Numerous aspects of the biography of Empress Deng Sui (later Dowager Empress) should compel the attention of modern scholars, especially those with an interest in feminist studies, law, omen reading, and cosmology. Deng Sui is one of the few women who effectively ruled with full powers, for nearly sixteen years, from February 106 ce,Footnote 1 as soon as her husband Hedi (r. 88–106) died, if not before, until very shortly before her own death in 121.Footnote 2 Twice Deng Sui determined the legitimate successor to the throne, and both times she chose the youngest likely candidate from the group of possible candidates, presumably to retain power for as long as circumstances allowed.Footnote 3 Even then her second choice, the future Andi, who when established on the throne was aged thirteen sui or twelve years by Western reckoning, had to wait fully fifteen years, until he was twenty-seven years old, before he was allowed to pronounce policy on his own.Footnote 4 Like Dowager Empress Lü 呂, with whom she has been implicitly and explicitly compared from the start,Footnote 5 Deng Sui was a thoroughly capable ruler, whose edicts evinced genuine concern for the common people. Unlike Dowager Empress Lü, Deng Sui displayed a willingness to check the aspirations of the male members of her own natal family, to adjudicate legal cases and issue amnesties, while bestowing unusual honors and benefactions upon to her closest female friends, her mother (posthumously), and a eunuch, in addition to one or two Liu-clan supporters.Footnote 6
The patterns she exhibited during her tenure are often viewed in light of the gender norms in a supposedly “Confucian” or “Confucianizing” Eastern Han. In fact, presumptions about what constituted a Han “Confucian” position on any given political issue are often mistaken, a reflection of late imperial Neo-Confucian precepts rather than Han-era norms.Footnote 7 This article suggests that the empress perfectly epitomizes female success in her era: strong women showed no marked deference to those who were inferior in power but generally avoided direct confrontations with their superiors by one of the many interlocking yet cross-cutting hierarchies in place under the two Han dynasties.Footnote 8 (Indeed, this norm was equally true of successful elite males in Han times, which helps to explain why powerful ministers frequently adopted feminine poses, as Paul Rouzer has shown, and why the ideal ruler is both “father and mother” to his people, as many texts insist.)Footnote 9
The principal subject addressed in this essay is what Deng Sui’s reception history reveals about yin/yang cosmology (today automatically converted to male/female and nei/wai),Footnote 10 and legitimate governing, as even some of the best authors writing on feminism and cosmology have ignored Deng Sui, to their loss, preferring to discuss the much better known figure of Ban Zhao 班昭 (ca. 45 to ca. 120), who was Sui’s closest advisor on a host of policy matters, including classical learning and foreign policy.Footnote 11 Still, Deng Sui’s reign saw a range of spectacular reforms and innovations, including the establishment of what was effectively the first capital institution to acculturate to classical learning seventy children (female, as well as male) from the imperial and waiqi families (a virtual guozi jian 國子監); the invention of paper in 105 by Cai Lun 蔡倫, under her direction; and an attempt at court to fix authoritative versions of the Classics, led by a member of the imperial family, echoing an earlier attempt under Han Chengdi (r. 33–7 bce).Footnote 12
The first section of this essay sets the stage for her reign. It draws mainly from her Hou Han shu biography, ascribed to Fan Ye 范曄 (338–445), which is plainly based on earlier Hou Han shu, especially that by Xie Cheng 謝承 (182–254).Footnote 13 The second section examines a second source, the omen treatise ascribed to Sima Biao 司馬彪 (d. before 306), to assess the omens that were reported for her tenure in office, to see what those may reveal about her success as ruler and “regent,” about the gender norms of the time, and about the proper vs. improper relations between the imperial and consort clans. The final section revisits the Hou Han shu, the omen treatise, and other relevant sources to examine Deng Sui’s actions as sovereign head of the judicial branch in the Eastern Han administration, insofar as her role in this capacity substantially contributed to her posthumous reputation as legitimate ruler. As the picture these sources present is complex, rather than overtly moralizing or rooted in crude gender stereotypes, it seems wise to treat these early sources as supplying pieces of a mosaic that eventually yields a more or less coherent portrait of a much admired figure. The conclusion argues against adopting the simplistic assumptions about gender roles that still dominate academic studies.Footnote 14 Appendix I then supplies in slightly truncated form a preliminary translation of her Hou Han shu biography, which has never been translated before, so that readers may assess the extant evidence for themselves. As readers will soon discover, her biography largely consists of her responses to frequent natural disasters, responses that require her to “balance” yin/yang by suitably adjusting rewards and punishments. Appendix II supplies a translation of two edicts ascribed to her that were discovered in the excavated Wuyi guangchang 五一廣場 cache (present-day Changsha, PRC).Footnote 15 Those edicts show that no particular rhetorical flourishes indicate that a woman has issued them, rather than a man.
Preliminaries
Mine is a complicated tale about rhetoric, as much as about reality, in the full knowledge that gender constructions—one important feature of the antique rhetoric—invariably both reflect and shape realities on the ground. Equally, mine is a complicated tale about history-writing during the early period, for two reasons: the evidence from both received and excavated sources crosses modern genre-boundaries, for the same members of the governing elite wrote poems, essays, and eulogistic histories, and some of the principal evidence appears to date to different centuries, although it may not.Footnote 16 This section therefore seeks to “clear away the underbrush,”Footnote 17 suggesting how poorly adherence to today’s “common wisdom” serves us when examining antiquity, so that readers may bring fresh eyes to this counter-narrative.
To appreciate the subtleties of Deng Sui’s story, this section must register two points, before turning to the extant evidence bearing witness to the early views regarding the reign of Empress (later Dowager) Deng Sui: First, based on present evidence, it appears to be the case that the received Hou Han shu biography repeats lengthy passages from earlier histories, which means that the apparent substantial gap in time between Sima Biao’s Xu Han shu 續漢書 treatises and Fan Ye’s Hou Han shu compilation collapses, if in unpredictable ways. Additionally, the conditions of early manuscript culture were such that authorship de novo was not a prime desideratum for historians during the centuries under review here.Footnote 18 Indeed, those in the governing elite who were heavily invested in “high cultural literacy” tell us that they expected to produce and to read manuscripts that wove together elegant phrases and classical allusions (zhu wen 屬文 or zhui wen 綴文) in compositions interlacing pre-existing units via complex prosodic and semantic rules, only some of which are understood today. Thus, we can never presume that Fan Ye did not borrow from earlier historians or that today’s Hou Han shu transmits Sima Biao’s treatises verbatim. Of course, that manuscripts from the pre-printing era often represent artful pastiches of previous works does not preclude later compilers from recasting the passages they adopted to different ends or new styles.Footnote 19
Given the paucity of passages drawn from earlier compilations styled as histories of Eastern Han that are still extant, we can only speak to the opening lines of Deng Sui’s biography.Footnote 20 There her mother chides Sui for her love of classical learning, believing that her child had better attend to her needlework and domestic affairs, if she is to attract a suitable husband of comparably high standing.Footnote 21 (From the start, the prominence of the Deng family can be taken for granted, since one of Sui’s forebears married Liu Yuan 劉元, elder sister of Guangwudi, the Eastern Han founder, r. 25–57.)Footnote 22 And while her Hou Han shu biography provides additional information about Sui’s siblings, once Sima Biao launches into the story of Sui’s own childhood, he provides essentially the same story in nearly identical language as Fan Ye. On her early love of learning (starting at seven sui, rather than at six, says Sima Biao), both texts deploy nearly identical language to show that Sui easily bested her brothers in both her dedication and smarts. Regarding her mother’s upbraiding, the two histories likewise deploy the same set phrases, followed by the same caustic question, “Are you planning to be elevated to the position of court Academician?,”Footnote 23 i.e., a court-sponsored expert in classical learning. When describing Sui’s dutiful response that she will learn her domestic duties during the day and read her beloved classics by candlelight, Sima Biao expands a bit more on the scene, yes, but once again the order of sentences and the vocabulary employed is strikingly similar, and the reports of her clans’ nickname for her (“the would-be scholar”) and of her father’s quiet approbation coincide. It seems such rhetoric was fairly standard by the time of compilation of the post-Han histories, if not earlier.
Second, as readers will discover, the portrait of Deng Sui assembled here from disparate sources builds upon earlier insights, but also departs from the few secondary works that have treated her reign substantially (in English, chiefly de Crespigny and McMahon).Footnote 24 Those two authors principally focus on what they take to be the court realitiesFootnote 25 and “Confucian principles” or normsFootnote 26 in contrast to this essay, which takes more seriously and even cross-reads such heavily rhetoricized constructions as appear in post-facto omen reports.Footnote 27
One example should give moderns pause when they feel the impulse to slap the label “Confucian” on Deng Sui’s actions. In 116, Deng Sui decided to extend the time allotted for mourning for the “great officials” to three years (actually twenty-seven months, or into the third year).Footnote 28 Immediately, moderns schooled in the Classics think of Mencius, Books 3A–B, urging three year’s mourning upon Lord Wen of Teng 滕文公 (r. 324–316 bce), or a Documents’ tradition encouraging the new ruler to remain silent for three years.Footnote 29 However, at least two chapters in the Guoyu 國語 (Advice to the States) urge those newly risen to power to abstain for three years from policymaking (san nian shi qi zheng 三年釋其政), and the Guoyu is hardly a Confucian text.Footnote 30 Moreover, the memorial urging Deng to adopt this policy frames it as an expansion of a precedent set during Xuandi’s 宣帝 reign (r. 74–49 bce), but Xuandi as emperor was famously critical of the influence the Ru 儒 exerted at court.Footnote 31 Nor is it likely that the Xiaojing 孝經 citation adduced in support of the measure is originally “Confucian,” given its time of compilation.Footnote 32 Against this measure other impeccable precedents were weighed, especially those set by two emperors promoting the principle of “frugal burials,” especially in times of crisis.Footnote 33 While Deng Sui had recent trends on her side, with several court conferences enjoining three years’ mourning for high officials,Footnote 34 her decision was no doubt tied to her steady determination to reduce expenses, in part by rotating officials, as officials not on active service need not be paid their full stipends.
For the convenience of readers, below is given a bare-bones chronology for the major events in Deng Sui’s period in power, mainly drawn from Fan Ye’s Hou Han shu.
92, Deng is considered for selection as palace lady, but her father, Deng Xun, dies, giving ample cause to postpone her entry into the palace.
95, Deng Sui enters the palace; a year later, when she is sixteen sui, she is raised to the post of “Honored Lady” (guiren 貴人).
102, summer, the reigning Empress Yin 陰 is tried and deposed for wugu (black magic), ending the persecution of her chief rival for Hedi’s affections, Deng Sui.
102, winter solstice or shortly thereafter,Footnote 35 Deng Sui is installed as empress at Hedi’s court.
105, Hedi dies; Deng Sui names a successor who is roughly 100 days old, but he soon dies.
106, Hedi is buried in his mausoleum town; several palace ladies sent out from the palace to the mausoleum town are given lavish gifts, comparable to those of kings. She pardons palace ladies charged with conspiring against her; she also pardons members of the Ma 馬 and Dou 竇 families who had been proscribed from office-holding. (The Mas and Dous had been rivals to the Dengs in several earlier power struggles, and this measure seeks to reduce inter-clan violence.) She greatly reduces palace expenditures. She also releases the old and infirm ladies lodged in other mausoleum towns, so that they can return to their families.
106 (late September), the future Andi, Liu You 劉祐 [or Hu 祜] is installed as new emperor. She then rewards her mother, Lady Yin 陰, Ruler of Xinye 新野君, with additional honors.
107, a drought occurs in the capital environs; Deng Sui releases prisoners from the local jails; she also extends the period for death penalty appeals.
109, early in the year, the future Andi is capped. In autumn, Deng Sui feels discomfort. Believing that the yin and yang are not in balance, she further reduces palace entertainments and cuts down on exotic animals in the palace. Soon, in response, the harvests return “as before.” She then undertakes one new major venture: she orders the palace holdings to be organized and collated by a Liu-clan member.
110, Lady Yin, Deng Sui’s mother dies. Deng Sui responds by (a) giving her relatives additional grants to offset the funeral expenses; (b) issuing no edicts during the mourning period; and (c) visiting the Luoyang prisons, where, after careful review of the court cases, she pardons some thirty-six of the prisoners charged with committing capital crimes, and an additional eighty-one charged with lesser crimes. This last initiative is taken in response to a prolonged drought in the capital, normally ascribed to excessive yang. There follow some ten years of floods and droughts.
ca. 110, Deng Sui establishes a capital school for noble girls and boys.
112–118, Han imperial forces gradually defeat the Qiang rebels, after several setbacks
118, a history of her reign is commissioned, after Andi agrees to this.
121, Deng Sui becomes ill enough to be unable to manage an audience without being carried to court by sedan chair. Soon afterwards, she dies.
Equipped with the foregoing chronology, readers may now turn to Deng Sui in her dual roles as omen creator and respondent, which supplements our picture of her as female ruler. Before doing that, however, readers may wish to know three facts: in Eastern Han, Andi (and so Deng Sui) issued nearly twice as many edicts responding to natural disasters as other emperors.Footnote 36 At the same time, long before Deng Sui’s reign, there were entirely standard ways for rulers to be seen to respond to omens, and Sui’s responses conform to those patterns.Footnote 37 Finally, Deng Sui herself issued many more edicts than other dowager empresses of Eastern Han; she was no retiring figure.Footnote 38
Reading Omens and Assessments
Of late, much scholarly work has been devoted to various “Wuxing zhi” 五行志 (Wuxing treatises), which appear first in the Ban family’s Han shu, and thereafter in nearly every standard history after Han shu, despite Liu Zhiji’s 劉知幾 (661–721 ce) fierce objections to the inclusion of this sort of material in the standard histories.Footnote 39 Predictably, however, the recent work has not focused on Deng Sui as a woman on the throne responding to omens and omen theorists or as a woman who is regarded as the potential source of cosmic dislocations. Before proceeding, readers must register the point that male emperors—even exemplary male emperors—are frequently portrayed as the source of serious cosmic dislocations.Footnote 40 Under certain Han emperors,Footnote 41 the number of omens reported could rise to very high levels, as Bielenstein noted decades ago, and the reports do not always accurately reflect natural disasters or eclipses, as we know. What patterns, if any, do we discern in the omens reported for Deng Sui, inside or outside of her Hou Han shu biography?
The omen treatise reports a total of nine solar eclipses for the span of time that Deng Sui was in power, while Andi was nominally on the throne. This total number, as it happens, is smaller than the number recorded for the Eastern Han founder, a celebrated male; additionally, the fact that Deng Sui was given warnings via solar eclipses seems to acknowledge that she is the real ruler, not Andi. Certain patterns are evident in these reports, usually reserved for male occupants of the throne. For example, the frequency of the solar eclipses increases over time: the longer Deng Sui refuses to cede power to Andi, the greater the number of solar eclipses within a given reign period; by the end of her regency, these eclipses are happening at the incredible rate of once per year. Unquestionably, these reports criticize Deng Sui for manipulating the succession after her husband’s death, as one record baldly states: “at this time the dowager empress Deng monopolized policymaking” (是時鄧太后專政).Footnote 42 But not all the reports of solar eclipses target Sui for wrongdoing. For example, one solar eclipse is traced to the young Andi’s infatuation with Lady Yan 閻, with an explicit reading attached that neither Lady Yan nor Andi are to be trusted with determining the line of succession.Footnote 43 That the omen treatise draws attention to the fact that two of the nine solar eclipses were not seen at court seems worth considering as well.Footnote 44 And curiously, it is not always easy to tell from the omen accounts whether the bad omen targets Deng Sui’s actions or those who plotted against her, in hopes of either putting Andi (her appointee) in power or replacing him with a better candidate for the throne. Then, too, a bad omen seems to presage her eventual death, giving her implicit credit for a good and just reign.Footnote 45
An interesting entry on a solar eclipse provides more detail than most,Footnote 46 in describing Deng Sui in these terms:
十五年四月甲子晦，日有蝕之，在東井二十二度。東井，主酒食之宿也。婦人之職，無非無儀/議，酒食是議。去年冬，鄧皇后立，有丈夫之性, 與知外事，故天示象。是年水，雨傷稼。
In the fifteenth year [of Hedi’s reign], on the last day of the fourth month, a jiazi day, it grew dark. There was a solar eclipse in the twenty-second degree of the East Well, the lunar lodge in charge of wine and food. [As the Mao ode 189 says,]
These are the tasks of wives,
Without error, without undue ceremony,Footnote 47
The provision of wine and food—that is their concern.Footnote 48
In the winter of the previous year [on November 21, 102 ce], the Empress Deng was installed. She has the innate disposition of an able-bodied male,Footnote 49 plus a knowledge of affairs outside the domestic sphere. Therefore, Heaven shows this sign. This year there were floods, and rains damaged the crops.Footnote 50
Note that the ode itself celebrates the “auspiciousness of daughters” (nüzhi zhi xiang 女子之祥), as well as of sons, both of whom maintain the family line, if their comportment is correct. That Deng Sui did attend well to these wifely affairs is amply proven, for, on the advice of trusted members of the court, in response to bad omens she sought to reduce the palace expenses on multiple occasions, first in 106, then in 107, 109, and 113, and then in her final year.Footnote 51 In some of these policy changes, she was plainly inspired by the “Monthly Ordinances” or Yueling 月令 (early versions of a farmer’s almanac), a work whose impact we moderns have yet to fully appreciate.Footnote 52 To understand these economies, we must also look to the proximate situation in those years to discover why Deng Sui thought it prudent for the palace to set an example of greater frugality. In 113, for example, she was probably thinking of the enormous expenses the border defense entailed, in both men and materiel, to which famine in the north was added.Footnote 53 As de Crespigny notes, “In 113, there was another forced transfer of grain from the commanderies south of the Yangzi to afflicted territories in the north, while grain was also requisitioned …. to replenish the Ao Granary [near Chang’an].”Footnote 54 As her subjects were short of supplies, the imperial court lived on the coarsest of foods, and eschewed every sort of luxury.Footnote 55 Only two years later, in 115, “the vulgar Ru” pressed her (and through her attacked her brothers) to “elevate the civil above the martial” by doing away with the imperial hunting rituals altogether,Footnote 56 a proposal that elicited vigorous objections by the classical master Ma Rong, pupil of Ban Zhao, who was then working in the palace. In a hymn, Ma Rong contended that a recent good harvest should signal to the dowager that the time had come to see that the farmers were training for war.Footnote 57 Proceeding with the customary palace hunting rituals would likely encourage them in this. More generally, Deng Sui’s decision to devote the throne’s benefices to disadvantaged groups conformed with precedents set during her time in the back palace, in the prior reigns of Zhangdi (r. 75–88) and Hedi, especially as concerned the care of the aged.Footnote 58
Plainly, there is more at work here in these debates than conventional pieties, and we witness through them Deng Sui’s refusal to retreat entirely from the Han territories in the far north, despite the significant loss of life in the early years of her regency, especially in the years 107–112; that Deng held firm, when her courtiers were urging her to cease and desist, demonstrates her considerable strength of character. But thereafter, during her later years, no military exercises took place under her. Relevant here may be the age-old problem confronted by waiqi families: how to show to others, their rulers and their peers, that their extraordinary privileges were duly merited? To mitigate this mismatch between sociopolitical status and achievement, many waiqi senior males begged to be appointed to lead frontier armies, so that success on the battlefield might demonstrate their worth, but Deng Sui’s elder brother, Deng Zhi 鄧騭/陟 had made a right royal mess of his commission in the northwest. As supreme commander with rank equivalent to the Three Lords (san gong 三公), Deng Zhi had led several armies against the rebel Qiang, but each campaign failed to quell them. While Zhi was “promoted” to be General-in-Chief in 108 (“bumped upstairs,” if you will), he was never again put in charge of a military campaign.
In addition to the nine solar eclipses, a total of nine other bad omens are recorded for Deng Sui’s tenure. These were typically floods (signifying an over-abundance of yin) and droughts, but any type of crop failure counted, really, insofar as tradition assigned women the role of supervising the provisioning of food for the living and the dead.Footnote 59 In Sima Biao’s Xu Han zhi, seven omens altogether explicitly mention Deng Sui’s regency, but one of those omens records the death of Shangdi 殤帝 (r. 106 only), through no fault of her own. Four times an omen is connected with the phrase “At this time, Dowager Empress Deng held the reins of government as regent” (是時鄧太后攝政).Footnote 60 Twice the phrase is “Dowager Empress Deng monopolized policymaking” (鄧太后專政).Footnote 61 Once Deng Sui is charged with “using yin to monopolize power over yang” (以陰專陽).Footnote 62 Strangely, however, several of the omens seem to have partly exculpated her, either by hinting that she was a much better waiqi member than some others or by showing that she exercised much better judgment than Andi, her chosen successor.
Can the omens reported within her biography, in the omen treatise, and elsewhere in the Hou Han shu be regarded as simple pronouncements on her gender, then? For the readers’ perusal, I cite what I take to be the four worst omens reported of her, since the omens are serious, as these things were judged, and all are ascribed to Deng Sui personally.
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1. Hou Han shu zhi 16.3328 (“Wuxing” 4), dated to the first year of Andi’s reign, 107 ce
安帝永初元年，郡國十八地震。李固曰。「地者陰也，法當安靜。今乃越陰之職，專陽之政，故應以震動。」是時鄧太后攝政專事。訖建光中 (121),太后崩，安帝乃得制政。於是陰類並勝，西羌亂夏，連十餘年。
In the first year of Andi’s reign (in 107), an earthquake occurred in eighteen commanderies and kingdoms. Li Gu said, “The earth is yin. The model ought to be peaceful and still. Now, we have transgressive yin that has monopolized yang [or focused on a yang-style of governing]. Ergo, the response has been an earthquake. At that time, the Dowager Empress Deng held the reins of government as regent and she monopolized affairs of state. During the Jianguang period, in 121, the Dowager Empress died, and Andi only then was able to get hold of the reins of governing. Thereupon, those in the yin category were repeatedly overcome, and specifically the Western Qiang, who had thrown the Xia [i.e., the court-allied lands] into chaos, for several decades.”Footnote 63
The backstory: Li Gu (b. 94) was but a teenager when this omen occurred, so Li Gu’s comment cannot directly bear upon this particular omen. Li Gu is chiefly famous for his forthright opposition to Liang Ji 梁冀 (d. 159), head of another waiqi clan, decades after Deng Sui’s death.Footnote 64 Informed readers of omens would understand that here an omen that occurred during Deng Sui’s regency is being judged and utilized after another earthquake, in 133, provided the occasion for Li to wrest a few reforms from the court, making him a formidable opponent of Liang Ji. Most importantly, perhaps, Li Gu managed to persuade Shundi to send away his wet-nurse, Song E 宋娥 (which recalls Andi’s failure to do so, with his wet-nurse Wang Sheng 王聖).Footnote 65 Possibly, then, informed readers would only have contrasted the corruption of Liang Ji with the earnest endeavors of Deng Sui. And certainly, they would have laid the blame for the Qiang incursions on Andi, as is clear from entry no. 3 translated below.
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2. Hou Han shu zhi 18.3363 (“Wuxing” 6), dated to the first year of Andi’s first reign period, 107 ce
安帝永初元年三月二日癸酉，日有蝕之，在胃二度。胃主廩倉。是時鄧太后專政。去年大水傷稼，倉廩為虛。
In the first year of Andi’s reign, on the third month, second day, guiyou day, there was a solar eclipse, in the second degree of the lunar lodge Stomach. The Stomach is in charge of granaries. At this time, the Dowager Empress Deng monopolized policymaking. The year before, a great flood harmed the crops, and the granaries were empty.
This omen would have recalled to early readers Deng Sui’s swift response to the disaster: enforcing strict economies on the court, by repeated measures over successive years. In the philosophical masterworks that have come down to us, it is not the fact of bad omens, but the rapid response to addressing problems that hegemons and kings are lauded for, proverbially. The idea is, “Should a polity be visited by baleful portents, [the inauspicious] cannot overcome good governing” (國有妖祥，不勝善政).Footnote 66
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3. Hou Han shu zhi 16.3335 (“Wuxing” 4), dated to the first year of Andi’s first reign period, 107 ce
安帝永初元年，大風拔樹。是時鄧太后攝政，以清河王子年少，號精耳, 故立之，是為安帝。不立皇太子勝，以為安帝賢，必當德鄧氏也。後安帝親讒，廢免鄧氏，令郡縣迫切，死者八九人，家至破壞。此為瞉霿也，是後西羌亦大亂涼州十有餘年。
In the first year of Andi’s reign [107], a great wind uprooted trees. At this time, the Dowager Empress Deng held the reins of government as regent. The son of the King of Qinghe was young in age, but he had a reputation as a clever boy. Therefore, she established him on the throne; this was Andi. She did not raise the imperial heir Sheng [eldest son of Hedi], as she thought Andi the worthier, a perfect match for the character of the Deng clan. Later Andi grew close to slanderers and he dismissed and demoted the members of the Deng clan, allowing the commandery and county officials to oppress them cruelly, so that eight or nine died, and the family fortunes were ruined. This was an instance of petty meanness.Footnote 67 After this, the Western Qiang laid waste to Liang province for more than ten years.
