Text/Wending
The war of the primitive society of mankind relies on physical strength, manpower, and the courage of the crowd. After human beings entered civilized society, the influence of culture on war became more and more large, so that it became the soul and master of war.
During the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period, China's orthodox dynasty lived in a corner of Jiangnan and was so weak that it did not look like it. However, at this time, the separatist regimes of the various ethnic minorities in the north appeared to be full of vitality, and one after another they rose one after another. This raises the question: Where does the vibrancy of these divided regimes come from?
From Han Chinese culture!
The monarchs of the Sixteen Kingdoms who love Han culture
Just when the Han culture was increasingly suffocated by the absurdity and erosion of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it gained new vitality from the founders of the minority separatist regime in the north.
The founders of the Sixteen Kingdoms Division regime, without exception, drew the wisdom and successful experience of war from the Han culture in a direct or indirect way.
The direct way of absorption mainly refers to their own Sinicization. Liu Yuan, a descendant of the Xiongnu nobles who founded the first divided regime in the north, was the most sinicized. Liu Yuan's son Liu Cong , the Book of The Sons of the History of the Classics , the Gong Cursive Book , wrote more than 100 "Shu Huai Poems" and more than 50 odes.
(Sixteen Kingdoms Form Map)
Shi Le, a descendant of the Later Zhao monarch who had once unified the north, worked as a slave, hired worker, and bandit, and was illiterate, but when he raised an army to revolt, he often asked people to read the "Zuo Zhuan", "Shi Ji", and "Book of Han" to him and learn from them. Once, he asked someone to read the Book of Han for him, and when he read that Li Shiqi had advised Liu Bang to establish the Six Kingdoms, he immediately exclaimed, "This is a ridiculous proposition!" When he read that Zhang Liang dissuaded Liu Bang from accepting this proposition, he let out a long breath and said, "Oh, there is still this person!" "He has an amazing understanding and absorption of the wisdom and successful experience of warfare in the classic history books of ancient China.
Another Former Qin monarch who unified the north, Jian Jian, took the initiative to ask his teacher to learn Han culture at the age of eight, and his understanding of ancient classics also reached a fairly high level.
The reuse of the Han chinese was the cornerstone of Shi Le and Jian Jian's consolidation of their rule.
The indirect way of absorbing means that they generally reuse learned and talented Han Chinese as their think tanks. During the two Jin Dynasties, due to the incessant civil strife in the Western Jin Dynasty and the corruption of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a large number of Hanmen Shi clans (there were also a small number of Gao Men Shi clans) were distraught and turned to the northern ethnic minority rebels one after another to give full play to their wisdom and talents. There are many such examples.
(Shi Le, who loves Han culture, the creator of Later Zhao)
Shi Le reused the Han Chinese Zhang Bin:
Zhang Bin was originally from Zhongqiu County, Zhao County (present-day Neiqiu County, Hebei), and his father Zhang Yao served as zhongshan taishou. "Bin Shao is studious, knowledgeable in the history of the scriptures, not for chapters and sentences, and has a big section." He had a very high opinion of himself, and often said to his brothers: "I said that I could not know houzifang (Zhang Liang), but I did not meet Gao Zu'er." "He had earlier served as the governor under the king of Zhongqiu, but he felt that it was not interesting, and he resigned with illness. When the Yongjia Rebellion of the Western Jin Dynasty began, Shi Le followed Liu Yuanhai to assist the "Han general" Liu Yuan in fighting the world and went down to Shandong with the various armies. Zhang Bin said to his relatives and friends: "I have seen many generals in my history, and General Duhu can achieve great things with him." So he "raised his sword to the gate and shouted to see him, le wei zhi qi ye." Shi Le went north and south, never seen such a person, and left him by his side. After a long time, the two became acquainted, and the conversation deepened, and Shi Le felt that Zhang Bin was indeed a talent, so he "introduced himself as the mastermind" and let him be the chief strategist for himself.
