University of Virginia Library

Did Wang Mang murder Emperor P'ing?

When Emperor P'ing died on Feb. 3, A.D. 6, he was still a minor. He
was born in 9 B.C., so that he may have been fully fourteen years old.
When, in Oct., A.D. 7, Chai Yi raised the standard of revolt against
Wang Mang, the rebels sent messengers about the country alleging that
Wang Mang had poisoned Emperor P'ing. This charge was almost universally
believed in Later Han times, but we may well discount the prevalence
of that belief, for a sequent Han dynasty would be likely to
encourage it.

It is of course impossible to determine the truth of such a charge, for
we have absolutely no direct evidence on this matter. Events inside the
palace could hardly be known except through the testimony of its inmates,
most of whom could not leave the place; Wang Mang controlled the
palace and its inhabitants for a subsequent period long enough to have
silenced any possible witnesses. The absence of any testimony does not
thus afford any presumption in either direction.

There were reasons enough to have predisposed Wang Mang to such a
murder. He was not above committing such a deed. To hush up his
son's adultery, he had the commissioner who investigated the matter
murdered and buried in the jail (99 C: 11a). He was not slow in demanding
the lives of any who opposed him, even of the highest families;
he even executed three of Liu Hsin1a's children (99 C: n. 23.2), and did
not hesitate to execute his own son together with hundreds of persons in
connection with the plot of Wang Yü (99 A: 16b). Wang Mang showed
an utter callousness concerning human affections; he kept Emperor P'ing's
mother away from her son, even though she is said to have wept day
and night.

Wang Mang furthermore had adequate motives for murdering Emperor
P'ing. Wang Mang had prevented any of Emperor P'ing's maternal
relatives from coming to the imperial capital, and, when the plot of

Wang Yü was discovered, he had executed all these relatives, except
Emperor P'ing's mother. The young Emperor P'ing hence had a serious
grievance against Wang Mang, and may well have expressed his feelings
in his adolescent years. Wang Mang might have suspected he would be
unable to control the Emperor, once the latter came of age, and that he
might even be made to suffer on some trumped-up charge. The capping
of the Emperor, which ceremony marked his coming of age, was moreover
delayed until after his death. (That circumstance does not however
indicate any delinquency on Wang Mang's part. The regular age for
capping, according to Confucian principles, was the fifteenth year; in Han
times, however, the age of capping varied: Emperor Chao was not capped
until his eighteenth year, while Emperor Ho was capped in his thirteenth
year.) Wang Mang loved power and may well have planned to continue
his power by initiating another regency. There is a circumstantial
account of the poisoning (12: n. 10.2), but it was not used by Pan Ku
and is intrinsically questionable. (A dose of poison does not act only
fourteen days after it was administered.) Thus there is some evidence
tending to show that Wang Mang may have committed regicide.

There are however certain circumstances that lead us to doubt whether
Wang Mang really did murder his lord. He probably realized the grave
difficulties that would arise concerning the succession to the throne.
Emperor P'ing was the last of Emperor Yüan's living descendants; a
successor would have to be picked from among the descendants of Emperor
Hsüan, who was Emperor Ch'eng's grandfather, so that the successor
would be four or five generations removed from his imperial ancestor
(Liu Ying was actually the fifth generation). There was also the
danger that further pretended sons of Emperor Ch'eng would appear to
claim the throne. Wang Mang's uncle, Wang Li5a, had sponsored one
such pretender. Wang Mang may well have furthermore anticipated
opposition to an infant successor and a serious rebellion, such as that
actually raised by Chai Yi. While the imperial clan had been rendered
powerless by the separation of its members, giving them only quite small
fiefs, and watching them carefully (long the imperial policy), other officials
might nevertheless rebel. The empire had so long been faithful to the
Liu clan that its loyalties could not be changed easily. These reasons of
state would likely have deterred Wang Mang from attempting an assassination.

