Background
Hao Chujun was born in 607, during the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui. His family was from what would eventually become An Prefecture (安州, roughly modern Xiaogan, Hubei). Late in Emperor Yang's reign, the Sui state was engulfed in agrarian rebellions, and Hao Chujun's father Hao Xianggui (郝相貴) and maternal grandfather Xu Shao (許紹), who was a Sui official, seized and controlled a significant amount of territory in modern Hubei and Chongqing. After they submitted to Tang Dynasty's founding emperor Emperor Gaozu, Hao Xianggui was created the Duke of Zengshan and made the prefect of Chu Prefecture (滁州, roughly modern Chuzhou, Anhui). When Hao Chujun was a teenager, Hao Xianggui died while still serving as prefect of Chu Prefecture, and Hao Xianggui's subordinates, pitying Hao Chujun, gathered silk and wanted to give the silk to him for his upkeep, but he declined it, an act praised by historians. Hao Chujun was said to be studious in his youth; he particularly favored studying the Book of Han (the official history of the Western Han Dynasty) and was said to be able to recite it from memory.
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