Mystery of the deposed emperor
Print Edition
ARCHAEOLOGISTS in east China’s Jiangxi Province have found the remains of a controversial Chinese emperor who was deposed and stripped of his nobility after just 27 days but later made a marquis.
A coffin containing the remains of the “Marquis of Haihun” was hoisted out of a 2,000-year-old tomb that was discovered near Nanchang, Jiangxi’s capital, five years ago.
A seal inside the coffin bore the characters for Liu He, the marquis’ name, said Xin Lixiang, head of the excavation panel.
The coffin was removed from the tomb in January and taken to a lab for examination, said Xin at a press conference launching an exhibition of artifacts from the tomb in Beijing.
Earlier, the excavators found another seal with the characters for “Seal of Master Liu,” and his identity was also confirmed by inscriptions on gold coins and bamboo artefacts found inside the tomb.
People were commonly buried with identifying seals in ancient China, and emperors or nobles generally got an additional seal confirming their rank.
Excavators working in the tomb, the best-preserved burial site from that period found in China, expect to find the noble seal soon, Xin said.
Liu He was the grandson of Western Han Dynasty (206BC- 25AD) Emperor Wu, whose reign ushered in one of the most prosperous periods in Chinese history.
According to historical records, Liu was born in 92BC. He became the prince of Changyi (in today’s Laizhou, Shandong Province) at the age of 5, when his father died.
He was established as Emperor Fei in 74 BC, after his uncle, Emperor Zhao, died without an heir.
Liu’s rise to power may have been swift, but his demise was even swifter. Accusing Liu of incompetence, the royal clan and powerful officials banished him to his former residence in Changyi to live as a commoner.
It was about 10 years later that Emperor Xuan made Liu the marquis of Haihun, the ancient name of a tiny kingdom in the north of Jiangxi.
Chinese historians looked unkindly on Liu for a long time, but the excavation of his tomb has helped support a reassessment of him.
Liu’s critics claimed he was “profligate and devoid of principles,” but his tomb closely matches his final social rank, with no decorative features indicating he had ever been an emperor, according to Xin.
Artifacts suggest Liu was an ardent Confucian, and he was a learned man judging from the amount of reading material in the tomb.
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