Wang Zhaojun

Wang Zhaojun was a lady of the rear palace of the emperor Yuan. In 33 BC the Xiongnu chanyu Huhanye asked to become a son-in-law of the Han. The emperor gave him Wang Qiang, called Zhaojun.^[1] The Han Shu names her in its chapter on the Xiongnu at the gift, at the birth of her son, at her second marriage and in the later fortunes of her children.^[1] The Hou Han Shu, written in the fifth century, gives a fuller account of her departure.^[2]

The gift of 33 BC

In 36 BC the Han had killed Huhanye’s brother Zhizhi in the west.^[1] Huhanye was glad and afraid at once. He wrote that he had always wished to see the emperor. He had held back for fear that Zhizhi would come against him with the Wusun. Now that Zhizhi was dead, he asked to come to court.^[1] In the first year of Jingning, 33 BC, he came. The rites and gifts were as before. The clothing, brocade and floss were double those given in the Huanglong years.^[1] The chanyu said that he wished to become a son-in-law of the Han house and so to draw close to it. The emperor Yuan gave him a lady of a good family from the rear palace, Wang Qiang, styled Zhaojun. The chanyu was delighted.^[1] The phrase “of a good family”, liangjia zi, is a standing term of the histories. It is used of the sons of good families who joined the frontier armies as well as of women chosen for the palace.^[3] The marriage is the last entry in the series of Han and Xiongnu agreements and gifts of women told in the heqin treaties.

He did not stop there. He wrote to the emperor that he wished to guard the frontier for the Han from Shanggu westward to Dunhuang. He wished to hand the task down for ever. He asked that the Han take away the frontier garrisons so that the Han people could rest.^[1] The court discussed the proposal. Those who spoke thought it convenient. The gentleman Hou Ying, who knew the frontier, said that it could not be allowed. He gave ten reasons. The Yinshan range beyond the frontier had been the Xiongnu’s hunting park since Bagatur. Wudi had driven them out of it and built the forts. The old men of the frontier said that the Xiongnu wept whenever they passed it. The garrisons also kept in check the people of Xiongnu origin who had been settled inside the frontier, and the slaves and bandits who would run north. The work of generations, once torn down, could not be restored quickly.^[1]

The emperor ordered that nobody should discuss ending the frontier defences. He sent the general of chariots and cavalry to tell the chanyu in person that China had passes and barriers on all four sides. They were there not only against the outside but also to keep its own rogues from going out to plunder. The emperor had no doubts about the chanyu’s intent. The chanyu thanked him and said that he had not understood the great plan.^[1]

Consort and mother

The Han Shu gives the rest of her life in two short notices. Wang Zhaojun took the title Ninghu Yanzhi. She bore Huhanye a son, Yituzhiyashi, who became Right Rizhu King.^[1]^[4] A modern account renders her title Ninghu Yanzhi as the consort who brings peace to the Hu.^[4] On the same account, children of a Chinese mother could not become chanyu. They received a principality, and the daughters were given as brides to the leading Xiongnu clans.^[5] Huhanye ruled for twenty-eight years. He died in the second year of Jianshi, 31 BC.^[1]

Huhanye’s son Diaotaomogao came to the throne as Fuzhulei Ruodi Chanyu. He took Zhaojun as his wife.^[1] She was his father’s consort. The Shiji gives the rule of the Xiongnu, the levirate: when a father dies, the son takes his stepmother as wife.^[6] By Fuzhulei she bore two daughters. The elder, Yun, became the Xubu Juci, and the younger became the Dangyu Juci. Juci is the title of a chanyu’s daughter.^[1]^[7] Fuzhulei ruled for ten years. He died in the first year of Hongjia, 20 BC.^[1] The Han Shu gives neither the year nor the manner of Zhaojun’s death.^[1]

The Hou Han Shu

The Hou Han Shu tells of her in explaining the quarrel that led to the split of 48. It says that she was a native of Nan commandery and was chosen, as a girl of a good family, for the rear palace under Yuan. When Huhanye came to court, it says, the emperor ordered five palace women to be given to him. Zhaojun had been in the palace for several years without being called to the emperor. In her grief and resentment, she asked the officer of the rear palace for leave to go. At the farewell banquet, the emperor had the five women shown to Huhanye. Zhaojun came richly dressed. As she looked back from side to side, the hall was stirred. The emperor was greatly surprised and would have kept her. He could not go back on his word, and so she went. She bore two sons. After Huhanye died, his son by an earlier consort took the throne and wanted to marry her. She petitioned to go home. The emperor Cheng ordered her to follow the Hu custom, and so she became the wife of the next chanyu.^[2]

