The Ministers Who Helped Emperor Guangwu Restore the Han

Emperor Guangwu's restoration depended on officials who carried the new dynasty through both battlefield and court problems.

The Guangwu Restoration was not Liu Xiu's work alone. A new dynasty needed people who could handle court arguments, local administration, law enforcement, and frontier command.

Song Hong Would Not Abandon His Wife

Song Hong had a reputation when young. After the Red Eyebrows entered Chang'an, they tried to summon him to office. Song Hong refused to serve them. When forced to the Wei Bridge, he threw himself into the water. His family saved him, and he survived by pretending to be dead.

Only after Liu Xiu took the imperial title and rebuilt Han legitimacy did Song Hong answer the call to serve. He first became Senior Grand Master, then rose to Grand Minister of Works, one of the Three Excellencies, and was made a marquis.

As his offices grew, Song Hong remained clean. He used much of his salary to support relatives and did not build private wealth.

The court had just emerged from war. Meritorious men, imperial relatives, and powerful families were watching how people near the emperor behaved. Song Hong did not flatter, did not gather wealth, and dared speak directly.

He also recommended talent. Huan Tan was a famous Eastern Han classicist and a skilled musician. For a time, Liu Xiu liked listening to him play complex melodies. When Song Hong heard this, he was displeased.

One day, after Huan Tan left the palace, Song Hong put on formal court dress and summoned him to the Grand Minister's office. When Huan Tan arrived, Song Hong did not offer him a seat. He rebuked him directly: I recommended you so that you would use loyalty and uprightness to guide the emperor. Did I recommend you so you could lead him into amusement?

Soon after, Liu Xiu held a banquet and again ordered Huan Tan to play. Seeing Song Hong present, Huan Tan became so frightened that his playing fell apart. Liu Xiu asked why. Song Hong left his seat, removed his cap, and apologized. He said he had recommended Huan Tan hoping he would assist the ruler with loyalty and righteousness, but now music had distracted the court. This was his own fault.

Liu Xiu understood. Song Hong was outwardly criticizing Huan Tan but in fact advising the emperor. Liu Xiu felt ashamed.

Another time, Liu Xiu sat before a screen and kept turning to look at a painting of beautiful women. Song Hong said sternly that he had never seen anyone love virtue as much as beauty. Liu Xiu immediately ordered the screen removed and said that when he heard words that fit righteousness, he would follow them.

Song Hong's most famous moment involved Princess Huyang. After her husband died, Liu Xiu wanted to find a suitable official for his sister. The princess admired Song Hong, saying his appearance, conduct, and bearing were beyond other ministers.

Liu Xiu summoned Song Hong and let the princess hide behind a screen. He tested him: when a person becomes noble, should he not change his friends? When a man becomes rich, should he not marry a more beautiful wife?

Song Hong answered that one must not forget friends from poverty and low status, and a wife who shared hardship should not be sent away.

Liu Xiu turned to his sister behind the screen and said the matter seemed hopeless.

Song Hong did not use the emperor's sister as a ladder. He did not abandon his old wife for power. The sentence survived because it blocked an imperial marriage in the moment it was spoken.

Dong Xuan Faced a Princess's Servant

Princess Huyang failed to marry Song Hong, and later she drew out another famous official: Dong Xuan.

Dong Xuan had once served in Beihai. A powerful local man, Gongsun Dan, built a house and heard from a diviner that the house carried a harmful influence. He had his son kill a person and bury the body in the courtyard. The Gongsun family was used to bullying others and thought no official would dare act.

Dong Xuan investigated, arrested Gongsun Dan, and executed him according to law. The Gongsun clan refused to accept it and gathered more than thirty armed men to disturb the county office. Dong Xuan arrested them too and treated the matter as collusion with bandits and disruption of public authority.

The case became serious. The governor of Qingzhou accused him of excessive killing and sent him to Luoyang under a death sentence. Liu Xiu reviewed the case and decided Dong Xuan had acted to restrain powerful families and enforce law. He pardoned him and appointed him magistrate of Luoyang.

Luoyang was the capital, full of nobles and high officials. A county magistrate did not rank high and was easy for the powerful to despise. Dong Xuan judged by law, not connections.

Princess Huyang kept many household servants. One of them killed a man in the street in broad daylight, then hid in the princess's residence. Local officials did not dare enter and arrest him, so the case stalled.

Dong Xuan waited for an opportunity. One day the princess went out in her carriage, and the murderer followed beside it. Dong Xuan immediately blocked the carriage, drove his blade into the ground, and demanded the servant.

The princess was furious. She was the emperor's sister; how dared Dong Xuan stop her carriage? Dong Xuan answered that the servant had killed a man in daylight, seen by many. If she did not believe it, witnesses could be called.

