CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Liu Hun

Chinese chancellor

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 6, 2025
Entity authorityQ11109950
Source-derived summary

Liu Hun (柳渾) (715 – February 23, 789), né Liu Zai (柳載), courtesy name Yikuang (夷曠), alternative name Weishen (惟深), formally Count Zhen of Yicheng (宜城貞伯), was a Chinese politician during the Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Dezong.

Background

Liu Zai was born in 715, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. His family was from Xiang Prefecture (襄州, in modern Xiangfan, Hubei) but claimed as their ancestral lands the Hedong region (河東, roughly modern Shanxi) and claimed the Jin dynasty (266–420) official Liu Chun (柳純) as an ancestor. Their traceable ancestry included officials of Jin dynasty, Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang dynasty, and Tang dynasty. His grandfather Liu Shangsu (柳尚素) and father Liu Qingxiu (柳慶休) both served as county-level officials.

Liu Zai's father Liu Qingxiu died early. He was studious, but was poor as a result of his father's early death. He passed the imperial examinations early in Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao era (742–756) and was made the sheriff of Danfu County (單父, in modern Heze, Shandong).

During Emperor Suzong's reign

During the Zhide era (756–758) of Emperor Xuanzong's son Emperor Suzong, Liu Zai served as a secretary for Huangfu Shen (皇甫侁) the surveyor of Jiangxi Circuit (江西, headquartered in modern Nanchang, Jiangxi). He was then recalled to serve as Jiancha Yushi (監察御史), an imperial censor.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Liu Hun” is chinese chancellor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Chinese and chancellor, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 221-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 0715-01-01. For this dossier, Chinese and chancellor is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “chinese chancellor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q11109950. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Liu Hun”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Liu Hun primary sources, Liu Hun archive and Chinese research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Liu Hun”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Liu Hun” 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.