Chapter Summaries

Liu Heng’s proposal to reclaim coin-minting authority from private hands sparked a fierce court debate. He convened leading scholars to hear the policy’s drawbacks, and the discussion continued as an opponent of the Huang-Lao argument prepared to respond.

• A minor official urged Liu Heng to end private coinage, prompting ministers to argue and even come to blows before Luo Jing silenced them with a bronze hammer.
• Liu Heng adjourned court and reviewed the memorials, explaining to Luo Jing that he wanted to hear objections even though he had decided the Court should reclaim coinage authority.
• The debate spread among the schools of thought, with Huang-Lao scholars opposing the change and most Legalists supporting it.
• At a meeting in Changle Palace, a Huang-Lao Erudite argued that private coinage had produced high-quality coins and that centralized minting would revive counterfeiting and force the people to accept inferior currency.
• Liu Heng considered the Erudite’s case, and another speaker prepared to oppose it from a different angle.

Luo Jing persuaded the court to reclaim coin-minting authority by arguing that unity and uniform rule mattered more than copper cash quality. Though the ministers approved the policy, he feared its consequences and planned to ask Emperor Liu Heng to let him monitor its effects on the people.

• Luo Jing returned to the Great Hall and argued that unchecked private coin minting could let local powers grow wealthy enough to threaten the Court.
• Luo Jing asked the ministers to choose between stable rule throughout the realm and the quality of copper cash, and the ministers endorsed reclaiming coinage authority.
• An Erudite who had opposed the policy conceded that uniform decrees mattered most and admitted his argument had been mistaken.
• Liu Heng ended the debate, and the ministers left the palace after affirming their support.
• Luo Jing told Jia Yi he feared the policy could cause future turmoil, and Jia Yi advised him to ask Liu Heng to assign him oversight.
• Luo Jing agreed to request the monitoring assignment from Liu Heng the next day.

Liu Heng’s edict returned coin minting to the Court, provoking anger among Shandong’s nobles and merchants as counterfeiters prepared to profit. After Tianhan Coins began circulating in Chang’an, Luo Jing offered to travel east to investigate the brewing resistance, and Liu Heng reluctantly considered the danger.

• Liu Heng issued the Han Coin Statute and established a Censorate to enforce the Court’s control over coin minting.
• Shandong’s Lords King, powerful gentry, and former coin makers condemned the edict, while counterfeiters planned to melt down the Court’s coins and make inferior ones.
• The Court circulated carefully made Tianhan Coins in Chang’an, where the people welcomed them and praised the emperor.
• Luo Jing warned Liu Heng that Shandong would likely resist and asked to travel there on the emperor’s behalf.
• Liu Heng worried that Shandong’s rulers might harm Luo Jing, but Luo Jing said the Dare-to-Fight Warriors would protect him.

Luo Jing led a heavily guarded embassy to Luoyang, where he honored the Luo Clan’s ancestral ties to the Luo River and asserted strict control over his reception. After entering the city, he headed to the Luo Clan residence while weighing the state of local officialdom.

• Luo Jing traveled through the Xiaohan Corridor toward Luoyang and ordered his party to rest there and gather commoners for questioning.
• Luo Jing recounted his ancestors’ connections to Luoyang and threatened anyone who showed disrespect before ordering a sacrifice to Ji Lingjun beside the Yi and Luo rivers.
• Luo Jing’s embassy reached Luoyang, whose wealthy trade and strategic defenses impressed the accompanying officials.
• Luo Jing’s Dare-to-Fight Warriors required the Henan commandery troops to disarm, and the Imperial Guards took control of the area around him.
• Luo Jing entered Luoyang with the commandery officials following and went directly to the Luo Clan residence.

Luo Jing received the Luo Clan’s evidence against Shandong’s lords and powerful gentry, then arrested the governor of Henan Commandery and officials implicated in circulating inferior coins. He used Liu Heng’s Tiger Tally to order the assembly of fifty thousand troops and preparations for war.

• Luo Chen delivered the Luo Clan’s evidence to Luo Jing and warned him against taking on such dangerous affairs.
• Luo Jing reviewed the documents and ordered the officials of Henan Commandery to gather at the Luo Clan Residence.
• Luo Jing accused the governor of Henan Commandery and his collaborators of aiding the lords, profiting from inferior coins, and suppressing complaints, then had them imprisoned.
• Luo Jing showed the officials Liu Heng’s Tiger Tally and ordered them to assemble fifty thousand men, issue weapons, and open the granaries.

Luo Jing had most of the Liu Clan Lords King brought to Luoyang to answer for breaking the law, where they challenged his authority and demanded a trial by the Zongzheng Office. He mocked their rank and invoked his own family’s standing before producing a jade token and seal that left them terrified.

