平当 / Ping Dang (Western Han)

Overview

平当 / Ping Dang is synthesized as a late Western Han official who appears in two different Aidi-era registers: practical river administration and personal restraint at the end of office. Hanji 566 shows him as Qi commandant assigned to Yellow River embankment affairs and advising the court to recruit people who actually understand dredging and river control. Hanji 582 later shows him as a senior official who refuses a deathbed marquisate, making him a positive contrast to 朱博’s patron-serving risk and a case for 乱局善终.

Current Profile

Hanji 566 gives Ping Dang an earlier administrative role. As Qi commandant placed in charge of river embankment affairs, he tells 汉哀帝 that the ancient nine Yellow River channels can no longer be identified and that textual learning alone does not solve present river uncertainty. His practical recommendation is to recruit people skilled in dredging rivers and managing channels.

Hanji 582 says Ping Dang is appointed Yushi Dafu in the ninth month after Zhu Bo’s death, then chancellor in the tenth month. Because the season is not suitable for formal enfeoffment, Aidi gives him a provisional Guannei Hou title and later summons him to receive a full marquis seal.

By that point Ping Dang is gravely ill. His family urges him to accept the seal for his descendants, but Ping Dang refuses. He argues that he is already culpable because he is chancellor while bedridden and unable to handle state affairs. If he forces himself to receive the marquisate and then dies soon after, the act would deepen fault rather than benefit his descendants.

The host treats the refusal as wisdom about enoughness and reputation. Ping Dang’s case does not show withdrawal from all office ambition; it shows refusal to add one last status claim when the officeholder can no longer perform the office. That makes him a restrained-end case adjacent to Fu Xi’s fear after restored rank.

Key Characteristics

• Late Western Han senior official under Han Aidi.
• Appears first in the source set as a river-administration official asked to address Yellow River embankment problems.
• Treats flood control as a problem requiring practical technical talent rather than textual citation alone.
• Promoted from Guanglu Xun to Yushi Dafu and then chancellor after Zhu Bo’s fall.
• Receives provisional Guannei Hou status because full enfeoffment timing is delayed.
• Refuses to accept the marquis seal while gravely ill.
• Frames refusal as protection of descendants and posthumous reputation, not contempt for honor.

Evidence

• River assignment: Hanji 566 says Ping Dang is placed in charge of river embankment affairs as Qi commandant.
• Technical-talent recommendation: Hanji 566 says he argues the old nine rivers are no longer locatable and recommends recruiting people skilled in dredging and river control.
• Appointment sequence: Hanji 582 says Ping Dang is appointed Yushi Dafu and then chancellor after Zhu Bo’s death.
• Provisional title: Hanji 582 says Aidi first gives him Guannei Hou status because the month is not suitable for formal enfeoffment.
• Family pressure: Hanji 582 says Ping Dang’s family urges him to accept the seal for descendants.
• Refusal logic: Hanji 582 says he considers it already blameworthy to be chancellor while unable to work and more blameworthy to receive a marquisate just before death.
• Death: Hanji 582 says Ping Dang dies in the third month.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to Hanji 566 and Hanji 582. Hanji 566 supports Ping Dang’s river-management recommendation, but not the full technical history of the Yellow River, the exact geography of the old nine channels, or his complete hydraulic career. Hanji 582 supports the refusal-of-marquisate scene and the host’s interpretation of restraint, but not a full biography, the exact legal calendar for enfeoffment, or his family’s later outcomes.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 566’s earlier Yellow River role, broadening Ping Dang from deathbed restraint alone into a practical-administration figure before his later good-end case.

Relationships

• 汉哀帝 - ruler who promotes Ping Dang and offers the marquisate.
• 黄河 - river-management problem that prompts Ping Dang’s earlier memorial.
• 洪泛区退让治理 - next-step policy field that Hanji 566 sets up through Ping Dang before Jia Rang’s proposals.
• 朱博 - negative contrast whose death opens the promotion sequence.
• 乱局善终 - concept extended by Ping Dang’s refusal to claim status he can no longer carry.
• 高位谨慎自保 - related restraint pattern because Ping Dang treats additional rank as reputational exposure.