Liu Xiang (劉向) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Liu Xiang as a commentator, historian, official, and scholar. This record brings together 20 passages from 13 chapters across 5 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Liu Xiang	劉向	Liú Xiàng
Surname	Liu	劉	Liú
Personal name	Liu Xiang	劉向	Liu Xiang
Personal	Liu Xiang	劉向	Liu Xiang
Personal name	Liu Xiang	劉向
Personal name	Liu Xiang	刘向
Given	Xiang	向	Xiàng
Given	Xiang	向	Xiang
Alternate	Xiang	向
Surname		劉	Liu
Given		向	Xiang

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · beiqishu:036:s0064, hanshu:068:s0260, houhanshu:116:s0074, houhanshu:117:s0105, liangshu:014:s0242
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:076:s0338, jinshi:130:s0002

Roles

Commentator
Historian
Official
Scholar
Writer

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 劉向 · Western Interval: Start: BC 77 · End: BC 6
Explicit · beiqishu:036:s0064
Source Date: Text: 孝宣承統 · Western Interval: Start: BC 74 · End: BC 48
Explicit · hanshu:068:s0260
Source Date: Text: 安帝永初 · Western Year: AD 107
Explicit event contextual date · houhanshu:116:s0074
Source Date: Text: 永元元年 · Western Year: AD 89
Explicit event contextual date · houhanshu:117:s0105, houhanshu:117:s0102
Source Date: Text: 漢成帝時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 33 · End: BC 7
Explicit · jinshi:130:s0002
Source Date: Text: 量交 · Western Year: c. BC 6
Explicit event contextual date · liangshu:014:s0242

Career and standing

Guanglu Grandee / 光祿大夫
Explicit · hanshu:011:s0084
Title: superintendent of the registers / 司籍
Explicit · hanshu:117:s0260

Places and affiliations

Label: Western Han / 漢 · Relation: served
Explicit · hanshu:068:s0260

Works and attributed material

Role: cataloguer · Of Person Id: Dongfang Shuo (東方朔)
Explicit · hanshu:076:s0338
Work: Biographies of Exemplary Women / 列女傳 · Relation: author
Explicit · jinshi:130:s0002
Kind: commentary · Role: author · Quoted: true
Explicit · houhanshu:117:s0105, houhanshu:117:s0106, houhanshu:117:s0107
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Quoted: true · Statement: a king should raise the Bright Academy and display rites and music · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Source Person Id: Xing Shao (邢卲)
Explicit · beiqishu:036:s0064

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: distinguished in literary composition (文章) · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · hanshu:068:s0260
Assessment: had achievements recounted in their age · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · hanshu:068:s0260
Assessment: virtuous talent treated as dust when powerless · Provenance: Mode: quoted-source · Speaker Person Id: Liu Jun (劉峻)
Explicit · liangshu:014:s0242, liangshu:014:s0243

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 36Volume 36 Biographies 28: Xing Shao · 2 passages

Open chapter

昔劉向有言，王者宜興辟雍、陳禮樂以風天下。 Liu Xiang once said a king should raise the Bright Academy and display rites and music to sway the realm.

臣以為當今四海清平，九服寧宴，經國要重，理應先榮，脫復稽延，則劉向之言徵矣。 We hold that with the four seas calm and the nine domains at peace, the state's first duty should be honored—delay again, and Liu Xiang's warning will come true.

Book of Han, Chapter 2Volume 1: Annals of Emperor Gaozu 2 · 1 passage

Open chapter

劉向云戰國時劉氏自秦獲於魏。 Liu Xiang said that in the Warring States period the Liu clan was captured from Qin by Wei.

Book of Han, Chapter 11Volume 10: Annals of Emperor Cheng · 1 passage

Open chapter

光祿大夫劉向校中祕書。 Guanglu Grandee Liu Xiang collated the palace secret books.

