The Edict of Extending Favors

In the early Western Han the feudal kings were powerful: some openly defied officials sent by the court, and some rebelled. Although the Rebellion of the Seven States weakened the kings, certain kingdoms still stretched a thousand li and held dozens of cities, a latent threat to the center, while local magnates also annexed land and defied the authorities. After Emperor Wu took the throne, the minister Zhufu Yan memorialized that forcibly stripping land would provoke resistance and rebellion, as Chao Cuo's attempt to reduce the kingdoms had done; better to let the kings extend their favor to all their sons and divide the kingdom among them as fiefs. In 127 BC Emperor Wu adopted this, decreeing that apart from the eldest legitimate son, who inherited the kingship, a king might divide his land among his other sons as marquisates, with titles set by the emperor. These marquisates belonged to the commanderies and were governed directly by the center. This was the “Edict of Extending Favors.” It seemed a kindness to the kings but in practice made kingdoms ever smaller; they were “weakened without being cut down,” and it provoked little resistance. Emperor Wu later stripped over a hundred marquises of their rank on grounds such as substandard gold offered in sacrifice. To tighten oversight of localities he also divided the realm into 13 inspectorates, each with an inspector who monitored local officials and magnates for the court. After these measures the feudal kings never recovered, the problem of the kingdoms was largely settled, central control grew greatly, and the unity of the Western Han was consolidated.