Prince He of Changyi - Post-reign Life

Post-reign Life

As part of the articles of impeachment, the officials asked that Empress Dowager Shangguan exile Prince He somewhere remote. However, she did not do so, but rather returned him to Changyi without any titles, although he was given a small fief of 2,000 families who would pay tribute to him. His four sisters were also awarded smaller fiefs of 1,000 families respectively.

Prince He's Changyi subordinates were accused of failing to keep his behavior in check and were almost all executed. Wang and Gong were spared because of their prior advice to him, but were ordered to hard labor. The only other official also spared was Prince He's teacher Wang Shi (王式), who successfully argued that he tried to use his teachings of poems to show Prince He what was proper and what was improper. Some historians argued that the reason why the Changyi officials were dealt with so harshly was that Huo was convinced that they were plotting with Prince He to have him killed, but there is no conclusive evidence of either such a plot or that the harsh treatment was as the result of such a plot or suspected plot.

Huo later settled on Liu Bingyi (劉病已), the commoner grandson of the former Crown Prince Liu Ju, an uncle of Prince He, as the new emperor, and he ascended to the throne 27 days later as Emperor Xuan. For years, although Prince He was powerless and without titles, Emperor Xuan was suspicious of him, but a report by Zhang Chang (張敞), the governor of the Commandery of Shanyang, in 64 BC, in which Zhang downplayed Prince He's level of intelligence, alleviated those concerns. In 63 BC, therefore, Emperor Xuan created Prince He the Marquess of Haihun—a county located in modern Jiangxi. (Although one can also speculate that in fact Emperor Xuan was concerned about Prince He, and therefore chose to send him far away from his former principality.) The former emperor died in 59 BC as a marquess. His son Liu Daizong (劉代宗) was not initially allowed to inherit his title, but ultimately was allowed to during the reign of Emperor Yuan.