The Precarious Reign of a Puppet Emperor

In the turbulent mid-14th century, as the Yuan Dynasty crumbled under peasant revolts, Han Lin’er emerged as a symbolic figurehead of the Red Turban Rebellion. Crowned “Emperor” of the short-lived Han Song regime by rebel leader Liu Futong, Han was a political pawn from the beginning—the son of Han Shantong, a rebel martyr whose death left the boy as a legitimizing prop for Liu’s ambitions.

When Zhu Yuanzhang, then a rising warlord, relocated Han Lin’er from Anfeng to Chuzhou in 1359, the young emperor’s fate was sealed. Stripped of real authority, Han lived on Zhu’s grudging patronage, often going hungry when bureaucratic delays stalled his meager stipend. This humiliation foreshadowed the brutal power struggles of China’s late Yuan interregnum, where nominal loyalty masked ruthless realpolitik.

The Song of Two Kingdoms: Zhu Yuanzhang’s Calculated Ambition

By December 1366, Zhu had encircled rival Zhang Shicheng’s stronghold in Suzhou. As final preparations began, an ominous folk rhyme spread through Nanjing (then called Yingtian): “When the Year of the Sheep arrives, the House of Wu shall reign…”

Zhu’s theatrical response revealed the era’s political theater. Publicly, he chastised courtiers for implying his disloyalty to Han Lin’er: “I remain a subject of Han Song!” Privately, he convened advisors Liu Bowen and Zhu Sheng. Liu, ever the pragmatist, dismissed Han as “your puppet” and urged immediate imperial declaration. Zhu Sheng advocated caution with his famous “high walls, full granaries, slow kingship” strategy—advice now obsolete as Zhu Yuanzhang stood poised to unite southern China.

The Drowning at Guabu: A Political Murder’s Classical Echo

Zhu selected Liao Yongzhong—a flamboyant naval commander whose sycophancy matched his battlefield prowess—to eliminate Han Lin’er. The subsequent “accidental” drowning at Guabu (modern Guabu, Jiangsu) in early 1367 mirrored ancient coups. Han’s eerie calm during his murder (“Why the hurry?”) and Liao’s eventual execution in 1375 recalled the Cao Mao-Cheng Ji incident of Three Kingdoms lore, as historian Chen Dengyuan later noted.

The operation’s staging was meticulous: Han and Liu Futong were summoned to Nanjing under pretext of ceremonial duties. Liu was butchered aboard ship; Han, strangled and weighted with stones. When Liao returned, Zhu performed elaborate public grief—a charade Liu Bowen observed with silent contempt.

Cultural Reverberations of a Dynastic Transition

Han Lin’er’s elimination marked more than personal tragedy—it symbolized the collapse of Red Turban idealism. The movement’s messianic “Maitreya Buddha” ideology, which initially propelled Han Shantong’s rebellion, gave way to Zhu’s Confucian statecraft. This shift from millenarian revolt to bureaucratic empire-building defined early Ming governance.

Popular culture preserved the episode through oral traditions like the “Year of the Sheep” prophecy, while literati drew parallels to historical regicides. The Guabu incident became a byword for political hypocrisy, referenced whenever rulers eliminated inconvenient figureheads.

Legacy: From Puppet King to Ming Foundation Stone

Zhu’s liquidation of Han Lin’er removed the last obstacle to his 1368 imperial proclamation. Yet the act haunted his reign. The systematic purging of early allies (including Liao and eventually Liu Bowen) revealed Zhu’s deep insecurity about legitimacy—a theme culminating in the massive Blue Case and Hu Weiyong purges.

Modern historians debate whether Han could have been spared as a ceremonial emperor, akin to later Qing’s treatment of the Aisin Gioro clan. His story endures as a case study in revolutionary co-optation, where symbolic leaders become disposable once their usefulness expires. The “drowned emperor” remains a poignant metaphor for the countless casualties buried beneath China’s dynastic cycles.