Eastern Han - Part I - One Han, Two Han, Red Han, True Han

-23 AD- so Wáng Mǎng was dead.  What did this mean for the Xīn dynasty?
   -He was replaced as ruler of the empire by the Gēngshǐ Emperor (AKA Liú Xuán, a descendant of Emperor Jǐng of the Hàn dynasty).
      -There is some controversy surrounding calling this dude an "emperor" because he was technically a rebel usurper (despite him being a legitimate member of the Liú clan and had reunited the entire empire as sole ruler).
-After his armies defeated Wáng Mǎng, the Gēngshǐ Emperor moved his capital from Wǎnchéng (the temporary capital of the Hàn dynasty loyalists; in modern day Hénán Province) to Luòyáng (in modern-day Hénán Province).
   -I guess Cháng'ān had gotten too fucked up during the war.
   -The Gēngshǐ Emperor began to restore the empire by allowing for many Xīn dynasty officials to keep their posts and promising rewards and titles to any remaining enemies who surrendered.
      -This actually seemed to work out pretty well for awhile but ended up being too inconsistent in its execution and soon many people started to grow unhappy with the way things were being run.
         -Among those dissatisfied was the Chìméi ("Red Eyebrows") general Fán Chóng, who eventually left the new capital and returned to his army...
         -A rebellion even broke out in north of the Yellow River at one point (in modern-day Héběi Province), so the Gēngshǐ Emperor sent his relative, General Liú Xiù, to put an end to it.
            -Along the way, Liú Xiù was joined by a former colleague, Dèng Yǔ.
               -Dèng Yǔ believed that Liú Xiù was a great man destined for greatness and all that and that he should keep his options open for when the Gēngshǐ Emperor's seemingly inevitable fall from power.
            -From one of these revolts eventually emerged a rebel leader named Wáng Láng, a mystical fortune-teller dude from Hándān (in modern-day Héběi Province).
               -Wáng Láng claimed that his name was actually Liú Zǐyú and that he was actually a long-lost son of Emperor Chéng of the Hàn dynasty (whom by all historical accounts had actually been sterile and had thus failed to produce a biological heir (although this was also complicated because his concubines would murder each other's sons).
                  -Wáng Láng claimed that his mother had been a singer in the court of Emperor Chéng and that he'd survived attempts on his life as a child before escaping the capital and living as a commoner.  Apparently, the people of Hándān and surrounding regions believed Wáng Láng's story and were clamoring for him to be the emperor since he was of royal blood (although so was the Gēngshǐ Emperor (AKA Liú Xuán, a member of the royal Liú clan and a descendant of Emperor Jǐng), so this particular detail doesn't make much sense to me).
               -Liú Xiù and Dèng Yǔ both knew that at this point their force with them was too small to take on Wáng Láng, so they decided to head to the safety of the ancient city of Jì (in modern-day Běijīng) to figure out what to do next.
                  -From Jì they were able to rally local lords into a force big enough to challenge Wáng Láng's rebel army.
-24 AD- It only took a few months for Liú Xiù and his forces to quell Wáng Láng's rebellion, and Liú Xiù was recalled back to the capital (which had been moved back to Cháng'ān) in order to be rewarded handsomely for this by the Gēngshǐ Emperor.
   -However, Liú Xiù refused to return, claiming that there was still some work to be done in the region in order to make sure the people stayed pacified.
      -This was obviously a lie, of course- Liú Xiù just wanted to start a rebellion of his own!
      -Meanwhile, the Gēngshǐ Emperor continued to be an incompetent ruler and spent all of his time partying and shit, entrusting the rule of government to a dude named Zhào Méng (who also spent much of his time partying).
         -I'm not quite sure who Zhào Méng was exactly, but he'd offered up his own daughter to the Gēngshǐ Emperor as an imperial consort so I guess this was what allowed him to run the government.
            -Zhào Méng (and his circle of other corrupt officials) was completely incompetent but also abused his power and was basically a thug.
-Because shit was getting so bad during this time, the Chìméi armies continued to hang around (probably waiting for a good time to once again take out yet another corrupt joke of an imperial regime).
   -Finally, they decided that enough was enough, and so they decided to march on Cháng'ān, defeating any imperial forces that got in their way.
   -Meanwhile, Liú Xiù waited with his forces to see how all of this would play out (although I guess technically he was probably required to defend Cháng'ān since he was still a general of the Hàn imperial army).
-25 AD- meanwhile, a rebellion broke out in the city of Línjīng (in modern-day Qìngyáng, Gānsù Province).
   -The rebellion was centered around the teenager Liú Yīng (AKA Rúzi Yīng ("Infant Ying")), technically the last of the Hàn emperors before Wáng Mǎng decided to have him placed under house arrest (before abolishing the Hàn dynasty and replacing it with his own Xīn dynasty).
      -I guess after Wáng Mǎng's death Liú Yīng was kidnapped by some rebels based out of Línjīng, and then these rebels used Liú Yīng's royal blood as an excuse to rally troops around him (even though he himself seemingly had nothing to do with the rebellion at all!).
         -It didn't take long for the Gēngshǐ Emperor to send a force to crush the rebellion, and it was during one of these battles that Liú Yīng was killed.
-Finally, Liú Xiù declared himself emperor after hostilities broke out between his own forces and Hàn forces loyal to the Gēngshǐ Emperor.
   -Liú Xiù declared that the Gēngshǐ Emperor was clearly a noob and not a "real" emperor; Liú Xiù argued that he would restore the Hàn dynasty as the rightful heir to the throne- as Emperor Guāngwǔ!
      -Scholars mark this as the beginning of the "Eastern" Hàn dynasty (or "Later Hàn").
         -Similar to the situation with the Zhōu dynasty (Western Zhōu and Eastern Zhōu), Western Hàn's capital was Cháng'ān (in Xī'ān, modern-day Shǎnxī Province), whereas Eastern Hàn's capital would be Luòyáng (in modern-day Hénán Province).
      -Emperor Guāngwǔ then began conquering the territory north of the Yellow River.
-Anyway, so meanwhile back in Cháng'ān the Chìméi soon arrived to besiege the capital and put an end to the Gēngshǐ Emperor's reign.
   -The Gēngshǐ Emperor now faced two enemy forces (the Chìméi and Emperor Guāngwǔ, respectively), and it didn't take long for his generals to either conspire against him or abandon their posts, so the emperor ended up just fleeing the capital.
   -The Chìméi then quickly realized that the city had more or less fallen and the throne was open, so they took it upon themselves to name their own emperor, the teenager Liú Pénzi (descendant of Emperor Gāozǔ), to take the throne (although apparently Liú Pénzi himself wasn't very happy about this decision).
      -Although Liú Pénzi was named emperor, this didn't really last and he never had any real power anyway during his brief period of "rule".
   -It didn't take long for Cháng'ān to fall to the Chìméi, and soon the city was theirs.
      -Liú Pénzi was enthroned as the new emperor, but he was merely a puppet ruler and the various Chìméi generals just continued to call the shots behind the scenes.
   -Soon after this the Gēngshǐ Emperor came out of hiding and surrendered himself to the Chìméi.
      -Although he was arrested, he was spared from execution and was instead named prince of Chángshā (kingdom in the south of the Hàn Empire).
-Although technically Liú Pénzi was now "emperor", he had no authority and the Chìméi generals continued to raid and pillage the countryside as they pleased and soon people realized that actually things were now WORSE under these guys compared to how it was previously with the Gēngshǐ Emperor!
   -Fearing that the Gēngshǐ Emperor / Prince of Chángshā would rebel against him, Liú Pénzi had him killed.
   -Eventually, the Chìméi armies began to raid and pillage Cháng'ān!  After thoroughly ransacking the city, they moved on to the next city.
      -Liú Pénzi was powerless to do shit.
-27 AD- the Chìméi armies are defeated and Emperor Guāngwǔ captures Cháng'ān.
   -Liú Pénzi's life is spared, and he's given an estate to live out his days.
-However, Emperor Guāngwǔ still had to conquer the rest of the empire, as vast swathes of territory had been swallowed up by warlords during the chaos of the recent years.
   -In a way it began to almost resemble the Warring States period.
-34 AD- at this point, most of these major rebel warlords had been squashed, but one foe remained- Gōngsūn Shù, who proclaimed himself emperor of the new Chéngjiā dynasty (based out of the city of Chéngdū) and whose territory included much of modern-day Sìchuān, Chóngqìng, Guìzhōu, and Yúnnán Provinces!
   -So, Emperor Guāngwǔ then focused his attention on crushing the Chéngjiā dynasty by ordering an invasion of their land.
-36 AD- Hàn forces capture Chéngdū (during the siege Gōngsūn Shù is killed), thus putting an end to the short-lived Chéngjiā dynasty.
   -By this point Emperor Guāngwǔ had more or less restored the empire.
-Emperor Guāngwǔ proved to be an efficient and capable ruler; he also relaxed the legal codes for the common folk.
-40 AD- a rebellion breaks out in Jiāozhǐ (AKA Giao Chỉ, a commandery in modern-day northern Vietnam) led by Trưng Trắc (Zhēng Cè) and her sister Trưng Nhị (Zhēng Èr), but was quelled after a few years by the Hàn general Mǎ Yuán (AKA "Fúbō Jiāngjūn" - "the General Who Calms the Waves" pretty cool!).
   -It was through General Mǎ Yuán that the Hàn dynasty was able to keep the Nánmán ("Southern Barbarians") subjugated.
   -To this day, the Trưng Sisters are reverred by Vietnamese nationalists as a symbol for anti-Chinese imperialism in Vietnam.
-Meanwhile, in the north the Hàn dynasty was still having issues keeping the borders safe from Xiōngnú raids.
-Overall, life during this time in the Hàn Empire was finally stable and peaceful (for the most part).
-57 AD- Emperor Guāngwǔ dies, replaced by his son, Crown Prince Liú Yáng (AKA Liú Zhuāng), who becomes Emperor Míng of Hàn!

