Liu Ju
Chinese prince
Liu Ju (Chinese: 劉據; early 128 – 30 September 91 BC), formally known as Crown Prince Wei (衛太子) and posthumously as Crown Prince Li (戾太子; lit. ''the unrepentant crown prince'', with "Li" being an unflattering adjective) was a Western Han dynasty crown prince. He was the eldest son and heir apparent of Emperor Wu and served as the prince regent in his father's later years until his death at age 38 (by East Asian age reckoning) due to political violence.
After being falsely accused of cursing his father via witchcraft and denied access to plea innocence, Liu Ju led an uprising in 91 BC with his own royal guards, retainers and conscripted militia to purge the conspirators, but surviving conspirators used this opportunities to selectively report and convince the senile Emperor Wu — who had been spending most of his elderly days vacating in summer resort Ganquan Palace, surrounded by people who preferred Liu Ju deposed — that Liu Ju was conducting a treasonous rebellion, leading Emperor Wu to issue an imperial crackdown. After losing the battle against his father's regular army (led by his political enemies) and forced to fled the capital Chang'an, Liu Ju was hunted down by local government soldiers and committed suicide by hanging, and his entire family were also killed in the political turmoil with the only exception of a month-old infant grandson Liu Bingyi, who was thrown into prison before being pardoned by an amnesty, grew up among commoners and eventually reclaimed the throne 18 years later as Emperor Xuan.
Family background and birth
Liu Ju's mother, Empress Wei Zifu, was Emperor Wu's second wife. Emperor Wu's first wife was Empress Chen Jiao (who was also his older cousin). She was infertile and had a jealous personality. Moreover, when she was found employing witchcraft to curse Emperor Wu's other concubines (aimed at Wei Zifu in particular), she was officially deposed in August 130 BC, leaving open the position of empress. Wei Zifu had become Emperor Wu's new favourite consort since 138 BC and had by then already given him three daughters. In 128 BC, she gave birth to Liu Ju, Emperor Wu's first son, and was created empress as a result in April that year.
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This entry incorporates text from “Liu Ju” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.