King of Wu, sixty-two in 154 BCE, son of the founder's elder brother and therefore the founder's nephew. He had coins cast from his mountains and salt boiled from his sea, had not attended court for a generation, and lost a war that lasted three months.
I am sixty-two years old and I will lead this in person. My youngest son is fourteen and goes before the men. Anyone between my age and his is called up.The king of Wu calling his kingdom out to the field, first month of 154 BCE; Shiji, juan 106, Memoir of the King of Wu (Hanshu, juan 35, Memoir of Jing, Yan and the King of Wu)
Appears in
Relations
- Emperor Jing rivals — He was the founder's nephew and the emperor's father's first cousin, and he rose over the land cut from his kingdom and a son killed years before with a gaming board.
- Chao Cuo enemies — Cuo had told the late emperor for years that Wu could be cut; the rebellion's slogan asked for his head, and the empire sent it out to the market.
Myth vs record
Punish the traitor beside the emperor and clear his path: the seven kingdoms rose as a loyal protest, driven to arms by one wicked adviser.
That was the slogan, and the record says so in as many words — the rising was nominally to kill Chao Cuo (Shiji, juan 106; juan 101). The same books show what sat under it: the copper hills of Yuzhang worked by runaways the empire could not get back, salt boiled from the sea, no land tax taken from his own people for a generation, seasonal gifts to every man of note, and officials from other kingdoms sent away empty-handed when they came for fugitives; the Shiji says this ran on for forty-odd years and draws the conclusion itself, that this is how he could put their multitude to work. When the emperor's envoy reached the camp with the pardon and the restored boundaries, Liu Pi laughed, said he was already the Emperor of the East, would not kneel to take it, and kept the man under guard (juan 101). Two officers in the record say the killing of Cuo achieved nothing: one returned from the front, and one said it to a surrendered king's face.