Xin Dynasty - Part II - The Red Eyebrow Rebellion

-10 AD- Wáng Mǎng’s Xīn dynasty was a disaster.

   -Apparently, he and his officials spent so much time poring over old Confucian and arcane texts that they’d neglected actually running the empire, so this resulted in widespread corruption and just everything going to shit in general.

-11 AD- the Yellow River floods, resulting in widespread famine due to the loss of crops. 

   -This is what really seemed to shift public opinion against Wáng Mǎng and soon there were whispers that this flood was solid proof that the new emperor had lost the Mandate of Heaven (or if he’d even ever had it in the first place!).

-16 AD- in order to fight corruption, Wáng Mǎng decided to introduce a new salary system which involved adjusting workers’ salaries relative to the prosperity of their land (again, very USSR-esque), but this never actually worked out because “prosperity” wasn’t ever defined quantitatively and was therefore subjective (meaning it never worked).

-17 AD- at this point, rebellions start to break out across the empire, the most significant being:

   -Guātián Yí- in modern-day Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū Province.

   -Mother Lǚ- first female rebel leader in Chinese history (and possibly the first to lead one of these major rebellions against Wáng Mǎng, which resulted in a domino effect)! Based out of modern-day Rìzhào, Shāndōng Province (I’m pretty sure).

   -Zhāng Bà- in modern-day Jīngzhōu, Húběi Province.

   -Yáng Mù- in modern-day Xiàogǎn, Húběi Province.

   -Lùlín Mountain Rebels (AKA the Xīnshì Rebels)- in modern-day Yíchāng, Húběi Province.

   -The Chìméi (the “Red Eyebrows” (they got this nickname (later on I think) because they…painted their eyebrows red for whatever reason haha))- in modern-day southern Shāndōng and northern Jiāngsū Provinces.

-19 AD- Wáng Mǎng reacts to these rebellions by…raising taxes?  Haha why would you do that?? 

   -Obviously, this just pissed everyone off even more.

   -Wáng Mǎng also ordered for at least some of these rebel armies to disband, but because some of these armies (like Lùlín Mountain Rebels) had formed as a way to not starve to death (by raiding and pillaging), disbanding wasn’t really an option because it meant that they’d all die from starvation!  So, it was really just a shitty situation all around.

      -Unfortunately, Wáng Mǎng sided with his advisers who claimed that the rebels were simply evil men who were trying to cause chaos in the empire and undermine his authority.

-21 AD- an imperial force of 20,000 soldiers is raised to crush the Lùlín Mountain Rebels.

   -Surprisingly, the imperial force lost the battle!  In the aftermath, the Lùlín Mountain Rebels ranks swelled to around 50,000!

      -However, these numbers quickly went down a few months later when they were hit by a nasty plague which cut their numbers by about half.  After that they ended up splitting into two factions- one went to modern-day Jīngzhōu, Húběi Province, the other went to modern-day Nányáng, Hénán Province.

