Death
In 645, Emperor Taizong launched a campaign against Goguryeo. While on the way to the frontline, he put Li Zhi in charge at Ding Prefecture (定州, roughly modern Baoding, Hebei), responsible for the logistics behind the lines. Liu Ji, along with Gao Shilian, Ma Zhou, Zhang Xingcheng, and Gao Jifu, were left to assist the crown prince. Liu was in charge of exercising de facto authority over the ministries of civil service affairs, ceremonies, and census. Before Emperor Taizong departed Ding Prefecture, he stated to Liu, "I am going on an expeditio, leaving you to assist the Crown Prince. The safety of the state rests on you. I trust that you know what I want." Liu responded, "Your Imperial Majesty need not worry. If there were high level officials who committed crimes, I will immediately execute them." Emperor Taizong, shocked by his resopnse, stated, "You are carless and overly strong in your personality. You may bring disaster on yourself if you keep this up. Be careful."
Later that year, after the end of the Goguryeo campaign, Emperor Taizong returned to Ding Prefecture and was ill at that time. After Liu and Ma visited Emperor Taizong at his secondary palace and exited it, Chu Suiliang asked them what the emperor's condition was, and Liu, weeping, stated, "The emperor is extremely ill, and it makes me worried!" Chu then falsely reported to Emperor Taizong that Liu said, "There is nothing to worry about as far as the matters of state were concerned. We only need to assist the young emperor. By the precedents of Yi Yin and Huo Guang, we execute the high level officials who were double-minded, and the state will be secure." Because of Liu's earlier comments, Emperor Taizong believed the accusation. Liu asked Ma to corroborate his innocence, and Ma did so, but Chu insisted that Liu did make the inappropriate comments. Emperor Taizong, believing Chu, ordered that Liu commit suicide, but pardoned his family. Before Liu committed suicide, around the new year 646, he requested a pen so that he could write a final statement for Emperor Taizong, but the officials having him under arrest did not dare to give him a pen, and so he died without a final statement. When Emperor Taizong found out about this, he punished those officials.
In 656, Emperor Taizong's death and succession by Li Zhi (as Emperor Gaozong) and after Chu himself fell from grace due to the machinations of Emperor Gaozong's wife Empress Wu and her associates, Liu Ji's son Liu Hongye (劉弘業) submitted a petition, alleging that his father was forced to commit suicide due to Chu's false accusations. The chancellor Li Yifu, a close associate of Empress Wu and a former subordinate of Liu Ji's whom Liu Ji favored, helped him with his case, and most officials, wanting to please Li Yifu, all stated that Liu died without fault. However, Le Yanwei opposed revisiting the case, pointing out that Liu did still make inappropriate statements, and that revisiting the case would be an implicit rebuke of Emperor Taizong's actions. Emperor Gaozong agreed, and took no action on Liu Hongye's petition. It was not until 684, after Empress Wei had become empress dowager and was in total control, that Liu Ji's honors were posthumously restored.
Read more about this topic: Liu Ji (Tang Dynasty)
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Dreams pursue death as winds a flying fire,
Our dreams pursue our dead and do not find.”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death M even death on a cross.”
—Bible: New Testament, Philippians 2:5-8.