[asiaconqueror]

I've heard of the famous Emperor Han Wudi...who is he? What's so great about him?

[chinesewarrior]

He was one of the greatest emperor during western han dynasty. In fact, during his reign, Han became a great empire. He ruled from 140 -87 BC.

[asiaconqueror]

I heard he launched great military campaigns against the XiongNu and defeated them. During his time, he had an expansionalist policy and greatly extended the Han territory..He even occupied Korea and Canton, Fujian province.

[Ghost_of_Han]

Rumor has it he was Bi-sexual too.

[DaMo]

It was during his reign that imperial Chinese territory was extended from the Tarim Basin to North Korea to North Vietnam, the Huns were finally defeated, and the Silk Road was opened.

[General_Zhaoyun]

DaMo, on Jul 6 2004, 12:30 AM, said:

It was during his reign that imperial Chinese territory was extended from the Tarim Basin to North Korea to North Vietnam, the Huns were finally defeated, and the Silk Road was opened.

It's actually XiongNu.. to be more precise (Huns are supposingly known in Europe)

[thirdgumi]

Quote

Huns were finally defeated, and the Silk Road was opened

Well, the war between Han and Xiong Nu was a prolong and continuos action. Han under Han Wu Di scored some major victories over Xiong Nu, but the Xiong Nu still had strength to play the game. Even during later years of Han Wu Di's reign, Han suffered some defeats against Xiong Nu, like the one which general Li Guang Li surrendered. The war against Xiong Nu were still going during East Han dyansty. We can't say the exact date for the Xiong Nu's defeat, it was more like the Xiong Nu as a political and military force vanished over time (in east asia).
What Han Wu Di did was to start a long tradition of an aggressive position against Xiong Nu, before Han Wu Di, Han's position were a defensive and a submissive one.

[General_Zhaoyun]

I'll slightly narrate Han Wudi's brief history. He basically ruled Western Han dynasty from 140 - 87 BC. During his time, Han extended greatly towards the Tarim basin in the west, to korea in the north/east, and to vietnam in the south.

The period under Emperor Han Wudi's rule during the western han dynasty was the most spectacular in the 420 odd years history of the Han dynasty. During this era, the Western Han dynasty had the following 3 proud achievements which ad a profound influence on the history of China and even the world:

1) Politically, a centralised power system (bureucracy), more perfect than that of the Qin dynasty, was established. This system forme the basic path for the development of China's feudal society.

2) Through the contact and war with minority nationalities in the border regions, especially with XiongNu, cultural exchange between the Hans and the various nationalities was brought about. Mongolia, Siberia and other remote regions were also developed during Emperor Han Wudi's time.

3) The opening of silk road by explorer Zhang Qiang, sent by Emperor Han wudi helped to develop trade with foreign countries. It promoted the communication with China and the foreign countries and provide a link of trade from the east to the roman empire in the west.

It must also be pointed out that Emperor Han Wudi (Liu Ce) was also the first emperor to used titles of reign (such as Jianyuan, Taichu, Houguan etc.) in the history of China. On account of this, he enjoyed a high reputation in history.

In the year 141 BC, Emperor Han Wudi succeeded to the throne on the very day Emperor Han Jindi dided. His predecessor's policy of "governing without strict regulations" (无为而治) policy, and encouragement of production and recuperations (休养生息) left him an empire with great colossal funds, material resources and manpower. It was on this foundation that Emperor Han Wudi made good use of his great talent and bold vision to found a great empire.

Politically, the Emperor was of the opinion that Taoism could only be the guiding principle of the past series of "governing without strict regulations" policy, and confucanism tallied with his political ideal was necessary to found a strong empire in the future. In order to establish the authority of confucanism, he summoned over 100 talented Confucian schoalrs to the capital in the 1st year of the Jianyuan reign to answer queries on the plans for nation building and administration. This was the famous "Jianyuan Policy Deliberation" (建元对策), which fully revealed the yearning for a great empire and the demand for the unique position of confucanism's academic thoughts.

In 109 BC, Empress Dowager Doa, who believed in 'governing without strict regulations", died of illness. Her lackeys, who hindered political reforms, were also eliminated. Emperor Han Wudi thus consolidated the court power under his own hand and then fully implemented the policy of "Upholding Confucianism and suppressing all other thoughts" (罢黜百家,独遵儒术). He thus established Confucanism as a state philosophy and the only orthodox feudal ruling ideology.

