abstract:The Nine Ministers () was the collective name for nine high officials in the imperial government of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), who each headed a specialized ministry and were subordinates to the Three Councillors of State. Historian Rafe de Crespigny, in his A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD), translates the titles of the nine ranking ministers into English as the (1) the Minister of Ceremonies (太常), (2) the Minister of the Household (光祿勳), (3) the Minister of the Guards (衛尉), (4) the Minister Coachman (太僕), (5) the Minister of Justice (廷尉), (6) the Minister Herald (大鴻臚), (7) the Minister of the Imperial Clan (宗正), (8) the Minister of Finance (大司農), and (9) the Minister Steward (少府) although other sources offer alternative translations.
He abolished the old rules and regulations, issuedninenewpolicies, sentenced fiveministers to death for their evil deedsandpromotedsixpersonswithrealtalents.
In the month leading up to the Shangri-La Dialogue, General Liang had visited Washington, DC (the first Chinese defence minister to do so in nine years) and attended a meeting of South-East Asian defence ministers in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.