In the history of China, there are two very similar emperors, 300 years apart, the same born in a chaotic world, the same heroic and strategic, but the same ambition, the same unpaid, the same untimely death. What is even more coincidental is that the name of these two emperors is also Zhou, and their deeds have also become stepping stones for the prosperity of later generations. If they had the same last wish, it would be "I really want to live another five hundred years."
Emperor Yuwen of Zhouwu
These two people, one was Yuwen Yong, the Emperor wu of Zhou in Northern Zhou, and the other was Chai Rong of Zhou Shizong in Later Zhou. The descendants of Emperor Yuwen Yong of Zhou were the powerful Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, while the descendants of Emperor Chai Rong of Zhou Shizong were the prosperous Song Dynasty. It can be said that if Emperor Wu of Zhou could live to be fifty years old, there would be nothing for Emperor Yang Jian of Sui, and by the way, even the great Tang Taizong Li Shimin would probably have to obediently become a subordinate; and if Emperor Chaizong of Zhou could live for another fifteen years, Zhao Kuangyin would only be a general's life, and the Song Dynasty would not appear in Chinese history.
Today we are talking about the former: Emperor Yuwen of Zhouwu.
Emperor Wu of Zhou was indeed born in a chaotic world, and there was chaos at home and abroad. At home, the dynasty was first changed, then the heroes were slaughtered, and then the king was killed, and the chaos was inextricable; foreign countries first confronted the eastern Wei, then the Northern Qi replaced the eastern Wei, the Liang dynasty in the south encountered the hou jing rebellion, Chen Baxian took advantage of the rise, the Chen dynasty was established, and it was also a mess...
Yuwen Tai, the de facto founder of Western Wei and founder of Northern Zhou
Emperor Wu of Zhou's father, Yuwen Tai, was a western Wei courtier, and devoted his life to doing two things, one was to do his best to confront Eastern Wei and avoid being eaten by others, and the other was desperate to make Western Wei strong. It should be known that the Western Wei is located in Guanzhong, does not have an advantage, and its national strength is much worse than that of the Eastern Wei, which occupies the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
Western Wei finally survived under the unremitting efforts of Yuwen Tai, and became increasingly powerful, gradually able to compete with the powerful Eastern Wei, first taking Bashu, then taking Jiangling, the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River are all in control, and the strength is constantly expanding. However, at this critical moment, Yuwen Tai fell ill and died, and the power of Western Wei fell into the hands of Yuwen Tai's nephew and Yuwen Yong's cousin Yuwen Hu.
Map of the situation in western Wei
The first thing Yuwen Hu did when he came to power was to die zhao gui and lonely letters who disobeyed him. Lonely Letter was a famous male figure during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the father-in-law of Emperor Yang Jian of Sui, the grandfather of Yang Guang, the Emperor of Sui Dynasty, and the grandfather of Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Gaozu.
After the power was basically secured, Yuwen Hu was not satisfied with being a powerful minister, he wanted to be the founding father. Therefore, he conveniently ousted the puppet emperor of Western Wei, Emperor Gong of Wei, tuoba kuo, and supported Yuwen Jue, the son of Yuwen Tai, to ascend to the throne as emperor (at that time, he was called The Heavenly King, for the convenience of narration, he was called emperor), but the real power was firmly in his hands. Soon, Tuoba Kuo, the deposed Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was poisoned by Yuwen Hu (宇文護鸩酒) – the first time Yuwen Hu had killed the emperor.
The little emperor Yuwen Jue did not want to be at the mercy of his cousin like a marionette, and when Yuwen Hu found out, he once again played the role of a drunkard and poisoned the emperor and cousin Yuwen Jue, and another son of Yuwen Tai, Yuwen Yu, was made emperor - this was the second time That Yuwen Hu had killed the emperor.
Yuwen Yu was older than Yuwen Jue, had opinions, ability, charm, and ideas, and was even more dissatisfied with his cousin Yuwen Jue, who monopolized power, and of course, the final result was the same as that of his younger brother Yuwen Jue, who was poisoned by Yuwen Hu's poisonous wine - this was the third time That Yu Wen Hu had killed the emperor.
However, Yuwen Yu was very tenacious, and before dying, he endured the pain of the sword and personally designated his younger brother Yuwen Yong to ascend to the throne after himself, as Emperor Wu of Zhou. Yuwen Hu, who created the most dragon slayer in Chinese history, did not care who became the emperor, anyway, Yuwen Yong was a small hairy child, and the power was in his own hands, what fear!
In this way, the obedient tiger Yuwen Yong was under the wings of his cousin Yuwen Hu, who was exactly 30 years older than himself, in front of this vain emperor.
Yuwen Hu stills - there is a deviation from the age of Yuwen Hu in the main history
Time is like a white colt passing through the gap, blink of an eye 12 years have passed, Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong has also grown from a small Zhengtai to a mature and stable man, this year, he is 29 years old. In the past 12 years, he has always paid great respect to his cousin and powerful minister Yuwen Hu, never saying half a word to his decision-making, Yuwen Hu is accustomed to the young emperor's obedience to himself, and the two get along very harmoniously.
