In the more than two thousand years of feudal history, a total of more than 400 emperors were born, including Liu Che, Li Shimin, Zhu Yuanzhang, and other emperors of the ancient world, as well as liu he, Gao Zhan, and Zhao Biao. It can be said that in ancient times, there were all kinds of strange emperors, some were addicted to immortality, some were addicted to flowers and wine, and there were even emperors like Zhu Youxiao who put on a good imperial throne and did not sit down, but wanted to be a carpenter.
However, among the more than 400 emperors in ancient times, the most peculiar emperor was Wang Mang, the founding emperor of the new dynasty. To this day, people are still full of interest in Wang Mang, Wang Mang is still so mysterious in the eyes of the world, and even many people believe that Wang Mang is most likely a crosser. Not only modern people are interested in Wang Mang, but also the emperors of ancient times are also interested in Wang Mang, and even after Wang Mang's death, his head has been treasured by successive emperors for 272 years.
So, what is so special about Wang Mang? Why is there so much interest in people? Speaking of which, the reason why Wang Mang was valued by successive emperors has a lot to do with the process of his ascension to the throne and his actions during his reign.
Wang Mang was the first person in feudal history to legally take the throne through Zen Rang, and although the new dynasty he established existed for only 15 years, it had a great impact on future generations, providing a new choice for the succession of the throne in later generations. Of course, Wang Mang's Zen concession actually carried a very strong persecutory meaning, the baby at that time was only a 4-year-old child, and most of the power was in the hands of Wang Mang, and the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun was Wang Mang's aunt. Therefore, although Wang Mang's throne is legally inherited, it has always been criticized by ancient historians.
In general, Wang Mang's zen concession of being called emperor by his widow is very different from that of the zen concession of the ancient times, and Wang Mang's act of calling himself emperor is the inevitable end of the dictatorship of foreign relatives. However, because Wang Mang had the support of Wenwu of the Manchu Dynasty and the tacit approval of the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun, he could also be regarded as legally obtaining the throne. Wang Mang's Han Jianxin and later Liu Yu's Jin Jiansong, as well as Yang Jian's Zhou Jiansui, are all the same situation, although with the implication of persecution, but they all belong to the legal acquisition of the throne.
In the Zen concession system of feudal society, except for the kind of Zen concession that passes from father to son, such as Li Danchan giving the throne to Li Longji, Qianlong Zen giving the throne and Jiaqing, the rest of the Zen concessions all carry a persecutory meaning. Of course, wang mang's ability to obtain the throne through Zen Rang is still relatively gentle in terms of means compared to obtaining the throne through war, and it is also the only means to obtain the throne peacefully.
However, for the ancient emperors, Wang Mang's move was almost equivalent to a traitor. Although the powerful ministers of all dynasties were eager to emulate Wang Mang, for the emperors, they were eager to give Wang Mang a thousand knives. Under such circumstances, after Wang Mang's death, the later emperors, in order to always remind themselves, stored Wang Mang's head in the treasure house as a kind of encouragement to themselves, always alerting themselves to being wary of unscrupulous thieves like Wang Mang.
In fact, not only did the ancient emperors hate Wang Mang, but even ancient historians thought that Wang Mang was a complete "hypocrite". The new dynasty established by Wang Mang, under the pen of ancient historians, is almost always a negative evaluation, and few people evaluate the new dynasty positively. It was only after modern times that people's views on Wang Mang changed radically, and even the great scholar Hu Shi praised Wang Mang, believing that some of the changes he initiated two thousand years ago were very remarkable. However, for the ancients, a series of new policies that Wang Mang forcefully implemented were too advanced, and in the end, not only did the new policies fail to be implemented successfully, but also led to the demise of the new dynasty.
What exactly did Wang Mang do? Why was it so jealous of the ancients? Speaking of which, Wang Mang's ideas are indeed ahead of its time, almost allowing people to see the framework of modern society. After he ascended the throne, he implemented the wangtian system and distributed land to the landless, hoping to alleviate the trend of land annexation in the late Western Han Dynasty, abolish the slave system, and reform the currency system. However, Wang Mang's series of new policies were too advanced for the people at that time, so they were unanimously opposed by the people, which eventually led to the rapid demise of the new dynasty.
This is also an important reason why many people now suspect that Wang Mang is a crosser. Because what Wang Mang did during his reign did not look like an ancient person who lived two thousand years ago, but rather like a high-achieving student who had received modern education. And what is even more surprising is that before Wang Mang was killed by Du Wu, there were more than 1,000 ministers and retinues around him who were willing to die with him, which shows that Wang Mang is not the kind of unpopular person.
Although Wang Mang's New Deal failed, there is no doubt that in the last moments of his life, he still gained the respect of the people around him, otherwise these people would not have died with him. However, in the eyes of the ancient emperors, whether it was Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty or what he did during his reign, these were all rebellious moves. For this reason, successive emperors regarded Wang Mang as a rebel, and the first rank left behind after his death became the treasure of the imperial family, which was treasured in the royal treasury for 272 years until it finally disappeared in a fire.