(Zhang Bin, help Shi Le break the dynasty and stabilize the rule)
After years of testing, Zhang Bin came up with the idea for Shi Le: "The opportunity is not vain, there is no exhaustive strategy, and the foundation of Cheng Le is also the xun of Bin." Shi Le continued to promote Zhang Bin, praised him, and appointed him as the Right Changshi and Great Law Enforcement, and the Marquis of Puyang, "Ren Yu Youxian, favored at that time." Shi Le was a rough man, but he had great respect for Zhang Bin, "every dynasty, often for his good looks", and called him "Right Marquis" in the court, kind, trusting, and dependent.
Zhang Bin did come up with a lot of good ideas for Shi Le. For example, he told Shi Le that it was a big thing, seized the world, and could not wander around without a fixed place, and suggested that Shi Le build the capital Xiangguo, and Shi Le gladly adopted it, which became the key to Shi Le's success. He won the hearts and minds of the people for Shi Le, "modest and prudent, cheerful corporal, no virtuous and foolish, and the creator can not do his best." He advised Shi Le to "purge the hundreds of officials and put an end to privateness." His principle of getting along with Shi Le was "to enter the maxim, to go out is to return to the beauty", to enter the house, face to face, always remind Shi Le; out of the door, when the people, everywhere to maintain the prestige of Shi Le.
He suggested that Shi Le say that in ruling the world, we must attach importance to culture, education, and scholars. Shi Le conscientiously adopted his suggestion, established Taixue, selected scholars as teachers, sent all three hundred children of his subordinates to Taixue to study, and inspected the school several times a year to personally test students. According to Zhang Bin's suggestion, Shi Le ordered that all captured scholars during the battle should not be killed, and all of them should be sent to Xiangguo, and appointed a Gong clan doctor to specially manage these scholars and play their role. Zhang Bin gave Shi Le great help in various aspects such as combat planning, political power building, system construction, and cultural construction.
(Hou Zhao Quansheng photo)
Zhang Bin fell ill and died, and Shi Le cried bitterly, "mourning left and right." "Sending the burial to the Zhengyang Gate, looking at the drooling, Gu Left and Right said: 'Heavenly desire is not to become my evil, and he will rob my right marquis early!' Shi Le had an even greater ambition: He wanted to unify China. Zhang Bin's death dealt a heavy blow to his faith, "because of the runny nose of the day." This also reflects from the side, Shi Le's heavy use of the Han people.
Jian Jian reused the Han Chinese Wang Meng:
Wang Meng, whose ancestral home was Beihai Opera County (present-day Shouguang, Shandong), was a character with a slight character. Born in a cold family, less poor and lowly, to sell as a business. A background like his origin was dismissive in the eyes of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's Gaomen. He was rigorous in nature, erudite in military writing, "arrogant and far-reaching, and did not worry about small things", and "laughed lightly" at flashy people. When he was young, he traveled to Yecheng, Xu Tong wanted to summon him as Gong Cao, he "escaped and should not", lived in seclusion in the Huayin Mountains to worship the teacher and read hard, "when the wings are waiting, waiting for the wind and clouds to move".
(Portrait of Wang Meng)
At that time, the north was a period when the former Yan and Former Qin powers coexisted. At that time, Jian Jian was the king of the Eastern Qin Dynasty in the Former Qin Dynasty, with great ambitions and recruiting talents. He heard of Wang Meng's name, sent Lü Polou to please, Wang Meng followed, and the two "language and abolition of major events, different and identical", at first sight, stayed. Soon, Emperor Jian (苻健苻苻三子) was proclaimed emperor and Wang Meng was made Zhongshu Shilang (中書侍郎). Wang Meng helped Jian Jian suppress the nobles and strong forces, strengthen the centralization of power, promote the virtuous and handsome, implement the rule of law, refresh the rule of officials, and develop nongsang, so that the former Qin state became stronger and stronger.
