Family Background and Accession To The Throne
Liu Hong was a hereditary marquess—the Marquess of Jieduting. (A "ting marquess had a march that would be one village or, in rarer cases, two or three villages.) His was a third generation creation, as his father Liu Chang (劉萇) and grandfather Liu Shu (劉淑) were both Marquesses of Jieduting as well. His great-grandfather was Liu Kai (劉開), the Prince of Hejian, and a son of Emperor Zhang. His mother Lady Dong was Marquess Chang's wife.
When Emperor Huan died in 168 without a son to be heir, his wife Empress Dou Miao became empress dowager and regent, and she examined the rolls of the imperial clan to consider the next emperor. For reasons unknown, her assistant Liu Shu (劉儵) recommended Marquess Hong, and after consulting with her father Dou Wu and the Confucian scholar official Chen Fan, Empress Dowager Dou made him emperor, at age 12. Empress Dowager Dou continued to serve as regent. Emperor Ling posthumously honored his father and grandfather as emperors, and his grandmother as an empress. His mother, because of Empress Dowager Dou's presence, was not honored as an empress or empress dowager, but as an imperial consort.
Read more about this topic: Emperor Ling Of Han
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