Man is inherently dead, or heavier than Taishan, or lighter than Hongmao———— Sima Qian's "Book of Baoren An"
As we all know, there are many people who like to collect, such as some people like to collect antique porcelain or something, and some people like to collect handmade dolls and the like, these things are more common to everyone.
But there are always some people, with other fetishes, who collect something strange and unusual. Gibson in the United States likes to collect his own foot nails, and Klinko likes to collect chili sauce.
This is not the strangest, most of the ancient emperors had the same habit, that is, to collect the heads of the defeated of the former dynasty, including Wang Mang's head was treasured by several emperors for 272 years, why is this? Why is his head so "precious"?
The emperor Wang Mang who struggled with patience
Wang Mang was a member of the famous foreign relative Wang Family at that time, because his father died at an early age, Wang Mang has been living with his uncle, Wang Mang is different from others.
He was very honest, did not have the clumsy atmosphere of other tribesmen, never embezzled and corrupt, and in the eyes of everyone Wang Mang was the representative of the moral model, and everyone praised him.
His prestige once surpassed that of those powerful elders, and not only that, but he often helped the poor and saved the lives of many people, and among the people, his reputation was the best and the most loved by the people.
Later, his uncle died, and Wang Mang was recommended to succeed him, and Wang Mang rose all the way to the top, because his integrity and honesty were deeply loved by everyone.
After the emperor's death, he was elected as the Grand Sima and became a high-ranking official above ten thousand people under one person, and then supported the nine-year-old HanPing Emperor and took the power in his own hands.
From this moment on, Wang Mang no longer disguised himself, and his ambition was exposed, wanting to turn the imperial court into his hall of speech and begin to exclude dissidents.
Although Wang Mang has now opened his fangs, in order to better expand his rights, he still did not use strong means to suppress them, but slowly eliminated those objections behind his back.
Even for the sake of the stability of power, even his own son was poisoned, which shows that Wang Mang's kindness is nothing more than hypocrisy, after eliminating the emperor's foreign relatives, the imperial court is also Wang Mang's hall of words, the power is monstrous, and no one avoids his sharp edge.
Eventually, in the eighth year of the Common Era, Wang Mang became emperor, and there was no Han Dynasty again.
The destination of Wang Mang's head
Why was Wang Mang's head stored for so long? There are only a few reasons for this.
At that time, Wang Mang was the emperor of the new dynasty, and collecting his head could deter the four sides, so that others could follow an example and not have the heart of rebellion.
The second was the battle achievement, there were many rebel troops at that time, and only he took the first rank of Wang Mang, which was a tangible deterrent to others.
Thus becoming a better emperor, this head is the best proof of force.
Finally, as we all know, in ancient China, feudal superstition was a mainstream, and most of them believed in ghosts and gods.
In Wang Mang's time, they believed in witchcraft, and smearing human heads with special things could be suppressed forever, so it was very likely that the emperor of the dynasty chose to collect Wang Mang's head for this reason.
In history, it is not uncommon to collect heads, in the early Yuan Dynasty, a high official excavated the tomb of the Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, not only took away a large amount of gold and silver treasures, but also cut off the head of Song Lizong, because he superstitiously believed that this could bring him good luck.
This situation is very common in the long history of the river, which can be felt from the fact that the death penalty was beheading at that time.
The success or defeat of the king is unpredictable
At that time, Wang Mang was full of vigor, although he failed in the end, but it is undeniable that Wang Mang was indeed a rare genius, able to go from a grass dweller to an emperor of a dynasty, which was also done by Zhu Yuanzhang in history, although Wang Mang was not recognized in history, but he was indeed a talent, and his deeds I think are worth learning.
His head was made into a collectible, fully embodying the natural law of the defeat of the king and the law of the weak and the strong, and the loser has no human rights and can only be slaughtered.
Of course, this has a lot to do with the brutal rule of Wang Mang in the later period, just like Liu Chan, the last emperor of the Shu State during the Three Kingdoms period, although he was a subjugated monarch, he lived well, which shows how much contrast there is.
This also teaches us a truth, when we succeed, we must not be blinded by power or money, we must adhere to our hearts, do our own good, do some good things to give back to the society, in order to go further and become better, otherwise we will be like Wang Mang.
The following people rebelled, but also cut off Wang Mang's head, the people's hearts are the most important, the old saying is good: water can carry a boat can also overturn the boat, I hope that the little friends remember this truth, must adhere to the original heart, do not forget the original heart.
References: Book of Han, Zhou Li, History