Imperial clansman who in 188 proposed turning the regional inspectors into governors with real power, then asked for such a post himself — a far southern province, to be out of the way — and got Yizhou instead.
The regions are not quiet because the weight of the office is not enough. Choose the court's heavy men and make them governors, and the four quarters settle of themselves.Liu Yan's memorial of 188 CE; Hou Han shu, Memoir of Liu Yan, juan 75
Appears in
Relations
- Liu Bei successor — He asked for the province behind the passes and founded the court of Shu; a generation later a kinsman of another branch took it from Liu Yan's son.
Myth vs record
The Liu Yan who opened the way for Liu Bei in Shu is one man, and he was a warlord who carved out a kingdom on purpose.
Readers meet two Liu Yans in these years, and this is not the one standing at the chassis of state in 189: this Liu Yan is of the imperial house, an uncle by kinship to Emperor Ling, who in 188 proposed turning the regional inspectors into governors with real troops and then asked to be one himself — and got Yizhou. The reform is the hinge: the Hou Han shu marks the year his advice was taken with six characters saying the house of Han declined from here. He held the province until his death in 194, and his son lost it to Liu Bei, who came of the Zhongshan branch and not of Yan's line.