GB Times - Emperor Wu Di almost wasn't emperor. It was not birthright, but a mixture of luck, cunning and intrigue that would bring one of China's best emperors to the throne.

Born Prince Che to the Emperor Jing and the concubine Wang Zhi, he wasn't the eldest son, and another had been named Crown Prince.

A Fortuneteller Speaks

Zhang Tu, Wang's mother, was told by a fortuneteller that Wang and her sister were destined for great honours. Never mind that Wang was already married to someone else with whom she already had a daughter. Zhang forced them to divorce and offered Wang as consort to the Crown Prince Liu Qi. Prince Che was born in 156 BC, soon after Liu Qi ascended the throne as Emperor Jing. In 153 BC, Prince Che was made the Prince of Jiaodong.

The emperor's wife, Empress Bo had no sons. So, it was the eldest son, Liu Rong, of his favorite concubine, Consort Li who was named Crown Prince. Consort Li had aspirations to become Empress, since Empress Bo was deposed in 151 BC. But, as often happens in these complicated court intrigues, her arrogance brought about her downfall.

Consort Li refused to allow her son to marry the daughter of Emperor Jing's sister, Princess Liu Piao. Finding the opening she needed to advance her son's position, Consort Wang offered her son Prince Che as husband for Princess Liu Piao's daughter, Chen Jiao. Consort Li had earned the ire of the emperor's sister, who took to criticizing her for her jealousy and arrogance. Princess Liu Piao then started insinuating that if Consort Li were to become empress dowager, many of the emperor's consorts could suffer the same fate as Consort Qi, who was tortured and killed by the Empress Dowager Lü after the death of Emperor Gao, the first emperor of the Han dynasty.

Emperor Jing eventually gave in and deposed Prince Rong as Crown Prince in 150 BC. That same year, Consort Wang was made Empress and Prince Che the Crown Prince. Consort Li? It is said that she died of anger.

When Emperor Jing died in 141 BC, the 15-year old Prince Che succeeded the throne as Emperor Wu.

The Reign of a Young Emperor

It was during the Emperor Wu's reign that Confucianism started to become the State's official doctrine. In 140 BC, he conducted an examination of over a hundred young scholars who were recommended by officials. A young Confucian scholar named Dong Zhongshu was judged to have submitted the best essay. It might be a bit too coincidental though, that the Prime Minister Wei Wan was himself an adherent to Confucianism.

Confucianism Started to Become the State's Official Doctrine

Because Emperor Wu was just in his teens when he ascended the throne, the running of the empire was handled mostly by three figures -- his grandmother, the Grand Empress Dowager; his mother, the Empress Dowager; and his mother's half-brother Tian Fen, Marquess of Wu'an, who commanded the armed forces.

Emperor Wu, however, was able to assert his will at times. He was always looking for young officials who were his age, who shared his thoughts and ideas about running the government. These young officials enjoyed a very close relationship with the Emperor and were often promoted. Emperor Wu, however, was not reluctant to punish officials, even executing those who have been found corrupt. At the same time, he respected advisers who would honestly tell him what they thought.

Emperor Wu's marriage to his cousin Chen Jiao was at first a happy one. But because the Empress Chen could not bear him a son, their relationship started to deteriorate. On one of Emperor Wu's visits to his sister Princess Pingyang a female entertainer, caught his eye. She soon became his favorite concubine. Empress Chen was so distressed about the turn of events that she tried to commit suicide several times, although all her attempts failed.

Upon the death of the Grand Empress Dowager Dou in 135 BC, Emperor Wu began to take an even more active part in governance. It was also around this time that the Emperor Wu started on a campaign to expand the territory he governed. This would later become one of the hallmarks of his reign.

Sima Qian: The Grand Historian

Twenty-one centuries ago, an official in the court of the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty compiled a work of history that was to set the gold-standard for the empire's historiographers. The man's name was Sima Qian (司马 迁), and the emperor who awarded him a position of worth in the capital Chang'an would later take away his manhood.

Sima Qian was born around the year 145 BCE. His father, Sima Tan (司马谈), was Grand Historian at court. The post was hereditary, and Qian was to inherit it when Sima senior died. Sima Qian was educated from an early age, studying under Confucian masters and being groomed to follow in his father's footsteps.

The Grand Historian's job was to keep record of astronomical and other natural phenomena, like earthquakes, floods and storms; manifestations that were considered being of the will of Heaven. Divine force had granted the emperor his mandate to rule the world and, therefore, documenting these natural disasters was important for the governing of the state. In the court of emperor Han Wudi, belief in the magical was more prominent than it would become later.