This entry refers, of course, to the second time Deng Sui put a Liu-clan scion on the throne, the first being the three-month old Liu Long 隆 (105–106), born of an unknown concubine to Hedi, whose elder brother Liu Sheng 勝 was passed over, on the grounds that he was suffering from an incurable illness. (By custom, the infirm were not to serve in the imperial ancestral temple. Liu Sheng was awarded the title King of Pingyuan instead.) When Liu Long died in less than a year, Liu Sheng was again passed over, and the son of the King of Qinghe 清河王 was named instead. Here, Deng Sui commits an error of judgment, although an easily understandable one, given Andi’s appearance of cleverness and the chronic illness of Liu Sheng. However, the worst critique levelled by the omen seems to indict Andi for his vindictiveness against the Deng family, whose males were largely innocent of any wrongdoing and whom Deng Sui had tried to protect by sending them away from court. That this is the best explanation of this entry is suggested by an omen recorded of Andi once he took power, where he is charged with the deaths of many innocent people.Footnote 68 When Sui was confronted with no good options in the all-important selection matter, her error had serious consequences, but the ill-intentioned wrongdoing was done by her vindictive successor, encouraged by his empress and her clan; by Han law, after all, the actor’s intention was one of the most important factors to consider in judging the severity of the crime.Footnote 69 (As we will see, Sui’s Hou Han shu biography credits her with almost divine-like perspicacity in other matters, especially in legal cases.)Footnote 70
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4. Hou Han shu zhi 18.3363 (“Wu xing” 6), dated to the fifth year of Andi’s first reign period, 111 ce
五年正月庚辰朔，日有蝕之，在虛八度。正月，王者統事之正日也。虛, 空名也。是時鄧太后攝政，安帝不得行事。俱不得其正，若王者位虛，故於正月陽不克，示象也。於是陰預乘陽，故夷狄並為寇害，西邊諸郡皆至虛空。
In the fifth year, first month, on the gengchen day, which was the first day of the lunar month, there was a solar eclipse, in the eighth degree of the Barrens lunar lodge. The first “properly aligned” month marks the “proper” days when the true king manages affairs. Xu is one name for “emptiness.” At this time, the Dowager Empress Deng held the reins of government as regent. Andi was not allowed to carry out the affairs of governing. Neither person was “properly aligned.” It was as if the true king had been established in a barrens, i.e., in a false position or exiled. Thus, in the first lunar month, the yang was not able to dominate [yin], and so it showed this sign. At this, yin was fully prepared to ride on yang. Therefore, the Yidi [barbarians] together rose to invade and do harm. All the commanderies at the western frontiers were brought to the state where they were emptied out [i.e., depleted of subjects loyal to Han].
Once again, Deng Sui’s regency is tied to incursions by the nomadic and semi-nomadic groups living on the frontiers, who did indeed strike deep into Han territory during part of her rule. The association is clear: as a woman she is yin and so are the barbarians, and both are making significant incursions into the heartlands. Plainly, the dowager empress is blamed for “being fully prepared to ride on yang,” in a manner analogous to the invading forces. The backstory is this: the chieftain Dianlian 滇零 had led the members of his own Qiang group, plus other groups, against the Han in 107, making incursions deep into Hanzhong and cutting off the Long Road that the Han armies traveled from the Wei River valley to defend the northwest. At this juncture, Deng Sui sent her elder brother Deng Zhi to defeat them, with Ren Shang 任尚 (d. 118) a colonel by his side. When neither commander made headway, Deng Zhi was recalled to the capital and Ren Shang was left to hold the line against the invading forces. Ren Shang was forced to retreat to Chang’an in 110, but he was sent back out to the front lines in 111. By 112, Ren Shang had given up on frontal attacks, and was relying on mobile cavalry forces acting as guerrillas. By 117, the rebellion was effectively ended.Footnote 71 So while it is true that the nomadic and semi-nomadic troops joined forces, “together” invading the lands claimed by Han, it is a gross exaggeration to claim that the resources of “all the commanderies at the western frontiers” were drained to this extent.
To this picture, we must factor in the opposition to Deng Sui’s decision to forego the Great Exorcism as an example. It had long been the custom at year’s end to hold a banquet and dispatch the palace guards, to hold a Great Exorcism to expel the epidemic demons, who were likened to barbarian invaders.Footnote 72 The dowager empress believed that the yin and yang were not in balance, and the troops had mutinied several times. She summoned people to the banquet, but did not commission the customary entertainments and musical performances. She reduced the young boys involved in the expelling-epidemics performance by half. She got rid of such exotic animals as elephants and camels, along with their keepers. “In fact, good harvests returned as before”Footnote 73 in response, and that phrase is laden with significance, for by the Han theories, all good rulers receive bad omens, thanks to Heaven’s grace, so that they can be alerted to their failings, make the required course-corrections, and thereby secure more favorable signs (chiefly abundant harvests but also healing of all sorts in the body politic). Thus, by the cosmological logic of the day, the mettle of a ruler was best gauged not by the frequency of omens but by the speed with which the powerful admitted their errors and reformed their own conduct in the public and domestic spheres.Footnote 74
Finally, the death of Deng Sui induced no fewer than three omens, which apparently unsettled the empire.Footnote 75 Notably, too, her death was marked by an eclipse of the sun, not the moon, indicating her status as a true ruler. We can appreciate why the empire bemoaned her loss, when we more closely attend to the social correctives that characterized her reign. Apparently, the gods granted her good fortune, due to her timely responses to ill omens.
Deng Sui as Judge
One of the most important functions of the Han emperors was to serve as final arbiter in criminal and administrative cases.Footnote 76 By the classics and masterworks, especially the Documents and Xunzi, how rulers administered justice virtually defined how legitimate those rulers were.Footnote 77 It was incumbent upon any legitimate ruler to develop three capacities: the capacity to judge individual cases fairly, even when angered by forthright remonstrances; the capacity to change policy course in flexible response to crises;Footnote 78 and the seemingly contradictory capacity to “stay the course,” when prudence demanded this. In crediting her with all three capacities said to define the “great man,”Footnote 79 Deng Sui’s biography, alongside other relevant sources, generally commends her actions implicitly and explicitly. We learn, for example, that Deng Sui “stayed the course” in the early years of her reign, when news of defeats at the northwestern frontier came in rapid succession; her father doubtless discussed his exploits and those of her grandfather with her when she was but a child, as he deemed her more capable than her feckless brothers.
What intrigues is the prominence Deng Sui’s biography gives to her role as judge, as life-giver (when she issued amnesties and mandated gift conferrals on the populace) and as death-dealer (when she sentenced a few to harsh punishments), with these dual roles epitomizing in the social world the interdependence of ritual and law and, in the cosmic sphere, yin and yang qi. These were, of course, the two faces to be worn by any legitimate ruler, who must shepherd and guide his subjects, as “[stern] father and [compassionate] mother.”Footnote 80 By early Western Han times, if not before, a neat way was found to reconcile these two antithetical aspects of good rule: by yin-yang theories, in the spring and summer months the throne would emphasize life-giving activities, but in autumn and winter the same power would dole out such mutilations and death as needed to maintain societal order.Footnote 81 Only the timely alternation between roles could maintain the appropriate interplay between yin and yang qi, which, in turn, would prompt timely rains and good harvests for the realm. Jia Yi 賈誼 (201–169 bce) and Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (179?–104 bce) were but two of the court thinkers to elaborate these notions, which situated yin/yang theories, the “Monthly Ordinances” (like our farmers’ almanacs), and ritual timing at the very heart of classical learning.Footnote 82 The stated goal of imperial judgments was to reduce to a minimum “hatred” (hen 恨), “resentment” (yuan 怨), and “grievances” (yuan 冤), to thereby secure the staunch allegiance of the grateful populace.Footnote 83
Now to set up the proper relations between ruler and subject … so that the frameworks have order and all six relations live in peace and harmony is not something Heaven does [ci fei Tian zhi suo wei 此非天之所為]; rather it is set up by human beings [ren zhi suo she ye 人之所設也].Footnote 84
Understandably, then, specific decisions rendered by emperors and their courts while adjudicating legal cases dominate the histories and masterworks of the early empires in China.Footnote 85 And emperors were thought to merit particularly high praise when they mandated (as did the Eastern Han Emperor Zhang) that ritual practices and legal norms be strictly observed, lest the desirable balance between yin and yang qi be disturbed.Footnote 86
It is in this historical context that historians must place Deng Sui’s actions, if they hope to do her justice. Her husband Hedi had earned an unsavory reputation for his reckless slaughter of the Dous and their allies, regardless of their true guilt or innocence.Footnote 87 By contrast, one of Deng Sui’s first official acts was to pay a personal visit to the Luoyang prisons, to see if there were cases to be overturned, in the name of restoring justice. Here is the entry:
In summer of the second year [107], there was a drought in the capital. Deng Sui personally visited the Luoyang bureau …, where there were prisoners who in truth had killed no one, but under questioning had implicated themselves by lying. The mounting distress was palpable, but so frightened were the functionaries that they did not dare to say anything. As she was on the point of leaving, one of them raised his head as if he wanted to impeach himself. The dowager empress, discerning his meaning, then questioned him about the dossiers. All had been prepared falsely, so she put the Luoyang Prefect himself in prison, charging him with crimes. Before she had even returned to the palace, abundant rain fell as a result.Footnote 88
The cosmic response to her restoration of legal order is sign enough that she handled this affair brilliantly. Deng Sui went on to carefully adjudicate many cases: “she took great trouble lest she make a mistake; she was petrified to go against the body of precedents in writing.”Footnote 89 But perhaps it was during mourning for her mother that she most exemplified the compassionate ruler in legal matters:
The dowager empress issued no formal edicts during the entire mourning period, but then there followed a protracted drought. The dowager empress for three days visited Luoyang, where she reviewed the records of prisoners, freeing thirty-six who had been judged to have committed capital crimes and eighty others who deserved the punishment of shaving (nai 耐). The rest had their sentences reduced to penalties ranging from lopping off the right foot to serving as guards for the convict labor details.Footnote 90
The context and rationale for these actions is clear: Like earlier exemplary rulers from time immemorial, she maintained silence during the mourning period, relying on her chief ministers to proclaim policy, in the precise manner that the Documents classic urged.Footnote 91 Like Emperor Zhang before her, she believed that the throne’s civilizing model was best promoted by shows of empathy and generosity.Footnote 92 Her biography suggests that she adopted Zhangdi’s own determination to “relax punishments,” in a play on her own name of Sui 綏.Footnote 93 “Everywhere she promulgated teachings that relied upon tolerance and generosity.” In company with her advisers Ban Gu 班固 and Ban Zhao, the dowager empress was sure that one should err on the side of mercy, in all cases where that was possible. In Ban Gu’s two treatises on rites and music and on penal law, the injunction to give the accused the benefit of the doubt is unmistakable: humaneness and ritual (ren 仁 and li 禮) must always take precedence over a strict sense of duty (yi 義),Footnote 94 for “the true king’s relation to his realm … is that if even a single person does not get a fair trial, it makes for a sorrowful heart.”Footnote 95
To put Deng’s actions in their proper mid-Eastern Han context, with the wars of transition to Eastern Han over, “People were mindful of taking pleasure in life and living [ren you lesheng zhi lü 人有樂生之慮] … Those condemned to prison were fewer than two-tenths of those who had been in prison in late Western Han.”Footnote 96 Deng Sui was determined to follow the ideals of her time. When an enemy committed a capital crime, she tended to pardon him or her, to the astonishment of the members of her court. After his reprieve, one grateful official acknowledged her act of clemency: “Heaven, earth, and my parents gave me life, but they were unable to bring me back from the dead.”Footnote 97 By his reckoning, it was Deng Sui alone who had allowed him to return to the world of the light and the living. At the same time, her acts of unselfishness modeled on the Dao itself were offset by her unforgiving attitude toward any of her clansmen who were guilty of wrongdoing. In this she exemplified the ideal character, “exacting with oneself while making allowances for others” (xiang nei er lüe wai 詳內而略外).Footnote 98 Possibly, consideration of the early precarity of her lofty position outweighed authoritarian impulses, as it had with some emperors earlier on. We will never know. What is clear is this: while her acts of imperial grace and unstinting praise for “reasonable officials”Footnote 99 imparted a particular tone to her reign, it did not mark her as a unique ruler with particularly feminine qualities—just a much finer ruler than her husband Hedi or her successor, Andi, by all accounts.Footnote 100 Note, too, that in her judiciousness she was faithfully honoring the model set by Deng Yu 禹, her paternal grandfather, who insisted that any good fortune that came to his progeny was due to his scrupulous conduct as judge: “I have led crowds of millions, and I never let an unfair sentence of murder be inflicted. In later generations, surely the family fortunes will have occasion to rise!”Footnote 101
Still, two incidents show Deng Sui in a less forgiving light, and both events loom large in the modern biographies supplied for her by Keith McMahon and Rafe de Crespigny: the first is her initial response to Du Gen’s forthright memorial reproving her for not putting Prince You [or Hu] (the future Andi) on the throne as soon as he came of age, and the second, her harsh punishment of her cousin Deng Kang. Let us examine these incidents a bit more closely, for throughout her long tenure in power, Deng Sui only twice lost her temper, if the extant narratives can be trusted. When goaded by Du Gen, a male member of an allied family who was far too free with his criticisms of her failure to relinquish the throne to a Liu-clan heir,Footnote 102 Deng Sui’s brutal beating of Du Gen seems an exceptional outburst, very much out of character in an otherwise mild and benevolent reign, perhaps a display of anger calculated to send a forceful message to her restive male relatives: the Deng clan males should expect to receive no unearned titles and gifts, simply because she wielded supreme power at court. In any case, similar outbursts had been displayed by exemplary male emperors before her, Wendi and Chengdi among them.Footnote 103 What mattered, in the end, was whether the throne could be persuaded to regret the outburst and feel chastened by it.Footnote 104 Then, too, the Dus were hardly disinterested parties, and the fact that the Dus joined forces with a group from Yingchuan 潁川 is suggestive, since Nanyang and Yingchuan were hotbeds of factionalism.Footnote 105 That Du Gen went into self-imposed exile in Nan 南 commandery, far to the south of the capital, where he worked as a wine-maker, but promptly claimed a reward from Andi, upon his accession in 121, is also suggestive.
