巫蛊之祸 / Wugu Incident (Western Han)

Definition

The Wugu Incident / 巫蛊之祸 is the late 汉武帝 succession trauma in which 卫太子刘据 is destroyed and later presumed dead. In the current wiki it matters in sixteen bounded ways: Hanji 381-2 gives the early symbolic-succession signal around 刘弗陵’s “尧母门” birth aura while Liu Ju is still crown prince; Hanji 382-1 gives 江充’s pre-Wugu rise through the 赵太子刘丹 accusation, his 绣衣使者 authority, and the Chi Road grievance with Liu Ju; Hanji 383-1 gives the opening interpretation around Wudi’s late-life fear, the 92 BCE Jianzhang Palace scare, and Gongsun He as Liu Ju’s remaining support; Hanji 383-2 gives the immediate Gongsun-family chain from 公孙敬声’s military-fund embezzlement to 朱安世’s retaliatory wugu accusation; Hanji 384-2 gives Liu Ju’s recognized-heir, lenient-governance, and pre-Wugu slander layer; Hanji 384-1 gives the upstream support-network purge around 公孙贺 and 卫伉; Hanji 385-1 gives the ritual-belief, palace mutual-accusation, imperial-illness, dream-fear, and Jiang Chong mandate precondition; Hanji 385-2 gives Jiang Chong’s manufactured-evidence, torture, denunciation, palace-search, and 石德 advice layer; Hanji 386-1 gives the blocked-appeal, Jiang Chong execution, 卫子夫 resource-support, 苏文 report, messenger-report, and 刘屈氂 suppression-order bridge; Hanji 386-2 gives the disputed-command, Chang’an fighting, city-gate escape, and Wei Zifu suicide layer; Hanji 387-1 gives the flight, court-silence, 令胡茂 remonstrance, and failed-pardon bridge; Hanji 387-2 gives Liu Ju’s death scene, household destruction, and 刘病已 survival hook; Hanji 388-2 gives the remorse-and-punishment aftermath; Hanji 391-1 uses it to explain the source-scoped hidden charge against 钩弋夫人; Hanji 390-1 shows the purge of Jiang Chong’s side making 马何罗 and 马通 fear implication; and Hanji 396-2 uses its aftermath to explain why a later false Liu Ju return claim becomes politically explosive.

Current Synthesis

The current wiki evidence remains narrow but now has an early symbolic-succession branch, a Jiang Chong career-and-grievance branch, a late-Wudi fear-and-security branch, a Gongsun-family immediate-causation branch, a recognized-heir and slander-channel branch before the support-network purge, an origin-condition branch before the manufactured-accusation stage, and then command-collapse, flight-and-remonstrance, death-and-survival, remorse, hidden-guilt, immediate-aftershock, and later-memory branches. Hanji 381-2 says Han Wudi’s “尧母门” gesture around Liu Fuling and Lady Gouyi is dangerous because ruler symbolism can invite ministers to infer hidden succession preference while Liu Ju remains in place. Hanji 382-1 says Jiang Chong first gains Wudi’s favor by accusing Zhao heir Liu Dan, is empowered to police powerful households as a special inspector, and forms an early grievance with Liu Ju by detaining and reporting Liu Ju’s envoy for using the emperor-only Chi Road. Hanji 383-1 says the broader catastrophe begins in a field of death fear, power-loss anxiety, wugu belief, opportunistic actors, and extreme threat response: after the 92 BCE Jianzhang Palace armed-man scare, Wudi executes the responsible gate official, mobilizes Sanfu cavalry, searches Shanglin Park, closes Chang’an, and keeps the city locked down for eleven days. It also introduces Gongsun He as Wei Qing and Wei Zifu’s brother-in-law and Liu Ju’s important late support. Hanji 383-2 then says the Gongsun case begins with Gongsun Jingsheng’s misuse of taipu office and embezzlement of North Army funds. Gongsun He tries to save him by capturing Zhu Anshi; Zhu retaliates by accusing Gongsun Jingsheng of adultery with Yangshi Princess and wugu cursing against Wudi, and Wudi’s illness makes the curse charge lethal.

Hanji 384-2 says Liu Ju is not initially an untrusted or incapable heir: Wudi dislikes his lack of forcefulness but recognizes him as a humane stabilizer, delegates government to him during imperial travel, and accepts his handling of affairs. The same source shows why this strength becomes exposure: Liu Ju’s lenient case handling wins popular support while angering harsh-law officials, Wei Zifu fears that mercy will be read as disobedience, and Su Wen and Chang Rong turn palace access into damaging reports about Liu Ju’s morality and feelings toward Wudi.

