Tip: Governing the world is about "great governance", the so-called great rule of the world, the people can live and work in peace and contentment, and the country can have a stable political situation. If Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty really killed all the Xiongnu men and made all the Women of the Xiongnu become the wives of the border guards, it would be no different from the Xiongnu calling on their people to come to the Central Plains to "collective crime", and this is not the "great rule" that a country needs.
According to the Chronicle of the Huns, the Xiongnu law stipulates that those who intentionally kill people and pull out the sheath of the sword by one foot are sentenced to death, and those who commit theft confiscate their family property; those who commit minor crimes are sentenced to the punishment of crushing bone joints, and those who are serious are sentenced to death. The longest sentence in prison is only ten days, and the number of prisoners in a country is only a few. original:
In its law, those who draw the blade die, and those who sit on the thief enter their homes; those who are guilty of the crime are rolled over, and those who are large die. The prisoner is only ten days, and the prisoner of a country is not more than a few.
This will give people today the illusion that the Social Security of the Huns is very good, and there are always so many people in prison. Is this really the case? The answer is quite the opposite, and it is for this reason that the Huns suffered a catastrophe in later history.
Modern society has such a term - crime rate, which refers to the proportion of the population occupied by offenders, usually expressed in the ratio of 100,000 points. On this basis one can analyze some of the existing social problems. In the Han Dynasty, the Population of the Xiongnu was between 1 million and 1.5 million, and it was unrealistic and impossible for only a few people in prisons to be in that era of extreme material scarcity, but the Huns did this. why?
In ancient books, China's northern frontier has always been very dangerous, and this danger is always related to the climate, and the colder the weather, the greater the degree of danger. This is because the colder the weather, it means that the cattle and sheep of the Huns are difficult to overwinter, and even with the large number of deaths accompanied by snow disasters, it will endanger the survival of the Huns, and in order to survive, they will come to the Central Plains to burn and loot. Apparently, the Huns took this behavior for granted, and this naturally contributed to a decline in the crime rate within the Huns.
Before the Western Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu had always been a major problem for the Central Plains Dynasty, and the Xiongnu, as a nomadic tribe, would invade from time to time from the south. The Central Plains, which made a living from farming, almost became a warehouse for the Xiongnu to take as they needed, and if they lacked anything, they would come to the Central Plains to "take". During the Qin Dynasty, general Meng Tian drove the Xiongnu 700 miles north to recover Henan (present-day Hetao), but after the fall of Qin, the Xiongnu made a comeback, and the friction between the early Han Dynasty and the Central Plains was never interrupted, stopping and stopping, so that the Han people continued to suffer losses until the emergence of Emperor Wu of Han.
The "cheap" Huns were picked up, and over time, they had such a consciousness, that is, it was better to steal or rob from within the Xiongnu than to go to the Central Plains, this kind of burning and looting was advocated by its regime, not only did not have the cost of crime, but also could change the fate, and even become a hero, why not enjoy it?
At the same time, the Xiongnu also directly "digested" some unfavorable factors that would directly lead to crime, "The Biography of the Xiongnu": "The strong eat fat, and the old eat the rest." Noble and strong, mean old and weak. This means that they let the strong eat fat food, and the old eat the leftovers; they value the strong and despise the old and weak. This is very "legitimizing" to eliminate another contradiction in society, and of course it will also promote a decline in the crime rate.
What are young people and prime-age people doing eating fat food? The "Chronicle of History" makes it very clear: when there is no war in normal times, they are nomadic at will, and their profession is to shoot birds and beasts; when the situation is urgent, everyone practices the ability to attack and fight in order to invade and plunder, which is their nature. Nature can also be a habit of formation, the Huns on the battlefield are in a favorable situation to attack, unfavorable to retreat, not to escape as a shame. As long as it is advantageous, it does not matter whether the etiquette allows it or not.
Here we might as well call this the vicious circle of hun crime—from the individual to the collective, to the "nature"—and the sin of the individual inside is thus replaced by the crime of the external collective–which is why its survival cannot really last. There is a passage in the "History of Ji Dian" that describes the dialogue between Ji Di and Emperor Wu of Han, which is very illustrative of this problem.
At that time, the situation was like this, in order to welcome the Hun Evil King of the Xiongnu to surrender, Emperor Wu of Han not only gave the Hun Evil King a lot of rewards and sealed the marquis, but also had to requisition 20,000 cars to pick up the Hun Evil King. When local officials had no money, they engaged in forced apportionment, looking for the common people to buy horses on credit, and the common people were afraid that the officials would take it for free, so they hid the horses, making it difficult for the officials to complete the task. Emperor Wu of Han was very angry and wanted to kill the officials who had not completed their tasks.
At this time, Ji Dian spoke: "The Xiongnu are the long-time enemies of our Han Dynasty, and for hundreds of years they have disturbed our frontiers and killed my people, and the crimes they have committed are simply uncountable." Now that we have defeated them, why should we make them men of the Kingdom of God? It is better to use the Hun men as slaves, and the women to reward the meritorious soldiers as wives. "Original text:
The Fu Xiongnu attacked Lu Sai, and the Chinese raised troops to attack them, and the casualties were incalculable, and the cost was huge. The courtiers foolishly thought that His Majesty had received the Hu people, and all thought that they were slaves, and gave them to the families of the dead in the army; and they were given to the people, and because of them, they thanked the world and the hearts of the people.
These words were very painful and popular, but Emperor Wu of Han listened to them and said, "I have not heard the words of the dark for a long time, and now I am making a mistake again." "Meaning, I haven't heard Ji Di talk nonsense for a long time, and today he has a recurrence of his old illness." Today, some people believe that Emperor Wu of Han did not need to do so, and should adopt the term of ji diluism. But what we want to say is that if Emperor Wudi of Han really did that, what kind of consequences would it be?
Governing the world is about "great governance," and only by the so-called great rule of the world can the people live and work in peace and contentment, and can the country have a stable political situation. If Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty really killed all the Xiongnu men and made all the Women of the Xiongnu become the wives of the border guards, it would be no different from the Xiongnu calling on their people to come to the Central Plains to "collective crime", and this is not the "great rule" that a country needs.
In this way, Ji Dian was really a little too small, which was the reason why the Han Dynasty was able to completely defeat the Xiongnu. As a nation, the first thing to bear should be morality, not the materialism of using other people's homes as a storehouse and the irrationality of anger or revenge. (Text/Lu Sheng)