广陵王刘须 / Liu Xu, Guangling King (Western Han)

Overview

广陵王刘须 / Liu Xu, Guangling King enters the wiki through Hanji 456-1 as 汉武帝’s fourth son and the first Guangling king. The episode uses him as a royal-kin cautionary figure: he wants imperial power but lacks the courage for direct contention, repeatedly shifts desire into witchcraft curses, and finally destroys himself after the curse network is exposed under 汉宣帝.

Current Profile

The source portrays Liu Xu as physically imposing but politically unstable. Han Wudi is said to judge him unfit for succession because indulgence, lawlessness, and a fondness for fighting beasts would quickly damage the state. After being enfeoffed as Guangling king, Liu Xu still covets the throne but avoids open action, unlike the episode’s contrast with the Yan-king style of direct claim.

His recurring method is royal-kin witchcraft succession delusion. He employs the Chu witch Li Nuxu to curse Liu Fuling; when Liu Fuling dies, Liu Xu reads coincidence as efficacy. Liu He’s short reign and removal then reinforces the same belief. Against Xuan, Liu Xu is first spared after an implicated-treason scare, but after his son Liu Bao is punished and his own territory is cut, resentment revives the curse pattern. The final investigation leads him to poison witches and more than twenty palace women, destroy ritual objects, and commit suicide when capture becomes unavoidable.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han royal kinsman and first Guangling king whose princely status keeps him close enough to succession politics to imagine a claim.
• Physically strong and pleasure-seeking figure whom the episode presents as politically unfit in Han Wudi’s eyes.
• Ambitious but fearful prince who prefers secret ritual harm to open rebellion or institutional claim-making.
• Superstitious political actor who mistakes Liu Fuling’s death and Liu He’s deposition as proof that curses decide succession.
• Resentful royal household head whose son’s crimes, loss of title, and territorial削夺 revive hostility toward Xuan.
• Final exposed offender who turns evidence suppression into mass poisoning and then suicide.

Evidence

Succession status and unfitness:

• Hanji 456-1 says Liu Xu is Han Wudi’s fourth son and first Guangling king.
• Hanji 456-1 describes him as tall and strong but unstable, pleasure-seeking, lawless, and fond of fighting wild beasts.
• Hanji 456-1 says Han Wudi feared Liu Xu would quickly damage the state if made emperor.

Witchcraft and ambition:

• Hanji 456-1 says Liu Xu wants the throne but does not dare compete openly.
• Hanji 456-1 says he asks the witch Li Nuxu to curse Liu Fuling, then reads Liu Fuling’s death as proof that the curse works.
• Hanji 456-1 says Liu He’s twenty-seven-day reign and deposition further convince Liu Xu that curses affect imperial succession.
• Hanji 456-1 says Liu Xu later curses Xuan and is implicated in a Liu Yanshou rebellion case, but Xuan spares him and rewards him.

Final collapse:

• Hanji 456-1 says Liu Xu’s son Liu Bao loses title for killing, commits adultery with Liu Xu’s consort, and is executed, while Liu Xu loses part of his fief.
• Hanji 456-1 says Liu Xu resumes cursing Xuan because of resentment.
• Hanji 456-1 says Liu Xu poisons witches and more than twenty palace women, destroys curse objects, is exposed, and commits suicide in 54 BCE.
• Hanji 456-1 says Xuan ultimately spares several of Liu Xu’s sons from death and demotes them.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to one compact podcast source. It does not reconstruct Liu Xu’s full genealogy, all legal proceedings, the exact textual names behind Li Nuxu or Liu Yanshou, Liu Bao’s complete case record, or the full chronology of Liu Xu’s fief. The episode’s interpretation of Liu Xu’s psychology is preserved as a source-backed reading, not an independent diagnosis.

What Changed

• Created the Liu Xu page from Hanji 456-1 as a royal-kin treason and witchcraft case.

Relationships

• Emperor Wu of Han / 汉武帝 - father whose succession judgment frames Liu Xu as unfit.
• Emperor Xuan of Han / 汉宣帝 / 刘询 / 刘病已 - ruler who first spares Liu Xu and later presides over the exposed curse case.
• 宗室巫术夺位幻想 / Royal Witchcraft Succession Delusion - core pattern connecting Liu Xu’s ambition, fear, superstition, and self-destruction.
• Western Han dynasty / 西汉 - dynastic setting where royal-kin succession anxiety and legal punishment intersect.