted in 104 BC. Dayuan refused to give in to Emperor Wu's commands to surrender its best horses, Emperor Wu's ambassadors were then executed when they insulted the King of Dayuan after his refusal. Emperor Wu commissioned Li Guangli, the brother of concubine Lady Li, as a general to direct the war against Dayuan. In 103 BC, Li Guangli's army of 26,000 men (20,000 Chinese & 6,000 steppe cavalry), without adequate supplies, suffered a humiliating loss against Dayuan, but in 102 BC, Li with a new army of 60,000 men, was able to put a devastating siege on its capital by cutting off water supplies to the city, forcing Dayuan's surrender 3,000 of its prized horses. This Han victory further intimidated the Xiyu kingdoms into submission.

Emperor Wu also made attempts to try to intimidate Xiongnu into submission, but even though peace negotiations were ongoing, Xiongnu never actually submitted to becoming a Han vassal during Emperor Wu's reign. In 103 BC, Chanyu Er surrounded Zhao Ponu and captured his entire army – the first major Xiongnu victory since Wei Qing and Huo Qubing nearly captured the chanyu in 119 BC. Following Han's victory over Dayuan in 102 BC, however, Xiongnu became concerned that Han could then concentrate against it, and made peace overtures. Peace negotiations failed when the Han deputy ambassador Zhang Sheng (张胜) was discovered to have conspired to assassinate Chanyu Qiedihou (且鞮侯). The ambassador, the later-famed Su Wu, would be detained for two decades. In 99 BC, Emperor Wu commissioned another expedition force aimed at crushing Xiongnu, but both prongs of the expedition force failed. Li Guangli's force became trapped but was able to free itself and withdraw, while Li Ling, Li Guang's grandson, surrendered at the end after being surrounded by Xiongnu forces. One year later, receiving a report that Li Ling was training Xiongnu soldiers, Emperor Wu had Li's clan executed.

Moreover, Emperor Wu already bore a grudge against the famed historian Sima Qian because Sima's Shiji was not as flattering to Emperor Wu and his father Emperor Jing as Emperor Wu wanted, so Emperor Wu had Sima Qian castrated.

In 106 BC, in order to further better organize the territories, including both the previously-existing empire and the newly conquered territories, Emperor Wu divided the empire into 13 prefectures (zhou, 州), but without governors or prefectural governments. Rather, he assigned a supervisor to each prefecture, who would visit the commanderies and principalities in the prefecture on a rotating basis to investigate corruption and disobedience with imperial edicts.

In 104 BC, Emperor Wu built the luxurious Jianzhang Palace (建章宮) – a massive structure that was intended to make him closer to the gods. He later resided at that palace exclusively, rather than the traditional Weiyang Palace, which Xiao He had built during the reign of Emperor Gao.

About 100 BC, due to the heavy taxation and military burdens imposed by Emperor Wu's incessant military campaigns and luxurious spending, there were many peasant revolts throughout the empire. Emperor Wu issued an edict that was intended to suppress the peasant revolts: he made officials whose commanderies saw unsuppressed peasant revolts liable with their lives. However, this edict had the exact opposite effect, since it became impossible to suppress all of the revolts, officials would merely cover up the existence of the revolts. He executed many people who made fake coins.

In 96 BC, a series of witchcraft persecutions began. Emperor Wu, who was paranoid over a nightmare of being whipped by tiny stick-wielding puppets and a sighting of a traceless assassin (possibly a hallucination), ordered extensive investigations with harsh punishments. Large numbers of people, many of them high officials, were accused of witchcraft and executed, usually along with their entire clans. The first trial began with Empress Wei Zifu's elder brother-in-law Gongsun He (公孫賀, the Prime Minister at the time) and his son Gongsun Jingsheng (公孫敬聲, also an imperial official, but arrested under corruption charges), quickly leading to the execution of their entire clan. Also caught in this disaster were Crown Prince Ju's two elder sisters Princess Yangshi (陽石公主, who was said to have a romantic relationship with her cousin Gongsun Jingsheng) and Princess Zhuyi (諸邑公主), as well as his cousin Wei Kang (衛伉, the eldest son of the deceased general Wei Qing), who were all accused of witchcraft and executed in 91 BC. These witchcraft persecutions later became intertwined in succession struggles and erupted into a major catastrophe.

