"Liu Xiu is the most skilled, learned, and warlike emperor in history." Chairman Mao once made such a comment when he commented on the "Chronicle of the Eastern View of Han". As a great man who has created a new era, he can give Liu Xiu such a high evaluation, which shows that Liu Xiu is indeed unusual. Although Liu Xiu in history is equivalent to re-creating a dynasty, he still uses the national name of "Han", is willing to be a successor emperor, and only gives himself a temple name of "Shizu", rather than Taizu and Gaozu, which is due to Liu Xiu's bloodline and personality reasons, and is also related to the general trend of the world at that time.
Liu Xiu is indeed a descendant of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao
Liu Xiu was different from the later Shu Han Liu Bei, and his lineage was well documented and unmistakable. According to the Book of Later Han, "Emperor Guangwu of Shizu, Emperor Xuanxiu, Ziwen Shu, a native of Caiyang, Nanyang, and grandson of Gaozu IX, was born from Emperor Jing's birth in Changsha Dingwangfa. That is to say, Liu Xiu was the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, and his ancestor was Liu Fa, the son of Emperor Jing of Han. And Liu Fa also clearly recorded in the historical records that his mother's name was Tang Ji, who was used as a substitute for the Han Jing Emperor's spring wind when his master Cheng Ji was inconvenient for the emperor to be lucky. Because his mother was from a humble background, Liu Fa was not welcomed by his father, so he went to Changsha, a "humble and poor country", as the king. After that, "the Lingling Festival Hou Mai, the purchase of the sheng Yulin Tai Shou Wai, the foreign giant deer Du Wei Hui, the return of Nan Dun Ling Qin, Qin Sheng Guangwu." "This genealogy is unmistakable, so Liu Xiu is indeed a descendant of the Western Han Dynasty." In the era of filial piety, Liu Xiu naturally respected his elders and continued the han dynasty's national rule.
Two major events show that the people at that time still miss the Han Dynasty
In his lifetime, Liu Xiu experienced two "entrepreneurships", one was to follow the emperor Liu Xuan to fight the world, and the other was to be ordered to pacify Hebei. In these two ventures, Liu Xiu saw the status of the Han Dynasty in the hearts of the people through some details.
After Wang Mang was killed, the first emperor Liu Xuan entered Luoyang. At that time, Liu Xiu was a lieutenant colonel, and the team he led was dressed and behaved generously, and after the Luoyang officials who came to greet him saw it, they were moved to cry and weep, and said excitedly: "I don't want to see Han Guanweiyi again today!" It can be seen from this that the great figure of the Han Dynasty still lingers in the hearts of the officials and the people.
There is another thing, that is, the Wang Lang incident in Hebei. After Liu Xuan entered Luoyang, he ordered Liu Xiuzhen to fu hebei. Originally, everything was going well, but suddenly a fortune teller named Wang Lang appeared, who claimed to be Liu Ziyu, the son of Emperor Hancheng, and wanted to do great things in Hebei. And Liu Lin, the son of the former King of Zhao in the Han Dynasty, actually established this person as the Son of Heaven and organized a regime. At this time, Liu Xiu, as Liu Xuan's emissary, immediately lost his legitimacy and was chased around by Wang Lang's troops in the land of Hebei, and could not even eat food.
Liu Xiu was painfully determined, and with the help of Xindu Taishou Renguang and the local power figures in Hebei, Geng Chun and Geng Yi, he gradually gained a foothold. After that, Liu Xiu and Wang Lang confronted each other, and they did not gain an advantage for a long time. In this situation, he could only abandon his lifelong love Yin Lihua and marry Guo Shengtong, the niece of Liu Yang, the King of Zhending, and get a powerful boost, which completely overwhelmed Wang Lang on the battlefield.
However, even at this time, Wang Lang could still use his "Liu Ziyu" to deceive. After his defeat on the battlefield, his advisor Dewey asked him to surrender. At this time, Dewey still insisted that Wang Lang was Liu Ziyu. At this time, Liu Xiu's mouth was very hard, saying: "If Emperor Cheng is reborn, the world will not be able to get it, and the situation will deceive the public opinion!" This means that even if Emperor Hancheng is resurrected, this world is no longer his, let alone the fake Liu Ziyu! But even so, Dewey still asked Wang Lang to be the Marquis of Wanhu, and Liu Xiu only promised to leave him a life. This condition is actually very benevolent, where is the reason for the survival of the king of the country! But Dewey still did not do it, and even declared that he would fight to the end without giving it to the marquis!
Dewey said so and did the same, and the city of Handan, which had been besieged by Liu Xiu, really resisted Liu Xiu's attack for more than twenty days. In the end, although Wang Lang failed, the influence of his "Liu Ziyu" was still visible. As the best politician of that era, Liu Xiu could not ignore the power of the two words "Han Dynasty". If so, wouldn't it be better to continue to use him and use the New Mang Dynasty as an interlude?
One of Liu Xiu's character flaws made him dare not establish a new dynasty on his own
Liu Xiu is a good person everywhere, but he is a very superstitious person. In fact, it is no wonder that in the New Mang Period, there were three popular verses: the first was that when Liu Xiu was in Wancheng, he heard people say that "Liu Xiu should be the son of heaven". At that time, people were discussing who this Liu Xiu was, and our protagonist Liu Xiu said half-jokingly: "Why can't it be me?" When everyone laughed, it was also a label for his efforts.
The second is Li Tong, the richest man in Liu Xiu's hometown, who chose to help the Liu brothers because of a proverb "Liu's revival, Li's supplement", and poured out his family wealth to recruit soldiers and horses for them, which gave Liu Xiu the basic situation.
The third is that after defeating Wang Lang, Liu Xiu obtained a book of wei, called "Chifu Fu", which clearly wrote: "Liu Xiufa's troops cannot catch the way, the four Yi gather in the dragon fighting field, and the fire is the main fire on the fourth and seventh days." It was precisely because of this edict that Liu Xiu agreed to ascend the throne and become emperor. But notice the last sentence of this verse: Fire reigns on the occasion of April 7. Among them, "47" refers to the time, which is the year that elapses between the founding of the state of Liu Bang and the succession of Liu Xiu (4728, liu Bang founded the country to Liu Xiu's title of emperor, and the interval between the founding of the country and Liu Xiu's title of emperor is 228 years). And "fire is the lord" means that the king of fire virtue is the lord of the world, and the Han Dynasty is the fire virtue. At this time, if Liu Xiu did not call his dynasty the Han Dynasty, then according to the Five Elements, the Eastern Han Dynasty was not Huode, which would be contrary to Wei Wei. The superstitious Liu Xiu did not dare to play like this no matter what.