1
卷五十三景十三王傳第二十三
Volume 53: Biography of Emperor Jing’s Thirteen Sons (no. 23)
2
孝景皇帝十四男。 王皇后生孝武皇帝。 栗姬生臨江閔王榮、河間獻王德、臨江哀王閼。 程姬生魯共王餘、江都易王非、膠西于王端。 賈夫人生趙敬肅王彭祖、中山靖王勝。 唐姬生長沙定王發。 王夫人生廣川惠王越、膠東康王寄、清河哀王乘、常山憲王舜。
Emperor Jing fathered fourteen sons. The Empress Wang gave birth to the future Emperor Wu. Lady Li was mother to Liu Rong, Prince Min of Linjiang; Liu De, Prince Xian of Hejian; and Liu Que, Prince Ai of Linjiang. Lady Cheng bore Liu Yu, Prince Gong of Lu; Liu Fei, Prince Yi of Jiangdu; and Liu Duan, Prince Yu of Jiaoxi. Consort Jia was mother to Liu Pengzu, Prince Jingsu of Zhao, and Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan. Lady Tang bore Liu Fa, Prince Ding of Changsha. Lady Wang bore Liu Yue, Prince Hui of Guangchuan; Liu Ji, Prince Kang of Jiaodong; Liu Cheng, Prince Ai of Qinghe; and Liu Shun, Prince Xian of Changshan.
3
河間獻王德
Liu De, Prince Xian of Hejian
4
河間獻王德以孝景前二年立，修學好古，實事求是。 從民得善書，必為好寫與之，留其真，加金帛賜以招之。 繇是四方道術之人不遠千里，或有先祖舊書，多奉以奏獻王者，故得書多，與漢朝等。 是時，淮南王安亦好書，所招致率多浮辯。 獻王所得書皆古文先秦舊書，周官、尚書、禮、禮記、孟子、老子之屬，皆經傳說記，七十子之徒所論。 其學舉六藝，立毛氏詩、左氏春秋博士。 修禮樂，被服儒術，造次必於儒者。 山東諸儒者從而游。
Liu De, Prince Xian of Hejian, was ennobled in the second year of Emperor Jing’s pre-accession era. He devoted himself to scholarship and antiquity, and held to the principle of “seeking truth in solid evidence.” Whenever commoners brought him valuable texts, he had fair copies made for them, returned their originals, and rewarded them with gold and silk to draw in still more books. Scholars and adepts flocked from every quarter, some bearing family heirlooms in old script; many offered them to the prince, so that his library grew as large as that of the imperial Han government. Prince Liu An of Huainan likewise collected books, yet the hangers-on he attracted dealt chiefly in flashy sophistry. What Liu De acquired were archaic pre-Qin manuscripts: the Rites of Zhou, the Book of Documents, the Rituals, the Record of Rites, the Mencius, the Laozi, and similar works—canonical texts, glosses, and treatises associated with the seventy followers of Confucius. His curriculum covered the six arts, and he appointed erudits for the Mao tradition of the Odes and the Zuo commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals. He cultivated ritual and music, wore the mantle of Confucian learning, and even in moments of urgency behaved as a scholar ought. Ru scholars from east of the mountains came to study at his court.
5
武帝時，獻王來朝，獻雅樂，對三雍宮及詔策所問三十餘事。 其對推道術而言，得事之中，文約指明。
During Emperor Wu’s reign Liu De visited the capital, presented refined ritual music, and responded to over thirty questions put to him in the Three Yong halls and in imperial rescripts. His answers unfolded statecraft and principle, struck the right balance on each issue, and were spare in diction yet precise in judgment.
6
立二十六年薨。 中尉常麗以聞，曰：「王身端行治，溫仁恭儉，篤敬愛下，明知深察，惠于鰥寡。」 大行令奏：「諡法曰『聰明睿知曰獻』，宜諡曰獻王。」 子共王不害嗣，四年薨。 子剛王堪嗣，十二年薨。 子頃王授嗣，十七年薨。 子孝王慶嗣，四十三年薨。 子元嗣。
He died in the twenty-sixth year of his reign. Commandant of the capital guard Chang Li memorialized: “The king’s person and conduct are exemplary—mild, humane, reverent, and thrifty; he honors superiors and cherishes inferiors; his judgment is lucid and penetrating; he shows compassion to the widowed and alone.” The Minister of Imperial Equipage reported: “By the rules of ennobling the dead, ‘keen of mind and far-seeing’ is styled Xian; the late king merits the posthumous title Prince Xian.” His son Liu Buhai, Prince Gong, succeeded and died four years later. His son Liu Kan, Prince Gang, reigned twelve years and then died. His son Liu Shou, Prince Qing, succeeded and died in the seventeenth year. His son Liu Qing, Prince Xiao, held the fief for forty-three years before his death. His son Liu Yuan succeeded him.
7
元取故廣陵厲王、厲王太子及中山懷王故姬廉等以為姬。 甘露中，冀州刺史敞奏元，事下廷尉，逮召廉等。 元迫脅凡七人，令自殺。 有司奏請誅元，有詔削二縣，萬一千戶。 後元怒少史留貴，留貴踰垣出，欲告元，元使人殺留貴母。 有司奏元殘賊不改，不可君國子民。 廢勿王，處漢中房陵。 居數年，坐與妻若共乘朱輪車，怒若，又笞擊，令自髡。 漢中太守請治元，病死。 立十七年，國除。
Liu Yuan took into his harem Lian and other former consorts of the deposed Prince Li of Guangling, that prince’s former heir, and Prince Huai of Zhongshan. During the Ganlu period, Ji provincial inspector Chang denounced Liu Yuan; the case was referred to the commandant of justice, and Lian and her companions were summoned. Yuan forced seven people in all to take their own lives under duress. Officials asked for Yuan’s death; the emperor instead ordered two counties and eleven thousand households removed from his domain. Later Yuan quarreled with his junior scribe Liu Gui; Liu Gui scaled the wall to escape and meant to inform on him, so Yuan had Liu Gui’s mother murdered. Officials reported that Yuan remained savage and incorrigible and was unfit to hold a kingdom or act as lord to his subjects. He was stripped of his royal title and confined to Fangling in Hanzhong commandery. Some years later he was charged because he rode in a vermilion-wheeled carriage with his consort Ruo, flew into a rage at her, struck her, and made her shave her own head. The Hanzhong governor sought authority to prosecute him; Yuan died of illness first. After seventeen years on the throne his domain was extinguished.
8
絕五歲，成帝建始元年，復立元弟上郡庫令良，是為河間惠王。 良修獻王之行，母太后薨，服喪如禮。 哀帝下詔褒揚曰：「河間王良，喪太后三年，為宗室儀表，其益封萬戶。」 二十七年薨。 子尚嗣，王莽時絕。
The line lapsed for five years until, in Emperor Cheng’s first Jianshi year, Yuan’s younger brother Liang, arsenal warden at Shangjun, was restored as Prince Hui of Hejian. Liang emulated Prince Xian’s virtue; when his mother the queen dowager died, he observed the full mourning rites. Emperor Ai issued a rescript of praise: “Liu Liang of Hejian mourned the queen dowager the full three years; as an exemplar for the house of Liu, add ten thousand households to his estate.” He died in the twenty-seventh year of his reign. His son Liu Shang succeeded; the house died out under Wang Mang.