Crown Prince Jus revolt

In 94 BC, Emperor Wu's youngest son Liu Fuling was born to a favorite concubine of his, Lady Gouyi (Consort Zhao). Emperor Wu was ecstatic in having a child at such an advanced age (62 years old), and because Consort Zhao purportedly had a pregnancy that lasted 14 months (the same as the mythical Emperor Yao), he named Consort Zhao's palace gate "Gate of Yao's mother." This led to speculation that the emperor, due to his favor of Consort Zhao and Prince Fuling, wanted to make Liu Fuling the crown prince instead. While there was no evidence that he actually intended to do anything as such, over the next few years, conspiracies against Crown Prince Ju and Empress Wei arose that were inspired by such rumors.

Up to this point, there had been a cordial but somehow fragile relationship between Emperor Wu and his crown prince, who perhaps was not as ambitious as his father wished. As he grew older, the Emperor came to be less attracted to Ju's mother, Empress Wei Zifu, though he continued to respect her. When he left the capital, the Emperor would delegate authority to Crown Prince Ju. Eventually, however, the two began to have disagreements over policy, with Ju favoring leniency and Wu's advisers (harsh and sometimes corrupt officials) urging the opposite. After Wei Qing's death in 106 BC and Gongsun He's execution, Prince Ju had no strong allies left in the government. The other officials then began to publicly defame and plot against him. Meanwhile, Emperor Wu was becoming more and more isolated, spending time with young concubines, often remaining unavailable to Ju or Wei.

Conspirators against Prince Ju included Jiang Chong (江充), the newly appointed head of secret intelligence, who had once had a run-in with Ju after arresting one of his assistants for improper use of an imperial right of way. Another conspirator was Su Wen (蘇文), chief eunuch in charge of caring for imperial concubines, who had previously made false accusations against Ju, claiming he was joyful over Wu's illness and had an adulterous relationship with one of the junior concubines.

Jiang and others made many accusations of witchcraft against important people in the Han court. Jiang and Su decided to use witchcraft as the excuse to move against Prince Ju himself. With approval from Emperor Wu who was then at the Ganquan Palace, Jiang searched through various palaces, ostensibly for witchcraft items, eventually reaching Prince Ju's and Empress Wei's palace. While completely trashing the palaces up with intensive digging, he secretly planted witchery dolls and pieces of cloth with mysterious writings. He then announced that he had found the items there during the search. Prince Ju was shocked, knowing that he was framed. His teacher Shi De (石德), invoking the story of Ying Fusu of the Qin dynasty and raised the possibility that Emperor Wu might already be dead, suggesting that Prince Ju start an uprising to fight the conspirators. Prince Ju initially hesitated, wanting to speed to Ganquan Palace to defend himself before his father. But, when he found out that Jiang's messengers were already on their way, he decided to follow Shi's suggestion.

Prince Ju sent an individual to impersonate a messenger from Emperor Wu to lure and arrest Jiang and the other conspirators. Su escaped, but Ju accused Jiang of sabotaging his relationship with his father, and personally killed Jiang. With the support of his mother, Ju enlisted his guards, civilians, and prisoners in preparation to defend him.

Su fled to Ganquan Palace and accused Prince Ju of treason. Emperor Wu, not believing it to be true and correctly (at this point) believing that Prince Ju had merely been angry at Jiang, sent a messenger back to Chang'an to summon Prince Ju. The messenger did not dare to proceed to Chang'an, but instead returned and gave Emperor Wu the false report that Prince Ju was conducting a coup. Enraged, Emperor Wu ordered his nephew, Prime Minister Liu Qumao (刘屈犛), to put down the rebellion.

The two sides battled in the streets of Chang'an for five days, but Liu Qumao's forces prevailed after it became clear that Prince Ju did not have his father's authorization. Prince Ju was forced to flee the capital following the defeat, accompanied only by two of his sons and some personal guards. Apart from a grandson Liu Bingyi, who was barely a month old and thrown into prison, all other members of his family were left behind and killed. His mother, Empress Wei, committed suicide when Emperor Wu sent officials to depose her. Their bodies were carelessly buried in fields without proper tomb markings. Prince Ju's supporters were brutally cracked down on and civilians aiding the crown prince were exiled. Even Tian Ren (田仁), an official city gatekeeper who did not stop Prince Ju's escape, and Ren An (任安), an army commander who chose not to actively participate in the crackdown, were accused of being sympathizers and executed.

