Gengshi Emperor was known by his courtesy name Shenggong and as the King or Prince of Huaiyang, a posthumous title bestowed upon him by Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han.
22 Facts About Gengshi Emperor
1.
2.
The Gengshi Emperor was viewed as a weak and incompetent ruler, who briefly ruled over an empire willing to let him rule over them, but was unable to keep that empire together.
3.
Gengshi Emperor was eventually deposed by the Red Eyebrows and strangled a few months after his defeat.
4.
The regime of the Gengshi Emperor is known in historiography as the Xuan Han, after his personal name Liu Xuan.
5.
Gengshi Emperor's third cousin, Liu Yan, was a prominent general in the rebellions against the reign of Wang Mang in the short-lived Xin dynasty.
6.
The first major incident involving infighting in the Gengshi Emperor's regime happened shortly after the Battle of Kunyang which would lead to the demise of Wang Mang and the Xin dynasty.
7.
The Gengshi Emperor was fearful of Liu Yan's capabilities and keenly aware that many of Liu Yan's followers were angry that Liu Yan was not made emperor.
Related searches
Wang Mang 8.
The Gengshi Emperor then commissioned two armies, one led by Wang Kuang, targeting Luoyang, and the other led by Shentu Jian and Li Song, targeting Chang'an directly.
9.
Gengshi Emperor then issued edicts to the entire empire, promising to allow Xin local officials who submitted to him to keep their posts.
10.
Soon the people began to see that the powerful officials around the Gengshi Emperor were in fact uneducated men lacking ability to govern; this made them lose confidence in the emperor's government.
11.
The Gengshi Emperor's government was challenged by a major pretender in winter 23 AD.
12.
Gengshi Emperor claimed that his mother was a singer in Emperor Cheng's service, and that Empress Zhao Feiyan had tried to kill him after his birth, but that a substitute child was killed instead.
13.
The Gengshi Emperor put Liu Xiu in charge of the region north of the Yellow Rivera and created him the Prince of Xiao, but Liu Xiu, still aware that he was not truly trusted and angry about his brother's death, secretly planned to break away from the Gengshi Emperor's rule.
14.
Gengshi Emperor put in place a strategy to strip other imperially-commissioned generals of their powers and troops, and then concentrated the troops under his own command.
15.
The Gengshi Emperor moved his capital again, this time back to the Western Han capital of Chang'an.
16.
Once the Gengshi Emperor was back in the capital, he issued a general pardon, which calmed the situation for a while.
17.
In 25 AD, the Gengshi Emperor's forces led to the death of the former Western Han emperor-designate, Emperor Ruzi.
18.
The Gengshi Emperor sent his prime minister Li Song with an army to attack them.
19.
However, one general, Zhang Ang occupied most of Chang'an, forcing the Gengshi Emperor to flee, just as the Chimei forces were approaching.
20.
Generals still loyal to the Gengshi Emperor were eventually able to evict Zhang Ang from the capital, but by that time the situation was desperate.
21.
However, the Gengshi Emperor was forced to stay in Xie Lu's headquarters, with Liu Gong protecting him.
22.
Liu Gong hid his body in a secure location, and years later, after Eastern Han had completely captured the Chang'an region, Liu Xiu had the Gengshi Emperor's body buried with princely honours at Baling, near the tomb of Emperor Wen.