In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the "Yellow Turban Rebellion" and the "Dong Zhuo Rebellion" completely crushed the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was in turmoil, and earlier due to the negative impact of the "State Assassination History Leading Army System", the careerists entrenched in various places began to chase after the Central Plains, and the Eastern Han Dynasty was in a state of fragmentation.
In 200 AD, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, the most powerful warlord in the Central Plains, at the Battle of Guandu and began to gradually unify northern China.
From a historical point of view, Cao Cao's success is not accidental, but inevitable, and we can see the gap between the two from a dialogue between him and Yuan Shao: When someone asked him what means the two of them used to pacify the world, Yuan Shao said that he was trying to advance the world on the basis of Qing, Ji, You, and then trying to advance the world; and Cao Cao proposed to recruit the world's talents for his own use, and to use them to advance the world.
It is precisely because of the emphasis on talents that we can achieve some achievements, and this is also the charm of Cao Cao: meritocracy. In the process of Cao Cao's pursuit of deer in the Central Plains, we can see the employment characteristics of Cao Cao's "meritocracy":
Regardless of personal favors: Many of Cao Cao's men had been Cao Cao's enemies, Zhang Liao was Lü Bu's subordinate, Zhang Gao was Yuan Shao's subordinate, and Chen Lin had also written a letter to cao Cao's ancestors, and Zhang Xiu had a vendetta against him for killing his son. However, Cao Cao did not blame these people in the past, and the concept of "soldiers die for those who know themselves" made these former enemies die for Cao Cao. Don't ask about origin: In that era of valuing origin, some people with humble origins restricted their path of advancement, Cao Cao himself was not well born, so he did not value the origin of the scholars, you will find that Cao Cao's groups have all kinds of people, Xun Yu and Zhong Xuan are representatives of the giants, Le Jin is from the ranks, and Cao Ren and others are representatives of the clan. A variety of talents have come together to form a pot of "smorgasbord", and these people have become the key to Cao Cao's success in the world.
However, when Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, Cao Cao's policy of employing people was not adopted by Cao Pi, and he accepted Chen Qun's opinion and derived the "Nine Pin Zhongzheng System" on the basis of the original Han Dynasty's "Inspection and Examination System", which was also the main official selection system in the Later Wei and Jin Dynasties. It was not until the advent of the "imperial examination system" that it was finally abolished, so why did Cao Pi make such a big change?
The situation requires that "meritocracy" no longer apply to the Cao Pi era
Cao Cao's system of selecting talents by proposing "meritocracy" did help Cao Cao lay the foundation for Cao Wei's strength and prosperity, which is not unrelated to Cao Cao's own concept of employing people, he advocated: "The use of talents in chaotic times is greater than virtue, and the rule of the world is greater than virtue."
However, by the time of Cao Pi's succession, the situation had changed: the main task of Cao Cao's period was to compete for hegemony, so he could turn a blind eye to the character of talents; and by the time of Cao Pi, the situation of the three kingdoms had been formed, and the wars between each other had begun to no longer be as frequent as in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so his task at this time was to quickly stabilize the situation, and for the sake of the country's long-term consideration, he must also come up with a set of selection mechanisms suitable for the times.
However, from a practical point of view, we will find that "meritocracy" really does not apply to the Cao Pi period when the political situation has gradually stabilized:
"Meritocracy" did recruit a large number of talents for Cao Wei, but there were also too many people with moral integrity in it, such as Guo Jia, Jia Xu, Xu You, and others who more or less had various problems sandwiched in it. Let some people with bad moral character educate the people to "be filial to the elders, loyal to the king and patriotic, and honest and honest in performing official duties"? Isn't this equivalent to a self-inflicted blow to the face, so considering this selection system from this point of view is not conducive to educating the people of Li. "Meritocracy" did recruit a large number of talents for Cao Wei, but it also brought endless trouble, and these people with moral integrity were too utilitarian: for example, at the time of the Battle of Guandu, a large number of people under Cao Cao's clique had committed adultery with Yuan Shao; and there were also a large number of officials who had many illegal acts, such as Cao Hong of the Cao family who plundered every time he went out on a campaign. As a monarch, can you allow your subordinates to eat inside and outside? As the Son of Heaven, he is more responsible to the people, and the actions of Cao Hong and others are tantamount to forcing the people to their opposites, which is a good thing for their own rule? Therefore, based on the needs of the situation, Cao Pi must change cao's system of "meritocracy". As the country gradually moves toward stability, the requirement of the character of talent is necessary, because he is conducive to the indoctrination of dawn.
The primary factor for talents in the early days of its establishment is character, followed by family lineage, talent, etc., but why it will deviate from the track later is another matter, and it will not be too much to describe in this regard.
