When it comes to the ancient founding emperors, people often think of monarchs with outstanding martial arts abilities such as Emperor Qin, Han Wu, Li Shimin, and Zhu Yuanzhang. After all, the birth of a dynasty is often accompanied by countless difficulties and obstacles, which puts forward high requirements for the ability of the founding monarch. But the founding prince to be talked about today is an exception, he has no outstanding ability, nor does he have any outstanding merits, he has always been very depressed during his reign, almost everything is arranged by the minister, and finally he was even forced to die by the minister, this emperor is the founding emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Sima Rui, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty.
01. Sima Rui and Wang Dao
In 290 AD, when Emperor Wu of Jin, the founding emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, died of illness, Sima Rui was just 14 years old and lived in the capital Luoyang. In terms of generations, Sima Rui was Sima Yan's nephew. Before Sima Yan's death, he stubbornly wanted Sima Zheng, who had intellectual disabilities, to succeed him. As a result, after the idiot prince Sima Zheng succeeded to the throne, he was unable to preside over the imperial government, and as a result, his foreign relative Yang Jun controlled the imperial government. This caused dissatisfaction among the kings and ministers of the Sima clan, and a bloody upheaval was about to erupt.
Sima Rui had a premonition that danger was about to happen, and his only good friend in the capital, Wang Dao, who was the same age as Sima Rui, also had a premonition that danger was about to happen. Wang Dao persuaded Sima Rui to leave the capital and take refuge in The fiefdom of Wang Dao's family. Sima Rui also wanted to go, but he could not find an excuse to leave the capital for a while.
Unsurprisingly, it was not long after that, the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings broke out". This turmoil was even more brutal than Sima Rui had imagined, and it was long, lasting sixteen years. Later in the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", when Sima Yue attacked Sima Ying, he had the 29-year-old Sima Rui garrison Xia Pi in the rear. Later, Sima Yue attacked Sima Ying, and Sima Rui was transferred to Jianye. Going to Jianye was actually the result of careful planning by Sima Rui and Wang Dao. The two believe that the mountains and rivers are broken at present, the Hu people are in turmoil in the north, the north has been difficult to gain a foothold, and only by going to Jiangnan can we achieve a career.
02. The founding father
Jiangnan has gradually formed a special door valve politics since the end of the Han Dynasty, although its unique political pattern has not changed after the rule of the Sun regime and the Sima regime. When Sima Rui first arrived in Jianye, because he had no meritorious reputation, no elite soldiers, and his royal bloodline was also very distant, no one in the local Hao clan in Jiangnan took the initiative to show favor to Sima Rui.
In order to let the Jiangnan Wang clan "honor the king and yi", Wang Dao and Wang Dun brothers planned a good play for Sima Rui. Taking advantage of the festival, Sima Rui was surrounded by the Hao clan from the north and appeared in a big pomp. The Jiangnan clan realized that Sima Rui was noble. After that, Sima Rui and Wang Dao gradually encircled the Hao clan in Jiangnan and gained a firm foothold in Jiangnan.
In 316, Chang'an was attacked by the former Zhao Xiongnu army, the last emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Ye, was captured, and the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed. In this way, Sima Rui, who was partial to the southeast of An'an, became a legitimate spokesman for imperial power. Sima Yi was humiliated until his death. In 317, the forty-one-year-old Sima Rui, surrounded by warriors from the north and south, became the King of Jin at Jiankang and became emperor of Jin. In this way, Sima Rui became the founding emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
03, the emperor of the nest
Sima Rui said that the empress dowager felt depressed everywhere. First of all, in the courtroom, Sima Rui's government decrees came out involuntarily. He was dissatisfied that everything was presided over by Wang Dao, so when he ascended the throne, he openly let Wang Dao sit on the throne with him, which made Wang Dao extremely embarrassed. Militarily, Wang Dao's brother Wang Dun was in charge of the army, which made Sima Rui feel threatened from time to time. In terms of internal affairs, the Jiangnan Gate Valve wantonly eroded the country's population, resulting in the lack of government tax revenue and military resources. Moreover, the strength of the Gate Valve family soldiers cannot be underestimated, and they have quelled the Jiangnan rebellion several times, which made Sima Rui often feel uneasy...
Sima Rui claimed that although the political, military and other aspects were constrained and could not be given the opportunity to show his ambitions, he also fought. He selected many of his henchmen from the northerners who went south and gradually placed them in key positions, in an attempt to gradually weaken the power of Wang Dao and Wang Dun and establish an armed force of his own. As a result, it backfired, and Wang Dun, who had always looked down on Sima Rui, waited for Zu Ti and Zhou To die of illness, and in 322 AD, in the name of Liu Kui, he sent troops to Jiankang, but in fact wanted to take Sima Rui's place. At this time, Sima Rui's own armed forces were still very weak, and the various armies were defeated by Wang Dun one after another. After Wang Dun entered the capital, due to lack of excuse, he did not act against Sima Rui. Later, Wang Dun controlled the court, and the generals and political leaders installed their own cronies. Soon after, Sima Rui, who had been terrified and exhausted all day, fell ill and died in extreme pain at the age of forty-seven.
Throughout the second half of Sima Rui's life, he called the emperor not the result of his strength and authority, but the result of careful planning and lies, and he was pushed to the front of the stage by the courtiers and the great clan, which made it extremely difficult for him to get rid of control, and it was not surprising that he was humiliated and forced to death by the courtiers.