Emperor Wu of Han - Biography - Late Reign and Death

Late Reign and Death

Even after Jiang Chong and Prince Ju both died, however, the witchcraft affairs would continue. One final prominent victim was the general Li Guangli, who was Consort Li's brother and had prior victories over Dayuan and Xiongnu despite causing unnecessary losses with his military incompetence. In 90 BC, while Li was assigned to a campaign against Xiongnu, a eunuch named Guo Rang (郭穰) exposed that Li and his political ally, Prime Minister Liu Qumao, conspired to use witchcraft on Emperor Wu. Liu and his family were immediately arrested and later executed, and Li's family was also under custody. Li, after knowing the news, realised that going home is no longer an option, so he used risky tactics to attempt a major victory against Xiongnu in order to build up a future standoff against Emperor Wu, but failed when some of his senior officers mutinied. On his retreat, he was ambushed by Xiongnu forces, and he defected to Xiongnu. His clan was executed by Emperor Wu not long after. Li himself later fell victim to the infighting with older Han traitors in Xiongnu, especially one named Wei Lü (衛律), who was extremely jealous of the amount of Chanyu's favor Li gained as a new, high-profile defector.

By this time, however, Emperor Wu had begun to realize that the witchcraft accusations were often false accusations, especially in relation to the Crown Prince rebellion. In 92 BC, when Tian Qianqiu (田千秋), then the superintendent of Emperor Gao's temple, wrote a report claiming that Emperor Gao told him in a dream that Prince Ju should have only been whipped at most, not killed, Emperor Wu had a revelation about what happened, and he had Su burned and Jiang's family executed. He also made Tian prime minister. However, although he claimed to miss Prince Ju greatly (he even built a palace and an altar for his deceased son as a sign of grief and regret), he did not at this time rectify the situation where Prince Ju's only surviving progeny, Liu Bingyi, languished in prison as a child.

The political scene now greatly changed. Emperor Wu publicly self-criticized and apologized to the whole nation about his past policy mistakes, a gesture known to history as the Repenting Edict of Luntai (輪台悔詔). The Prime Minister Tian he appointed was in favor of resting the troops and the people and promoting agriculture, and under his recommendation, several agricultural experts were made important members of the administration. Wars and territorial expansion generally ceased. These policies and ideals were those supported by Crown Prince Ju, and was finally realised years after he was dead.

By 88 BC, Emperor Wu was terminally ill, but with Prince Ju dead, there was no clear successor. Liu Dan, the Prince of Yan, was Emperor Wu's oldest surviving son, but Emperor Wu considered both him and his younger brother Liu Xu, the Prince of Guangling, to be unsuitable, since neither respected laws. He decided that the only one suitable was his youngest son, Liu Fuling, who was only six at that time. He therefore also chose a potential regent in Huo Guang, whom he considered to be capable and faithful, and entrusted Huo with the regency of Fuling. He also ordered the execution of Prince Fuling's mother Consort Zhao, in fear that being at her prime age she would become an uncontrollable empress dowager like the previous Empress Lü. At Huo's suggestion, he also made ethnic Xiongnu official Jin Midi and general Shangguang Jie co-regents. He died in 87 BC, shortly after creating Prince Fuling crown prince. Crown Prince Fuling then succeeded to the throne as Emperor Zhao for the next 13 years.

Because Emperor Wu did not create anyone empress after Empress Wei committed suicide, and left no instruction on who should be enshrined in his temple with him, Huo, after Emperor Wu's death, considered what his wishes would have been, chose to enshrine Consort Li with Emperor Wu. They lie buried in the Maoling mound, the most famous of the so-called Chinese pyramids.