[3] The poet Sima Xiangru wrote a song The Ode of Long Gate (長門賦 Changmenfu) describing the love between Empress Chen Jiao and Emperor Liu Che.

Lady Li died soon after, and Liu Rong was arrested two years later for illegally seizing imperial shrine lands and committed suicide in custody.

However, according to the Wei-Jin era Hanwu Stories (漢武故事 / 汉武故事), during a royal gathering, Princess Guantao held the young prince in her arms and asked him whether he wanted to marry a girl.

After rejecting the choice of dozens of palace maids, Princess Guantao eventually showed her daughter Chen Jiao to Liu Che, who bragged that he would "build a golden house for her" if they were married.

Nepotism among the ruling classes also stagnated social mobility, as well as encouraged rampant disregard of laws by nobles, which led to the rise of local despots who bullied and oppressed other civilians.

The heqin policy also failed to protect the Han borders against Xiongnu raids, with the nomadic cavalries invading as close as 300 li from the capital during Emperor Wen's reign.

However, his reforms threatened the interests of existing noble classes, and was swiftly defeated by his grandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Dou, who held real political power in the Han court.

His two noble supporters, Dou Ying (竇嬰) and Tian Fen (田蚡), both had their positions stripped; and his two mentors, Wang Zang (王臧) and Zhao Wan (趙綰), were impeached, arrested and forced to commit suicide in prison.

The fact that the young and energetic Emperor Wu was still childless had been used by his political enemies as an excuse to consider deposing him (the inability to propagate the royal bloodline was a serious matter) and replace him with his distant uncle Liu An (劉安), the king of Huainan (淮南王), who was a renowned figure of Taoist ideology.

While attending an annual spring ceremonial ritual at Bashang (灞上) in 139 BC, during the second year of his reign, Emperor Wu decided to pay a casual visit to his older sister's household on the way back.

This time, Emperor Wu set his eyes on a beautiful young singer called Wei Zifu (衛子夫) and had immediately fallen in love with her.

Following a romantic encounter with Wei Zifu, Emperor Wu immediately conferred a thousand pieces of gold to his sister as a reward, who in turn offered the new girl to him as a gift.

However, after returning to Chang'an, Emperor Wu was forced to abandon Wei Zifu as an insignificant palace maid and neglected her for over a year under pressure from Empress Chen.

However, Wei Qing was rescued by his friends, a group of palace guards led by Gongsun Ao (公孫敖), who also reported the whole incident to Emperor Wu.

Frustrated and jealous, she tried in vain to regain her husband's attention by threatening suicide multiple times, which only made Emperor Wu more angry at her.

Her mother then confronted and accused Princess Pingyang of sabotaging her daughter's marriage, but was simply brushed off with the statement that Empress Chen lost favour purely because of her own infertility.

She eventually resorted to the occult as a last-ditch attempt to salvage the situation, and was approached by a witch named Chu Fu (楚服), who claimed she had magical tricks that could help to restore the Emperor's love, as well as curse any concubines Empress Chen disliked.

Empress Chen's association with Chu Fu was soon discovered, and Emperor Wu assigned the infamously feared prosecutor Zhang Tang (張湯) to investigate.

Two years later in 128 BC, Consort Wei gave birth to Emperor Wu's first son, Liu Ju, and was created empress for her contribution to the royal bloodline.

Still refusing to give up, she hired the famous poet Sima Xiangru to compose a song later known as The Ode of Long Gate (長門賦), hoping it would draw Emperor Wu's sympathy.

[22] As there are no reliable historical records of Empress Chen's birth year, it is almost impossible to accurately calculate her age difference to Emperor Wu.

[24][25] The Ode of Long Gate (長門賦 Changmenfu) is part of the Fu (poetry) genre and was written by Sima Xiangru on the love between Empress Chen and Emperor Liu.

Healing the thin body and building up oneself, for the monarch it is not just etiquette.Notes: 兮 xi is an ancient exclamation particle similar to 啊 a or 呀 ya.