Chronicles of the Two Jin Dynasties and The Southern and Northern Dynasties - (95) Chen Baxian (Part 1)
In Chinese history, there have been dozens of dynasties large and small, and their national names are also different. There are countless copycats by posterity (such as Qin and Han), two are orthodox (such as Liu Song and Zhao Song), and even those that can be put together into a table of mahjong (Cao Wei, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Eastern Wei). In general, the commonly used country names are nothing more than those few, basically the earlier they are established, the more they are imitated.
But there is only one dynasty, and its country name and surname are the same, which is unprecedented. It was the last dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, the Chen Dynasty.
Among the several big surnames of the Han people, Zhao, Zhu, Liu, Li and other surnames are all great dynasties that have enjoyed the country for more than two hundred years, and the number of dragons and grandchildren in the last years of the light dynasty can be tens of thousands or even 100,000; only the Chen family, whose dynasty has enjoyed the country for only thirty-two years, and whose territory is even smaller than that of Eastern Wu in that year, can be said to be in the top five of the Chinese surname list, which cannot but be said to be a miracle.
The old Chen family prospered like this, and the credit had to be counted on the head of Chen Baxian, the founding emperor of the Chen Dynasty and the Emperor of Gaozu.
According to Chen Baxian's own account, he was a descendant of the Yingchuan Chen clan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and his ancestors were the Eastern Han Dynasty famous warrior Chen Yu and the Western Jin Dynasty taiwei Chen Zhun, who was the same as The Famous Emperor Chen Qun of Cao Wei. Of course, considering that the royal family has a self-boasting component, this family tree is also enough. In fact, Chen Baxian was just an authentic Han soldier in Wu Xing.
Among the four founding emperors of the Southern Dynasty, Xiao Daocheng and Xiao Yan were both from the Lanling Xiao clan and belonged to the scholar class, so their seizure of the throne basically belonged to a coup d'état; while Liu Yu and Chen Baxian, who were born in the cold gate, had to clean up the world again. Therefore, there are many similarities between Chen Baxian and Liu Yu.
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Chen Baxian's first job was to be a lizheng in the township, and later he went to the capital as an oil depot official. Both jobs have a very typical feature - the position is not high, the oil and water are very sufficient, and it cannot be done by non-land snakes or related households. Changing to someone else should be easy to satisfy; but when it came to Chen Baxian, the career had not yet begun.
Soon, Chen Baxian took xiao Yan's nephew, Xiao Ying, the Marquis of Xinyu, and followed him from Jiankang to Wuxing (counting his return to his hometown), and from Wuxing to Guangzhou, becoming Xiao Ying's right-hand man, and after Xiao Ying's death, he became one of the most important military generals in southern Xinjiang. His prestige even alarmed Xiao Yan, who asked him to go down and paint a portrait of Chen Baxian for his own review.
Soon after, Hou Jing's rebellion broke out, which had little impact on Chen Baxian, who was far away in Lingnan, after all, Hou Jing was not in the mood to cross nanling to Guangzhou to beat him. But Chen Baxian showed his statesman's side—allegiance to Xiao Xuan, and said that all the soldiers in the south were dispatched by Jiangling.
The reason for the allegiance to Xiao Xuan, of course, xiao Xuan was the ally of the thieves in the world at that time, and the reason behind it was more than that simple - similar to the Yangtze River Basin, the Pearl River Basin at this time was also beaten into a pot of porridge by warlords everywhere because of the loss of the central government's checks and balances.
At that time, Guangzhou's Assassin Shi was a Northern Wei sect who had crossed from the south, and his relationship with Chen Baxian was extremely tense, and he even wanted to murder Chen Baxian, and finally Chen Baxian found out and hanged himself; and the indigenous clans around Jiaozhou (present-day Vietnam) were also trying to make a fool of themselves, wanting to take advantage of the opportunity to play a big vote. In such a complex political situation, bowing to a force that is recognized by the Quartet , at least superficially , is the lowest-cost move to settle the rear.
The following year after the fall of Taicheng, Chen Baxian declared himself King of Qin and led the elite of Guangzhou to attack north along the waterway. The significance of his Northern Expedition is often overlooked in Chinese history, but it is really not to be underestimated.
In the history of China before the Three Kingdoms, the main battlefield was basically in the Central Plains; after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the confrontation between the north and the south was mainly carried out around the three major rivers of the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Yangtze River, and although the Pearl River Basin with Guangzhou as the core has gradually begun to develop, it is still different from the cities of Jinling, Guangling, Luoyang, and Chang'an, and its significance in China's political map is far less than that of the above-mentioned cities.
However, Chen Baxian's Northern Expedition this time brought Guangzhou's troops to Jiangnan and steadily gained a foothold. For the first time in history, the military clique of Lingnan entered the political ecology of Jiangnan. Since then, the Liangguang area has also become an important part of China's political map.
If we insist on comparing it to a well-known example of women and children, this Northern Expedition, whether from the beginning or the end point, or the process, is very similar to the Northern Expedition 1,400 years later, starting in Guangzhou and ending in Nanjing.
Moreover, Chen Baxian also received another foreign aid--that is, Wang Shengxuan, who set out from Jiangling.
In fact, the reason why Wang Shengquan was able to pacify Hou Jing was that Chen Baxian played a key role. When the two armies met, Wang Baxian's grain and grass had been almost cut off, and it was Chen Baxian who immediately allocated 60% of his own military grain to him; and when Wang Shengxian, who was the commander-in-chief, hesitated under Taicheng, it was Chen Baxian who took the lead in the charge, and finally became the last straw that crushed Hou Jing.
After Hou Jing's rebellion was quelled, Wang Andian and Chen Baxian stayed downstream, one sitting in Jiankang and the other staying in Jingkou to guard against the Northern Qi army in northern Jiangsu. After Xiao Xuan's death, Wang Shengquan consulted with Chen Baxian and sent Xiao Xuan's younger son Xiao Fangzhi the Prince of Jin'an to succeed him to Jiankang, which was the last emperor of the Liang Dynasty, Emperor Jing of Liang.
By this time, Chen Baxian was still only Wang Sengjian's partner and deputy. With the arrival of Xiao Fangzhi, Chen Baxian also turned against the guests, and eventually turned against Wang Sheng.
So, what was the reason for the rupture between Chen Baxian and Wang Shengjian? Where will the stormy Southern Dynasty go? We'll talk about it next time.