During the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, continuous warfare ravaged northern China, with dynasties rising and falling in rapid succession as sixteen regimes were established one after another. Liu Yuan and his son Liu Cong founded the Han state. After Liu Cong's death, his nephew Liu Yao inherited the throne and became the ruler of the Han state. During Liu Yao's reign, the kingdom quickly declined. Shortly after Liu Yao ascended the throne, the Han general Shi Le established the Later Zhao, rivaling Liu Yao's Han regime.
After this, Han Zhao and other separatist forces were successively eliminated by Shi Le, and most of the northern regions fell under his control. Later Zhao became the most powerful state in the north, once using the Huai River as its boundary to contend with the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Shi Le was an outstanding politician and military strategist; his legendary rise to emperor and his governance strategies had a significant influence on feudal rulers. Shi Le, courtesy name Shilong, was of the Jie ethnic group. He displayed exceptional talent from a young age, was physically strong, and excelled at horseback riding and archery. At the age of fourteen, he went to Luoyang with fellow villagers to run a small business, and once stood at the eastern gate of Luoyang, letting out a loud whistle. This scene was noticed by the high-ranking official Wang Yan, who sensed that Shi Le harbored extraordinary ambitions and feared he would plunge the realm into chaos, so he sent men to capture him. Had Shi Le not left the area beforehand, he would likely have been killed then.
Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, bureaucratic landlords in Bingzhou (present-day most of Shanxi and parts of neighboring Hebei and Inner Mongolia) commonly kept tenant farmers. When Shi Le was young and struggling to make a living, he worked as a tenant for Ning Qu of Yangqu and Guo Jing of Wuren. Both Ning Qu and Guo Jing sensed that Shi Le was extraordinary and destined for great things, so they treated him differently and lent him a helping hand during his hardships. During the Tai'an era of the Western Jin Dynasty, society was in turmoil, and a severe famine struck Bingzhou. At that time, Shi Le sought refuge with Ning Qu. Liu Jian, the Commandant of Beize, planned to bind Shi Le and sell him as a slave. Ning Qu hid Shi Le, saving him from this fate. Afterwards, Shi Le secretly fled, intending to join Li Chuan, the Commandant of Najiang. On the way, he met Guo Jing and recounted his plight of hunger and cold. Guo Jing generously used the money from selling goods to provide Shi Le with clothes and food. Seeing the severe famine and the practice of capturing and selling Hu people as slaves, Shi Le suggested to Guo Jing: spread rumors that Jizhou was offering free food to Hu people, trick them into going there, and then sell them. Before this plan could be carried out, Sima Teng, the Inspector of Bingzhou, had already sent his subordinate Guo Yang to capture Hu people and sell them to Shandong. Shi Le, then in his twenties, was also captured and sold as a slave to a landlord in Renping. The landlord, noticing Shi Le's extraordinary appearance, freed him from slavery.
Having endured many hardships, Shi Le believed that only by rising up in resistance could he change his fate. Thus, he began recruiting talented individuals and building up his strength. He gathered eighteen men to form a cavalry unit, known as the "Eighteen Riders." This marked the official start of his military career. From then on, Shi Le's power gradually grew, and his military talents became increasingly prominent. Later, he pledged allegiance to Liu Yuan, who appointed him as a Grand General.
After becoming Grand General, Shi Le began recruiting talented individuals. He did this because he realized that to achieve great success, he needed more than just military force—he also required capable people to devise strategies for him. To this end, he organized a "Gentlemen's Camp" composed of scholars, specifically tasked with offering him advice and plans. Within this camp, a man named Zhang Bin stood out for his exceptional abilities, providing Shi Le with many strategies that led to continuous military victories and steadily growing power.
In 319 AD, Shi Le established the Later Zhao, rising from slave to emperor.
Shi Le realized from his own personal experience that knowledge held immense power, so when Zhang Bin suggested he promote Confucianism, he readily agreed. He established examination and recommendation systems, selecting only scholars as officials. He also ordered schools to be built across the land and required officials of the Later Zhao dynasty to send their children to study there.
Additionally, he deeply respected scholars and repeatedly told his subordinates that if any scholar was arrested for a crime, they must not kill him but should hand him over for personal handling. One day, Fan Tan, a scholar summoned by the imperial court to serve as an official, came to pay respects to Shi Le. Seeing Fan Tan wearing extremely tattered clothes, Shi Le found it somewhat unbelievable and asked, "You are wearing such ragged clothes—it seems your family must be especially poor."
Fan Tan replied very frankly, "My family's belongings were just robbed by a group of Jie bandits; if it weren't for that, I wouldn't have come to see the emperor dressed in such clothes."
Fan Tan suddenly realized that he had violated Shi Le's prohibition. It turned out that Shi Le had issued a decree strictly forbidding the common people from mentioning the characters "Hu" or "Jie," and anyone who uttered these words would face extremely severe punishment. Remembering this decree, Fan Tan turned pale with terror and repeatedly begged Shi Le for forgiveness.
Unexpectedly, Shi Le smiled and said, "This ban only applies to ordinary people; you scholars don't need to pay attention to it." After saying this, not only did he not punish Fan Tan, but he also compensated him with some money and clothing.
Shi Le could not read Chinese characters, but he greatly admired Han Chinese culture and had a particular fondness for historical texts; even during times of war and chaos, he never forgot to have others read history books aloud to him.
Once, he had someone read the Book of Han to him. When the reader reached the part where someone advised Liu Bang to enfeoff the old nobles of the Six Kingdoms, he became very anxious and said, "This should not be done. If Liu Bang really did this, he would never win the empire." The person reading for Shi Le told him that Liu Bang, after listening to Zhang Liang's advice, did not do so, and only then did Shi Le feel relieved, saying, "Yes, that is exactly what should be done." Shi Le greatly admired Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han, and once said, "If I had met Emperor Gaozu, I would have served him as a subject, competing with Han Xin and Peng Yue to see who could be more valiant. If I had met Emperor Guangwu, I would have vied with him for supremacy in the Central Plains, and it would be uncertain who would win." His meaning was: if he had encountered Liu Bang, he could only be his subordinate, only able to compete with men like Han Xin and Peng Yue to see who was more capable. If he had encountered Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu, then he could contend with him as an equal.