I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 351 Liu Kui is dead
It is said that in this battle, Tan Shihuai personally went to the battlefield and unexpectedly commanded an infantry force to attack the city.

The Han army held the city to the death, and Xuantu Commandery urgently dispatched Han and Goguryeo troops to provide support. However, Tan Shihuai commanded Xianbei cavalry to defeat all the Han and Goguryeo troops that came to support them.

Within half a month, Gaoxian County was captured by the new infantry under Tan Shihuai's command. Most of the Han soldiers in the city were killed in battle, a small number surrendered, and most of the city's residents, except for a few who escaped, were captured and enslaved.

Yuan Shu was furious when he learned of this news. He planned to launch an attack on the grasslands ahead of schedule, destroy one or two tribes as revenge, and draw Tan Shihuai's attention to Bingzhou to prevent Tan Shihuai from continuing to ravage Liaodong.

However, just as he was preparing to arrange for Lu Zhi to lead a cavalry force north, an even more surprising message suddenly arrived from Luoyang.

Emperor Liu Kui died of illness.

The news was sent by Cheng Li in advance. According to Cheng Li, Liu Kui had just passed away less than an hour before he sent the news. Yuan Shu was the first official outside the capital to know the news. He told Yuan Shu to prepare himself mentally and make other preparations, and to consider whether he could return to Luoyang.

Yuan Shu looked at the letter Cheng Li had delivered and fell into deep thought.

Yuan Shu was not surprised that Liu Kui could not hold on for long. In fact, Yuan Shu even felt that Liu Kui's ability to last until this point before dying was already an extraordinary feat.

Given Liu Kui's physical condition at the time and his mental state after arriving in Luoyang, it was truly remarkable that he had survived until now. It's hard to imagine what kind of belief he had that kept him going.

Earlier, Yuan Shu privately guessed that he could live for two to three years at most. At the end of the third year of Zhengshi, Yuan Shu heard that Liu Kui had fallen seriously ill again, was bedridden, and occasionally coughed up blood. At that time, he knew that Liu Kui would not live long.

Whether it was Liu Kui's strong belief, the court physician's skill, or the potent effects of the court tonics, Liu Kui persevered for another year and a half.

For the past year and a half, Liu Kui has been bedridden, suffering from minor illnesses every three days and major illnesses every five days. This caused Yuan Feng to frequently write to Yuan Shu to complain that Liu Kui was simply torturing him.

One minute Liu Kui is dying and we have to prepare for his death, the next minute he recovers and can live a little longer. This goes on and on seven or eight times, and Yuan Fengren is getting tired of it.

Yuan Shu also felt that Liu Kui had a Schrödinger-like quality, dying for a while and then coming back to life, and something just didn't seem right.

Liu Kui went through this cycle of being on his deathbed, suddenly sitting up and laughing and chatting for another year, constantly shifting between different states, barely surviving. Finally, in the fifth year of the Zhengshi era, just before winter was approaching, he was taken away by a minor cold.

This time, Yuan Feng thought it would be the same as before, with everyone thinking he was going to die and nervously preparing for his funeral, but he came back to life.

Therefore, Yuan Feng made no preparations this time. He simply asked someone to keep an eye on things and continued to handle government affairs as usual.

As a result, he died.

It is said that he showed signs of recovery a quarter of an hour before his death, and told the eunuch who was serving him that he wanted to drink some porridge. The eunuch immediately sent someone to get some porridge.

When the porridge arrived, the person was gone.

Liu Kui's death was both sudden and unexpected.

The death of an emperor is indeed a major event, but when this emperor was Liu Kui, everyone was mentally prepared for it and had long since accepted it.

It is said that there are even gamblers in Luoyang who run betting schemes on whether Liu Kui will actually die every time news of his serious illness is reported.

The fact that such a blatantly outrageous gambling scheme could be opened shows just how dramatic Liu Kui's death was in people's eyes.

So when the news of his death actually came out, the people in Luoyang were very calm and waited for the court to deny it. After a day, the court did not deny it, but instead issued an official announcement saying that Liu Kui had died.

Only then did the people in Luoyang finally realize, oh, so the emperor really is dead.

But what does it matter to them whether the emperor lives or dies?

It is not meaningful.

Because in the five years since Liu Kui became emperor, he made only one decision that suited his own wishes, which was to demote Liu Hong to a commoner and send him to guard the Empress Dowager's tomb—and he did not live as long as Liu Hong.

Liu Hong is still alive and is still guarding Empress Dowager Dou's tomb.

All subsequent decisions had nothing to do with him. He never again held any power. On the contrary, his living space was constantly compressed and restricted, until finally he was confined to an iron house.

An iron house from which he could never escape.

So he spent most of his time lying down.

This may be one of the reasons why he lived so long.

Aside from performing sacrifices, he did virtually nothing of substance. He had almost no presence in the political life of Luoyang, so whether he lived or died had little impact on the current political order of the Eastern Han Empire.

Not to mention he also has a crown prince—fourteen-year-old Liu Li, who is alive and well.