Book of Han, Chapter 65Volume 56: Dong Zhongshu · 3 passages

Open chapter

贊曰：劉向稱：「董仲舒有王佐之材，雖伊、呂亡以加，管、晏之屬，伯者之佐，殆不及也。」 The encomium says: Liu Xiang wrote, "Dong Zhongshu had the talent to assist a true king. Even Yi Yin and Lü Wang could add nothing to him; Guan Zhong and Yan Ying, ministers to hegemons, likely fell short."

至向子歆以為：「伊、呂乃聖人之耦，王者不得則不興。 But Liu Xiang's son Liu Xin held: "Yi Yin and Lü Wang were companions fit for sages; without men like them, a true king could not rise.

至向曾孫龔，篤論君子也，以歆之言為然。 Liu Xiang's great-grandson Liu Gong, a fair critic, sided with Liu Xin.

Book of Han, Chapter 68Volume 58: Gongsun Hong, Bu Shi and Er Kuan · 1 passage

Open chapter

孝宣承統，纂修洪業，亦講論六藝，招選茂異，而蕭望之、梁丘賀、夏侯勝、韋玄成、嚴彭祖，尹更始以儒術進，劉向，王褒以文章顯，將相則張安世、趙充國、魏相、丙吉、於定國、杜延年，治民則黃霸、王成、龔遂、鄭弘、召信臣、韓延壽、尹翁歸、趙廣漢、嚴延年、張敞之屬，皆有功跡見述於世。 Emperor Xuan inherited the succession and carried forward the great enterprise. He too expounded the Six Arts and recruited outstanding men. Xiao Wangzhi, Liangqiu He, Xiahou Sheng, Wei Xuancheng, Yan Pengzu, and Yin Gengshi advanced through Confucian learning; Liu Xiang and Wang Bao gained distinction for their writing; among the generals and chancellors were Zhang Anshi, Zhao Chongguo, Wei Xiang, Bing Ji, Yu Dingguo, and Du Yannian; and among those who governed the people were Huang Ba, Wang Cheng, Gong Sui, Zheng Hong, Shao Xinchen, Han Yanshou, Yin Wengui, Zhao Guanghan, Yan Yannian, Zhang Chang, and others. All left achievements celebrated in their age.

Book of Han, Chapter 75Volume 64b: Yan, Zhu, Wuqiu, Zhufu, Xu, Yan, Zhong, Wang, and Jia 2 · 1 passage

Open chapter

宣帝時修武帝故事，講論六藝群書，博盡奇異之好，徵能為楚辭九江被公，召見誦讀，益召高材劉向、張子僑、華龍、柳褒等待詔金馬門。 Under Emperor Xuan the court revived Emperor Wu's cultural program: debate on the Six Classics and the wider corpus, a restless taste for the rare and marvelous. It summoned Bei Gong of Jiujiang, famed for his Chu-style verse, heard him recite, and then added brilliant men such as Liu Xiang, Zhang Ziqiao, Hua Long, and Liu Bao to the roster of scholars awaiting summons at the Golden Horse Gate.

Book of Han, Chapter 76Volume 65: Dongfang Shuo · 2 passages

Open chapter

其餘《封泰山》、《責和氏璧》及《皇太子生禖》、《屏風》、《殿上柏柱》、《平樂觀賦獵》，八言、七言上下，《從公孫弘借車》，凡劉向所錄朔書具是矣。 The remainder—his pieces on the Feng sacrifice at Mount Tai, the rebuke to the He-family jade, the birth prayer for the crown prince, the screen, the hall cypress pillars, the Pingle hunt rhapsody, suites of eight- and seven-syllable lines, and the skit on borrowing a carriage from Gongsun Hong—comprise everything Liu Xiang catalogued under Dongfang Shuo's name.

贊曰：劉向言少時數問長老賢人通於事及朔時者，皆曰朔口諧倡辯，不能持論，喜為庸人誦說，故令後世多傳聞者。 The encomium says: Liu Xiang reported that when he was young he often asked elders and worthies who knew affairs and Shuo's day; all agreed Shuo was quick with jokes and songs but could not hold a serious argument, loved spinning yarns for ordinary people, and so left the world awash in hearsay.

