Liu Heng was the fourth son of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, so he was not a prince but was given the title of acting king. His mother was also unpopular, so Liu Heng went to the fiefdom very early. After Lü Hou's death, Liu's descendants and courtiers loyal to Liu Bang joined forces to launch the War of Su lü, and afterwards, with the support of Chen Ping, Zhou Bo, and others, Liu Heng became emperor.
The reason for choosing Liu Heng was mainly that the qi king's power was too strong at that time, although he had great merit, but there were many opponents, and the daiwang had no foreign forces, no foundation in the dynasty, easy to control, and he had more than ten years in the fiefdom, and his reputation was outstanding, so he became an emperor.
After Liu Bang's death, the crown prince Liu Ying ascended the throne. However, Liu Yingren was weak, he and his mother Lü Hou were not a character at all, he was very reluctant to see Lü Hou attack his relatives, especially Liu Bang's sons, Liu Ying's brothers, but they were a thorn in the flesh in Lü Hou's eyes, especially for Liu Bang's favorite concubine Lady Qi and her son Zhao Ruyi, Lü Hou took a very cruel measure, which was extremely hateful.
So after a few years of being emperor, Liu Ying died in grief. Empress Lü then made Liu Gong the crown prince emperor, and he himself took the title of emperor and exercised the authority of the emperor, and the imperial court orders were all issued by the empress.
Although Lü Hou also did some good things during his reign, so that the Western Han Dynasty continued to be strong, but she was nepotistic, attacked political enemies and opponents, and was unpopular, so as soon as Lü Hou died, the descendants of Liu surnamed Liu united to launch the Xulu War, and won the victory in one fell swoop, killing lü's party and deposing the emperor of Lü Houli, who they believed was not the son of Emperor Hui of Han.
But when the emperor is deposed, he has to choose another one, so who to choose?
In fact, at that time, Liu Xiang was one of the choices, after all, he contributed to the War of Xulu, but his threat was also too great, although there were supporters, but there were more opponents.
Liu Bang had a total of eight sons, and in addition to Liu Ying, who succeeded him, Zhao Ruyi, who had also hoped to be crown prince, was eliminated by Empress Lü. The old Fifth Liang King Liu Huan was forced to die by Lü Hou, and the old sixth Liu You, like the old fifth, was also targeted by Lü Hou and had to marry his daughter to him, and as a result, Liu You was eventually put under house arrest and starved to death. Liu Jian, the eighth elder, died naturally after being the Queen of Yan for 15 years. However, his son did not escape the clutches of Lü Hou and was poisoned.
Among them, only the eldest Liu Fei, the fourth Liu Heng, and the seventh elder Liu Chang were not persecuted. However, the eldest Liu Fei also took the initiative to dedicate Chengyang County to Lü Hou at the suggestion of others, as Tang Muyi as Princess Lu Yuan, which escaped the disaster. However, Liu Fei also died during the reign of Emperor Hui of Han, and his eldest son Liu Xiang succeeded him as king of Qi.
The seventh elder Liu Chang was raised by Lü Hou, so during Lü Hou's reign, he was spared from political disasters. But because of this relationship, it was impossible for him to be proclaimed emperor.
So Liu Heng became the new emperor, for Emperor Wen of Han.