How Emperor Guangwu Restored Order in the Eastern Han

After the wars quieted, Liu Xiu faced a country that needed people, fields, taxes, and trust to recover.

The injustice after Ma Yuan's death reminds us that Liu Xiu was not always gentle. But if we look at the empire as a whole, he did use a relatively mild set of policies to pull the country back toward order after war.

A Homecoming Line

Liu Xiu had been emperor for more than ten years before he basically swept away the rival powers. Among Han emperors, few began so directly through battlefield conquest.

In Jianwu year seventeen, he returned to his home region of Chongling in Nanyang. He offered sacrifices to his ancestors, visited old residences, and feasted with local relatives and villagers. At the banquet, ceremony between ruler and subject loosened. Some older relatives, happy with wine, called him by his courtesy name, Wenshu.

Someone said that when Wenshu was young, he had been careful and sincere, not hypocritical, direct yet gentle. That was why he had reached this position.

Liu Xiu laughed and said that when he governed the realm, he also wished to act through a "gentle way."

After this banquet, that gentle way entered his governing style. Since the end of Wang Mang's rule, the realm had suffered too long. Population had fallen, fields lay waste, and people had fled. Liu Xiu needed people to survive, return to the land, and produce again.

At Western Han's height, the population had approached sixty million. At the beginning of Eastern Han, registered households had fallen sharply. Many people had died in war and famine, fled as bandits, or been forced into slavery. At the end of Wang Mang's rule, grain prices had sometimes become so extreme that gold could buy little food.

When Liu Xiu began ruling, many places had no grain, only weeds. If the court immediately pressed taxes and labor service, ordinary people would have no way to stand again.

Releasing Slaves and Dependents

After war and land concentration, many commoners had become slaves or dependents. Some had sold wives or children because of hunger. Others had been seized during warfare. Still others had been kept for long periods under powerful families.

If the labor force sank into private households, fields would not be cultivated under normal registration, and the state could not recover.

From Jianwu year two to Jianwu year fourteen, Liu Xiu repeatedly issued edicts releasing slaves. People who had been sold because of poverty and famine, or captured in wartime and made slaves, could return home and recover commoner status if they wished. Anyone who blocked them would be punished by law.

Even those who remained in their masters' households could not be killed or abused at will.

These edicts released a group of people from private control back into society. Some returned home. Some farmed again. Early Eastern Han recovery began with these people regaining legal identity.

If the slave problem had not been addressed, powerful households would have held more and more people, while the number of registered commoners shrank. Taxes, labor service, and agricultural recovery all depended on solving this.

Lighter Punishments and Lighter Taxes

Under Wang Mang, laws had been dense and punishments harsh. People could easily be implicated. After Liu Xiu took power, he abolished Wang Mang's severe laws and restored a simpler Han legal framework.

He also repeatedly lightened punishments. People over eighty or under ten generally could not be arrested and imprisoned. Some offenders could be sent to frontier service or redeem punishment with property.

When punishments became less severe, common people were more willing to return to ordinary life.

Taxes also had to fall. Under Wang Mang, land taxes had become heavier. Liu Xiu restored the one-thirtieth tax associated with Emperor Wen of Western Han. Mountains, forests, rivers, and marshes were not taxed at will. People could fish, hunt, gather firewood, and use natural resources. Iron mining and the casting of iron farm tools were no longer fully monopolized by the state, allowing private operation.

In Jianwu year six, floods, droughts, and locusts came one after another. Liu Xiu issued several edicts in one year reducing tax burdens so that disaster victims would not be driven into desperation by the government itself.

The realm was not even fully pacified yet, and Liu Xiu was still fighting wars. Reducing burdens before peace was complete shows how early he placed recovery of the people.

For common households, one less payment of rent or one less corvee duty might mean one more mouthful of grain. Early Eastern Han recovery rested on policies that looked small but touched bodies and fields directly.

Sending Soldiers Back to the Fields

Liu Xiu also reduced military service burdens. He abolished the dutiful military inspection system and disbanded local soldier structures.

These systems had an element of broad military obligation. Localities had to maintain soldiers and training for long periods. For people who had just lived through war, this was a heavy load.

When large numbers of soldiers were demobilized and sent home, state military spending fell, and the countryside gained more people to farm. Only after weapons were put down could the fields fill again.

