夜郎王多同 / Ye Lang King Duo Tong

Overview

夜郎王多同 / Ye Lang King Duo Tong is the ruler whom 唐蒙 meets during the early Han Wudi attempt to open a southwestern route through 夜郎. He is distinct from the much later 夜郎王兴.

Current Profile

The episode introduces Duo Tong through the “夜郎孰与汉大” question, interpreting it as a product of geographic isolation and limited knowledge rather than evidence about Ye Lang’s actual scale. His attitude changes after Tang Meng displays silk, art, precious metals, and other goods and describes Han power and generosity.

Tang Meng asks to establish officials and offers a place in the new arrangement to Duo Tong’s son. Duo Tong does not decide alone: he consults the major chiefs, who also receive gifts. They accept the agreement while believing that difficult terrain and distance will prevent Han from fully possessing the region.

Duo Tong therefore enters the wiki as a participant in a conditional frontier bargain, not simply as a comic emblem of arrogance or as a ruler whose polity immediately loses all autonomy.

Key Characteristics

• Ye Lang ruler encountered by Tang Meng during Han Wudi’s early southwestern mission.
• Figure attached by the episode to the “Ye Lang or Han—which is larger?” question.
• Ruler whose response changes after material display and persuasion.
• Decision-maker who consults major chiefs rather than acting as an unconstrained sole authority.
• Participant in a bargain involving official appointment and a proposed office for his son.
• Local ruler whose acceptance remains conditioned by an expectation of continuing distance-based autonomy.

Evidence

Encounter and information boundary:

• Hanji 269-1 identifies Duo Tong as the Ye Lang king and attaches the comparative-size question to his meeting with Tang Meng.

Negotiation and consultation:

• Hanji 269-1 says gifts and Tang Meng’s account of Han power change the atmosphere, after which Duo Tong consults the chiefs.

Conditional agreement:

• Hanji 269-1 says the chiefs accept while expecting the route’s difficulty to limit actual Han possession.

Qualifications

This profile is bounded to one retelling. It does not establish Duo Tong’s reign dates, capital, genealogy, territorial reach, the precise title or office proposed for his son, or whether every saying and inner motive belongs to the underlying transmitted text. The “夜郎自大” moral label can obscure the rational collective calculation also described by the episode.

What Changed

• Created a disambiguated profile for Duo Tong as the earlier Ye Lang ruler in Tang Meng’s mission.
• Preserved consultation and conditional compliance alongside the episode’s arrogance frame.

Relationships

• 夜郎 - polity ruled by Duo Tong in the source.
• 唐蒙 - Han envoy who offers gifts and proposes an official arrangement.
• 汉武帝 - emperor whose prestige and resources support Tang Meng’s negotiation.
• 夜郎王兴 - distinct later Ye Lang ruler in the 27 BCE conflict.
• 名义臣服与地方实权并存 - framework for Duo Tong and the chiefs’ provisional acceptance without demonstrated full control.