Why did the rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty cause serious consequences beyond the previous dynasties?
In ancient China, there were roughly two kinds of feudal titles, one was the real seal, that is, there were both fiefdoms and military powers, to put it bluntly, the independent kingdom was only loyal to the central government, and the other was a false seal, that is, only titles and no fiefs and military powers.
All dynasties that practiced solid sealing had one thing in common -
Rebellion of the king of the clan
。 Before analyzing the rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty, we can analyze each dynasty. It was not mentioned during the Xia Shang period, after all, Tang Wu's deeds were there.
Zhou Dynasty
Divided into 800 princes, even in the Western Zhou period when the royal family was stronger, the mutual attack and killing between the princes also occurred from time to time, there were more than 800 princely states in the early years of the Western Zhou, and by the beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, there were only more than 170 left (what happened in the middle you know), the results of entering the Eastern Zhou period We all know, the Spring and Autumn Warring States killed and killed, and the royal family was simply a decoration.
Here we go
Western han dynasty
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang wantonly divided the kings with the same surname, resulting in the princes living in the middle of the world, and the inner court only unified fifteen counties, and it broke out even more during the Jing Emperor's period
"Rebellion of the Seven Kings"
It almost put the Western Han Dynasty in danger of falling apart. Then there was the Western Jin Dynasty, which is the dynasty we are focusing on.
Sui Dynasty
Although short-lived, Mr. Yang Yu, the King of Han, still had a lot of addiction, although the defeated army that was beaten by Yang Su's brother was to make up for the lack (the argument for successfully becoming the landlord).
And then there it is
tang dynasty
In fact, the Tang Dynasty fan towns have formed a trend of division, the three towns of Hebei jiedushi have been completely independent kingdoms without central jurisdiction for a long time, and these local feudal towns have not been crowned kings but have the reality of being kings, from the beginning of the Xuanzong Dynasty to the formation of Dezong, Tang Xianzong although weakened but did not cure the symptoms, these feudal towns and the imperial court confrontation even more than a hundred years, became the Tang Dynasty's confidants of the great trouble.
Ming dynasty
Zhu Yuanzhang sealed Zhu Di and other surnames Wang Zhenshou Northern Xinjiang and other places to form a real seal, the result of Mr. Zhu Di's deeds we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang's corpse was not cold, he rebelled and directly hit the city of Nanjing, pulled his nephew off the horse and became the emperor himself, historically known
"The Battle of Jing"
。
Qing Dynasty
After the Qing army entered the customs, Wu Sangui and other San Francisco were divided, and in the twelfth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor decided to withdraw the clan and led to a rebellion in San Francisco, and Wu Sangui and other San Francisco rebellions once occupied the southwest half of the country and became the biggest crisis faced by the Qing court since entering the customs, and it took eight years to successfully suppress the rebellion.
We can know that Xia Shang Zhou, Western Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Qing Fenfeng, or the unnamed but central government tacitly unable to conquest the feudal towns all have a characteristic - some of them will always oppose, sometimes all of them.
Dynasties and dynasties, it is better.
So let's analyze the reasons in detail, since the real seal has such a huge hidden danger, then how can the dynasties and dynasties divide the seal again and again?
First of all, we should not preconceived not on this point, believing that the so-called history should be taken as a mirror and that specific problems should be analyzed in detail.
There are three main reasons:
1. The early strength of the dynasty was insufficient, or there was an external threat, and it was necessary to rely on the king of the clan to guard the border pass and assist the imperial court in governing the world (Xia Shang Zhou Ming Qing)
2. To defend the imperial family, defend the central government, and prevent the usurpation of power by powerful subjects (Han and Jin)
3. Problems left over from history, the imperial court can only acquiesce (Tang, Qing also have a part of the calculation here)
To tell the truth, the common consideration of the first generation of rulers of the feudal dynasty was not that the territory was not unified but simply two words - sheji. Protecting the regime from extinction is their first goal and top priority.
And what is interesting is that in addition to the Xia Shang Zhou dynasty, which was not centralized, the centralized government of the remaining feudal states invariably adopted an attitude towards these princes or feudal towns-
Cut the domain.
The Western Han Dynasty's cutting of the domain led to the Rebellion of the Seven Kings, and the clan kings jointly launched a rebellion to avoid the seizure of power.
Tang Xianzong and other kings of the Tang Dynasty repeatedly sent troops against Fanzhen, until the late Tang Dynasty.
Emperor Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty slashed the domain and triggered the Battle of Jingnan, which resulted in the loss of the throne.
The Qing Dynasty slashed the domain and triggered the San Francisco Rebellion, and the Qing court and Wu Sangui and other San Francisco fought you to the death and the last, lasting eight years before it ended.
