In fact, there are still many things in history, whether it is Zhao Gao's finger deer as a horse, or Wang Mang's obedience to providence, are clear examples, but one of the biggest characteristics of these people's usurpation is that they are not so famous, and the impact is not large.
Among all those who usurped power, the Sima family and Zhu Wen's usurpation of power are relatively famous and have attracted the attention of posterity, in the eyes of posterity, their usurpation is vicious enough, but also despicable enough, it can be said that it is a thousand years of stench, why is the usurpation of power by others not so bad, and the usurpation of power by the Sima family and Zhu Wen will be so bad?
Sima Yi family can be regarded as a noble family, when Sima Yi's ancestors followed Xiang Yu to destroy the Qin Dynasty, because of the merits of the King of Yin, the capital of Hanoi, after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the Sima family has also been living in Hanoi County, passed down from generation to generation, in that era, basically the class is solidified, the rich family will continue to be rich, after all, the connections and various resources are in their hands.
When Sima Yi's father was in his generation, he held the position of Jing Zhaoyin, and this position was also very powerful, almost similar to today's mayor of Beijing, and it is conceivable that the strength of the Sima family should not be underestimated. It was precisely for these reasons that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after Cao Cao gradually came to power, he planned to use the power of these powerful families to consolidate himself, so as to ask Sima Yi to come out of the mountains to assist him.
Cao Cao also invited Kong Rong at that time, and as a result, at the very beginning, Sima Yi and Kong Rong did not want to go out of the mountain, and later because of some things, Cao Cao executed Kong Rong, and after seeing such results, Sima Yi also understood Cao Cao's meaning and obediently went out of the mountain to assist Cao Cao.
During Sima Yi's assistance to Cao Cao, Cao Cao had already seen Sima Yi's ambitions, so many things did not dare to easily believe Sima Yi, even before Cao Cao's death, he had to specifically explain that Cao Pi should not trust Sima Yi, but forced by the criticality of the situation at that time, Cao Pi still reused Sima Yi, but before his death, he once again told his son Cao Rui not to trust Sima Yi.
This time, Cao Rui did not listen to his father's last words and continued to reuse Sima Yi, of course, for Cao Rui and the situation at that time, he could only continue to reuse Sima Yi, otherwise it would be difficult to control the situation. In this way, Sima Yi continued to live until Cao Rui's death, and before Cao Rui's death, sima Yi and Cao Shuang served as auxiliary ministers to the new emperor Cao Fang.
After Cao Rui's death, Cao Shuang used his special status as a clan to constantly exclude Sima Yi, first taking away Sima Yi's military power, and then pressing forward step by step, and finally completely angering Sima Yi, and later Sima Yi and his two sons launched the Gaopingling coup with the 3,000 dead soldiers raised by Sima Shiyin, won victory, and returned to the peak of power.
Before the coup d'état in Gaopingling, Sima Yi promised to just clean up Cao Shuang and not kill him, but after the coup, Sima Yi reneged on his promise, not only killing Cao Shuang, but also destroying his three clans, and many people related to Cao Shuang were implicated and lost their lives.
The main reason why Sima Yi was able to lay the foundation for the usurpation of power by the Sima family was that he lived long enough to kill three generations of Cao emperors, followed by his own patience and sinister enough, and at the same time of forbearance, he took steps forward and planned everything that would happen in the future, and finally seized power in one fell swoop after waiting for the opportunity.
Of course, the main reason why Sima Yi was able to pass so smoothly after launching the Gaopingling coup and seizing power was because of his family power, as I said earlier, the Sima Yi family was a rich family at that time, with intricate social relations and resources in all aspects, which was an important basis for ensuring Sima Yi's position in the DPRK.
In 251, Sima Yi died, and his eldest son Sima Shi, as a general of the Fu Army, continued to monopolize the political power of the Cao Wei Dynasty, Sima Shi sat in this position for only four years before he died, but he was also the key founder of the Sima family's usurpation of power, because during his reign, he did a lot of great things.
During Sima Shi's reign, he not only formulated a new system of selecting officials in terms of internal affairs to serve the Sima family and select more talents who were loyal to the Sima family, but also eliminated the 100,000 troops of Zhuge Ke of Eastern Wu, saw through Cao Fang's plan to regain power, cut down all the grass and roots of Li Feng, Xiahou Xuan, and others who participated in the plan, and finally abolished Cao Fang's throne and established Cao Fang as the new emperor.