But the Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong was not without fangs, Yuwen Hu did not see it because Yu Wen Yong hid it very well, and when Yu Wen Hu saw it, his death date also arrived.
One day in 572, Emperor Wu of Zhou saw Yuwen Hu, who had returned to the capital from abroad, with a kind attitude, and asked him to do him a favor. The old lady was old but did not pay attention to her body, and often drank too much. Emperor Wu of Zhou wrote a wine note and wanted to ask Yuwen To read it to the empress dowager and help persuade her. Yuwen Hu did not doubt that he had it, and agreed with one mouthful.
Just as Yuwen Hu was standing in front of the old empress dowager, reading the wine word by word, Emperor Wu of Zhou turned to Yuwen Hu' body, lifted the jade pillar (jade brick made of jade) used by the upper court, and slammed it into the back of his cousin's head, and suddenly blood splashed in the hall, and Yuwen Hu, who had been opened, did not die thoroughly, kept convulsing, and struggled to stand up. The eunuch He Quan drew his sword and slashed at Yuwen Hu a few more times, but he could not cut the point. At the critical moment, Emperor Wu of Zhou's younger brother Yuwen Zhi jumped out and killed Yuwen Hu with a knife- Yuwen Hu himself died at the hands of the emperor after killing the three emperors in a row.
In this way, Emperor Wu of Zhou endured for 12 years, killed the powerful ministers, and regained his own power - I wanted to assign the throne to himself before his brother Yuwen Yu died, how accurate his vision was!
Map of the situation in the Northern Zhou Dynasty
After Emperor Wu of Zhou took power, just like a change of person, Shenwen Shengwu, wise and courageous, he took a series of measures to make Northern Zhou strong, because at this time in Northern Zhou, the great powers were around, and the tigers were looking at each other: there were Turks in the north, Tuguhun in the west, Northern Qi in the east, Chen Dynasty in the south, and the remnants of the Liang Dynasty in the southwest were entrenched in Jiangling for three hundred miles, and Emperor Zhou Wu slept with one eye open and not sloppy at all. Now there is only one thing to do: reorganize the army and carry out strict reforms:
Reform internal affairs, withdraw power from the hands of "Otsuka Zai", and strengthen the centralization of power;
Reformed army building, abolished ethnic discrimination, and stipulated that Han Chinese could also become soldiers. In the original Northern Zhou, the Han people could only be peasants, not soldiers, and now, Emperor Wu of Zhou handed this glory back to the Han people;
Deepen the equalization system, rest with the people, and restore productivity;
Improve and develop the prefectural military system, transfer military power to the emperor, implement the system of integrating soldiers and farmers, cultivate the culture of shangwu, strengthen the combat effectiveness of the peasant army, expand military strength, and at the same time reduce the burden on the state;
Crack down on the Shi clan and vigorously solve the problem of hidden land and population of the ShiJia Hao clan;
Free slaves for civilians;
Social and economic reform: extensive farmland, construction of water conservancy, re-minting of money, convenient circulation, unified weights and measures, and vigorous development of industry and commerce.
It can be said that the reform of Emperor Wu of Zhou was comprehensive and in-depth, involving all aspects and corners of society. More importantly, Emperor Wu of Zhou carried out the Religious Reformation, which is the famous "Emperor Wu of Zhou destroyed the Buddha" in history.
The prosperity of Buddhism in the Southern and Northern Dynasties is probably the highest in all dynasties. The Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu's "Four Hundred and Eighty Temples in the Southern Dynasty, How Many Buildings in the Smoke and Rain" is a portrayal, and the prosperity of Buddhism in the Northern Dynasty is no less than that of the Southern Dynasty. But in this way the biggest social problems arise, a large number of people enter the monasteries, do not produce, do not pay taxes, and the country's economy suffers great losses.
Emperor Wu of Zhou was determined to change this situation, ordering monks and nuns to return to the common people, and the temple to be used as public property, although this measure was strongly opposed, Emperor Zhou Wu was not moved, and after the destruction of Qi, he still carried out the policy of exterminating Buddhism, and the famous senior monk and master Huiyuan of the Jingying Temple (this Huiyuan was far from the master huiyuan of Donglin Temple, the first ancestor of the Jingzong Sect), resolutely opposed, reminding Emperor Zhou Wu that he would go to Ah Na Hell, and Emperor Zhou Wu said: As long as the country is strong, what is it for me to personally go to Ah Na Hell!
Emperor Wu of Zhou's extermination of the Buddha, unlike the former Northern Wei Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao's extermination of the Buddha, neither killed monks nor destroyed temple property, which was a mild legal difficulty.
After a series of reforms, the northern Zhou state was greatly enhanced, and Emperor Wu of Zhou pointed his battle knife at the most notorious beast dynasty in history, Northern Qi.
