At first, Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Li Shanchang relied on his own achievements and disregarded national laws, and even amassed wealth recklessly. He suggested that he go home to retire, and Li Shanchang had to retire due to illness. After Li Shanchang left, Zhu Yuanzhang had no intention of appointing a prime minister again, but in order to appease the group of meritorious officials, he could not do so immediately, but needed to plan it slowly.
One day, Zhu Yuanzhang brought Liu Bowen over and asked him who could become the prime minister after Li Shanchang, and whether Yang Xian could do it? Li Shanchang said that Yang Xian has the talent to be a prime minister, but without the demeanor to be a prime minister, he cannot. Zhu Yuanzhang asked again, how is Wang Guangyang? Liu Bowen said that his aura is even smaller than Yang Xian’s, absolutely not! Zhu Yuanzhang followed up and asked, ‘Is Hu Weiyong okay?’? Liu Bowen said that the Prime Minister is like a horse driving a car, and I am worried that he may overturn the carriage. The implication is that Hu Weiyong is definitely a good person.
After listening to Liu Bowen’s words, Zhu Yuanzhang deeply agreed, but he still appointed Yang Xian, Wang Guangyang, and Hu Weiyong as prime ministers successively. Yang Xian and Wang Guangyang were killed one after another, leaving only Hu Weiyong to monopolize power. Many people may wonder why Zhu Yuanzhang still valued these three people, even though Liu Bowen said they were no longer suitable ministers?
The truth is actually very simple. If Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to completely depose the Prime Minister, he had to first make everyone who had held this position corrupt and make people realize that the position of Prime Minister was no longer appropriate. Only then could he take advantage of the situation and completely depose him.
As for Hu Weiyong, Zhu Yuanzhang had already noticed his various misdeeds, but still boldly delegated power to him, which was actually a strategy of supporting and killing him. The real Hu Weiyong in history was promoted by Li Shanchang. He was cautious and meticulous, but his measurement was even smaller than that of Yang Xian and Wang Guangyang. When Liu Bowen told Zhu Yuanzhang that he could not be a prime minister, he held a grudge and had been looking for opportunities to protect Liu Bowen.
In the fourth year of the Hongwu reign, Liu Bowen decided to retire bravely and return to his hometown in Qingtian to retire. Zhu Yuanzhang recognized his contributions and allowed him to retain his salary. He could attend the annual pilgrimage regularly. On the New Year’s Day of the eighth year of Hongwu, Liu Bowen attended the Great Court Meeting and wrote a poem to praise Zhu Yuanzhang’s great achievements, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very happy. Not long after, Liu Bowen heard that a group of bandits had launched a rebellion, but the local government turned a deaf ear. He felt very angry and wrote a memorial to report the matter to Zhu Yuanzhang.
At that time, Hu Weiyong served as the Right Prime Minister of the Central Secretariat, acting as the Left Prime Minister. According to normal procedures, Liu Bowen’s memorial should be sent to the Central Secretariat first, reviewed by Hu Weiyong, and then submitted to Zhu Yuanzhang. However, Liu Bowen did not like Hu Weiyong, so he had his eldest son Liu Lian send the memorial to the palace and directly present it to Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang quickly dealt with the matter, which made Hu Weiyong, who was in charge of all affairs in the world, feel very embarrassed.
As retaliation, Hu Weiyong colluded with his followers to frame Liu Bowen, saying that Liu Bowen had set his sights on a piece of land with royal aura and was planning to take it over as a cemetery, but the common people refused.
Zhu Yuanzhang was not stupid. He knew that Hu Weiyong was framing Liu Bowen, but he was also dissatisfied with Liu Bowen, so he took the opportunity to deprive Liu Bowen of his salary. Liu Bowen was very frightened, so he stayed in the capital and dared not return to his hometown.
Not long after, Hu Weiyong was promoted to the position of Left Prime Minister and became the leader of the hundred officials. Upon learning of this, Liu Bowen couldn’t help but sigh and say to his sons, ‘If my prophecy doesn’t come true (referring to his telling Zhu Yuanzhang that Hu Weiyong cannot be prime minister), it will be a blessing for the people!’!
