Liu Bei, the Emperor of the Shu Han Dynasty, was a descendant of Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing, so who was this Liu Sheng the King of Zhongshan Jing? It turned out that Liu Sheng was the son of Liu Qi, the Emperor of Han Jing, and the half-brother of Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty. In history, Liu Sheng did nothing, his greatest hobbies were beauty and wine, and he actually had more than one hundred and twenty sons in his lifetime. Many people felt that Liu Sheng was just a stupid boy, in fact, he was the smartest prince at that time, what was going on?
Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty had fourteen sons, of whom Lady Jia bore two, namely Liu Pengzu the Prince of Zhao Jingsu and Liu Sheng the Prince of Zhongshan Jing. In 154 BC, the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu was put down, but the Han Jing Emperor did not abolish the feudal system, but continued to divide the feudalism, of which the crown prince Liu Duan was named the King of Jiaoxi and Liu Sheng was made the King of Zhongshan. The following year, Liu Che, who was only four years old, was also canonized and became the King of Jiaodong.
However, three years later, the situation changed, Liu Che's birth mother Wang Shi became empress, and Liu Che became the crown prince. Although Liu Sheng's age is older than Liu Che, the identities of the two have changed at this time. In 141 BC, the Han Jing Emperor Liu Qi died of illness, and the Han WuDi Emperor Liu Che took the throne, beginning his reign that lasted for more than fifty years. At the beginning of his reign, Emperor Wu of han learned the historical lessons of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms and began to suppress the princely states.
Under these circumstances, some officials in the DPRK and China used special means to deal with these princes, "now or innocently, insulted by their subordinates, and some of them are nitpicking and begging for flaws, flogging their subjects, so that they can prove their kings, and most of them think that they have been wronged." That is to say, those princes who have not committed crimes will also be bullied and humiliated by their subordinates, and the relevant departments are even more critical, using harsh criminal law to treat the ministers of the princes and kings and let them testify, so there have been many unjust, false and wrong cases.
These princes dared to be angry about this, for fear of offending the emperor, but Liu Sheng was very clever, and he adopted another strategy. In 138 BC, Liu Deng, the Acting King, Liu Fa the Prince of Changsha, Liu Sheng the King of Zhongshan, and Liu Ming the King of Jichuan came to Chang'an to meet him. Emperor Wu of Han was very pleased and held a banquet to entertain these brothers. During the banquet, Liu Sheng heard the sound of music but cried. Emperor Wu of Han quickly asked what the reason was.
Liu Sheng quoted the scriptures and made a long speech, and finally said: "Although the subject is thin, he must be attached to the lungs; although he is humble, he must be the Eastern Domain, and he is also called a brother." Nowadays, the group of ministers is not a relative of Ye, the weight of the hair, the group party, the friends, so that the husband's clan room is rejected, and the flesh and bones are frozen. Liu Sheng said that his situation was very miserable, in fact, it was to show that the emperor was too harsh on the princes. Then he listed the officials' embezzlement and bullying of the princes.
Liu Sheng's words greatly touched Emperor Wu of Han and made a change, "so shang nai hou princes' gifts, provincial yousi played the princes' affairs, and added the grace of relatives." Despite this, Emperor Wu of han's policy toward the princely states never changed, and many princes were still deposed of their titles and even lost their lives. Liu Sheng was a wise man, and he understood that in order to save his life, only by not interfering in government affairs and being a prince of leisure, so that the emperor could rest assured.
Therefore, Liu Sheng indulged in wine, and his life was very dashing. In this regard, Liu Sheng's half-brother Liu Pengzu criticized, "The King of Zhongshan, but extravagant, does not follow the people of Tianzi, how can he be called a vassal!" But Liu Sheng did not think so, "Brother is the king, and he specializes in ruling things on behalf of the officials." The king listened to the music that day, and the sound of the royal color. In 113 BC, Liu Sheng, who had been the prince of qiao for 42 years, fell ill and died, and it turned out that he was the wisest prince at that time.
References: 1. "Records of History"; 2. "Book of Han"