The need for domination: a compromise with the family
In addition to the role of Cao Cao's use of "meritocracy", there is also a very obvious role, that is, the use of the Hanmen Shuzi against the family giants to maintain their rule, from this point of view, Cao Cao was successful, and the Yingchuan Xun clan, the Hongnong Yang clan and the Qinghe Cui clan were all hit to varying degrees.
Of course, Cao Cao's blows were not absolute, and we can see that the family giants he attacked were all opposed to his claim to be the King of Wei, in other words, he struck at those who still had the Han Chamber in their hearts. And for those who support his family giants, they also adopt a way of co-opting and compromise, so it is sometimes not possible to say that Cao Cao's phrase "meritocracy, do not look at origin" is sometimes not the case, to a large extent, he also needs to rely on the support of the family to help pave the way.
Therefore, after Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, he still adopted his father's method, in exchange for the support of the family magnates. However, compared with his father's means, Cao Pi's means are indeed too single, Cao Cao is "turnips and sticks" to the family, that is, to win over and suppress both at the same time, and Cao Pi is only blindly compromising, of course, Cao Pi's compromise is also related to the current situation:
First of all, in terms of ability, he was not as talented as his father Cao Cao, who could use the forces of Hanmen Shuzi and Cao Clan relatives to suppress the magnates to death. However, he himself did not have any strength to rely on, on the contrary, he himself defeated Cao Zhi with the help of Sima Shi and many other clans, so he also had extra trust in the shi family himself. Secondly, Cao Wei's Jiangshan was laid down by Cao Cao, and Cao Pi said that he was just picking up ready-made, so he did not have any prestige to successfully complete the road of the Zen Dynasty, so he could only rely on the strength of the family giants to successfully complete the road of the Zen Dynasty. So this was not so much a compromise as a deal: the family magnate helped Cao Pi gain the right to the throne; and Cao Pi promised the high-ranking official Houlu of the shijia magnate.
Therefore, on the basis of the "inspection system" of the Han Dynasty, there was the item of "Mendi", which directly determined the glory and wealth of his descendants; and it was difficult for hanmen nobles to have a head start.
To be sure, the system is neither good nor bad: the advantage is that it can help the ruler stabilize the situation in a short period of time; but the negative effects behind it are far greater than the positive effects.
The educational environment leads to: it is difficult to produce noble children in the cold door
Nowadays, do we often hear this sentence: "It is difficult to get a noble son out of the cold door", the meaning behind this sentence is not that the cold door students are not working hard enough, but the series of problems caused by the educational environment.
In the middle and late Period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to a series of problems such as foreign relatives interfering in the government and eunuchs chaotic government, the imperial program became increasingly corrupt, so the construction of Taixue could not be taken care of for the time being. After the "Yellow Turban Rebellion", wolves were everywhere in the Central Plains, and the Taixue cultivated by the officials was even more chaotic, and we can see from the perspective of the family that the scholars from the Taixue did not cultivate the real sense of talent, and the great talents who really stood out from the Taixue at the time of wei and Jin were very few.
On the contrary, those high-ranking households of the "Four Dynasties and Three Dukes" can provide them with various knowledge reserves due to their family origins and profound collection of books. In that era, books were really very valuable things, and "there is a golden house in the book, and there is a beautiful jade in the book" can fully describe the value of books in that era.
However, the children of the family with such innate conditions are easier to cultivate talents than Taixue, such as Zhong Hui, the son of Zhong Xuan, the son of Sima Yi, the Sima brothers of Sima Yi, xiahou Shangzhong, Xiahou Xuan, and so on.
Therefore, in that era, most of the real talents did stand out from the children of the family, and it was difficult for the cold door to produce noble sons not only because of the limitations of the "nine-pin zhongzheng system", but also because the education level of the two was different.
In order to achieve the plan of recruiting talents, the state can only cooperate with the family and select young talents from among the outstanding children of the family to provide services to the country, which cannot be said to be their short-sightedness, but the inevitability of history.
However, the implementation of the "Nine Pins Zhongzheng System" has undoubtedly had a huge impact on imperial power, and from a historical point of view, the existence of the Shijia Gate Valve is the biggest stumbling block that hinders the major regimes of the Wei and Jin Dynasties from strengthening the centralization of power, and the emergence of the political pattern of "the king and the horse sharing the world" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty can be said to be an inevitable product of the "Nine Pins Zhongzheng System". Even in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Mengmen clan began to decline further, but they still had the ability to influence the situation, and the cause of their correction was the "Nine Pins Zhongzheng System" implemented during the Cao Wei period.
Reports/Feedback
Leave a comment