         -It looks like this didn’t last too long, though, because eventually they got back together after joining forces with another rebel army led by a dude named Líu Yǎn (and distant member of the royal Líu clan of the Hàn dynasty), who I guess had a reputation for being brash and arrogant.

            -Among this particular army was also Líu Xiù, younger brother of Líu Yǎn.  Líu Xiù was a well-respected farmer in the area or something so him joining Líu Yǎn’s army really boosted the numbers (since Líu Yǎn was so obnoxious). 

               -They ended up being really successful overall against the imperial forces, despite some losses.

-22 AD- Wáng Mǎng was struggling against the Chìméi (led by a dude named Fán Chóng), so he decided to cut the bullshit- he raised an army with 100,000 (!) soldiers and then immediately sent them out (led by Wáng Mǎng himself!) on a forced march in order to crush the Red Eyebrows once and for all!

   -I guess it was some trip to the Chìméi stronghold of Liáng because by the time Wáng Mǎng and his forces arrived there everyone was exhausted, but Wáng Mǎng forced them to attack. 

      -They must have been pretty exhausted because they ended up just collapsing and getting fucked up by the Chìméi; Wáng Mǎng ended up fleeing the battlefield, abandoning his army. 

         -This defeat marked the beginning of the end for Wáng Mǎng and the Xīn dynasty. 

            -OK, question why did the ancient historians call it the “Xīn dynasty”?  Did other usurpers before this get their own dynasty names, too?  I don’t think they did.  So why did Wáng Mǎng get his own dynasty it didn’t even last to one succession!  What’s the deal with that?  Just wondering.

-23 AD- at this point Líu Yǎn’s army was getting quite powerful and started quickly gaining territory. 

   -Soon they began to plan for the inevitable regime change after Wáng Mǎng’s fall in order to restore the Hàn dynasty (i.e. the Líu clan) to power.

      -Unfortunately, this led to other rebel armies getting jealous and conspiring against Líu Yǎn, deciding to nominate the (incompetent) rebel leader “Gēngshǐ General” (AKA Líu Xuán (same clan but I guess wasn’t closely related to Líu Yǎn and Líu Xiù); I’m also not entirely sure what “Gēngshǐ” means here, exactly) to be emperor instead (since it was presumed that Líu Yǎn would probably be the emperor after Wáng Mǎng was defeated). 

          -Their conspiracy actually worked!  Líu Yǎn was shouted down and General Gēngshǐ was thus pronounced the “Gēngshǐ Emperor” (I’m not exactly sure what “Gēngshǐ” means here) of the Hàn dynasty (AKA Eastern Hàn (“Dōnghàn”)).

   -In a desperate, final act to remain in power, Wáng Mǎng raised an army of 430,000 (!!), led by his cousin Wáng Yì and (another relative?) Prime Minister Wáng Xún to finally put an end to the rebel forces.

      -So at this point there were two main rebel armies (both of whom were vastly outnumbered by Wáng Mǎng’s massive new army)- one led by Líu Xiù (holed up in the city of Kūnyáng (in modern-day Píngdǐngshān, Hénán Province)), and another led by Líu Yǎn (which was at that time laying siege to the provincial capital city of Wǎnchéng (in modern-day Nányáng, Hénán Province)).

         -Luckily for the rebels (and due to some brilliant tactics ordered by Líu Xiù), they were able to actually kill Wáng Xún in battle and emerge victorious, with the imperial army falling into chaos and collapsing.

         -Soon after this, Wǎnchéng was captured by rebel forces and the Gēngshǐ Emperor declared it to be the temporary capital of the (almost) newly restored Hàn dynasty. 

-The rebellion was clearly in great shape at this point and with Wáng Mǎng on his way out, but it didn’t take long for the rebellion itself started to fray due to infighting and drama.

   -The Gēngshǐ Emperor feared that Líu Yǎn would usurp him since Líu Yǎn was much more charismatic and popular, so during some drama he had Líu Yǎn arrested and executed.

      -Luckily, Líu Xiù was able to survive this purge, and soon found himself promoted to become the Marquess of Wǔxìn.

   -The Gēngshǐ Emperor then sent his army to besiege Cháng'ān itself.

      -It didn’t take long before they finally were able to break through the city’s defenses.  Soon after this, as the city was sacked and looted, Wáng Mǎng found himself completely surrounded by rebel forces.  Thus, he was ultimately captured, imprisoned, and executed via decapitation.

         -Although his body was hung outside of Wǎnchéng’s city walls (before being cut down and torn to pieces as a result of the chaos during the aftermath of the siege), Wáng Mǎng’s head was actually saved and preserved in a palace vault (before being destroyed in a fire 2-4 centuries later)!

            -By the end of his reign, it’s estimated that after the wars of rebellion, famine, and corruption, more than 25 million people had died!  Fuck!!

Xin Dynasty - Part I - Han, Interrupted

-1 BC- Emperor Āī dies and the throne is passed to Liú Jīzǐ (Emperor Āī’s cousin (his father was Prince Liú Xīng, one of Emperor Yúan’s sons)), who's enthroned as Emperor Píng (AKA Emperor Xiàopíng).

   -Liú Xīng was a weak and sickly child and apparently had brutal heart/circulation problems.

   -However, Emperor Píng was only like eight years old at this time, so there was a power struggle between Empress Dowager Zhào Fēiyàn and Grand Empress Dowager Wáng Zhèngjūn. 

      -It seems like Grand Empress Dowager Wáng ultimately ended up the winner, as she was able to appoint her nephew, Wáng Mǎng (former commander of the armed forces and a strict Confucian), as regent (as well commander of the armed forces again).  Fearing that his time had run out, Dǒng Xián committed suicide (due to all the drama that had gone down when he was rising in power because of his intimate relationship with Emperor Āī).

         - Empress Dowager Zhào Fēiyàn also ended up committing suicide as well (since she’d quickly be stripped of her powers as well (she was now to go by Empress Xiàochéng instead of keeping the “empress dowager” title (but ultimately she’d be demoted to commoner status) by Wáng Mǎng).

-Wáng Mǎng knew that the only way to get anything done would be to somehow take control of the court (which was extremely divided at the time).

   -In order to restore order back to the way things were back in the day, he kicked out the Dīng and Fù clans and exiled them back to their ancestral lands (among other things).

   -Wáng Mǎng also wanted to continue Emperor Yúan’s vision of restoring the old-school Confucian values of the dynasties of old (pre-Qín), although it’s impossible to know for sure what was really going on in his mind.  Was he really a conservative traditionalist or was he just after power?  Or maybe both? Who knows.

