University of Virginia Library

Ancient appraisals of Emperor Wu

The final result of Emperor Wu's continued over-taxation, wastage,
and misgovernment was civil disorder. In 99 B.C., the people in what is
now Shantung, provoked by the misgovernment of the local officials,
who had widely imitated Wang Wen-shu, took generally to brigandage.
Emperor Wu, with characteristic energy, sent out Special Commissioners
Clad in Embroidered Garments, with dictatorial power over life and
death, who put down this virtual insurrection, executing perhaps more
than ten thousand robbers and several thousand others in each commandery,
including the highest officials. The witchcraft and black magic
case of 91 B.C., with its arbitrary inquisitorial executions, involved
the death of ten-thousands in addition to ten-thousands killed in the

fighting (cf. Glossary, sub Chiang Ch'ung and Liu Chü). When in 72
B.C., Emperor Hsüan wanted to honor his great-grandfather, Emperor
Wu, the Confucian scholar Hsia-hou Sheng protested, saying that
although Emperor Wu had repulsed the barbarians and had extended the
borders of the empire, he had nevertheless killed many soldiers, had
exhausted the wealth and strength of the people, and had been boundlessly
extravagant. The empire was bankrupt, the people had become
destitute vagabonds, and more than half of them had died. Locusts
had risen in great swarms and had bared the earth for several thousand
li, so that the people had taken to cannibalism and the granaries had not
been refilled to this day. Emperor Wu had done nothing good for the
people, so should not be honored with any special dances.

In spite of these troubles, Emperor Wu must have been extremely
popular, especially among the officials, because of his military conquests,
his reforms in ceremonial, his encouragement of literature, the founding
of the Imperial University, etc. There was also probably considerable
enthusiasm for him among the people, because of his magnificence and
his grants. Yet Hsia-hou Sheng undoubtedly represented one phase of
popular opinion, perhaps that dominant in the eastern part of China.
Emperor Hsüan's glorification of his great-grandfather seems to have
received general acclaim; Hsia-hou Sheng was imprisoned for his criticism.
In the Discourses on Salt and Iron, which are supposed to have occurred
in 81 B.C., Emperor Wu is not criticized, but the measures that were
instituted by his ministers and with his approval are castigated mercilessly.
In his eulogy (HS 6: 38b, 39a), Pan Ku summarizes Emperor
Wu's achievements, and they are very impressive. It is not surprising
that Emperor Wu became perhaps the most famous of Chinese emperors.
Possibly because of the violent reaction against any criticism of this
popular emperor, Pan Ku was cautious in expressing his opinions; his
eulogy of Emperor Wu is a masterpiece of tact. His criticism of this
Emperor is to be found in his eulogies upon Emperors Wen and Chao
(4: 21a-22a; 7: 10b). Like Louis XIV of France, Emperor Wu left his
country impoverished and exhausted. After the Emperor's death, Ho
Kuang fortunately adapted the government's policy to the situation and
allowed the empire to recuperate. The apogee of Chinese power during
the Former Han period did not occur until the reign of Emperor Hsüan.