魏其武安侯列傳

Dou Ying, Marquis of Weiqi, was a cousin's son of Empress Dowager Dou. He loved entertaining guests. When the Queen Mother suggested the throne should pass to the King of Liang, Dou Ying objected: "The realm belongs to the Grand Progenitor. Father-to-son succession is the compact of Han." The Queen Mother was furious and struck him from the palace rolls.

During the Wu-Chu Rebellion of 154 BC, no member of the Dou clan was as capable as Dou Ying. He was appointed General-in-Chief and given a thousand catties of gold. He distributed all the gold to his officers, keeping nothing. He recommended men like Yuan Ang and held Xingyang to monitor the Qi and Zhao fronts. After the rebellion was crushed, he was enfeoffed as Marquis of Weiqi. Guests and traveling scholars flocked to him. Under Emperor Jing, no one at court dared rival the Marquis of Weiqi and the Marquis of Tiao.

Dou Ying was appointed Tutor to Heir Apparent Li, but when the heir was deposed, Dou Ying protested and failed. He withdrew to a country estate for months. A retainer warned him that his close relationship with the emperor and the Empress Dowager made withdrawal dangerous. Dou Ying returned to court.

Tian Fen, Marquis of Wuan, was the half-brother of Empress Wang (Emperor Wu's mother). When Dou Ying was at the height of his power, Fen was merely a gentleman-attendant, waiting on Dou Ying like a son. As Emperor Jing's reign drew to a close, Fen's influence grew through his mother's connections. After Emperor Wu ascended, Fen was enfeoffed as Marquis of Wuan.

Fen was ambitious and courted scholars to rival Dou Ying. When the chancellorship fell vacant, through maneuvering Dou Ying became Chancellor and Fen became Grand Commandant. They promoted Confucian scholars and attempted reforms — establishing the Imperial Academy, recalling lords to their domains, removing border restrictions. But Empress Dowager Dou, a devotee of Huang-Lao teachings, was hostile to Confucianism. When the Confucian Zhao Wan petitioned that matters no longer be reported to the Empress Dowager's court, she was enraged. She had Zhao Wan and Wang Zang arrested and dismissed both the Chancellor and Grand Commandant.

After Empress Dowager Dou died, Fen became Chancellor. His power exceeded any previous minister. He recommended men who rose overnight to high office. The emperor finally said: "Have you finished appointing officials? I would like to make some appointments too." Fen's mansion was the grandest in the capital; his wives numbered in the hundreds; lords sent him endless treasures.

Guan Fu of Yingyin was famed for his reckless bravery during the Wu-Chu Rebellion — when his father was killed, he charged alone into the Wu lines with a dozen riders, reaching the enemy commander's banner before fighting his way back. He was a man of violent temper who bullied the powerful and championed the weak. His family accumulated immense wealth in Yingchuan; the local children sang: "When the Ying River runs clear, the Guan clan is at peace; when the Ying River runs muddy, the Guan clan will be destroyed."

As both Dou Ying and Guan Fu lost influence, they clung to each other, their friendship becoming like that of father and son. When Tian Fen casually promised to visit Dou Ying but failed to show up, Guan Fu was furious. At a banquet celebrating Tian Fen's marriage to a Yan princess, Guan Fu drunkenly insulted guest after guest. Tian Fen had him arrested, then dug up all past offenses of the Guan clan, securing death sentences for the entire family.

Dou Ying tried to save Guan Fu by petitioning the emperor, defending him as a hero whose drunken rudeness did not merit execution. Tian Fen counterattacked, accusing Dou Ying and Guan Fu of harboring seditious ambitions. When the emperor polled his court, the Censor-in-Chief Han Anguo said both sides had valid points. Most officials were too afraid to speak. Empress Dowager Wang (Tian Fen's sister) was furious and said: "While I am alive, people already trample my brother — what will happen after I die?" The emperor had no choice but to side with Tian Fen.

Dou Ying was arrested and charged with fabricating an imperial edict. He claimed Emperor Jing had left him a testamentary decree granting him the right to memorialize directly. But when the archives were checked, no such decree existed — the document was found only in Dou Ying's home, sealed by his house steward. Dou Ying was convicted of forging an imperial edict, a capital crime. In the tenth month of the fifth year, Guan Fu and his entire clan were executed. Dou Ying, upon hearing this, was so stricken with rage that he fell ill and refused to eat. Rumors reached him that the emperor might spare him, and he began eating again. But then anonymous accusations reached the throne, and Dou Ying was executed at Weicheng on the last day of the twelfth month.

That spring, Tian Fen fell ill. He screamed and begged forgiveness from invisible presences. A shaman summoned to examine him saw the ghosts of Dou Ying and Guan Fu guarding and trying to kill him. Tian Fen died. His son succeeded to the marquisate but was later stripped of the title.

When the Huainan conspiracy was later investigated, it emerged that Tian Fen had once told the King of Huainan: "If the emperor should die, who should succeed but you?" The emperor said: "Had Tian Fen still been alive, his entire clan would have been destroyed."

The Grand Historian remarks: Both Weiqi and Wuan rose through their connections as imperial in-laws. Guan Fu won fame through a single moment of desperate courage. Weiqi's glory came from the Wu-Chu crisis; Wuan's power came from imperial transitions. Yet Weiqi did not understand the times, Guan Fu had no tact, and the two reinforced each other into catastrophe. Wuan abused his power and, over a cup of wine, destroyed two worthy men. Alas! Displaced rage fell on others, yet his own life was not prolonged.