赵幽王刘友 / Liu You (King of Zhao, Western Han)

Overview

Liu You / 刘友 is synthesized here as the Western Han Zhao king whom Hanji 202 part 1 says was summoned to Chang’an, isolated under guard, denied food, and buried with commoner rites after a Lü-family queen accused him of opposing Lü kingship. The part 1 body calls him only “赵王”; the adjacent part 2 recap identifies the previously starved Zhao king as Liu You, so the name is a transparent cross-episode normalization.

Current Profile

Liu You’s royal rank does not protect him from the household and regency network created by his marriage to a Lü-family woman. Part 1 says he does not favor the queen and instead favors other consorts. The queen then reports that he objected to people surnamed Lü becoming kings and intended to remove them after 吕雉’s death.

The accusation moves a private marital conflict into the highest political channel. Liu You is summoned to Chang’an, refused an audience, confined in the Zhao residence, and cut off from outside support. Zhao officials who try to bring him food are themselves imprisoned and punished, after which he dies of starvation.

His reported commoner burial and final song extend punishment beyond physical death into royal status and political memory. The episode treats the song as his indictment of Lü rule, coerced marriage, and spousal accusation; the wiki preserves that as a transmitted, episode-attributed account rather than verified verbatim speech.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han Liu-family prince holding the Zhao kingship in the episode’s Gao Hou year seven setting.
• Husband in a Lü-family political marriage whose private household remained connected to the regent’s kin network.
• Accused opponent of Lü-family kingship, with the allegation reaching Lu Zhi through his queen.
• Confined royal whose access, communication, and food supply were reportedly blocked without an open trial.
• Victim of status degradation through reported commoner burial after death by starvation.

Evidence

• Marriage and accusation: Hanji 202 part 1 says the Zhao king does not favor his Lü-family queen, who reports alleged anti-Lü speech to her natal network.
• Confinement and starvation: Hanji 202 part 1 attributes the refused audience, armed isolation, punishment of food delivery, starvation death, and commoner burial to Lu Zhi’s political response.
• Identity normalization: Hanji 202 part 2 says the previously discussed Zhao king Liu You was starved, distinguishing him from Liu Hui’s suicide after a favored consort was poisoned.
• Final self-presentation: Hanji 202 part 1 attributes a final song to the king condemning Lü power, compelled marriage, accusation, and his mode of death.

Qualifications

The bounded evidence consists of two structured popular-history summaries, not a full biography or direct comparison with the Shiji, Hanshu, and Zizhi Tongjian texts. Part 1 does not itself name Liu You, and part 2 supplies only a retrospective identification; the page therefore keeps that normalization explicit. The truth of the queen’s allegation, Liu You’s precise words and intentions, the queen’s identity and motive, the command chain, chronology, confinement procedure, final song, and burial status remain source-scoped.

What Changed

• Created the canonical Liu You page and separated his starvation death from 刘恢’s later suicide.
• Made the cross-episode basis for identifying part 1’s unnamed Zhao king explicit.

Relationships

• 吕雉 - regent to whom the source attributes Liu You’s summons, confinement, starvation, and degraded burial.
• 强制赐婚 - household-control relationship because a politically imposed Lü marriage carries accusation into regency punishment.
• 赵王刘恢 - distinct later Zhao king whose Lü-family marriage also becomes coercive but whose reported death is suicide rather than starvation.
• 西汉 - dynasty in which Liu You holds royal status and the Lü-regency conflict unfolds.