Source: TW
The first Emperor of Han, Liu Bang or Emperor Gao, once narrowly avoided an assassination plot. But the real story came after the plot was foiled… After the collapse of Qin, the Chinese realm was divided up into many domains. In his subsequent war to dominate the whole realm, Liu Bang allied with one of these leaders: the King of Zhao, Zhang Er. At one point Zhang Er lost his domain, but thanks to Liu Bang he recovered it. Soon after Liu Bang’s final victory and acclamation as Emperor, Zhang Er passed away. He was succeeded as King of Zhao by his son, Zhang Ao, who was also Emperor Gao’s son-in-law. Following his conquest of the realm, Emperor Gao attempted to fight the Xiongnu to the north, but suffered a strategic defeat. He stayed in Zhao for a while on his way home, and although Zhang Ao showed him the utmost courtesy, Emperor Gao acted extremely rude and crude to him. Offended both by Emperor Gao’s behavior and by Zhang Ao’s meek acceptance of his humiliation, several of Zhang Ao’s ministers, including Guan Gao, asked his permission to kill Emperor Gao. But Zhang Ao refused, saying that this would be the height of ingratitude. Although their king’s virtue moved Guan Gao and the others, they resolved to instead carry out the plot on their own initiative without involving Zhang Ao at all, in order to cleanse the stain on their own honor as proud subjects of Zhao. Later, when Emperor Gao was returning south from fighting a rebel in the north, he was passing by a certain county. Unbeknownst to him, Guan Gao and the others had predicted his movements and had arranged for an assassin to lie in wait inside the local lodge. However, Emperor Gao had a sudden premonition, and upon being told the name of the county, he felt it was too similar to an ominous phrase (along the lines of having a “Gacha/Gotcha” county) and decided not to spend the night there instead. The government was later tipped off about the plot leaders. Orders were sent out to arrest both them and Zhang Ao, as it was naturally assumed that he must have been the mastermind behind the whole conspiracy. When the other plot leaders realized they were about to be arrested (likely resulting in torture and execution), they were all about to kill themselves instead. But Guan Gao scolded them, arguing that they had to live to prove Zhang Ao’s innocence, so they submitted. Zhang Ao and the plot leaders were then sent to the capital; Zhang Ao remained under house arrest until his involvement could be ascertained, while the rest were harshly interrogated in prison. Yet despite being so tortured and beaten that “no spot on his entire body remained unwounded”, Guan Gao remained adamant that Zhang Ao was innocent. Since pain wasn’t working, Emperor Gao tried a different approach. He found an old neighbor of Guan Gao’s and sent him to bring him some creature comforts while tending to his injuries. Then the neighbor took the chance to ask, “But Zhang Ao isn’t really innocent, is he?” Guan Gao responded, “Who in this world does not love their wife and children? Yet because of my testimony, my own are facing the threat of associated execution. Would I really go so far as that to cover up for my king, if it were just a lie? I swear, he had no hand in it.” Finally convinced, Emperor Gao decided to pardon Zhang Ao and send him back to his fief; however, just to be sure, he still had Zhang Ao demoted in rank from king to marquis. He was even so impressed by Guan Gao’s resolve that he decided to pardon him as well. Yet when his neighbor informed him of these developments, Guan Gao replied,
“I was determined not to die only in order to establish the King’s innocence. Now that he has been released, I can die without regret. Besides, how could I in good conscience resume serving under the same man I tried to assassinate? Even if he won’t kill me, I could never bear the shame!”
And he promptly stretched out his neck and slit his throat.
The Later Han writer Xun Yue deeply disapproved of Guan Gao’s supposed morality:
“Guan Gao was the head of a rebellious plot, a villain who planned to kill his sovereign. Although it is true that he exonerated his king through his testimony, a small virtue does not cancel out a great evil nor does personal conduct redeem a public crime. By the principles of the Spring and Autumn Annals, proportionality must be taken into account; there is such a thing as an unpardonable offense.”
The historian Sima Guang added this coda: Emperor Gao lost his subject’s loyalty through his arrogance; Guan Gao lost his lord’s estate through his stubbornness. It was Emperor Gao’s fault that Guan Gao plotted treason; it was Guan Gao’s crime that cost Zhang Ao his domain.