At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Yellow Turban Rebellion stirred up great chaos in the world, and the Han Dynasty immediately entered a chaotic situation in which the powerful and powerful rose up and the warlords divided their territory. In the discourse at that time and in many later historical records, most of them believed that the two disasters that occurred during the reign of Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty were the reasons for hurting the foundation of the Han Dynasty.
The curse of the party refers to why the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty suppressed the courtier clique that opposed the eunuchs and imprisoned the soldiers for life on the charge of "party members". So as an emperor, why did he have to stand on the side of the eunuchs, deliberately suppress the courtiers, and finally end up with a historical insult of "pro-villain, far-reaching and virtuous subjects"?
The political ecology of the Eastern Han Dynasty originated in the Western Han Dynasty, but it was very different
In order to clarify the policy motives of the Eastern Han Emperor, it is necessary to first clarify the political ecology of the Hao clan throughout the Eastern Han Dynasty. To clarify the political ecology of the Eastern Han Dynasty, we have to start with the Western Han Dynasty. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, after experiencing the rule of Wenjing, the national strength increased greatly. The powerful Western Han Dynasty soon launched a grand hegemony to counterattack the Xiongnu and expand its territory, domesticating warhorses, training fine horses, building armaments, and frequently strengthening diplomatic relations with the Eastern Hu clan (which had been split into Xianbei, Wuhuan and other departments) and the western states. Finally, starting from Emperor Wu, wei Qing and Huo Fuyi were the beginnings, unveiling the climax of the Hundred Years of Han-Hungarian War. However, in order to maintain a sufficient supply of military salaries, the Western Han Dynasty inevitably increased the number of civilian taxes and servitude. In the later years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, social contradictions intensified, and the emperor issued the "Luntai Sin Self-Commandment". The increase in taxes led to the loss of the peasant population, and the people who could not tolerate heavy taxes had to defect to the families that evolved from the nobles and "scholars" of the pre-Qin period, which caused the two major evils of land annexation and the concealment of the taxpayer population.
The depletion of the central government has triggered a new round of tax increases, and under such a vicious circle, the family of luxury is rising day by day. By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, the representative of the Hao clan, was already able to influence the overall situation of the dynasty. Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty to establish a new dynasty, and immediately began to reform the system to change the law, intending to get rid of the constraints of the Hao clan. However, Wang Mang's new policy touched the interests of the Hao class as a whole, and it was not conducive to betraying the class that supported him to ascend to power. More importantly, Wang Mang wanted to liberate the people who were dependent on the Hao clan, but did not know that in the context of heavy agricultural taxes, the peasants were not willing to gain economic independence. In the end, Wang Mang was overthrown by Liu Xiu, who was re-supported by the Hao clan, and the Eastern Han Dynasty was controlled by the Hao family from the beginning, and the political ecology of the Hao clan continued until the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The struggle between the imperial power and the Hao family
The Emperor, the Son of Heaven also. What's more, Liu Xiu was selected by the Hao clique, which must be due to the use of the banner of the Xianhan. Therefore, from the very beginning, the Eastern Han Dynasty faced a struggle between the Tianzi of Liu who occupied the imperial throne and the Hao family that occupied the imperial hall. The power of the Eastern Han Emperor was much smaller than that of the Western Han Dynasty. What is more fatal is that in order to consolidate the foundation of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the empress position is usually selected from the Hao family, which makes it impossible for foreign relatives who should have sided with the emperor to help the emperor strengthen the imperial power.
In the nearly two hundred years of history of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most of the famous ministers and famous generals who established the immortal merits of the Biao Bing history were concentrated in the six major families. They were the Deng Yu family (the most prominent family), the Geng Yi family (the iron-blooded giant clan with three generations of generals), the Liang Tong family (the Wang clan with the same life as the Eastern Han Dynasty), the Dou Rong family (the frequent foreign relatives of the military generals), the Ma Yuan family (the military giant family), and the Yin family (the top foreign relative family), all descendants of the Conglong vassals who helped Liu Xiu seize the world in the early years. Whether it is a former dynasty or a harem, the power center of the Eastern Han Dynasty is full of them.