   -Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Wáng Mǎng to seemingly let the power go to his head, and he began to manipulate people and situations so that he’d start to be identified with semi-legendary figures of earlier dynasties (such as the Duke of Zhōu (key figure during the early days of the Zhōu dynasty)), and this really helped him further expand his power and influence. 

      -Soon, he was the most powerful man in the land, and was very popular with the commoners as well.  It was also around this time that he ended up executing the entire Wèi clan (except for Emperor Píng’s mom, Consort Wèi) and terrorizing, torturing, and purging anyone he deemed a threat to his power (including members of his own family!).

-4 AD- Wáng Mǎng marries his daughter to the emperor, so she becomes Empress Wáng (AKA Empress Xiàopíng).

-5 AD- Wáng Mǎng insists on receiving the Nine Bestowments- “ancient” and “traditional” (Zhōu dynasty-era) awards that was meant to show off the power of the ruler: (copy/paste)

   1. Gift of a wagon and horses: when the official is appropriate in his modesty and walking in an appropriate manner, so that he does not need to walk any more.

   2. Gift of clothes: when the official writes well and appropriately, to show his good deeds.

   3. Gift of armed guards: when the official is brave and willing to speak the truth, so that he can be protected.

   4. Gift of written music: when the official has love in his heart, so that he can teach the music to his people.

   5. Gift of a ramp: when the official is appropriate in his acts, so that he can walk on the ramp and maintain his strength.

   6. Gift of a red door: when the official maintains his household well, so that his household can be shown to be different.

   7. Gift of arms, bow, and arrows: when the official has good conscience and follows what is right, so that he can represent the central government to stamp out treason.

   8. Gift of an axe: when the official is strong, wise, and loyal to the imperial household, so that he can execute the wicked.

   9. Gift of wine: when the official is filially pious, so that he can sacrifice the wine to his ancestors.

   -It’s also entirely possible that the Nine Bestowments may not have actually been a traditional practice from the Zhōu dynasty and maybe this was all just made up by Wáng Mǎng and his allies in order to further solidify his power.

      -Regardless, in the future the Nine Bestowments would come to be associated with a potential usurper who was rising fast among the ranks and wanted to add some legitimacy to his claim on power.

-5 (6?) AD- Emperor Píng dies at the age of 15, apparently poisoned by Wáng Mǎng 🙁

   -Under Wáng Mǎng’s direct “supervision”, the infant Liú Yīng (a great-great-grandson of Emperor Xuān) was then crowned Emperor Rúzi (AKA Rúzi Yīng (“Infant Yīng”)) although he wasn’t actually technically “enthroned” (whatever that means exactly in this particular situation) and his official title was actually crown prince.

   -Wáng Mǎng then started to make claims that he actually was of royal blood as well once it was “revealed” to him that he was actually a direct descendant of the Yellow Emperor, himself.   It wasn’t long after this before Wáng Mǎng forced Grand Empress Dowager Wáng to name him “jiǎ huángdì” (“acting emperor”).  After this, Wáng Mǎng had his wife named as Empress Wáng (AKA Empress Xiàomù (“Filial and Congenial”)).  

      -Wáng Mǎng being enthroned as the official emperor kicked off his short-lived Xīn (“New” (boring name haha)) dynasty.

         -One of his sons, Wáng Lín, was named crown prince.

-As emperor, Wáng Mǎng began to implement various policies (basically trying to “Make Hàn Great Again”) that would have disastrous effects:

   -He decreed that in order to take the empire back to the old school all the place names must be reverted back to their old names they had during the Zhōu dynasty (which had existed centuries ago at this point!).

   -He introduced sweeping reforms in terms of private property, as he decreed that all lands under the Xīn dynasty were to become the property of the state (the “wáng tián” (“king’s field”) system).  These lands would then be redistributed among the population so that everyone would get their own plot of land (which I guess is how the Zhōu kings rocked it back in the day with their well-field system (jǐngtián zhìdù)).

      -Here’s a simplified way of how it worked- aristocrats were allowed to keep owning and operating their estates, but their property now resembled a “#” in that it was divided up into nine five-acre plots of land with the surrounding eight plots being worked and inhabited by serfs and with the middle plot going to the aristocrats, who in turn were required to give a portion of their earnings to the state (very similar to how it had been with the Zhōu dynasty’s well-field system). 

      -He also abolished slavery!

      -He also set up a new state agency which controlled the prices of goods and also acted as a national bank (which offered loans at fair interest rates) in order to combat shady, predatory black-market loan organizations.

      -He also implemented a “sloth tax”- if you were lazy and didn’t clean up your property or refused to work or whatever then you’d become an “employee of the state” (i.e. state-owned slave).

      -Also, for the first time in Chinese history, we see the debut of income tax (apparently, it had only previously existed in Ancient Egypt and the early days of the Roman Republic)!  Wáng Mǎng set it at a rate of 10% for profits made by “professionals and skilled labor” (whatever the fuck that means).

      -Thus, it’s for this reason primarily why so many historians trace China’s communist roots back to Wáng Mǎng; he’s an example of an ancient form of socialism roughly 1,800 years before Karl Marx! 

         -Interestingly enough, Wáng Mǎng would probably defend his actions by saying that he was simply reinstating the way things had been under the Zhōu dynasty, which he (at least on the surface) considered to be the “correct” (i.e. Confucian) way things should be.

   -He also demanded the recall of all gold-based currency in order to implement his new system of currency- one that involved 28 (!) different coins (made of various materials)!!  Obviously, this was way too complicated to realistically work.  The coinage system was also nonsensical because the value of the coins didn’t reflect the value of the metal contained within (does that make sense?).  So, it had become a system of fiat currency as opposed to having the value of the coins correspond to the value of the metal contained within (i.e. the way it used to be).

      -By confiscating all the gold in circulation, the economy quickly began to struggle to function at even the most basic level.

      -The effects of this disastrous policy would be felt across civilizations, all the way to the Roman Empire!

         -Augustus Caesar had to ban the practice of paying for the importation of silks from the Hàn dynasty with gold coins since all of the gold was “mysteriously” disappearing from circulation!

         -It didn’t take long for inflation to grow out of control and counterfeit currency to spread in circulation throughout the empire.  As a result, the empire essentially went back to a barter system since the currency system was fucked (although to be fair, this was probably already the norm for most people anyway).