Emperor Wu continued to be enraged and ordered that Prince Ju be tracked down. After a junior official, Linghu Mao (令狐茂), risked his life to speak on Prince Ju's behalf, Emperor Wu's anger began to subside. However, he waited to issue a pardon for Prince Ju.

Prince Ju fled to Hu County (湖縣, in modern Sanmenxia, Henan) and took refuge in the home of a poor peasant family. Knowing that their good-hearted hosts could never afford the daily expenditure of so many people, the Prince sought help from an old friend who lived nearby. However, this move exposed their whereabouts, and he was soon tracked down by local officials eager for a reward. Surrounded by troops and seeing no chance of escape, the Prince hung himself. His two sons and the family housing them died with him after the government soldiers eventually broke into the yard and killed everyone. The two local officials who led the raid, Zhang Fuchang (張富昌) and Li Shou (李寿), wasted no time in taking the Prince's body to Chang'an to claim a reward from the emperor. Emperor Wu, although greatly saddened to hear the death of his son, had to keep his promise and rewarded the officials.

Late reign and death

Even after Jiang Chong and Prince Ju both died, the witchhunt continued and combined with Wei Zifu's jealousy led to the execution of the Li family on accounts of treason. General Li Guangli caused unnecessary losses with his military incompetence. In 90 BC, while Li was assigned to a campaign against Xiongnu, a eunuch named Guo Rang (郭穰) exposed how Li and his political ally, Prime Minister Liu Qumao, were conspiring to use witchcraft on Emperor Wu. Liu and his family were immediately arrested and later executed. Li's family was also taken into custody and later executed after the traitor Li Ling also defected to the Xiongnu. Li, after learning the news, used risky tactics to attempt a standoff against Emperor Wu, but failed when some of his senior officers mutinied. On his retreat, he was ambushed by Xiongnu forces. He defected to Xiongnu and Emperor Wu executed the Li clan for treason soon after. Even within the Xiongnu, Li himself also fought with other Han traitors, especially Wei Lü (衛律), who was extremely jealous of the amount of Chanyu's favor that Li gained as a new, high-profile defector.

By this time, Emperor Wu realized that the witchcraft accusations were often false accusations, especially in relation to the crown prince rebellion. In 92 BC, when Tian Qianqiu, then the superintendent of Emperor Gao's temple, wrote a report claiming that Emperor Gao told him in a dream that Prince Ju should have only been whipped at most, not killed, Emperor Wu had a revelation about what had led to his son's rebellion. He had Su burned and Jiang's family executed. He also made Tian prime minister. Although he claimed to miss Prince Ju greatly (he even built a palace and an altar for his deceased son as a sign of grief and regret), he did not at this time rectify the situation where Prince Ju's only surviving progeny, Liu Bingyi, languished in prison as a child.

With the political scene greatly changed, Emperor Wu publicly apologized to the whole nation about his past policy mistakes, a gesture known to history as the Repenting Edict of Luntai (輪台悔詔). The Prime Minister Tian he appointed was in favor of retiring the troops and easing hardships on the people. Tian also promoted agriculture, with several agricultural experts becoming important members of the administration. Wars and territorial expansion generally ceased. These policies and ideals were those supported by Crown Prince Ju, and were finally realised years after his death.

By 88 BC, Emperor Wu had become seriously ill. With Prince Ju dead, there was no clear heir. Liu Dan, the Prince of Yan, was Emperor Wu's oldest surviving son, but Emperor Wu considered both him and his younger brother Liu Xu, the Prince of Guangling, to be unsuitable, since neither respected laws. He decided that the only suitable heir was his youngest son, Liu Fuling, who was only six at that time. He therefore also chose a potential regent in Huo Guang, whom he considered to be capable and faithful, and entrusted Huo with the regency of Fuling. Emperor Wu also ordered the execution of Prince Fuling's mother Consort Zhao, out of fear that she would become an uncontrollable empress dowager like the previous Empress Lü. At Huo's suggestion, he made ethnic Xiongnu official Jin Midi and general Shangguang Jie co-regents. He died in 87 BC, shortly after making Prince Fuling crown prince. Crown Prince Fuling then succeeded to the throne as Emperor Zhao for the next 13 years.