After solving the problem of political guidance ideology, Emperor Han Wudi began establish his rule by centralised power. During this period, he sucessfully weakened the position of the various principalities and stripping the power of their officials, making the highest power fall into the central government. Simultaneously, the Emperor wrested the power to the central government system, headed by the Prime Minister, placing himself on the top of the political-power pyramid. Such policy of consolidating the central power was called "the order of Tui En" (推恩令), in which the power of a person was further divided amongst his relatives.

[General_Zhaoyun]

I'll continue to talk about the history behind Emperor Han Wudi's military expansion of the empire:

Eastern Yue, Southern Yue and Sichuan province
Emperor Han Wudi was a man of great ambition and lofty aspiration. While strengthening his power, he also set about to began a series of military campaign to expand the empire. His first target was to open up the border region of Eastern Yue and Southern Yue. Eastern Yue was the area in today's Fujian province, including Zhejiang, southern Jiangxi and eastern Guangdong. Southern Yue was the area in today's Guangdong, Guangxi and Vietnam. As Eastern Yue and Southern Yue were the Han dynasty's vassals with weak military power, Emperor Han Wudi conquered them and unified them completely after 30 years' of management. Prefectual and county systems were set up there, placing them under the direct administration of the central government.

During this period, Emperor Han Wudi started to open up the minority nationalities' region in what it now the southwestern part of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. Through political association, economic relations and military expedition, he had their vast expanse of territory merged into the domin of the Han empire in less than 30 years.

Military campaign against XiongNu

Of course, Eastern Yue, Southern Yue and the minority nationalities were not the Emperor's focal point of management: his ambition was to open up the new land lay in the north of the Great Wall. He was determined to cross the Great Wall, built by the emperor Qin shi huang, and expand considerably the Han Empire's sphere of influence westwards and northwards. At that time, XiongNu in the north possessed an elite force of 300,000 strong calvary. Not only did it hold sway over the desert of Mongolia, it also had control over the states in the Western Region and frequently came southwards to raid and harass the Han Empire.

After ascending the throne, Emperor Han Wudi set about to get through the Western Region in order to isolate externally and weaken the XiongNu, but the real solution to the XiongNu problem was the use of military force.

In the year 133 BC, the Emperor dispatched a 300,000 strong army and laid an ambush within the Great Wall in today's Hebie province, planning to lure XiongNu to come into the deep part of the hinterland so as to annihilated its main force in one fell swoop. Unexpectedly, Xiongnu beat a retreat hastily upon learning of the manoeuvere. Although this ambush failed, it revealed the prelude of the Han dynasty's counterattack against Xiongnu. Henceforth, the Han army repeatedly launched attacks against Xiongnu, of which 3 were large-scale battles.

The 1st battle happened in 127 BC. The han army fully recovered the vast area south of the Yellow River. Later migration to this region took place and agricultural production were developed, thereby reversing the situation of the Han-Xiongnu war in Han's favour.

The 2nd battle was fought in 121 BC. The Han troops penetrated over 1000 li into Xiongnu's territory, inflicting a crushing defeat on its army. After that, the Han army turned westwards and fully occupied the Hexi corridor, opening up the thoroughfare leading to the western region, and cut off the contact between XiongNu and the western region. At the same time, a large no. of immigrants opened up wastelands for farming and built irrigation works, enabling the agricultural production there to develop rapidly.

The 3rd campaign, which was of decisive nature, took place in 119 BC. Prior to this, the XiongNu did not cease raid the Han Empire although it suffered heavy casualities in many encounters. In order to thoroughly defeat the Xiongnu, Emperor Han Wudi, counter the judgement of XiongNu's members of the upper strata that it was impossible for the Han army to traverse the Mongolia desert to carry out an expedition, despatched 100,000 strong army to attack Xiongn from the eastern and western routes after crossing the desert.

The troops on the western route arrived at the foot of Hang-ai Mountain in today's northwestern part of Mongolia. They returned after burning down Xiongnu's headquarters. The eastern-route contingent penetrated over 2000 li into Xiongnu's territory, scoring a resounding victory. They also pursued remnants of the enemy troops until they came to today's lake Baikal in Russia, from where they returned triumphantly.

These 3 battles adversely destroyed the vitality of Xiongnu, causing northern Xiongnu to leave their homeland for the region in the west in succession, and impelling southern Xiongnus to be immensely sinificized by the more-advanced han culture. Henceforth, the entire Mongolian plateau entered a new era.

In 109 BC, Emperor Han Wudi's attention shifited to northeast China. After carrying out military expedition for over one year, he had Korea conquered and set up 4 prefectures there, which were under his administration.

[General_Zhaoyun]

I'll continue to talk about Han Wudi's diplomatism history in the western region.