Hanji 384-1 says the crisis then begins politically before the open fighting: Gongsun He and his son are destroyed through curse and adultery accusations, two princesses and Wei Kang are implicated, and Wei Kang’s inherited Wei Qing prestige plus military capacity make him a target as Liu Ju’s possible outer support. The source treats 杜周, 江充, Lady Gouyi, and Liu Fuling as part of a succession field in which officials recalculate around the possible replacement of Liu Ju.

Hanji 385-1 supplies the immediate precondition for Jiang Chong’s later operation. Wugu is treated as hidden curse harm that a ruler could regard as politically real; in 91 BCE, fangshi and shamans gather in Chang’an, palace women accuse one another over buried wooden figures and rites, and Wudi answers by killing hundreds. The same source makes Wudi’s age, illness, suspicious temperament, and dream of wooden figures part of the permission structure that lets Jiang Chong convert private fear of Liu Ju and Wei Zifu into a state-backed investigation.

Hanji 385-2 supplies the bridge from pruning to open crisis. Jiang Chong allegedly builds the Wugu case through Hu shamans, planted blood, buried figures, torture, coerced confession, and denunciation that spreads fear beyond the palace. Wudi’s illness and suspicion then let Jiang Chong claim the palace contains harmful “gu qi.” The search moves through the palace, reaches Wei Zifu’s side, and finally produces alleged wooden figures and written charges in Liu Ju’s Eastern Palace. Shi De’s advice shows the structural trap: if Liu Ju waits, he may be destroyed like Fusu by manipulated imperial authority; if he acts first, he risks looking like a rebel through forged command and minister-killing.

Hanji 386-1 supplies the missing hinge between palace trap and open urban war. Liu Ju first wants to reach Wudi, plead, and explain himself; because Jiang Chong controls palace access, he follows Shi De’s advice, sends forged imperial envoys, kills the resisting Han Shuo, arrests and executes Jiang Chong, and obtains Wei Zifu’s backing for palace vehicles, weapons, and guards. The same source also shows how Wudi’s interpretation hardens: Su Wen reports rebellion, Wudi initially still thinks Liu Ju is frightened and angry at Jiang Chong, but an envoy who does not enter Chang’an reports settled rebellion and triggers Wudi’s order for Liu Quli to seal the gates and suppress the crown-prince force.

Hanji 386-2 says the Wugu crisis becomes open urban war when Liu Ju treats an uncertain edict as a mortal trap and tries to mobilize officials, prisoners, Hu cavalry, the North Army, and city residents. Wudi’s side distinguishes its tallies with yellow tassels, Ma Tong disrupts Liu Ju’s cavalry command, Ren An does not send the North Army, rumor fixes the “crown prince rebels” frame, and Liu Ju is defeated after days of fighting near Changle Palace. Tian Ren’s decision to let him out of Chang’an and Bao Shengzhi’s attempt to slow punishment show a remaining father-son mitigation instinct, but Wudi treats both leniency and procedural delay as failure to punish rebellion. The same source makes Wei Zifu’s suicide the immediate household result after Wudi orders her empress seal collected.

Hanji 387-1 says that after Wei Zifu’s suicide, Wudi continues punishing Liu Ju’s associates while frightened officials stay silent despite believing Liu Ju has been wronged. Linghu Mao’s memorial reframes Liu Ju’s action as fear-driven self-protection after Jiang Chong’s persecution, and Wudi is moved without publicly pardoning the fugitive crown prince. Hanji 387-2 then says the crisis ends for Liu Ju with surrounded flight, suicide, the killing of two imperial grandsons, wider household destruction in Chang’an, and the survival of infant Liu Bingyi through 丙吉’s protection. Hanji 388-2 says a later review finds many accusations false and allows Han Wudi to see Liu Ju as driven into fear by Jiang Chong. Tian Qianqiu’s memorial reframes the crown prince’s action as a father-son matter, after which Wudi punishes Jiang Chong’s family, burns 苏文, pursues anti-Liu-Ju attackers, and builds 思子宫 and 归来望思之台. Hanji 391-1 then says Han Wudi later investigates Liu Ju’s death and, in the host’s interpretation, discovers that Lady Gouyi helped Jiang Chong and Su Wen frame the crown prince. The source treats this as the hidden reason for Lady Gouyi’s death but also says Han Wudi does not publicize it because her son 刘弗陵 is the intended successor.