In deciding how to proceed, Deng Sui had to weigh court convention against the probable consequences of putting an immature person such as Andi on the throne. For by this time Deng Sui would have realized that Andi’s initial promise as a clever child had not borne fruit, and so she had to consider the interests of the empire when deciding to stick to or reverse her course of action.Footnote 106 Certainly, later events confirmed that Andi was not cut out for the onerous role of ruler, as multiple passages in the early histories attest.
Turning to Deng Kang, a cousin of Sui, we find that late in Deng Sui’s reign (ca. 120), Kang was very concerned that the dowager empress had so long attended court and made policy. Terrified that he would be implicated in her wrongdoing, on the pretext of illness, he failed to attend the required court audiences. When the dowager empress sent a palace attendant to inquire of him, the young woman, as it turned out (not unlike other palace servants of the time), had been too free in her comings and goings and had earned a bad reputation; still worse, the person Sui dispatched had also been a former servant in Deng Kang’s household, who had then had affairs with the so-called Great Men of the Palace.Footnote 107 When Kang learned that she had come, he upbraided her, saying, “You left our house! How dare you come bringing your foul self here!” The woman was furious, and upon her return she reported that Deng Kang was only pretending to be ill and that his words had been anything but contrite. The dowager empress then had Kang dismissed from office. He was sent home to his fief, and his name was struck from the registers of eligible candidates for office. He then went into self-exile until the coast was clear and Deng Sui was dead.
Earlier in her reign, not coincidentally, Deng Sui had sent a formal notice to her paternal nephew Deng Bao 豹,Footnote 108 Overseer of Henan, and to Deng Kang, then Cavalry Colonel, among others, saying,
The reason I have ordered your sons to be placed in this institution of learning is this: in truth of late they showed signs of inheriting the bad habits exhibited by many princes, and with time they will become accustomed to coarse and lax behavior. I note that their cunning and artifice is increasing constantly. As they are deficient in Five Classics learning, they are not being guided by those precepts. They are on the point of losing their elevated positions …. They do not know right from wrong. This is, in fact, the origin of calamity …. Earnestly I order the young ones to emulate their forebears’ virtues above and ponder below the basic ideas embedded in the edicts and other authoritative writings.Footnote 109 …. Let them get down to work in earnest!Footnote 110
Here Deng Sui, if anything, proved her exemplary status, insofar as she, like so many other classical authors, was not only aware of the importance of classical learning to the continuing health of the body politic and its ruling line, but she acted upon those insights. Notably, three years after this incident, in 112, Deng Kang was permitted to succeed to his father’s marquisate after the death of his elder brother Lang 良. Not quite a decade later, during Andi’s reign, Deng Kang not only escaped criticism, but eventually was awarded the honorific title of “Specially Advanced,” which allowed him to stay at court rather than retire to his fief, presumably on the principle of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Nonetheless, it is abundantly clear from the record that Deng Kang never cultivated a sense of decorum. Deng Kang’s language was intemperate and profoundly disrespectful to an imperial messenger. Under another regime such an outburst might have earned Kang a charge of lèse-majesté, as he was yin to her yang, a subordinate. Not for the first time, he had overstepped his authority and needed to be taught prudence and better manners.
Conclusion
Readers must rely mainly on posthumous assessments of Deng Sui (most drawn from Fan Ye’s Hou Han shu) to weigh the startlingly different accounts of her reign, aside from a eulogy praising Deng Sui to the skies and Deng Sui’s own self-appraisal, composed during her final illness. As readers will soon discover, these summaries of her rule are not much easier to parse than the omens reported of her time in power.
Her Hou Han shu biography includes this flattering assessment:
From the time when the dowager empress began overseeing the court as regent, there had been floods and droughts for ten years; also, invasions from the barbarians on all the frontiers, and banditry was on the increase in the inner provinces. Every time she heard people were starving, she would perhaps not sleep until daybreak and reduce her expenses, in order to rescue others from the deprivations and disasters. Therefore, the empire was eventually restored to peace and the harvests once more became abundant.Footnote 111 …. Once again there were floods. And in the eastern provinces, there was mass starvation. The simplest fare of green onions she lived on, setting a personal example for the crowds below. She reduced the tasty delicacies, and she forfeited her fast horses, so that all the food could be donated to the masses. Such was her care and concern for them that she treated them like newborn babies in swaddling clothes. She conquered her own inclinations; she sought out people to tell her of her faults. From obscurity she raised up good men to prestigious posts. She upheld government policies that facilitated ease for everyone. Everywhere [like the sage-kings Yao and Shun] she promulgated teachings that fostered tolerance and liberality.Footnote 112
As all these phrases marked in bold are the types of praise used of exemplary male rulers, from the time of the Documents classic compilation onward, this assessment is indisputably favorable. Moreover, much of the portrait supplied here can be verified by other sources, especially her emphasis on curtailing the imperial expenses.Footnote 113
Deng Sui herself, on the point of death, offered a somewhat less rosy self-appraisal in her final edict, which nonetheless emphasized her willingness to serve others and her concern for the reputation and longevity of the ruling Liu clan:
We consider that We ourselves lack virtue. Entrusted with the task of acting as mother to the entire realm,Footnote 114 We have been stingy with gifts of grace, unlike Heaven, and so it is that your empress is to depart early from this life [as well-deserved punishment], which is a source of great sorrow.
During the Yanping period [106], the realm was without a proper ruler. We had a frightening prospect before us of vile misfortune, it being more precarious than the proverbial pile of eggs. Diligently, most diligently, We worked Ourselves to the bone, never daring to consider my 10,000 carriages a source of true pleasure. Above We wanted not to cheat Heaven or be disgraced before the previous emperors. Below [on earth] We did not want to offend others or turn Our back on cherished ambitions. Truly We were focused on rescuing and regulating the Hundred Families,Footnote 115 in order to settle and give peace to the Liu clan.
To these portraits of Deng Sui, we might add a third testimony, this time from a near contemporary. In discussing the laudatory posthumous title chosen for Deng Sui, Cai Yong 蔡邕 (132–192) commended her for making people see how useless it was to play the sycophant with the members of her inner circle (bu’e jinqi 不阿近戚).Footnote 116 In this connection, we should note that those who expected access to the court through bribery and flattery were put on notice that it would be futile to try to utilize their connections with the Deng males. That the Deng clan later fell was hardly Deng Sui’s fault: while in Fan Ye’s view, the downfall of the Deng clan was virtually pre-ordained, it being in “the nature of things,” responsibility clearly lay with Andi himself, who was notoriously cruel, and with the clan of Andi’s empress, the Yans 閻, who quickly began calling the shots at court. Sensing danger, the members of the Deng clan continued to defend themselves on the reasonable grounds that strict limits had been placed on their family’s privileges. The Yans were adamant: the Dengs must go.
Whether we speak of commands, structure, feelings, or powers, the predicament of the consort clans in general or the Dengs in particular, Fan Ye’s sketch alerts us to the tragic dilemma of female power: the very existence of the waiqi 外戚 necessary to continue imperial rule could not but threaten the ruling house, due to the calculations about the succession generated by a heady mix of familial love, high status, sexual attraction, and the relentless urgency to produce viable heirs.Footnote 117 Even when empresses did much to allay others’ fears, rival consort clans were quick to seize upon any pretext to oust them from court. Deng Kang was, in fact, the sole member of the Deng clan who was spared in the aftermath of the Yan-clan vengeance. Nonetheless, there were instances in Han history when a bloodbath did not follow a change in heirs and empresses, since many empresses were chosen from prominent intermarried allies of the ruling house, so Deng Sui was hardly deluded when she did her best to spare her siblings and cousins from execution.
In view of the foregoing, we should tread lightly when parsing the harsh concluding Assessment offered by Fan Ye, as translated in the Appendix I. After all, the Annals chapter for AndiFootnote 118 condemns Andi as a person “whose character was immature.”Footnote 119 Deng Sui, it implies, as a classicist, should have heeded the old proverb that says, “If a hen gives the morning call, then, it means that the ruling house has been drained [of effective power].”Footnote 120 Nor was her response to Heaven’s omens appropriate, according to Fan Ye’s compilation: offices were sold, people were forced to move away from the lands liable to invasion, too often she had high-ranking officials take the blame for her mistakes. Nonetheless, we are told, Andi, once in power, made more consequential errors, by ceding power to the wrong sort of officials (e.g., Andi’s favorite Feng Shi 馮石, and his wetnurse Wang Sheng) and by alienating some of his most loyal subjects (e.g., Yang Zhen 楊震).Footnote 121 By such actions did the ruling line’s legitimacy in “those days steadily weaken to the point of insignificance” (bi ri er wei 彼日而微) and “immediately there declined Heaven’s path” (i.e., the Han fortunes; sui jin tianlu 遂祲天路).Footnote 122 De Crespigny presumes that Fan Ye assigns Deng Sui the lion’s share of the blame for the decline of the dynastic fortunes in the second century of Eastern Han rule; I disagree, since Sui is not even named as subject in the concluding paragraph of Andi’s Annals.
To delve deeply into the gender constructions found in Deng Sui’s biography and additional sources relevant to her reign, we must begin with two topics that were foremost in the minds of many in Deng Sui’s time, judging from the extant sources: the position of women in general vs. the position of favored palace women in particular. These topics are by no means synonymous, and the modern tendency to extract evidence from one topic to apply to the second is to miss the nuances that are embedded in the literary productions of the early empires, which were written by and for members of the governing elite, male and female.Footnote 123 The texts of the early empires speak remarkably little about women in general, as only certain aspects of life were shared among all women, regardless of standing (hereditary or ascribed), for example, their earlier maturity when compared to males of the same age, their tendency to live longer than their male peers, plus the important fact that most women “married out” of their natal households, and consequently were bound by their “three followings [in law]” (san cong 三從): when young, their status and livelihood depended upon their fathers, in whose house they resided; upon marriage, their status and livelihood depended upon their husband, in whose house they resided; and at widowhood, their status and livelihood might depend upon their sons and heirs, if they resided in their houses. Despite later gender constructions, sancong means that women shared the same jue 爵 (“order of honor”) as their husbands;Footnote 124 it does not describe “the three men to whom obedience is owed” by females. Two statements are true of all men and women: first, that “wife and husband share one body” 婦與夫一體也, and second, that “one yin and one yang complete each other” 陰陽相成, meaning “one husband and one wife complete a household” (一夫一婦成一室).Footnote 125 Here, yin precedes yang, because winter precedes summer in the calendar year, but above all, yin and yang need each other for mutual exchanges and completion. They are complimentary and co-dependent.Footnote 126 As Nathan Sivin once observed, even to speak of “connections” or “correlations” may be misleading, if applied to the explicit homologies posited between cosmos, body, and the body politic, since “ideas of Nature, state, and body were so interdependent that they are best considered a single complex.”Footnote 127 To secure a balance between them was ideal.Footnote 128
Whereas later Chinese constructions are apt to place much more emphasis on the father–son or parent–child relation, in Han the ritual texts and other masterworks see the husband and wife team as most generative, and so all the other human relations, including that of parents–children, are derivative and thus secondary to it. That explains why, in late Eastern Han, Xun Shuang 荀爽, then Commissioner of Ceremonial, stated for the record, “In all the many rites, the rite of marriage comes first.”Footnote 129 Indeed, all ritual is yin, by Han standards.Footnote 130 Insofar as male and female can be analogized to yang and yin, respectively, and thus to the combinations spring–summer versus fall–winter, yang is said to be “life-giving” (sheng 生) but yin has multiple admirable aspects: is it low (bei 卑); it is the proper position for males to embody when in court service (北面，體陰而行); it participates in life-giving activities (gong xu gong sheng 共敘共生); it kills off (sha 煞); and it nourishes (yang 養). Such complexity stems, quite obviously, from the fact that fall and winter, the two seasons allotted to yin, witness both harvest and death, a welcome respite from farming and a turn to valuable sericulture at a time when the skies are higher than the earth.Footnote 131
Turning to women favored at court as imperial bedmates, the rhetorical language becomes much darker, for these court women could easily topple the ruling house, if they interfered with the royal or imperial succession, pushing their own candidates ahead of the lawful heirs. By the Hou Han shu, the earlier histories were full of stories about the ruinous effect these favorites exerted on matters of state, including inheritance.Footnote 132 It is in that arena, then, that it most counts that women are “outside” in at least three important senses, once they enter the palace precincts:
First, they were wai 外, insofar as palace women were not part of the regular official administration (guan 官); they were not ranked in the usual way, and their stipends were paid for out of the imperial privy purse (shaofu 少府), not out of the funds dedicated for regular administrative purposes.Footnote 133 Nonetheless, the palace women were put in “in charge of” the all-important activities of the imperial domestic life, including mourning, sacrifices, and the forging of alliances (binke 賓客, literally clients and retainers), as these so often depended upon marriage contracts,Footnote 134 suggesting how powerful was the place of high-ranking women in Han times. While the Tianzi worshipped heaven or the sky gods, the empress worships Earth and she was also in charge of the ancestral sacrifices.Footnote 135
Second, they were wai 外, as part of the waiqi 外戚, maternal relatives of the emperors, a special group who occupied a unique and uniquely problematic place, insofar as few of them had earned “merit” on the battlefield or in regular court offices, the two arenas where merit was typically tested. Instead, some had won places through feminine charms or wiles, or worse, and those of high standing were sometimes thought to be all the more dangerous, as they and their families had ready-made court supporters in abundance.