9
臨江哀王閼
Liu Que, Prince Ai of Linjiang
10
臨江哀王閼以孝景前二年立，三年薨。 無子，國除為郡。
Liu Que, Prince Ai of Linjiang, was ennobled in Emperor Jing’s second pre-accession year and died three years later. With no heir, his kingdom was struck off and converted into a commandery.
11
臨江閔王榮
Liu Rong, Prince Min of Linjiang
12
臨江閔王榮以孝景前四年為皇太子，四歲廢為臨江王。 三歲，坐侵廟壖地為宮，上徵榮。 榮行，祖於江陵北門，既上車，軸折車廢。 江陵父老流涕竊言曰：「吾王不反矣！」 榮至，詣中尉府對簿。 中尉郅都簿責訊王，王恐，自殺。 葬藍田，燕數萬銜土置冢上。 百姓憐之。
Liu Rong was appointed crown prince in Emperor Jing’s fourth pre-accession year; four years later he was removed and enfeoffed as Prince of Linjiang. In the third year of that princedom he was charged with building a palace on land reserved for the ancestral temple; the emperor summoned Rong to the capital. As he departed, a farewell sacrifice was offered at Jiangling’s north gate; once he had boarded the chariot, its axle snapped and the vehicle broke down. The old men of Jiangling wept and murmured among themselves, “Our prince will never come back.” On reaching the capital he presented himself at the commandant of the capital guard’s yamen to face the bill of accusation. Commandant Zhi Du browbeat him through the written record; terrified, Rong took his own life. He was interred at Lantian, where tens of thousands of swallows brought earth and piled it upon his tomb. The people mourned him.
13
榮最長，亡子，國除。 地入于漢，為南郡。
Rong was the eldest son; he left no heir, and his kingdom was abolished. His lands reverted to the Han and were organized as Nan commandery.
14
魯恭王餘
Liu Yu, Prince Gong of Lu
15
魯恭王餘以孝景前二年立為淮陽王。 吳楚反破後，以孝景前三年徙王魯。 好治宮室苑囿狗馬，季年好音，不喜辭。 為人口吃難言。
Liu Yu, Prince Gong of Lu, was first made Prince of Huaiyang in Emperor Jing’s second pre-accession year. Once the Wu–Chu revolt had been crushed, in the third pre-accession year he was moved to the throne of Lu. He delighted in palaces, hunting parks, dogs, and horses; in old age he turned to music and cared little for literary display. He was a stutterer and spoke with difficulty.
16
二十八年薨。 子安王光嗣，初好音樂輿馬，晚節遴，唯恐不足於財。 四十年薨。 子孝王慶忌嗣，三十七年薨。 子頃王勁嗣，二十八年薨。 子文王晳嗣，十八年薨，亡子，國除。 哀帝建平三年，復立頃王子晳弟郚鄉侯閔為王。 王莽時絕。
He died in the twenty-eighth year of his reign. His son Liu Guang, Prince An, succeeded; in youth he loved music and equipage, but in later life he grew stingy and fretted constantly over money. He died after forty years on the throne. His son Liu Qingji, Prince Xiao, reigned thirty-seven years and died. His son Liu Jin, Prince Qing, held the fief twenty-eight years before his death. His son Liu Xi, Prince Wen, died in the eighteenth year without issue, and the kingdom was abolished. In Emperor Ai’s third Jianping year, Xi’s younger brother Min, Marquis of Xiang township, was restored as prince. The line was cut off under Wang Mang.
17
恭王初好治宮室，壞孔子舊宅以廣其宮，聞鐘磬琴瑟之聲，遂不敢復壞，於其壁中得古文經傳。
Prince Gong Yu first razed part of Confucius’s former dwelling to expand his palace; when he heard bells, stone-chimes, and strings from within, he stopped the work—and from the walls workers recovered classical texts in old script.
18
江都易王非
Liu Fei, Prince Yi of Jiangdu
19
國中口語籍籍，慎無復至江都。」 後建使謁者吉請問共太后，太后泣謂吉：「歸以吾言謂而王，王前事漫漫，今當自謹，獨不聞燕齊事乎？ 言吾為而王泣也。」 吉歸，致共太后語，建大怒，擊吉，斥之。
…“rumor ran wild through the kingdom—on no account return to Jiangdu.” Later Liu Jian sent usher Ji to visit the Dowager of Gong; in tears she told Ji, “Go back and tell your king: his earlier misdeeds are a tangled record—now he must watch his step. Has he never heard what happened in Yan and Qi? Go say that I weep for your king.” When Ji returned and repeated the dowager’s message, Jian flew into a rage, beat him, and sent him away.
20
建游章臺宮，令四女子乘小船，建以足蹈覆其船，四人皆溺，二人死。 後游雷波，天大風，建使郎二人乘小船入波中。 船覆，兩郎溺，攀船，乍見乍沒。 建臨觀大笑，令皆死。
At Zhangtai Palace Jian had four women board a skiff, then rocked it with his foot until it capsized; all four went under, and two drowned. Later, at Leibo marsh, a gale sprang up and he sent two court gentlemen out in a little boat into the chop. The boat overturned; the two men clung to it, bobbing between sight and disappearance. Jian stood on the shore laughing and ordered them left to drown.
21
宮人姬八子有過者，輒令臝立擊鼓，或置樹上，久者三十日乃得衣； 或髡鉗以鈆杵舂，不中程，輒掠； 或縱狼令齧殺之，建觀而大笑； 或閉不食，令餓死。 凡殺不辜三十五人。 建欲令人與禽獸交而生子，彊令宮人臝而四據，與羝羊及狗交。 專為淫虐，自知罪多，國中多欲告言者，建恐誅，心內不安，與其后成光共使越婢下神，祝詛上。 與郎中令等語怨望：「漢廷使者即復來覆我，我決不獨死！」
Palace ladies of the eighth concubine rank who erred were made to stand naked and beat drums, or were tied up in trees; some went thirty days without clothes. Others were shorn, collared, and set to pounding with lead pestles; missing the work quota brought a beating. Sometimes he loosed wolves to tear them apart while he watched and roared with laughter. Some he locked away without food until they starved. In all he murdered thirty-five innocents. He wanted human–animal unions to yield children, so he stripped palace women, spread them on all fours, and forced them onto rams and dogs. Lost in lust and torture, aware of his long list of crimes and the many who would denounce him, Jian lived in terror of the axe; he and Queen Cheng Guang sent Yue bondmaids to conjure spirits and imprecate the throne. To his superintendent of the gentlemen and others he snarled, “The next time Han’s envoys come to rake through my affairs, I will not be the only one to die!”