Confucian tradition, to which Wang Mang was bound, condemned
regicide and exalted faithfulness on the part of ministers. Confucius' own
model, who had come to be esteemed by all Confucians as an ideal and sage,

was the Duke of Chou, who had loyally laid down his regency when his
lord came of age. Wang Mang had frequently been compared to the Duke
of Chou and doubtless aspired for the same high reputation as this ideal
figure, who was exalted above kings and emperors. Ho Kuang, who had
ruled during the reigns of Emperors Chao and Hsüan, was highly esteemed
in recent times. Indeed, if Emperor P'ing had not died, Wang Mang
would doubtless have come down in history as the greatest minister of
Han times, a model for succeeding ages, a regent like the Duke of Chou,
whose fame outshone that of emperors themselves. Thus the death of
Emperor P'ing may well have seemed a terrible calamity to Wang Mang
and he very likely considered that it deprived him of his opportunity for a
great Confucian fame.

Wang Mang had attempted to bind Emperor P'ing to himself by
secure ties. He married his daughter to the Emperor and in 5 A.D. cut
the Tzu-wu Road for the purpose of magically bringing it about that
Emperor P'ing should have a son by her. If she had had a son, Wang
Mang, as the grandfather of the Heir-apparent and father-in-law of the
Emperor, the minister who ruled during the Emperor's minority, would
have been secure in his position and untouchable, even by an emperor.
Public opinion would have defended against almost any charge a minister
with such a high reputation and close relationship.

It is somewhat unlikely that Wang Mang actually planned to usurp
the throne until some time after the death of Emperor P'ing. The knife-cash
were not issued until June/July, A.D. 7; when Wang Mang actually
came to the throne and changed the dynasty, he found these knife-cash
an embarrassment, for the word "Liu," the surname of the Han dynasty,
contains the words "metal" and "knife," so that Wang Mang had to do
away with these knife-coins in order to prevent their magical influence
from injuring him (24 B: 21b). While such a magical influence of knife-cash
upon the dynastic name might possibly have been neglected in
A.D. 7, yet a person so concerned with magical influences as Wang Mang
would have been likely to have known their magical meaning, and would
hardly have issued them if he had any definite plans for changing the
dynasty. Pan Ku states that Wang Mang planned to take the throne
only after Chai Yi's rebellion had quickly been crushed.

There is also the fact that Emperor P'ing had been a sickly child, who
had been "continually ill" (98: 11b11), so that he was not at all strong,
and could easily have been carried off by illness, just as was Emperor Ai.
Wang Mang seems to have done everything that a loyal minister should
have done to prevent this death. When, in the winter of A.D. 5/6,

Emperor P'ing was ill, Wang Mang made a vow to the Supreme One, in
which he offered his own life for that of the Emperor. The vow was
stored in a metal-bound coffer, just as the Duke of Chou had done in a
similar case when King Ch'eng was ill. The coffer was not opened until
A.D. 23 (99 A: 24b; C: 22b). Wang Mang was superstitious and relied
much upon magic, so that he probably took this vow seriously. He
furthermore did not kill the succeeding Emperor, the Young Prince, Liu
Ying1a. This child grew up, and, after Wang Mang's death, actually
ascended the throne for a time. Furthermore when Chai Yi rebelled in
A.D. 7 and when the rebels finally entered Kuan-chung in A.D. 23, Wang
Mang made a dramatic appeal to Heaven for aid, in the latter case,
setting out, at the place for sacrifice to Heaven, his mandates by means
of portents, and asking Heaven to strike him dead by a thunderbolt if
he had done wrong (99 C: 25a). When a superstitious man acts thus,
it is good evidence that his conscience is clear of any such heinous sins
as regicide.

There is thus much evidence to show that Wang Mang was innocent
of the charge that he had poisoned his lord, and that this charge was
propaganda on the part of those who rose in rebellion against him. It
is of course impossible to be certain, and the evidence is far from conclusive.
In the end, one's judgment will depend upon one's estimate of
Wang Mang's character. That character was evil enough: he was callous
to suffering, impatient of any opposition and ready to execute any subordinates
and even his own children and grandchildren who presumed to
oppose him or even make awkward suggestions (cf. the execution of
Wang Chien4, 98: 14b). But he was a whole-hearted Confucian. Confucianism
exalted loyalty and comdemned regicide as a heinous sin. My
own opinion is that Wang Mang was too good a Confucian to have
murdered Emperor P'ing.