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The intrigues of Emperor Ai's various maternal relatives

The reign of Emperor Ch'eng had fixed, as a dynastic practise, the
Confucian principle of favoring imperial relatives (11: 4b). Relatives
on the paternal side, who were potential rivals for the imperial throne,
were given kingdoms or marquisates and were carefully watched. When
Emperor Ai was continually ill, the Queen of King Yang of Tung-p'ing,
Liu Yün2a, an imperial fourth cousin, who was descended from Emperor
Hsüan, was discovered to have made magical imprecations against the
Emperor, with the purpose of bringing her husband to the imperial throne.
She, her husband, and her uncle (who was an imperial physician) were
executed and the informers were ennobled. Imperial paternal relatives,
who might benefit from any harm done to the imperial person, were
ordinarily kept away from the court and drastically repressed. The
imperial power was thus left to the imperial maternal relatives.

Emperor Ai had however four sets of maternal relatives. The Wang
clan's power rested upon the fact that the mother of Emperor Ch'eng,

now entitled the Grand Empress Dowager nee Wang, was still alive.
She was the Emperor's adoptive grandmother and the head of the imperial
clan. Due to her influence, Wang Mang had been put in charge
of the government as Comander-in-chief just five months before
Emperor Ch'eng had died. The Chao clan owed its influence to Emperor
Ch'eng's second wife, the famous Chao Fei-yen. Emperor Ai had
nominally been made the son of Emperor Ch'eng; this lady was consequently
the Emperor's adoptive mother and was now made the Empress
Dowager. Her relatives were given noble titles and positions. Emperor
Ai had in addition his own maternal relatives. His grandmother, the
former imperial Brilliant Companion, now the Queen Dowager nee Fu,
had been Emperor Yüan's favorite, and her son, Liu K'ang1a, had become
the King of Ting-t'ao. His son, Liu Hsin5, now Emperor Ai, had been
born of a Concubine nee Ting, so that there was also a Ting clan. The
Fu and Ting clans, because they were out of the court, worked together,
opposing the Wang clan, which had entrenched itself in the court. Thus
the situation was ripe for abundant jealousies and intrigues.

The Chao clan was quickly eliminated. Within half a year, an industrious
Director of the Retainers dug up the facts about Emperor
Ch'eng's imperial infanticides (cf. HFHD, II, 369-72), which were due
to Chao Fei-yen's younger sister. This sister had previously committed
suicide, but, when the facts became known, they occasioned such a revulsion
that her male relatives were all dismissed from their positions
and titles and were exiled. Because of Emperor Ai's debt to the Empress
Dowager nee Chao, she was not touched and retained her title. Without
any male relatives in the court, she was helpless.

Before his death, Emperor Ch'eng had endeavored to prevent any
conflict between the various clans among the maternal relatives of his
successor by separating Liu Hsin5, the future Emperor Ai, from his own
family and restricting him to intercourse with the imperial family.
Emperor Ch'eng appointed Lin Ching3b, another descendant of Emperor
Hsüan, as the King of Ting-t'ao, to be the successor of Emperor Ai's
father, so that the new Emperor would not have any further obligation
to his natural father's clan. When Liu Hsin5 came to the capital as the
Imperial Heir-apparent, Emperor Ch'eng separated him from his actual
grandmother and mother, establishing them in the Lodge for the Princes
of Ting-t'ao, while Liu Hsin5 went to the Heir-apparent's palace. (We
may perhaps see Wang Mang's hand in these moves.) Emperor Ch'eng
was not even going to allow them to see Liu Hsin5, but the Empress
Dowager nee Wang reminded her son that Liu Hsin5 had been reared by
his grandmother, so that the Queen Dowager should have the privileges

given a nurse. She was accordingly allowed to visit her grandson
every ten days.

The Queen Dowager nee Fu was an indomitable and high-tempered
woman, who would not easily yield up her opportunity for power and
prestige. She was capable in intrigue and had previously almost succeeded
in having her son, Liu K'ang1a, made the Imperial Heir-apparent
in place of Emperor Ch'eng. She had taken her grandson away from his
mother and had raised him herself, teaching and directing him, thus
acquiring an ascendancy over him. She had paid large bribes to the
Wang and Chao clans, in order that her grandson should be preferred
as Heir-apparent over his cousin. Now she was not willing to lose the
opportunity of reaping her reward.

