Emperor Wu of Han: Encyclopedia II - Emperor Wu of Han - Further territorial expansion old age and paranoia

Emperor Wu of Han - Further territorial expansion old age and paranoia

Starting about 113 BC, Emperor Wu appeared to begin 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 the search of immortality. He also had a succession of magicians whom he honored with great things, even, in one case, making one a marquess and marrying a daughter to him. (That magician, after he was exposed to be a fraud, however, was 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) would erupt that would lead to military intervention by Emperor Wu. At that time, the King Zhao Xing (趙興) and his mother Queen Dowager Jiu (樛太后) -- a Chinese woman whom Zhao Xing's father Zhao Yingqi (趙嬰齊) 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 (呂嘉), 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-men force, led by Han Qianqiu (韓千秋) and Queen Dowager Jiu's brother Jiu Le (樛樂), to try to assist the king and the queen dowager, Lü staged a coup d'etat and had the king and the queen dowager killed. He made another son of Zhao Yingqi, Zhao Jiande (趙建德), king. He then annihilated 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 nine commanderies.

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

Later that year, Emperor Wu, at great expense, carried out the ancient ceremony of fengshan (封禪) at Mount Tai -- ceremonies to worship heaven and earth, and to offer a secret petition to the gods of heaven and earth, presumably seeking immortality. (He decreed that he would return to Mount Tai every five years to repeat the ceremony, but only did once, in 98 BC; still, 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 (桑弘羊) conceived of a plan that many dynasties would repeat later, by 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 would start yet another territorial expansion campaign. Nearly a century ago, a Chinese general Wei Man (衛滿; Hangul: 위만) had established a kingdom, which he named Chaoxian or Joseon (朝鮮/조선) at Wangxian (王險, modern Pyongyang), which became a nominal Han vassal. A conflict would erupt in 109 BC, when Wei Man's grandson Wei Youqu (衛右渠) refused to permit the Kingdom of Chen (辰)'s ambassadors to reach China through his territories. When Emperor Wei sent an ambassador She He (涉何) to Wangxian to negotiate right of passage with King Youqu, King Youqu refused and had a general escort She back to Han territory -- but when they got close to Han borders, She assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle, and Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the military commander of the Commandery of Liaodong (modern central Liaoning). King Youqu, 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. The two forces attacking Joseon were unable to coordinate well with each other and eventually suffered large losses. Eventually the commands were merged, and Wangxian fell. Han took over the Joseon lands 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, but when the King of Dian surrendered, Dian 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 (趙破奴) 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 would also strengthen their relationships with Han, in general. An infamous Han war against the nearby Kingdom of Dayuan (Kokand) would soon erupt in 104 BC, however, when Dayuan refused to give in to Emperor Wu's commands to surrender its best horses -- and further executed Emperor Wu's ambassadors when they insulted the King of Dayuan after his refusal. Emperor Wu commissioned Li Guangli (李廣利), the brother of a favorite concubine Consort Li, as a general against Dayuan. In 103 BC, Li Guangli's forces, without adequate supplies, suffered a humiliating loss against Dayuan, but in 102 BC, Li was able to put a devastating siege on its capital by cutting off water supplies to the city, forcing Dayuan's surrender 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 would never actually submit to becoming a Han vassal during Emperor Wu's reign. In 103 BC, indeed, Chanyu Er would surround Zhao Ponu and capture 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, but peace negotiations would be destroyed when the Han deputy ambassador Zhang Sheng (張勝) was discovered to have conspired to assassinate Chanyu Qiedihou (且鞮侯). The ambassador, the later-famed Su Wu (蘇武) 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 would fail -- Li Guangli's forces became trapped but was able to free itself and withdraw, while Li Ling (李陵), Li Guang's grandson, after inflicting large losses on Xiongnu forces, was captured. Later, believing incorrectly that Li Ling had surrendered and was giving Xiongnu military advice, Emperor Wu had Li's clan executed. Li's friend, the famed historian Sima Qian (whom Emperor Wu already bore a grudge against because Sima's Shiji was not as flattering to Emperor Wu and his father Emperor Jing as Emperor Wu wanted), who tried to defend Li's actions, was castrated.

In 106 BC, in order the 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 at this time -- that would come later. 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 would later reside at that palace exclusively rather than the traditional Weiyang Palace (未央宮), 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 luxury spending, there were many peasant revolts throughout the empire. Emperor Wu issued an edict that was intended at suppressing the peasant revolts, by making officials whose commanderies saw unsuppressed peasant revolts liable with their lives -- but which had the exact opposite effect, since it became impossible to suppress all of the revolts, and the officials would merely cover up the existence of the revolts.

In 96 BC, a series of witchcraft persecutions would begin. Large numbers of people, many of whom were high officials and their families, were accused of witchcraft and executed, usually with their clans. The first trial began with General Gongsun Ao and his wife, leading to the execution of their clan. Soon, these witchcraft persecutions would become intertwined in the succession struggles and erupt into a major catastrophe.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Further territorial expansion old age and paranoia", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki