廉丹 / Lian Dan (Xin general)

Overview

廉丹 / Lian Dan enters the wiki through Hanji 660-2 as a Xin general sent with 王匡 to suppress 赤眉 and other eastern rebels. His profile is narrow but important: official army abuse damages the regime’s popular standing, then Wang Mang’s harsh edict and 冯衍’s warning put Lian Dan between loyalist duty and a collapsing political field.

Current Profile

Hanji 660-2 first presents Lian Dan as part of a large Xin military response. Wang Mang sends him and Wang Kuang east with major forces, but the army fails the civilian-discipline test: soldiers are allowed to harm people along the route, producing the saying that meeting Chimei is better than meeting the official commanders.

The episode then narrows to Lian Dan’s decision point. Wang Mang blames scarcity, empty treasuries, and public crisis on the need for furious suppression, demanding that Lian Dan risk death in the field. Feng Yan advises him to recognize that heroes never sincerely accepted Xin and that people remember Han, but Lian Dan refuses. The page therefore treats him as a late-Xin loyalist trapped inside a failing command and legitimacy environment.

Key Characteristics

• Xin-side general sent east against Chimei and other rebels.
• Paired with Wang Kuang in an anti-rebel army whose civilian abuse backfires.
• Receives a severe Wang Mang edict demanding battlefield sacrifice.
• Hears Feng Yan’s Han-restoration public-sentiment warning but rejects it.
• Loyalty case whose resolve may worsen survival under a collapsing regime.

Evidence

• Anti-rebel deployment: Hanji 660-2 says Wang Mang sends Wang Kuang and Lian Dan east with a large army.
• Civilian abuse: Hanji 660-2 says the commanders do not restrain troops, producing popular fear of official armies.
• Severe edict: Hanji 660-2 says Wang Mang issues a harsh instruction pressing Lian Dan to fight.
• Feng Yan warning: Hanji 660-2 says Feng Yan urges Lian Dan to hold troops and avoid destruction in the field.

Qualifications

The page is source-bounded to Hanji 660-2 and does not reconstruct Lian Dan’s full career or death. The episode’s evaluation of loyalty is interpretive: it presents Lian Dan as having a loyalist disposition, but the exact motives, command authority, and later battlefield result are reserved for subsequent source notes.

What Changed

• Created the page from Hanji 660-2 as a late-Xin general caught between abusive official command, Wang Mang pressure, and Feng Yan’s warning.

Relationships

• 王匡 - paired Xin commander in the eastern anti-rebel deployment.
• 王莽 - ruler whose severe edict constrains Lian Dan’s choices.
• 冯衍 - adviser who urges Lian Dan to read Han-restoration public sentiment.
• 赤眉 - rebel force against which Lian Dan is deployed.
• 官军扰民反噬 - civilian-abuse pattern that makes the official army politically self-defeating.
• 汉室人心回归 - political-sentiment pattern Feng Yan invokes.