济东王刘彭离 / Liu Pengli, King of Jidong (Western Han)

Overview

济东王刘彭离 / Liu Pengli is a Western Han vassal king and son of 梁孝王刘武 whose verified pattern of robbery and killing ends in deposition and exile rather than the death sentence requested by officials.

Current Profile

The current source presents Liu Pengli’s twenty-nine-year reign as a local breakdown of accountability. He allegedly goes out after dark with servants and fugitive youths, attacks travelers, kills for pleasure, and takes property; more than one hundred victims can eventually be named, while fear suppresses accusation inside the kingdom.

A victim’s son succeeds in reaching the central court. After investigation overcomes 汉武帝’s initial suspicion that the accusation may be slander against the imperial house, officials request execution. Wudi instead reduces Liu Pengli to commoner status and exiles him to Shangyong. The abolition of Jidong and reorganization of its territory as Dahe Commandery remove his territorial power, but the refusal to execute him makes the case an example of 宗室亲缘减刑.

Key Characteristics

• Son of Liang Xiao Wang Liu Wu and a Western Han imperial kinsman.
• Rules Jidong for a reported twenty-nine years.
• Leads servants and fugitive youths in repeated night robbery and killing.
• Benefits from local fear that prevents ordinary accusation and night travel.
• Exposed after a victim’s son gets a complaint to the central court.
• Spared execution but stripped of kingship, reduced to commoner status, and exiled.

Evidence

Violence and local fear:

• Hanji 338-1 attributes repeated night robbery and killing to Liu Pengli and says more than one hundred identified victims emerged after years of fear.

Exposure and punishment:

• Hanji 338-1 says a victim’s son initiates the accusation, officials request execution, and Han Wudi instead deposes and exiles Liu Pengli while abolishing the kingdom.

Kinship qualification:

• Hanji 338-1 explains the reduced sentence through Liu Wu’s remembered service and Han Wudi’s family attachment.

Qualifications

The page is grounded in one short popular-history episode. “刘鹏黎” is normalized to 刘彭离 from the Jidong, parentage, reign-length, exile, and commandery context. The episode supplies a moralized narrative rather than a complete legal dossier: exact victim count beyond “more than one hundred,” investigative procedure, statutory charge, Wudi’s private motive, and exile conditions remain uncertain. The claim that inherited merit caused the commutation is the episode’s interpretation of Wudi’s refusal, not a fully documented sentencing opinion.

What Changed

• Created the profile from the Jidong robbery-killing case and its deposition-and-exile outcome.
• Distinguished severe punishment from equal punishment by identifying royal kinship as a limit on execution.

Relationships

• 梁孝王刘武 - father whose rebellion-era service becomes part of the explanation for clemency.
• 汉武帝 - imperial cousin and sentencing ruler who refuses the requested execution.
• 宗室亲缘减刑 - governance pattern illustrated by Liu Pengli’s commuted punishment.
• 法度压过亲缘特权 - contrast case showing that enforcement can reach royal kin without eliminating privilege.
• 西汉 - dynasty that abolishes Jidong and reabsorbs its territory after his deposition.