The immediate political aftershock appears in Hanji 390-1. Ma Heluo’s friendship with Jiang Chong and Ma Tong’s reward for fighting Liu Ju had once aligned the brothers with Han Wudi’s anti-Liu-Ju response. When Wudi later punishes Jiang Chong’s family and associates, that prior alignment becomes a liability, and fear of implication helps push the brothers toward rebellion and attempted assassination.

Hanji 396-2 does not retell the full Wugu Incident. It uses the incident as inherited political memory: Liu Ju is presumed dead afterward, but that presumption remains important enough that a man claiming to be him can unsettle officials, attract a crowd to 未央宫, and force 隽不疑 to prioritize dynastic order over identity uncertainty.

Key Claims

• The Wugu Incident functions as a family-case, succession, feedback, support-network, and panic-permission crisis before it becomes open fighting: Hanji 381-2 shows “尧母门” as an early symbolic-succession signal; Hanji 382-1 shows Jiang Chong’s denunciation-based rise, Xiuyi authority, and Chi Road grievance with Liu Ju; Hanji 383-1 shows Wudi’s late-life fear, Jianzhang Palace threat response, and Gongsun He as remaining support; Hanji 383-2 shows corruption, rescue bargaining, retaliation, and wugu accusation converging in the Gongsun case; Hanji 384-2 shows Liu Ju as a recognized but slander-exposed heir; Hanji 384-1 shows Gongsun He and Wei Kang removed as Liu Ju’s outer supports; Hanji 385-1 shows hidden-curse belief, palace mutual accusation, Wudi’s illness, and Jiang Chong’s mandate; Hanji 385-2 shows manufactured evidence and palace search trapping Liu Ju; Hanji 386-1 shows blocked appeal and messenger failure hardening the rebellion frame; and Hanji 386-2 shows edicts, tallies, cavalry orders, prison releases, and the North Army deciding whether Liu Ju can plausibly act as crown prince rather than rebel.
• Manufactured evidence and coerced confession are central to the escalation: Hanji 385-2 makes Jiang Chong’s staged objects, torture, denunciation, and palace-search authority the bridge between suspicion and armed crisis.
• Court silence and low-rank remonstrance matter: Hanji 387-1 treats Linghu Mao’s memorial as an early route toward recognizing Liu Ju’s grievance before the later Tian Qianqiu settlement.
• Hanji 388-2 makes Wudi’s remorse operational: review, Tian Qianqiu’s memorial, punishment of Wugu actors, and mourning architecture.
• Hanji 391-1 source-scopedly treats Lady Gouyi as a hidden participant behind Jiang Chong and Su Wen in Liu Ju’s destruction, while Han Wudi’s alleged concealment of that charge shows the incident continuing to shape Liu Fuling’s succession legitimacy.
• The purge aftermath can turn earlier anti-Liu-Ju service into later danger, as shown by Ma Heluo and Ma Tong’s fear of implication.
• Liu Ju’s presumed death and unresolved emotional charge explain why the later “return” claim creates shock, briefly paralyzes officials, and forces Jun Buyi to prioritize dynastic order over physical-identity uncertainty.

