Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance
By Sima Guang
Translated By Yiming Yang
Annals of Han Book 22 Scroll 30 (continued)
The 2nd year of Emperor Cheng’s Yangshuo Era (23 B.C.)
In March of spring, a general amnesty was proclaimed throughout the realm.
The Grand Master of the Censorate, Zhang Zhong, passed away.
In summer, on April 27, the Privy Counselor and Grand Coachman, Wang Yin, was appointed Grand Master of the Censorate. At this time, the Wang family grew ever more prominent: inspectors of the provinces and prime ministers of principalities were drawn almost entirely from their ranks. The Five Marquises and their younger brothers vied with one another in extravagance, exchanging lavish gifts and rare treasures from every quarter. They were adept in the arts of human relations, patronizing of scholars and men of reputation, spending their wealth to enhance their prestige. Their gates were thronged with retainers, all competing to extol their virtues.
Liu Xiang said to Chen Tang, “Now, with disasters and anomalies so frequent, and the maternal relatives growing more powerful by the day, the Liu clan is inevitably endangered. I have been fortunate, as a distant kinsman of the same surname, to benefit from the grace of the Han for generations. As an old servant of the imperial house, I have served three emperors. The Emperor respects me as a minister of the former reign and always shows me favor in the audience. If I do not speak, who will?”
He therefore submitted a sealed memorial of vehement remonstrance:
“Your servant has heard that no ruler does not desire security, yet all are ever in danger; none does not wish for preservation, yet all stand on the brink of ruin—this comes from losing the art of restraining one’s ministers. When great ministers seize the levers of power and control the governance of the state, there has never been one who did not bring harm. Therefore the Book of Documents says, ‘When a minister exercises authority and dispenses favor on his own, it brings ruin to his clan and calamity to his state.’ Confucius said that when emoluments are distributed outside the court and governance is usurped by high ministers, it is a sign of peril and destruction.
“Now the Wang clan alone—those who ride vermilion-wheeled, ornamented carriages—number as many as twenty-three. Blue and purple robes, sable and cicada pendants fill the inner curtains, arrayed to the left and right of Your Majesty like the scales of a fish. The Grand General holds the reins of government and wields authority; the Five Marquises are haughty, extravagant, and presumptuous beyond measure. Together they exercise power and dispense favor at will, striking down and deciding arbitrarily, indulging themselves without restraint—committing what is foul under the cloak of administration, pursuing private ends under the guise of public duty. They rely on the dignity of the Eastern Palace and exploit the intimacy of nephew and maternal uncle to give weight to their authority.
“The Ministers of the State Secretariat, the Nine Ministers, provincial governors, and commandery prefects all issue from their gate. They grasp the pivots of the state, forming cliques and factions. Those who praise them are advanced; those who offend them or incur their hatred are punished and injured. Idle talkers assist them with persuasion; those in office speak on their behalf. They exclude and cast aside the imperial kindred, isolating and weakening the royal clan. Those among the imperial house who possess ability and understanding are especially slandered and denied advancement; they are kept far from offices assigned to the imperial family and are not permitted to attend at court, lest they share authority with them. Repeatedly they invoke the Prince of Yan(Liu Dan) and the Royal Princess Gai to sow suspicion in the Emperor’s mind; they avoid and taboo the names of Empress Dowager Lü and Huo Guang and refuse even to utter them.
“Within the court they sow seeds of rebellion like Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai; outside the court they borrow the language of the Duke of Zhou. Brothers occupy positions of weight; the clan interlocks like bedrock. From high antiquity through Qin and Han, never has there been an affinal house whose usurping eminence equals that of the Wang clan.
“When things reach fullness, extraordinary change must follow, first revealed in subtle signs to those who attend to them. In the time of Emperor Zhao, a stone crown rose upon Mount Tai, and a fallen willow sprouted again in the Imperial Park—then Emperor Xuan ascended the throne. Now, among the graves of the Wang ancestors in Jinan, a catalpa pillar has put forth branches and leaves, spreading upward beyond the roof, its roots hanging down into the earth; even the rising of a stone or the reviving of a willow could scarcely surpass the clarity of this portent.
“The circumstances of affairs do not permit two great powers: the Wang clan and the Liu clan cannot stand together. If there is peace below like Mount Tai, then there is peril above like a stack of eggs. Your Majesty is the heir of the ancestral line, charged with guarding the ancestral temples. If the mandate of the state is allowed to pass to affinal kin and the imperial house is reduced to menial service—even though Your Majesty might refrain from speaking for your own sake, what about then for the ancestral temples?
“A woman takes her husband’s house as her inner sphere and her natal parents’ house as external; this, too, is no blessing for the Empress Dowager. Emperor Xuan did not share authority with his maternal uncle, the Marquis of Pingchang, and thereby preserved complete security and peace.
“Now, the enlightened lord cultivates blessings from what has no visible form and extinguishes calamities before they arise. It would be fitting to issue a clarifying imperial edict, giving voice to benevolent instruction: draw near the imperial kindred, cherish them, and admit them to trust; dismiss the distant affinal kin and grant them no share in governance; relieve them all of office and order them to return to their respective domains—thus taking as model and effecting what the Former Emperor practiced. In this way, the affinal kin would be generously secured and their clans preserved intact, in accord with the intent of the Eastern Palace and as a blessing to the maternal families.
“The Wang clan would endure, their ranks and emoluments preserved; the Liu house would enjoy lasting peace and not lose the altars of soil and grain. This is the means to honor harmony between the inner and outer surnames, a plan without limit for sons and grandsons. If this policy is not carried out, the Tian clan(taking over State of Qi) will be seen again in our own day, and the Six Grandees (dividing state of Jin) will surely arise within Han—a grave anxiety for later heirs, plain and manifest. I beg that Your Majesty hold fast to these thoughts.”
After reading the memorial, the Emperor summoned Liu Xiang for an audience. Sighing, he lamented the gravity of the matter and said, “You may withdraw for now; I will give this my consideration.” In the end, however, he was unable to adopt Liu Xiang’s counsel.
In autumn, severe floods occurred east of Hangu Pass.
On August 10, the Prince of Dingtao, Liu Kang, died.
That year, the Prince of Xindu, Liu Xing, was transferred and enfeoffed as Prince of Zhongshan.
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