Unable to deny the crime, she asked that the man be spared for her sake.

Dong Xuan refused. He ordered the servant dragged from the carriage and executed him in front of the princess.

For Dong Xuan, the matter could not be delayed. If a murderer could escape by hiding near the princess's carriage, the magistrate of Luoyang would never again control the households of the powerful. The people of the capital would also learn that state law stopped at the princess's door.

The Stiff-Necked Magistrate

The princess went into the palace and complained to Liu Xiu in tears. Liu Xiu became angry and summoned Dong Xuan, scolding him for insulting the princess and ordering attendants to beat him to death.

Dong Xuan asked to say one sentence before dying. He said the emperor had restored the realm through virtue. If the court tolerated a princess's servant killing people, how could the country be governed?

Then he removed his cap and struck his head against a palace pillar until blood flowed.

By then Liu Xiu understood that Dong Xuan was not wrong and quickly had him stopped. But to preserve his sister's face, he still ordered Dong Xuan to kowtow to her.

Dong Xuan refused. Attendants tried to press his head down. He sat on the ground, braced both hands, and held his neck straight so that he would not bow.

Princess Huyang mocked Liu Xiu: when he was a commoner, he could hide fugitives and officials did not dare come to the door. Now that he was Son of Heaven, could he not control one county magistrate?

Liu Xiu smiled and said that being Son of Heaven was different from being a commoner. Then he told Dong Xuan, "Stiff-necked magistrate, you may go."

He also gave Dong Xuan three hundred thousand cash. Dong Xuan distributed it all to his subordinates.

From then on, powerful people in Luoyang feared him. Commoners called him the Lying Tiger and said that with Dong Xuan there, even the bones of the dead could see justice.

Ren Yan Went to Jiuzhen

Besides ministers who spoke in court or enforced law in the capital, early Eastern Han also depended on local officials who did practical work.

Ren Yan had served the Gengshi regime. At the beginning of Jianwu, he submitted a request to resign. Liu Xiu had long heard of him and instead appointed him governor of Jiuzhen Commandery.

Jiuzhen lay around today's Thanh Hoa region in Vietnam. At the time, local production was relatively underdeveloped. Many people lived by fishing and hunting and did not know much about settled farming. They often had to exchange goods with Jiaozhi for grain.

When Ren Yan arrived, he brought northern agricultural techniques. He taught people to make farm tools and open fields. As more land was cultivated and grain increased, local life slowly stabilized.

Jiuzhen also preserved old customs, and marriage arrangements were not fully organized. Ren Yan issued proclamations arranging marriages for men and women of proper age. For poor families without bridewealth, officials saved from their own salaries to help.

Many marriages were made that year. Later, grateful people named children Ren.

Ren Yan's work did not consist only of issuing orders from the commandery office. He brought tools, fields, marriage registration, and government order together. The life of Jiuzhen's people changed with them, and neighboring groups were also influenced. For a time, the frontier was stable.

The Difficult Post in Wuwei

Later the court appointed Ren Yan governor of Wuwei. Liu Xiu received him personally and advised him to serve his superiors well and avoid damaging his reputation.

Ren Yan answered that a loyal minister was not necessarily agreeable to everyone. To serve the public and obey the law was a minister's duty. If superiors and subordinates only echoed one another, that would not be the emperor's blessing. As for "serving superiors well," he dared not accept that part of the instruction.

Liu Xiu sighed but still sent him.

When Ren Yan reached Wuwei, he saw how difficult it was. Since the end of Western Han, Wuwei had long been influenced by separatist powers, and local strongmen acted on their own. Tian Gan, the commandery's chief clerk, controlled troops. His sons, relatives, and guests ran wild, harming the people.

Ren Yan immediately arrested Tian Gan and executed the worst criminals. Tian Gan's youngest son gathered several hundred men, called himself a general, and attacked the city at night. Ren Yan sent troops and put down the rising. Only then could law be carried out again.

Wuwei bordered the Xiongnu to the north and was near the Qiang to the south. People feared raids, and many abandoned their fields. Ren Yan selected more than a thousand men good at fighting, clarified rewards and punishments, and set defensive points at key places. If one place gave warning, the others immediately supported it.

Mounted raiders attacked several times without success and lost men instead. Afterward they did not dare raid lightly.

With local strongmen checked inside and frontier raiders deterred outside, people who had fled their fields could return under commandery control.

Early Eastern Han order was built by people like this, bit by bit. At court, some dared advise. In the capital, some dared enforce the law. In frontier commanderies, some opened fields, suppressed strongmen, and guarded borders. Once such men helped stabilize the realm, Liu Xiu still had to face another question: who would inherit this restored dynasty?