22
建亦頗聞淮南、衡山陰謀，恐一日發，為所并，遂作兵器。 號王后父胡應為將軍。 中大夫疾有材力，善騎射，號曰靈武君。 作治黃屋蓋； 刻皇帝璽，鑄將軍、都尉金銀印； 作漢使節二十，綬千餘； 具置軍官品員，及拜爵封侯之賞； 具天下之輿地及軍陳圖。 遣人通越繇王閩侯，遺以錦帛奇珍，繇王閩侯亦遺建荃、葛、珠璣、犀甲、翠羽、蝯熊奇獸，數通使往來，約有急相助。 及淮南事發，治黨與，頗連及建，建使人多推金錢絕其獄。
He had caught wind of Huainan’s and Hengshan’s conspiracy and feared being swallowed up if it erupted, so he began forging arms. He gave Queen Hu’s father the title of general. Grand counsellor Ji, strong and expert with horse and bow, was nicknamed Lord Lingwu. He ordered a yellow imperial canopy made. He had an imperial seal carved and gold and silver seals cast for generals and commandants. He counterfeited twenty Han-style credentials of office and over a thousand ribbon sets. He drew up tables of military ranks and appointments and the bounties promised for enfeoffment as marquis. He collected maps of the realm and of troop deployments. He dispatched agents to the Yue client king Min Hou with silks and curiosities; Min Hou replied with medicinal plants, pearls, rhinoceros-hide armor, kingfisher feathers, and rare apes and bears—envoys passed back and forth and they pledged mutual aid in crisis. When the Huainan plot was exposed and accomplices were rounded up, Jian was partly entangled; he spent heavily to bury the investigation.
23
後復謂近臣曰：「我為王，詔獄歲至，生又無驩怡日，壯士不坐死，欲為人所不能為耳。」 建時佩其父所賜將軍印，載天子旗出。 積數歲，事發覺，漢遣丞相長史與江都相雜案，索得兵器璽綬節反具，有司請捕誅建。 制曰：「與列侯吏二千石博士議。」 議皆曰：「建失臣子道，積久，輒蒙不忍，遂謀反逆。 所行無道，雖桀紂惡不至於此。 天誅所不赦，當以謀反法誅。」 有詔宗正、廷尉即問建。 建自殺，后成光等皆棄市。 六年國除，地入于漢，為廣陵郡。
Later he told his intimates, “As a king I face imperial inquests year after year and never a day of ease—a bold man does not await death in his chair; I mean to attempt what no one else dares.” He then wore the general’s seal his father had bestowed and drove abroad under the imperial standard. Within a few years the plot surfaced; the court sent the chief minister’s senior clerk and the Jiangdu chancellor to conduct a joint inquest, uncovering arms, seals, ribbons, credentials, and full rebel paraphernalia; officials demanded Jian’s arrest and execution. The emperor replied: “Take this up with the full marquises, the ministers at two thousand piculs, and the court erudits.” Their unanimous verdict was: “Jian betrayed every duty of a vassal and a son; again and again he was spared, yet he went on to plot open rebellion.” His conduct was lawless in the extreme—not even the worst tales of Jie and Zhou go this far.” He is beyond what any pardon can cover and must die under the statutes that punish treason.” An edict instructed the director of the imperial clan and the commandant of justice to question Jian at once. Jian took his own life; Queen Cheng Guang and her accomplices were executed in the public market. In the sixth year the kingdom was struck off; its lands reverted to the Han and were organized as Guangling commandery.
24
絕百二十一年，平帝時新都侯王莽秉政，興滅繼絕，立建弟盱眙侯子宮為廣陵王，奉易王後。 莽篡，國絕。
The line had been dead for a hundred and twenty-one years when, under Emperor Ping, Xindu marquis Wang Mang—then directing the government—revived fallen houses and named Gong, son of Jian’s younger brother the marquis of Xuyi, king of Guangling so that Prince Yi’s posterity would not lapse. When Wang Mang seized the throne, that kingship too ended.
25
膠西於王端
Liu Duan, Prince Yu of Jiaoxi
26
膠西于王端，孝景前三年立。 為人賊盭，又陰痿，一近婦人，病數月。 有所愛幸少年，以為郎。 郎與後宮亂，端禽滅之，及殺其子母。 數犯法，漢公卿數請誅端，天子弗忍，而端所為滋甚。 有司比再請，削其國，去太半。 端心慍，遂為無訾省。 府庫壞漏，盡腐財物，以鉅萬計，終不得收徙。 令吏毋得收租賦。 端皆去衛，封其宮門，從一門出入。 數變名姓，為布衣，之它國。
Liu Duan, Prince Yu of Jiaoxi, was ennobled in the third year of Emperor Jing’s pre-accession era. He was vicious by nature and impotent besides: a single night with a woman laid him low for months. He kept a handsome youth whom he favored and enrolled among his gentlemen attendants. When that attendant took one of the harem women, Duan had him seized and killed—along with the woman and the child she had borne. He broke the law again and again; the high ministers of Han repeatedly demanded his death, yet the emperor kept showing mercy—while Duan’s crimes only mounted. Officials kept pressing their case until the court stripped more than half his territory. Sullen at the loss, Duan simply abandoned fiscal discipline—no inventories, no economies. Storehouses collapsed and leaked; goods worth untold millions rotted where they lay and could neither be salvaged nor moved. He forbade his officials to levy rent or land tax. He dismissed his household guard, walled up every palace gate but one, and came and went only through that single opening. He often changed his name, dressed as a commoner, and slipped into neighboring kingdoms.
27
相二千石至者，奉漢法以治，端輒求其罪告之，亡罪者詐藥殺之。 所以設詐究變，彊足以距諫，知足以飾非。 相二千石從王治，則漢繩以法。 故膠西小國，而所殺傷二千石甚眾。
Whenever a chancellor or a minister at two thousand piculs tried to rule by Han statute, Duan hunted for pretexts to impeach them; the innocent he murdered with poison in secret. Such stratagems gave him the muscle to brush off remonstrance and the wit to paper over his crimes. If those same officials instead did the king’s bidding, the central government hauled them up on legal charges. Thus a tiny kingdom of Jiaoxi accounted for an extraordinary toll of murdered or ruined ministers at two thousand piculs.
28
立四十七年薨，無子，國除。 地入于漢，為膠西郡。
He died in the forty-seventh year of his reign without an heir, and the fief was abolished. His lands were annexed to Han as Jiaoxi commandery.
29
趙敬肅王彭祖
Liu Pengzu, Prince Jingsu of Zhao
30
趙敬肅王彭祖以孝景前二年立為廣川王。 趙王遂反破後，徙王趙。 彭祖為人巧佞，卑諂足共，而心刻深，好法律，持詭辯以中人。 多內寵姬及子孫。 相二千石欲奉漢法以治，則害於王家。 是以每相二千石至，彭祖衣帛布單衣，自行迎除舍，多設疑事以詐動之，得二千石失言，中忌諱，輒書之。 二千石欲治者，則以此迫劫； 不聽，乃上書告之，及汙以姦利事。 彭祖立六十餘年，相二千石無能滿二歲，輒以罪去，大者死，小者刑。 以故二千石莫敢治，而趙王擅權。 使使即縣為賈人榷會，入多於國租稅。 以是趙王家多金錢，然所賜姬諸子，亦盡之矣。
Liu Pengzu, the future Prince Jingsu of Zhao, was first made king of Guangchuan in Emperor Jing’s second pre-accession year. When Prince Liu Sui of Zhao’s revolt collapsed, the court moved Pengzu onto the throne of Zhao. Pengzu was sly and obsequious, eager to please on the surface yet ruthless underneath; he delighted in the code and used twisted pleading to ruin anyone who crossed him. His inner quarters teemed with favored women and children. Whenever a chancellor or a two-thousand-picul minister tried to enforce Han law, Pengzu treated it as a blow against his own house. So each new arrival found Pengzu waiting in plain silk, sweeping out the guest rooms himself and laying verbal traps until the man misspoke or touched a taboo—every slip went into a written record. Officials who still meant to do their job he blackmailed with those notes; those who refused he denounced at court, smearing them with trumped-up corruption charges. In sixty-odd years on the throne he never let a chancellor or two-thousand-picul appointee serve two full years: each was cashiered on some pretext—death in the gravest cases, mutilating sentence in the lighter ones. After that no minister dared actually govern, and the king of Zhao ruled as he pleased. He posted agents in the counties to monopolize market fees like licensed merchants; their rake-off exceeded the kingdom’s ordinary tax yield. The royal treasury swelled with cash even as gifts to concubines and sons drained it dry.
