Emperor Wu of Han / 汉武帝

Emperor Wu of Han / 汉武帝 appears in 87.过年最适合聊玄学！探讨神仙方术发展史（未完待续） as the episode’s most extensive case of imperial fangshu consumption. The source presents his求仙 as deeper and more expensive than [[QinShiHuang|秦始皇]]’s: Li Shaojun, Shaoweng, Luan Da, spirit-summoning displays, sea voyages, palaces, platforms, and alchemical promises all feed a long search for immortality.

The same source also makes Han Wudi central to [[WuguPoliticalPanic|巫蛊之乱]]. His late-life illness, suspicion, and willingness to accept curse accusations allow denunciation, torture, palace rivalry, and succession fear to escalate into mass death and the suicide of the crown prince and empress.

Key Claims

• The source treats Han Wudi’s求仙 as a political and fiscal system, not only a private obsession.
• Fangshi repeatedly convert failure into claims of hidden success, distance, obstruction, or the practitioner’s own transcendence.
• The emperor’s late disillusionment does not undo the earlier waste and violence attached to his belief.
• Wugu accusations show the darker side of the same interpretive environment: hidden ritual action can be treated as evidence of political danger.

Connections

• 87.过年最适合聊玄学！探讨神仙方术发展史（未完待续） - source episode.
• [[WesternHanDynasty|西汉]] - dynastic setting.
• Immortality Quest Politics / 求仙政治, Fangshi Fraud And Authority / 方士骗术与权威, and Wugu Political Panic / 巫蛊政治恐慌 - main source concepts.
• [[LiuAn|刘安]] and [[Huainanzi|《淮南子》]] - alternative Western Han fangshu-text branch.
• [[QinShiHuang|秦始皇]] - earlier imperial comparison.
• Pseudoscience Fraud Vulnerability and Jianghu Scam Craft - anti-fraud frame extended by the episode.