-Of course, there were rebellions as well during this time, as the aristocrats/elites really hated all of Wáng Mǎng’s reforms, but Wáng Mǎng gave zero fucks and quickly stamped these out, seeing his victories as further proof that he had the Mandate of Heaven.

   -However, because so many aristocrats refused to go ahead with Wáng Mǎng’s reforms, it’s possible that a significant portion of commoners didn’t even know that any reforms had been passed at all! Thus, only a couple years passed before Wáng Mǎng was forced to rescind his slavery ban and his king’s field system.  Nice try, buddy.

-10 AD- drama starts up once again with the Xiōngnú Empire!

   -Wáng Mǎng sent an envoy to the Xiōngnú chanyu, Wūzhūliú,asking for them to return the seal which denoted their status (in terms of how they were to be recognized by the Hàn dynasty) since his new Xīn dynasty was now in power; thus, a new seal was to be made which would reflect this change. 

      -However, the new seal they issued to the Xiōngnú wasn’t a seal at all- it was a badge (which was given to vassal states as opposed to seals which were given to sovereign states)!

         -On the surface, Wūzhūliú Chanyu accepted what had been given to him by the Xīn dynasty, but he also knew that war would probably be inevitable if this new dynasty saw the Xiōngnú Empire as a vassal state rather than a respected rival empire.

            -He immediately began to build fortifications and invite other Xīyù (Western Regions) nations/kingdoms/tribes to join the Xiōngnú in preparation for war with the Xīn dynasty. 

               -Of course, when Wáng Mǎng found out what Wūzhūliú Chanyu was doing, he declared war on the Xiōngnú Empire.  His plan- invade the Xiōngnú Empire with 12 armies (about 300,000 soldiers in total!) and then, once it was securely conquered, he would divide the territory up into 15 vassal kingdoms which were to be ruled by various members of Wūzhūliú Chanyu’s family.

                  -So, Wáng Mǎng began to consolidate his forces along the northern border, but he didn’t realize that in order to raise the kind of massive army that he had planned for, it was probably going to take months, if not years, and soon the infrastructure in these border regions began to reach their breaking point due to the strain of the prolonged accommodation for these armies in these areas (which weren’t really set up for this kind of thing).

   -Similar shit was going on with the southwestern tribes/kingdoms of modern-day Guìzhōu, Yúnnán, and Sìchuān provinces, where Wáng Mǎng had decided to demote all of the chieftains (who had been granted titles of “prince”) so that they were now to just be considered marquesses, which of course pissed all of them off immensely.  Who did this Wáng Mǎng jerk think he is?

   -MORE similar shit was also going down with the Korean kingdom of Gogoryeo. 

      -In order to strengthen his forces for the invasion of the Xiōngnú Empire, Wáng Mǎng forced the Korean tribes technically living in the Xīn Empire to join his armies.  However, these tribes refused and quickly fled to Goguryeo, which of course pissed off Wáng Mǎng. 

         -After the murder of Zōu (a marquess of Goguryeo) was killed during a meeting with a Xīn army, Goguryeo had fucking had it with the Xīn dynasty and began raiding nearby Xīn territory.

-By now, Wáng Mǎng was on a roll with so many problems fucking up the Xīn Empire domestically, and on top of that had also now pissed off all of his neighbors (Goguryeo, the Xiōngnú Empire, the Xīyù tribes, the southwestern tribes, etc.) too!  

   -The Xīn dynasty was in pretty bad shape, and it had only been around for about a year at this point!

Western Han - Part IX - The Decline of Han

-49 BC- Emperor Xuān dies and is replaced by his son, Crown Prince Liú Shì (enthroned as Emperor Yúan).  

   -As he was growing up, Liú Shì spent much of his time studying Confucian classics, studying from scholars, and having sex with his concubines (his favorite being Lady Wáng Zhèngjūn). 

      -Before he died, Emperor Xuān assigned Xiāo Wàngzhī (one of Liú Shì’s teachers), Zhōu Kān (Xiāo Wàngzhī’s assistant), and Shǐ Gāo (a cousin or something) to serve as regents upon Liú Shì’s enthronement. 

      -Together Emperor Yúan and Lady Wáng had a son, Prince Liú Ào (who was born back in 61 BC). 

      -Given his background, it’s no wonder that by the time he was enthroned Emperor Xuān was a hardcore Confucianist (and thus was also typically mild-mannered, indecisive, and prone to inaction).  

         -This was a major contrast with how Emperor Xuān had rocked things since his style was a blend of Legalism with Confucianism (he was involved, dutiful, and strict, but also fair).  This difference also resulted in some tension between Emperor Xuān and the crown prince because Liú Shì had actually gotten into arguments with his dad about appointing more Confucian scholars to high-ranking positions of power.  Emperor Xuān was a wise dude, and when he warned Liú Shì that his Confucian zealotry was toxic and would potentially be the downfall of their civilization, he was kind of right. 

            -It was commonly believed by Confucians that if a ruler was “righteous”, then this righteousness would flow downwards among everyone below him; everyone would be happy, and there’d be no need for like laws or prisons (which obviously the wise Emperor Xuān knew was absolutely bollocks).  

   -Anyway, as emperor he ignored his father’s orders and immediately began appointing Confucian officials to high positions of power in the government. 

-46 BC- Emperor Yúan orders for the abandonment of various Hàn garrisons on the island of Hǎinán (“South of the Sea”) to be abandoned.    

   -It looks like the Hàn dynasty first invaded Hǎinán Island around 110 BC (which I’m assuming was inhabited by the indigenous Lí people (still there today!)), but by 46 BC the Hàn court had found it to be too costly to station forces there. 

-Eventually, Emperor Yúan’s court would split into two factions: 

   -the Confucians- led by Regent Xiāo, Regent Zhōu, Liú Gēngshēng (AKA Liú Xiàng, a scholar), and Jīn Chǎng (a court official); they wanted to go back to the pre-Qín dynasty way of law and order. 

   -the “Court Faction”- led by Regent Shǐ Gāo, Hóng Gōng (imperial secretary), and Shí Xiǎn (chief eunuch); they wanted to continue the Hàn dynasty way of doing things. 

   -This split would plague Emperor Yúan for the rest of his reign. 

   -Although Emperor Yúan favored the Confucians, the Court Faction was much better at deception and manipulation in order to continue to hold onto power and exert influence (not bound by Confucian ethics haha). 

-43 BC- a number of astrological and meteorological signs are interpreted as divine disapproval or ill omens. 