In the fifth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (370 AD), Wang Meng led a large army to attack Former Yan. Murong [the third monarch of Former Yan] ordered his uncle Murong Jue (慕容評) to lead 300,000 Yan soldiers from Tunlu Prefecture (屯潞州, in present-day northern Lucheng County, Shanxi) to resist the Qin soldiers. The generals fought bravely, the Yan army was defeated, and Murong Pingdan fled back to Yecheng. Wang Meng took advantage of the victory to pursue and conquer the city of Ye, and the Former Yan monarch Murong [inset] was captured and Former Yan perished. Wang Meng led an army to attack Former Yan and made a great contribution to Former Qin. After the annihilation of Yan, Jian Jian ordered Wang Meng to take charge of sorting out the "Six Prefectures of Kwantung".
(Stone statue of Jian Jian)
Wang Meng repeatedly asked the six prefectures to dispatch officials, but Jian Jian refused to do so, and insisted on putting the burden on him alone, giving him great power to "engage cheaply." Wang Meng selected clean and honest people to serve as county officials and abolished the bad government of The Former Yan Murong Dynasty. Before moving the Hundred Officials of the Yan Dynasty and more than 40,000 households of Xianbei to Chang'an, and then moved 150,000 households of Haoqiang and Zhuzayi to Guanzhong. In this way, it is equivalent to releasing more than 200,000 peasant households forcibly occupied by the Xianbei nobles, which is a kind of good governance for the people of the Central Plains.
Soon, Jian Jian appointed Wang Meng as the Chancellor, Zhongshu Supervisor, Shang Shu Ling, Crown Prince Taifu, Lieutenant Colonel, Zhijie, Chang Shi, General, and Governor of various Chinese and foreign militaries. Wang Meng "watched for a long time", and Jian Jian issued an edict: "Since the Qing Dynasty assisted the government, several generals of the Second Era (more than twenty years), the inner hundreds, the outside of the crowd, the world is determined, and Yi Lun began to narrate." And want to calmly be on top, look forward to Qing's hard work on the bottom, hongji's business, not Qing and who! Indeed, within the ethnic minorities, it was difficult to find such a capable talent as Wang Meng for a while, and Jian Jian was telling the truth and telling the truth.
In the third year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (375 AD), Wang Meng was critically ill, and Jian Jian went to Wang Meng's sickbed to ask for political affairs. Wang Meng reminded him that although the Eastern Jin Dynasty was far away in Jiangnan, it was orthodox and the people's hearts were at their disposal, and after I died, you must not make plans to destroy the Jin. The Xianbei Murong clan and the Qiang yao clan were the greatest threat to Former Qin, and they must be gradually eliminated in order to establish a long-term state. Wang Meng died after he finished speaking, and Jian Jian cried loudly.
However, Jian Jian had already unified the north and wanted to take advantage of the victory to unify China, and his desire was too strong. He did not heed Wang Meng's advice on his deathbed, and hastily launched the Battle of Shuishui, hoping to destroy the Eastern Jin Dynasty in one fell swoop. As a result, it was a major defeat and caused a chain reaction, which destroyed Former Qin's efforts to unify the north, and in an instant it collapsed, and the north fell back into division.
(Jian Jian did not listen to Wang Meng's persuasion and insisted on attacking Jin, and as a result, he was defeated.) )
The limited Sinicization is the reason why the two failed to unify the country
This raises another question: Why did Shi Le and Jian Jian, once they left the help of prominent Han Chinese people, quickly fail? The answer is simple: their acceptance of Han Chinese culture has great limitations.
Shi Le and Jian Jian, they relied on only a few outstanding Talents of the Han Nationality. Shi Le relied on a Zhang Bin, and Jian Jian relied on a Wang Meng. For the huge treasure house of Han culture, the cultural knowledge, war wisdom, and governance experience that Zhang Bin and Wang Meng learned from it are limited by individual lives.
Historical experience proves that in order to win a war of national founding, it is necessary to reserve strength in all aspects, including ideological and cultural preparations. Even if we win the battle to found the country, if we want to consolidate political power and govern the world well, we must rely on a strong political group, rely on a set of basic systems that have been constantly improved, and rely on unremitting efforts to rule the country. All this is exactly what the separatist regimes of the Sixteen Kingdoms lack.
References: Book of Jin Sixteen Kingdoms Spring and Autumn Shi Le Biography