Empress Chen Jiao and Empress Wei Zifu were the only two empresses during Emperor Wu's reign. Emperor Wu did not make anyone empress after Empress Wei Zifu committed suicide, and he left no instruction on who should be enshrined in his temple with him. He lies buried in the Maoling mound, the most famous of the so-called Chinese pyramids. Huo Guang sent 500 beautiful women there for the dead emperor. According to folk legend, 200 of them were executed for having sex with the guards. Huo's clan was later killed and the emperor's tomb was looted by Chimei.

Legacy

Historians have treated Emperor Wu with ambivalence, and there are certainly some contradictory accounts of his life. He roughly doubled the size of the Han empire of China during his reign, and much of the territory that he annexed is now part of modern China. He officially encouraged Confucianism, yet just like Qin Shi Huang, he personally used a legalist system of rewards and punishments to govern his empire.

Emperor Wu is said to have been extravagant and superstitious, allowing his policies to become a burden on his people. As such he is often compared to Qin Shi Huang. The punishments for perceived failures and disloyalty were often exceedingly harsh. His father saved many participants of Rebellion of the Seven States from execution, and made some work in constructing his tomb. Emperor Wu had killed thousands of people and their families over the Liu An affair, Hengshan, his prosecution of witchcraft, and the Prince Ju revolt.

He used some of his wives' relatives to fight Xiongnu, some of whom become successful and famous generals.

He forced his last queen to commit suicide. Out of the twelve prime ministers appointed by Emperor Wu, three were executed and two committed suicide while holding the post; another was executed in retirement. He set up many special prisons (詔獄) and incarcerated nearly two hundred thousand individuals in them.

Emperor Wu's political reform resulted in the strengthening of the Emperor's power at expense of the prime minister's authority. The post of Shangshu (court secretaries) was elevated from merely managing documents to that of the Emperor's close advisor, and it stayed this way until the end of imperial era.

In 140 BC, Emperor Wu conducted an imperial examination of over 100 young scholars. Having been recommended by officials, most of the scholars were commoners with no noble background. This event would have a major impact on Chinese history, marking the official start of the establishment of Confucianism as official imperial doctrine. This came about because a young Confucian scholar, Dong Zhongshu, was evaluated to have submitted the best essay in which he advocated the establishment of Confucianism. It is unclear whether Emperor Wu, in his young age, actually determined this, or whether this was the result of machinations of the prime minister Wei Wan (衛綰), who was himself a Confucian. However, the fact that several other young scholars who scored highly on the examination (but not Dong) later became trusted advisors for Emperor Wu would appear to suggest that Emperor Wu himself at least had some actual participation.

In 136 BC, Emperor Wu founded what became the Imperial University, a college for classical scholars that supplied the Han's need for well-trained bureaucrats.

Poetry

Various important aspects of Han poetry are associated with Emperor Wu and his court, including his direct interest in poetry and patronage of poets. Emperor Wu was also a patron of literature, with a number of poems being attributed to him. As to the poetry on lost love, some of the pieces attributed to him are considered of well-done, there is some question to their actual authorship.

The following work is on the death of one of his concubines.

The sound of her silk skirt has stopped.

On the marble pavement dust grows.

Her empty room is cold and still.

Fallen leaves are piled against the doors.

How can I bring my aching heart to rest?

Emperor facilitated a revival of interest in Chu ci, the poetry of and in the style of the area of the former Chu kingdom during the early part of his reign, in part because of his near relative Liu An. Some of this Chu material was later anthologized in the Chu Ci.

The Chuci genre of poetry from its origin was linked with Chu shamanism, and Han Wudi both supported the Chu genre of poetry in the earlier years of his reign, and also continued to support shamanically-linked poetry during the later years of his reign.

Emperor Wu employed poets and musicians in writing lyrics and scoring tunes for various performances and also patronized choreographers and shamans in this same connection for arranging the dance movements and coordinating the spiritual and the mundane. He was quite fond of the resulting lavish ritual performances, especially night time rituals where the multitudinous singers, musicians, and dancers would perform in the brilliant lighting provided by of thousands of torches.

The fu style typical of Han poetry also took shape during the reign of Emperor Wu in his court, with poet and official Sima Xiangru as a leading figure. However, Sima's initial interest in the chu ci style later gave way to his interest in more innovative forms of poetry. After his patronage of poets familiar with the Chu ci style in the early part of his reign, Emperor Wu later seems to have turned his interest and his court's interest to other literary fashions.

