The Rise of a Ming Dynasty Visionary

In the sweltering March of 1375, the aging strategist Liu Bowen (Liu Ji) wiped oily sweat from his temples as he penned a plea to retire to his hometown. The response from Emperor Hongwu (Zhu Yuanzhang) arrived with startling speed—a terse edict titled Imperial Decree Granting Retirement to Qingtian. Its opening lines dripped with imperial menace:

“I have heard the ancients say: When gentlemen sever ties, no harsh words escape; when loyal ministers leave the state, they tarnish no reputations…”

This document marked the tragic rupture between the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor and his most brilliant advisor—a relationship that had begun fifteen years earlier when the scholar from Qingtian emerged from obscurity to help transform a rebel leader into an emperor.

The Fractured Alliance

The 1375 edict laid bare Hongwu’s transformation from collaborator to tyrant. Gone was the emperor who had once bowed to Liu, addressing him as “Master.” Now, he coldly referred to him as “you, Liu Ji,” dredging up the Tan Yang Incident—a land dispute Liu had settled years prior—as justification for stripping his pensions while “mercifully” sparing his life.

Historical records paint Liu’s final days with haunting clarity:
– His tearful departure from Nanjing, where he told poet Song Lian: “I died the moment I arrived in 1360—these fifteen years were but a long dream!”
– Brief euphoria upon reaching Qingtian’s cool climate, swiftly replaced by feverish hallucinations where he conversed with ghosts—his Confucian teacher Zheng Fuchu, rival warlords, even a paradoxically gentle vision of Hongwu who confessed: “I cannot tolerate you yet cannot do without you.”

The Mysterious Death

On April 16, 1375, Liu assembled his sons for final instructions:
1. For eldest son Liu Lian: “Burn all my works on metaphysics—they brought only misfortune.” This included the Ode to the Onion and other texts that later spawned myths of Liu as a mystical prophet.
2. For younger son Liu Jing: A political testament urging lenient governance, to be delivered only after Prime Minister Hu Weiyong’s fall—a prophecy fulfilled in 1380 when Hu was executed for treason.

The cause of death remains contested:
– Official Ming records claim Hu poisoned Liu under imperial orders (1390 confession).
– Modern scholars note Liu’s documented liver disease and the implausibility of a pharmacologist like Liu unknowingly ingesting poison.
– Folk legends insist Hongwu engineered the death, fearing Liu’s reputed ability to “foresee 500 years.”

Cultural Metamorphosis

Posthumously, Liu underwent two transformations:
1. The Erased Statesman: His political philosophy—emphasizing meritocracy over nepotism—was overshadowed by Hongwu’s purges.
2. The Mythic Prophet: Ming-Qing folklore inflated him into a supernatural figure, spawning tales like:
– The Moonlight Departure: His soul riding a beam back to heaven (echoing his 1311 birth legend).
– Dragon-Slaying Curse: That he died for severing geomantic “dragon veins” in Gansu to prevent future rebellions.

A 1514 rehabilitation by Emperor Zhengde (“Unparalleled Strategist of the River Crossing, Premier Scholar of the Founding Era”) came too late to restore his human complexity.

Echoes in Modernity

Liu’s legacy persists in unexpected ways:
– Anti-Corruption Symbol: His refusal of an elaborate tomb (“True remembrance comes from service, not monuments”) resonates in China’s graft crackdowns.
– Geopolitical Metaphor: The Tan Yang Incident exemplifies how technocrats navigate autocratic systems—a theme explored in works like Jin Yong’s The Deer and the Cauldron.

As historian Philip Kuhn observed, “Liu Bowen represents every intellectual’s dilemma: how to serve power without being destroyed by it.” His tragedy lies not in failing to foresee his fate, but in understanding it—yet walking into the storm regardless.