[Tyler]

We have only been up since early July not a year yet. Also I am moving this thread to the Han Dynasty Forum.


I know very bit about him his name is Liu Che. He was said to be bi (ask Ghost_of_Han), he was the second Emperor of the Han Empire (not sure on this).

[Zuo Zongtang]

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I know very bit about him his name is Liu Che. He was said to be bi (ask Ghost_of_Han), he was the second Emperor of the Han Empire (not sure on this).

No, he is the sixth Emperor, if you count Gao Hou, also know as lu zhi, (吕雉) Liu Bang's wife

He was given the name wudi because of his invasions of Xiong Nu lands. He had a general named Huo Qubing who has one of the best military records in Chinese History against Xiong Nu.

Here is a bit more.

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Emperor Wu, namely Liuche, was the sixth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD). He reigned from 141 BC to 87 BC and his reign is one of the most celebrated in Chinese history. After his death, he was given a posthumous title of Emperor Shizong.
Came to the throne at the age of sixteen, Emperor Wu, besides carried out a series of reforms, devoted himself to military conquests and territorial expansion. So, people call him Emperor Wu (Martial Emperor).

Emperor Wu's most important military campaigns were against the Xiongnu, an ancient tribe that lived in North China who posed a powerful threat to the Han Empire. After three expeditions, Emperor Wu finally drove the Xiongnu into the far north of Gobi, thus maintaining the safety of the Hexi Corridor. In order to avoid the aggression of other nomadic tribes, Emperor Wu also ordered the construction of the Great Wall.

In 138 BC, Emperor Wu sent a diplomatic expedition to Central Asia to try to find allies against the Xiongnu. Failed in his original purpose, Chinese ruler became aware of the cultures and customs of other nationalities. Eventually, this lead to the opening of the Silk Road which later served as a route for cultural and economic exchange between the east and the west.

In order to pay his military cost, Emperor Wu raised taxes, nationalized many private businesses and confiscated property for the nobility. He also restrained other thoughts but made Confucianism a state ideology.

During the reign of Emperor Wu, Western Han Dynasty was in a period of great prosperity.

[Yun]

You could look in the following books:

"The Han Dynasty" by Michele Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens; translated by Janet Seligman.
New York: Rizzoli , c1982.

"The Cambridge history of China", Volume 1: The Ch'in and Han Empires. General editors: Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978

[DaMo]

This is what he looked like:



Source: http://www.blubie.de/han.html

[Yun]

That portrait was painted long after he died, and was based solely on the artist's imagination. It's unfortunate that we have hardly any portraits of ancient Chinese personalities that are a credible depiction of the actual person. The earliest believable portraits of emperors are probably the Song dynasty ones.

[DaMo]

Yun, on Nov 15 2004, 10:51 AM, said:

That portrait was painted long after he died, and was based solely on the artist's imagination. It's unfortunate that we have hardly any portraits of ancient Chinese personalities that are a credible depiction of the actual person. The earliest believable portraits of emperors are probably the Song dynasty ones.

Seriously? So he is one of the greatest emperors ever and we have ZERO portraits of him?

What about this one of Han GaoZu (Liu Bang)?


And this one of Han GuangWu?


And what about these Sui/Tang dynasty portraits:
http://www.chinapage...mperor.html#sui

[Yun]

All painted at least one or two centuries after that person's death. A series of the most commonly seen imperial portraits up to the Sui (including the ones of Yang Jian and Yang Guang on that site) was painted by Yan Liben in the Tang.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Here was a previous thread on Emperor Wudi..that you might be interested in..

http://www.chinahist...p?showtopic=348

[DaMo]

Yun, on Nov 16 2004, 02:36 AM, said:

All painted at least one or two centuries after that person's death. A series of the most commonly seen imperial portraits up to the Sui (including the ones of Yang Jian and Yang Guang on that site) was painted by Yan Liben in the Tang.

What about the Tang dynasty portraits?

[Yun]

I think this is the only portrait of a Tang emperor known to be authentic - Yan Liben's painting of Tang Taizong receiving a Tibetan envoy during the negotiation of the famous marriage alliance that involved Princess Wencheng: http://vip.6to23.com...cn/2002-05M.htm