Liu Xiu also promoted simple burials and opposed luxurious funerals. Rich burials consumed labor and wealth and encouraged grave robbery. When the Red Eyebrows entered Chang'an, many Western Han imperial tombs were opened. The frugal Ba Mausoleum of Emperor Wen survived relatively better.

In Jianwu year twenty-six, Liu Xiu planned his own tomb. Officials suggested an impressive mausoleum, but he refused. He wanted the area to be modest, not piled into a great mound, and only sufficient to prevent underground water.

The emperor restraining his own burial mattered. If the imperial house built extravagantly just after recovery, local elites would follow and drain the people. By lowering the scale of his own tomb, Liu Xiu set a boundary for funerary customs.

Respecting Scholars

Liu Xiu knew that one could win the realm on horseback but could not govern only from horseback.

After Tianshui was pacified, he issued edicts seeking learned and talented men. Zhou Dang of Taiyuan, Wang Liang of Donghai, Wang Cheng of Shanyang, and others first refused to answer the summons. Envoys had to invite them three times before they came to Luoyang.

When Zhou Dang met Liu Xiu, he wore plain cloth and an old cap. He lay prostrate but did not kowtow or ask after the emperor's health. Someone at court memorialized that men like this had empty reputations and did not understand ritual. They should be punished for great disrespect.

Liu Xiu did not become angry. He showed the memorial to the ministers and issued an edict saying that since ancient times even sage rulers had met men who would not bend. Zhou Dang did not want a salary; people had different aspirations. Liu Xiu gave him forty bolts of cloth and let him leave.

The story spread. Scholars learned that Luoyang was not a place where men were forced only by punishment and power. If someone did not wish to serve, the emperor might not immediately punish him.

Yan Guang, also known as Yan Ziling, was another case. He had been Liu Xiu's old friend from student days in Chang'an. After becoming emperor, Liu Xiu searched for him many times and finally heard of a man in Shandong who wore sheepskin and fished by a lake.

Envoys brought Yan Guang to Luoyang. Liu Xiu visited him personally. Yan Guang lay in bed and did not rise. Liu Xiu patted his belly and asked why he would not help him. Yan Guang still said people had their own aspirations and refused office.

Later they talked through the night in the same bed. Yan Guang put his foot on Liu Xiu's belly while sleeping, and Liu Xiu did not mind. In the end Yan Guang returned to fishing, and Liu Xiu did not force him.

Men who would not serve could leave. Men willing to serve were also treated with respect. Liu Xiu valued schools and classical learning. He had studied at the Imperial Academy when young and promoted local education after becoming emperor. After war, the court needed people who could read, understand institutions, and govern. Cultural education slowly revived.

Fewer Offices and Fewer Wars

In Jianwu year six, Liu Xiu ordered a review of officials in the provinces and commanderies. He reduced offices and merged counties and kingdoms that were too small. More than four hundred counties were abolished or adjusted. Fewer people ate government salaries, and fiscal pressure fell.

Externally, he tried to avoid expanding war. In Jianwu year twenty-seven, the Xiongnu weakened because of internal disorder and disaster. Many generals urged a large attack.

Liu Xiu refused. He believed frontier reports were often unreliable. If the state could truly use half the realm's strength to destroy a great enemy, that might be considered. If not, it was better to let the people rest.

So early Eastern Han did not resume Emperor Wu of Han's style of massive northern expeditions. Liu Xiu wanted this newly unified country to breathe first.

The choice affected the frontier too. Han forces maintained garrisons and agricultural colonies, but generally avoided provoking huge wars. Many northern and southwestern regions gained a period of relative calm.

The Realm Slowly Settled

Releasing slaves, reducing punishments, lowering taxes, demobilizing soldiers, promoting simple burial, respecting scholars, cutting officials, and avoiding large frontier wars all supported the early Eastern Han recovery.

Agriculture again had people to work the fields. Handicrafts and commerce gradually revived. Great cities resumed connections, and merchants could again travel toward the Western Regions.

Historians called this period the Guangwu Restoration.

But even a capable emperor could not do everything alone. Around Liu Xiu stood a group of ministers and administrators with very different temperaments. Some advised at court. Some enforced law in the capital. Some opened fields and guarded frontiers. Next, those ministers of restoration step forward.