Huimingyang fled the army and rebelled, but the officials remained hidden and did not hear about it. The eldest son of Ji Ling submitted a report on his matter without first submitting it to the Central Secretariat. Hu Weiyong, as the Left Minister in charge of provincial affairs, took advantage of the previous regret and sent officials to criticize Ji, saying that there was a royal aura in the land of Tanyang, and that Ji Tu was a tomb, and the people were mistreated. Therefore, he requested to set up inspections and expel the people. Although the emperor did not offend Ji, he was quite moved and took Ji Lu. Fearing gratitude, he stayed in the capital and dared not return. Not long after, the mediocre minister, Ji Daqi, said, “If my words fail, the people will be blessed.” He was filled with sorrow, anger, and illness.
In late January, Liu Bowen was already ill, and coupled with his inner worries, he finally couldn’t get up.
After Zhu Yuanzhang learned of this matter, he dispatched Hu Weiyong with the imperial physician to treat Liu Bowen.
It has to be said that Zhu Yuanzhang’s approach had hidden secrets, because he knew that Liu Bowen and Hu Weiyong had a bad relationship, but he still wanted Hu Weiyong to visit Liu Bowen. It’s surprising that nothing happened.
As expected, Hu Weiyong had the imperial physician prescribe medicine for Liu Bowen. Liu Bowen instructed his family to take the medicine according to the prescription, but after drinking it, he suffered severe abdominal pain, as if there were many stones pressing against each other in his stomach.
In February, Liu Bowen’s pain still did not subside. He realized that it must be Hu Weiyong who had tampered, so he went to the palace to meet Zhu Yuanzhang while ill. He politely stated that Hu Weiyong had tampered with the medicine and described in detail the various discomforts he experienced after drinking it.
But what made Liu Bowen feel cold was that Zhu Yuanzhang seemed indifferent and only casually said a few words to ask him to rest at home. He knew it was useless to say too much, so he left the palace and returned home.
By the end of March, Liu Bowen’s condition was getting worse and worse, and he was completely unable to get down to the ground. Knowing that time was running out, he wrote a letter asking to return to his hometown for recuperation. Zhu Yuanzhang agreed and sent someone to escort him home. After returning home, Liu Bowen had lingering fears. He was worried that Hu Weiyong would bribe those around him to continue harming him, so he refused all the medicine given to him and only ate the food prepared by his sons, but his appetite was very small.
After staying at home for only a few days, Liu Bowen felt uneasy and called his two sons to his side to explain his affairs. He asked his eldest son Liu Lian to take out a book from his study and said to him, ‘After I die, you must deliver this book to the emperor in the capital as soon as possible. Don’t delay.’; From now on, do not let your descendants learn this subject again!
After saying this, Liu Bowen paused for a moment and then said to Liu Lian, ‘I asked you to hand over this book to the emperor to dispel his suspicion of your two brothers. However, the emperor is too suspicious, and this may not be effective. It’s better to burn it down to ensure the peace of the Liu family.’. So, what book did Liu Bowen have his son burn down?
The name of this book is “The Hundred Strategies of War”, which is the crystallization of Liu Bowen’s lifelong wisdom, including military, political, astronomical and geographical experience summaries. Zhu Yuanzhang had always wanted this book, but Liu Bowen did not come up with it, which is also one of the important reasons why Zhu Yuanzhang suspected him.
The reason why Liu Bowen did not allow his descendants to learn this subject is because he knew that his two sons lacked wisdom and could not learn its essence; More importantly, even if the two sons have enough wisdom and have learned the essence of the book, there is no room for them to apply it. Instead, they may suffer from Zhu Yuanzhang’s suspicion and bring disaster to the family. It is better not to learn and to live a peaceful life as ordinary people, which may not be a bad thing.
Liu Bowen asked Liu Lian to burn this book, and he readily agreed, but did not immediately implement it. As for how he handled this book, I will talk about it later.
After explaining the aftermath to Liu Lian, Liu Bowen said to his other son Liu Jing, ‘My last words to the emperor are all in this letter, and I offer my final thoughts and knowledge to the emperor. However, Hu Weiyong controls the Central Secretariat and cannot give them to the emperor yet. After Hu Weiyong’s defeat, if the emperor remembers me and asks you about my last words, you can secretly report them to him.’.
After saying these words, Liu Bowen fell into a coma and passed away shortly after at the age of 65. After the news of Liu Bowen’s death reached Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang felt very sad and sent Hu Weiyong to offer condolences. One of his purposes was to search for the book “The Hundred Strategies of War”. After Hu Weiyong arrived in Qingtian, the brothers Liu Lian and Liu Jing said that the book had already been burned. Hu Weiyong refused to give up, and the two brothers were worried about persecution. They had to hand over Liu Bowen’s other work “Yu Ionic” and a letter with a last will to Hu Weiyong, who then went back to give orders.
