The third year of Lingjue.
The court issued an edict: "With the new emperor's accession, the sentiments of All Under Heaven are tangled and complex, burdening the Altars of State. It is fitting to nominate the virtuous and upright throughout the realm. All Two-Thousand-Shi officials, Commandery Governors, and State Chancellors are ordered to recommend one virtuous and upright person from their commandery or kingdom."
Of course, the court did not need these virtuous and upright men. This was a political declaration: you may now come serve at court, and we are prepared to hear your opinions.
Anyone with the slightest nose for politics knew that the court's purge of Crown Prince La's former faction had finally been declared over.
Among the Dukes and Ministers at court, the Commandery Governors and State Chancellors, and the Princes and Lords and imperial relatives, the interests that needed redistributing had essentially all been apportioned.
The court reopened the normal channels for entering official service, and the unsettled hearts of the realm finally found peace.
The court's focus returned to what it had been under Emperor Xiaoxuan: encouraging farming and planting, promoting commercial circulation, suppressing the barbarians on every frontier, and continually relocating people to the Western Regions and the lands south of the Qinling Mountains and Huai River.
That year, Liu She was nine.
Nine and six were entirely different things, especially for clever children who had spent a long time at the heart of the dynasty's power. Without realizing it, Liu She had already come to understand a great deal.
Worried that Liu She might follow in Liu He's footsteps, the Empress Dowager and Huo Guang paid close attention to his education. His teachers were Senior Worthies renowned throughout the realm, drawn from both the Daoist and Confucian schools. Only after confirming that