Qin and Han · Powerful Clan Head

Gongsun Dan 公孙丹

Attested AD 9 - AD 25

Passages: 5
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Gongsun Dan was a Powerful Clan Head.

Life and dates

Death

Executed · Responsible Person Id Dong Xuan (董宣)
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 20

Attested activity

AD 9 to AD 25 AD 9-25
Dated from the passage context · Book of Later Han 85, passage 18

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Parent of Son of Gongsun Dan (其子)
son 子
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 19

Armed protest at the prefectural headquarters
Kinship Role clan kin and allies · Quantity more than thirty
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 21

Career and standing

Aide for the Five Offices 五官掾
Appointed · Authority Dong Xuan (董宣)
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 18

Places and affiliations

Polity Eastern Han 東漢 · Relation Served
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 18

Events and relationships

Ordered his son to murder a traveler to answer a divined death
Homicide · Instigator · With Son of Gongsun Dan (其子)
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 19
Relation Former adherent of · Person Wang Mang (王莽)
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 22

Assessments and attributes

Item new residence 居宅 · Relation Built
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 19

Source notes

Historicity historical
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 85, passage 18

References in the histories

Book of Later Han, Chapter 85Volume 77: Biographies of Cruel Officials · 5 passages

到官，以大姓公孙丹为五官掾。 On arriving he named the powerful local magnate Gongsun Dan as his aide for the five offices.

丹新造居宅，而卜工以为当有死者，丹乃令其子杀道行人，置尸舍内，以塞其咎。 Gongsun Dan had just finished a new house when the geomancer declared that a death was fated to occur there; Dan then told his son to murder a traveler, leave the body in the building, and so “answer” the omen.

宣知，即收丹父子杀之。 When Dong Xuan found out, he immediately seized Gongsun Dan and his sons and executed them.

丹宗族亲党三十余人，操兵诣府，称冤叫号。 Over thirty members of Gongsun Dan’s lineage and their allies armed themselves, marched to the yamen, and loudly protested their innocence.

宣以丹前附王莽、虑交通海贼，乃悉收系剧狱，使门下书佐水丘岑尽杀之。 Dong Xuan, recalling that Gongsun Dan had once served Wang Mang and fearing he might be in league with pirates, jailed the lot in the prison for capital cases and ordered his clerk Shuiqiu Cen to slaughter them all.