How the "villain" eunuch came to power
In the history of China before the Eastern Han Dynasty, although eunuchs existed (not eunuchs, not castrated), it was always difficult to gain great power except for zhao gao's special case. The fundamental reason for Zhao Gao's rise to power was because of the blind trust of the emperor, as was the ascension of eunuchs during the Eastern Han Dynasty. As a group dependent on the emperor, having the emperor's support was a prerequisite for the eunuchs to gain power. So why did the Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty support eunuchs? This is actually the need to compete for power with the Hao family and strengthen the imperial rule.
Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, rose in the chaotic world, and although he was assisted by the Hao clan, his own concubine strength and prestige were very high. Following Guangwu Zhongxing, several kings such as Emperor Ming of Han and Emperor Zhang, who pioneered the rule of Ming Zhang, were also highly regarded. And after experiencing Wang Mang's tossing and turning and the peasant revolt, the Shijia Hao clan is also developing, and they can also balance each other. However, in the later Eastern Han Emperors, they felt more and more the constraints of the Hao family on imperial power. Therefore, it is necessary to seek support for those who support themselves against the Hao family. Foreign relatives could not count on it, and the level of knowledge of the people at the bottom was not enough (knowledge was monopolized by the Hao clan, and paper was very expensive at that time), so they could only rely on the eunuch group that was completely dependent on the imperial power. It was precisely because of the emperor's initiative to promote that the power of eunuchs increased day by day.
Imperialists, foreign relatives, eunuchs, and families
In the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, the foreign relative Liang Ji (Liang Tong family), who supported the 15-year-old Emperor Huan of Han to ascend to the throne, was known as the "General of the Imperial Guards" because of his arrogance and unreasonableness towards the courtier emperor. Emperor Huan of Han, who became emperor, naturally did not want to be used as a puppet, so after 13 years of being emperor without real power, he dug out several henchmen from the eunuchs, made an alliance of blood, and joined forces to do Liang Ji. Liang Ji originated from the family, but after becoming a foreign relative and beginning to monopolize power, his attitude towards other families was not good. However, after his downfall, in the face of the rise of eunuch power, the famous courtiers among the family of hao denounced the eunuchs for taking power, intending to re-incorporate power to the side of the family. Emperor Huan of Han quickly intervened, accusing these people of forming a party for personal gain, arresting or dismissing them, and stipulating that they would never be hired, which was the first disaster of the party. However, when the family suffered a heavy blow, Emperor Huan of Han immediately cleaned up the eunuchs who had helped him to eliminate Liang Ji, alleviating the contradictions between the emperor and the family, but did not abandon the eunuchs.
The "virtuous minister" eventually became a tyrant
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Hao family always held the power of public opinion propaganda, so they denounced eunuchs as "villains" but advertised themselves as "virtuous subjects". It was only in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty that the climate turned cold and caused natural disasters everywhere in the world, and for a time there were civil unrest. However, in the court of the Han Dynasty, the forces of all sides still conspired against each other, and foreign relatives and eunuchs took turns to sit in the center, and there was no time to control the suffering of the people. In this context, folk beliefs merged with the Taoist doctrine of escapism, and gradually sects such as Taiping Dao and Tianshi Dao appeared, and eventually Tianshi Dao (Wudou Mi Sect) divided Hanzhong and established itself, and Taiping Dao set off the Yellow Turban Uprising, shaking the world.
In the Central Plains, the Han Dynasty declined, and it had to hope that the Hao family would raise troops and serve the king in the local area. However, the powerful families in various places took advantage of the turmoil to recruit troops and expand their territory. The families who once flaunted themselves as "sages" of the Han Dynasty eventually became the tyrants of the chaotic world at the end of the Han Dynasty in order to chase the deer in the Central Plains.
In summary, opening up the political ecology of the Eastern Han Dynasty, we will find that the "disaster of the party" stems from the emperor's need to suppress the family and strengthen the imperial power, and the purchase of the official is due to the family's economic monopoly and the reduction of the central financial revenue.