• Luo Jing sent court envoys into the feudal states to arrest Lords King and Thorough Marquises who had broken the law, and most of the Liu Clan rulers surrendered after their ministers urged them not to rebel.
• The Lords King gathered in Luoyang and claimed their imperial lineage and clan laws put their cases beyond Luo Jing’s authority.
• Luo Jing laughed at their threats and rebuked them by comparing his family’s standing with theirs.
• When the Lords King again demanded that the Zongzheng Office try them, Luo Jing produced a fine jade token and a small jade seal, terrifying them.

Luo Jing used the Emperor's Seal to cow the assembled Lords King and put Zhou Yafu in command of a campaign against Chu. Zhou Yafu crushed the Chu Army, and the King of Chu surrendered before Luo Jing prepared to take the captives and powerful gentry back to Chang'an.

• Luo Jing revealed the Emperor's Seal and warned the Lords King that the court could strip them of their titles, then ordered Zhou Yafu to lead the campaign against those who resisted.
• Luo Jing placed the Lords King already in Luoyang under house arrest, and Zhou Yafu marched out with the army while Luo Jing accompanied it with the Dare-to-Fight Warriors.
• The King of Chu met the court's army, but Zhou Yafu waited for the disorganized Chu Army to reveal an opening before attacking.
• Zhou Yafu's troops broke through the Chu Army, and the King of Chu surrendered after the Imperial Guards threatened to kill him.
• Luo Jing took the King of Chu, his crown prince, and other captives away, listed Chu's powerful gentry households, and sent the King of Chu back to Chang'an in a prison cart.

Luo Jing helped Liu Heng suppress the Liu Clan lords, and the court stripped several princes of their states while using the affair to strengthen central authority. The King of Chu killed himself, and the chapter ended by describing the event as a landmark in the Han Dynasty’s rise.

• Liu Heng praised Luo Jing and condemned the Liu Clan lords for exploiting the people and threatening the dynasty from within.
• Liu Heng issued an edict abolishing the King of Chu’s state, dividing its lands, and exiling thirty thousand people, while defending his decision to exile the conspirators rather than execute them.
• Luo Jing visited the Former King of Chu and warned him, in gentle but unsettling terms, to take care lest an accident befall him.
• The Former King of Chu killed himself out of fear of punishment, and the court granted him an unfavorable posthumous name while reducing the number of his family members exiled.
• Liu Heng stripped five lords king and thirteen Thorough Marquises of their states, redistributed their territories, and converted part of them into commanderies and counties.

Luo Jing summoned Shandong’s powerful families to explain the emperor’s plan to settle them near Great Han’s imperial mausoleums. He offered them palace positions and access to official recommendations in exchange for relocating to Guanzhong, and one clan agreed.

• Luo Jing traveled through Handan and summoned powerful families from across the realm to meet him.
• Luo Jing told the King of Zhao and the assembled families that the emperor wanted the mausoleums’ surroundings populated, alarming them with the prospect of forced relocation.
• Luo Jing reassured the families that the emperor was offering them a chance to relocate voluntarily rather than issuing an edict to seize their property and move them.
• Luo Jing offered to select talented sons as gentleman attendants and promised that Shandong families who relocated would receive greater access to the recommendation system.
• A member of the Wang Clan volunteered to relocate to Guanzhong.

After Empress Dowager Zhang Yan warned Liu Heng that Luo Jing was being overworked, Liu Heng summoned him back to Chang'an and appointed him to lead a new academy for training Han officials. He then revealed an extravagant plan to select a wife and potential concubines for Luo Jing from noble families across the realm, leaving Luo Jing astonished.

• Zhang Yan urged Liu Heng to keep Luo Jing in Chang'an rather than repeatedly sending him on exhausting journeys to Shandong, and Liu Heng ordered Luo Jing to return.
• Liu Heng welcomed the weary Luo Jing and told him to stay in Chang'an, then appointed him Libationer of a new academy to train officials for Great Han.
• Liu Heng asked Luo Jing to draft a charter for the academy, drawing on the Luo Clan's experience with its former academy.
• Liu Heng told Luo Jing that Luo Ling had given him permission to choose Luo Jing's wife, and that noble ladies from Chang'an and Shandong had been selected for consideration.
• Liu Heng proposed either choosing a wife and marrying her sisters as concubines or making the selected noble ladies all Luo Jing's concubines, while Luo Jing wondered if the emperor was joking.

Liu Heng arranged for Luo Jing to choose several wives at a grand banquet, using the marriages to bind his political influence and divide the Marquisate of Dong'e among his descendants. The empress proposed that many women combine their strengths to match Luo Jing, leaving the gathered families stunned.