31
彭祖不好治宮室禨祥，好為吏。 上書願督國中盜賊。 常夜從走卒行徼邯鄲中。 諸使過客，以彭祖險陂，莫敢留邯鄲。
Pengzu cared little for palaces or portents; what he loved was playing magistrate. He petitioned for authority to hunt down bandits inside Zhao. Night after night he trailed foot soldiers on street patrol through Handan. Envoys and travelers, knowing how treacherous Pengzu was, avoided stopping in Handan altogether.
32
久之，太子丹與其女弟及同產姊姦。 江充告丹淫亂，又使人椎埋攻剽，為姦甚眾。 武帝遣使者發吏卒捕丹，下魏郡詔獄，治罪至死。 彭祖上書冤訟丹，願從國中勇敢擊匈奴，贖丹罪，上不許。 久之，竟赦出。 後彭祖入朝，因帝姊平陽隆慮公主，求復立丹為太子，上不許。
Years later the heir Liu Dan was found to have lain with his younger full sister and his elder full sister. Jiang Chong impeached him for incest and debauchery, for hiring thugs to rob tombs and waylay travelers, and for a host of other crimes. Emperor Wu sent agents with troops to seize Dan and remanded him to the imperial jail in Wei commandery on capital charges. Pengzu pleaded that Dan had been wronged and offered to lead Zhao’s stalwarts against the Xiongnu to buy off the sentence; the emperor refused. In time, however, Dan was pardoned and freed. Later, at court, Pengzu used the emperor’s sister Princess Longlü of Pingyang to beg that Dan be restored as heir; again the emperor said no.
33
彭祖取江都易王寵姬，王建所姦淖姬者，甚愛之，生一男，號淖子。 彭祖以征和元年薨，諡敬肅王。 彭祖薨時，淖姬兄為漢宦者，上召問：「淖子何如？」 對曰：「為人多欲。」 上曰：「多欲不宜君國子民。」 問武始侯昌，曰：「無咎無譽。」 上曰：「如是可矣。」 遣使者立昌，是為頃王，十九年薨。 子懷王尊嗣，五年薨。 無子，絕二歲。 宣帝立尊弟高，是為哀王，數月薨。 子共王充嗣，五十六年薨。 子隱嗣，王莽時絕。
Pengzu took as consort the Lady Nao—once a favorite of Prince Yi of Jiangdu whom the depraved Liu Jian had also seduced—and doted on her; she bore a son known as “the Nao boy.” Pengzu died in the first Zhenghe year and received the posthumous title Prince Jingsu. At Pengzu’s death the Lady Nao’s brother was serving as a palace eunuch; the emperor called him in and asked, “What sort of man is the Nao boy?” The man answered, “He is insatiably ambitious.” The emperor said, “A man of boundless appetite is unfit to hold a kingdom or shepherd the people.” He put the same question to Marquis Chang of Wushi, who replied, “Neither blame nor praise attaches to him.” “That will do,” said the emperor. He dispatched envoys to invest Chang as king—Prince Qing of Zhao—who reigned nineteen years and died. His son Liu Zun, Prince Huai, succeeded and died within five years. He left no heir, and the succession stood vacant for two years. Emperor Xuan then raised Zun’s younger brother Liu Gao to the throne as Prince Ai; he died a few months later. His son Liu Chong, Prince Gong, ruled fifty-six years before his death. His son Liu Yin succeeded; the line died out under Wang Mang.
34
初，武帝復以親親故，立敬肅王小子偃為平干王，是為頃王，十一年薨。 子繆王元嗣，二十五年薨。 大鴻臚禹奏：「元前以刃賊殺奴婢，子男殺謁者，為刺史所舉奏，罪名明白。 病先令，令能為樂奴婢從死，迫脅自殺者凡十六人，暴虐不道。 故春秋之義，誅君之子不宜立。 元雖未伏誅，不宜立嗣。」 奏可，國除。
Earlier, out of kindness to kin, Emperor Wu had ennobled Yan, Prince Jingsu’s youngest son, as king of Pinggan—Prince Qing—who died in the eleventh year of his reign. His son Liu Yuan, Prince Miu, held the fief twenty-five years and died. Grand Herald Yu reported: “Yuan once hacked slave-girls to death; his son murdered an usher; a provincial inspector impeached him—the facts are plain. On his deathbed he ordered every musically trained slave-girl to follow him to the grave; sixteen were driven to suicide—cruelty that shocks the moral order. By the Spring and Autumn Annals’ principle, the heir of a prince so condemned ought not to inherit.” Even though Yuan has not yet been put to death, no successor should be named.” The throne approved the memorial and abolished the kingdom.
35
中山靖王勝
Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan
36
建元三年，代王登、長沙王發、中山王勝、濟川王明來朝，天子置酒，勝聞樂聲而泣。 問其故，勝對曰：
In the third Jianyuan year the kings of Dai (Liu Deng), Changsha (Liu Fa), Zhongshan (Liu Sheng), and Jichuan (Liu Ming) attended court; when the emperor gave a banquet and the musicians struck up, Liu Sheng began to weep. Asked why, he answered:
37
臣聞悲者不可為絫欷，思者不可為歎息。 故高漸離擊筑易水之上，荊軻為之低而不食； 雍門子壹微吟，孟嘗君為之於邑。 今臣心結日久，每聞幼眇之聲，不知涕泣之橫集也。
“I have heard that a man in grief cannot choke back sob after sob, nor a man deep in thought hold back long sighs.” When Gao Jianli plucked his lute on the banks of the Yi, Jing Ke hung his head and forgot his meal; when Yongmen Ziyi hummed a few lines, Lord Mengchang sank into wordless sorrow. My own heart has been tied in knots for years; at the merest thread of music I cannot tell how tears flood down.”
38
夫眾喣漂山，聚蚊成雷，朋黨執虎，十夫橈椎。 是以文王拘於牖里，孔子阨於陳、蔡。 此乃烝庶之成風，增積之生害也。 臣身遠與寡，莫為之先，眾口鑠金，積毀銷骨，叢輕折軸，羽翮飛肉，紛驚逢羅，潸然出涕。
“Many mouths can huff a hill into the river; swarms of gnats buzz like thunder; cabals grip like tigers; ten commoners can snap the executioner’s mallet.” That is why King Wen lay in chains at Youli and why Confucius starved between Chen and Cai. It is the way of the crowd once habit is set, and the injury that builds when slander piles up unchecked.” “I stand far from the capital with few friends; no one speaks for me ahead of time. Many mouths melt bronze; stacked lies gnaw bone; enough light loads will snap an axle; feathers can yet carry flesh. I stumble from panic into snares, and tears come of themselves.”
