Person156 BC – 87 BC

Emperor Wu of Han

Seventh Han emperor who destroyed Gojoseon and set up commanderies

He came to the throne at sixteen and reigned for fifty-four years. On Dong Zhongshu’s advice he made Confucianism the state ideology and founded the Imperial Academy, and he was the first to use reign titles (Jianyuan). He sent Wei Qing and Huo Qubing against the Xiongnu and Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, and destroyed Nanyue and Gojoseon, setting up commanderies in their lands. To pay for his wars he created the salt and iron monopolies and the equable-transport and price-stabilisation systems. In old age he lost his crown prince in the witchcraft scandal and issued the Luntai edict regretting the burden on his people.

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4 related events

1
141 BC – 87 BCThe Reign of Emperor Wu of Hanmonarch
Emperor Wu made Confucianism the ideology of the state and greatly expanded Han territory by campaigns against the Xiongnu, Nanyue and Gojoseon, paying for them with salt and iron monopolies and price-stabilisation measures.
2
139 BC – 126 BCZhang Qian’s Missions to the Western Regions and the Silk Roadrelated figure
Emperor Wu sent Zhang Qian to the Yuezhi to form an alliance against the Xiongnu. The alliance failed, but knowledge of the Western Regions opened the Silk Road linking China with western Asia and the Mediterranean.
3
109 BC – 108 BCFall of Gojoseonmonarch
Emperor Wu of Han captured Wanggeom-seong and destroyed Gojoseon, setting up four commanderies including Lelang.
4
91 BCSima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historianrelated figure
Sima Qian completed the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), a history from the legendary Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of Han organised around imperial annals and biographies.

People who appear alongside

Zhang Qian114 BC
Han envoy sent west by Emperor Wu; he failed to win an alliance with the Yuezhi but brought back the first detailed knowledge of the Western Regions
King Ugeo108 BC
Wiman's grandson and last king of Gojoseon, assassinated during the Han siege
Sima Qian145 BC
Western Han historian who endured castration to complete the Records of the Grand Historian, the first annals-and-biographies history; some date his birth to 135 BCE

Themes this person appears in

Ancient China and India770 BC – AD 220
From the Hundred Schools of the Warring States to the unified empires of Qin and Han, and from the Buddha to the Maurya and Kushan empires — the millennium that shaped East and South Asian civilisation
Pyongyang194 BC – 2007
From Wanggeom-seong of Gojoseon to the inter-Korean summits — capital of Goguryeo, Western Capital of Goryeo, the great city on the Taedong