After seeing Liu Bowen’s relics, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the fable only recorded in “Yu Ionic” was useless, so he casually threw it aside and only opened the letter to check. Liu Bowen had a paragraph in the letter that roughly said:
The Hundred Strategies was meant for conquering the world, but it is no longer needed. In order to prevent it from falling into the hands of traitors, I burned it down; As for the book ‘Yu Ion’, it is my manuscript and I will leave it for you as a souvenir.
Due to not receiving “The Hundred Strategies”, Zhu Yuanzhang often felt uneasy about it, but what he didn’t know was that there were some pages with interlayers in that book, with each page containing a piece of paper, which together made up the complete “The Hundred Strategies”!
Why is this happening?
According to scholars’ speculation, Liu Lian may not agree with Liu Bowen’s viewpoint, but rather believe that handing over “The Hundred Strategies of War” to Zhu Yuanzhang is the best policy. In order to deceive people, he hid the book in “Yu Dianzi”. Later, Hu Weiyong came to request the book, and he came up with a plan to hand it over to him, hoping to take this opportunity to send the book to the imperial palace, which can be considered as a last resort for himself.
Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang, like Hu Weiyong, did not carefully examine “Yu Nian”. As a result, the book was placed in the palace’s storage room until Li Zicheng accidentally obtained it after entering Beijing. After carefully examining it, he discovered some clues and eventually obtained the book “The Hundred Strategies”, but he also failed to learn its essence.
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang did not receive the “Hundred Strategies” and could not sleep well for several months. One day, he came up with a plan to have Hu Weiyong conduct a large-scale search of the Liu family under the pretext of building a mansion and tomb for Liu Bowen, but the result was still nothing. From then on, he gradually began to believe that the “Hundred Strategies” had indeed been burned down. Let’s talk about the ending of the brothers Liu Lian and Liu Jing.
After Liu Bowen’s death, Zhu Yuanzhang did not issue an edict for them to inherit the Count of Chengxin, which may be closely related to his fear and resentment towards Liu Bowen.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang still greatly appreciated Liu Bowen’s eldest son Liu Lian. He once appointed him as an examiner and censor, and later appointed him to participate in politics in Jiangxi. He did a very good job during his tenure and once told Hu Weiyong that he was preparing to transfer him back to Beijing for important positions.
However, just before Zhu Yuanzhang issued the order, Hu Weiyong, fearing that Liu Lian would seek revenge for his father after gaining power, sent his followers to coerce Liu Lian. Helpless, Liu Lian had to throw himself into a well and die at the age of 32, leaving behind several sons, among whom the eldest son was named Liu Yan.
He was appointed as a Right Councillor in the Jiangxi Provincial Government and was threatened by Hu Weiyong’s party, resulting in his death by falling into a well.
After Liu Lian’s death, Zhu Yuanzhang highly valued Liu Jing and asked him to follow Tang Shengzong to quell the rebellion. He performed very well, and Zhu Yuanzhang once praised him happily, saying that he was the son of Zhen Bowen.
In the 23rd year of the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang began to capture Hu Weiyong and his followers who showed signs of rebellion, and thus deposed the position of Prime Minister.
After Hu Weiyong’s death, Zhu Yuanzhang pitied Liu Bowen and Liu Lian’s father and son for being killed by Hu Weiyong, and ordered Liu Jing to inherit the title of Count of Sincerity. However, Liu Jing voluntarily submitted a letter to his nephew Liu Hao, and Zhu Yuanzhang agreed, but still appointed him as the envoy of the sect and rewarded him with an iron scroll to “eliminate traitors and enemies”. Holding this iron scroll can correct all officials.
In the Battle of Jingnan, Emperor Jianwen believed that Liu Jing had a good understanding of military affairs and ordered him to follow General Li Jinglong on the expedition. However, Li Jinglong was just a paper soldier with no practical experience, and he was stubborn and did not follow Liu Jing’s advice, resulting in a major defeat.
After the failure of Li Jinglong, Liu Jing went to the capital to advise the emperor and submitted the “Wen Jian Lu”, elaborating on his military suggestions in tens of thousands of words. However, Emperor Jianwen did not adopt them, and he believed that Emperor Jianwen would undoubtedly be defeated. Therefore, he retired to the countryside and no longer intervened in court affairs.
After Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, he heard that Liu Jing was very talented, so he sent someone to invite him to serve in the capital. However, he refused on the grounds of being a loyal minister and not serving two masters. Zhu Di became angry and embarrassed, so he sent someone to capture him in the capital. When he saw Zhu Di, he did not call him “long live”, but instead addressed him as “Your Highness” and said to Zhu Di, “In a hundred years, you may not escape the reputation of usurping the throne.
Zhu Di saw that Liu Jing was not convinced and threw him into prison. Unable to bear the humiliation, Liu Jing hanged himself at the age of 52.
Li Jinglong’s military command. Jinglong was defeated, and Jingye crossed the Lugou River. The ice cracked and the horse sank, and they traveled thirty miles in the snow. Zi Bi went to disaster from Datong and met a good hometown, returning with him. I went to the ‘Wen Jian Lu’ and didn’t hesitate, so I went back to my hometown. Emperor Chengzu ascended to the throne, summoned Jing, and declared himself ill and unable to reach his destination. Captured in the capital, still referred to as His Highness. And it is said, “Your Highness, after a hundred lifetimes, you cannot escape the word ‘usurpation’.” He was imprisoned and died. In this way, Liu Bowen’s sons all died, but his descendants did not withdraw from the historical stage. Regarding Liu Bowen’s grandchildren, only Liu Xiao is recorded in history, but it can be confirmed that he had other grandchildren, although no names or deeds have been left behind.
After inheriting the title of Count Chengxin, Liu Xiao was appointed as a special advanced Guanglu Dafu, a first-class official. However, he was well aware of the dangers of the officialdom, so he had no intention of pursuing an official career and resigned from his position to return to his hometown. He lived in Pangu (now Xinzhai Changshou Village, Nantian Town, Wencheng County, Wenzhou City) and devoted himself to organizing his grandfather Liu Bowen’s literary collection.
Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang had good intentions, but Liu Xiao learned from Liu Bowen’s lofty character, which made him very unhappy. Therefore, he found a criminal and demoted him to the border defense in Gansu, and even removed his title. It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang’s death that he was pardoned by Emperor Jianwen.
During the reigns of Emperor Jianwen and Emperor Zhu Di, people were sent to summon Liu Xiao to the court as an official, but he refused on the grounds of serving his relatives and guarding his tomb. Instead, he devoted himself to studying in his hometown, indulging in the scenery and living a fulfilling life. He passed away at the age of 52. After Liu Hao, the hereditary succession of Prince Chengxin was interrupted. It was not until the Jiajing period that Emperor Jiajing remembered Liu Bowen’s contributions and found Liu Yu, Liu Hao’s sixth grandson, to inherit the Count of Chengxin and present him with an hereditary iron scroll. He became the third generation Prince Chengxin.
After Liu Yu’s death, his grandson Liu Shiyan inherited his title and was in charge of the Right Army Commander’s Office, participating in the pacification of the Nanjing Zhenwu Camp mutiny. This was in the late Jiajing period, when he was stripped of his title due to his incompetence in handling affairs. However, after Emperor Longqing succeeded to the throne, his title was restored. In the 34th year of the Wanli reign, it is unknown what crime Liu Shiyan committed, but he was executed by Emperor Wanli. His grandson Liu Jinchen inherited the title, but Liu Jinchen passed away after only a decade of reign. His son Liu Kongzhao inherited the title in the third year of Tianqi.
From the first generation of Chengxin Bo Liu Bowen to Liu Kongzhao, a total of six generations were passed down. However, the hereditary status of Chengxin Bo after Liu Kongzhao is unknown. It is only known that during the Southern Ming Dynasty, Liu Kongzhao was posthumously conferred the title of Chengxin Hou. Therefore, it seems that he may be the last generation of Chengxin Bo. Overall, due to Liu Bowen’s high talent, he was suspected by Zhu Yuanzhang, which indirectly led to his and his son Liu Lian being persecuted by Hu Weiyong; Liu Bowen’s other son, Liu Jing, also had a bad ending, but his loyalty was touching and did not tarnish Liu Bowen’s reputation.
Liu Bowen’s descendants are generally doing well and have benefited greatly from him. It is said that his descendants have flourished and now have descendants in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shaanxi and other places.
