前少帝刘恭 / Liu Gong, Former Young Emperor (Western Han)

Overview

前少帝刘恭 / Liu Gong is presented as a child ruler under 吕雉 whose discovery of a concealed maternal history leads to confinement, deposition, and killing. This page distinguishes him from 刘公, the later Eastern Han figure.

Current Profile

Hanji 198 supplies the accession prehistory: Lu Zhi reportedly has Zhang Yan adopt Liu Gong, whom the episode identifies as Liu Ying’s son by a palace woman, and installs him after Liu Ying’s burial while continuing to govern. Hanji 200 continues the sequence by saying Liu Gong later learns that Zhang Yan is not his biological mother and that Lu Zhi had killed his birth mother. After he threatens future revenge, Lu Zhi confines him, announces that illness and mental disorder make him unfit to rule, secures ministerial assent to replacement, and has him killed.

The episode therefore makes Liu Gong an extreme case of regency succession control: biological identity is concealed to construct a child ruler, and the ruler’s later speech is converted into incapacity and removal. The source does not independently identify his mother, verify his words, or establish the legal and medical claims used against him.

Key Characteristics

• Child ruler whose accession is controlled by a regency government.
• Adopted into Zhang Yan’s public maternity before installation in the episode sequence.
• Public son of Zhang Yan whose biological parentage is presented as concealed.
• Threatened dynastic avenger after learning of his birth mother’s reported killing.
• Ruler isolated through confinement and an official incapacity narrative.
• Victim of deposition and palace killing in the episode’s account.

Evidence

• Adoption and accession: Hanji 198 says Lu Zhi has Zhang Yan raise Liu Gong as her son and installs him after Liu Ying’s death while retaining authority.
• Concealed parentage and threat: Hanji 200 says Liu Gong learns that Zhang Yan was not his biological mother and threatens revenge for his birth mother’s death.
• Confinement and incapacity claim: Hanji 200 says Lu Zhi prevents access to him and publicly describes severe illness and mental disorder.
• Deposition and death: Hanji 200 attributes ministerial assent, replacement by Liu Hong, and Liu Gong’s secret killing to the same sequence.

Qualifications

This profile is based on structured popular-history summaries rather than a primary-text comparison. Liu Gong’s age, biological parentage, birth mother’s identity and death, adoption procedure, exact words, confinement site, health, deposition procedure, ministerial freedom, and manner of death remain source-scoped. An announced mental disorder may have been a political pretext, but the supplied evidence cannot independently diagnose him or reconstruct every participant’s motive.

What Changed

• Added Liu Gong’s reported adoption and initial installation before the later concealed-parentage crisis.
• Retained confinement, deposition, and death as source-attributed rather than independently verified facts.

Relationships

• 吕雉 - regent who reportedly confines, deposes, replaces, and kills Liu Gong.
• 张嫣 - empress presented publicly as his mother but not biologically related in the episode.
• 汉惠帝刘盈 - nominal paternal line through which Liu Gong’s imperial status is constructed.
• 少帝刘弘 - child ruler installed after Liu Gong’s deposition.
• 继位合法性清洗 - related pattern in which disputed lineage and political risk enable removal of young rulers.
• 刘公 - later namesake from whom this page is explicitly disambiguated.