39
臣聞白日曬光，幽隱皆照； 明月曜夜，蚊虻宵見。 然雲蒸列布，杳冥晝昏； 塵埃抪覆，昧不泰山。 何則？ 物有蔽之也。 今臣雍閼不得聞，讒言之徒蹒生道遼路遠，曾莫為臣聞，臣竊自悲也。
“I have heard that when the noon sun shines, the darkest cranny is lit; when the bright moon rules the night, midges show plain in the dark; yet let vapors bank and spread, and broad noon turns twilight; let dust blot out the air, and even Mount Tai vanishes from sight.” “Why? Because something stands between the eye and the truth.” “Today I am shut out from the throne; calumniators breed unchecked; the capital is far away and no one has ever spoken for me—I mourn alone.”
40
臣聞社鼷不灌，屋鼠不熏。 何則？ 所託者然也。 臣雖薄也，得蒙肺附； 位雖卑也，得為東藩，屬又稱兄。 今群臣非有葭莩之親，鴻毛之重，群居黨議，朋友相為，使夫宗室擯卻，骨肉冰釋。 斯伯奇所以流離，比干所以橫分也。 《詩》云「我心憂傷，惄焉如擣； 假寐永歎，唯憂用老； 心之憂矣，疢如疾首」，臣之謂也。
“I have heard that no one flushes the rats from the soil-altar, no one smokes the rats from the roof-beams— Why? It is because of who shelters them. “Mean though I am, I have been counted among the emperor’s own flesh; humble though my rank is, I hold an eastern fief and stand as elder brother in the imperial clan.” “Yet your ministers share neither reed-thin kinship nor the weight of a goose feather with the throne; they herd in factions, scratch one another’s backs, and leave the house of Liu shoved aside while kin grow strangers.” That is how Boqi was cast out to wander, and how Bi Gan ended on the executioner's block. The Odes says: “My heart is sick; I toss as though pounded; I feign sleep yet sigh without end; care alone has aged me; my heart’s ache is a fever in the skull”—that verse is mine.”
41
具以吏所侵聞。 於是上乃厚諸侯之禮，省有司所奏諸侯事，加親親之恩焉。 其後更用主父偃謀，令諸侯以私恩自裂地分其子弟，而漢為定制封號，輒別屬漢郡。 漢有厚恩，而諸侯地稍自分析弱小云。
He then laid out in full every outrage local officials had committed against the kings. The emperor responded by magnifying the courtesies due feudal lords, cutting back the routine denunciations ministries sent up about them, and showing the house of Liu a warmer hand. The court then adopted Zhufu Yan’s scheme: lords were to carve up their domains among sons and brothers as a private favor, while the Han set the formal titles so that each new parcel fell under a Han-run commandery. The dynasty still showed them favor, but piece by piece their territories were partitioned until the kingdoms withered away.
42
勝為人樂酒好內，有子百二十餘人。 常與趙王彭祖相非曰：「兄為王，專代吏治事。 王者當日聽音樂，御聲色。」 趙王亦曰：「中山王但奢淫，不佐天子拊循百姓，何以稱為藩臣！」
Liu Sheng was fond of wine and women and fathered well over a hundred sons. He often needled the king of Zhao, Liu Pengzu: “You sit on a throne yet spend your days playing magistrate.” “A prince,” he said, “should pass his hours with music and pleasure.” Pengzu shot back: “The king of Zhongshan does nothing but wallow in luxury and lust—he never helps the emperor console the people. What sort of bulwark is that?”
43
四十三年薨。 子哀王昌嗣，一年薨。 子康王昆侈嗣，二十一年薨。 子頃王輔嗣，四年薨。 子憲王福嗣，十七年薨。 子懷王循嗣，十五年薨，無子，絕四十五歲。 成帝鴻嘉二年復立憲王弟孫利鄉侯子雲客，是為廣德夷王。 三年薨，無子，絕十四歲。 哀帝復立雲客弟廣漢為廣平王。 薨，無後。 平帝元始二年復立廣川惠王曾孫倫為廣德王，奉靖王後。 王莽時絕。
He died in the forty-third year of his reign. His son Liu Chang, Prince Ai, succeeded and died within a year. His son Liu Kunxi, Prince Kang, reigned twenty-one years and died. His son Liu Fu (posthumously Prince Qing) reigned four years and died. His son Liu Fu (posthumously Prince Xian) ruled seventeen years and died. His son Liu Xun, Prince Huai, died in the fifteenth year without an heir, and the succession lapsed for forty-five years. In Emperor Cheng’s second Hongjia year the court revived the line with Liu Yunke, great-grandson of Prince Xian and son of the marquis of Lixiang—Prince Yi of Guangde. He died three years later without issue, and another fourteen years passed with no king. Emperor Ai then raised Yunke’s younger brother Guanghan as king of Guangping. That king died too, leaving no heir. In Emperor Ping’s second Yuanshi year Lun, a great-great-grandson of Prince Hui of Guangchuan, was made king of Guangde to carry on Prince Jing’s posterity. Wang Mang extinguished the house.
44
長沙定王發
Liu Fa, Prince Ding of Changsha
45
長沙定王發，母唐姬，故程姬侍者。 景帝召程姬，程姬有所避，不願進，而飾侍者唐兒使夜進。 上醉，不知，以為程姬而幸之，遂有身。 已乃覺非程姬也。 及生子，因名曰發。 以孝景前二年立。 以其母微無寵，故王卑溼貧國。
Liu Fa’s mother was Lady Tang, once a handmaid in Consort Cheng’s service. When Emperor Jing called for Consort Cheng, she was indisposed and would not go; she sent her maid Tang Er, dressed as herself, to the bedchamber that night. The emperor, drunk, mistook the girl for Cheng and lay with her; she conceived. Only afterward did he discover the truth. When the boy was born he named him Fa—“sent away”—to mark the episode. He received his fief in the second year of Emperor Jing’s pre-accession era. Because his mother stood low in favor, his domain was a small, marshy, impoverished kingdom.
