Emperor Yuan of Han

Also known as Liu Shi

Liu Shi, Emperor Yuan of Han, was the son of Emperor Xuan by Xu Pingjun and was named heir in 67 BC. Gentle and drawn to Confucian learning, he once provoked his father to say that the heir would bring the dynasty to ruin. Reigning from 49 BC under the era names Chuyuan, Yongguang, Jianzhao and Jingning, he relied on the palace eunuchs Hong Gong and Shi Xian, whose charges drove the general Xiao Wangzhi to suicide in 47 BC. In 36 BC Chen Tang and the Protector-General Gan Yanshou raised troops on a forged order and killed Zhizhi Chanyu in Kangju. In 33 BC, when Huhanye Chanyu came to court, the emperor gave him the palace lady Wang Qiang (Wang Zhaojun); he died the same year and was given the temple name Gaozong and the posthumous title Xiaoyuan. Ban Gu's verdict in the History of the Han (Hanshu) says that, bound by the letter of the classics and unable to decide, he let his father's achievements decline.