公孙爵 / Gongsun Jue (Western Han)

Overview

公孙爵 / Gongsun Jue is the Qi advocate who persuades 梁孝王刘武 to intercede for 济北王刘志 after the Rebellion of the Seven States.

Current Profile

Hanji 236 part 2 says Gongsun Jue stops Liu Zhi from acting on suicidal fear and carries his case to Suiyang. His argument changes the frame from private mercy to state interest: an immediate Jibei refusal might have invited destruction and allowed Wu, Yan, and Zhao to consolidate, while Jibei’s actual refusal to surrender denied Wu an ally and slowed the coalition. He also warns that punishing a prince whose conduct aided the court could frighten other loyal kings. Liu Wu forwards the case to Jingdi, and Liu Zhi survives and is reassigned.

Key Characteristics

• Qi figure presented as a politically capable advocate.
• Intervenes before Liu Zhi’s intended suicide.
• Reframes ambiguous wartime behavior through strategic effect rather than surface assent alone.
• Chooses Liu Wu as a high-authority intermediary to Jingdi.
• Links clemency to the future confidence of loyal vassal kings.

Evidence

Advocacy and outcome:

• Hanji 236 part 2 supplies the intervention, Suiyang audience, counterfactual argument, loyal-prince warning, and successful referral.

Qualifications

The supplied transcript writes 公孙爵; the exact historical character form is not independently normalized here. The speech, counterfactual military logic, access route, and causal weight in Liu Zhi’s survival remain episode-attributed.

What Changed

• Established Gongsun Jue as the advocate who converts Jibei’s conduct into a court-legible clemency case.

Relationships

• 济北王刘志 - endangered king whose conduct Gongsun Jue defends.
• 梁孝王刘武 - intermediary selected to transmit the case to the emperor.
• 汉景帝 - final decision-maker in the episode’s clemency chain.
• 叛乱平定后的追责 - framework whose classification problem the argument addresses.