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The selection of Emperor Hsuan

Ho Kuang and the ministers thereupon discussed the succession
to the throne. Liu Hsü had already been passed over and the sons of Liu
Tan4a could not be considered. Hence the most closely related member of
the imperial clan was Liu Ping-yi, the Imperial Great-grandson. He was
well spoken of and was then in his eighteenth year. Emperor Wu had
ordered him to be taken care of in the imperial palace, and faithful eunuchs
had used their private funds to have him given a good Confucian

education and to get him properly married. Ho Kuang memorialized
the Empress Dowager that this youth would be a fit person to be the
successor of Emperor Chao. The proper officials then went to the
youth's residence, bathed and dressed him, and took him to the yamen
of the Superintendent of the Imperial House, where he purified himself
by fasting. Liu Ho4b was dismissed on Aug. 14; on Sept. 10, Liu Ping-yi
presented himself to the Empress Dowager, who first ennobled him, making
a marquis, after which Ho Kuang, acting upon her direction, invested
him with the imperial seals and presented him to the imperial ancestors
in the Temple of Emperor Kao.

Thus the Confucian constitution of the state showed itself capable
of dismissing an unworthy emperor after he had been (partly) enthroned,
and of selecting another imperial scion to take his place, without creating
any disturbance in the state. The particular device used was the
principle of authority in the family: that a filial son owes obedience to
his parents, hence the mother of the family could even dismiss from the
throne an unworthy imperial son. (The Han emperors, after the first
one, were all called hsiao, "filial," in their posthumous names.) The
success of such a change depended upon the loyalty of the minister who
made the change and his reputation in the court.