Liu Zhuan

Liu Zhuan (劉瑑) (796 – June 20, 858), courtesy name Ziquan (子全), was an official of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, serving briefly as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong. Background and early career Liu Zhuan was born in 796, during the reign of Emperor Dezong. His family was from Pengcheng. and originally claimed ancestry from the Han Dynasty prince Liu Kai the Prince of Hejian, a son of Emperor Zhang of Han. Liu Zhuan was a fifth-generation descendant of the early Tang chancellor and general Liu Rengui; his grandfather Liu Fan served on the staff of a military governor (Jiedushi), and his father Liu Wei served as a prefectural prefect. Liu Zhuan passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class early in the Kaicheng era (836-840) of Emperor Dezong's great-great-grandson Emperor Wenzong. Subsequently, when the former chancellor Chen Yixing served as the prefect of Hua Prefecture (華州, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi), he invited Liu to serve as his assistant in his capacity as the commander of the Hua Prefecture-based Zhenguo Army. Liu was later recalled to the capital Chang'an to serve as Zuo Shiyi, a low-level advisory official at the examination bureau of government (門下省, Menxia Sheng). It was said that he submitted many petitions advising Emperor Wenzong's brother and successor Emperor Wuzong against believing in the claims of Taoist alchemists. Late in Emperor Wuzong's Huichang era (841-846), he was put in charge of drafting edicts, and was also made Zhongshu Sheren, a mid-level official at the legislative bureau (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng). During Emperor Xuānzong's reign Early in the Dazhong era (847-860) of Emperor Wuzong's uncle and successor Emperor Xuānzong, Liu Zhuan was made an imperial scholar (翰林學士, Hanlin Xueshi). At that time, Emperor Xuānzong was conducting a campaign to recover the territory that had been lost to Tufan decades earlier, and there were numerous campaign-related edicts to be issued, sometimes numbering tens each night. It was said that Liu, while drafting them, was able to use appropriate language despite the large volumes he needed to draft. In 850, during a campaign against the Dangxiang, he was made the monitor of the troops against the Dangxiang.