Liu Xiu

Also known as Zi Wenshu · Guangwu Di · Han Guang Wu Di

Liu Xiu, courtesy name Wenshu, came from Caiyang in Nanyang, a descendant of the Han founder. He rose in arms with his elder brother Liu Yan at Chongling in 22, and at Kunyang in 23 led a few thousand men in a charge that broke Wang Mang's huge army. After the Gengshi emperor had his brother killed, he went north as an envoy, destroyed the pretender Wang Lang in Hebei, took the throne at Hao in 25, making Luoyang his capital; in 36 Wu Han's conquest of Gongsun Su completed the reunification. Reigning under the titles Jianwu and Jianwu Zhongyuan, he issued repeated edicts freeing slaves, cut more than four hundred counties in 30, and in 39 ordered a survey of land and households. He died in the Southern Palace at Luoyang in 57, with the temple name Shizu. That year he granted a seal to envoys from the Wa state of Nu; a gold seal found on Shikanoshima in Japan in 1784 is generally identified with it.