Lu Gong (32-112 CE) was an Eastern Han minister and an expert on the Odes who participated in the White Tiger Hall conference (see source 2.7). In 89 CE, he made an unsuccessful attempt at blocking Dou Xian’s expedition against the Northern Xiongnu by submitting a memorial to Emperor He. (r. 88-106 CE). Like the Baihu tong and Hanshu (see source 2.8), these excerpts from the memorial reflect a rhetorical strategy of denigrating the barbarians, claiming that their qi is different from that of the Chinese, and advocating a “bridling” relationship rather than conquest and direct rule. Lu Gong seems to have feared that a costly military campaign would destabilize the empire at a time when north China was suffering from drought and famine, but he evidently believed that his argument would be more effective if he played up the contrast in value between Chinese lives and barbarian lives.

Lu Gong’s memorial is preserved in his biography in the Hou Hanshu, a “dynastic history” of the Eastern Han modeled on the Hanshu. Its author, the fifth-century historian Fan Ye (398-446), composed the text by synthesizing materials from numerous earlier accounts of Eastern Han history (most of which are no longer extant).

~~~~~

Your Majesty, you have gone without food for days in your sagely preoccupation with matters of war. Truly you wish to bring peace and stability to our northern frontier and eliminate threats to the people for ten thousand generations to come. But I, your subject, have humbly pondered this plan and cannot see how it is appropriate. The welfare of the state and the lives of the people all hinge on this decision. For years now, the fall harvest has been poor and people have lacked food. Our granaries are empty and our reserves are spent….

To launch a campaign now, at the height of spring, disrupting the whole subcelestial realm, for the purpose of attacking barbarians (Rong-Yi), is surely not the way to demonstrate grace to the Central Lands, regulate the seasons in accordance with the new reign era¹, and extend good governance from those inside to those outside.

The people are Heaven’s creatures. Heaven loves them like parents love their children. If even one animal or plant is out of place, the weather goes awry because of it. How much more so when it happens to human beings? Therefore, he who loves and cherishes the people will surely earn Heaven’s reward…. As for the barbarians (Rong-Di), they are made of anomalous qi from the four quarters of the world. They squat in an unseemly manner and sit with their legs rudely splayed out, no different from animals.² If they were to live scattered across the Central Lands, they would throw the climate into disorder and pollute all our good people. That is why the sage-kings’ policy was only to bridle (jimi) them and not cut them off entirely….

In the Guanzhong region, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou, there has been little rain, the wheat is withering, and more and more cattle are dying daily.³ This is a sign that the campaign does not accord with Heaven’s wishes. The ministers and the people all say it cannot be done. How could Your Majesty ignore their words and throw the people’s lives away for the sake of your own plans? Observing both Heaven’s wishes above and the people’s sentiments below should be enough for you to judge whether it would be right or wrong to go to war. I, your subject, fear that the Central Lands will not stay the Central Lands for long—it wouldn’t just be the Xiongnu who collapse and fall!

---

1. Emperor He had recently adopted his first reign era, Yongyuan, on the first day of the lunar new year in 89 CE. ↩︎
2. The Chinese regarded sitting with one’s legs extended or splayed out to be a rude, barbaric practice. The proper sitting postures were kneeling and (less formally) cross-legged. ↩︎
3. Guanzhong corresponded to the Wei River valley in Shaanxi, Bingzhou to Shanxi, and Liangzhou to Gansu. ↩︎