During the reign of Emperor Wu of han, he pursued the policy of exhausting the army and using force, and behind a series of "brilliant" achievements was a heavy price of white bones and thousands of miles of red land. Successive foreign wars coupled with natural and man-made disasters, by the late years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the population of the empire was halved, and many places were even more empty. According to the Tang Dynasty historian Sima Zhen, Emperor Wu of Han's actions were no different from those of Qin Shi Huang ("Tired middle-earth, matters other side soldiers.") There is no time to give, and people are bored. Looking down at the government, almost want to balance. See "History of Soyin Hyowu Ben Ji Shu Zan").
In his later years, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty suffered from poor livelihood and many crises in the empire
In this case, the Confucians, who had always been "making a living for the people", began to vigorously criticize Emperor Wu's policy of killing the people, and then questioned the legitimacy of the Han Dynasty's rule. During the reign of Emperor Zhao of Han, Dong Zhongshu's disciple Mu Meng advised the imperial court through the doctrine of Wei Weizhi, believing that Liu Jia's strength had been exhausted and that the emperor should cede the throne to the sages. As a result, mu Meng, instead of convincing Emperor Zhao of Han, was killed by the ruling general Huo Guang. But despite this, the Confucians' doubts about the legitimacy of the Han Empire did not stop there.
After Emperor Xuan of Han came to power, he regained the "Line of Emperor Wu", which provoked more Confucians to join the ranks of criticizing the imperial court and questioning the legitimacy of the Liu family, the most famous of which were Xiahou Sheng, Gai Kuanrao, Gu Yong and others. These people wrote to the imperial court one after another, warning the emperor not to "disobey Providence and act perversely", otherwise Providence would abandon the Han Dynasty and choose a virtuous king. Although Emperor Xuan desperately suppressed these "rebellious" remarks, the voices questioning the legitimacy of Han rule became more and more intense, and finally became so loud that even the emperor became suspicious.
Emperor Xuan of Han revived the "Wudi line", which was opposed by many people
As for the opposition outside the system, they will only be more intense than these Confucian opinions, not moderate. For example, Gan Zhongke, a Qidi man, created the 12 volumes of the Tianguan Calendar Bao Yuan Taiping Jing, cloaked in the cloak of Huang Laozhi's technique, claiming that the Han family's qi had been exhausted, and the Heavenly Emperor sent the real person Chi Sperm to teach him spells and let him represent the Heavenly Herdsmen, which was once widely spread among the people. Although Gan Zhongke was eventually executed for the crime of "dishonoring the people", his set of statements affected a large number of people in the political arena.
By the time the Han Emperor was in power, due to the tough implementation of various reform measures and the turmoil in the political situation, the lives of the people were once again in an unsustainable state. According to Bao Xuan, the counselor, the situation at that time was that "the people have seven deaths and none of them have gained, and it is difficult to desire national security; the people have seven deaths without a lifetime, and it is difficult to desire punishment." (See Hanshu Bao Propaganda). In this case, voices questioning the legitimacy of the empire are once again sweeping in, and with far more intensity than ever before.
During the reign of the Han Emperor, the legitimacy of the empire was even more fragile
In the face of surging doubts, the heavily impoverished Emperor of Han also lost the self-confidence to continue to govern, and began to suspect that the "Mandate of Heaven" of the Liu family had indeed come to an end. At this time, Gan Zhongke's disciples Xia Heliang (Huangmen To be commanded), Xie Guang (Lieutenant Colonel), Guo Chang (Chang'an Ling), Li Xun (a favorite minister), and others suggested to Emperor Wai that since the calendar of the Han Dynasty had declined, the emperor should re-accept the "Mandate of Heaven" and change the name of the country and the year, only in this way could he prolong his life, calm the disasters, and ensure the continuity of the Jiangshan Society.
Emperor Wu, who was "ill and rushed to the hospital", actually listened to their advice, and issued an edict in the second year of Jianping (5 BC), announcing that he would no longer be called the emperor of the Han Dynasty, but "Emperor Liu Taiping of Chen Sheng", and changed the era name to "Taichu" to show that he would change the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty and continue the Mandate of Heaven. In short, in order to solve the crisis of legitimacy of his rule, the Han Emperor, on the premise of avoiding giving up the throne to foreign surnames, announced on his own to "replace" the Han Dynasty and establish a new "Chen Sheng Liu Taiping" empire.
In order to avoid disasters, the Han Emperor staged a farce of "re-ordering"
(Xia Heliang) summoned several times, Chen said, "In the decline of the Han calendar, when more ordained... It is advisable to change the name of Yuan Yi in a hurry, but to prolong life, the birth of the crown prince, and the disaster is different. The word is not done, and there is no blame, and the flood will come out, and the fire will rise, and the people will be cleansed. "Shangjiu slept ill, hoping that it would be beneficial, so he consulted from He Liang and others, and issued a general amnesty for the world, taking the second year of Jianping as the first year of the first year of the Taichu Dynasty, and the title was "Chen Sheng Liu Taiping Emperor", and the omission was one hundred and twenty degrees. See Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. XXXIV.
However, only after more than a month, the illness of the Han Emperor not only did not alleviate, but also showed an increasing trend, coupled with the dangerous situation in the empire after the "re-order", the people's lives were still difficult, and only then did he wake up and realize that he had been deceived. What is even more fatal is that the emperor himself announced that the Liu family's qi was exhausted, which caused greater doubts among the people. Under these circumstances, Emperor Wu resolutely announced the abolition of the previously promulgated edict and executed Xia Heliang and others on charges of "disobeying the tao and confusing the people" and "overthrowing the country and slandering the Lord".
Wang Mang, a powerful minister, overthrew the Han Dynasty and established a new dynasty
Source: Shi Ji Suo Yin, Book of Han, Zizhi Tongjian returned