In the winter of the fifth year of the First Yuan Dynasty (5 AD), the Hanping Emperor, who was only fourteen years old, died. In March of the first year of the reign (6 AD), Liu Infant (known as the Infant Infant in history) who was less than two years old was made crown prince, and Wang Mang called him "Emperor Regent" to exercise imperial power:
Emperor Ping, childless, was the youngest son of Emperor Xuan of Mangzheng xuan, liu bao, the marquis of Guangqi, who was two years old, and entrusted Bu Xiang as the most auspicious. Naifeng Gongqing asked Li Bao to be a widow, and made Zaiheng An Han Gong Mang Practice Zuoju, such as the story of Zhou GongFu Chengwang. The empress dowager did not think that it was okay, and her strength could not be forbidden, so Mang became the regent emperor and changed his title to Zhi Yan.
Sure enough, two years later, in December of the first year (8 AD), Wang Mang officially ascended the throne and established a new dynasty, and the Western Han Dynasty, which lasted 210 years, collapsed.
According to Ban Gu's Book of Han, making a baby prince was Wang Mang's conspiracy and a move on his way to usurping the throne. In fact, later generations have recognized this statement of Bangu, and the ending has also verified this statement. However, if we get rid of the political position of the Confucian scholars and look at this period of history objectively and fairly, I am afraid that the conclusion may not be so.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > rigid inheritance system that limits the choice of imperial heirs</h1>
Modern people have a misunderstanding, thinking that as long as they are children of the royal family, they are eligible to inherit the throne, which is a big mistake! In fact, according to the ancient patriarchal system, only the eldest son of the concubine, the so-called "great sect", has the right to inherit. In order to prevent "XiaoZong" from coveting the throne, the dynasties and dynasties all made quite severe restrictions on them, for example, in the last years of the Western Han Dynasty, the sons of the clan were basically reduced to diners who would only eat and wait for death.
There is only one situation in which Xiao Zong can hope for a glimmer of opportunity: the severance of the concubine! That is, the emperor not only did not have a concubine, but also did not have a concubine, such as the Hancheng Emperor, the Han Lai Emperor, the Han Ping Emperor, and the last three emperors all died without a queen.
What should I do in this situation? Is it okay to grab a descendant of the clan to inherit the throne? Most of the misunderstandings of our modern people are here, in fact, even if the emperor is extinct, the choice of heir must be according to the rules.
First of all, the first principle: the emperor cannot be extinct, the emperor has no heirs, and he can choose one of the closest sons of the clan blood relations, pass on as a son, and inherit the throne as a concubine. For example, Liu Xin, the Emperor of Han, was the nephew of Emperor Hancheng, who was passed on to Emperor Hancheng as a son, changing from small to large, and at the same time severed relations with his biological father and mother.
The second principle: Based on the distance of blood relations, the closer the blood relationship, the higher the priority. For example, after the death of emperor Han Ai, among the descendants of Emperor Yuan of Han, only one grandson of Liu Yan, the Emperor of Hanping, was left, and although he was a brother with Emperor Han, he could only be his heir.
The third principle: Brothers do not enter the temple, which means that both brothers are emperors, and after a hundred years, only one person can enter the temple and accept sacrifices from later generations. Therefore, unless forced to do so, it is generally not possible to pass on from brother to brother. This is the reason why Emperor Hancheng chose Liu Xin, the son of the second brother, but did not choose the third brother Liu Xing, who was still alive.
According to these three basic principles, basically the candidate for the throne is the only one, the mobility is very small, and it is almost impossible to dispute. The reason why it is so rigid is to prevent the flexibility of the inheritance system and bring non-division of thoughts to the children of the clan.
According to these three regulations, let's take a look at who the candidates for the imperial succession after the death of the Hanping Emperor.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the han Xuan emperor's heirs were exposed, and Liu Bao may be the only candidate</h1>
After the death of Emperor Hanping, the entire army of Emperor Yuan of Han was destroyed (as shown in the picture), and according to the inheritance law, the heir had to choose one of the descendants of the other four sons of Emperor Xuan of Han and pass on to Emperor Hanping as a son to ensure the continuation of the emperor.
Again, this is an iron law and cannot be changed. Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who was even related by blood 18,000 miles away, was forced to pass himself on to the Han Yuan Emperor after he ascended the throne in order to explain his legitimacy.
Emperor Xuan of Han had a total of five sons, in addition to the Han Yuan Emperor Liu Yi and the early death of Liu Jing, the only ones who were eligible to be shortlisted were Liu Qin the Prince of Huaiyang, Liu Hu the King of Chu, and Liu Yu the Prince of Dongping, the great-grandchildren of these three.
There are 26 sons of Liu Qin, Liu Hu and Liu Yu, and the grandchildren cannot be fully counted due to the lack of information, and only three people are recorded in the historical records of great-grandchildren: Liu Huan's great-grandson Liu Bao, Liu Yin, and Liu Yu's great-grandson Liu Kuang.
Why is this happening? Quite simply, according to the law of succession, the sons of the clan descend from generation to generation with age, and most of their grandchildren have become commoners who have lost their titles, let alone great-grandchildren. Since there is no title, it is impossible for the history books to record it.
Nevertheless, we can roughly calculate from the age of Emperor Hancheng that the brothers of this generation of children and babies are old. Emperor Hancheng was the oldest of his generation, born in 51 BC, and in extreme cases, if he had a grandson, Dingtian would be fourteen or fifteen years old.
