Lu Jia (Western Han)

Lu Jia or Lu Gu (陸賈; died 170 BC) was a Western Han dynasty Chinese politician.[1] He secured the nominal submission of Zhao Tuo's kingdom of Nanyue to Han in 196 BC.

The Book of Han credits him with having converted the Han dynasty founder Liu Bang to Confucianism. An anecdote tells that in an early meeting Liu scoffed at Lu's scholarly interests with the words "I do all my conquering from the back of my horse, what use have I for books and poetry?" To which Lu replied "once my lord is done with the conquering, does he also intend to do all his ruling from the back of his horse?" This brought Liu to a pause, and he subsequently requested that Lu compose for him a book of historical examples outlining why Qin had lost the support of the world and how Liu himself might gain and retain it. This became the 12-chapter volume known as the Xin Yu 新语 ("New Words", or possibly "Words of Renewal").[2]

References

  1. ↑ John Makeham (2008). China: The World's Oldest Living Civilization Revealed. Thames & Hudson. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-500-25142-3.
  2. ↑ Han Shu 汉书, chapter 43


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