Emperor Shun of Han

Emperor Shun of Han (simplified Chinese: 汉顺帝; traditional Chinese: 漢順帝; pinyin: Hàn Shùn Dì; Wade–Giles: Han Shun-ti; 115–144) was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty and the seventh emperor of the Eastern Han. He reigned from 125 to 144 AD.

Emperor Shun was the only son of Emperor An of Han and after Emperor An died in 125, the Empress Dowager Yan was childless but yearning to hold on to power, forced Prince Bao (whose title of crown prince she had wrongly caused Emperor An to strip in 124) to give up the throne in favour of Liu Yi, the Marquess of Beixiang. Liu Yi died after reigning less than 7 months and eunuchs loyal to Prince Bao, led by Sun Cheng, carrying out a successful coup d'etat against the Empress Dowager, Prince Bao was finally declared emperor at age 10.

The people had great expectations for Emperor Shun, whose reign followed his incompetent and violent father. However, while Emperor Shun's personality was mild, he was just as incompetent as his father in general, and corruption continued without abatement among eunuchs and officials. He also overly entrusted government to his wife Empress Liang Na's father Liang Shang (梁商) -- a mild-mannered man with integrity but little ability—and then Liang Shang's son Liang Ji -- a corrupt and an autocratic man. In general, Emperor Shun's reign was still somewhat of an improvement over his father's, but this minor improvement was unable to stem Eastern Han Dynasty's continued degradation.

Emperor Shun died at the age of 30 after reigning for 19 years. He was succeeded by his son Emperor Chong.

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