The two texts differ in several places. The Han Shu has one woman where the Hou Han Shu has five. It also has one son by Huhanye and two daughters by Fuzhulei, where the Hou Han Shu has two sons. It says that the chanyu asked and the emperor gave, where the Hou Han Shu has her ask to go. The scene at the farewell banquet and her petition to go home appear only in the Hou Han Shu.^[8] The two texts also write her name differently. The Hou Han Shu gives Zhaojun with the courtesy name Qiang. The Han Shu gives Qiang with the courtesy name Zhaojun.^[8] Fan Ye wrote in the fifth century. The passage names no earlier source.^[2]

Her son and the split of 48

The Hou Han Shu names her son the Right Guli King Yituzhiyashi and calls him the chanyu’s younger brother. It calls him next in line to the Left Worthy Kingship, the post of the heir. The chanyu Yu wanted to pass the throne to his own son and killed him.^[2] The Han Shu calls him Right Rizhu King.^[1] Neither text says whether he held the two titles in turn.^[8] Bi, his nephew and a grandson of Huhanye, saw him killed. Bi said that by the order of brothers the Right Guli King should have succeeded, and by the order of sons he himself. In AD 48, the eight tribes of the southern border proclaimed Bi chanyu.^[2] The Xiongnu divided into a northern and a southern realm in the split of 48.

Her daughters and nephew under Wang Mang

The Han Shu follows the children into the reign of Wang Mang. While Wang Mang ruled for the child emperor Ping, he had the chanyu send Zhaojun’s daughter Yun to serve the grand empress dowager at the Han court. He rewarded the Xiongnu generously.^[1] Yun’s husband was Xubu Dang, the Right Gudu Marquis, a leading minister of the Xiongnu court. Yun and Dang wanted peace with China and were on good terms with Xian. When the chanyu Wuzhuliu died in AD 13, they set Xian on the throne and passed over Yu.^[1]

In the first year of Tianfeng, AD 14, Yun and Dang sent men to the frontier fort in Xihe to say that they wished to meet the marquis of Heqin. He was Wang Xi, the son of Zhaojun’s brother. Wang Mang sent Xi and his brother to the Xiongnu with gifts. In the second year of Tianfeng, Xi came again. Dang was made duke of Houan, and his son She was made marquis of Houan.^[1] After Yu became chanyu, he sent She and the Dangyu Juci’s son to Chang’an with tribute. Wang Mang sent Xi to the frontier fort with She and the others to meet Yun and Dang. Xi used soldiers to force the two to go to Chang’an. Dang was made Xubu Chanyu. Wang Mang meant to send a large army to set him on the throne. The army was never properly mustered. The Xiongnu grew angrier and raided the northern frontier. Dang died of illness. When the Han troops killed Wang Mang, Yun and She died too.^[1]

The song of Mingjun

The Jiu Tang Shu lists a song, Mingjun, which it ties to Zhaojun. The Han people, it says, pitied her marriage far from home and made the song. Shi Chong of the Jin taught the tune to his dancer Lüzhu and made new words for it. The Jin people wrote the name Mingjun because their emperor Wen was called Zhao.^[9] In the Sui period, the princess whom the Sui called Dayi wrote a poem on a screen. It ends on the line that only the song of Mingjun grieves, above all, for the feelings of a bride married far away.^[10] The stories made about Zhaojun in later centuries go beyond both of the Han texts and are left out here.

References

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Han Shu, juan 94
^ a b c d e Hou Han Shu, juan 89
^ Chavannes 1913, p. 73
^ a b Ögel 2015, p. 182
^ Ögel 2015, p. 181
^ Shiji, juan 110
^ Ögel 2015, p. 184–185
^ a b c Han Shu, juan 94; Hou Han Shu, juan 89
^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 29
^ Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84

Sources

Han Shu, juan 94 (after Shiji)
Hou Han Shu, juan 89
Shiji, juan 110
Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 29
Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84

Literature

Édouard Chavannes, Les documents chinois découverts par Aurel Stein dans les sables du Turkestan oriental (1913)
Bahaeddin Ögel, Büyük Hun İmparatorluğu Tarihi II (2015)