The Changsha Kingdom was a kingdom within the Han Empire of China, located in present-day Hunan and some surrounding areas. The kingdom was founded when Emperor Gaozu granted the territory to his follower Wu Rui in 203 or 202 BC, around the same time as the establishment of the Han dynasty. Wu Rui and his descendants held the kingdom for five generations until Wu Zhu died without an heir in 157 BC. In 155 BC, the kingdom was reestablished for a member of the imperial family. However, the creation of this second kingdom coincided with the Rebellion of the Seven States and the subsequent reforms under Emperor Jing, and Changsha under the imperial family saw its autonomy greatly diminished. The kingdom was dissolved during Wang Mang's usurpation (AD 9 – 23), briefly restored after the founding of the Eastern Han, and finally abolished in and converted to a commandery under the imperial government.
Changsha was one of the largest and longest-lasting kingdoms in Han China. Despite being established on the empire's frontier, technology and art flourished in Changsha. Numerous archaeological sites of the kingdom have been discovered and excavated, most notably Mawangdui, the tomb of Changsha's chancellor Li Cang and his family, providing valuable insights into life in the kingdom and Han dynasty in general.
History The first king of Changsha, Wu Rui, was a Baiyue leader who had been the magistrate of Poyang County under the Qin dynasty (221 – 207 BC). He enjoyed high prestige among the local people and was known as "Lord of the Po" (, ).
In , a peasant uprising triggered a wave of rebellions that resulted in the collapse of the Qin. After hearing news of the uprising, Wu Rui organized a mostly Baiyue army in support of the rebels. His forces soon grew to become a major faction in the civil war that ensued. In , Rui's army joined forces with the Han leader Liu Bang (the future Emperor Gaozu, at the time one of the rebel generals) and marched to the Guanzhong Plain, where they received the surrender of Ziying, the last ruler of Qin. One year later, the Chu King Xiang Yu, then the most prominent leader in the rebellion, in an attempt to redivide the empire, recognized Rui as the "King of Hengshan" ). The Han eventually emerged victorious from post-Qin conflicts and established itself as the preeminent power in China. In 203/, Emperor Gaozu moved Wu Rui's fief and established the Kingdom of Changsha. The capital was Linxiang and located within the present-day city of Changsha. The new kingdom helped the Han dynasty consolidate control over the Chu heartland and served as a buffer state against the independent realm of Nanyue founded by the Qin general Zhao Tuo in present-day Guangdong. Rui died shortly after moving to his new territory, and the title passed to his son, Wu Chen ). Wu Chen reigned for eight years.
The kings of Changsha were staunch supporters of the Han, and their loyalty and competence was praised by successive emperors. In the first years after the founding of the Han Empire, the Emperor Gaozu embarked on a campaign to eliminate kings that were not members of the imperial family. The kings first grew to prominence as heads of independent factions in the chaos following Qin's fall, and the emperor viewed them as great threats to his authority. Changsha, located on the empire's southern fringe, was one of the weakest among the kingdoms; however, it was the only one to survive beyond 190s BC. In Ying Bu, King of Huainan and son-in-law of Wu Rui, rebelled against the Han and was defeated. As Ying retreated south of the Yangtze River, the King of Changsha pretended to assist him in his escape to Nanyue but instead killed him in Cixiang ) near Poyang.
Wu Chen was succeeded by his son Wu Hui ). Hui reigned for seven years, and was succeeded by his son Wu You ), whose name is also recorded as Wu Ruo ). At the time, the Han dynasty was under Emperor Hui and Empress Lü, who favored lenient laws and political views of the Huang–Lao school of philosophy. Changsha was able to develop under relative peace. In however, Empress Lü banned the export of iron ware to Nanyue, which angered Zhao Tuo, who then proclaimed himself Emperor of Nanyue and then twice invaded Changsha, occupying a few counties. Later, during Empress Lü's reign, the imperial court decided to launch a military campaign against Nanyue. However, in the hot and humid summer, a plague broke out in the Han army, hindering its advance. The campaign was eventually abandoned with the death of Empress Lü. In the kingdom passed to Wu You's son Wu Zhu ), for whom the names Wu Chai ) and Wu Chan ) are alternatively used in some records. Wu Zhu reigned for twenty-one years, dying in without male issue.
After the extinction of this house, Emperor Jing granted Changsha to his son Liu Fa ) in Fa's mother, Tang (, Táng), was a servant of the Emperor's concubine Cheng (, ) and had given birth to Fa after the intoxicated emperor had mistaken her for his favorite concubine. Consequently, Fa had the lowest status among the Emperor's 14 sons and was enfeoffed in Changsha, far away from the capital Chang'an and the Central Plain. Changsha Kingdom was held by the Liu family until early 1st century AD, when the Han dynasty was interrupted by usurper Wang Mang. Along with other kings of the Liu family in the empire, Liu Shun ), the last King of Changsha, was first demoted to the rank of duke and then stripped of his titles altogether. After the restoration of Han dynasty, the Guangwu Emperor, himself a descendant of Liu Fa, gave Changsha to Liu Shun's son Liu Xing ) in In 33 the Emperor rescinded the decision and demoted Xing to the rank of a marquis, citing the distance of kinship between Xing and himself. Changsha was administered as an imperial commandery thereafter.