46
廣川惠王越
Liu Yue, Prince Hui of Guangchuan
47
後數月，下詔曰：「廣川惠王於朕為兄，朕不忍絕其宗廟，其以惠王孫去為廣川王。」 去即繆王齊太子也，師受易、論語、孝經皆通，好文辭方技博弈倡優。 其殿門有成慶畫，短衣大恊長劍，去好之，作七尺五寸劍，被服皆效焉。 有幸姬王昭平、王地餘，許以為后。 去嘗疾，姬陽成昭信侍視甚謹，更愛之。 去與地餘戲，得袖中刀，笞問狀，服欲與昭平共殺昭信。 笞問昭平，不服，以鐵鍼鍼之，彊服。 乃會諸姬，去以劍自擊地餘，令昭信擊昭平，皆死。 昭信曰：「兩姬婢且泄口。」 復絞殺從婢三人。 後昭信病，夢見昭平等以狀告去。 去曰：「虜乃復見畏我！ 獨可燔燒耳。」 掘出尸，皆燒為灰。
Months later an edict ran: “Prince Hui of Guangchuan was my elder brother; I cannot let his sacrifices lapse—install his grandson Qu as king of Guangchuan.” Qu had been heir to Prince Miu, Liu Qi; he had mastered the Changes, Analects, and Filial Piety under tutors, yet doted on belles-lettres, occult lore, board games, and actors. The gate bore a mural of the hero Cheng Qing in short jacket, billowing sleeves, and long blade; Qu copied the look, forging a seven-foot-five sword and matching his wardrobe to the picture. He favored Wang Zhaoping and Wang Diyu and promised each the crown of chief consort. During an illness the concubine Yangcheng Zhaoxin nursed him devotedly, and he transferred his affection to her. While sporting with Diyu he found a dagger in her sleeve; under the lash she admitted she and Zhaoping had plotted Zhaoxin’s murder. Zhaoping refused to confess until he drove iron needles into her flesh. He then lined up the harem: he ran Diyu through himself and ordered Zhaoxin to kill Zhaoping. Zhaoxin warned, “Those two maids will talk.” He strangled three more handmaids. When Zhaoxin later fell ill, she dreamed the dead women were denouncing her to the king. Qu snarled, “Those wretches still think they can haunt me!” “There is one cure—fire.” The bodies were exhumed and burned to ash.
48
後去立昭信為后； 幸姬陶望卿為脩靡夫人，主繒帛； 崔脩成為明貞夫人，主永巷。 昭信復譖望卿曰：「與我無禮，衣服常鮮于我，盡取善繒饨諸宮人。」 去曰：「若數惡望卿，不能減我愛； 設聞其淫，我亨之矣。」 後昭信謂去曰：「前畫工畫望卿舍，望卿袒裼傅粉其傍。 又數出入南戶窺郎吏，疑有姦。」 去曰：「善司之。」 以故益不愛望卿。 後與昭信等飲，諸姬皆侍，去為望卿作歌曰：「背尊章，嫖以忽，謀屈奇，起自絕。 行周流，自生患，諒非望，今誰怨！」 使美人相和歌之。 去曰：「
He then raised Zhaoxin to queen; he named his favorite Tao Wangqing “Lady of Xiumi” to oversee brocades and silks; Cui Xiucheng became “Lady of Mingzhen,” mistress of the harem lane. Zhaoxin whispered that Wangqing insulted her, dressed finer than the queen, and cornered the best silks for other women. Qu replied, “Slander her all you like—you will not cool my fondness; but give me proof of adultery and I will boil her alive.” Later Zhaoxin said, “When artists painted her rooms, Wangqing stripped to the waist and powdered herself beside them; she kept slipping through the south gate to spy on the gentlemen—I smell adultery.” “Keep her under watch,” said Qu. His love for Wangqing cooled. At a banquet with the women he sang of her: “You turned from honor, reckless and rash; your scheming was twisted—you cut your own thread; you wandered in circles and brewed your own grief; this was never my wish—whom can you blame now?” He made the concubines join in the chorus. He added, “
49
是中當有自知者。」 昭信知去已怒，即誣言望卿歷指郎吏臥處，具知其主名，又言郎中令錦被，疑有姦。 去即與昭信從諸姬至望卿所，臝其身，更擊之。 令諸姬各持燒鐵共灼望卿。 望卿走，自投井死。 昭信出之，椓杙其陰中，割其鼻脣，斷其舌。 謂去曰：「前殺昭平，反來畏我，今欲靡爛望卿，使不能神。」 與去共支解，置大鑊中，取桃灰毒藥并煮之，召諸姬皆臨觀，連日夜靡盡。 復共殺其女弟都。
someone here knows exactly what she has done.” Seeing his rage, Zhaoxin invented a tale that Wangqing catalogued where each officer slept, knew them all by name, and shared a brocade coverlet with the chief gentleman—clear proof of intrigue. He marched the harem to Wangqing’s rooms, stripped her, and beat her by turns. Each woman was handed a red-hot iron to sear her flesh. Wangqing broke away and drowned herself in a well. Zhaoxin had the corpse hauled up, impaled her groin, and hacked off nose, lips, and tongue. She told Qu, “After we killed Zhaoping her ghost terrified me; now we must dissolve Wangqing so she can never haunt us.” Together they carved the body apart, dumped it into a kettle with peach ash and poison, and boiled it while the whole harem watched until nothing remained. They murdered Wangqing’s younger sister Du as well.
50
後去數召姬榮愛與飲，昭信復譖之，曰：「榮姬視瞻，意態不善，疑有私。」 時愛為去刺方領繡，去取燒之。 愛恐，自投井。 出之未死，笞問愛，自誣與醫姦。 去縛繫柱，燒刀灼潰兩目，生割兩股，銷鈆灌其口中。 愛死，支解以棘埋之。 諸幸於去者，昭信輒譖殺之，凡十四人，皆埋太后所居長壽宮中。 宮人畏之，莫敢復迕。
When Qu began favoring Rong Ai, Zhaoxin whispered that the girl’s eyes and manner looked guilty of a secret lover. Ai was stitching a square collar for him; he snatched the work and threw it into the fire. Terrified, she leapt into a well. They fished her out still breathing; under torture she confessed to sleeping with a doctor— a lie wrung from her. He bound her to a post, seared out her eyes, carved living flesh from her thighs, and poured molten lead down her throat. When she died they quartered the corpse and buried it in a thorn patch. Every woman who won the king’s eye Zhaoxin denounced to death—fourteen in all—interred beneath Changshou Palace, the queen dowager’s residence. The household lived in terror of her and no one dared cross her.
51
昭信欲擅愛，曰：「王使明貞夫人主諸姬，淫亂難禁。 請閉諸姬舍門，無令出敖。」 使其大婢為僕射，主永巷，盡封閉諸舍，上籥於后，非大置酒召，不得見。 去憐之，為作歌曰：「愁莫愁，居無聊。 心重結，意不舒。 內茀鬱，憂哀積。 上不見天，生何益！ 日崔隤，時不再。 願棄軀，死無悔。」 令昭信聲鼓為節，以教諸姬歌之，歌罷輒歸永巷，封門。 獨昭信兄子初為乘華夫人，得朝夕見。 昭信與去從十餘奴博飲游敖。
To monopolize the king she said, “Lady Mingzhen cannot curb the harem’s whoring; seal every concubine’s door and stop them roaming free.” She put her head maid in charge of the lane, locked every suite, and turned the keys over to the queen so that no woman saw the king except at his grand banquets. Pitying them, he wrote: “Grief need not be deepest grief—only boredom in these rooms; the heart knots tight, the spirit finds no ease; choked within, sorrow stacks on sorrow; no sky above—what use is life? The sun slides down—this hour will not return; I would cast off this shell and die without regret.” Zhaoxin drummed time while the women learned the dirge; when it ended they were marched back to the sealed harem. Only Zhaoxin’s nephew Chu, styled Lady of Chenghua, still saw the king morning and night. Zhaoxin and the king roamed with a dozen slaves, dicing and drinking.