When he dies, Liu Li can take his place and continue to be a puppet emperor with no real power, continuing to be the symbolic emperor of the Han Dynasty.

The political situation transitioned smoothly without any setbacks.

The succession of a symbolic mascot without actual power is that simple. On the ninth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the Zhengshi era, seven days after the death of the former emperor Liu Kui, Crown Prince Liu Li officially ascended the throne in the Deyang Palace, announced the change of the era name to Yande, and designated the fifth year of the Zhengshi era as the first year of Yande. He then discussed with his ministers the posthumous title and temple name of the late Emperor Liu Kui.

Unexpectedly, a political storm was quietly brewing because of this incident.

Because Liu Kui was a puppet emperor in name only, at first no one thought that his death and what happened after his death would have any impact on the political situation in Luoyang. No one expected that his death would actually cause a political upheaval.

The matter originated from the issue of bestowing a posthumous title and temple name upon Liu Kui.

Every emperor received a posthumous title after his death; everyone was entitled to one, and no one could refuse. Even many officials with outstanding political achievements and merits received posthumous titles, emphasizing the principle of equality among emperors.

Therefore, there was little controversy regarding the posthumous title; the only debate was what kind of posthumous title Liu Kui should be given.

Yuan Feng presided over the meeting. During the meeting, some people suggested giving Liu Kui a slightly less prestigious posthumous title. However, the general opinion in the court was that although Liu Kui did not have any great "achievements", as the emperor, he still had the merit of restoring order and continuing the Han dynasty at the beginning of his reign.

Therefore, even if a good posthumous title is not given, at least a bad one should not be given.

So everyone discussed it amicably, and Yuan Feng finally made the decision to give Liu Kui a mediocre posthumous title.

恭。

Because Liu Kui was very "humble," did not "strive for power and profit," and was very "trustworthy" to his subordinates, he was willing to put into practice the concept of "the sage emperor ruling by doing nothing," so the posthumous title "Gong" was most suitable for Liu Kui.

This means that people in the future could refer to Liu Kui as "Emperor Gong of Han", "Emperor Gong", or "Emperor Xiaogong" or something similar.

The courtiers expressed their full approval.

Everyone believed that having such a "gentle, kind, respectful, frugal, and modest" emperor was a blessing.

Up to this point, the various factions in the court were still on good terms, because everyone had benefited to some extent from the fact that the imperial power was weakening.

Then, the discussion moved on to the temple name.

Before the Sui and Tang dynasties, not all emperors had temple names. Generally, after an emperor died, a special family temple would be built for worship. However, after several generations, the original temple had to be destroyed and merged with the ancestral temple for worship.

If every king's temple is preserved, the numerous family temples will face difficulties in performing sacrifices after several generations.

Therefore, apart from monarchs who made great contributions to the country and were worthy of being worshipped by their descendants for generations, most monarchs did not have their own dedicated temples.

Of course, in later periods, every emperor actually had a temple name. However, because the number of characters in the posthumous titles of emperors in later generations expanded, and almost every emperor who succeeded to the throne would give his father and grandfather a good posthumous title, the posthumous title could not actually reflect the emperor's evaluation.

In a sense, the more objective temple name has replaced the posthumous title in serving as a definitive conclusion. Therefore, from any perspective, the temple name is more meaningful than the posthumous title.

As a representative example, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, only four emperors from the Western Han Dynasty had temple names.

Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang.

Emperor Xiaowen of the Taizong Dynasty, Liu Heng.

Emperor Xiaowu of the Shizong Dynasty, Liu Che.

Emperor Xiaoxuan of the Zhongzong Emperor Liu Xun.

The temple names of these four individuals were all reaffirmed by Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), thus solidifying their status.

In contrast, emperors such as Emperor Yuan of Han and Emperor Cheng of Han had their temple names removed by Liu Xiu because of their lack of achievements and obvious mistakes, thus losing their eligibility for separate worship.

It is evident that temple names from this period still held considerable value.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, seven emperors have had temple names to date: Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), Emperor Ming (Liu Zhuang), Emperor Zhang (Liu Da), Emperor He, Emperor An, Emperor Shun, and Emperor Huan.

That's right, Liu Zhi was also given a temple name after his death.

From any perspective, after Emperor He of Han, these emperors, while having achievements, also made very obvious mistakes. Compared with the high standards for temple names set by the Western Han emperors, the standards for temple names set by the Eastern Han emperors were obviously much lower.

This was criticized at the time.

In particular, many people believe that Emperor Huan of Han, Liu Zhi, should not have a temple name. As an emperor who instigated the disaster of the partisan purge and killed ministers, how could he have a temple name?
However, during the early years of Liu Hong's reign when eunuchs held power, Liu Zhi's temple name was still established due to political needs.

Liu Hong was certainly not qualified, and he didn't even have the status of emperor. But when it came to Liu Kui, who "restored order and continued the Han dynasty", should he have been given a temple name?

If Liu Zhi was given a temple name, shouldn't Liu Kui, who ended the eunuch dictatorship and restored the politics of the scholar class, also be given a temple name?

This question, once raised, sparked a rather heated debate in the imperial court.

(End of this chapter)