After Emperor Ch'eng's death, the future Emperor Ai found himself
without anyone in the court upon whom he could rely. It was filled
with the adherents of the Wang and Chao clans. Four days before he
took the throne, his maternal uncle, Ting Ming, and his maternal great-uncle,
Fu4 Yen, were enfeoffed as marquises. These ceremonies were performed
by the Queen Dowager nee Fu, who had no real authority to do so
(97 B: 20a). Since however these appointments would have been made
anyway, this illegality was not challenged, although there was some disapproval
of the Fu clan's greediness. Probably the Queen Dowager felt
these appointments were essential, in order that the new Emperor would
not be left without aid in the court; for an Emperor, without any courtiers
to recommend what he wanted done, would be helpless. The visits of his
grandmother were still limited to once every ten days, and his mother
was also allowed to make such visits. The two ladies were established in
Kuei Palace, in another part of the city, two miles distant. This palace
was however connected by a private elevated passageway with Wei-yang
Palace (where the Emperor lived), so that it was possible to go from one
to the other without making a formal royal progress. The Queen Dowager
nee Fu accordingly went morning and evening by this elevated
passageway to the Emperor, instructing and advising him. A steadfast
refusal of his grandmother's wishes would have been unthinkable, for it
would have violated the Confucian principle of filial piety, in which all
noble children were trained. Thereafter the Ting and Fu clans needed
only to discover and report the faults of those who stood in their way, in
order to achieve control over the court.

As soon as Emperor Ai came to the throne, the Empress Dowager nee
Wang tactfully ordered Wang Mang, who had previously controlled the
government, to resign. He did so, but Emperor Ai could not permit his
predecessor's chief minister to resign immediately, for such an act would

have implied that the new ruler would not filially continue the policies
of his predecessor. So Wang Mang (who probably expected such a result
and may have instigated the Empress Dowager's action) was continued
in office.

Then strife arose concerning precedence between the Emperor's actual
grandmother, the Queen Dowager nee Fu, and his nominal grandmother,
the Grand Empress Dowager nee Wang. An official memorialized that,
according to classical principles, a mother should receive honor when her
son becomes honorable, so that the Emperor's mother should receive an
imperial title. Shih1 Tan and Wang Mang however opposed the proposal,
and Emperor Ai did not want immediately to go contrary to the advice
of his highest ministers, so let the matter drop. Instead of that, Emperor
Ch'eng's old officials, who had been put in power by the Wang clan, were
dropped one by one, being accused of some crime or other. When Wang
Mang saw that he had incurred the enmity of the Queen Dowager nee Fu,
he again asked to resign. This time he was allowed to do so and was
asked to remain at the court with high honors, but no official post. Two
years later he was sent away from the court to his estates. The Grand
Empress Dowager nee Wang, who was not herself aggressive or interested
in politics, was not interfered with. The titles of the Queen Dowager nee
Fu and the Concubine nee Ting were raised.

Fu Hsi, a paternal cousin of the Queen Dowager and the ablest member
of the Fu clan, succeeded Wang Mang as Commander-in-chief. When
he opposed female influence in the government and refused to raise the
titles of the Emperor's mother and grandmother still further, he too was
dismissed from his position and sent away from the court. As one after
another of the court officials were removed, the Emperor's mother and
grandmother were given higher and higher titles, until there were four
Empresses Dowager in the court: nee Wang, nee Chao, nee Fu, and nee
Ting. The latter died in 5 B.C.; two years later the Empress Dowager
nee Fu was at last given the same title as her former rival, the Grand
Empress Dowager nee Wang; both ladies had borne sons to Emperor
Yüan. The Grand Empress Dowager nee Fu had previously succeeded
in legally murdering her other former rival for Emperor Yüan's favor,
the Queen Dowager nee Feng of Chung-shan. This active and ambitious
Empress Dowager thus triumphed over those who held to a strict construction
of proprieties (the Confucians who had tried to prevent her
elevation), but she died a year later. Meanwhile the clans of the Emperor's
mother and grandmother had been highly honored: the Ting clan
counted among its members two marquises, one Commander-in-chief, six
generals, ministers, and officials ranking at two thousand piculs, and more

than ten Palace Attendants and Division Heads. The Fu clan (including
the Chang clan, that of the Empress Dowager nee Fu's half-brother)
numbered among its members six marquises, two Commander-in-chiefs,
six ministers or officials ranking at two thousand piculs, and more than
ten Palace Attendants or Division Heads. These high officials of course
distributed positions liberally to their henchmen and relatives. Thus a
spoils system was put into full play in ancient China by the maternal
relatives of the emperor.