Three, they were wai 外, insofar as convention dictated that they must rule “behind the screen,” which put a physical and logistical barrier between them and the regular members of the administration, from the chancellor on down, while bringing them closer to eunuchs and other palace functionaries, on whose picture of events and people outside court they often had to rely.Footnote 136 (One sees that when Deng Sui relied on the serving maid to contact Deng Kang.)
Cutter and Crowell get it right when they opine that the compilers of the sources for Hou Han shu and Sanguo zhi,
felt uncomfortable with the idea of women occupying positions of authority normally held by men. Perhaps of even greater concern … was the possibility that a woman could be the means by which males from outside the imperial clan might usurp the powers of the emperor. In their eyes, it was acceptable for an imperial consort to act as regent … as long as she worked in the interests of the imperial clan.Footnote 137
By that standard, Deng Sui cannot be blamed for malfeasance. A separation of powers was the key point; as Zhongchang Tong’s 仲長統 (180–220) Plain Speaking (Changyan 昌言) put it for Cao Cao 曹操: “Do not make marriage alliances with those who make policies; do not entrust governing to those with whom you make marriage alliances.”Footnote 138 By the official account, Deng Sui’s “only source of anxiety was the ruling line and realm” (wei you guo ye 唯憂國也). Unlike many others, she was fully cognizant of her obligations, perhaps because she had been raised in the higher echelons of power her entire life.Footnote 139
An interim conclusion might be this: the Western Han court never properly differentiated the male and female spheres of influence at court, and from Wudi’s court onwards, far too many women were introduced into the back palace for the emperor’s delectation.Footnote 140 In Eastern Han, they chose four candidates for the post of Tianzi that were underage from the pool of royal children; six empresses and dowager empresses reigned as virtual rulers. As the Hou Han shu charges,Footnote 141 these powerful women, “one and all,” decided polices “from behind the screen,” while some entrusted their own fathers or elder brothers to run the empire; each of them selected child emperors “to prolong their reigns” and each “suppressed famous worthies” to arrogate more power and authority to themselves.Footnote 142
If we look more closely at the rhetorical framework into which Deng Sui’s court life was inserted, we find that at least one of these charges cannot be laid at the feet of Deng Sui: unlike Dowager Empress Lü, after her first years in office, when she was still mourning, Sui did not delegate any significant powers to her male relatives, and indeed she did her best to remove them physically from court altogether. As lady in the palace, she herself had been the victim of vicious slanders that occasioned bad omens, a fact corroborated in multiple accounts.Footnote 143 There is no suggestion that she sought to interfere in succession matters while her husband Hedi was alive, or to keep Hedi from enjoying other sexual partners. To the contrary. Like Taisi 太姒, King Wen’s wife celebrated in the first song in the Odes classic, she introduced him to multiple sexual partners, with the aim of enabling the conception of future heirs to the throne.Footnote 144 She may or may not have manipulated the succession, yet she is not charged with unworthy conduct in one pointed critique, and it is clear that her chosen candidate, the future Andi (who was due to be capped as an adult in two years or so), failed to fulfill his early promise.Footnote 145 (Earlier, recall that with Shangdi, she chose the only child of Hedi who was not disqualified from holding the position of Tianzi, but he died in less than a year.Footnote 146 That he was but an infant may be less germane here, and there is no indication that Deng Sui was implicated in his untimely death.)Footnote 147 In all fairness, it is hard to say that Deng Sui made it a habit of “suppressing” worthies, when she availed herself at many junctures of the wise council of Ban Zhao and other worthy figures, consulting them repeatedly on matters of state.Footnote 148 And once, when she was fed up with Du Gen’s reprimands, she threatened to kill him, but soon relented, when Ban Zhao admonished her.
Careful inspection of Deng Sui’s actions and the charges leveled against her provide an admirable lens through which to gauge the entanglements of virtue and merit, apportioned roles, and institutional structures at the Eastern Han court among members of the governing elite, with our perceptions only heightened by the sense of tragedy that hovers over her figure and her efforts in at least two respects. First, her brothers were forced to commit suicide soon after her death, despite the rare restraint she had displayed during her lifetime, insofar as she never allowed them to assume high honors or excessive privileges, riding on the coattails of her extraordinary privilege.Footnote 149 Second, her adoptive son, Emperor An, chosen partly because his studiousness appealed to Deng Sui, was significantly less virtuous, more barbaric, and more subject to the whims of eunuch and female intrigue than Dowager Deng herself had ever been, as the Hou Han shu appraisal of his reign makes clear.Footnote 150
As we have seen, to conduct a thorough analysis of Deng Sui’s reign is no mean feat, insofar as it requires careful attention to tropes in the early writings, received and excavated, that speak of Han motivations and institutional structures, and these are offset by a full awareness that what survives today is but a small fraction of the writings that were once in circulation. Fortunately, two excavated edicts (fragments?) found in the Wuyi guangchang cache near Changsha, translated in Appendix II, inspire a measure of confidence, because her edicts look identical to those issued by her male counterparts.
Possibly, in Eastern Han, some gender norms may have been changing in subtle ways. Deng Sui’s biography suggests as much, for it was Deng Xun 訓, her father (and not her mother), who recognized her formidable talents and encouraged her to engage in activities that showed her superiority over her brothers.Footnote 151 Early on, local soothsayers saw in her something like that of the male founder of the Shang dynastic fortunes.Footnote 152 Thus, she appears as the fruit and culmination of the good deeds performed by her grandfather and father, not their antithesis.Footnote 153 Several points in Deng’s biography suggest that from an early age she was determined to combine the best points of “feminine” and “masculine” behavior among elites, as in this passage:
Her mother often upbraided her, saying, “You do not practice women’s work, to supply clothes to wear. If you set your sights on becoming erudite, do you think you might be chosen as court Academician?” As Deng Sui took it seriously that she was acting against her mother’s advice, by day she practiced her women’s work and by night, she recited her Classics.Footnote 154
Deng Sui could hardly have been ignorant of the range of sex and gender conventions, and her awareness goes some way to explain her patterns of gift-giving to privileged females and to the worthy eunuch Cai Lun.Footnote 155 Furthermore, Deng Sui saw to it that both her father and mother were mourned with equal gravity and pomp. She deliberately looked to male and female models in her rule. But most impressively, Deng Sui took personal responsibility for her actions, a point emphasized over and over again in her biography.Footnote 156 So, I leave readers with but two suggestions: let us not be too quick to reduce complexities to dichotomies (including those of male/female, Confucian and non-), and let us not prematurely assume that a love of classical learning in Eastern Han required a firm embrace of the precepts and values (more highly gendered) identified with later Neo-Confucians.Footnote 157
Appendix I
和熹鄧皇后 HHS 10A.418–30
和熹鄧皇后諱綏，太傅禹之孫也。父訓，護羌校尉。母陰氏，光烈皇后從弟女也。后年五歲，太傅夫人愛之，自為翦髮。夫人年高目冥，誤傷后額，忍痛不言。左右見者怪而問之，后曰：「非不痛也，太夫人哀憐為斷髮，難傷老人意，故忍之耳。」
The HexiFootnote 158 Empress Deng (tabooed personal name Sui) was grandchild of the Senior Tutor, Deng Yu.Footnote 159 Her father, Xun, was Colonel Protecting Against the Qiang; her mother née Yin, was the niece of Guangwu’s empress on her father’s side.Footnote 160 When the future empress was but five sui, Deng Yu’s lady so loved her that she wanted to cut Deng Sui’s hair by herself. But Deng Yu’s wife was old by then, and her eyesight was poor. By mistake, Deng Yu’s lady wounded [with the scissors] Deng Sui’s forehead, but the child bore the pain and said nothing. Those in the domestic circle who witnessed it wondered at it, and asked the child about it. She explained, “It is not that it did not hurt, but my granny expressed such care and solicitude for me in cutting my hair that I found it hard to cause such an old person distress, and so I simply bore it.”Footnote 161
六歲能⟪史書⟫。十二通⟪詩⟫、⟪論語⟫。諸兄每讀經傳，輒下意難問。志在典籍，不問居家之事。母常非之，曰：「汝不習女工以供衣服，乃更務學，寧當舉博士邪？」后重違母言，晝修婦業，暮誦經典，家人號曰「諸生」。父訓異之，事無大小，輒與詳議。
At the age of six sui she was able to master the Shi Chou pian, a primer for writing seal script; at twelve she could comprehend the Odes and Analects. Each time her elder brothers were reciting the Classics and commentaries, they would swoop down on her to quiz her on difficult questions. She was set on learning the precedents; she never asked about housekeeping matters. Her mother often upbraided her, saying, “You do not practice women’s work, to supply clothes to wear. If you set your sights on becoming erudite, do you think you might be chosen as court Academician?” As Deng Sui took it seriously that she was acting against her mother’s advice, by day she practiced her women’s work, and by night, she recited her Classics. The people in her household called her “the student-scholar.” Her father Xun thought her extraordinary, and there was no matter, large or small, that he did not talk over with her in detail.Footnote 162
永元四年，當以選入，會訓卒，后晝夜號泣，終三年不食鹽菜，憔悴毀容，親人不識之。后嘗夢捫天，蕩蕩正青，若有鍾乳狀，迺仰嗽飲之。以訊諸占夢，言堯夢攀天而上，湯夢及天而咶之，斯皆聖王之前占，吉不可言。又相者見后驚曰：「此成湯之法也。」家人竊喜而不敢宣。后叔父陔言：「常聞活千人者，子孫有封。兄訓為謁者，使修石臼河，歲活數千人。天道可信，家必蒙福。」初，太傅禹歎曰：「吾將百萬之眾，未嘗妄殺一人，其後世必有興者。」
In Yongyuan 4 [92], she was on the point of being selected for palace service when it happened that her father Xun died. Day and night the future empress wept and wailed; until the three year’s mourning was completed, she ate no salty pickles.Footnote 163 So haggard did she become that she lost her looks, and even her family members did not recognize her. At that point, Deng Sui once dreamed that she groped the heavens, which were vast, so vast, and sky-blue. There seemed to be something like a bell-shaped breast [a stalactite?], which she then looked up toFootnote 164 and suckled. When a dream-diviner was consulted regarding this, he replied that Yao had once dreamed of climbing up to heaven and that he got to heaven, which he licked.Footnote 165 “These were all earlier signs presaging sage-kings. This is more auspicious than I can say!” And moreover, a physiognomer was startled by seeing Sui, “This girl is the very model and likeness of Tang 湯 the Victorious.”
Her family members secretly rejoiced, but they did not dare to spread the word. Sui’s paternal uncleFootnote 166 Gai said, “They always say that when a person lets 1,000 people live, his descendants will be enfeoffed.Footnote 167 My elder brother Xun, as Imperial Messenger [Yezhe], was to repair the Stone Mortar River Canal,Footnote 168 and his acts in a single year saved several thousand lives. Heaven’s Way can be trusted. Our family will surely be blanketed with good fortune.” Sometime earlier Deng Yu had sighed and said, “I have led crowds of millions, and I never let an unfair sentence of murder be inflicted. In later generations, surely the family fortunes will have occasion to rise.”
七年，后復與諸家子俱選入宮。后長七尺二寸，姿顏姝麗，絕異於眾，左右皆驚。八年冬，入掖庭為貴人，時年十六。恭肅小心，動有法度。承事陰后，夙夜戰兢。接撫同列，常克己以下之。雖宮人隸役，皆加恩借。帝深嘉❲愛❳焉。及后有疾，特令后母兄弟入親醫藥，不限以日數。后言於帝曰：「宮禁至重，而使外舍久在內省。上令陛下有幸私之譏。下使賤妾獲不知足之謗。上下交損，誠不願也。」帝曰。「人皆以數入為榮，貴人反以為憂。深自抑損，誠難及也。」
In Yongyuan 7 [95], the future empress was duly entered into the palace quarters with other young women of leading families. Exceedingly tall (seven chi, two cun), with a bearing and countenance that were captivating, she stood out from the crowd, and the emperor’s attendants were all startled. A year later, in winter, she entered the “side court” as Honored Lady (guiren), at the age of sixteen sui. She was attentive to her duties, grave and cautious; each of her acts exemplified the norms and moderation. She attended upon Empress Yin, “early and late in fear and trembling.”Footnote 169 With those of the same rank she had good relations, and often she suppressed her own impulses in order to humble herself before them. Even the lowliest servants in the palace had experienced her kindnesses. The emperor [Hedi] deeply loved her. Once, when his future empress was ill, he gave special permission for her mother and brothers to enter the palace precincts to see to her medicine personally, with no restrictions put on the number of days they could enter. The empress said to the emperor, “It is an extremely serious matter to alter the taboos about entry into the palace precincts, yet you have allowed people from outside for a long time into the inner sanctum. Above, you as ruler may be criticized for unduly favoring me. Below, you cause me, your servant, to be slandered as ‘one who does not know when to stop.’ Relations between you and me will be harmed, which is something I truly do not wish for.” To this the emperor replied, “People all regard multiple entries into the palace as a sign of glory, yet you, my Lady, by contrast, take this to be a source of anxiety, berating yourself deeply. Truly it is hard to measure up to you!”