• Luo Jing left the palace and considered the political significance of his marriage, while Liu Heng announced that he would select wives for him.
• Liu Heng explained to the empress that the chosen women would curb Luo Jing's influence and ensure the Marquisate of Dong'e was divided among his children.
• The Empress Dowager, Liu Heng, the empress, and prominent families gathered at Weiyang Palace, where Liu Heng asked Luo Jing to compose a rhapsody.
• Luo Jing composed the “Endless Night Rhapsody,” praising the banquet and its guests, and Liu Heng ordered it preserved for later generations.
• The empress declared that no single woman could match Luo Jing and suggested that many women join together, stunning the families at the banquet.

Jia Yi visited Zhao City to arrange a marriage for the Marquis of Dong'e and request the Luo Clan’s books for Liu Heng’s new academy. Luo Ling agreed to provide copies, intending to use the selection to revive schools of thought he favored, while praising Liu Heng’s willingness to work with the Luo Clan.

• Jia Yi arrived in Zhao City and met Luo Ling, who approved Liu Heng’s chosen concubines for the Marquis of Dong'e and promised betrothal gifts.
• Jia Yi conveyed Liu Heng’s request for the Luo Clan’s collection to support an academy in Chang'an and preserve the classics of the Hundred Schools.
• Luo Ling agreed to let Han attendants copy the books, on condition that the texts remain within All Xia until the time came to civilize the barbarians.
• After Jia Yi left, Luo Ling told Luo Chen that the Luo Clan would choose which books to share and use them to bring favored schools back into prominence.
• Luo Ling praised Liu Heng for trusting the Luo Clan’s resources to help the realm prosper.

Liu Heng doubts whether his achievements are truly his own, but Luo Jing urges him to preserve and strengthen Great Han and establish an academy that will endure. Liu Heng names it the Imperial Academy and appoints Luo Jing its first Libationer; the schools of thought then rush to Chang'an to influence its curriculum.

• Jia Yi returned to Zhao City with gifts and treasures for Duke Zhao's State.
• Liu Heng told Luo Jing that his smooth reign had made him doubt whether he could become a sage sovereign, and Luo Jing reminded him that preserving Great Han's prosperity was itself a great achievement.
• Luo Jing argued that establishing an academy could secure Liu Heng's legacy, and Liu Heng named it the Imperial Academy and appointed Luo Jing its first Libationer.
• Scholars and leaders from the schools of thought flocked to Chang'an after news spread that the court would establish an academy.
• A Meng Clan Confucian elder explained that the school had come to ensure its classics became part of the Imperial Academy's official curriculum.

Luo Jing presided over the Imperial University’s first assembly, where Meng Mingcheng provoked Huang De into an outburst and persuaded Luo Jing to expel him and his students. The gathering ended with Luo Jing saying the university would formally open after the sages’ writings arrived from Zhao City.

• The Imperial University was established with erudite posts for the Thirteen Classics, while the sleeping Ji Zhao received 2,000 Fortune Points without noticing.
• Luo Jing addressed the gathered scholars as Libationer and urged them to set a good example for the university’s disciples.
• Meng Mingcheng accused rival Confucian factions of collaboration with Qin through a parable, prompting Huang De and others to challenge him.
• Meng Mingcheng used Huang De’s angry outburst to argue that he lacked the virtue required of an erudite, and Luo Jing ordered Huang De and all his students expelled.
• Luo Jing announced that the Imperial University would formally open after the writings of the past sages arrived from Zhao City.

Liu Heng considered which schools of thought Great Han should use to govern and summoned Confucian erudites to present their ideas. He embraced one scholar’s argument for unity and a Sage King’s rule, while reassuring other schools that they would still have a place at the Imperial Academy.

• Liu Heng asked Luo Jing what eminent scholars sought, and Luo Jing explained that the schools aimed to establish ideal realms through different methods.
• Luo Jing argued that Great Han should choose a governing doctrine while allowing other schools to survive and contribute through the Imperial Academy.
• Liu Heng issued an edict summoning Confucian erudites to the palace and another assuring scholars of other schools that they still had important uses.
• Liu Heng asked the Confucian erudites what Great Han needed, and an adherent of “Venerate the King” argued that unity and institutional change would bring peace.
• Liu Heng declared himself the Sage King who would usher in peace and welcomed the erudite’s theory as support for his reforms.

In Zhao City, Luo Ling worried that the Han Court’s Confucian reforms could revive an impractical version of the old Luo State and feared what might happen to the clan after his death. In Chang’an, Luo Jing took his advice to heart but, encouraged by his concubines, decided to present his rhapsody praising the flourishing Han realm to the emperor.