It is enough to see from sima shi's practice that he has been able to directly depose the emperor, and it is enough to see that at this time, the power of the Sima family has reached the point where it can usurp the throne, but because there are still some opposition forces in the dprk, the Sima family must continue to solve it through certain means. In 255, Sima Shi died of illness in Xuchang, and the usurpation of the throne could only be completed by his younger brother Sima Zhao.
After Sima Shi's death, Cao Xian thought that he had the hope of regaining power, so he ordered Sima Zhao to guard Xuchang, but Sima Zhao had already understood Cao Zhao's thoughts, completely ignored Cao Xi's edict, and returned to Luoyang with his men and horses, taking over Sima Shi's position as a general of the Fu Army, and continuing to hold the power of Cao Wei.
During Sima Zhao's reign, he quelled the Three Rebellions in Huainan and eradicated the last force opposed to the Sima family, Zhuge Zhi, and after these things were completed, Sima Zhao did something that risked the world, that is, directly and publicly killed the emperor Cao Huan and established Cao Huan as the new emperor.
The reason why this move is criticized is that Sima Zhao has a bad head, before him, even if the powerful ministers were ambitious, they would never openly kill the emperor, but only privately use drugs or assassination and other means, after all, once you kill openly, it shows that you admit this matter yourself, which is unacceptable in Confucianism, and for people who are deeply influenced by Confucianism, it is also impossible to accept Sima Zhao's behavior.
After killing Cao Xian, Sima Zhao did not rush to usurp the throne, but planned to do a big thing, and then usurp the throne after having merit, so he did a big thing to destroy Shu Han, which had obvious changes in the situation in the Three Kingdoms, after the destruction of Shu Han, Sima Zhao could already usurp the throne completely, but he was also like Sima Shi, regretting his death, leaving good things for his son to enjoy.
After Sima Yan ascended the throne, he soon usurped the throne and established the Jin Dynasty, but because his fathers had a bad head, all the people in the Sima family used conspiracy theories and thick black studies as the classics of success in life, and the direct consequences of such ideas were the Rebellion of the Eight Kings after Sima Yan's death, the southern crossing of the crown, and the Wuhu Chaohua, after which the Sima family was almost slaughtered.
Through the above description of the entire process of the Sima family's usurpation of the throne, we have already roughly understood some things, it can be said that the essence of the Sima family's success in usurping the throne is conspiracy theory and thick black science, in them, we will find the biggest common feature, that is, words do not count.
For example, Sima Yi originally promised not to kill Cao Shuang, but after the coup d'état in Gaopingling, he wiped out the three ethnic groups of Cao Shuang, and sima shi and Sima Zhao both learned sima Yi's behavior, often rebelling, not believing in their words, and destroying other people's three ethnic groups without a word, which was seriously criticized and despised by people during the feudal dynasty period, which was deeply influenced by Confucianism.
Although people like to say "the winner is king", but the premise of this sentence is "to die well", many dynasties in history have not been glorious at the beginning, they know this well, but in order to make up for the bad impact caused by these things, they are constantly trying to change themselves, try to build the country, so that the country and the people can live a good life, so that some of the bad deeds of the past will be forgotten by people.
On the other hand, the Jin Dynasty established by the Sima family, from the very beginning, there was no peace, and as a result, because of the family's internal seizure of the throne, there was a rebellion of the eight kings, and because of the process of the rebellion of the eight kings, everyone continued to introduce some Xiongnu and other ethnic groups to support, resulting in the final occupation of the dominant position by outsiders, which triggered the subsequent southern crossing of the crown and the Wuhu Chaohua that the world did not want to mention, which was the most humiliating period of history in ancient Chinese history.
Just because of the internal problems of the Sima family, it led to a humiliating history, just like Zhu Wen at the end of the Tang Dynasty, because of his own problems, he created the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and also became a more chaotic era in ancient Chinese history, such as tomb robbery and other bad incidents, which can be described as common in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
There is an old saying that "when the outside must first be inside", but in the face of foreign invasion, we should be more consistent with the outside world, this is a principle that should never be changed, otherwise you will become a historical sinner, even if you have achieved more achievements before, the same will not help, after all, once the home country falls, let alone talk about success and fame? The biggest failure of the Sima family lies in this!
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