The Grand Historian was also required to keep daily journals of state affairs and court ceremonies, journals that helped in the administration of the empire, and, therefore, he had full access to the imperial libraries.

A Man of the World Returns Home

As a young man, Sima Qian travelled widely and, after being given a position at court in 110 BCE, he accompanied Emperor Wudi on his trip to Tai Shan, where the emperor went to sacrifice to Heaven. In the same year, Sima Tan died, and Qian returned home for the required period of mourning. The mourning period after a parent's death was an old tradition that later became associated with Confucian filial piety.

In 108 BCE, after a sufficient mourning period, Sima Qian returned to court to take up his father's position and continue his work. His father had begun compiling a great work of history, a project Qian had been involved in by collecting and verifying data on his journeys as a young man, and which was to become his greatest ambition in life.

Common Court Chronicles

The writing of histories were nothing new in China, where court chronicles were particularly common. The most famous of these was the Spring and Autumn Annals, or Chun Qiu (春秋), which supposedly had been written by Confucius himself, and which chronicled the event of his home state, Lu.

In Sima Qian's days, this work of history had achieved a canonical position, being one of the five Confucian classics that were taught in the newly founded imperial academy where potential officials had to study – the other four classics are Book of Changes or I Ching (易经), Book of Documents (书经), Book of Songs (经文) and Book of Rites (礼记).

Even though Sima Qian had a duty as a son to finish his father's great work, he also had to tread carefully to avoid being accused of the prideful sin of attempting to equal, or, heaven forbid, to surpass the old Master. The writing of history carried another risk for Sima Qian as he strived for objectivity. History was a politically charged subject, and working for a political ruler, objectivity required bravery.

Sima Qian, himself, would become disillusioned towards his own emperor, whom he saw as a superstitious, arbitrary, and, at times, cruel lord. The last character trait, Sima would experience himself, as we shall learn in the final part of this article.

Aiming High, Falling Deep

The ambitions of the two Simas were great. Qian was aiming to complete an unprecedented historical encyclopaedia, covering more than two millennia, from the mythological beginnings of China to his own day.

In spite of his grand ambitions, it was not his own work that would cause the catastrophe of the Great Historian's life, it was his support for another man, Li Ling (李陵). Li Ling was a general who had failed the emperor's expectations during a campaign against the nomadic people Xiong Nu, and who, therefore, and in absentia, was condemned as a traitor.

Only Sima Qian defended the general and, for his pains, the emperor condemned him to death. He was, however, allowed to choose castration and three years imprisonment instead. Sima later felt the need to defend his choice of a life in disgrace, by saying it was necessary to complete the great work.

After his three years in prison, Sima Qian lived in the palace as an eunuch, having regained the favour of the emperor, and he completed his book.

The Work of Two Lifetimes

The result of the work of two generations of Sima would become known as Records of the Grand Historian, or Shiji (史记), covering the times from the Yellow Emperor to the days of the Han dynasty.

The book consists of 130 chapters and contains a wide variety of subjects, such as treaties on topics like economy and statesmanship, descriptions of foreign peoples, timelines of historical events, and biographies of prominent peoples, from rulers, warriors, poets and philosophers, to magicians, merchants, rebels and even assassins.

Sima Qian attempted to write objectively and, when possible, he quoted from earlier text, but when necessary, he put words in the mouths of the people he described, constructing dialogues to highlight the character of individuals or importance of events.

Father of Confucian History Writing

His own experiences didn't give Sima Qian a high opinion of rulers, particularly not of his own Emperor Wudi. Rather, he sympathised with men whose merits had not been recognised in their own times. In this respect, he might be called an atypical official.

In a time where Confucianism was still in the process of consolidating its position as the dominant philosophical school for officials, Sima Qian is considered being eclectic when compared with later intellectuals that grew up in a more orthodox environment; his personal preferences ran towards Daoism, as had his father's.

In spite of Sima's stubborn adherence to his own ideas, his eclectic Daoism and his eccentric ways, the work he created, the Shiji, was to set the standard for later Confucian historians. Its wide range of topics, covering political narratives, the topical treaties on everything from rituals to state finances to the construction of waterworks, the inclusive biographies, showed that the history of the state was too complex to only focus on the rulers themselves.

The Shiji become the standard for all major history writing, not only in China, but also in Korea and Japan, where Chinese cultural influence held sway. His style of writing also influenced both fiction and narrative prose in the coming years.

Sima Qian himself, died in 85 BCE, doubtlessly proud of his accomplishments, but, to the very end, he carried a bitterness towards Wudi for the humiliation he had suffered.