《资治通鉴·汉纪》372-3｜西汉皇帝都有哪些男朋友？

Summary

This 芮淇讲透资治通鉴 episode uses 籍孺 under 刘邦 and 闳孺 under 汉惠帝刘盈 to argue that male favorites were a visible feature of early 西汉 court life. Its durable contribution is political rather than diagnostic: favorite access could interrupt ordinary ministerial access, broker petitions, affect life-and-death decisions, and spread the ruler’s aesthetic preferences through the court.

The supplied episode document ends just as 汉文帝刘恒 is introduced, so it does not support claims about his favorites. It also contains transcription or normalization problems: “宁姓列传” points to 《佞幸列传》, “季如/洪儒” to 籍孺/闳孺, “樊梨藤冠列传” to 《樊郦滕灌列传》, and “沈逸季” most plausibly to 审食其.

Key Claims

• During the 英布 / 黥布 crisis, 樊哙 forces his way into Liu Bang’s quarters and finds the emperor resting with his head on the lap of the young favorite Ji Ru before remonstrating with him.
• The episode presents Ji Ru and Hong Ru as men who rise through compliant favorite access rather than demonstrated administrative ability and who become channels through which senior officials approach the ruler.
• Ji Ru’s elaborate dress, feathered headwear, shell-decorated belt, and cosmetics are said to become models for palace attendants and officials, showing imperial taste diffusing through status imitation.
• Liu Ying is described as gentle and as traumatized by 吕雉’s treatment of 戚姬 / 戚夫人, but the claimed causal link from that event to his later intimate choices is the host’s psychological interpretation.
• Hong Ru’s favor is portrayed as publicly understood at court and politically usable rather than as a purely private relationship.
• 平原君朱建 reaches Hong Ru to prevent Liu Ying from killing Shen Yiji, warning that Hong Ru himself would be blamed by Lu Zhi if the emperor killed her favorite.
• The successful intervention presents favorite access as consequential but dangerous: proximity enables persuasion while also exposing the intermediary to retaliation from competing palace authority.

Key Quotes

“排闼直入” - the phrase used for Fan Kuai’s forced entry into Liu Bang’s quarters.

“与上卧起” - the transmitted formula used by the episode to describe favorite access to the emperor.

“以婉佞贵幸” - the episode’s historical frame for advancement through pliant flattery and favor.

Connections

• 籍孺, 刘邦, and 樊哙 - favorite access interrupted by blunt ministerial remonstrance during the Ying Bu crisis.
• 闳孺, 汉惠帝刘盈, 审食其, 平原君朱建, and 吕雉 - intimate access used to mediate a lethal court dispute.
• 宫廷亲密关系作为政治资源 - favorite status becomes access, brokerage, influence, and political exposure.
• 宫廷宠幸保护脆弱性 - access remains contingent when another palace authority can retaliate.
• 帝王私欲治理风险 - withdrawal behind a favorite can obstruct ordinary ministerial access and public business.
• 汉文帝刘恒 - introduced only at the truncated endpoint, without a developed favorite narrative.

Contradictions

• Hanji 185 describes the person supporting Liu Bang in the sickbed scene as a eunuch, while this episode identifies him as the young favorite Ji Ru; the supplied summaries do not resolve whether this reflects source variation or retelling.
• The modern labels “男朋友” and implied sexual-orientation categories go beyond what favorite status, shared sleeping space, co-presence, and political access establish by themselves.
• The claim that nearly every Western Han emperor had a male lover is broader than the cases developed in the supplied episode excerpt.
• The causal claim connecting Liu Ying’s trauma from the human-swine episode to avoidance of women and intimacy with Hong Ru is interpretive and not independently established here.
• The supplied document is a structured summary rather than a verbatim transcript, ends before the Liu Heng section develops, and contains the name/title corruptions noted above.