Evidence

• Remorse and punishment: Hanji 388-2 says review of the case reveals many false accusations, Wudi accepts Tian Qianqiu’s memorial, and Wudi punishes Jiang Chong, Su Wen, and other anti-Liu-Ju actors.
• Symbolic-succession signal: Hanji 381-2 says Han Wudi’s renaming of 钩弋宫门 as “尧母门” publicly elevates Liu Fuling through a Yao comparison while Liu Ju remains crown prince.
• Ruler-signaling risk: Hanji 381-2 uses Sima Guang’s criticism to argue that symbolic gestures by the ruler can invite opportunists to act on inferred intention.
• Jiang Chong prehistory: Hanji 382-1 says Jiang Chong enters Wudi’s favor through the Liu Dan accusation and then receives special authority to police elite violations.
• Chi Road grievance: Hanji 382-1 says Jiang Chong detains Liu Ju’s envoy, refuses Liu Ju’s plea, reports the matter to Wudi, and creates a pre-Wugu grievance.
• Late-Wudi fear frame: Hanji 383-1 says old-age death fear, power-loss fear, wugu sensitivity, and opportunistic actors make the incident more than an accidental奸臣 case.
• Jianzhang Palace scare: Hanji 383-1 says the 92 BCE armed-man episode produces execution of the gate official, Sanfu cavalry mobilization, Shanglin search, Chang’an gate closure, and an eleven-day lockdown.
• Gongsun He support prelude: Hanji 383-1 introduces Gongsun He as Wei Qing and Wei Zifu’s brother-in-law and Liu Ju’s important late support before Hanji 383-2’s family disaster.
• Gongsun-family causal chain: Hanji 383-2 says Gongsun Jingsheng’s North Army fund embezzlement leads Gongsun He to seek a pardon bargain by capturing Zhu Anshi.
• Retaliatory wugu accusation: Hanji 383-2 says Zhu Anshi retaliates by accusing Gongsun Jingsheng of adultery with Yangshi Princess and burying a curse object against Han Wudi.
• Recognized-heir baseline: Hanji 384-2 says Han Wudi sees Liu Ju as a humane successor suited to stabilizing the realm after Wudi’s own expansion and severe policies.
• Lenient-governance friction: Hanji 384-2 says Liu Ju lightens punishments he considers excessive, gaining popular sympathy while angering severe-law officials.
• Pre-Wugu slander channel: Hanji 384-2 says Su Wen and Chang Rong feed damaging reports to Wudi, and Liu Ju does not preemptively remove Su Wen because he trusts Wudi’s discernment.
• Support-network purge: Hanji 384-1 says Gongsun He and his son die after curse and adultery accusations, removing a chancellor-level Wei-family in-law from Liu Ju’s support field.
• Wei-family military support: Hanji 384-1 says Wei Kang is targeted because he inherits Wei Qing’s title and can lead troops, while Wei Buyi and Wei Deng avoid implication because they are not active in court affairs.
• Succession realignment: Hanji 384-1 links Jiang Chong’s hostility to Liu Ju and court interest in Lady Gouyi’s son Liu Fuling to the broader weakening of the Wei-Liu Ju side.
• Ritual-panic precondition: Hanji 385-1 defines wugu as hidden curse practice using wooden figures, ritual specialists, burial, and incantation, and says palace accusations over such practices had already killed hundreds.
• Investigative mandate: Hanji 385-1 says Wudi’s illness, dream fear, and suspicion let Jiang Chong claim someone was using wugu against the emperor and receive full authority to investigate.
• Manufactured case mechanics: Hanji 385-2 says Jiang Chong uses Hu shamans, staged blood, buried figures, and torture to create evidence and confessions.
• Social panic: Hanji 385-2 says coerced confession and mutual accusation expand the Wugu case from individuals to families, villages, and ordinary social fear.
• Palace-search trap: Hanji 385-2 says Jiang Chong uses Wudi’s suspicion about palace “gu qi” to search the palace, approach Wei Zifu, and claim incriminating objects in Liu Ju’s Eastern Palace.
• Tutor-warning branch: Hanji 385-2 says Shi De invokes Fusu and recommends arresting Jiang Chong’s group before Liu Ju is destroyed, while Liu Ju hesitates over false-command and minister-killing risks.
• Blocked appeal: Hanji 386-1 says Liu Ju initially wants to plead with Wudi and explain himself, but Jiang Chong’s control of the palace prevents direct access.
• Jiang Chong execution and palace resources: Hanji 386-1 says Liu Ju uses forged envoys to arrest Jiang Chong, kills him, and gains Wei Zifu’s support for vehicles, weapons, and guards.
• Report-driven suppression: Hanji 386-1 says Su Wen reports rebellion, Wudi first interprets Liu Ju as fearful and angry at Jiang Chong, and a later messenger report leads Wudi to order Liu Quli to seal Chang’an and suppress the force.
• Command collapse: Hanji 386-2 says Liu Ju responds to a dangerous uncertain edict with emergency mobilization while Wudi returns, marks his own tallies, and delegates military command to the chancellor’s side.
• Military defeat: Hanji 386-2 says Ren An accepts Liu Ju’s tally but does not dispatch the North Army, Liu Ju arms city residents, and multi-day fighting near Changle Palace ends in defeat as the rebellion frame spreads.
• Procedural mitigation punished: Hanji 386-2 says Tian Ren lets Liu Ju leave Chang’an and Bao Shengzhi tries to restrain immediate execution, but Wudi treats their conduct as wrongly protecting a rebel.
• Wei Zifu’s suicide: Hanji 386-2 says Wudi sends officials to collect Wei Zifu’s empress seal, but they find she has already killed herself.
• Flight and remonstrance: Hanji 387-1 says officials believe Liu Ju is wronged but stay silent, while Linghu Mao argues that Liu Ju acted from fear after Jiang Chong blocked direct appeal to Wudi.
• Failed public rescue: Hanji 387-1 says Wudi is moved by Linghu Mao’s memorial but does not publicly pardon Liu Ju because the armed conflict’s consequences are too large.
• Death scene and surviving line: Hanji 387-2 says Liu Ju hangs himself after being surrounded, two sons die with him, other close family members are killed in Chang’an, and Liu Bingyi survives through Bing Ji’s protection.
• Mourning memory: Hanji 388-2 says Wudi builds 思子宫 and 归来望思之台 after recognizing Liu Ju’s innocence.
• Hidden-guilt branch: Hanji 391-1 says the host regards Lady Gouyi, not only Jiang Chong or Su Wen, as the true behind-the-scenes actor in Liu Ju’s frame-up.
• Succession-legitimacy concealment: Hanji 391-1 says Han Wudi does not publicize this alleged guilt because Liu Fuling is already the chosen successor.
• Ma-family aftershock: Hanji 390-1 says Ma Heluo is close to Jiang Chong and Ma Tong was rewarded for fighting Liu Ju, so the later purge makes the brothers fear implication and rebel.
• Succession-memory background: Hanji 396-2 says Liu Ju was already believed dead after the Wugu affair when a man appears claiming to be him.
• Crisis effect: Hanji 396-2 says officials hesitate because the claimant resembles the former crown prince and because the claim draws palace-gate attention.
• Legal-political interpretation: Hanji 396-2 says Jun Buyi argues that even a true surviving Liu Ju would remain a state criminal after offending the former emperor and fleeing.