Considering the mortality rate of children in ancient times, as well as the situation of giving birth to girls, after several generations, it is most likely that the baby cubs are likely to be the oldest boys of their generation. Even if not, at least they are not yet adults, that is, whoever is the heir in age is half a pound to eight or two.
There is also a very important reason for the selection of the baby, he wants to be inherited to the throne as the heir of the Hanping Emperor, who was fourteen years old at the time, and the age of the "son" should not be too big.
Therefore, in the history books, it is difficult to conclude that Wang Mang chose a baby and a child with conspiracy theories, and it is difficult to blame the system for being too rigid.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the first person to be injured by a crab when the crown prince coexisted with the emperor</h1>
In fact, the biggest criticism left for Wang Mang was not the choice of the baby, but the choice of the baby, only to make him the crown prince, and he himself used the "regent emperor" to exercise imperial power.
This leads to the biggest spectacle in history: the throne is vacant, and the regent and the crown prince are not one family!
Why did Wang Mang do this? Is he ambitious? In fact, there are also places of necessity here.
If the baby is on the throne, he will have to go to the court to listen to the government, and children under two years old naturally cannot do it, then the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun will have to hold the little prince to the court. Imagine an eighty-year-old lady holding a child who is less than two years old and listening to the government, does this not want to kill people? Therefore, it is also a last resort to let the widow and baby temporarily become the prince, and in a few years, he will be able to sit on the dragon chair and become the emperor again.
Some people may not think so, the ancient little emperors have gone, not all of them can sit on the dragon chair, the empress dowager directly to the dynasty can not? Moreover, the minister is called "regent emperor", which is not an ambition side leak what is it?
There is a special case here, the situation of widows and babies occurred in the last years of the Western Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty is only the second dynasty after the implementation of the imperial system in the Qin Dynasty, many things have no precedent, far less mature than the later system, and there are many precedents for reference, they can only feel the stones to cross the river.
For example, the rule that "brothers do not enter the temple" is not a problem at all with the improvement of the temple sacrifice system. With the development of the prime minister system and the cabinet system, the empress dowager does not necessarily have to be present at the emperor's because of the government, or even necessarily the dynasty. Along with the dictatorial nature of the imperial power, no one in the regent's ministers dared to call him "regent emperor" and changed his name to "regent prince".
In short, in the later period, people had many ways to patch this special case, so as not to be embarrassed by the inheritance system, but for that time, crossing the river by feeling the stones, it was inevitable that the behavior that later generations felt was very incomprehensible.
Therefore, the widow was only made the crown prince, and Wang Mang used the "regent emperor" to exercise imperial power, which was actually forced by the environment at that time and could not be regarded as a manifestation of personal ambition. Misunderstood, it can only be said that the first person to eat crab is very risky!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > true and false Zhou Gong, Wang Mang's heart has some loyalty</h1>
Did Wang Mang really not have a single bit of selfishness? Purely want to be Zhou Gong?
If you live in the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain, perhaps Wang Mang also has selfish intentions. For example, even if emperor Hanping could be exterminated, a brother of the same generation as Emperor Hanping could be chosen, and passed on to Emperor Cheng of Hancheng, Wang Mang would not personally judge that wang mang would not do it, because his daughter Wang Hui was the empress of Emperor Hanping, who dared to say that he would continue to be the heir of Emperor Hanping, and Wang Mang did not have any selfish intentions to hurt his daughter?
What about considerations for individual rights? Yes, and it is normal, how can politicians do without absolute power in their hands if they want to realize their ideals? It is not worth the fuss, and there is no need to talk about this, what we want to say is, how much does he have to do with the subsequent "usurpation"?
It's safe to say that it doesn't matter!
Throughout his life, Wang Mang took the Duke of Zhou as a model, and later abandoned his ideals and moved towards a change of dynasty for many reasons, two things were the main turning point: one was the accidental death of the Hanping Emperor; the second was the Zhai Yi rebellion a year later.
These two events have promoted the clamor of the "more destiny" argument for nearly a hundred years, and after the struggle between the "Baohan faction" and the "Daihan faction", it was not until around July of the third year that Wang Mang made up his mind to accept the proposal of the "Daihan faction" (this complicated process, which I have discussed in many articles, can check my own historical posts).
Therefore, we cannot take the results and reverse the antecedents, and take it for granted that when the baby was erected, Wang Mang was suspicious.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > review</h1>
Wang Mang's history is probably one of the most blackened figures, for many reasons, the most important of which are two points, one is that his reforms failed, and it is not surprising that he was completely denied as a loser. The second reason is that after the new dynasty, it was precisely the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was known as the "revival of the Han Dynasty", and Wang Mang could not explain the legitimacy of the Eastern Han regime if he was not portrayed as a negative figure!
The author of the official revision history book "Book of Han" that we see, Ban Gu, is precisely the disciple of the scholar clan in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it is almost common to belittle the former dynasty from the standpoint of this dynasty, not to mention that the new dynasty cannot be recognized!
After that, the scholar class, standing on the standpoint of Confucianism, was loyal to filial piety and righteousness, and could not tolerate people like Wang Mang, which is why Wang Mang has always been nailed to the pillar of shame in imperial society.
Without the shackles of this historical limitation, we can look at history with a fairer and broader perspective, so we should be able to penetrate more than the ancients. As far as Wang Mang's establishment of his widow and baby as crown prince, it is obvious that it cannot be used as a conspiracy theory for Wang Mang to usurp Han.