Early Career
It is unclear when Dong became a court official, but it is known that early in Emperor Ai's reign (which lasted from 7 BC to 1 BC), Dong was a minor imperial secretary (郎, lang), and he was a colleague of the later-posthumously famous Confucian scholar Yang Xiong.
By 4 BC, at the age of 19, he was an imperial attendant (侍中, shizhong) and the director of imperial equine operations (駙馬都尉), fuma duwei. (In later dynasties, this became a title for princesses' husbands. That was not true during the Han Dynasty, and it is, in any case, clear that Dong did not marry a princess.) His relationship with Emperor Ai would allow him to suddenly increase his power and prestige.
Read more about this topic: Dong Xian
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