Another of Emperor Wu's major contribution to poetry was through his organization of the Imperial Music Bureau (yuefu) as part of the official governmental bureaucratic apparatus: the Music Bureau was charged with matters related to music and poetry, as lyrics are a part of music and traditional Chinese poetry was considered to have been chanted or sung, rather than spoken or recited as prose. The Music Bureau greatly flourished during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, who has been widely cited to have founded the Music Bureau in 120 BCE.

However, it seems more likely that there was already a long-standing office of music and that Emperor Wu enlarged its size as part of his governmental reorganization, changing its scope and function and possibly renaming it and thus seeming to have established a new institution. The stated tasks of this institution were apparently to collect popular songs from different and adapt and orchestrate these, as well as to develop new material. Emperor Wu's Music Bureau not only collected folk songs and ballads from where they originated throughout the country, but also collected songs reportedly based on Central Asian tunes or melodies, with new lyrics which were written to harmonize with the existing tunes, and characterized by varying line lengths and the incorporation of various nonce words. In any case, he is widely held to have used the Music Bureau as an important part of his religious innovations and to have specifically commissioned Sima Xiangru to write poetry. Because of the development and transmission of a particular style of poetry by the Music Bureau, this style of poetry has become known as the "Music Bureau" style, or yuefu (and also in its later development referred to as "new yuefu", "imitation", or "literary yüeh-fu").

Era names

• Jianyuan (建元) 140 BC – 135 BC

• Yuanguang (元光) 134 BC – 129 BC

• Yuanshuo (元朔) 128 BC – 123 BC

• Yuanshou (元狩) 122 BC – 117 BC

• Yuanding (元鼎) 116 BC – 111 BC

• Yuanfeng (元封) 110 BC – 105 BC

• Taichu (太初) 104 BC – 101 BC

• Tianhan (天漢) 100 BC – 97 BC

• Taishi (太始) 96 BC – 93 BC

• Zhenghe (征和) 92 BC – 89 BC

• Houyuan (後元) 88 BC – 87 BC

Family

Consorts and Issue:

• Empress Chen, of the Chen clan (皇后陳氏; 166/165–c. 110 BC), first cousin, personal name Jiao (嬌)

• Empress Xiaowusi, of the Wei clan (孝武思皇后衛氏; d. 91 BC), personal name Zifu (子夫)

　• Eldest Princess Wei (當利公主)

　　• Married Cao Xiang, Marquis Pingyang (曹襄; d. 115 BC), and had issue (one son)

　　• Married Luan Da, Marquis Letong (欒大; d. 112 BC) in 112 BC

　• Princess Zhuyi (諸邑公主; d. 91 BC)

　• Princess Shiyi (石邑公主; d. 91 BC)

　• Liu Ju, Crown Prince Wei (衛太子劉據; 128–91 BC), first son

• Lady Li, of the Li clan (李氏), personal name Yan (妍)

　• Liu Bo, Prince Ai of Changyi (昌邑哀王劉髆; d. 88 BC), fifth son

• Lady Guoyi, of the Zhao clan (皇太后趙氏; 113–88 BC)

　• Liu Fuling, Emperor Xiaozhao (孝昭皇帝劉弗陵; 94–74 BC), sixth son

• Furen, of the Wang clan (夫人王氏; d. 121 BC)

　• Liu Hong, Prince Huai of Qi (齊懷王劉閎; 123–110 BC), second son

• Lady, of the Li clan (李氏)

　• Liu Dan, Prince La of Yan (燕剌王劉旦; d. 80 BC), third son

　• Liu Xu, Prince Li of Guangling (廣陵厲王劉胥; d. 54 BC), fourth son

• Unknown

　• Princess Eyi (鄂邑公主; d. 80 BC)

　　• Married, and had issue (one son)

　• Princess Yi'an (夷安公主)

Ancestry

Cultural depictions

Emperor Wu is one of the most famous emperors of ancient China and has made appearances in quite a lot of Chinese television dramas, examples include:

• The Prince of Han Dynasty

• The Emperor in Han Dynasty

• Beauty's Rival in Palace

• The Virtuous Queen of Han

Emperor Wu is also a major character in Carole Wilkinson's novel Dragonkeeper and its sequels, Garden of the Purple Dragon and Dragon Moon. The three novels, which center on the journeys of a former slave girl and the dragons in her care, loosely depict the first years of Emperor Wu's reign and includes a number of references to his quest for immortality.

In the 1991 film "The Addams Family" Morticia Addams donates "a finger trap from the court of Emperor Wu" to a charity auction.