The emperor was praised as "a rare sage after three generations of antiquity" and was also selected for the "Twenty-Four Filial Pieties" story

Recently, the news of the archaeological discovery of the Han Wen Emperor's Tomb has aroused public concern. Emperor Liu Heng of Han was sandwiched between Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu and Liu Che, the emperor of Han Wu, who had a strong sense of existence, and did not seem to have done anything earth-shattering. However, the title of "Wen" itself contains the conclusive conclusion of "longitude and latitude of heaven and earth, moral knowledge, and the benefit of the people"; Sima Qian gave him a highly positive evaluation of "virtue to shengye"; And Hai Rui even proposed that Liu Heng was a rare sage after the three generations of antiquity.

Man is complex polyhedra. Ancient emperors had great power, faced all kinds of risks and temptations, and those with simple minds and ones often did not have a good end. Emperor Wen of Han was able to sit on the throne for 23 years and create the rule of Wenjing under the situation of many princely states and powerful subjects in the early Han Dynasty.

Forbearance --

Liu Heng was the fourth son of Liu Bang, but he was not the proud son of Heaven who was born with a golden key. His mother was originally a concubine of The Wei King Leopard, and After Liu Bang attacked the Wei King Leopard, he took her into the palace and was not favored. When Liu Heng was 8 years old, he had to leave his mother and go to the remote and barren Daiguo to take the domain. The political situation in the early Han Dynasty was complex and changeable, and the various princes, the gongchen clique, and the Lü clique killed each other, and if they did not pay attention, they were killed and annihilated. Liu Heng and his mother were able to save their lives because they were not favored or threatened.

In the face of the great temptation of the throne, Liu Heng did not get carried away, but first sent people to Chang'an to inquire about the situation; after arriving at the outskirts of Chang'an, he did not rush into the city and sent people to communicate with the Gongchen Group again; at the edge of the Baqiao Bridge, in the face of the temptation of the jade seal sent up, he did not rush to accept it, but first returned to the residence of the Daiwang Mansion and waited for a group of ministers to persuade him to come back and forth four times; but after taking the throne, he replaced the guards of the palace with his own people at the first time. This fully reflects his stoic and cautious character.

Conspiracy -

After Liu Heng ascended the throne, he first rewarded Zhou Bo and Chen Ping's meritorious clique, let them hold important positions as ministers, and united to solve Liu Xiang, Liu Zhang, and Liu Xingju, three princes who were direct threats to the throne. Then, in view of Zhou Bo's weakness, he questioned in front of all the ministers about the state's fiscal revenue in a year and how many cases there were in a year. Zhou Bo, who was not prepared, was speechless and sweaty, and had to take the initiative to resign. For other princes, Liu Heng adopted Jia Yi's policy of "building princes by all and having less strength" and worked hard to reduce the size of the princely states.

Benevolence——

At the beginning of his reign, Liu Heng issued an edict granting amnesty to the world and distributing cattle, wine, etc. to the elderly; in September of the same year, it was announced that the rent of the people in the world would be halved; after that, the taxes and fees on roads and checkpoints were abolished, which promoted the circulation of goods and the economic ties between various places.

Emperor Wen of Han also repealed some of the evil laws that had lasted for many years. For example, he resisted pressure from all sides to resolutely abolish the strict joint sitting law, so that people would no longer be imprisoned for an inexplicable neighbor or the seventh uncle and grandfather; citing the ti hao's rescue of his father as a guide, abolish the physical torture of physical mutilation.

With the exception of a few courtiers who threatened the imperial power, Liu Heng had always been very humble and lenient to his courtiers. In the second year of his reign, the "crime of defamation" was abolished, and the officials and people were no longer convicted of words for words. Feng Tang scolded him in the court, and after he was angry, he did not punish him, but afterwards warned Feng Tang to give the emperor face in front of everyone in the future. Even Zhou Bo was able to die well.

Frugality————

Liu Heng reigned for 23 years, the palace, the court, the car, the horse, the service of the emperor did not add, life is very simple, everything is based on the non-working people. Baling was the last of the Western Han Emperors' tombs to be confirmed, also because Liu Heng did not build a large number of civil engineering, resulting in the lack of obvious identification. In his last will, Liu Heng requested that the funeral be performed simply, and the history books clearly recorded that "the tombs of the rulers are all tiles, and must not be decorated with gold, silver, copper, and tin, because of their mountains, they cannot afford graves." Some people may wonder why Emperor Wen is benevolent and why the mausoleum is called Baling, this is only because the mausoleum is close to the Bahe River.

Filial piety——

Liu Heng's nickname was Emperor Xiaowen of Han, and the second "Taste the Soup Medicine" in the "Twenty-Four Stories of Filial Piety" was his story: his mother Empress Bo was ill and bedridden for 3 years, and Emperor Wen of Han boiled the soup medicine for his mother, guarding the bed day and night. Every time he finished frying the medicine, he always had to taste the hot and cold first, and then worship it. The tomb of Emperor Wen of Han is also not in the ancestral tomb, but near the mother's south mausoleum.

There is a way --

Externally, Emperor Wen of Han diplomatically urged Zhao Tuo to abandon his title as emperor and alleviate the threat of the Xiongnu by "fighting and paying equal attention"; internally, to eliminate the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty and recuperate, "the people give enough to the family, and the government treasury surplus goods". The rule of Wenjing that he pioneered laid the foundation for strong men.