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Overview The translated histories identify Emperor Wu as a ruler. This record brings together 14 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.
Names Type English Chinese Pinyin
Personal
Emperor Wu
Title
Son of Heaven
天子
Identity
Historicity Historical
Identification Title only
Sex Male Life and dates Attested activity Source Date: Text: 元封元年冬Western Year: BC 110
Source Date: Text: 元鼎五年Western Year: BC 112
Source Date: Text: 元鼎六年秋Western Year: BC 111
Source Date: Text: 建元三年Western Year: BC 138
Source Date: Text: 建元六年Western Year: BC 135
Works and attributed material References in the histories Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 114 Treatise on the Eastern Yue · 14 passages
東甌食盡，困，且降，乃使人告急天子。
Dong'ou's provisions ran out. Desperate and on the brink of surrender, they dispatched envoys to make an urgent appeal to the emperor.
天子問太尉田蚡，蚡對曰：「越人相攻擊，固其常，又數反覆，不足以煩中國往救也。
The emperor consulted Grand Commandant Tian Fen, who replied: 'The Yue attacking one another is simply their custom. They have been fickle time and again, and it is hardly worth troubling the Middle Kingdom to send troops to rescue them.
今小國以窮困來告急天子，天子弗振，彼當安所告愬？
Now a small kingdom, driven to desperation, has come to plead with the emperor. If the emperor refuses to act, where else are they to turn?
上曰：「太尉未足與計。
The emperor said: 'The Grand Commandant is not fit to be consulted on this matter.
南越守天子約，不敢擅發兵擊而以聞。
Nanyue honored its covenant with the emperor and refrained from retaliating on its own, choosing instead to report the aggression to the court.
上遣大行王恢出豫章，大農韓安國出會稽，皆為將軍。
The emperor sent the Grand Herald Wang Hui forth from Yuzhang and the Grand Minister of Agriculture Han Anguo from Kuaiji, each to serve as a commanding general.
其弟餘善乃與相、宗族謀曰：「王以擅發兵擊南越，不請，故天子兵來誅。
His younger brother, Yu Shan, conspired with the chancellor and their kinsmen, saying: 'The king attacked Nanyue without imperial permission, and that is why the emperor's armies have come to punish him.
今殺王以謝天子。
Let us kill the king and apologize to the emperor.
天子聽，罷兵，固一國完；
If the emperor accepts, he will withdraw his forces, and the kingdom can be preserved;
乃以便宜案兵告大農軍，而使使奉王頭馳報天子。
Acting on his own authority, he halted the advance and notified the army of the Grand Minister of Agriculture, while dispatching a rider to present the king's head to the emperor.
天子聞之，為餘善不足復興師，曰：「餘善數與郢謀亂，而後首誅郢，師得不勞。」
When the emperor learned of this, he decided it was not worth mobilizing the army again on account of Yu Shan, remarking: 'Yu Shan plotted rebellion alongside Ying time and again, yet in the end he was the first to bring Ying to justice, sparing our forces the trouble.'
上曰士卒勞倦，不許，罷兵，令諸校屯豫章梅領待命。
The emperor, saying the troops were weary from their campaigns, denied the request. He ordered the army to stand down and the officers to encamp at Meiling in Yuzhang to await further orders.
天子遣橫海將軍韓說出句章，浮海從東方往；
The emperor dispatched the General Who Crosses the Sea, Han Yue, from Gouzhang to sail across the sea and approach from the east;
於是天子曰東越狹多阻，閩越悍，數反覆，詔軍吏皆將其民徙處江淮閒。
The emperor then declared that Dongyue was narrow and full of barriers, that Minyue was fierce, and that they were repeatedly fickle. He decreed that the military officers were all to relocate their people to settle between the Yangtze and Huai rivers.