Book of Han, Chapter 96Volume 85: Gu Yong and Du Ye · 1 passage

Open chapter

永於經書，泛為疏達，與杜欽、杜鄴略等，不能洽浹如劉向父子及揚雄也。 Gu Yong's learning in the classics was broad but superficial, roughly equal to that of Du Qin and Du Ye, though not as thorough as that of Liu Xiang and his son or Yang Xiong.

Book of Han, Chapter 117Volume 100a: Afterword and Family History 1 · 3 passages

Open chapter

斿博學有俊材，左將軍師丹舉賢良方正，以對策為議郎，遷諫大夫、右曹中郎將，與劉向校祕書。 Ban You had a capacious mind; Shi Dan nominated him worthy and upright, his policy essay won him a consultant post, and he rose to remonstrant grandee and right colonel of the gentlemen while collating palace archives beside Liu Xiang.

初，成帝性寬，進入直言，是以王音、翟方進等繩法舉過，而劉向、杜鄴、王章、朱雲之徒肆意犯上，故自帝師安昌侯，諸舅大將軍兄弟及公卿大夫、後宮外屬史許之家有貴寵者，莫不被文傷詆。 Cheng's easy temper invited blunt speech, so ministers such as Wang Yin and Zhai Fangjin policed the law while scholars like Liu Xiang, Du Ye, Wang Zhang, and Zhu Yun flayed the throne; from the imperial tutor the marquis of Anchang through the Wang uncles and every powerful consort kin of the Shi and Xu lines, no favorite escaped their written attacks.

劉向司籍，辯章舊聞； Liu Xiang ordered the archives and clarified antiquity;

Book of Later Han, Chapter 116Volume 105: Five Elements Part Three · 2 passages

Open chapter

劉向以爲雹，陰脅陽也。 Liu Xiang read hail as yin force lashing out at yang.

是时邓太后以阴专阳政。 A woman regent, in Liu Xiang's cosmology, was yin ruling in yang's place.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 117Volume 106: Five Elements Part Four · 1 passage

Open chapter

刘向以为山阳，君也； Liu Xiang read the mountain as the sovereign, the yang aspect of the land.

History of Jin, Chapter 130Volume 130 Biographies 68: Exemplary Women: The Wife of A Lin; The Wife of Li Baoxin; The Wife of Han Qingmin; Lei Fu, née Shi; Kang Zhuzhu; The Wife of Li Wen; The Wife of Li Ying; The Wife of Xiang Qi; A Luzhen; The Wife of Sahe Nian; The Wife of Xu Gu; Feng Miaozhen; Lady Pucha; Lady Wugulun; The Wife of Su Lan; The Wife of Mang Ge; Lady Yin; Lady Bai; Nie Xiaonü; The Wife of Zhong De; Lady Li of Baofu; Zhang Fengnu · 1 passage

Open chapter

漢成帝時，劉向始述三代賢妃淑女，及淫泆奢僭、興亡盛衰之所由，匯分類別，號《列女傳》，因以諷諫。 Under Emperor Cheng of Han, Liu Xiang first compiled accounts of worthy consorts and virtuous ladies from the Three Dynasties, together with the causes of licentious excess, extravagance, and usurpation—and of dynastic rise and fall—arranged by category in the Biographies of Exemplary Women as a work of moral admonition.

Book of Liang, Chapter 14Volume 14: Jiang Yan; Ren Fang · 1 passage

Open chapter

若衡不能舉，纊不能飛，雖顏、冉龍翰鳳＜芻鳥＞，曾、史，蘭熏雪白，舒、向金玉，淵海卿、雲，黼黻河漢，視若遊塵。 If the scale cannot lift and the gossamer cannot fly, though Yan and Ran had dragon sinews and phoenix pinions, Zeng and Shi orchid scent and snow-white, Shu and Xiang gold, jade, and the abyss-sea, Qing and Yun embroidery and the Milky Way—they are wandering dust.