车师后王沽沟 / Gougou

Overview

车师后王沽沟 / Gougou enters the wiki through Hanji 613 as the Later Cheshi ruler whose resistance to a Han road project, detention by Xu Pu, flight to 匈奴, extradition, and public execution make him a central case in early Wang Mang-era frontier coercion.

Current Profile

Gougou’s role is source-bounded to the 2 CE episode. Xu Pu’s new route to Yumen Pass would pass through 车师后王国, threatening to impose transport, reception, and provisioning burdens on Gougou’s polity. Gougou refuses to cooperate with route checking and is detained.

His wife Gu Zizhou interprets the detention through an earlier killing of a Cheshi ruler by a Han official and advises flight to Xiongnu. Gougou escapes from Gaochang and reaches the chanyu, but the Han court forces his return and executes him publicly with 唐斗 before assembled Western Regions rulers.

Key Characteristics

• Dependent Western Regions ruler exposed to infrastructure-driven Han demands.
• Actor whose noncooperation begins as burden avoidance rather than open rebellion.
• Detainee whose flight is framed by fear of death under Han frontier authority.
• Refuge seeker accepted by Xiongnu but later surrendered under Han pressure.
• Publicly executed example in a broader coercive frontier deterrence performance.

Evidence

• Infrastructure pressure: Hanji 613 says Xu Pu’s shorter Yumen Pass road would pass through Later Cheshi and create reception burdens.
• Noncooperation and detention: Hanji 613 says Gougou refuses to help verify the route and is detained.
• Flight calculus: Hanji 613 says Gu Zizhou warns that a previous Cheshi ruler had been killed by Han authorities and urges flight.
• Extradition and execution: Hanji 613 says the chanyu later hands Gougou over and the Han court beheads him before Western Regions rulers.

Qualifications

This is a one-source page. It does not provide a full biography, settle the exact prior Cheshi killing mentioned by Gu Zizhou, or define Gougou’s relationship to the later Xin-era Cheshi actors Xuzhili and Hulan Zhi. Gu Zizhou, Xu Pu, Gaochang route details, and Gougou’s inner motives remain source-scoped.

What Changed

• Created the page from Hanji 613’s 2 CE Later Cheshi flight-and-execution case.

Relationships

• 车师后王国 - polity Gougou rules in the source’s 2 CE frontier case.
• 匈奴 - refuge power that accepts and later surrenders Gougou.
• 若羌去胡来王唐斗 - parallel executed ruler in the same deterrence performance.
• 强制边疆震慑 - concept grounded partly in Gougou’s public execution.
• 王莽 - regency-era power environment in which the Han court handles the case.