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Liu Xiu

Given / Temple NameEmperor Guangwu of Han

Emperor Guangwu, who broke Wang Mang at Kunyang and restored the house of Han

Holders of the Mandate · Emperors & Kings
The Eastern HanThe Battle of KunyangThe Guangwu Restoration

Who they are

Liu Xiu was a distant branch of the Han house; before raising his army he studied at the Imperial Academy in Chang’an and farmed at home, and was known as steady and mild. At the Battle of Kunyang, with fewer than twenty thousand defenders against Wang Mang’s four hundred and twenty thousand, he broke out with thirteen riders to fetch reinforcements, then led three thousand dare-to-die men into the enemy lines and cut down their commander — the main force of Wang Mang’s regime was annihilated in a single battle. He then swept away the contenders and founded the Eastern Han, a rare "complete man" among founding emperors: he did not kill his meritorious ministers (the Twenty-eight Generals of the Cloud Terrace all died well), freed slaves, streamlined officialdom, and spoke of war no more for thirty years — the Guangwu Restoration. Mao Zedong judged him "the best at using men, the most learned, and the best at war."

Key stories

The Battle of Kunyang

Four hundred and twenty thousand Xin troops surrounded Kunyang, its garrison fewer than twenty thousand, and the generals wished to scatter. Liu Xiu slipped out by night with thirteen riders to fetch reinforcements, and on returning led three thousand dare-to-die men straight at the enemy’s core, cutting down the commander Wang Xun; the garrison sallied out to press the attack, and as a thunderstorm broke and the Zhi River flooded, the Xin army trampled and drowned itself by the tens of thousands. After this battle the Xin had no army left to fight. Two years later Chang’an fell, and Wang Mang lost his head.

Where there is a will, the thing is done

The general Geng Yan pacified the Qi region, taking Zhu’e and Linzi in succession, completing the strategy he had declared openly years before. At the victory feast Liu Xiu said to him: "General, you laid this great plan at Nanyang years ago; I always thought it too grand to come together — but where there is a will, the thing is done!" The phrase entered the language from here. Liu Xiu’s own youthful ambitions had been far humbler — "to serve as Chief of Police, and to marry Yin Lihua" — and later he exceeded both: he became emperor, and he married Yin Lihua.

Relationships

Nemesis
🎭Wang Mang

Appears in

The Qin and Han EmpiresWang Mang Usurps the Han; Guangwu Restores It
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