Liu Ji, the grandfather of Emperor Gaozu Xuan Di, was slandered as "violent", which shows that on the one hand, it is difficult for ministers to reverse his conviction for disobeying Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty; But on the other hand, he also considered his predicament at that time to a certain extent, and realized that he had done something completely out of line with his personality in an extraordinary state, and ruled out his rebellious subjectivity, which was actually to clear the name of the prince. And such posthumous title can be made public, which shows that he is not evil. Here, Emperor Xuan Di accepted his grandfather's "violent" posthumous title, not because of resentment. On the contrary, as far as Xuan Di himself is concerned, this posthumous title contains the meaning of rehabilitating his grandfather.
Shortly after the "witchcraft disaster", Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty realized that the prince had no intention of rebellion. However, in view of the fact that the prince met him in the war and the political taboo during the change of imperial power, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only did very limited rehabilitation work for the prince in the latter half of his life. Xuan Di, Emperor Gaozu, was also involved in this "witchcraft disaster" and was put into the county prison. Wang Wei's rehabilitation is closely related to Xuan Di's life path.
Without violating etiquette, the limited rehabilitation of his grandfather Wang Wei was supported by Huo Guang, although he had the initiative to completely rehabilitate his grandfather. However, after Xuan Di's death, the rehabilitation of Wang Wei was still carried out within a certain range, which was not complete. Moreover, the rules of the inheritance system forced Xuan Di to do so. Ministers said that Xuan Di was a "filial queen" and could be a "filial queen". Since he inherited Zhao Di's inheritance, he was not allowed to take his grandfather Herry Liu as the orthodoxy. Xuan Di before the abolition of Changyi Wang, one of the charges is:
"The ancestral temple was not raised, the messenger held a sacrifice for the book, and the three prison temples in Changyi mourned the Roy Temple, which was called the heir."
Xuan Di should know that if he worships his grandfather first, it will be suicide. In addition, Zhao Di Emperor Shangguan is Huo Guang's granddaughter. Once you worship the Prince Wei, but the orthodox queen mother, then the status of the Shangguan emperor is bound to decrease, which is probably not what Huo Guang would like to see. Most importantly, the fact that King Zhong Wei and Emperor Wu confronted each other cannot be surpassed by any explanation. What Xuan Di can do is to excuse Wang Wei from subjective motives as much as possible.
The biography of Wu Wuzi in Hanshu records the appointment process of posthumous title Wang Wei, who was invited by the minister to play:
The obituary law says, "Those who mourn also have traces of their deeds." Stupidly, they think it is right to mourn for their loved ones, mother said after mourning.
Justice in Historical Records interprets it as "no regrets" and further interprets it as "knowing without changing". But in fact, this explanation is unreasonable. Wang Wei died of witchcraft, and he has passed away. Where is repentance or non-repentance? Whether he is "unrepentant" or "knowing and not changing" is the premise for future generations to judge. After the disaster of witchcraft, Wang Wei continued to live in the world. Otherwise, imposing one's own subjective judgment on the subjective world of the deceased becomes a mistake and an unfounded denial. Therefore, as the article said at the beginning, "grumpiness" is not evil.
Correcting Wang Wei's name is bound to conflict with the principle of "filial piety first, then Zhao" and hurt Huo Guang's interests to some extent. If Huo Guang objects, Xuan Di, who has just ascended the throne, will not and cannot go against the trend. It can be speculated that Xuan Di's action to rehabilitate King Wei should be supported by Huo Guang, which may also be to resolve the contradictory factors in the process of abolishing King Chang Yi in Huo Guang not long ago.
Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty is the grandson of Emperor Zhao, and it seems unreasonable for a grandson to "be the heir of Emperor Zhao" and leave a generation in the middle. This is also the first time in the Han Dynasty. Ban Gu thinks that the son of the Prince of Yan can't be established because "the Prince of Yan stabbed the king, and his son is not under discussion". However, isn't Liu Ji, the grandfather of Emperor Xuan Di, the eldest son of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty? Isn't it also the person who committed the great crime of rebellion? Why can his grandson be emperor? This contradictory approach makes it inevitable to publicly rehabilitate Wang Wei.
Of course, compared with the fierce controversy over the definition of temple music by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there was no great obstacle to vindicating Prince Wei. The reason lies in the innocence of Prince Wei, Tian's "unfair accusation against the Prince", Hu Guan's three old Mao's confession in a letter, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's "thinking about the uterus and looking forward to returning to the lake", which leads to sadness. "Thus, the society is generally sympathetic to Wang Wei's" rebellion ".
Secondly, Xuan Di, Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, dealt with the problem of Wang Wei's rehabilitation within the scope of the ritual system, and adhered to the principle of "courtesy without exceeding leisure". In other words, Emperor Xuan Di's rehabilitation of his grandfather did not break through the restrictions of relevant ceremonies. He tried his best to clear his grandfather's name, without denying the orthodoxy of Emperor Zhao Di. Later, Emperor Ai of Han Dynasty, while inheriting the emperor's orthodoxy, respected his biological father, King Tao Gong, as Emperor Gong, and his grandmother, Empress Fu, as a concubine, and then stood side by side with Empress Dowager Tai, causing controversy among courtiers. With reference to this example, we can realize that Emperor Xuan Di's practice of "giving gifts without exceeding leisure" was easily accepted by his ministers.
Thirdly, rehabilitating Wang Wei is an important step to establish "Emperor Wu's orthodoxy" with Huo Guang. When discussing the temple number to Emperor Wu, officials and officials declared that "this imperial decree is also". Compared with the negative and dominant evaluation of Emperor Wu at the Salt and Iron Conference, the courtiers obviously sided to the opposite position. They clearly realized the situation at that time: the establishment of orthodoxy was the common pursuit of the emperor himself and Huo Guang, and they could also feel the internal relationship between rehabilitating Wang Wei and establishing the orthodoxy of Emperor Wu. Therefore, they have no objection to Wang Wei's rehabilitation.
To sum up, posthumous title's "sin" was the helpless choice of Emperor Gaozu for his grandfather Liu Pingfan, not out of resentment.