Liu Xin (劉歆) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Liu Xin as a commentator, editor, historian, and official. This record brings together 17 passages from 9 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Liu Xin	劉歆	Liu Xin
Surname	Liu	劉
Surname	Liu	刘	Liú
Surname	Liu	刘
Personal	Liu Xin	歆	Liu Xin
Personal name	Liu Xin	劉歆
Personal name	Liu Xin	劉歆	Liu Xin
Personal name	Liu Xin	刘歆	Liú Xīn
Personal name	Liu Xin	刘歆	Liu Xin
Title	National Instructor	國師公	Guoshigong
Title	State Preceptor Liu Xin	國師公劉歆	Guoshi gong Liu Xin
Given	Xin	歆	Xin
Given	Xin	歆
Given name	Xin	歆	Xīn

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · hanshu:099:s0183, houhanshu:034:s0004, houhanshu:115:s0007, houhanshu:116:s0007, houhanshu:117:s0008, jinshi:131:s0049
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:031:s0005

Roles

Commentator
Editor
Historian
Official
Scholar

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 刘歆传 · Western Year: AD 89
Uncertain · houhanshu:117:s0008
Source Date: Text: 刘歆傳 (no reign date in chapter) · Western Interval: Start: AD 1 · End: AD 23
Explicit · houhanshu:115:s0007
Source Date: Text: 劉歆校中秘書 · Western Interval: Start: AD 1 · End: AD 23
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0049
Source Date: Text: 和帝永元元年 · Western Year: AD 89
Explicit event contextual date · houhanshu:116:s0007, houhanshu:117:s0102, houhanshu:117:s0108
Source Date: Text: 哀平之際 · Western Interval: Start: BC 7 · End: AD 5
Explicit event contextual date · houhanshu:031:s0005
Source Date: Text: 王莽時 · Western Interval: Start: AD 9 · End: AD 23
Explicit · houhanshu:034:s0004
Source Date: Text: 與王莽、劉歆並 · Western Interval: Start: BC 22 · End: AD 18
Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:099:s0183, hanshu:099:s0195, hanshu:099:s0207

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Kin of Liu Gong (劉龔)
Kinship Term: nephew / 兄子 · Subject Role: paternal-uncle · Object Role: nephew · Generation Distance: 1 · Line: paternal · Intermediary Person Ids: Elder brother of Liu Xin (劉歆兄)
Sibling of Elder brother of Liu Xin (劉歆兄)
Kinship Term: elder brother / 兄 · Subject Relative Age: younger · Object Role: elder-brother · Subject Role: younger-brother · Shared Parentage: full
Parent of Liu Fen (劉棻)
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father

Career and standing

Label: high duke / 上公 · Action: held
Explicit · hanshu:099:s0196
Label: National Instructor / 國師公 · Action: held
Explicit · houhanshu:034:s0013
State Preceptor
Explicit · hanshu:027:s0327

Places and affiliations

Label: Western Han / 汉 · Relation: under
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:115:s0007

Works and attributed material

Work: Liu Xin's tradition / 刘歆传 · Relation: author
Explicit · houhanshu:116:s0007
Work: Liu Xin’s transmission / commentary / 刘歆傳 · Relation: author
Explicit · houhanshu:115:s0007
Work: Seven Summaries / 七略 · Relation: author
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0049
Work: tradition on floral prodigies / soft-bodied vermin omens / 刘歆传 · Relation: author
Explicit · houhanshu:117:s0008
Kind: commentary · Role: author · Quoted: true
Explicit · houhanshu:117:s0108
Kind: commentary · Role: author · Statement: classes soft pests as winged creatures
Explicit · houhanshu:115:s0007

Events and relationships

Kind: scholarly · Role: collator · Action: collated imperial library books
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0049
Type: advisor · Person Id: Wang Mang (王莽)
Strongly inferred · hanshu:027:s0327
Type: son-of · Person Id: Liu Xiang (劉向)
Explicit · hanshu:065:s0371
Relation: debated-with · Person Id: Huan Tan (桓譚)
Explicit · houhanshu:031:s0005

References in the histories

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Book of Han, Chapter 27Volume 24b: Treatise on Trade 2 · 1 passage

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國師公劉歆言周有泉府之官，收不讎，與欲得，即易所謂「理財正辭，禁民為非」者也。 State Preceptor Liu Xin said that Zhou had an Office of Springs that took in unsold goods and supplied them to those who wanted them; this was what the Changes called 'ordering finances and rectifying terms, forbidding the people to do wrong.'