每有讌會，諸姬貴人競自修整，簪珥光采，袿裳鮮明。而后獨著素，裝服無飾。其衣有與陰后同色者，即時解易。若並時進見，則不敢正坐離立，行則僂身自卑。帝每有所問，常逡巡後對，不敢先陰后言。帝知后勞心曲體，歎曰：「修德之勞，迺如是乎！」後陰后漸疏，每當御見，輒辭以疾。時帝數失皇子，后憂繼嗣不廣，❲恆垂涕歎息❳，數選進才人，以博帝意。
Every time there was a banquet, the palace ladies and every rank would vie to dress themselves up, with ivory hairpins and earrings of lustrous jewels, with brightly colored upper garments and skirts. The empress alone wore plain white silk, unadorned without jewelry. If the color of her robesFootnote 170 was the same color as that of Empress Yin, she immediately changed them. When they entered the imperial presence at the same time, Sui did not dare to sit squarely on a mat or stand beside Empress Yin. When walking together, she stooped to lower herself. Every time the emperor spoke to her, she shrank back and was late to reply, as she did not dare to speak before Empress Yin. The emperor understood that Sui struggled to bend, and he sighed, “Such effort expended to cultivate one’s virtues! How much should this be emulated!”
Later Empress Yin gradually lost favor. Every time she ought to have had the emperor visit her chambers, suddenly she excused herself on the pretext of illness. At the time, the emperor had repeatedly lost several young sons, and the future empress worried that the field of potential heirs was not vast, so continually in tears and heaving many sighs, she repeatedly selected and pushed forward several women of talent, to broaden the emperor’s interests [i.e. objects of affection].Footnote 171
陰后見后德稱日盛，不知所為。遂造祝詛，欲以為害。帝嘗寢病危甚，陰后密言。「我得意，不令鄧氏復有遺類！」后聞，迺對左右流涕言曰。「我竭誠盡心以事皇后，竟不為所祐。而當獲罪於天。婦人雖無從死之義，然周公身請武王之命，越姬心誓必死之分。上以報帝之恩，中以解宗族之禍，下不令陰氏有人豕之譏。」即欲飲藥，宮人趙玉者固禁之，因詐言屬有使來，上疾已愈。后信以為然，迺止。明日，帝果瘳。
When Empress Yin saw that the future empress’s favor was growing day by day, she did not know what to do, so she had curses uttered, hoping to inflict harm. On one occasion, the emperor was bedridden and his illness grew dangerously worse. Empress Yin then secretly said, “If I have my way, [in future] there will be no Deng clan progeny!” When the future empress heard this, only then did she say to her attendants, with tears flowing,
I have done everything I could to serve the empress with every ounce of my heart, yet in the end I did not secure blessings from her. I ought to accept the fact that I have, on the contrary, somehow offended Heaven. Even though a wife be without the dutiful wish to follow her spouse in death, still Zhougong begged to substitute his own life for that of King WuFootnote 172 and Yue JiFootnote 173 in her heart swore that she would certainly follow him in death. First, my death would repay the emperor for his gracious favor. Second, I would be relieving the family from harm.Footnote 174 Third, I will not allow Empress Yin to suffer criticism for turning me into a “human pig.”Footnote 175
As she was on the verge of drinking poison, one palace servant named Zhao Yu steadfastly forbade this, and took this opportunity to deceive her, saying palace envoys had arrived to report that the emperor’s affliction was already better. Believing it to be true, Sui finally gave up her plan. The next day the emperor, in fact, was on the mend.
十四年夏，陰后以巫蠱事廢，后請救不能得，帝便屬意焉。后愈稱篤疾，深自閉絕。會有司奏建長秋宮。帝曰。「皇后之尊，與朕同體，承宗廟，母天下，豈易哉！唯鄧貴人德冠後庭，迺可當之。」至冬，立為皇后。辭讓者三，然後即位。手書表謝，深陳德薄，不足以充小君之選。是時，方國貢獻，競求珍麗之物。自后即位，悉令禁絕，歲時但供紙墨而已。帝每欲官爵鄧氏，后輒哀請謙讓，故兄騭終帝世不過虎賁中郎❲將❳。
In Yongyuan 14 [102], summer, Empress Yin was tried and deposed for wugu (black magic), and the future empress begged to save her, to no avail. The emperor then let his attentions easily turn to her,Footnote 176 and the future empress increasingly proclaimed herself seriously ill, and she shut herself up and broke off relations. As it happened, right then an official memorialized about establishing the imperial burial complex, to which the emperor replied, “The person who has the honored position of empress shares one body with Us. She upholds and maintains the ancestral temple; she is mother to the realm. How could this possibly be changed?Footnote 177 Only Honored Lady Deng wears the crown of virtue in the back palaces. Let it be she who is given this place!”
On the winter solstice, she was established as empress.Footnote 178 She refused the honor three times, after which she was duly installed. Her handwritten memorial begged off, arguing forcefully that she was not virtuous enough to fulfill the post of “little ruler.”Footnote 179 At this time, the kingdoms on all sides quarters made offerings, competing in the search for the rarest of objects. From the time of Deng Sui’s accession, she always strictly forbade such gifts; at the time of the yearly harvest, she accepted writing material and inks alone.Footnote 180 Every time the emperor wanted to ennoble members of the Deng clan, the empress beseeched him not to. Therefore, Sui’s elder brother Zhi to the end under Hedi never reached a position higher than that of General of the Palace “Tigers-running” Guards.
元興元年，帝崩。長子平原王有疾，而諸皇子夭沒，前後十數。後生者輒隱祕養於人間。殤帝生始百日，后迺迎立之。尊后為皇太后，太后臨朝。
In Yuanxing 1 [105], the emperor died. His eldest son the King of Pingyuan had an illness, and all the imperial sons had died early (more than ten of them).Footnote 181 Those born late to him were suddenly whisked away in secret to be raised among the people. Shangdi, the Died-Young emperor, had lived by then for 100 days, before the empress finally went to welcome him as the new emperor. She was duly honored with the title of dowager empress, and in that capacity she acted as regent “attending court.”
和帝葬後，宮人並歸園。太后賜周、馮貴人策。曰。「朕與貴人託配後庭，共歡等列，十有餘年。不獲福祐。先帝早棄天下。孤心煢煢，靡所瞻仰。夙夜永懷，感愴發中。今當以舊典分歸外園，慘結增歎，燕燕之詩，曷能喻焉？其賜貴人王青蓋車，采飾輅，驂馬各一駟，黃金三十斤，雜帛三千匹，白越四千端。」又賜馮貴人王赤綬，以未有頭上步搖、環佩，加賜各一具。
After Hedi was buried [106], the palace ladies were sent to attend his mortuary park. The dowager empress conferred on Ladies Zhou and Feng the rescript, “For more than ten years, We were entrusted with serving together with you in attendance in the back palace, and together we received imperial favor. We all remained unblessed [as we had no children], and the former emperor departed his realm early. We are bereft, with no one to look up to and emulate. Morning and night we will forever cherish him, and mourn him to the core. Now we ought, by the old precedents, to repair to join him near the gravesite, in our misery, with heaped up sighs. As in the “Swallow” ode in the Odes classic, how can one adequately express one’s grief? Let there be conferred on the ladies green-canopied carriages like that of the kings, with colored chariot wheels, and quadrigae of four horses; 30 jin of gold, 3000 bolts of varicolored silk; and 4000 squares of fine cloth.” In addition, she conferred upon Lady Feng the red silk sash worn by kings, and one set each of pearl hair ornaments like that worn by empresses and jade girdle ornaments.
是時新遭大憂，法禁未設。宮中亡大珠一篋。太后念，欲考問，必有不辜。乃親閱宮人，觀察顏色，即時首服。又和帝幸人吉成，御者共枉吉成以巫蠱事，遂下掖庭考訊，辭證明白。太后以先帝左右，待之有恩，平日尚無惡言。今反若此。不合人情，更自呼見實覈，果御者所為。莫不歎服，以為聖明。常以鬼神難徵，淫祀無福，乃詔有司罷諸祠官不合典禮者。
At this time, the throne experienced a new “great sorrow” and the laws and prohibitions were not yet established. In the palace, there was lost a case which held a great pearl. The dowager empress, in thinking about it, wanted to launch a formal investigation but she knew this would certainly involve the innocent. So, she personally visited the palace attendants, observing their facial expressions carefully, and relatively quickly she secured a confession.
When Hedi’s favorite, Jicheng, was recklessly accused of engaging in black magic by her attendants, Deng Sui immediately sent investigators to the back palaces to conduct an investigation, and the sworn confession of Jicheng was clear enough. [But] to the dowager empress’s way of thinking, Jicheng, as a member of the former emperor’s inner circle, had been treated well, and she had never spoken ill of Sui during the emperor’s lifetime [when slandering her might have proven advantageous], so why would Jicheng now do the opposite and act like this? It did not make sense in terms of human feelings. So, a second investigation called for by Deng Sui herself discovered that, in fact, this was the attendants’ doing. There were none who did not sigh in admiration and submit [to the justice of her findings]; they considered that she was a genius-sage.Footnote 182 As she had always felt the spirits are hard to prove, and that illicit sacrifices bring no good fortune, she issued an edict directing the officer in charge to dismiss all shrine officers whose actions were not in accord with ritual precedents.
又詔❲赦❳除建武以來諸犯妖惡，及馬、竇家屬所被禁錮者，皆復之為平人。減大官、導官、尚方、內者服御珍膳靡麗難成之物。自非供陵廟，稻粱米不得導擇，朝夕一肉飯而已。舊太官湯官經用歲且二萬萬，太后敕止，（曰)❲日❳殺省珍費。自是裁數千萬。及郡國所貢，皆減其過半。悉斥賣上林鷹犬。其蜀、漢釦器九帶佩刀，並不復調。止畫工三十九種。又御府、尚方、織室錦繡、冰紈、綺縠、金銀、珠玉、犀象、玳瑁、彫鏤翫弄之物，皆絕不作。離宮別館儲峙米糒薪，悉令省之。
She moreover by edict pardoned all those who since the Eastern Han founding had committed crimes, extending the pardons to the members of the Ma and Dou households who had been proscribed from office-holding. All were to be restored to the condition of ordinary people. She reduced the numbers of great provisioners, the imperial factory workers, and the keepers in the palace in charge the rare items of clothing, jewelry, and the difficult-to-raise creatures. If it was not for the offerings at the imperial gravemounds and temples, millet and rice was not to be specially given in as tribute and selected. Each morning and night there was to be one dish of meat and one of starch, and nothing more. The old provisioners and boilers in the past had used 200,000,000 cash annually, and this the dowager empress ordered to stop. Daily they were to reduce such expenses, and from this time on economies were reduced to the tune of several tens of millions of cash. As for the “tribute” the commanderies and kingdoms were to supply, each unit was to reduce it by over half. They were to quit buying falcons and hunting dogs for Shanglin Park. The buckles and belts and belt ornaments and knives from Shu and Hanzhong were no longer to be inlaid. She also let go thirty-nine kinds of painters. In the royal quarters, the Imperial Factory [Shangfang] and Weaving Room were ordered to absolutely never make again splendid embroideries, “ice silk,” fine silk gauze, gold and silver, pearls and jades, items fashioned from rhinoceros’s tusks or ivory,Footnote 183 tortoise shell, and valuable carvings and baubles. In the traveling palaces and retreats the stores of rice, fuel, and charcoal, all were to be reduced.
又詔諸園貴人。其宮人有宗室同族若羸老不任使者，令園監實覈上名，自御北宮增喜觀閱問之，恣其去留，即日免遣者五六百人。
Another edict concerned the Honored Ladies at the imperial mausolea: those who could live with their relatives or who were old and infirm, and of no use to the palace, were ordered to be examined by the mausolea overseers, who could send up reports that forwarded the true names and cases, after which they would be driven to the Northern Palace to be seen once more by the dowager empress, who questioned them once more, and then allowed them to go or stay, as they pleased, with the result that 500 or 600 people were let go that very day.
及殤帝崩，太后定策立安帝，猶臨朝政。以連遭大憂，百姓苦役，殤帝康陵方中祕藏，及諸工作，事事減約，十分居一。
When Shangdi died, the dowager empress arranged it by rescript that AndiFootnote 184 was enthroned [106], but she still attended court to make policy. There were repeated natural disasters,Footnote 185 and the ordinary commoners suffered greatly. So she had the secret burial chamber of Shangdi at Kangling greatly reduced, to 1/10 the normal size, by the workmen, to enforce economies.
詔告司隸校尉、河南尹、南陽太守曰。「每覽前代外戚賓客，假借威權。輕薄謥詷，至有濁亂奉公，為人患苦。咎在執法怠懈，不輒行其罰故也。今車騎將軍騭等雖懷敬順之志，而宗門廣大，姻戚不少，賓客姦猾，多干禁憲。其明加檢敕，勿相容護。」自是親屬犯罪，無所假貸。太后愍陰氏之罪廢，赦其徙者歸鄉，敕還資財五百餘萬。永平元年，爵號太夫人為新野君，萬戶供湯沐邑。
By edict she decreed to the Colonel of Internal Security, the Henan Overseer, and Governor of Nanyang,
Every time I see the clients and retainers of the previous regimes’ consort clans taking on airs of authority. Carelessly and callously they mistreat others, acting shamelessly, until the point where they sully and disorder the throne, and cause the people grievous suffering. The blame lies with those who are to uphold the law. They neglect their duties, and so they do not execute the proper punishments.