Counterevidence & Qualifications

This page should not be treated as a complete account of the Wugu Incident. Hanji 381-2 supplies a symbolic-succession background, not proof that the later Wugu case directly follows from “尧母门” alone. Hanji 382-1 supplies Jiang Chong’s pre-Wugu career and Chi Road grievance with Liu Ju, not a complete biography or proof that the later Wugu case follows from that incident alone. Hanji 383-1 supplies an opening interpretation, Jianzhang Palace scare, and Gongsun He support setup, not the full security record, Wudi psychology, or the later Wugu prosecution. Hanji 383-2 supplies a compact Gongsun-family causal chain, not the full legal dossier for Gongsun Jingsheng, Zhu Anshi, Yangshi Princess, North Army finance, or the wooden figure evidence. Hanji 384-2 supplies a compact recognized-heir, strict-lenient, palace-slander, and Wei Zifu anxiety prelude, not a full biography of Liu Ju, Wei Zifu, Su Wen, Chang Rong, Wang Bi, or Wudi’s succession thinking. Hanji 384-1 supplies a compact support-network prelude, not the complete legal records of Gongsun He, Gongsun Jingsheng, Wei Kang, the princesses, Du Zhou, or every Wei-family descendant. Hanji 385-1 supplies a compact origin-condition account, not the full religious history of wugu, the complete 91 BCE palace case, or a complete biography of Jiang Chong before he receives investigative authority. Hanji 385-2 supplies a compact manufactured-evidence, torture, palace-search, and Shi De advice account, not the complete primary-source wording, full list of accused people, exact interrogation process, or a full biography of Shi De. Hanji 386-1 supplies a compact escalation bridge, not a full biography of Han Shuo, Zhang Gan, the unnamed messenger, Liu Quli, exact date wording, troop details, or legal procedure. Hanji 386-2 supplies a compact command-collapse and battle account, not the full order of battle, exact casualty record, legal process, or biographies of Ren An, Tian Ren, Bao Shengzhi, Liu Quli, Ma Tong, and Shangqiu Cheng. Hanji 387-1 supplies a compact flight-and-remonstrance bridge, not Linghu Mao’s full memorial text, Hu County local mechanics, or a full list of punished associates. Hanji 387-2 supplies a compact death-scene and Liu Bingyi survival hook, not the full prosecution or household genealogy. Hanji 388-2 supplies a compact remorse-and-punishment account, not a full case dossier or primary-source comparison. Hanji 391-1’s Lady Gouyi claim is source-scoped and not upgraded here into settled historiography. Hanji 390-1 uses Wugu aftermath to explain Ma Heluo’s plot; it does not reconstruct the full Wugu prosecution or prove every participant’s legal exposure. Hanji 396-2 does not reconstruct causes, accusations, participants, deaths, legal procedure, or historiographical debate; it only uses the aftermath to explain the false-Liu-Ju crisis under Han Zhao.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 383-1’s opening interpretation and threat-response branch: late-Wudi fear, wugu sensitivity, fear-power-opportunism explanation, Jianzhang Palace armed-man scare, Chang’an lockdown, and Gongsun He as Liu Ju’s late support.
• Preserved Hanji 385-2’s manufactured-evidence and palace-search branch and added Hanji 386-1’s escalation bridge: staged objects, torture, denunciation panic, search through Wei Zifu toward Liu Ju, Shi De’s Fusu warning, Liu Ju’s first wish to explain himself, blocked access, Jiang Chong’s execution, Wei Zifu’s resource support, Su Wen’s report, and the messenger-triggered suppression order.
• Added Hanji 386-2’s command-collapse branch and Hanji 387-1’s flight-and-remonstrance branch: disputed edict, competing tallies, North Army non-response, Chang’an fighting, Tian Ren and Bao Shengzhi mitigation, Wei Zifu’s suicide, court silence, Linghu Mao’s defense, Wudi’s partial awakening, and no public pardon.
• Added Hanji 387-2’s terminal branch and Hanji 388-2’s remorse branch: Liu Ju’s suicide, family casualties, Liu Bingyi’s survival, case review, Tian Qianqiu’s father-son memorial, punishment of Jiang Chong and Su Wen, and mourning structures.
• Preserved Hanji 390-1’s Ma-family aftershock branch, Hanji 391-1’s hidden-guilt and succession-legitimacy concealment branch, and Hanji 396-2’s false-return crisis branch.

