燕王刘旦 / Liu Dan, Yan King (Western Han)

Overview

燕王刘旦 / Liu Dan, Yan King enters the wiki through Hanji 402-1 as the royal rebel whose anti-霍光 action becomes the charge background for 桑弘羊’s final destruction. Hanji 390-2 and Hanji 393-1 establish his succession grievance; Hanji 393-2 now supplies the first exposed rebellion, where false authorization, legitimacy propaganda, weapons preparation, killed remonstrators, and 刘泽’s failed Linzi plan end with Liu Dan spared but uncorrected. Hanji 399 and Hanji 400-1 then show the later coalition, forged memorial, assassination plan, exposure, and suicide.

Current Profile

The combined sources now show Liu Dan as more than a later legal label. Hanji 390-2 and Hanji 393-1 make his claim psychologically and politically earlier than the formal anti-Huo coalition. As Han Wudi’s third son, he begins from a marginal position behind Liu Ju and Liu Hong, but their deaths turn his senior surviving-son status into an imagined claim. His request to enter Chang’an as a filial palace guard is punished as a succession move, so after Han Wudi dies he is already primed to read edict form, seal packaging, regent control, Han Zhao’s youth, and even Han Zhao’s paternity as signs of usurpation rather than ordinary succession.

Hanji 393-2 shows that this grievance produces an earlier rebellion before the better-known anti-Huo coalition. Liu Dan conspires with Liu Chang and Liu Ze, invents a Wudi edict authorizing control of Yan appointments and troops, circulates the claim that Han Zhao is not Wudi’s son, gathers metal for weapons, and uses large hunts as military exercises. When Han Yi and fourteen others remonstrate, Liu Dan kills them, destroying an internal correction channel. Liu Ze’s intended Linzi rising and attack on Jun Buyi are exposed through Liu Cheng; investigation names Liu Dan as principal, but Han Zhao spares him while the operational partners die. The mercy changes punishment without changing Liu Dan’s self-judgment.

Hanji 399 presents him as a remote royal claimant who cultivates Chang’an partners through gifts, jewelry, horses, and repeated envoy contact before conspirators use a memorial in his name to attack Huo Guang. Hanji 400-1 then presents him as a claimant who still sees himself as plausible successor material: he stresses that he is the late emperor’s eldest surviving son, interprets Chang’an unrest as evidence that Huo Guang is vulnerable, and believes vacancies or weakness among senior officials make the moment favorable. His own Yan chancellor Ping warns him that unreliable partners and past failure should make him cautious, but Liu Dan orders preparation instead.

The same episode also shows Liu Dan’s vulnerability inside the coalition. 上官安 secretly plans to kill him after using him and then install 上官桀, so Liu Dan is both claimant and disposable instrument. Once the conspiracy is exposed through Yan Cang, Yang Chang, and 杜延年, Liu Dan considers immediate rebellion but is dissuaded by his chancellor. Han Zhao’s formal rebuke leaves him no political exit; he holds a farewell feast and uses the royal seal cord to kill himself. Hanji 402-1 then shows the downstream legal afterlife: the rebellion remains the context for Sang Hongyang’s execution and the harsher treatment of rebellion-adjacent actors.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han Yan king and seniority claimant whose succession grievance begins before Han Wudi’s death, hardens after the child-emperor accession, and turns into a later attack on Han Zhao’s birth legitimacy.
• Repeat rebel whose first exposed plan uses fabricated authorization, regional mobilization, propaganda, and killed remonstrators before mercy leaves his claim intact.
• Remote coalition-builder whose gifts and envoys connect Yan ambition to Chang’an anti-Huo actors before his name is used as the mask for a forged memorial against Huo Guang.
• Anti-Huo rebel who joins a plan to kill Huo Guang and depose Han Zhao.
• Ambitious interpreter of political signs, treating senior lineage, Chang’an unrest, and official vacancies as opportunity.
• Poor coalition reader whose supposed allies plan to use and eliminate him.
• Suicide case after imperial rebuke whose rebellion remains the charge background for Sang Hongyang’s execution and later legal-political case expansion, while Liu Dan’s son Liu Jian is spared death and reduced to commoner status.

Evidence

Royal-claimant ambition:

• Hanji 390-2 says Liu Dan believes that after the crown prince’s death he should be made heir by seniority and asks to return to Chang’an to stay near Han Wudi.
• Hanji 390-2 says Han Wudi sees through the request, kills the Yan messenger at the palace’s north gate, and later cuts part of Yan territory after accusing Liu Dan of hiding fugitives.
• Hanji 390-2 says Liu Dan later claims the installed emperor is not Han Wudi’s biological son, preserving the legitimacy-attack layer before the later anti-Huo coalition.
• Hanji 393-1 says Liu Dan is Han Wudi’s third son and had originally been far behind Liu Ju and Liu Hong in succession plausibility.
• Hanji 393-1 says Liu Hong’s early death and Liu Ju’s suicide after the Wugu affair make Liu Dan the eldest surviving son in his own view.
• Hanji 393-1 says Han Wudi sees through Liu Dan’s request to enter Chang’an as a palace guard, executes the messenger, and cuts three counties from Liu Dan’s fief.
• Hanji 393-1 says Liu Dan receives Wudi’s death edict without weeping, notices an unusually small seal package, and suspects Chang’an has suffered a political change.
• Hanji 393-1 says Liu Dan sends trusted men to Chang’an under mourning cover, learns that an eight-year-old has been installed by Huo Guang and other regents, and suspects forged-edict politics.
• Hanji 393-2 says Liu Dan, Liu Chang, and Liu Ze invent a Wudi edict authorizing Liu Dan to control Yan appointments and reorganize its forces while denying Han Zhao’s paternity.
• Hanji 393-2 says Liu Dan collects copper and iron, holds military-training hunts, and kills Han Yi plus fourteen other remonstrators.
• Hanji 393-2 says Liu Ze’s branch is exposed before action, the investigation identifies Liu Dan as principal, and Han Zhao spares Liu Dan while executing the other participants.
• Hanji 399 says Liu Dan sends more than ten batches of people with gold, valuables, and horses to connect with Gai Chang Gongzhu, Shangguan Jie, Sang Hongyang, and others.
• Hanji 399 says conspirators forge a Yan king memorial in Liu Dan’s name to accuse Huo Guang and present Liu Dan as a protector willing to enter court.
• Hanji 400-1 says Liu Dan is excited by the conspiracy, exchanges messages by relay, promises Shangguan Jie a kingship, and contacts commandery and kingdom strongmen.
• Hanji 400-1 says Liu Dan argues that his status as the former emperor’s eldest son will make the realm trust him.
• Hanji 400-1 says Chancellor Ping warns him against trusting Liu Ze-like and Shangguan-like partners, but Liu Dan insists conditions are favorable.

Coalition fragility:

• Hanji 400-1 says the public plan is to install Liu Dan after killing Huo Guang and deposing Han Zhao.
• Hanji 400-1 says Shangguan An separately plans to lure and kill Liu Dan, then install Shangguan Jie.

Collapse and punishment:

• Hanji 400-1 says Liu Dan asks whether to raise troops after the plot is exposed, but Chancellor Ping warns that the key court conspirators are already dead and public opinion has turned.
• Hanji 400-1 says Han Zhao’s edict rebukes Liu Dan and that Liu Dan kills himself with his royal seal cord.
• Hanji 400-1 says Liu Dan’s son Liu Jian is spared death and reduced to commoner status.

Sang Hongyang’s liability:

• Hanji 402-1 says Sang Hongyang participated in anti-Huo rebellious activity and had plotted with Yan king Liu Dan.
• Hanji 402-1 makes Liu Dan’s rebellion the political context in which old fiscal merit no longer protects Sang Hongyang.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to Hanji 390-2, Hanji 393-1, Hanji 393-2, Hanji 399, Hanji 400-1, and Hanji 402-1. It does not reconstruct Liu Dan’s full lineage, Liu Hong’s biography, the complete Wugu affair, the primary-source edict and seal procedure, the full rumor tradition around Han Zhao’s birth, every participant or official in the Liu Ze conspiracy, the full legal procedure against his household, or later treatment of Liu Jian beyond these episodes. Hanji 393-2 leaves the personal Han Zhao-versus-Huo Guang authorship of the mercy decision open; Hanji 400-1 frames Han Zhao’s later edict as forcing Liu Dan into a political dead end without separately proving every private motive in his final decision.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 393-2’s first exposed rebellion: fabricated authority, regional mobilization, killed remonstrators, leakage, and differentiated punishment before the later anti-Huo coalition.
• Added Hanji 393-1’s origin layer: Liu Dan’s succession hope forms after Liu Hong and Liu Ju leave the field, is punished by Han Wudi, and reappears as suspicion of Han Zhao’s child accession under Huo Guang.
• Added Hanji 390-2’s sharper pre-accession version of Liu Dan’s ambition and the later paternity-legitimacy attack against Han Zhao.
• Preserved Hanji 399’s coalition-building and forged-memorial layer before Hanji 400-1’s claimant and suicide profile.

Relationships

• 霍光 / Huo Guang (Western Han) - regent targeted by the conspiracy Liu Dan joins.
• 汉昭帝刘弗陵 / Emperor Zhao of Han - younger ruler whose rebuke leaves Liu Dan no political exit.
• Emperor Wu of Han / 汉武帝 - father whose death opens the succession dispute and whose earlier punishment shows Liu Dan’s ambition was already visible.
• 卫太子刘据 / Liu Ju, Crown Prince of Western Han - elder brother whose death after the Wugu affair helps create Liu Dan’s claim.
• 桑弘羊 / Sang Hongyang (Western Han) - minister whose later destruction is tied to Liu Dan’s rebellion.
• 上官桀 / Shangguan Jie (Western Han) - senior conspirator whom Liu Dan promises reward but who becomes the alternative intended emperor.
• 上官安 / Shangguan An (Western Han) - conspirator who plans to kill Liu Dan after using him.
• 盖长公主 / Gai Chang Gongzhu (Western Han) - co-conspirator whose banquet access is part of the planned Huo assassination.
• 刘泽 / Liu Ze, Qi Royal Descendant (Western Han) - Qi royal partner in Liu Dan’s earlier rebellion who is arrested and executed after planning a Linzi rising.
• Desire-Capacity Fit / 欲望与能力匹配 - interpretive relationship because Liu Dan’s imperial desire outruns judgment, coalition quality, and operational capacity.
• Lethal Plan Leakage Risk / 致命计划泄露风险 - failure mechanism in both the earlier Liu Ze plan and the later anti-Huo conspiracy.
• 案件扩大化政治清洗 / Case-Expansion Political Purge - downstream pattern because the rebellion case later widens through Sang Qian, Hou Shiwu, and judicial officials.