Emperor Wu of Han汉武帝

Style & Daoist names

Liu Che, Emperor Shizong of Han

Period

Western Han

Dates

156 BCE — 87 BCE

School

Fangxian Dao (Way of the Fangshi and Immortality-seekers), Huang–Lao Daoism

Role

Daoism-Venerating EmperorsSeeker of Immortality

Birthplace

Chang'an

Places of activity

Mount Tai (Taishan)

Life

Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che) is the most famous immortality-seeking ruler in Chinese history; the "Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices" in the Records of the Grand Historian is devoted almost entirely to his reign. He successively trusted fangshi such as Li Shaojun (who claimed to be able to sacrifice to the hearth and transform cinnabar into gold, and to summon the immortals of Penglai), Shaoweng (who used esoteric arts to summon the spirit of Lady Wang and was enfeoffed as General Wencheng), Luan Da (enfeoffed as General Wuli and married to Princess Weichang, later executed by being cut in two at the waist when his arts proved ineffective), and Gongsun Qing (who urged the emperor to perform the feng and shan sacrifices and seek immortality on the strength of the tale of Huangdi casting a tripod and ascending to Heaven). In the first year of the Yuanfeng era (110 BCE) he performed the feng and shan sacrifices at Mount Tai, and thereafter repeatedly toured the coast in search of Penglai, established shrines to Taiyi (the Supreme One) and Houtu (the Empress of Earth), built the Bailiang Terrace and the Dew-Receiving Platform to seek immortal dew, and sent fangshi out to sea without cease. In his later years he issued the Edict of Luntai, repenting of "the affairs by which I have burdened and wearied the empire," and put an end to the fangshi's pursuit of spirits and marvels. The significance of Emperor Wu's reign lies in this: through it the Fangxian Dao completed its union with state sacrifice (Taiyi, the feng and shan sacrifices), and the elements of alchemical gold-making, immortality-seeking, Five-Phases omenology and the pantheon of immortals were integrated into official religion, preparing the conditions for the establishment of Eastern Han Daoism. Later Daoism also produced immortal biographies centered on him, such as the Esoteric Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han and the Han Wu dongming ji (Records of Communing with the Mysterious under Emperor Wu of Han), elaborating the descent of the Queen Mother of the West and her bestowal upon him of the Chronicle of the Seven Sages and the True Form Charts of the Five Marchmounts — accounts far removed from those of the official histories.

Contributions & Influence

• Trusted fangshi on a large scale, uniting the Fangxian Dao with state sacrifice (Taiyi, the feng and shan sacrifices)
• Performed the feng and shan sacrifices at Mount Tai, establishing the ritual connection between Han-dynasty rulers and immortality belief
• His court became an institutional breeding ground for alchemy, immortality-seeking and Five-Phases numerology, directly preparing the way for the formation of Eastern Han Daoism
• Gave rise in Daoist literature to important immortal-biography texts such as the Esoteric Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han

Works

• (attributed to) the Esoteric Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han
• (attributed to) the Han Wu Dongming ji (Record of Emperor Wu of Han's Communion with the Hidden)

Legends

The Esoteric Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han records that on the seventh day of the seventh month the Queen Mother of the West descended, bestowing four peaches of immortality and conferring upon him the True Form Charts of the Five Marchmounts and the Lingfei liujia (Flying Spirit Six Jia Method), but that because Emperor Wu could not keep the precepts he never attained the Dao; the strange things from beyond the ordinary world recorded in the Han Wu dongming ji are likewise Daoist immortal-biography material from the Wei-Jin period and after, not historical fact.