赵周 / Zhao Zhou (Western Han)

Overview

赵周 / Zhao Zhou is the Western Han chancellor whom Hanji 353-2 places at the terminal edge of the 酎金夺爵 case. After 106 marquises lose their titles, he is accused of knowing that their ritual gold was light, imprisoned, and dies by suicide.

Current Profile

The bounded evidence supports a narrow accountability profile. Zhao Zhou does not administer the gold inspection in the source’s account, but his office makes knowledge and nonintervention punishable once the court treats deficient contributions as disrespect. The episode expands this into a broader interpretation: his lack of initiative during the 南越 mobilization and his failure to police the marquises make him vulnerable when 汉武帝 turns against elite nonresponse.

The direct event and the inferred motive must remain distinct. The episode supplies the charge, imprisonment, and suicide; it does not independently establish whether Zhao knowingly protected particular marquises, merely failed in supervision, or was selected as part of a wider political purge.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han chancellor during the 112 BCE Nanyue mobilization and ritual-gold case.
• Held responsible for knowing that marquises’ ritual contributions were underweight.
• Imprisoned after 106 marquises lose their titles.
• Dies by suicide rather than surviving the prosecution.
• Used by the episode to illustrate how responsibility can expand upward from inspected contributors to the chief minister.

Evidence

Charge and death:

• Hanji 353-2 says Zhao Zhou is accused of knowing that the marquises’ ritual gold was light, is imprisoned, and dies by suicide.

Political interpretation:

• Hanji 353-2 connects his fall to inactivity during the Nanyue mobilization and to Wudi’s wider attack on the marquisate group.

Qualifications

This profile rests on one short popular-history episode. It does not reconstruct Zhao Zhou’s earlier career, precise administrative duty over ritual gold, evidentiary proceedings, prison conditions, or private intention. The source’s political-motive explanation is retained as interpretation rather than treated as a demonstrated confession or secret order. The transcript’s “赵州” is normalized to the received name 赵周.

What Changed

• Created a bounded profile separating Zhao Zhou’s reported charge and death from the episode’s broader purge interpretation.

Relationships

• 汉武帝 - ruler under whom Zhao Zhou is prosecuted and imprisoned.
• 酎金夺爵 - mass title-forfeiture case that produces his final charge.
• 石庆 - yushi dafu who succeeds him as chancellor.
• 南越 - campaign context used by the episode to interpret his political vulnerability.
• 案件扩大化政治清洗 - adjacent mechanism in which liability spreads beyond the first accused group.