Now the Cavalry General Deng Zhi and others, even though they cherish the intention to engage in reverent and compliant behaviors, nonetheless have their clan households enlarging, their marriage ties proliferating, and their clients and retainers are cunning. In many cases, when they are infringing the laws, let them be openly investigated. I will not have them be protected.
From this time on, the wrongdoers among her closest relatives knew that they had no place to rely upon [to pardon their wrongdoings]. The dowager empress felt very sorry for the removal on criminal charges of the Yin 陰 clan, so she pardoned those who had been exiled and allowed them to return to their home districts. She also ordered the return to them of some half a million cash. In Yongping 1 [106], she had conferred on her mother, Lady Yin,Footnote 186 the title of Ruler of Xinye, with 10,000 households to supply her a benefice.
二年夏，京師旱，親幸洛陽寺錄冤獄。有囚實不殺人而被考自誣，羸困輿見，畏吏不敢言。將去，舉頭若欲自訴。太后察視覺之，即呼還問狀。具得枉實。即時收洛陽令下獄抵罪。行未還宮，澍雨大降。
In the second year of Yongping [107], summer, there was a drought in the capital. Deng Sui personally visited the Luoyang Bureau to have copiesFootnote 187 made of the wrongful imprisonments. In truth, there were those in prison who had not killed people, but under questioning had implicated themselves by lying. [Because of this,] the mounting distress manifested itself, and so frightened the functionaries that they did not dare say anything. Once, when she was on the point of leaving, one of them raised his head as if he wanted to impeach himself. The dowager empress discerned his meaning, and then she questioned him about the dossiers. All had been prepared falsely, so she put the Luoyang Prefect himself in prison, charging him with crimes. Before she had even returned to the palace, abundant rain fell as a result.
三年秋，太后體不安，左右憂惶，禱請祝辭，願得代命。太后聞之，即譴怒。竊敕掖庭令以下，但使謝過祈福，不得妄生不祥之言。舊事，歲終當饗遣衛士，大儺逐疫。太后以陰陽不和，軍旅數興。詔饗會勿設戲作樂。減逐疫侲子之半，悉罷象橐駝之屬。
In the third year [109], in autumn, dowager empress felt discomfort. Her attendants took fright, and they prayed and asked for invocators, urging her to turn her powers over [to the newly capped Andi]. When the dowager empress heard their entreaties, she berated them angrily. Secretly she ordered everyone from the head of the harem down to merely forward apologies for crimes and prayers for good fortune. She would not have crazy talk of long-life or other inauspicious advice. It had long been the old custom at year’s end to hold a banquet for the palace guards whose term of service was ending, at which was performed a Great Exorcism to expel epidemic demons.Footnote 188 The dowager empress believed that the yin and yang were not in balance, and the troops had mutinied several times. She summoned people to the banquet, but she did not arrange for the usual entertainments and musical performances. She reduced the young boys involved in the expelling-epidemics rites by half. She got rid of all the elephants, Bactrian camels, and such creatures, along with their keepers.
豐年復故。太后自入宮掖，從曹大家受經書，兼天文、算數。晝省王政，夜則誦讀。而患其謬誤，懼乖典章。迺博選諸儒劉珍等及博士、議郎、四府掾史五十餘人，詣東觀讎校傳記。事畢奏御，賜葛布各有差。又詔中官近臣於東觀受讀經傳，以教授宮人，左右習誦，朝夕濟濟。
In fact, good harvests returned as before. The dowager empress, from the time that she entered the back palaces, received tuition in the Classics, together with texts on astronomy and mathematical calculations, from Teacher Cao [i.e., Ban Zhao].Footnote 189 Mornings she saw to policy-making; evenings she recited her texts. She took great trouble lest she make a mistake. She was petrified, lest she contravene the imperial precedents and statutes in writing. Only after this did she widely institute a search to select [qualified men] among the court classicists such as Liu Zhen, the Academicians and advisory courtiers, and more than fifty staff members from the Four Bureaus. These men were to visit the Eastern Tower to collate texts and records there, and when the matter was finished, they were to memorialize the throne, after which they were to be given hempen cloth, each according to his merits. She also by edict ordered the nearest officers in the palace to repair to the Eastern Tower to receive training in reciting the Classics and commentaries, and they, in turn, were to teach the palace ladies, so that all those around her would become well-versed in recitations, and day and night, all would be elegant refinement.
及新野君薨，太后自侍疾病，至乎終盡，憂哀毀損，事加於常。贈以長公主赤綬、東園祕器、玉衣繡衾，又賜布三萬匹，錢三千萬。騭等遂固讓錢布不受。使司空持節護喪事，儀比東海恭王，謚曰敬君。太后諒闇既終。久旱，太后比三日幸洛陽，錄囚徒，理出死罪三十六人，耐罪八十人。其餘減罪死右趾已下至司寇。
Now when her mother, the ruler of Xinye, died, the dowager empress herself attended her in her last crisis, so when she died, she was with her to the very end, and beside herself with grief. And she gave presents to the Elder Princess of a red sash, imperial implements of the Eastern Garden, a jade suit and embroidered quilts, in addition to some thirty thousand rolls of cloth, and some thirty million cash. Deng Zhi and others forthwith steadfastly refused the gifts of cash and cloth. She sent the Minister over Works (sikong) to carry the insignia to the funeral rites, and in those ceremonies her mother was treated with all the honors like those of Prince Gong of Donghai and awarded the posthumous title of “Reverent Lord.” The dowager empress issued no formal edicts during the entire mourning period, and then there was a protracted drought. The dowager empress for three days visited Luoyang, where she reviewed the records of prisoners, freeing thirty-six who had been judged to have committed capital crimes, and sentencing eighty who deserved the sentence of shaving.Footnote 190 The rest had their sentences reduced to penalties ranging from lopping off the right foot to serving as guards for the convict labor details.
七年正月，初入太廟，齋七日，至公卿百僚各有差。庚戌，謁宗廟，率命婦群妾相禮儀，與皇帝交獻親薦，成禮而還。因下詔曰：「凡供薦新味，多非其節，或鬱養強孰，或穿掘萌牙，味無所至而夭折生長，豈所以順時育物乎！傳曰：『非其時不食。』自今當奉祠陵廟及給御者，皆須時迺上。」凡所省二十三種。
In the seventh year, first month, she first entered the imperial ancestral temple, where she fasted for seven days, before making conferrals upon all the officials, high and low, with each according to his or her rank. Then, on the gengxu day,Footnote 191 she visited the ancestral temple,Footnote 192 leading the counsellors’ wives to assist her in the ceremonies. Wearing her queenly robes, she handed over the offerings [in nine sets] to the emperor so that he might personally present them. When the ritual had been completed, she returned to the palace. She then took these activities as the subject of an edict:
In general, the prepared offerings featured new flavors; they were not aligned with the season. In some cases, they were raised in hothouses, forced to prematurely grow to maturity. In other cases, they unearthed young sprouts of plants not yet fully grown. While the flavors produced no salutary effect, the offerings prematurely cut off life. How could this possibly be in accord with the seasons and nurture living things? The tradition says, “If the food is not in season, do not eat it.”Footnote 193 From now on, those responsible for the offerings at the imperial mausolea, the ancestral temples, and the imperial provisions are to see to it that the foodstuffs they present are in season.Footnote 194
Altogether, some twenty-three kinds of food were omitted.
自太后臨朝，水旱十載，四夷外侵，盜賊內起。每聞人飢，或達旦不寐，而躬自減徹，以救災阸，故天下復平，歲還豐穰Footnote 195 。
From the time when the dowager empress began overseeing the court as regent, there had been floods and droughts for ten years; also, invasions from the barbarians on all the frontiers, and banditry was on the increase in the interior. Every time she heard people were starving, she would, perhaps, not sleep until daybreak and reduce her expenses, in order to rescue others from deprivations and disasters. Therefore, the empire was eventually restored to peace and the harvests once more became abundant.
元初五年，平望侯劉毅以太后多德政，欲令早有注記。上書安帝曰：「臣聞⟪易⟫載羲農而皇德著。⟪書⟫述唐虞而帝道崇。故雖聖明，必書功於竹帛，流音於管弦。伏惟皇太后膺大聖之姿，體乾坤之德。齊蹤虞妃，比跡任姒。孝悌慈仁，允恭節約，杜絕奢盈之源，防抑逸欲之兆。正位內朝，流化四海。及元興、延平之際，國無儲副，仰觀乾象，參之人譽，援立陛下為天下主，永安漢室，綏靜四海Footnote 196 。」
In Yuanchu 5 [118], Liu Yi,Footnote 197 Marquis of Pingwang, knowing the dowager empress’s interest in government by acts of grace [rather than by punishments], wanted to have commissioned early on a detailed record of her rule,Footnote 198 so he sent a memorial to Andi saying,
I have heard the Changes contains lines on Fuxi and Shennong, which plainly illustrate charismatic rule. And the Documents classic tells of Yao and Shun, and their upholding of the Way of emperors. Therefore, even if the throne is occupied by an enlightened sage, one must write down his or her merits on bamboo and silk, and leave the “sound” in pipes and strings. The dowager empress in her attitude supports the Great Sage [Andi]; she embodies the quintessential virtues of yin and yang qi. She is like Shun’s wives. She compares with Ren Si.Footnote 199 Filial, affable, compassionate, and humane, she fully does her duty. She regulates her conduct and is frugal. She is the very image of someone blocking off the luxuries and excesses at the source. She is sign and symbol of self-restraint. She carries herself upright in the inner court, yet her influence floods to the four seas. When it came to Yuanxing and Yanping reign periods, when the realm had no surplus food, she looked up to contemplate the signs of flourishing yang qi, and she consulted about human reputations, helping to set up your majesty to be a true emperor of the realm, to provide lasting peace to the Han ruling house and to bring comfort and peace to all within the lands.
又遭水潦，東州飢荒。垂恩元元，冠蓋交路，菲薄衣食，躬率群下，損膳解驂，以贍黎苗。惻隱之恩，猶視赤子。克己引愆。顯揚仄陋。崇晏晏之政，敷在寬之教Footnote 200 。興滅國。繼絕世。錄功臣。復宗室。追還徙人，蠲除禁錮。政非惠和，不圖於心。制非舊典，不訪於朝。弘德洋溢，充塞宇宙。洪澤豐沛，漫衍八方。華夏樂化，戎狄混并。丕功著於大漢，碩惠加於生人。巍巍之業，可聞而不可及。蕩蕩之勳，可誦而不可名。
Once again there were floods, and in the eastern provinces, there was mass starvation. She bestowed her favor upon all the people, dispatching so many officials [to see to their relief] that they met each other on the roads coming and going.Footnote 201 With the simplest fare and in the coarsest clothes, she set a personal example for the crowds below. She reduced the tasty delicacies and forfeited her fast horses, to support the masses. Such was her care and concern for them that she treated them like newborn babies in swaddling clothes. She conquered her own inclinations; she sought out people to tell her of her faults. From obscurity she raised up good men to prestigious posts. She upheld government policies that facilitated ease for everyone. Everywhere she saw promulgated teachings that focused on tolerance and generosity.Footnote 202 She restored extinguished kingdoms. She continued broken lines. She recorded the merits of good officials. She revived the ancestral house. She thought of and recalled the people who had been banished; she abruptly stopped the prohibitions against Partisans. As to her policies: If they would not achieve grace and harmony, she didn’t calculate how to achieve them in her heart. If the rules and regulations did not reflect the older norms, she did not bring them to the court for consideration. Her immense liberality was flowing like a flood, filling to the very limits of time and space. Her great blessings, in rich abundance, filled to overflowing the eight directions. The civilized lands of the HuaXia were transformed by the pleasures of civilization.Footnote 203 The Rong and Di, however different, came together and unified.Footnote 204 Her merits have been written down by Great Han. Her munificent favors have been applied to all living beings. Such towering enterprises—one can hear of them but not attain them. Such surpassing achievements—one can intone them but not capture them in words.
古之帝王，左右置史；漢之舊典，世有注記。夫道有夷崇，治有進退。若善政不述，細異輒書，是為堯湯負洪水大旱之責，而無咸熙Footnote 205 假天之美。高宗成王有雉雊迅風之變，而無中興康寧之功也。上考⟪詩⟫⟪書⟫，有虞二妃，周室三母。修行佐德，思不踰閾。未有內遭家難，外遇災害，覽總大麓，經營天物， 功德巍巍若茲者也。宜令史官著⟪長樂宮注⟫、⟪聖德頌⟫，以敷宣景燿，勒勳金石，縣之日月，攄之罔極，以崇陛下烝烝之孝。Footnote 206
The antique lords and kings placed scribes to their left and right, they say [to record their deeds and words]. The Han has its antique precedents, each reign has its records.Footnote 207 Now the Way of governing has its good and bad days, and good governance, its advances and retreats. If accounts of good policies are not transmitted, then only details and anomalies will be written down,Footnote 208 and then despite the way that Yao and Tang took responsibility for floods and droughts, there would be no shining examples to imitate Heaven’s excellence. Nor would we have stories of heartfelt reforms by Gaozong and King Cheng,Footnote 209 occasioned by pheasants arriving and windstorms. Nor would there be records of the commendable acts leading to a mid-dynastic revival or the restoration of peace. Above, examining the Odes and Documents, there were Shun’s two wives and Zhou’s three mothers, who cultivated their conduct and contributed their characters, and yet their thoughts did not go beyond the female quarters. Never were there inner struggles over succession; never did they meet with ominous disasters outside.Footnote 210 They surveyed the great records of governing;Footnote 211 they made themselves thoroughly conversant with all the creatures of the cosmos. With such towering merit like this, one ought to order the archivist to record the “Notes on the Changle Palace,” a eulogy to honor Sage virtue.
