王平 / Wang Ping (Western Han)

Overview

王平 / Wang Ping enters the wiki through Hanji 402-1 as the Tingwei who, with 徐仁, initially applies a narrower amnesty reading to 侯史吴 and is later punished after 霍光 rejects that judgment.

Current Profile

Wang Ping’s profile is a legal-risk profile. As Tingwei, he participates in judging Hou Shiwu’s sheltering of 桑迁 and concludes that short-term protection of a fugitive does not make Hou a rebel and should fall under the amnesty. Huo Guang’s review turns this into “indulging rebels.” Wang Ping is imprisoned and then waist-cut, showing how a lenient judicial interpretation can become politically fatal when rebellion classification is controlled by the regent.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han Tingwei involved in the Hou Shiwu harboring case.
• Reads the amnesty narrowly enough to spare Hou Shiwu because Hou was not personally a rebel.
• Punished after Huo Guang forces a stricter review of Sang Qian and Hou Shiwu’s status.
• Example of judicial office becoming vulnerable when legal interpretation conflicts with regent political will.
• Executed by waist-cutting along with other implicated officials in the episode’s account.

Evidence

Initial judgment:

• Hanji 402-1 says Tingwei Wang Ping and Shaofu Xu Ren judged Hou Shiwu’s sheltering as pardonable under the amnesty.

Reversal:

• Hanji 402-1 says Huo Guang ordered another review that accused the Tingwei and Shaofu of indulging rebels.

Punishment:

• Hanji 402-1 says Wang Ping was imprisoned and later waist-cut along with Jia Sheng and Hu Du.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to Hanji 402-1. It does not reconstruct Wang Ping’s earlier career, full legal argument, co-defendants’ roles, or the complete procedure after Huo Guang’s review.

What Changed

• Created from Hanji 402-1 as the judicial official punished for a narrower amnesty interpretation in a rebellion-adjacent case.

Relationships

• 徐仁 / Xu Ren (Western Han) - co-judge in the initial lenient treatment of Hou Shiwu.
• 侯史吴 / Hou Shiwu (Western Han) - defendant whose pardonability Wang Ping initially accepts.
• 桑迁 / Sang Qian (Western Han) - fugitive whose status controls Hou Shiwu’s liability.
• 霍光 / Huo Guang (Western Han) - regent whose stricter review reverses Wang Ping’s judgment.
• 案件扩大化政治清洗 / Case-Expansion Political Purge - concept connected by the punishment of officials after a case classification expands.