-During this time, the Hàn dynasty began to experience an escalation in tensions with the renegade Xiōngnú chanyu Zhìzhī, whom had been driven west by his brother, the Hàn-allied chanyu Hūhánxié. 

   -Things finally came to a head when Emperor Yúan agreed to send back Chanyu Zhìzhī’s son to be reunited with his father (he’d been living under the protection of the Hàn court as collateral I guess) as a sign of good faith between the two powers, but Chanyu Zhìzhī ended up killing his son’s escort once they arrived which obviously wasn’t going to make the Hàn dynasty very happy.   On top of that, Chanyu Zhìzhī also began attacking the (Indo-Aryan/Indo-Scythian) Wūsūn steppe tribes (who were also Hàn allies). 

      -Surprisingly, it would take eight years (!) for the Hàn court to properly respond to Chanyu Zhìzhī’s actions. 

         -36 BC- at this point, Chanyu Zhìzhī has grown powerful enough that he’s now collecting tribute from the Wūsūn and other Xīyù (Western Regions) tribes/kingdoms. 

   -The Hàn dynasty’s plan was to invade Chanyu Zhìzhī’s newly built capital city (on the banks of Lake Balkhash in modern-day southeast Kazakhstan), and although ti’s kind of a complicated story basically all we need to know is that their plan was successful and that Chanyu Zhìzhī died during the siege of his capital.

      -Impressed (but also most likely fearful) by the might of the Hàn armies, Chanyu Hūhánxié immediately traveled to Cháng'ān upon hearing the news about the death of his brother.  During his audience with Emperor Yúan, he requested for his empire to be a tributary of the Hàn dynasty, which the emperor accepted (although he didn’t go so far as to accept the additional proposition of a military alliance between the two empires).

-35 BC- Emperor Yúan gets sick, with many fearing that he was probably going to die soon. 

   -To make matters worse, the emperor was also growing increasingly dissatisfied with his choice in Crown Prince Ào to be heir to the throne since he was generally seen as a womanizer, a drunkard, and unfit to rule.  However, he couldn’t bring himself to name a different heir apparent.

-33 BC- Emperor Yúan dies and Crown Prince Ào is enthroned as Emperor Chéng of Hàn.

   -Upon his enthronement, Emperor Chéng immediately appointing his uncles (brothers of his mom, Empress Dowager Wáng) to positions of power. 

      -Although the Wáng clan overall weren’t necessarily bad administrators, the issue was that their priority was expanding their family’s power (as opposed to putting the well-being of the empire first). 

-31 BC- Emperor Chéng marries his favorite concubine, Xǔ Kuā (maybe? We don’t actually know her real name for sure).

   -Empress Xǔ came from the same clan (Xǔ) as Empress Gōng’āī (AKA Xǔ Píngjūn or Empress Xiàoxuān), mother of Emperor Yúan and grandmother of Emperor Chéng.

-Although Emperor Chéng was now married and had many consorts, neither Empress Xǔ nor any of his concubines were able to become pregnant.

-18 BC- Emperor Chéng becomes enamored with the dancing girl Zhào Fēiyàn and her sister, Zhào Hédé, and makes both of them imperial consorts (and eventually married Zhào Fēi Yàn, officially making her an empress).  

   -Presumably because of drama and jealousy, the Zhào sisters then accused Empress Xǔ of witchcraft, which resulted in the empress subsequently being arrested, stripped of her title as empress, and put under house arrest.

-8 BC- Still unable to produce an heir, Emperor Chéng finally panics and declares his nephew Liú Xīn as heir to the throne.

   - Liú Xīn was born in 27 BC to Prince Liú Kāng and one of his concubines, Lady Dīng.

      -Raised by his grandmother, the domineering Consort Fù (empress dowager (and later grand empress dowager), mother of Liú Kāng, and former concubine of Emperor Yúan’s).

      -Studied extensively the Confucian classics.

   -There was some drama during this time in terms of if Emperor Chéng had actually officially adopted Liú Xīn or not and the legality of Liú Xīn’s accession to the throne, but it got figured out.

-7 BC- Emperor Chéng dies; Crown Prince Liú Xīn is enthroned as Emperor Āī (AKA Emperor Xiàoāi).

   -Curiously, after Emperor Chéng’s death an autopsy by the imperial coroner suggested that the emperor had actually not been sterile, and that he’d actually had two sons that somehow went unnoticed- one with Consort Zhào Fēiyàn and another with Empress Xǔ.  However, both of these sons had been murdered by Consort Zhào Hédé out of jealousy.

      -When this was found out, Zhào Hédé committed suicide, and after this the entire Zhào clan was stripped of their titles and noble status.

   - Consort Zhào Fēiyàn becomes Empress Dowager, with Wáng Zhèngjūn becoming grand empress dowager.

   -People seemed to initially be positive about Emperor Āī’s potential as a ruler because he seemed pretty sharp, diligent, fiscally conservative, granted freedom to elderly slaves, and had also stopped appointing random family members to positions of power.

      -Unfortunately, corruption seemed to grow worse under Emperor Āī.  In addition, the real power behind the throne lay with the empress dowagers (Empress Dowager Zhào Fēiyàn, Grand Empress Dowager Wáng Zhèngjūn, Grand Empress Dowager Fù (formerly consort), and Empress Dowager Dīng (formerly consort)).

         -The latter two had never actually been empresses but had been granted the status of empress dowager for some reason)).

         -Initially, Grand Empress Dowager Wáng tried to limit Grand Empress Dowager Fù’s domineering influence in particular by making it so that she could only visit Emperor Āī once every 10 days, but this quickly turned into a daily thing.  It wasn’t long Grand Empress Dowager Fù had successfully dominated her grandson once again, and because of this the Wáng clan’s power began to diminish.

-5 BC- Empress Dowager Dīng dies.

-At this point, it was clear that Emperor Āī was kind of a shitty ruler. 

   -He was inconsistent in his punishments (and commitment to carry them out), hasty in his promotions (and demotions, too, if you pissed him off for whatever reason), moody, and chronically ill.

-Apparently, it’s been well-documented that Emperor Āī was a homosexual and had male lovers/concubines, although this wasn’t considered weird at the time I guess (especially in ancient times throughout the world), and perhaps might have even been facilitated by Confucianism.

   -This is important to keep in mind because Emperor Āī strongly favored one of his lovers,  Dǒng Xián (a minor court official), so much that Dǒng Xián and his family began to rapidly acquire positions of power and influence within the court.  

