The Precarious Succession of Emperor Xuan

In the winter of 49 BCE, Emperor Xuan of Han lay dying with an empire in peril. His sudden illness left little time to secure the succession for his unimpressive heir, Crown Prince Liu Shi (the future Emperor Yuan). Mirroring Emperor Wu’s precedent of appointing regents, Xuan selected three men: his cousin Shi Gao as Grand Marshal, the scholarly Xiao Wangzhi as Former General, and Zhou Kan as Imperial Counselor.

This arrangement revealed Xuan’s political trauma. Having survived the bloody aftermath of the witchcraft persecutions that wiped out his family, and later endured the domineering regency of Huo Guang, Xuan prioritized loyalty over competence. Shi Gao, though undistinguished, had proven his allegiance by exposing Huo Guang’s son’s rebellion. The erudite Xiao Wangzhi and Zhou Kan would provide governance expertise while Shi Gao maintained stability.

The Fracturing of the Regency

The regency collapsed almost immediately due to Xiao Wangzhi’s political miscalculations. The Confucian scholar, despite his brilliance, fatally underestimated palace politics. He sidelined Shi Gao, forming his own faction with Liu Gengsheng and Jin Chang. This alienated the marginalized Grand Marshal, who found unlikely allies in the palace eunuchs Hong Gong and Shi Xian.

These eunuchs were no mere functionaries. Emperor Xuan had deliberately elevated castrated officials precisely because their isolation made them dependent on the throne. Shi Xian, in particular, possessed formidable administrative skills and psychological insight into the weak-willed Emperor Yuan. When Xiao Wangzhi made the fatal error of demanding eunuchs be removed from the secretariat—directly threatening Shi Xian’s power base—the stage was set for destruction.

The Eunuch’s Gambit

Shi Xian’s counterattack demonstrated Machiavellian brilliance. He exploited:
1. Emperor Yuan’s intellectual limitations: The emperor didn’t understand bureaucratic euphemisms like “send to the commandant” meant imprisonment
2. Xiao’s pride: The scholar refused to humble himself before his former student
3. Proxy warfare: Using informers like Zheng Peng to fabricate charges

The final blow came when Xiao’s son petitioned for justice—a move Shi Xian framed as lese-majeste. Surrounded by troops and pressured by his student Zhu Yun to maintain scholarly dignity, the 60-year-old statesman drank poison in 47 BCE. Emperor Yuan’s theatrical grief—brief tears and a missed meal—changed nothing.

The Rise of the Eunuch Dictatorship

With rivals eliminated, Shi Xian established an unprecedented eunuch autocracy:
– Controlled all memorials through the Secretariat
– Installed allies like Wulu Chongzong in key positions
– Eliminated critics like the diviner Jing Fang through false charges

The 40s BCE saw the Han bureaucracy hollowed out as Shi Xian manipulated natural disasters to purge officials. When Grand Marshal Shi Gao resigned in 43 BCE following crop failures (a traditional imperial scapegoating ritual), the eunuch’s dominance became complete.

Legacy of a Broken System

This crisis exposed structural flaws that would haunt later dynasties:
1. The regency dilemma: Balancing loyalty and competence in succession arrangements
2. Eunuch power: Created as counterweights to bureaucrats, they became unchecked forces
3. Scholarly arrogance: Confucian literati like Xiao Wangzhi often lacked practical statecraft

The tragedy foreshadowed the Eastern Han’s collapse under eunuch influence. More profoundly, it revealed how personal dynamics between rulers and advisors could destabilize an entire governing system—a lesson that resonates through two millennia of Chinese imperial history. Emperor Yuan’s weakness and Xiao Wangzhi’s pride had consequences far beyond their lifetimes, setting patterns of court factionalism that would endure until the dynasty’s final days.