Has there ever been something in history that looks silly and turns out to be smart?
In this article, I will talk to you about this topic.
To say that the historical recognition of the very silly thing, that is, the founding emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan, actually let an idiot son become the emperor, and also drove back in history, wantonly divided the princes, reused foreign relatives, led to the dictatorship of Jia Hou and the rebellion of the Eight Kings, and finally the Western Jin Empire also went to ruin in cannibalism.
It shows that Sima Yan's behavior is very stupid, because as long as he is a person of normal intelligence, he will not let an idiot son become emperor, let alone open a large number of princes and reuse foreign relatives, because the troubles of foreign relatives and feudal kings in the two Han Dynasties are all vivid.
But the problem is that if we look at the historical lens a little longer than 400 years, we will find that such a simple truth is not only unknown to Sima Yan, but even to all the political strongmen of that era.
First of all, Shi Le, the founding emperor of Later Zhao, although he did not choose an idiot to be the emperor, he also chose his young son as the heir, and at the same time he also wantonly divided the princes and reused foreign relatives, of course, the final result was also tragic.
Later, after Shi Le's younger brother Shi Hu seized the throne, he felt that Sima Yan and Shi Le were simply stupid, because it was not typical for everyone to covet the throne by letting an idiot or young son become emperor. Therefore, after Shi Hu came up, he chose the most capable son as the heir, and also focused on cultivating him, and as a result, after the rise of this son, the first person to kill was Shi Hu.
Later, after this son was killed by Shi Hu, he changed to another adult son as the prince, but this time he learned his lesson and made another strong son the prince, so that the two of them restrained each other, but as a result, first the prince killed the prince, and then he prepared to kill Shi Hu. In the end, the prince's entire family was killed by Shi Hu.
Heartbroken, Shi Hu finally understood Sima Yan and Shi Le's good intentions, so he went around in a big circle, Shi Hu returned to their old path, he also chose a young son as the heir, and at the same time wantonly divided the prince and reused foreign relatives, of course, the final result is also tragic, but the good villain Shi Hu himself can spend the second half of his life safely.
The later Founding Emperor Of the Xiongnu Liu Yuan, the Founding Emperor of the Chenghan Dynasty Li Xiong, and former Qin's Gong Xiong and Jian Jian, as well as Liu Song, Xiao Qi, Xiao Liang, and even the Northern Qi Empire of the Gao family in the north, almost all encountered such a situation as Shi Hu.
Even the later Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, and the early Li Shimin encountered similar situations, so when Li Shimin was in his later years, he also decided to copy Sima Yan's layout.
All in all, Sima Yan wantonly divided the princes, and Li Shimin also wantonly divided the princes. Sima Yan had many excellent sons, but chose an idiot son as the crown prince; Li Shimin also had many excellent sons, but in the end he also chose the weakest Li Zhi as the crown prince; at the same time, Sima Yan reused the foreign relative of the Jia clan, and Li Shimin also reused the foreign relative of the Changsun clan.
Of course, Li Shimin also made some clever changes on his own, for example, Sima Yan gave the princes of the divided titles a lot of authority, but Li Shimin limited many of the powers of the kings.
As a result, the entire Li clan almost let Wu Zetian give a pot to the pot, if it were not for the fact that several Li clan royalty were Wu Zetian's sons and grandsons, the Tang Dynasty Would probably have died three times. In this regard, if Li Shimin had known about Itachi, I am afraid it would have been better to copy Sima Yan in its entirety.
Of course, not only Li Shimin, the first emperor of the ming dynasty, but also the iron-blooded founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was also a prince of the division, and at the same time gave up many of his excellent sons to choose a weak imperial grandson as the heir, of course, in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, although Zhu Yunjiao was weak, at least he was not an idiot, so his choice was naturally higher than Sima Yan.
But as a result, Zhu Yunjiao was indeed not an idiot, but he was clever in his own way, and he came up to forcibly change Zhu Yuanzhang's layout, and as a result, he died and the country was destroyed. If Zhu Di had not been a member of the Zhu family, the Ming Dynasty would have also died in the second dynasty. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang's evaluation in the history books was probably not as good as That of Sima Yan.
In this sense, although the things Sima Yan did looked silly and stupid, judging from the results of more than 400 years, sima Yan's stupid things were obviously proved to be the wisest decisions.
Because, in these 400 years, any attempt to surpass Sima Yan was finally proved to be futile, so that the successors could only continue along the path of Sima Yan.
As for the reasons behind this phenomenon, it is another topic, and I will not say more here. In a word, the political layout left by Sima Yan looked silly, but it was confirmed by later facts, which was a clever thing, almost the best and wisest choice under the conditions at that time.