Book of Han, Chapter 65Volume 56: Dong Zhongshu · 2 passages

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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 99Volume 87b: Yang Xiong 2 · 5 passages

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初，雄年四十餘，自蜀來至游京師，大司馬車騎將軍王音奇其文雅，召以為門下史，薦雄待詔，歲餘，奏《羽獵賦》，除為郎，給事黃門，與王莽、劉歆並。 In his forties Yang Xiong left Shu for the capital. Wang Yin, commander-in-chief and chariot general, admired his polish, took him on as a gate clerk, and recommended him as an expectant scholar. A year later his 《Rhapsody on the Imperial Hunt》 won him a gentleman’s post at the Yellow Gate, where he served alongside Wang Mang and Liu Xin.

唯劉歆及范逡敬焉，而桓譚以為絕倫。 Only Liu Xin and Fan Qun honored him; Huan Tan pronounced him without peer.

王莽時，劉歆、甄豐皆為上公，莽既以符命自立，即位之後，欲絕其原以神前事，而豐子尋、歆子棻復獻之。 Under Wang Mang, Liu Xin and Zhen Feng stood among the highest nobles. Mang had risen on forged portents and, once enthroned, tried to bury their origin and cast the earlier events as divine, yet Zhen Feng's son Xun and Liu Xin's son Fen again submitted such documents.

閒請問其故，迺劉棻甞從雄學作竒字，雄不知情。 An inquiry found that Liu Xin's son Liu Fen had once studied rare characters with Yang Xiong, who knew nothing of the plot.

劉歆亦嘗觀之，謂雄曰：「空自苦！ Liu Xin read the work and told him, "You torture yourself for nothing!

Book of Later Han, Chapter 31Volume 28a: Biographies of Huan Tan; Feng Yan · 1 passage

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能文章，尤好古學，數從劉歆、楊雄辯析疑異。 He wrote well and doted on antiquarian scholarship, often debating knotty questions with Liu Xin and Yang Xiong.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 34Volume 30a: Biographies of Su Jing; Yang Hou · 3 passages

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王莽時，與劉歆等共典校書，拜代郡中尉。 Under Wang Mang he joined Liu Xin and others in overseeing editorial work on the palace books and received appointment as commandant of Dai commandery.

初，延岑護軍鄧仲況擁兵據南陽陰縣為寇，而劉歆兄子龔為其謀主。 Earlier, Deng Zhongkuang—protector-general to the warlord Yan Cen—had seized Yinxian in Nanyang as a rebel stronghold, with Liu Xin’s nephew Liu Gong as his principal adviser.

走昔以摩研編削之才，與國師公從事出入，校定秘書，竊自依依，末由自遠。 In former days I went in and out at the National Instructor’s side with nothing more than editing skill, helping collate the palace library; I cherished that connection in private yet could never break free of it.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 115Volume 104: Five Elements Part Two · 1 passage

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蠃虫，刘歆傳以为羽虫。 Commentary following Liu Xin classes those "soft" pests with omens among winged things.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 116Volume 105: Five Elements Part Three · 1 passage

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鱼孽，刘歆传以为介虫之孽，谓蝗属也。 Liu Xin's school reads "fish prodigies" alongside omens among armored or shelled vermin—in practice, the locust plague.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 117Volume 106: Five Elements Part Four · 2 passages

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华孽，刘歆传为蠃虫之孽，谓螟属也。 Liu Xin grouped these floral prodigies with "soft-bodied" vermin omens—in practice, the rice stem borer.

刘歆以为崩犹弛也。 Liu Xin compared a mountain fall to foundations giving way.

History of Jin, Chapter 131Volume 131 Biographies 69: Huan Zhe, Liang Chong, Song Gui, Pan Shouheng, Fang Ji, Liu Wansu, Zhang Congzheng, Li Qingsi, Ji Tianxi, Zhang Yuansu, Ma Guizhong, Wu Zhen Son: Kang, Li Mao, Hu Dexin · 1 passage

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劉歆校中秘書，以術數、方伎載之《七略》。 Liu Xin collated the imperial library and placed numerology and the technical arts in his Seven Summaries.