Overview
Emperor Guangwu was a ruler.
IdentityHistorical · Male
Life and dates
Attested activity
AD 31 七年
AD 49 二十五年
AD 44 二十年
AD 30 六年
Places and affiliations
- Polity Eastern Han 東漢 · Relation Ruled
Events and relationships
Approved broaden erudite selection
Bypassed three excellencies for impeachments
Administrative · Ruler
Personally attended academy feast
Ritual · Ruler
Referred memorial to court
- Relation Patron of · Person Zhu Fu (硃浮)
Assessments and attributes
- Assessment personally favored clerical affairs and audited the Three Dukes · Mode historian-judgment
References in the histories
No matching passages.
Book of Later Han, Chapter 38Volume 33: Biographies of Zhu, Feng, Yu, Zheng, Zhou · 13 passages
陛下哀湣海內新罹禍毒，保宥生人，使得蘇息。
Your Majesty has pitied a people newly scourged by war, sheltered the living, and let them breathe again.
夫物暴長者必矢折，功卒成者必亟壞，如摧長久之業，而造速成之功，非陛下之福也。
What shoots up fast snaps; what is rushed to completion cracks. To wreck lasting rule for a quick fix does Your Majesty no good.
願陛下遊意於經年之外，望化於一世之後，天下幸甚。
May Your Majesty look beyond the next inspection cycle and seek transformation across a generation—the empire would be the richer.
帝下其議，群臣多同於浮，自是牧守易代頗簡。
The emperor referred the memorial to court; most ministers sided with Zhu Fu, and thereafter turnover among governors grew less frenetic.
帝時用明察，不復委任三府，而權歸刺舉之吏。
The emperor now relied on sharp scrutiny, no longer entrusted the Three Dukes, and power passed to the impeaching officers.
浮復上疏曰：『陛下清明履約，率禮無違，自宗室諸王、外家後親，皆奉遵繩墨，無黨勢之名。
Zhu Fu submitted another memorial: "Your Majesty is clear-sighted and keeps his covenants, leading by ritual without deviation; from the imperial princes to the empress's kin, all observe the law and bear no name for faction or power.
竊見陛下疾往者上威不行，不專國命，即位以來，不用舊典，信刺舉之官，黜鼎輔之任，至於有所劾奏，便加免退，覆案不關三府，罪譴不蒙澄察。
I observe that Your Majesty, grieved that the late emperor's authority did not prevail and that he did not hold sole command of the realm, has since your accession set aside the old statutes, trusted impeaching officers, and displaced the Three Excellencies; when an impeachment is filed, dismissal follows at once, review does not pass through the Three Dukes, and punishment receives no clarification.
陛下以使者為腹心，而使者以從事為耳目，是為尚書之平，決於百石之吏，故群下苛刻，各自為能。
Your Majesty takes commissioners as his inner circle, and commissioners take their retainers as eyes and ears—so the Masters of Writing's verdicts are decided by hundred-picul clerks; hence officials below grow harsh and each vaunts his own ability.
臣浮愚戇，不勝惓惓，願陛下留心千里之任，省察偏言之奏。』
I, Zhu Fu, am blunt and cannot restrain my earnest concern: may Your Majesty attend to the charge of a thousand li and examine one-sided memorials."
陛下尊敬先聖，垂意古典，官室未飾，幹戈未休，而先建太學，進立橫舍，比日車駕親臨觀饗，將以弘時雍之化，顯勉進之功也。
You honor the ancient sages and cherish the classics: though palaces remain unfinished and arms still clash, you founded the Academy and raised its halls; of late you have attended the sacrifice in person—to spread harmonious rule and hold up the ideal of learning.
帝然之。
The emperor agreed.
帝以浮陵轢同列，每銜之，惜其功能，不忍加罪。
Zhu Fu rode roughshod over colleagues; the emperor resented it yet valued his abilities too much to punish him.
而光武、明帝躬好吏事，亦以課核三公，其人或失而其禮稍薄，至有誅斥詰辱之累。
Yet Guangwu and Ming loved paperwork and audited the Three Councillors themselves; ministers lost dignity, ritual thinned, and some ended in execution, dismissal, or public humiliation.