Two Jin Dynasty And Northern and Southern Dynasties Character Zhi - (Forty-one) Sima Yuanxian
It is not uncommon for a person to be a head of state in his teens and twenties, from ancient times to the present. After all, if The father dies early, the successor, no matter how big or small, will have to go up. After all, for a mature polity, it depends on its set of rules, and it is not absolutely dependent on someone, even if that person is an emperor, a king, a marshal, or a fat man.
But if you become the head of government without hair, then the problem is big. Because the head of state in many cases does not care about specific affairs, according to the ancient Chinese, the holy king can rule from the arch; but the heads of government such as the prime minister, the prime minister, the first assistant, etc., if they do not have enough political experience, then after coming to power, they basically have to look at each other with black eyes.
Therefore, there were many small emperors in ancient China, and only two or three emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty lived past the age of forty, but it did not affect it to become the most powerful empire in the world at that time; however, Zaifu wei and weak crowns were extremely rare, because it was impossible for emperors with slightly better brains to entrust the country to a hairy child to govern.
Of course, there are exceptions, such as the emperor's brain is not good. What is even more unfortunate is that Emperor An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is really a Tang son. Therefore, in his time, the emergence of a teenage Minister Zaifu also had a material basis.
But this is still very difficult, because although the emperor's IQ is in arrears, the ministers under his hands are always capable, and they can't all watch such a hairy child toss things. However, the second condition for the young prime minister to emerge from the sky was that the prime minister who was in charge at that time was his father, that is, Sima Daozi, whom we mentioned earlier.
Sima Daozi was Emperor An's uncle, and his son was Also Emperor An's cousin, and it was easier for such a prince and brother who was backed by blood relations, father, and power, and wanted to be prime minister. And he, that is, our protagonist today, Sima Yuanxian.
However, what is more funny is that Sima Yuanxian's first step on the stage of history is to overthrow his father and want to ascend to the throne himself. At that time, this Huijian Wang Shizi was only sixteen years old.
Earlier we mentioned a civil unrest in the Eastern Jin Dynasty that was not too large - Wang Gong twice raised troops called the "Qing Jun's side", but in fact, it was Sima Daozi who had to be cleaned up. However, due to sima Daozi's status as emperor and chancellor, Wang Gong did not directly say that he wanted to move him, but only targeted wang guobao and Sima Shangzhi, the king of Chen, who was around him.
For this imposing uncle, Sima Daozi really had nothing to do, after all, his ability was to gain power and not fight. At this time, it is necessary for The young and rebellious fifteen- and sixteen-year-old teenager Sima Yuanxian to appear.
In the face of Wang Gong's army, Sima Yuanxian was keenly aware of his weakness, Liu Gaozhi. So at his instigation, Liu Gaozhi turned back on the water at a critical moment, turned over and stabbed Wang Gong in the face, and finally turned the dangerous "QingJun side" into safety.
Sima Daozi was very happy to have such an excellent son, so he turned his face and continued to engage in his great cause--eating, drinking, and gambling; and Sima Yuanxian was also very happy to have such a three-year-old father, because he wanted to have fun himself.
During the pacification of Wang Gong, sima Yuanxian's people praised him, saying that he was particularly similar to his grandfather Sima Shao, the Emperor of Jinming. Sima Yuanxian agreed with this very much, considering that Emperor Ming of Jin only made a great deal of power after the death of his father Sima Rui, so Sima Yuanxian also decided to let his father rest and rest and do it himself.
One day, Sima Yuanxian wrote to the emperor, saying that considering that his father was not in good health, he suggested that his father go to rest and rest. Considering that the emperor's IQ was problematic, and the subjective father was sobering up again (this was not a joke), Sima Yuanxian helped the emperor approve it himself. When the father woke up drunk, he found that he had been arranged to retire by his son.
Sima Daozi was very angry, and the consequences were not serious at all, because he really had nothing to do, plus the seat was his son's no matter how he said it, so he didn't do much, packed up his wine glasses, and then drank.
In this year, Sima Yuanxian was eighteen years old.
In Chinese history, there are many young or young politicians who have been famous throughout the ages, such as Yingzheng in his youth, Li Shimin in the Qin Dynasty, and Kangxi in the San Francisco period. However, when we describe these young talents, we never mention Sima Yuanxian. The reason is simple, he is not.
After Sima Yuanxian successfully squeezed out his father's ascension to the throne, he really refreshed the situation. It's just that instead of solving his father's, it's just more.
In fact, I also want to get that a child who has not reached adulthood in ancient times or today has not received any good education (it is difficult to estimate his father's level), just because a Ping Wang Gong has a burst of self-confidence, what ability can he have? And this prince, who has been pampered since he was a child and has a low eye, after taking a bunch of titles from his father's head to Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V to the top of his head, he is even more blind, and even openly declares that he is invincible to the world, and the disaster he brought can be imagined.
During Sima Daozi's reign, although he excluded dissidents and ignored government affairs, he did not directly provoke ordinary people. As soon as Sima Yuanxian came to power, he immediately recruited all the slaves in Jiangdong as guests (Xie An's dezheng to make these people provide taxes for the state) to the capital to serve as soldiers, which was called "Lecong", which meant that these people were all volunteers who took the initiative to become soldiers!
With the efforts of Sima Yuanxian, Sun Enlu followed the cause. And when Xie Yan, the only one who could fight at that time, died in battle (Liu Yu was not famous), Sima Yuanxian's reaction was not to dispatch troops to discover talents, but to add a bunch of officials to himself, supervising the military of the sixteen prefectures, the rear general, the Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division, and also made a prince for his son who was still in his infancy.
It wasn't until Sun En's attack on Jingkou that Sima Yuanxian reacted—he sent people to blockade Stone City, and No matter how Much Sun En shouted and scolded, he couldn't fight until the various soldiers and horses who came to Qin Wang repelled Sun En, and he dared to go out to see people. Of course, the first merit of pacifying Sun En must be him, not to mention.
After three years like this, Sima Yuanxian did not make any achievements, but he was busy adding officials to himself. Until Huan Xuan's army once again entered the city of Jiankang, he was still talking to himself to get his own title. And when the stone city slope and someone had already come to arrest him, he panicked and ran to his father's mansion, and the father and son cried against each other, and then they were arrested together.
Before his execution, Huan Xuan asked Sima Yuanxian what his last words were. Sima Yuanxian thought about it and said something similar to Zhu Youjian's last words more than a thousand years later:
Mistaken by Wang Shi and Zhang Fashun.
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When Sima Yuanxian died, he was also twenty years old. According to the ancient ceremony, he had just completed the crowning ceremony the year before.
The demise of Sima Daozi and Sima Yuanxian meant that the efforts of the Eastern Jin court to rely on the royal family against the clan had completely vanished. And the arrival of Huan Xuan also means the retribution of a great vendetta, the understanding of a long-cherished wish, and the rise of a military strongman.
So, why did Huan Xuan want to make trouble, and what was his final outcome? We'll talk about it next time.