侯史吴 / Hou Shiwu (Western Han)

Overview

侯史吴 / Hou Shiwu enters the wiki through Hanji 402-1 as the man who shelters 桑迁 and then becomes the test case for whether harboring linked to a rebellion can be pardoned by amnesty.

Current Profile

Hou Shiwu’s source profile is defined by one act and two interpretations. 王平 and 徐仁 interpret his short-term sheltering as pardonable because he was not himself a rebel and had self-surrendered after the amnesty. 霍光’s review rejects that boundary: sheltering Sang Qian becomes sheltering a rebel, and the earlier lenient judgment becomes official indulgence of rebellion.

Key Characteristics

• Shelterer of Sang Qian after the Sang Hongyang purge.
• Self-surrendering actor after an amnesty promises non-pursuit for previously undiscovered related officials or conduct.
• Initially treated by Wang Ping and Xu Ren as pardonable because he was not personally a rebel.
• Reclassified under Huo Guang’s review as an unpardonable harborer of a rebel.
• Legal hinge through which the case expands from a fugitive family member to officials who favored leniency.

Evidence

Sheltering:

• Hanji 402-1 says Hou Shiwu hid Sang Qian in his house.

Self-surrender and lenient reading:

• Hanji 402-1 says Hou Shiwu surrendered after an amnesty and that Wang Ping and Xu Ren treated him as eligible for pardon.

Stricter review:

• Hanji 402-1 says the review ordered by Huo Guang classified Hou Shiwu as harboring a rebel and therefore outside the amnesty.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to Hanji 402-1. It does not establish Hou Shiwu’s office, motive, duration of sheltering, or exact legal status beyond the episode’s summary of competing judgments.

What Changed

• Created from Hanji 402-1 as the harboring-case actor whose treatment exposes the amnesty boundary.

Relationships

• 桑迁 / Sang Qian (Western Han) - fugitive whom Hou Shiwu shelters.
• 桑弘羊 / Sang Hongyang (Western Han) - condemned father whose rebellion case defines Sang Qian’s status.
• 王平 / Wang Ping (Western Han) and 徐仁 / Xu Ren (Western Han) - officials who initially read Hou Shiwu’s case as pardonable.
• 霍光 / Huo Guang (Western Han) - regent whose stricter review makes Hou Shiwu unpardonable.
• 案件扩大化政治清洗 / Case-Expansion Political Purge - concept connected by the widening from harboring to official liability.