Emperor Han Wudi made use of diplomatic means to develop relations with the states in the Western Region (such as assigning Zhang Qiang to the Western Region on diplomatic mission several times). He also adopted a "heqing" (和亲) policy to establish friendly terms with the kingdoms in the western region. Under this policy, daughters of the Han imperial family were married to the rulers of the minority nationalities in the border region in an attempt to cement relations with them. Army generals were assigned to defeat the states hostile to the Han dynasty. AS a result of this, his prestige in the western region rose tremendously.

Having put in some 25 year's efforts, the Han dynasty finally took over Xiongnu's position and influence in the western region, its power expanding to the west of Pamir Plateau (in present Tajikstan). The sucess of the han monarch's management of the western region opened up the "silk road" and built a cultural bridge spanning Europe and Asia. It must be pointed out that it was from this time that the people in the hinterland of China began calling themselves "Hans" and "Han nationality".

While managing southwestern Yi, the emperor also correspondingly built a communication route, leading to South Asia, through this vast region with tall mountains and deep valleys. This is what later generations called the "Silk Road of the south".

After Emperor Han Wudi's conquest of Eastern Yue and Southern Yue, China's sea communications with foreign countries were also developed. Large quantities of China's porcelain and pottery, silk and satin were exported to Southwest Asia and South Asia and other places from the area along the coast in the south-east. Historians called this sea-lane the "Silk Road of the Sea".

Emperor han Wudi can be deemed to be a historical figure with high creativity. By administering hsi country with a civil service and a miltiary machinery during his 54 years of reign, he became a great hero in the history of China.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Here is a commentary of Han Wudi by chinese historian Yao Xiuyan:

Emperor Han Wudi's (汉武帝) commoner's name was Liu Che (刘彻). He was the 5th monarch of the western Han dynasty, having been on the throne for 54 years. A man of great talent and bold vision, he formulated for the 1st time a number of things :

1. Founding of titles of reigns
2. Introduction of new calendars
3. Laying stress on confucanism
4. Holding talented and virtuous personnel in high esteem
5. Establishment of Imperial Colleges
6. Promotion of the practice of etiquette and rites and management of finance

All these were institutionalised for a long period of time.

Emperor Han Wudi also rewarded those who rendered services valiantly and resourcefully, thereby increasing the pool of talents.

Unprecedented credit should go to the Emperor for opening up new lands, such as the conquest of Xiongnu, establishment of contact with the Western reigon, quelling of Southern Yue and Korea, development of the southern region in Yunnan province and management of Min Yue and Dongzhen. The expansion of his han empire raised the prestige of the western han dynasty tremendously, which spread to the eastern coast of the mediterranean Sea in the west, the pacific ocean in the east, Mongolia in the north, the red river in the south.

Culture was widespread and economy ran smoothly, attracting many people to China.

Henforth "Han" became another name for China, and it was based on this that China became a leading country in Asia.

[Tyler]

eek thats alot of info. How did you learn all of that.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Those are info I got from a book about the entire history of Han Wudi. I've also bought a book about the political history and the strategy of Han Wudi, which detailed how Han Wudi think when making important decision.

[Sephodwyrm]

Well, Han Wudi is also well known for his misdeeds as well. Like many great rulers of history, Han Wudi also has his dark sides. He had many wives, and he killed some of them that bore him sons so as to prevent a replay of an Empress Dowager exerting influence over the future emperor. Wei Zi Fu was forced to commit suicide as the old man lay dying, and Gou Ge was executed without knowing the reason why.

Not to mention that he was also quite superstitious. Like Shi Huangdi he also financed Fang Shi and Shu Shi who claims to be able to find the elixir of life. One of them even married his daughter! But that didn't save them from being executed when the emperor found out that they're merely frauds.

In another incident, the crown prince Li (Li Tai Zi) was forced to revolt because the sycophants around the emperor claimed that the crown prince harbors evil intentions and planted evidences that he was practicing voodoo to curse the king. The crown prince's force was defeated and his entire family was to be executed. Later on the old emperor would build a shrine and weep for his lost son in a display of hypocricy. But, there is going to be awesome times ahead for the Han dynasty after Han Wudi. We would have 2 very very lousy emperor followed by a totally unexpected and surprisingly good one. My favorite emperor, actually...

[zelbest]

Sephodwyrm is quite true about Wudi being superstitious. He actually refused to send General Li Guang to acompany Wei Qing to fight the XiongNu, because he believe that Li Guang was a bad luck charm. I think thats one of the reasons that Li Guang was never given the title of Ho(侯).