      -Fun fact: one time when the emperor and Dǒng Xián were sleeping together in their robes, the emperor woke up but Dǒng Xián was still asleep.  Apparently, the emperor wanted to get out of bed or something but Dǒng Xián was sleeping on the emperor’s sleeve, so the emperor got a knife and cut the sleeve of his robe so that he wouldn’t disturb Dǒng Xián’s sleep.  Because of this story, “the passion of the cut sleeve” (“duàn xiù zhī pǐ”) is a euphemism for homosexuality in China to this day.

      -Oddly enough, Dǒng Xián’s sister actually became an imperial consort.

-3 BC- in an attempt to check Dǒng Xián’s rising power, Prime Minister Wáng Jiā tried to persuade Emperor Āī to cut it out with all the honors and promotions with Dǒng Xián and his family, but Emperor Āī responded to this criticism by having the prime minister arrested and forced to commit suicide.

   -Soon after this, Dǒng Xián was named supreme commander of the Hàn military.

-2 BC- Grand Empress Dowager Fù dies.

-1 BC- Emperor Āī dies, but before he does he declares that he wants Dǒng Xián to be enthroned as his successor (since there was no crown prince), but this ended up getting ignored.

   -Instead, the throne was passed to Liú Jīzǐ, Emperor Āī’s cousin (his father was Prince Liú Xīng, one of Emperor Yúan’s sons), who's enthroned as Emperor Píng (AKA Emperor Xiàopíng).

Western Han - Part VIII - Getting Over Wu

-87 BC- Emperor Wǔ dies and is replaced by his son, Prince Liú Gúlíng, is enthroned as Emperor Zhāo (age 8 haha).

   -However, Emperor Wǔ had set it up so that a triumvirate would rule as regents (who would also serve as teachers for Emperor Zhāo, as well) until the young emperor came of age.

      -The regent triumvirate:

         -Huò Guāng (AKA Zǐ Mèng)- high-ranking official and de facto leader of the trio.

         -Jīn Mìdī (AKA Wēng Shū or Marquess Jìng of Dù)- prominent official (and an ethnic Xiōngnú).

         -General Shàngguān Jié

   -Of course, this succession of power didn't make everyone happy, and this included Emperor Zhāo's older brothers whom all had been passed over so that the youngest, Emperor Zhāo, could be enthroned.

      -A conspiracy to topple the young emperor was plotted among some members of the royal Liú clan but this didn't end up working out.

-86 BC- Jīn Mìdī dies.

   -This was significant because up till then he had served as a balance between Huò Guāng and Shàngguān Jié who seemed to have opposing views on how shit should be run (even though apparently they were close friends and Huò Guāng's daughter (was even married to Shàngguān Jié's son)).

       -Shàngguān Jié also resented being less powerful than Huò Guāng, and Jīn Mìdī's death only exacerbated these sentiments.

      -Shàngguān Jié wanted his grandaughter (Lady Shàngguān, 5 year-old daughter of his daughter and  Huò Guāng's son) to marry Emperor Zhāo, but Huò Guāng disagreed with this plan.

         -As a workaround, Shàngguān Jié next appealed to one of the four acting regents, Princess Èyì (AKA Princess Gàicháng, one of Emperor Zhāo's older sisters), claiming that a marriage would be able to secure a stronger alliance between the Shàngguān and Liú clans).

            -Princess Èyì agreed, and in 84 BC Lady Shàngguān and Emperor Zhāo were married (with Lady Shàngguān becoming Empress Shàngguān (AKA Empress Xiàozhāo)).

-Up till then Huò Guāng's regency had been a success.

   -Because he scaled back the empire's wars of expansion, this allowed for wartime rationing and self-imposed sanctions to be lifted.  Because of this, the merchant class began to grow and the population experienced less-shitty living conditions.

      -However, this pissed off the rich monopolies whom had actually profited immensely because of Emperor Wǔ's restrictions.

         -One key politician involved in this scheme was Grand Secretary Sāng Hóngyáng, whom in the past had helped oversee significant economic developments such as the government monopolization of iron and salt (which involved bringing in two powerful salt and iron CEOS to join the government in order to manage the industry on a national scale for the emperor... hmmmm that doesn't sound corrupt at all!), which of course made the dynasty more rich.

            -Because of Grand Secretary Sāng's resistance to these economic changes, Huò Guāng was able to shift support away from him.  As a response to his waning power, Grand Secretary Sāng desperately tried to form a cabal of anti-Huò Guāng courtiers with included the Shàngguān clan, Princess Èyì, and Prince Dàn (one of Emperor Zhāo's older brothers) in order to force Huò Guāng out of power.

               -However, when the conspirators tried to have Huò Guāng arrested on trumped-up charges, Emperor Zhāo (who was now 14) didn't buy their bullshit.  This was important because it made people realize that the emperor wasn't stupid. 

                  -Unfortunately, that didn't stop the conspirators from trying again, but this time they planned on taking care of that punk Emperor Zhāo as well!

                     -The plan was for Princess Èyì to murder him (her own brother!) and have Prince Dàn installed on the throne instead.

                        -However, one of Princess Èyì's servants ended up leaking the news to Huò Guāng and Emperor Zhāo.  This, of course, resulted in the immediate suicide of Princess Èyì and Prince Dàn and the extermination of the entire Shàngguān clan (except for Empress Shàngguān because she was only like 9 at the time).  Of course, this freaked out everyone else and made them think that Huò Guāng was going to increase his grip on power and turn into a brutal autocrat, but actually this didn’t end up happening.

-77 BC- the Western kingdom of Lóulán (AKA Krorän or Kroraina in its native tongue), located around the northeastern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Xīnjiāng, China) got a new king (named either Chángguī or Ānguī), and this dude was not down with the Hàn dynasty at all.

   -This was serious for the Hàn dynasty because they needed to be able to travel through their territory in order to get to the other Western kingdoms. 

   -In order to pacify Lóulán, Huò Guāng sent the assassin Fù Jièzǐ to go take out King Chángguī.  Pretending to be a messenger, he set up a private meeting with the king before murdering him. 

      -When the Lóulán court finally figured out what had happened, Fù Jièzǐ warned them that if anyone tried to stop him from going back home a Hàn army would immediately invade and kill all of them.

         -This actually worked, and the Lóulán guards backed off.  Fù Jièzǐ then had King Chángguī’s brother, Wèitúqí (a puppet of the Hàn dynasty), enthroned as the new king, before renaming the kingdom Shànshàn.

-74 BC- Emperor Zhāo dies suddenly, and without an heir!

