The emperor of the Han Dynasty, who killed the crown prince and his mentor and continued the first prosperous era of China, had mixed reviews in later generations
Foreword: During the reign of Wenjing, the people's lives were stable, and the country's food and financial revenues were rising steadily, which was the first prosperous era to enter the era of the Great Unified Empire.
During the transition from the reign of Wenjing to the prosperous era of the Han Dynasty, there was an emperor who played the role of connecting the upper and lower generations, and he was Liu Qi, the Emperor of Han Jing, who was the sixth emperor of the Han Dynasty. Later generations had mixed evaluations of Liu Qi.
Ban Gu, a famous historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, commented on Liu Qi's governance of the country that Liu Qi's governance of the country was comparable to that of Chengkang. However, the Song Dynasty writer Su Che did not think so, Su Che felt that the behavior of Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty violated the friendship between the monarch and the minister, father and son, and brothers, and even violated the moral sentiments between people.
Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty was controversial in his approach to the morality of the king, and Chao Cuo was a famous politician in the Western Han Dynasty, who advocated the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and was the teacher of Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty.
Chao Cuo is very important to Liu Qi, and Liu Qi also attaches great importance to Chao Cuo after ascending the throne, and attaches much more importance to it than Jiuqing. Liu Qi obeyed Chao's wrong words, but in the end, Liu Qi unjustly killed the teacher.
At that time, there was a war in the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, and at this time, Yuan Ang suggested to Liu Qi that Chao Cuo be killed so that the rebellion could be quelled. Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty really followed Yuan An's advice, thinking that by killing Chao Cuo, the rebellion could be eliminated. In this way, Chao was wrongfully killed.
However, the Wu Chu rebels did not stop their rebellion because Chao Cuo was beheaded. At this time, an official named Deng Gong told Liu Qi that the killing of Chao Cuo was just an excuse for the rebels to raise troops.
Liu Qi suddenly realized that he immediately mobilized troops to quell the rebellion. In this battle of rebellion of the rebels, only Chao Cuo was unjustly killed, and Liu Qi, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, listened to Yuan An's advice and killed his teacher by mistake, without the ability to think independently, and was gullible to others.
In addition to the wrongful killing, Zhou Yafu's death was also caused by Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty. And Zhou Yafu is different from Chao Cuo, who is the teacher of Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Qi unjustly killed him because he was gullible about others.
And Zhou Yafu is because there was a conflict between the two. Zhou Yafu had a quarrel with Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty on the matter of abolishing the crown prince, and the grievances between the two ended.
Liu Qi held a grudge against Zhou Yafu everywhere, and Zhou Yafu greeted him with a military salute, Liu Qi was very dissatisfied with him. Liu Qi was different from Emperor Wen of Han, who could allow Zhou Yafu to pay a military salute, but Liu Qi did not agree to Zhou Yafu to meet him with a military salute.
In order to test Zhou Yafu, Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty deliberately stopped putting chopsticks on his table, which angered Zhou Yafu. Afterwards, Zhou Yafu was unwilling to apologize to Liu Qi, and the grievances between the two gradually deepened.
The real reason why Zhou Yafu was finally beheaded was that his son bought 500 armor shields for him, and the matter was exposed. Upon learning of this, Liu Qi immediately issued an edict to arrest Zhou Yafu, and the judicial officials of the imperial court interrogated Zhou Yafu at Liu Qi's behest.
Zhou Yafu defended the matter, but the judicial officials did not listen to his justification, and even forced Zhou Yafu to admit to rebellion. In the end, Zhou Yafu died violently.
Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty also had a very bad attitude towards the crown prince Liu Rong. Liu Qi abolished Liu Rong's position as the crown prince, and later Liu Rong was known to Liu Qi for building a palace temple on the land of Zongmiao without authorization, and Liu Qi immediately recalled him back to Chang'an.
In order to keep Liu Che's position as the crown prince, Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty used very cruel means to execute Liu Rong. Liu Qi not only executed his teacher Chao Cuo, but also beheaded Zhou Yafu and the crown prince Liu Rong.
Liu Qi was a mean and unkind emperor, and the Song Dynasty writer Su Che commented on him as such, violating the moral sentiments between people, and being extremely cruel to his own monarchs, fathers, and sons.
However, Ban Gu's evaluation of Liu Qi is good, and Liu Qi has unique features in governing the country. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Liu Heng advocated the concept of quiet and inactive governance, and the operation of imperial power became cautious.
The power of the powerful continued to grow, and the power of the vassal states gradually threatened the imperial power. Moreover, the prime minister of the military-industrial complex also has a lot of power, which has a great restraining force on the centralized imperial system.
These hidden dangers are very unfavorable to the steady development of the country, so after Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, the first thing was to suppress the power of the prime minister, and in addition, Liu Qi also took corresponding measures for the affairs of the vassal states with greater power.
Liu Qi adopted a policy of recovering the numismatic and military power of the vassal states, which could directly suppress the power of the vassal states. These measures laid a good foundation for Liu Qi to unify the prosperous empire.
On the economic front, Liu Qi also took many measures, such as levying a land tax, allowing farmers to reclaim wasteland, recovering the state's right to mint money, redeveloping agriculture, reducing land rents, and establishing a system of gardens and horses.
To a large extent, these measures have improved the country's economic development, and the lives of the people have become better and better.
Conclusion: Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty certainly had some deficiencies in the morality of being a king, and the mistreatment of the monarch and the execution of the crown prince Liu Rong violated moral sentiments.
However, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty had a unique feature in governing the country, and took various reasonable measures to increase the country's financial revenue and food, and promote the steady development of Wenjingzhi.