Related Concepts

• Claimant-Impostor Crisis Handling / 宗室冒认危机处置 - downstream crisis pattern created by the later false-Liu-Ju claim.
• 谗言疑心式反馈失灵 / Slander-Suspicion Feedback Collapse - pre-Wugu feedback pattern in which palace reports target Wudi’s view of Liu Ju.
• Wugu Political Panic / 巫蛊政治恐慌 - broader hidden-curse accusation mechanism that supplies the precondition for the Western Han incident.
• 宽严相济的因时治理 / Situational Strict-Lenient Governance - strict/lenient governance contrast between Wudi’s harsh-law field and Liu Ju’s mercy.
• 令胡茂 / Linghu Mao (Western Han) - early remonstrance actor who reframes Liu Ju’s conduct before the later remorse settlement.
• 石德 / Shi De (Western Han) - tutor-adviser who identifies the Fusu-like danger before Liu Ju’s open command crisis.
• 赵太子刘丹 / Liu Dan, Zhao Crown Prince (Western Han) - Zhao heir whose scandal brings Jiang Chong into Wudi’s favor before the Wugu arc.
• 刘屈氂 / Liu Quli (Western Han) - chancellor ordered to suppress Liu Ju after the messenger report hardens Wudi’s view.
• 公孙贺 / Gongsun He (Western Han) - chancellor-level support pillar whose Wugu-case destruction weakens Liu Ju’s outer network.
• 卫伉 / Wei Kang (Western Han) - Wei-family military-capable support figure removed before the open command crisis.
• 卫子夫 / Empress Wei Zifu (Western Han) - empress whose suicide marks the household catastrophe that does not halt punishments.
• 钩弋夫人 / Lady Gouyi (Western Han) - harem figure whose source-scoped alleged involvement gives Hanji 391-1 its hidden explanation for her death.
• 马何罗 / Ma Heluo (Western Han) - Wugu-aftershock conspirator who fears implication and attempts to kill Han Wudi.
• 马通 / Ma Tong (Western Han) - Ma brother whose earlier anti-Liu-Ju service becomes later exposure.
• 汉昭帝刘弗陵 / Emperor Zhao of Han - successor whose legitimacy explains why the source says Lady Gouyi’s alleged guilt is concealed.
• Emperor Xuan of Han / 汉宣帝 / 刘询 / 刘病已 - surviving Liu Ju-line infant whose later accession is foreshadowed by Hanji 387-2.
• 丙吉 / Bing Ji (Western Han) - protector whose prison intervention preserves Liu Bingyi after the Wugu household catastrophe.
• Heir / Claimant Support Threat Perception / 储君与宗室候选人威胁感 - adjacent succession-risk frame around heirs and alternative claimants.
• 继位权威整合 / Succession Authority Consolidation - broader authority-stabilization frame for early-rule stress.