In 575, Emperor Wu of Zhou personally marched on a campaign to conquer Qi, connecting more than 30 cities in Northern Qi, and later withdrew his army halfway due to illness on the way of Emperor Wu of Zhou. However, this eastern expedition enabled Emperor Wu of Zhou to see clearly the essence of Northern Qi's external strength and make up his mind to destroy Qi.
Northern Qi is a famous beast dynasty in Chinese history, and the jade body Hengchen is the "masterpiece" of the Northern Qi emperors.
In 577, Emperor Wu of Zhou, who felt that the timing was ripe, went on another expedition to the east, and in one fell swoop took Northern Qi to accompany the capital Jinyang, and the young emperor of Northern Qi, Gao Wei, and the newly promoted empress Feng Xiaopi (both of whom were the creators of the idiom "Jade Body Horizontal Chen") played before the battle, and the Northern Qi army was distracted, and Emperor Wu of Zhou took advantage of the victory to pursue, captured the qi capital Yecheng, captured one Northern Qi emperor, one empress, two empresses, countless imperial families, countless ministers, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou faced each other for many years, and thus perished - to some extent, Northern Qi killed himself.
The significance of the annihilation of Qi is extremely significant, marking the disappearance of the east-west confrontation situation in Northern China, and even more means that the Yellow River Basin has once again achieved unification, which is enough to make Emperor Wu of Zhou become a "famous emperor".
After the destruction of Qi, Emperor Wu of Zhou originally wanted to attack the Turks in the north and completely eliminate this nomadic people who had suffered from Northern Xinjiang for many years and even more so for hundreds of years to come, not to mention that the Turks actually took in the remnants of Northern Qi, especially to help the Northern Qi imperial family establish a government-in-exile.
In 578, the year after the destruction of Qi, Emperor Wu of Zhou once again gathered a large army and went north to fight against the Turks, but he suddenly fell seriously ill during the expedition, so he had to order The master of The Zhou Wu's carriage and horse had just entered the gate of Chang'an, and the young emperor of great talent closed his eyes forever, and this year, he was only 35 years old.
The Turks, who dominated North Asia for hundreds of years, have left successive rulers scratching their heads
When Emperor Wu of Zhou was in the front of the battle, he never flinched, and he could be a pioneer and a soldier, and he was deeply loved by the soldiers; his own style was very obedient, he wore cloth and cover cloth, rarely wore silk and satin, and was the emperor, and the imperial palace was only a dozen, which was very valuable. Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian praises him as "the victory of others is the benefit of luxury, and the victory of high ancestors and the more frugal", which is very appropriate.
Historians and great figures of all generations have made high praises to the Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong:
Ling Hu Dedi commented on Emperor Wu of Zhou in the Book of Zhou: Emperor Shenyi had wisdom and strategy... After the destruction of Qi, it is hoped that the army will be exhausted, the Turks will be pacified, and the south of the Jiangsu Province, in one or two years, will unify the world, and this Qizhi also - if it is not a young death, it is only a matter of time before the world is unified.
Li Yanshou's "History of the North" says: Although the poor soldiers of The Wu Dynasty are ridiculed in the history of Liang; the Xiongtu is far away, and the foot is driven by the former king--the poor soldiers are not necessarily martial, but the Xiongtu is far away.
His father, Yuwen Tai, predicted the great event of becoming a great power when he was a child: those who become heroes will also be here.
Yuwen Yu, who passed the throne to him, looked at this young brother like this: The lady does not speak, and the words must be in the middle.
Modern historians also have a high opinion of Emperor Wu of Zhou, and Lü Simian believes that Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou is quite capable of exerting himself to govern; Bai Shouyi put it more bluntly: Emperor Wu of Zhou is worthy of being a generation of heroes during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but unfortunately, just when he was planning to "pacify the Turks and fix the south of the river" and realize the ideal of unifying the whole country, he unfortunately died of illness on the eve of the expedition.
Son of Emperor Yuwen of Zhouwu and famous emperor Yuwen Yun
However, Emperor Wu of Zhou's greatest regret was not that he died young and missed the opportunity to attack the Turks in the north and attack the Chen Dynasty in the south to unify the world, but that there was a problem with the heir. His son Emperor Wen of Zhou Xuan was a famous stubborn lord of history, completely inheriting the characteristics of the wandering emperors of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and within a few years he tossed the great rivers and mountains that his father had left to him, and Yang Jian, the relative of Emperor Wu of Zhou and the father-in-law of Emperor Xuan of Zhou, took advantage of the opportunity to intervene strongly and easily seized the Jiangshan of Northern Zhou, the country changed its surname to Yang, and Northern Zhou also became the Great Sui Dynasty, and then the Southern Expedition, China was unified again after four hundred years of division, and Yang Jian became the sui emperor of historical fame.
If Emperor Yuwen Yongquan of Zhou Wu knew about it, how would he sigh?