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The kindly and generous rule of Emperor Hsüan

Emperor Hsüan did not himself take over the rule until after the
death of Ho Kuang. As a youth he had been a commoner and had come
to know, by personal experience, how the government affected the common
people. He consequently had an infinitely better conception of the
nature of a desirable government than could have been secured by a
youth who had grown up in an imperial or a kingly palace, shielded from

contacts with a rough world. Emperor Wu had encouraged a severe
government, with the result that tyranny had come to be looked upon
as a sign of an official's ability. Ho Kuang had continued Emperor
Wu's practises. Emperor Hsüan had himself seen the sufferings of the
people, and set about to make the administration kindly disposed to the
people. He rewarded those officials who were known to be kindly,
and degraded those who were harsh. Huang Pa, the Assistant Grand
Administrator of Ho-nan Commandery, had become known for generosity
and fairness in deciding law-cases; Emperor Hsüan had heard of
this fact before he came to the throne, and consequently gave Huang
Pa a high position in the office of the Commandant of Justice. Thus a
beginning was made in doing away with harshness in government.

The inevitable result was that officials took advantage of the Emperor.
Wang Ch'eng, who was Chancellor in the kingdom of Chiao-tung,
sent in a false report in which he magnified the benefits he had
conferred upon the people; Emperor Hsüan honored him with a noble
title and increased his salary. Before Wang Ch'eng could be summoned
to the capital to receive his rewards, he died. Then Emperor Hsüan
discovered his deceit. The Emperor, however, continued the practise
of rewarding kindly officials, permitting some vulgar officials to secure
an empty fame for the sake of encouraging kindliness among the other
officials.

During the first part of Emperor Hsüan's reign, Ho Kuang himself
controlled the government and successively appointed as Lieutenant
Chancellor (the titular head of the government) two aged and incompetent
Confucian scholars who were famous for their learning and who
had been Emperor Chao's teachers. Both died in office. When Emperor
Hsüan ruled in person, his Lieutenant Chancellors were all Confucians,
who had each made a special study of some Confucian classic, but
they were not primarily scholars. All (except the last one) died in office;
Emperor Hsüan did not execute his officials as Emperor Wu had done.
The first Lieutenant Chancellor, Wei Hsiang, was stern and severe;
he had previously been made Grandee Secretary by Ho Kuang, which
position was regularly the stepping-stone to the position of Lieutenant
Chancellor. Wei Hsiang advised Emperor Hsüan against the Ho clan.
When Ho Hsien's crimes became known, the government needed a stern
and severe hand, and so Emperor Hsüan dismissed the scholar who was
Lieutenant Chancellor, giving this office to Wei Hsiang. For the next
Grandee Secretary, Emperor Hsüan selected a very different sort of person,
Ping Chi, a protégé of Ho Kuang who was good-natured and liberal,
and who sought no rewards for any of his own good deeds. If an official

committed a crime, Ping Chi would conceal the matter and suggest to
the official that he had better resign than be punished. When he succeeded
to the position of Lieutenant Chancellor, he inaugurated the
custom of not turning that office into a court for trying minor officials.
He was followed by Huang Pa, who did not show the ability as Lieutenant
Chancellor that he had shown as a commandery administrator. Emperor
Hsüan's last Lieutenant Chancellor was Yü Ting-kuo, a man who
was kindly to widows and, in doubtful cases, gave the accused the benefit
of the doubt. Emperor Hsüan was thus more successful in securing
capable and good Lieutenant Chancellors than any other emperor had
been since Emperor Kao.

Emperor Hsüan took a personal interest in legal cases. All cases of
capital punishment had to be memorialized to the Emperor and his
consent secured for the execution. Most of the information in the HS
concerning various persons and even concerning certain conversations
undoubtedly comes from the statements and testimony found in such
memorials, which, because they had been approved by the emperor, became
imperial edicts and were preserved in the imperial archives. Few
emperors had devoted much time to reviewing law-cases; after Emperor
Hsüan noticed the hardships inflicted upon the people by legal means,
he spent a great deal of time in the yamen to which important legal decisions
were sent for imperial approval. He reformed legal procedure
in various ways. He established special judges to whom difficult cases
could be referred (8: 9b) and who would be competent to judge such cases,
so that it would not be necessary to execute a judge for having made a
wrong decision, as had been done in the case of Hsü Jen and Wang P'ing
(cf. Glossary sub Tu Yen-ninea). Emperor Hsüan inaugurated the
practise that a son, grandson, or wife was not to be punished for concealing
his or her parents', grandparents', or husband's crimes. Parents,
grandparents, and husbands who shielded their sons, grandsons, or wives,
were not however to be thus exempted, but were to be given special
imperial consideration (8: 9b). He had special investigations made concerning
persons who died in prison (8: 11a). He exempted the aged from
punishment except for the most serious crimes (8: 15a). He continued
the practise of sending out messengers to search for and report unjust
trials (8: 20b).

In his treatment of his people, Emperor Hsüan was kindly and generous.
He rewarded capable officials and made large grants of money
to the sons of those capable officials who died poor (8: 15b, 17a). Persons
in mourning for their parents were exempted from required service (8: 9b)
and festivities were allowed at marriages (8: 19a). The salaries of the

lowest officials were increased by half, in order that they should not need
to oppress the people (8: 17b) and the practise was abolished that imperial
messengers might exact their necessities from the people instead
of securing them from the government (8: 24a). Various economies were
effected: in time of drought the imperial table was reduced and officials
were made to take a temporary reduction in salaries (8: 6b). Military
garrisons were reduced. Useless palaces and lodges were not repaired.
An unnecessary commandery was abolished (8: 9a, b). Taxes were
remitted in time of drought or calamity (8: 6a, 7a, 13a) and the poll-money
and poll-tax were reduced (8: 20a, 21b). Government land
was loaned to the poor (8: 8b, 9a); government reservoirs and preserves
were opened to cultivation (8: 9a). The price of salt (a government
monopoly) was lowered (8: 11a). These reductions in government
levies were not only made possible by economies; there was also such a
succession of good harvests that in 62 B.C. the price of grain dropped to
five cash per picul (probably one-eighth of its normal price).

It is not surprising that, as a consequence of these benefits, the people
should have seen many portents from Heaven. Phoenixes, supernatural
birds, sweet dew, dragons, and other marvels appeared. Upon
each such report, Emperor Hsüan distributed favors—amnesties, noble
ranks, oxen and wine, silk. It is consequently natural that reports of
of portents should have been frequent. The people, who credited even
the good weather to the beneficent government, doubtless considered
Emperor Hsüan worthy of all these portents and more. He was the best
ruler in the whole Former Han period.