Territory
The exact extent of the first Changsha Kingdom is still unclear. The official Book of Han reports Changsha's border "reaching the north bank of Han River and stretching to Jiuyi Mountains", although it is unlikely that Changsha actually reached so far. Similarly, it reports that, when Emperor Gaozu created the Kingdom of Changsha, he granted Wu Rui authority over the five commanderies of Changsha, Yuzhang ), Xiang (, ), Guilin ) and Nanhai ). However, Yuzhang Commandery had already been conferred to Ying Bu, the King of Huainan, while Xiang, Guilin, and Nanhai Commanderies were all held by Zhao Tuo, the effectively independent King of Nanyue. This state of the Changsha–Nanyue border was confirmed in a map unearthed from the Mawangdui tombs. On the other hand, other preserved and unearthed texts have shown that there were two other commanderies actually controlled by the Changsha Kingdom: Wuling ) and Guiyang ). The first may have been granted by the imperial Han government; the historical geographer Zhou Zhenhe argues that the "Yuzhang" recorded in the Book of Han was simply a mistake for "Wuling", which would have been part of the original grant of the kingdom. Guiyang was likely created by the kings of Changsha at some point for defense against invasions from Nanyue.
The reconstruction offered by Zhou and Tan Qixiang is that Changsha's northern border ran along modern Tongcheng, Songzi, and Gong'an counties; the western border along modern Longshan, Zhenyuan, and Jingzhou counties; and the eastern border along modern Gao'an, Yichuan, Lianhua, and Chaling counties. Changsha's southern frontier with Nanyue was approximately the modern southern border of Hunan.
When Emperor Jing granted Changsha to his son Liu Fa, the kingdom's territory was reduced to Changsha Commandery alone. Consequently, the kingdom's southwestern border was in the vicinity of modern Chaling, Wugang and Quanzhou counties. From Emperor Wu's reign onward, 20 marquisates were created from Changsha. These marquisates were administered as parts of neighboring commanderies, further reducing the kingdom's territory.
Demographics Changsha was sparsely populated compared to other parts of the Han Empire. The population primarily consisted of descendants of Chu colonizers, members of the Qin military garrison and their offspring, assimilated Nanman, and the native Baiyue tribes. Zhao Tuo, King of Nanyue, claimed that "half of Changsha are Man and Yi". Jia Yi, grand tutor of the king from 176 to wrote that there were only 25,000 households in the kingdom, although it is likely that the figure was an underestimate. (Jia, an advocate for further limits on the kingdoms' autonomy, saw Changsha's weakness as a reason of its loyalty.) However, the population increased rapidly, partly due to the favorable agricultural policies and partly because of immigration both from within the Han empire and from Nanyue. In when the Han dynasty conducted an empire-wide population census, the population of Changsha was recorded as 235,825 living in 43,470 households. The commanderies that constituted the larger Changsha of the early Han dynasty together had a population of 717,433 living in 126,858 households, a five-fold increase from Jia Yi's estimation during the early Han period.
Government
In the early Han dynasty, the government structure of the kingdoms closely followed that of the Han central government, but differences remained. Except for the chancellor and grand tutor ), who were selected by the imperial court, all officials were appointed by the king. As in the imperial government, the chancellor , before and , thereafter) was the highest civil office and the leader of the government. However, the chancellor was not directly involved in the kingdom's everyday affairs, which were overseen by the court clerk ). Compared to the central government, where the crown princes' tutors had little real authority, the grand tutor played a much more extensive role in a kingdom, as he supervised the king on behalf of the imperial government. Meanwhile, the duties of the court clerk are reminiscent of the Warring States, where the post was second only to the chancellor in status, rather than the Han central government—the same post in the imperial government was merely in charge of finance and affairs in the capital region. The responsibilities of the royal secretary ) were similar to the imperial equivalent, i.e. supervision over the bureaucrats, although his status was likely lower than the court clerk. The imperial Nine Ministers also had their equivalents in the kingdom. In addition, early Changsha had a unique office, the "pillar of state" ). It was designation for an eminent official originating from the Chu state, but was not seen elsewhere in the Han dynasty; the post may have merged into or been replaced by that of the chancellor.
Under the Wu family, the Changsha Kingdom was administered at two levels, the commandery and the county. As described above, the state is believed to have consisted of the three commanderies of Changsha, Wuling, and Guiyang and to have claimed further commanderies under Nanyue's control. The three actual commanderies were divided into over 40 counties. Under the cadet branch of the Liu family, the Changsha Kingdom eliminated the needless commandery level as its territory had been much reduced. In the kingdom only administered thirteen counties.
In regions inhabited by the Baiyue, larger but less populated circuits were used in place of counties. Two circuitsHe (, ) and Ling (, )are noted on the map unearthed at Mawangdui. Counties were each headed by a magistrate and were subdivided into townships and villages (, ) in the same manner as in centrally administered territories of the Han dynasty.