52
初去年十四五，事師受易，師數諫正去，去益大，逐之。 內史請以為掾，師數令內史禁切王家。 去使奴殺師父子，不發覺。 後去數置酒，令倡俳臝戲坐中以為樂。 相彊劾繫倡，闌入殿門，奏狀。 事下考案，倡辭，本為王教脩靡夫人望卿弟都歌舞。 使者召望卿、都，去對皆淫亂自殺。 會赦不治。 望卿前亨煮，即取他死人與都死并付其母。 母曰：「都是，望卿非也。」 數號哭求死，昭信令奴殺之。 奴得，辭服。 本始三年，相內史奏狀，具言赦前所犯。 天子遣大鴻臚、丞相長史、御史丞、廷尉正雜治鉅鹿詔獄，奏請逮捕去及后昭信。 制曰：「王后昭信、諸姬奴婢證者皆下獄。」 辭服。 有司復請誅王。 制曰：「與列侯、中二千石、二千石、博士議。」 議者皆以為去悖虐，聽后昭信讒言，燔燒亨煮，生割剝人，距師之諫，殺其父子。 凡殺無辜十六人，至一家母子三人，逆節絕理。 其十五人在赦前，大惡仍重，當伏顯戮以示眾。 制曰：「朕不忍致王於法，議其罰。」 有司請廢勿王，與妻子徙上庸。 奏可。 與湯沐邑百戶。 去道自殺，昭信棄市。
Chu was about fourteen when his tutor, teaching him the Changes, kept rebuking the king’s conduct; Qu grew furious and drove the man away. The chancellor hired the tutor as clerk, and the tutor kept urging him to rein in the royal household. Qu had a slave murder tutor and son; the crime went undetected. He later staged feasts where actors and buffoons stripped and sported in the hall for his amusement. The chancellor seized the players for forcing the palace gate and memorialized the offense. Under interrogation the troupe said the king had ordered them to train Wangqing’s brother Du to sing and dance for the inner chambers. When envoys called for Wangqing and Du, Qu claimed both had died by their own hand for shameful conduct. An amnesty arrived and the case lapsed. Wangqing was already stewed in the kettle; Qu substituted another corpse for hers and sent that body with Du’s to their mother. Their mother looked at the remains and said, “This corpse is Du’s; that is not my daughter Wangqing.” She shrieked for death until Zhaoxin had a slave cut her down. The slave was caught and confessed. In the third Benshi year chancellor and inner secretary laid out every crime committed before the last amnesty. The emperor dispatched the grand herald, the chief minister’s senior clerk, the assistant imperial censor, and the senior judge of the commandant of justice to try the case at the Julu imperial jail and asked for Qu and Queen Zhaoxin to be taken into custody. The rescript read: “Imprison Queen Zhaoxin, the concubines, and every bondmaid witness.” They broke and confessed. Officials again asked that the king be put to death. The emperor replied: “Refer the matter to the full marquises, ministers at two thousand piculs (full and regular grades), and the erudits.” The consensus was that Qu had turned savage, obeyed Queen Zhaoxin’s lies, roasted and boiled people alive, flayed them living, spurned his tutor’s warnings, and murdered tutor and son. Sixteen innocents had died, including a mother and her two children in one family—conduct that broke every human bond. Fifteen of those killings predated the amnesty; the enormity remained such that he should die in public as a warning to all.” A second rescript ran: “I cannot bring myself to try the king as a common felon—decide an appropriate penalty instead.” They proposed stripping him of his title and banishing him with his family to Shangyong. The throne approved. He was also granted a maintenance estate of a hundred households. Liu Qu killed himself en route; Queen Zhaoxin was executed in the market square.
53
立二十二年，國除。 後四歲，宣帝地節四年，復立去兄文，是為戴王。 文素正直，數諫王去，故上立焉，二年薨。 子海陽嗣，十五年，坐畫屋為男女臝交接，置酒請諸父姊妺飲，令仰視畫； 又海陽女弟為人妻，而使與幸臣姦； 又與從弟調等謀殺一家三人，已殺。 甘露四年坐廢，徙房陵，國除。 後十五年，平帝元始二年，復立戴王弟襄隄侯子瘉為廣德王，奉惠王後，二年薨。 子赤嗣，王莽時絕。
Twenty-two years after his accession the kingdom was struck off. Four years on, in Emperor Xuan’s fourth Dijie year, Qu’s older brother Wen was restored as Prince Dai. Wen had been honest and had often rebuked Liu Qu, which was why the court chose him; he died two years later. His son Liu Haiyang, in his fifteenth year on the throne, was charged with decorating rooms with murals of nude couples in congress, then hosting his uncles and sisters at wine and making them stare up at the scenes; he also forced his married younger sister into the bed of a favorite courtier; and he joined his cousin Diao in a plot that left three members of one family dead. In the fourth Ganlu year he was deposed for these offenses, removed to Fangling, and his fief extinguished. Fifteen years after that, Emperor Ping’s second Yuanshi year saw Yu—son of the marquis of Xiangdi and Prince Dai’s younger brother—raised as king of Guangde to maintain Prince Hui’s sacrifices; he died two years later. His son Liu Chi succeeded; Wang Mang later ended the line.
54
膠東康王寄
Liu Ji, Prince Kang of Jiaodong
55
膠東康王寄以孝景中二年立，二十八年薨。 淮南王謀反時，寄微聞其事，私作兵車鏃矢，戰守備，備淮南之起。 及吏治淮南事，辭出之。 寄於上最親，意自傷，發病而死，不敢置後。 於是上聞寄有長子賢，母無寵，少子慶，母愛幸，寄常欲立之，為非次，因有過，遂無所言。 上憐之，立賢為膠東王，奉康王祀，而封慶為六安王，王故衡山地。 膠東王賢立十五年薨，諡為哀王。 子戴王通平嗣，二十四年薨。 子頃王音嗣，五十四年薨。 子共王授嗣，十四年薨。 子殷嗣，王莽時絕。
Liu Ji was ennobled in the second year of Emperor Jing’s mid-reign era and died in the twenty-eighth year. When the king of Huainan conspired, Ji caught wind of it and secretly stockpiled chariots, bolt heads, and shafts, readying both offense and defense should Huainan rise. When officials tried the Huainan case, his involvement surfaced in the depositions. Ji was among the emperor’s nearest kin; shamed and broken, he sickened and died without naming a successor. The throne knew Ji had left two sons: Xian by a neglected consort, and Qing by a favorite he had meant to make heir—yet irregular succession and his own guilt had kept him silent. Out of compassion the court made Xian king of Jiaodong to continue Prince Kang’s sacrifices and enfeoffed Qing as king of Lu’an over the old Hengshan domain. Liu Xian of Jiaodong reigned fifteen years and received the posthumous title Prince Ai. His son Liu Tongping, Prince Dai, ruled twenty-four years and died. His son Liu Yin, Prince Qing, held the throne fifty-four years. His son Liu Shou, Prince Gong, died in the fourteenth year. His son Liu Yin succeeded; Wang Mang cut off the house.