• Luo Ling heard that the Han Court had made the Spring and Autumn Classic Official Learning and designated Qi Law and Mengist Confucianism Secondary Learning, and he feared the scholars’ reforms would repeat the Luo State’s past.
• Luo Ling worried that future Luo Clan leaders would not use Divine Artifacts to protect the clan, and he sent Luo Jing a warning to slow the Confucian scholars down and have them work among the common people.
• Luo Jing read Luo Ling’s letter and considered withholding his rhapsody, Heavenly Han, Part Three, because he feared it falsely praised a troubled realm.
• A concubine of Luo Jing argued that the realm was genuinely peaceful and that the rhapsody could encourage the emperor to govern even better, so Luo Jing ordered its transcription completed.
• The next day, Luo Jing carried the bamboo slips into the Imperial Palace and wondered whether the Luo Clan’s efforts to develop paper would succeed.

Liu Heng resolved to survey the realm’s land and address hidden abuses so people everywhere could live securely. The investigation began in Guanzhong, where widespread corruption enraged him and led him to order guilty officials and powerful families exiled to Lingnan.

• Liu Heng read Luo Jing’s rhapsody, reflected on his shortcomings, and said that benevolent governance had to reach displaced people throughout the realm.
• Liu Heng told Luo Jing he would spend five to ten years reassessing land, and an edict announced investigations into illegal land seizures and unpaid taxes.
• Liu Heng began the land survey in Guanzhong, relying on the Han Court’s broad base of small landowners, freemen, scholars, and military merit nobles to support reform.
• Officials uncovered widespread abuses in Guanzhong, and Liu Heng feared that conditions elsewhere might be worse.
• Luo Jing urged Liu Heng to take heart in Guanzhong’s relative prosperity and focus on extending it to Shandong.
• Liu Heng ordered officials, powerful gentry, and nobles who had concealed abuses in Guanzhong exiled to Lingnan, setting the land survey in earnest.

Liu Heng condemned the Powerful Gentry for resisting land reform, but stopped officials from turning the survey into a campaign of confiscation and purges. His order reached Shandong, where the Powerful Gentry calmed down and the investigation resumed through normal procedures.

• Powerful Gentry in Shandong resisted Liu Heng's policies, and some officials in Chang'an secretly encouraged opposition.
• Liu Heng rebuked those who challenged his rule and argued that their extravagance contrasted with the hardships of common people.
• Confucian scholars, Legalist students, and students of Xun Confucianism helped implement the land survey, while officials used Han statutes to ruin local Powerful Gentry and turn the survey into confiscations.
• Liu Heng summoned Luo Jing and Jia Yi and decided that officials must not use legal violations as grounds for purging the Powerful Gentry.
• Liu Heng ordered an envoy to Jiaodong Kingdom to stop the confiscations, and officials in Shandong resumed the land survey through normal procedures.

The Luo Clan achieved a complete breakthrough in papermaking, producing fine white paper that could hold ink. Luo Ling ordered it prepared as tribute for the Son of Heaven, and a delegation left Zhao City for Chang'an with the paper.

• After decades of research, the Luo Clan perfected papermaking and gained recognition from the system for the achievement.
• A master craftsman reported the breakthrough to Luo Ling, who tested the paper with brush and ink and wrote “The Luo Clan of All Xia” on it.
• Luo Ling declared that the Sage King was with them and ordered the paper sent to the Son of Heaven as tribute under the name “Luo Paper.”
• Luo Jiu told the craftsman to keep improving the paper and planned workshops to produce and sell it throughout the realm.
• The Luo Clan prepared a higher-quality batch of paper, and its delegation of several hundred people departed Zhao City for Chang'an.

Luo Ban brought the Luo Clan’s newly developed paper to Chang’an as a tribute, and Liu Heng recognized its potential to transform writing across Great Han. As the grand ceremony approached, the capital tightened security and Liu Heng continued receiving reports from the realm’s vassals.

• Duke Zhao’s State arrived in Chang’an with a delegation of over a thousand people, including five hundred Dare-to-Fight Warriors, drawing attention to the Luo Clan’s unusual show of force.
• Liu Heng asked Luo Ban why the delegation was larger than before, and Luo Ban explained that the men were protecting a precious gift for the Son of Heaven.
• Luo Ban presented the Luo Clan’s smooth white paper, and Liu Heng tested it with a brush before praising its promise for Great Han’s culture and letters.
• Liu Heng proposed that Luo Jing write a literary composition on the paper for the grand ceremony, and Luo Jing agreed to help display the new material.
• Luo Jing suggested copying and distributing his writings once paper became available, and Liu Heng offered palace attendants to assist.
• As the grand ceremony neared, Chang’an enforced stricter order, and Liu Heng received reports from other vassals, including Zhao Nan of Lingnan.