漢興以來諸侯王年表

The Grand Historian says: Before the Yin dynasty, the record is too remote. The Zhou enfeoffed lords in five ranks: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron. Yet Bo Qin and Kang Shu were given four hundred li each in Lu and Wei — honoring kinship and rewarding virtue. The Grand Duke received territory in Qi equal to five marquisates — honoring devoted service. The enfeoffments under Kings Wu, Cheng, and Kang numbered in the hundreds, of which fifty-five went to members of the royal surname, with domains ranging from a hundred li down to thirty — all to buttress the royal house. The states of Guan, Cai, Kang Shu, Cao, and Zheng sometimes exceeded and sometimes fell short of their grants. After Kings Li and You, the royal house weakened and powerful states among the earls and marquises arose. The Son of Heaven grew feeble and could no longer maintain order. This was not because virtue was impure, but because the configuration of power was weak.

When Han arose, it established two ranks. In the final years of Emperor Gaozu, the oath was made: any non-Liu who claimed the title of king, or any man without merit whom the emperor had not personally installed as marquis, should be put to death by the empire at large. Nine kingdoms were held by Gaozu's sons and brothers of the Liu surname. Though the sole exception was Changsha under a non-Liu king, meritorious ministers enfeoffed as marquises numbered over a hundred. From Yanmen and Taiyuan eastward to Liaoyang lay the kingdoms of Yan and Dai. South of Changshan, turning left at Taihang, crossing the Yellow and Ji Rivers, from E and Zhen east to the sea lay the kingdoms of Qi and Zhao. West from Chen, south to Jiuyi, east encompassing the Yangzi, Huai, Gu, and Si Rivers down to Kuaiji lay the kingdoms of Liang, Chu, Huainan, and Changsha — all bordering on Hu and Yue territory. The inner territories from north of the mountains eastward were entirely feudal land. The largest kingdoms spanned five or six commanderies, linking dozens of walled cities, establishing full bureaucracies and palace complexes that rivaled the emperor's. Han directly controlled only the Three Rivers, Dong Commandery, Yingchuan, Nanyang, from Jiangling west to Shu, north from Yunzhong to Longxi, plus the Capital District — altogether fifteen commanderies, within which princesses and ranked marquises also held revenue estates. Why? Because the realm had just been pacified, blood relatives of the surname were few, and so the junior branches were empowered to pacify the four quarters and shield the Son of Heaven.

Over the hundred years after Han's establishment, kinship ties grew distant. Some feudal kings became arrogant and extravagant; corrupted by scheming ministers, they fell into disorder. At worst they rebelled; at minimum they violated the law, endangering their lives and destroying their states. The Son of Heaven studied the precedents of high antiquity, then extended a grace: he allowed the feudal lords to distribute favor by subdividing their territory among their sons. Thus Qi was divided into seven, Zhao into six, Liang into five, Huainan into three. The emperor's own junior sons became kings, and the kings' junior sons became marquises — over a hundred in all. During and after the Wu-Chu rebellion, various feudal lords had territory stripped for offenses. Yan and Dai lost their northern border commanderies; Wu, Huainan, and Changsha lost their southern ones; the outlying commanderies, famous mountains, lakes, and seacoasts of Qi, Zhao, Liang, and Chu were all absorbed by Han. The feudal lords gradually diminished: the largest kingdoms held no more than a dozen cities, the smallest marquises no more than a few dozen li. Their revenue sufficed above to fulfill tribute obligations and below to maintain ancestral sacrifices, serving as a protective screen for the capital. The Han commanderies now numbered eighty or ninety, interleaved among the feudal territories like interlocking teeth, controlling the strategic passes and geographic advantages — strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches, so that the hierarchy was clear and everything found its proper place.

Your servant Qian has carefully recorded the feudal lords from Gaozu through the Taichu era, tabulating their gains and losses over time, so that present and future generations may review them. However strong the configuration of power, the foundation must always be humanity and duty.