Death and Subsequent Destruction of The Huo Clan
In 68 BC, Huo Guang became ill and died. Emperor Xuan and Empress Dowager Shangguan made the nearly-unprecedented act of personally attending Huo's wake and built an impressive mausoleum for Huo. After Huo's death, his sons, sons-in-law, and grandnephews remained in important posts and were made marquesses. His wife, after a period of mourning, formed a passionate relationship with Huo Guang's slave master, Feng Zidu, himself a former lover of Huo Guang. The Huo family lived luxurious lives on par with the imperial household.
Emperor Xuan, unhappy about the Huos' perceived arrogance, began to gradually strip their actual powers while formally keeping their titles impressive. In 67 BC, Emperor Xuan made his son Liu Shi (劉奭, later Emperor Yuan), by the deceased Empress Xu, crown prince, an act that greatly angered Lady Xian, who instructed her daughter to murder the crown prince. Allegedly, Empress Huo did make multiple attempts to do so, but failed each time. Around this time, the emperor also heard rumors that the Huos had murdered Empress Xu, which led him to further strip the Huos of actual power.
In 66 BC, Lady Xian revealed to her son and grandnephews that she had, indeed, murdered Empress Xu. In fear of what the emperor might do if he had actual proof, Lady Xian, her son, her grandnephews, and her sons-in-law formed a conspiracy to depose the emperor. The conspiracy was discovered, and the entire Huo clan was executed by Emperor Xuan. This act that later drew heavy criticism from historians, such as Sima Guang in his Zizhi Tongjian, for its ungratefulness to Huo Guang. For the time being, Empress Huo was deposed. Twelve years later she was exiled, and in response she committed suicide.
Despite the destruction of the Huo clan, Emperor Xuan continued to honor Huo Guang posthumously. In 51 BC, when he painted the portrait of 11 great statesmen of his administration in the great hall of his palace, Huo, alone among the 11, was referred to by title and family name only, which was considered an even greater honor than the honor given to the other 10.
Read more about this topic: Huo Guang
Famous quotes containing the words death, subsequent, destruction and/or clan:
“I could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear,
Till death like sleep might steal on me,”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“And he smiled a kind of sickly smile, and curled up on the floor,
And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more.”
—Francis Bret Harte (1836–1902)
“Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“We cannot think of a legitimate argument why ... whites and blacks need be affected by the knowledge that an aggregate difference in measured intelligence is genetic instead of environmental.... Given a chance, each clan ... will encounter the world with confidence in its own worth and, most importantly, will be unconcerned about comparing its accomplishments line-by-line with those of any other clan. This is wise ethnocentricism.”
—Richard Herrnstein (1930–1994)