帝從之。Footnote 212
Andi followed the suggestion.
六年Footnote 213 ，太后詔徵和帝弟濟北、河間王子男女年五歲以上四十餘人，又鄧氏近親子孫三十餘人，並為開邸第。教學經書，躬自監試。尚幼者，使置師保，朝夕入宮，撫循詔導，恩愛甚渥。
In the sixth year [119], the dowager empress summoned the sons and daughters of Hedi’s younger brothers, the Kings of Jibei and Hejian,Footnote 214 male and female above five sui (more than 40 people altogether), plus the dowager empress’s own kinsmen (more than 30 people), so that she might open a place of classical learning for them.Footnote 215 She herself would oversee the exams. For those who were still too young [to leave the palace private quarters for the school], she had set up the offices of Tutors and Protectors, who day and night, could enter the palace, so they might comfort and accommodate, lead and guide, her love and affection being very deep.
迺詔從兄河南尹豹、越騎校尉康等曰：「吾所以引納群子，置之學官者，實以方今承百王之敝，時俗淺薄，巧偽滋生。⟪五經⟫衰缺，不有化導，將遂陵遲，故欲襃崇聖道，以匡失俗。傳不云乎：『飽食終日，無所用心，難矣哉！』今末世貴戚食祿之家，溫衣美飯，乘堅驅良，而面牆術學，不識臧否，斯故禍敗所從來也。
Only then did she issue an edict to her paternal cousin Deng Bao, Overseer of Henan, and Deng Kang, Cavalry Colonel, among others, saying,
I have ordered that all your sons be placed in this institution of learning, because recently, they have inherited the bad behavior of many kings, so that they are remiss in their behavior, and their cunning is constantly growing. They are deficient in Five Classics learning; they are not being led and guided by those precepts. They are on the point of collapse, and so I want to extol the Sagely Way and correct erroneous customs and habits. Does the tradition not say it: “They guzzle food the livelong day, never applying themselves to their lessons. This is hard indeed!”Footnote 216 At present, in this end of days, the imperial relatives by marriage use their allowances to wear warm clothes, eat fine delicacies, and ride in carriages drawn by excellent steeds, but they have their faces to the wall when it comes to learning. They do not know good deeds from wrong. This in fact is the origin of calamity.
永平中，四姓小侯皆令入學，所以矯俗厲薄，反之忠孝。「先公既以武功書之竹帛，兼以文德教化子孫，故能束修，不觸羅網。誠令兒曹上述祖考休烈，下念詔書本意，則足矣。其勉之哉！」
In the middle years of the Yongchu reign era [107–113], the young lords of the Four Noble Houses all were commanded to enter the court place of learning, so that their old arrogant ways and extravagances would be converted instead into loyalty and filial duty.Footnote 217
My noble ancestor Deng Yu used to record on bamboo and silk his military merits, intending to use it to teach civilizing virtues and transform the younger generations. One can in this way bind and cultivate oneself and not fall afoul of the net of the law. Truly I order the young ones to be able to narrate their forebears’ virtues above and ponder the basic ideas of the edicts and other writings below. This is enough, certainly! Let them get down to work in earnest!
康以太后久臨朝政，心懷畏懼，託病不朝。太后使內人問之。時宮婢出入，多能有所毀譽。其耆宿者皆稱中大人，所使者乃康家先婢，亦自通中大人。康聞，詬之曰「汝我家出，爾敢爾邪！」婢怒，還說康詐疾而言不遜。太后遂免康官，遣歸國，絕屬籍。
Deng KangFootnote 218 was concerned that the dowager empress had so long attended court and made policy. In his heart he was sore afraid, and on the pretext of illnesses, he did not come to court. When the dowager empress sent palace servants to ask how he was doing, it turned out that many of them had bad reputations for being too free in their comings and goings. Those who had been there a long time were called the Great People of the palace. As it happened, the person Deng Sui dispatched had been a former servant in Kang’s household, who had then had affairs with the so-called Great People of the palace. When Kang learned of this, he upbraided her, saying, “You left our house. How dare you come bring your foul self here!” The maidservant was furious, and upon her return she reported that Kang was only pretending to be ill and his words were anything but submissive. The dowager empress forthwith had Kang dismissed from office. He was sent home to his fief, and his name was struck from the registers of eligible candidates for office.
永寧二年二月，寢病漸篤，乃乘輦於前殿，見侍中、尚書，因北至太子新所繕宮。還，大赦天下，賜諸園貴人、王、主、群僚錢布各有差。詔曰：「朕以無德，託母天下，而薄祐不天，早離大憂。延平之際，海內無主。元元戹運，危於累卵。勤勤苦心，不敢以萬乘為樂，上欲不欺天愧先帝。下不違人負宿心。誠在濟度百姓，以安劉氏。自謂感徹天地，當蒙福祚，而喪禍內外，傷痛不絕。頃以廢病沈滯，久不❲得❳侍祠，自力上原陵，加欬逆唾血，遂至不解。存亡大分，無可奈何。公卿百官，其勉盡忠恪，以輔朝廷。」三月崩。在位二十年，年四十一。合葬順陵。
In the second year of the Yongning reign period [121], the second lunar month, the dowager empress took to her bed with an illness that gradually became more severe. Only then did she ride in a sedan chair to the Front Audience Hall, where she met with the Palace Attendants and the Director of the Secretariat. And she took the occasion to travel north to the newly repaired palace of the heir apparent. Upon her return [to her own quarters], she issued a general amnesty for the realm, and she gave gifts of coins and cloth to the Honored Ladies at the imperial mausolea, the kings, and all those in charge of the crowds of official colleagues, each according to his or her station. Her edict said,
We consider ourselves to lack virtue. Entrusted with the task of acting as mother to the entire realm, We have been stingy with gifts of grace, unlike Heaven, and so it is that your empress is to depart early from this life, which is a source of great sorrow.
During the Yanping period, the realm was without a proper ruler. We had a frightening prospect before us of vile misfortune, it being more precarious than the proverbial pile of eggs. Diligently, most diligently, We worked Ourselves to the bone, never daring to consider my 10,000 carriages a source of true pleasure. Above, We wanted not to cheat Heaven or be disgraced before the previous emperors. Below, We did not want to offend others, or turn Our back on cherished ambitions. Truly We were focused on rescuing and regulating the Hundred Families, in order to settle and give peace to the Liu clan.
Had We been able to say of Ourselves that Our feelings communicated to the entire cosmos of heaven-and-earth, We ought to have been blanketed with good fortune. Instead, We have experienced calamitous deaths, both within Our family and outside,Footnote 219 which have left Us with unceasing pain. A while ago, on account of an illness, We felt sluggish. For long We have not been able personally to attend the sacrifices. Having exerted every ounce of Our energy to climb the hill at Yuanling,Footnote 220 We coughed up bloody sputum, until in the end it happened again and again. Survival or death, the great allotment, this one can do nothing about! Let Our high-ranking officials and their subordinates exert themselves with the utmost loyalty and reverence, in order to aid the dynasty.
In the third month, she died. On the throne for 20 years, she died at age 41 sui. She was buried with her husband at Shunling.Footnote 221
論曰：鄧后稱制終身，號令自出，術謝前政之良，身闕明辟之義，至使嗣主側目，斂衽於虛器。直生懷懣，懸書於象魏Footnote 222 。借之儀者，殆其惑哉！Footnote 223
The Assessment says: Empress Deng took charge of the court rulings for her entire life. Titles and edicts issued from her.Footnote 224 Her arts of governance were less skilled than the best of the preceding rulers. She lacked the attention to duty of truly enlightened rulers. And she had a jaundiced eyeFootnote 225 when it came to selecting who would succeed to the throne; she had the honors bestowed upon an empty vessel.Footnote 226 Her straightforward and honest advisors understood her arrogant usurpation of powers, and they hung their petitions [for reform] on the palace doors.Footnote 227 She was nearly deluded [in her failure to relinquish power to Andi].
然而建光之後，王柄有歸，遂乃名賢戮辱，便孽黨進，衰斁之來，茲焉有徵。故知持權引謗，所幸者非己。焦心卹患，自強者唯國。是以班母一說，闔門辭事。愛姪微愆，髡剔謝罪。將杜根逢誅，未值其誠乎！但蹊田之牛，奪之已甚。
That said, after Jianguang, the reins of power were returned to Andi, as was proper. Then the famous wise men were killed and insulted, and then did such vile evildoers [as Andi’s wetnurse Wang Sheng and her daughter Borong 伯滎] form factions. Swiftly came decline, and it was all too evident [in Andi’s court]. Then the wise who upheld the court powers elicited slanders, and those most favored came to fear for the throne. Bitter in their hearts, those who would make themselves stronger only did so on behalf of the ruling family. Because of Ban Zhao’s persuasion, Deng Zhi was allowed to close his doors and refuse further court service.Footnote 228 Her beloved nephew,Footnote 229 because of a minor error, shaved his head and begged pardon for his crime. And Du Gen was confronted with execution [for sending protests about Deng Sui’s failure to cede the throne to Andi]. The empress never valued his integrity! “Merely for an ox that trespassed the fields,” she [and the ruling house] had too much taken away!Footnote 230
Appendix II
The Wuyi guangchang documents were unearthed in 2010 by workers digging in the May First Square in downtown Changsha, in preparation for building a new subway line. Archaeologists quickly determined that the materials deposited in an Eastern Han well numbered some 7,000 pieces (primarily legal in their contents), which dated to ca. 100 ce.
Edict from Yongchu 2永初二 [108 ce]
甲戌詔書：罪非殊死，且勿案驗。立秋如故。去年雨水過多，穀傷民 (414) 飢。當案驗遝召，輕微耗擾，妨奪民時。其復假期，須收秋，毋為煩苛。(402+417)
Jiaxu Edict: With the exception of capital crimes (shusi), do not punish or investigate other crimes. Conduct the Autumn [Assizes] as before. In the last year, excessive rainfall harmed the crops and caused the people to starve. Crimes that merit prosecution, investigation, detention, and summoning should be handled lightly and with minimum trouble, so as not to interfere with the seasonal labor of the people. If an extension of the deadline is needed, wait until [after] the autumn harvest, so as not to create trouble or be unduly harsh.
Edict from Yongchu 4 永初四年 [10 ce], on three boards: 412, 413, 399
廷下詔書曰：
比年陰陽鬲（隔)，並水旱饑饉，民或流冗。蠻夷猾夏，仍以發興。奸吏 (412) 並侵，人懷怨愁。天垂變，自秋盡冬，訖無㴻澤。憂惶悼栗，未知所寧。
方東作，布德行惠，其勑有司，動作順之，罪非殊死且勿案驗，立秋如故。寬令 (413) 數下，廢不奉行。苛虐之吏，犯令幹時，未有所徵。勉崇寬和，敬若浩天。他如詔書 (399)。
The [commandery] court sends down the edict:
Yin and yang have been blocked for consecutive years, and floods, drought and starvation have come in rapid succession, causing the people to take flight. Man and Yi barbarians attack the heartland and troops are then mobilized. Wicked officials attack the people, meanwhile, and all harbor resentment and worry in their breasts. Calamities have been sent down from heaven. From autumn through the whole winter there has been no life-giving moisture. There is worry and fear and no understanding of how to achieve peace and ease.
As the planting begins, let gracious deeds be spread alongside benefits. The officials are hereby encouraged to act in conformity [with the seasons]. With the exception of capital crimes (shusi), do not punish or investigate other crimes. Conduct the Autumn [Assizes] as before. Merciful ordinances have been sent down repeatedly, but they have been set aside and not upheld. Cruel officials disobey the ordinances and act against the seasons, but they have not been summoned. We implore you to honor liberality and harmony and to act dutifully towards Vast Heaven. For the rest, follow the edicts.
***
In addition, there is a line from the Xuanquan 懸泉 (near Dunhuang) cache, dating to the reign of Chengdi, that some scholars try to tie to an edict by Shangdi (r. late 105–September 106, i.e., under the regency of Deng Sui), since it concerns compassionate exemptions for those in high-ranking households:Footnote 231
丞相臣方進御史大夫臣光昧死口口諸官奴婢年五十六以上及罷癃不任事產口 (VT1611③:311).
The Chancellor Zhai Fangjin and Imperial Counsellor Kong Guang (ca. 15 bce?), courting death when making this proposal, … all those in servile status, male and female, aged 56 sui and above, plus the disabled who are unable to engage in productive work ….
