Chinese Empire

Emperor Wu of Han: The Martial Emperor

Emperor Wu of Han (漢武帝, Hàn Wǔdì), personal name Liu Che, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty and the most consequential ruler in Chinese history before the Tang. He came to the throne in 141 BCE at the age of fifteen and reigned for fifty-four years, longer than any other Han ruler. His reign transformed the Han state from a moderately-sized regional power into a continental empire, opened the Silk Road to Central Asia, defeated the Xiongnu nomads of the northern steppe, made Confucianism the state orthodoxy, and laid the institutional foundations of the imperial Chinese state for the next two thousand years.

His story is set in context in famous Chinese emperors, and the broader treatment of the imperial institution is in the section on Chinese emperors and imperial power. The dynasty he did so much to shape is surveyed in the section on Chinese dynasties, and the most famous earlier emperor — the founder of the imperial title — see our Qin Shi Huang.

The Young Emperor

Liu Che was the son of Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BCE) and a consort of the Wang clan. He succeeded to the throne in 141 BCE at fifteen. His early reign was dominated by his grandmother, the Grand Empress Dowager Dou, who controlled the court and pushed a policy of peaceful coexistence with the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu were the dominant power on the northern steppe, and they had forced the early Han to accept an unequal peace of marriage alliances and tribute. Liu Che was determined to overturn this settlement, and he waited impatiently for the moment when he could pursue a more aggressive foreign policy.

The Xiongnu Wars and the Silk Road

In 135 BCE, Wu launched the first of a series of campaigns against the Xiongnu that would continue for most of his reign. In 133 BCE, he attempted a great ambush at Mayi that failed when the Xiongnu escaped. In 127 BCE, the Han general Wei Qing led a devastating raid into the Ordos region, killing or capturing tens of thousands of the Xiongnu. In 124 BCE, Wei Qing’s nephew Huo Qubing — a young general of extraordinary talent — led a deep raid into the Xiongnu heartland, capturing the Xiongnu commander-in-chief. By 119 BCE, the Xiongnu had been driven so far into the Mongolian interior that the Han heartland was no longer threatened by raid or invasion.

These campaigns were extraordinarily expensive. They required the establishment of horse-breeding farms in the northwest, the construction of fortified supply depots, and the levying of taxes on the peasantry at rates that produced widespread unrest. But they also produced the conditions for the opening of the Silk Road, the overland trade route that would connect China to Central Asia, India, Persia, and the Mediterranean world for the next fifteen centuries. In 138 BCE, the emperor sent the diplomat Zhang Qian on a mission to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi peoples of Central Asia, hoping to encircle the Xiongnu. Zhang Qian was captured and held for ten years by the Xiongnu, but he eventually escaped, made his way to the Yuezhi, and returned to Han with a detailed report on the kingdoms of Central Asia that would shape Chinese foreign policy for centuries.

The diplomatic and commercial relations that Zhang Qian’s mission initiated made possible the great caravans that would carry silk west and gold, glass, horses, and ideas east. The Silk Road’s opening is one of the most consequential events in world history, and the trade along it shaped the economies and cultures of half a continent. The broader commercial context is treated in our section on the Chinese economy.

The Southern and Eastern Expansion

Wu also expanded Han power to the south and east. In 111 BCE, he conquered the kingdom of Nanyue in what is now southern China and northern Vietnam, incorporating the region into the empire. In 109 BCE, he sent an expedition to subdue the kingdom of Joseon in northern Korea, establishing four commanderies there. The expansion required major naval expeditions and the development of colonial administration, but the result was the integration of the southern coastal regions into the Chinese state — an integration that has lasted to the present day.

The Establishment of Confucianism as State Ideology

Wu’s most consequential long-term decision was the elevation of Confucianism to the status of state ideology. The early Han had followed a syncretic doctrine of Huang-Lao thought that emphasised Daoist non-intervention; Wu rejected this and turned to Confucianism, partly from intellectual conviction and partly because the Confucian emphasis on hierarchy and loyalty suited the imperial moment.

In 136 BCE, Wu established the Imperial Academy (太學, tàixué) to train scholars in the Five Classics, and appointed five renowned scholars as Erudites of the Five Classics to head it. In 124 BCE, he ordered the local authorities of each commandery to recommend worthy men for office, beginning the formal integration of Confucian scholars into the bureaucracy. The civil service examination would not reach its mature form for several centuries, but Wu’s reforms laid the foundation. From his time onward, Confucian learning was the principal credential for office, and the scholar-official class became the backbone of imperial government. The broader ideological background is treated in Chinese philosophy.

The Last Years and the Question of Succession

Wu’s long reign began to sour in its last decades. The Xiongnu wars were expensive, and the emperor’s fiscal needs led to a notorious sale of offices and a debasement of the coinage that produced inflation. Wu grew increasingly suspicious, and in 91 BCE he ordered the Lü Anshi incident, in which the Crown Prince Liu Ju was accused of witchcraft, committed suicide, and the emperor slaughtered thousands in retaliation. The incident was the darkest moment of the reign.

In his last years, Wu faced the question of succession. The designated heir had committed suicide, and Wu eventually chose his youngest surviving son, Liu Fuling, the future Emperor Zhao, only seven years old. To ensure a smooth transition, the emperor appointed a regency council of senior officials and the eunuch Huo Guang.

The decision to appoint Huo Guang as regent was one of the most consequential in Han history. Huo would dominate the government of the child Emperor Zhao and continue to exercise power as regent for the next two emperors. The Huo family’s power eventually became intolerable, and after Huo Guang’s death, Emperor Xuan exterminated them in a great purge. The broader phenomenon of the regency of boy-emperors is treated in imperial succession, and the specific role of the empress dowager see our the role of the empress dowager

Wu’s Personality and Historical Reputation

Sima Qian’s portrait of Wu in the Shiji is mixed. He is praised for his energy, his patronage of learning, and his military achievements, but criticised for his fiscal recklessness, his credulity (he was notoriously susceptible to tales of immortality), and his cruelty in the Lü Anshi incident. Later Confucian historiographers were harsher, blaming him for over-expansion and failing to live up to the moral standards of the ideal ruler.

Modern historians are more sympathetic. The territorial expansion of Wu’s reign established the basic framework of the Chinese state; the elevation of Confucianism provided a shared ideology that would hold the empire together for two millennia; the opening of the Silk Road made China a participant in the wider Eurasian world; and the development of the civil service examination laid the foundation for the most sophisticated meritocratic bureaucracy in the pre-modern world. Whatever his faults, Wu did more to shape the imperial Chinese state than any other ruler before or since, and his reign is one of the formative moments of Chinese history.