衡山国 / Hengshan Kingdom (Western Han)

Overview

衡山国 / Hengshan Kingdom is the Western Han vassal kingdom ruled by 刘赐 after his transfer from Lujiang. Hanji 304-2 shows that the king shares jurisdiction with centrally appointed officials and can lose appointment powers; Hanji 305-2 treats abolition as the endpoint of a royal-house crisis that exposes alleged recruitment and weapons preparations.

Current Profile

The kingdom appears not as a complete administrative history but as a constrained royal jurisdiction. Hanji 304-2 says its 内史 can reject Liu Ci’s unlawful death sentence and report royal misconduct, while the imperial court can remove the king’s authority to appoint more senior local officials. Hanji 305-2 adds that Liu Ci must seek imperial approval to replace crown prince 刘爽, even after entrusting 刘孝 with weapons preparation. Rival reports then give the emperor grounds to investigate; the episode says the royal principals are ordered to die and the kingdom becomes directly administered territory.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han vassal kingdom dependent on imperial approval for a formal heir change.
• Royal jurisdiction supervised by centrally appointed officials and subject to imperial restriction of appointment power.
• Royal jurisdiction in which household succession conflict intersects with alleged military preparation.
• Polity exposed to central investigation through reciprocal denunciation by its ruling family.
• Abolished kingdom whose territory the source says becomes a commandery under direct court control.

Evidence

Imperial dependence and internal conflict:

• Hanji 304-2 says a centrally appointed 内史 can block the king’s death sentence and that the court later removes part of Liu Ci’s appointment authority.
• Hanji 305-2 says Liu Ci must petition the central court to replace Liu Shuang with Liu Xiao.

Investigation and abolition:

• Hanji 305-2 says rival accusations prompt a search, punishment of the royal household, abolition of the kingdom, and conversion to “衡山郡.”

Qualifications

This page is intentionally disambiguated from 恒山国, the pre-Qin polity in Guan Zhong’s economic-war story. The profile rests on two short narrative episodes from one series and does not establish the kingdom’s full chronology, geography, offices, population, fiscal organization, exact division of royal and central authority, precise investigative procedure, or the administrative sequence and boundaries behind the stated conversion to 衡山郡. Hanji 304-2’s “恒山国” is treated as a transcript error for this polity.

What Changed

• Added the pre-abolition governance boundary: central officials review royal judgments and the emperor can narrow the king’s appointment authority.
• Clarified that the kingdom’s vulnerability predates the household denunciations that finally expose the alleged conspiracy.

Relationships

• 衡山王刘赐 - ruling king whose alleged conspiracy brings central intervention.
• 刘爽 - confined heir whose report helps expose the weapons case.
• 刘孝 - proposed replacement heir and weapons manager who later confesses.
• 徐来 - queen whose succession strategy intensifies the household conflict.
• 恒山国 - unrelated pre-Qin namesake distinguished by character, period, and subject.
• 同姓王分封 - wider institution whose royal territorial authority remains subordinate to the imperial center.