   -In order to avoid a succession crisis, Huò Guāng decides to enthrone Liú Hè (who at the time was the King/Prince of Chāngyì (near modern-day Hézé, Shāndōng Province), nephew of Emperor Zhāo (even though they were roughly the same age haha) and grandson of Emperor Wǔ.

      -According to legend, when Liú Hè found out that he had been chosen to be the new emperor, he immediately left Chāngyì and traveled so quickly down to Cháng'ān that his horse died from exhaustion :(

         -Unfortunately for Liú Hè, his reign as emperor would only last for a few weeks because obviously all he was interested in was drinking and partying and shit and didn’t respect the position or follow any of the “mourning” rules of etiquette or whatever, so obviously Huò Guāng realized that having Liú Hè as emperor simply wasn’t going to work out.  So, Liú Hè was peacefully dethroned (and demoted to a marquess, in which he still lived comfortably I’m assuming) and was replaced by Liú Bìngyǐ (AKA Liú Xún), enthroned as Emperor Xuān (AKA Emperor Xiàoxuān).

            -This was actually a completely unexpected choice by Huò Guāng because Liú Bìngyǐ was a commoner, even though technically he was a member of the royal Liú clan.

               -Liú Bìngyǐ was the son of Liú Jìn, who was the son of Liú Jù (former crown prince under Emperor Wǔ who had been suddenly bypassed in favor of Liú Fúlíng (AKA Emperor Zhāo), which of course pissed off everyone and there was a bunch of drama and resulted in a bunch of executions except for Liú Bìngyǐ since he was just a baby around that time (so instead he was forced to grow up in an imperial prison).

                  -Eventually, Emperor Zhāo found out about Liú Bìngyǐ’s situation and decided to have him be officially looked after by the imperial court and be supervised by the eunuch Zhāng Hè.  After this happened, Liú Bìngyǐ married Xǔ Píngjūn, the daughter of another court eunuch, Xǔ Guǎnghàn, and was soon being educated in the Confucian classics and shit like that.  However, because he came from such a humble background Liú Bìngyǐ seemed to have a very strong sense of social justice and hatred of corruption.

                     -Because of this, Huò Guāng chose him to be the next emperor. 

-When it came time for Emperor Xuān to choose his queen, he ultimately chose his wife, Xǔ Píngjūn, who then became Empress Gōng’āī (AKA Empress Xiàoxuān)).  However, this whole process caused a bunch of drama because many court officials (especially Huò Guāng’s wife, Lady Xiǎn) had wanted Emperor Xuān to choose Huò Guāng’s daughter, Huò Chéngjūn, as his new queen, but Emperor Xuān decided on Xǔ Píngjūn.

-73 BC- Huò Guāng offers to step down as regent since at this point he was getting quite old and felt that Emperor Xuān was certainly old enough (and wise enough, too) to rule the empire on his own, but the emperor refuses to accept Huò Guāng’s resignation.  In fact, Emperor Xuān continued to defer to Huò Guāng on many matters of the state, as well as continue the appointments of various members of the Huò clan to positions of power in the government.

-71 BC- Empress Gōng’āī is pregnant, so Lady Xiǎn knew she had to strike fast; she has Empress Gōng’āī poisoned, killing both her and the baby.

   -The death was believed to be an accident due to a mistake made by the empress’ nurse, so Lady Xiǎn actually got away with this (with the help of her husband most likely doing a cover-up as well).

-70 BC- Lady Xiǎn’s plan worked- Emperor Xuān marries Huò Chéngjūn, making her the new empress.

   -Apparently, Empress Huò’s spending habits and lifestyle were much more extravagant than the previous empress (which makes sense).

-68 BC- Huò Guāng dies, although his clan still continues to live luxuriously and enjoy much power and influence in the government (even rivalling that of the royal family!).

-67 BC- Liú Shì (son of Emperor Xuān and Empress Gōng’āī before Emperor Xuān was enthroned), age 7-8, is named crown prince (which I’m sure pissed off the Huò clan).

   -After this, Emperor Xuān starts to become hip to the rumors that the Huò clan had been working behind the scenes for years to try and take power from the royal Liú clan, and had even maybe had a hand in the death of Empress Gōng’āī and his unborn child.

-66 BC- Lady Huò finally admits to her other clan members about being behind the murder of Empress Gōng’āī.  This is an important detail because even though many members of the Huò clan may have been unaware of Lady Huò’s crime, they now knew that if Lady Huò got busted by the emperor then they were ALL going to be executed!  So, they had no choice at this point but to eliminate Emperor Xuān so they could survive!

   -However, this didn’t work out, and soon the entire plot was uncovered and the entire Huò clan was executed (with the exception of Empress Huò, who was placed under house arrest before eventually being exiled, and after that she just ended up committing suicide).

-Emperor Xuān ended up being a solid ruler- he was patient, fair, honest, and wise.

   -His foreign policy was also one of peace, and he worked hard in order to establish good relations with his neighbors, including the barbarian kingdoms of the Héxī Corridor and surrounding territories/states.

-64 BC- Emperor Xuān marries his consort, Lady Wáng, making her Empress Wáng (AKA Empress Xiàoxuān or Empress Dowager Qióngchéng (later)), although it seems like he did this more out of necessity than actual love or romance since he’d already had so much drama with his past empresses.  The emperor and his new queen apparently never really saw each other outside of like formal events and stuff.

-59-56 BC- the  Xiōngnú Empire splits into three warring factions led by the chanyus Rùnzhèn, Hūhánxié, and Zhìzhī.

   -In order to defeat their rivals, each of the chanyus attempted to make an alliance with the Han dynasty.

      -This allowed for Emperor Xuān to play the factions against each other and spend less resources managing the border since the Xiōngnú armies were no longer united in fighting against the Han Empire since they were just fighting each other for the most part during this time.

-53 BC- With Chanyu Rùnzhèn defeated, Chanyu Zhìzhī gathers his forces to ultimately crush Chanyu Hūhánxié’s forces.  Sensing imminent defeat, Hūhánxié decides to head south and defect to the Han Empire.

   -Emperor Xuān honored his request for asylum, and ended up actually granting him a pretty high-ranking title among the Hàn nobility!  In fact, the emperor even went so far as to give Chanyu Hūhánxié military assistance in his fight against Chanyu Zhìzhī, and soon Zhìzhī was driven out to the western reaches of the Xiōngnú Empire as Hūhánxié conquered vast areas of land with the help of his new Hàn forces.

-49 BC- Emperor Xuān falls ill and dies.