赵腾 / Zhao Teng (late Han remonstrant)

Overview

赵腾 / Zhao Teng is a source-bounded late-Han remonstrant in Hanji 800. His critical memorial angers Emperor An, and Yang Zhen’s failed attempt to save him becomes part of the later slander used against Yang.

Current Profile

Hanji 800 introduces Zhao Teng through his memorial on court gains and losses. The source says Emperor An is enraged, has him arrested and examined in prison, and treats the memorial as deception against the ruler and grave disloyalty rather than as usable criticism.

Yang Zhen then tries to separate harsh speech from violent treason. He argues that Zhao Teng’s language may be extreme but should not be judged like an armed crime, asking An to reduce the sentence and preserve Zhao’s life. An refuses and has Zhao Teng executed, with the body exposed in the street.

Zhao Teng’s case does not end with his own death. When Yang Zhen later obtains evidence that Fan Feng, Zhou Guang, and Xie Yun forged orders for private construction, the group invokes Zhao Teng’s death to claim Yang is resentful and politically suspect. Zhao Teng is therefore a compact source case where direct remonstrance is punished and rescue speech becomes dangerous to the rescuer.

Key Characteristics

• Memorial speaker whose criticism of court affairs is treated as criminal deception.
• Executed direct-remonstrance case under Emperor An.
• Object of Yang Zhen’s failed clemency plea.
• Posthumous accusation resource used to frame Yang Zhen as resentful.
• Source-bounded figure whose biography is known only through the Hanji 800 crisis.

Evidence

• Critical memorial and arrest: Hanji 800 says Zhao Teng submits a memorial on court gains and losses, after which Emperor An has him arrested and examined.
• Capital judgment: Hanji 800 says Zhao Teng is treated as deceiving the ruler and committing grave disloyalty.
• Yang Zhen’s failed rescue: Hanji 800 says Yang Zhen asks for mitigation by distinguishing sharp speech from armed crime.
• Use against Yang Zhen: Hanji 800 says Fan Feng’s group later cites Yang’s anger after Zhao Teng’s death when slandering Yang.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to Hanji 800 and does not reconstruct Zhao Teng’s office, family, prior career, exact memorial text, or the full prison procedure. The page treats the host’s moral reading of Zhao Teng sympathetically but keeps the legal accusation and the historical outcome separate.

What Changed

• Created Zhao Teng as the executed remonstrant whose case helps define the Yang Zhen crisis.

Relationships

• 杨震 - senior official who pleads unsuccessfully to reduce Zhao Teng’s sentence.
• 汉安帝 - ruler who treats Zhao Teng’s memorial as grave disloyalty and executes him.
• 樊丰 - later uses Yang Zhen’s response to Zhao Teng’s death as slander material.
• 直谏入罪 - main concept evidenced by Zhao Teng’s punishment.
• 君臣反馈失灵 - broader failure in which criticism reaches power but becomes evidence against the speaker.