56
六安共王慶立三十八年薨。 子夷王祿嗣，十年薨。 子繆王定嗣，二十二年薨。 子頃王光嗣，二十七年薨。 子育嗣，王莽時絕。
Liu Qing, Prince Gong of Lu’an, died in the thirty-eighth year of his reign. His son Liu Lu, Prince Yi, reigned ten years. His son Liu Ding, Prince Miu, died in the twenty-second year. His son Liu Guang, Prince Qing, ruled twenty-seven years. His son Liu Yu succeeded; the line ended under Wang Mang.
57
清河哀王乘
Liu Cheng, Prince Ai of Qinghe
58
清河哀王乘以孝景中三年立，十二年薨。 無子，國除。
Liu Cheng was made prince of Qinghe in the third mid-reign year of Emperor Jing and died twelve years later. With no heir the kingdom was abolished.
59
常山憲王舜
Liu Shun, Prince Xian of Changshan
60
常山憲王舜以孝景中五年立。 舜，帝少子，驕淫，數犯禁，上常寬之。 三十三年薨，子勃嗣為王。
Liu Shun received Changshan in the fifth mid-reign year of Emperor Jing. Shun was the emperor’s youngest boy—proud, wanton, and often lawless—yet the throne repeatedly indulged him. He died in the thirty-third year; his son Liu Bo succeeded.
61
初，憲王有不愛姬生長男梲，梲以母無寵故，亦不得幸於王。 王后脩生太子勃。 王內多，所幸姬生子平、子商，王后稀得幸。 及憲王疾甚，諸幸姬侍病，王后以妒媢不常在，輒歸舍。 醫進藥，太子勃不自嘗藥，又不宿留侍疾。 及王薨，王后、太子乃至。 憲王雅不以梲為子數，不分與財物。 郎或說太子、王后，令分梲財，皆不聽。 太子代立，又不收恤梲。 梲怨王后及太子。 漢使者視憲王喪，梲自言憲王病時，王后、太子不侍，及薨，六日出舍，太子勃私姦、飲酒、博戲、擊筑，與女子載馳，環城過市，入獄視囚。 天子遣大行騫驗問，逮諸證者，王又匿之。 吏求捕，勃使人致擊笞掠，擅出漢所疑囚。 有司請誅勃及憲王后脩。 上曰：「脩素無行，使梲陷之罪。 勃無良師傅，不忍致誅。」 有司請廢勿王，徙王勃以家屬處房陵，上許之。
Long before, Prince Xian’s neglected consort had borne his first son, Tui; the mother’s low standing meant the boy never won the king’s affection. Queen Xiu was mother to the heir, Bo. The harem was crowded with favorites who bore sons Ping and Shang, while the queen seldom shared the king’s bed. As the king lay dying, his favorites kept vigil; jealous, Queen Xiu stayed away and went home. When doctors brought drafts, Crown Prince Bo neither tasted them first nor kept night watch at the bedside. Only after Shun died did queen and heir appear. The king had never treated Tui as a true son or given him a share of the estate. Attendants urged Bo and the queen to give Tui his portion; they refused. When Bo came to the throne he still refused to shelter Tui. Tui nursed hatred for queen and crown prince. Han’s inspectors came for the funeral; Tui volunteered that during the king’s illness queen and heir had deserted him, that they quit the mourning hut on the sixth day after his death, and that Bo had meanwhile fornicated, gambled, feasted, played the zhu, raced through the city with women in his chariot, and toured the jail for sport. The emperor sent Grand Coachman Qian to investigate and call witnesses; Bo hid them away. When officers hunted the witnesses, Bo had them seized and beaten and personally freed prisoners the Han court wanted. Officials demanded death for Bo and for Queen Xiu. The emperor said, “Xiu has never been virtuous; she let Tui bait her into guilt. Bo lacked sound mentors; I will not put him to the sword.” They asked to strip Bo of his title and exile him with his household to Fangling; the emperor agreed.
62
勃王數月，廢，國除。 月餘，天子為最親，詔有司曰：「常山憲王早夭，后妾不和，適孽誣爭，陷于不誼以滅國，朕甚閔焉。 其封憲王子平三萬戶，為真定王； 子商三萬戶，為泗水王。」 頃王平立二十五年薨。 子烈王偃嗣，十八年薨。 子孝王由嗣，二十二年薨。 子安王雍嗣，二十六年薨。 子共王普嗣，十五年薨。 子陽嗣，王莽時絕。
Bo held the throne only a few months before deposition and the kingdom’s end. A month later, moved by close kinship, the emperor told his ministers: “Changshan’s Prince Xian died young; his wives turned on one another; heirs born of different mothers slandered each other until the fief collapsed—I grieve for that house.” He therefore split the domain, giving thirty thousand households to Ping as king of Zhending; and thirty thousand to Shang as king of Sishui.” Liu Ping, Prince Qing of Zhending, died in the twenty-fifth year. His son Liu Yan, Prince Lie, reigned eighteen years. His son Liu You, Prince Xiao, died in the twenty-second year. His son Liu Yong, Prince An, ruled twenty-six years. His son Liu Pu, Prince Gong, died in the fifteenth year. His son Liu Yang succeeded; Wang Mang ended the line.
63
泗水思王商立十年薨。 子哀王安世嗣，一年薨，無子。 於是武帝憐泗水王絕，復立安世弟賀，是為戴王。 立二十二年薨，有遺腹子煖，相內史不以聞。 太后上書，昭帝閔之，抵相內史罪，立煖，是為勤王。 立三十九年薨。 子戾王駿嗣，三十一年薨。 子靖嗣，王莽時絕。
Liu Shang, Prince Si of Sishui, died in the tenth year. His son Liu Anshi, Prince Ai, died within a year without issue. Emperor Wu, pitying the extinction of Sishui, raised Anshi’s younger brother He as Prince Dai. He reigned twenty-two years and left a posthumous son, Nuan, whom his chancellor and inner secretary failed to report. The queen dowager wrote to court; Emperor Zhao took pity, punished the two officials, and installed Nuan as Prince Qin. Nuan ruled thirty-nine years and died. His son Liu Jun, Prince Li, reigned thirty-one years. His son Liu Jing succeeded; Wang Mang cut off the house.
64
贊曰：昔魯哀公有言：「寡人生於深宮之中，長於婦人之手，未嘗知憂，未嘗知懼。」 信哉斯言也！ 雖欲不危亡，不可得已。 是故古人以宴安為鴆毒，亡德而富貴，謂之不幸。 漢興，至于孝平，諸侯王以百數，率多驕淫失道。 何則？ 沈溺放恣之中，居勢使然也。 自凡人猶繫于習俗，而況哀公之倫乎！ 夫唯大雅，卓爾不群，河間獻王近之矣。
The historian’s comment: Duke Ai of Lu once said, “I was born behind palace walls and raised by women’s hands—I have never known care or fear.” How true those words ring! Even if he wished to avoid ruin, he could not. The ancients equated soft living with drinking poison; to be rich and exalted without moral worth they counted the true misfortune. From the founding of Han to Emperor Ping there were hundreds of royal sons; most grew arrogant, dissolute, and abandoned the moral path. Why? They drowned in license because power made self-indulgence inevitable. If commoners are slaves to habit, what hope had men like Duke Ai? Only the grand integrity the Odes call daya—standing alone above the common run—found a near match in Prince Xian of Hejian.