Looking at the feudal dynasties of China's great unification, it is often the first generation of monarchs who divide the seals, followed by the second generation of monarchs who cut the domain, then the king of the domain rebelled, and then the two sides fought to the death.
Mr. Jia Yi of the Western Han Dynasty accurately pointed out the essence of cutting the domain:
Those who are neglected will be in danger, and those who are close to them will be chaotic, and the effect is already there.
In other words, these people, no matter how distant or distant, will definitely oppose each other. So why did the Rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty become the most terrifying rebellion of the princes in Chinese history, which directly led to the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty?
Let's take a closer look, starting with
Economically
These feudal kings all had their own fiefdoms: the western Jin dynasty kings were divided into three classes, the first class of large countries had 30,000 households, the second class of 10,000 to 20,000, and the third class of about 5,000, these people had a stable economic foundation and the cost of rebellion.
Secondly
Militaryly
The princes of the Western Jin Dynasty and the princes of the successive Shifeng have their own armies, the number of large countries is tens of thousands, and the number of small countries is also thousands, and the population of the fiefdom can be instantaneously conjured up several times the large army, and their standing army can become the backbone of the pro-army, in fact, many people do this, such as Zhu Di.
Finally
Politically
Successive dynasties and dynasties have taken some political measures to reduce the status of the kings in the central government to limit their power, but the kings of the successive dynasties have spared no effort to install eyes and ears to bribe the imperial court, such as the rebellion of the King of Ning in the Ming Dynasty, the election of Wu Sangui of the Qing Dynasty is called "Western Election", and the people of the time have the saying that "the officials of the Western Election are all over the world", the power of the kings of the Jin Dynasty in the dynasty has reached the highest in the dynasty, the King of Anping Sima Fu has led the country to a heavy responsibility, and the King of Qi Sima You can be called the King of the King (not Shuanghui Ham), the chief leader of the kings, In the later period, these princes were all kinds of great generals, all overseeing the military, and their power was huge and invincible.
Some people have money and power, and Lao Tzu is also surnamed Sima (司馬), so why not oppose it? That's the root cause.
However, in fact, when it comes to the Jin Dynasty itself, there are many more serious problems.
Mr. Sima Yan was a wise man, after all, the chaos of the Seven Kings of the Western Han Dynasty was there, but he also knew that the emperor of Cao Wei's powerless emperor was bullied so badly, so he took a magical train of thought.
Am I going to make a bunch of princes and let them hold each other back soon? This is the stupidest thing to do.
The picture above is a map of the situation in the early days of Emperor Hui of Jin
From the map, it can be seen that Mr. Sima Lun, the King of Zhao, Mr. Sima Wei, the King of Chu, and Mr. Sima Liang, the King of Runan, are the closest to the capital, and the fiefdoms or town guards of these three princes are in Xia Pi, Xiangyang, and Xuchang. Luoyang was 169 kilometers from Xuchang, and Sima Liang's cavalry could reach Luoyang in less than three days.
The side of the bed allowed others to snore, but under Sima Zhen's pillow was a master. However, this was only eight of the twenty-seven princes.
These people occupy an anointed land, a land of wealth, without the trouble of external enemies or the calamity of the inner court. If these princes rebel together, then the other dynasties will be enemies of the whole country, and the Jin Dynasty will be the enemy of the whole country.
In Sima Yan's thinking, he had a basic assumption: the warrior clan could not be trusted. After all, his grandfather was Sima Yi, and this hypothesis can be understood by xiaobian.
However, Sima Yan was an extremely intelligent person, and he also understood that these princes could not be fully trusted. So, for more than two decades in power, he has carefully maintained the political balance.
If the political balance is to walk a tightrope, Sima Yan walks a strand of hair. Sima Shi's gang's thinking of governing the country is extremely strange, in a word- they do not trust their ministers and fathers, nor do they trust all their relatives, but only trust the people they are willing to trust
Liu Bang was like this, Zhu Yuanzhang was like this, and so was Sima Yan. So, the children and grandchildren of these people have done the same thing.
Judging from the consequences of the Western Jin Dynasty's conferring the kingship, the outbreak of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty was inevitable, but sima Yan had not yet grown up before his death, Jia Yi had analyzed that when the princes were young, the imperial court was still easy to control, and after Sima Yan's death, the princes and princes grew up, and sure enough, the control of the imperial court over them became more and more difficult, plus there was such a faint emperor as Sima Zheng in the central government, and the chaos of the eight kings of the Western Jin Dynasty broke out like an avalanche, and it only took six years for the Western Jin Dynasty to completely turn into ruins, which is reasonable.