"Tian Shi Dai Qi", like the "Three Families divided into Jin", is a historical event that had a profound impact on Chinese history and society at that time from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States period. The Tian family went from a downcast son to replace the descendants of Jiang Taigong as the monarch of the State of Qi, during which they experienced hundreds of years of efforts of eight generations (of course, the previous generations certainly did not have the ambition to replace the monarch of the State of Qi), during which the Tian family made various efforts and conspiracies, although not bright and straightforward, but from the perspective of family interests, it is understandable.
A son of a fallen man of noble birth
The ancestor of the Tian clan, Tian Quan, is essentially from the Chen surname, which means that he should have been called Chen Quan (of course, not all the Tian surnames here are from this Chen Guan, which refers to the Tian clan of the Tian clan and its descendants). He was originally a prince of the Western Zhou vassal state of Chen Guo and the second son of Chen Li's concubine Yue, so the ancestors of this Tian clan can be traced back to the ancient emperor Shun, because Chen Guo was a princely state established by the descendants of Emperor Shun in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
In 672 BC during the Spring and Autumn Period, civil unrest broke out in the State of Chen, and the monarch Chen Xuangong killed the crown prince, and Chen Quan, who had a good relationship with the prince, was afraid of being implicated, so he fled from the State of Chen with his family, and their family ran to the State of Qi under the rule of the first overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Huan of Qi. Duke Huan of Qi accepted the Chen family and gave him the place of Tian Quan, so Chen Quan changed his name to Tian Quan, and his descendants also took Tian as their surname, which is the origin of the Tian family.
The families of the victims are low-key to survive
As a family that came from Chen Guo to the Qi state for political refuge, how did they go from solving the problem of survival to basically establishing a solid foundation in the Qi country? Overall, the Tian family has adopted two main methods:
Resigning from a high position and low-key survival: As a fleeing prince, Chen Guan's treatment in the State of Qi was not bad, and The Duke of Qi Huan wanted to appoint Chen Quan to the position of "Secretary of State", but Chen Quan resigned. In fact, Chen Quan was very clear that he had just fled to a new country, and he had ascended to a high position without a stable foothold, which was easy to attract people's envy, after all, there were many public families in the State of Qi and the family of scholars and doctors who had been in the State of Qi for a long time, and he had no achievements and no merit to ascend to a high position, which was very dangerous, so he resigned from this position. Therefore, Qi Huangong let Chen Quan take up the position of Gongzheng, which was a position of managing hundreds of workers, and it was just right to be not high or low. The sober-minded Chen Quan resigned from his high position and acted in a low-key manner, not only allowing his family to slowly take root in the State of Qi, but also fortunately escaping the civil unrest in the State of Qi after the death of Duke Qi Huan, after all, if he held the senior position of "Qing", he was likely to be involved in the political struggle after the death of Duke Qi Huan.
Dedication to duty, steady and steady: After that, Tian Quan's Hereditary Gongzheng position of the Tian family, several generations of conscientious and conscientious duties, not only escaped the internal strife in the State of Qi after the death of Duke Huan of Qi, but also slowly accepted by the State of Qi, becoming a family of scholars within the State of Qi, and the Tian family gradually gained a firm foothold in the State of Qi. By the time tian Wenzi, the fourth generation of the Tian family, had no need, the Tian clan began to be appreciated by the Duke of Qi Zhuang and began to slowly approach the highest level of the Qi state political arena. By the time of the fifth generation of Tian Hengzi Tian Wuyu, he sent troops to fight against Wei and Jin to win, and the Duke of Qi Zhuang also married his daughter to Tian Wuyu, so that the Tian clan began to qualify for the highest level of qi politics.
The Tian family entered the State of Qi from Tian Quan, first calmly and soberly understood the actual situation of their own family, resigned from the high position, avoided being hated by others, and also avoided being involved in the struggle at the top of the political arena, slowly gained a foothold in the State of Qi, integrated into the class of Qi shi masters, and the fourth and fifth generations after Tian Quan began to slowly enter the highest level of the Qi state political arena through their own abilities and performances, such a path of ascension is more acceptable. This process lasted for more than a hundred years, which shows the steadiness of the Tian family's starting.
Intrigues and intrigues, unscrupulous means for the benefit of the family
Tian Hengzi Tian Wuyu began, the Tian family entered the highest level of the political arena of the State of Qi, and the ambition of the Tian family to desire the growth of the family began to germinate, but the main structure of the political structure of the State of Qi was still the lü clan of Lü Shang, the descendant of The Duke of Jiang, as the monarch, and the Guo clan and the Gao family, who were also descendants of the Duke of Jiang, assisted in the administration of government affairs. The Tian family is only a rising star who has just entered the highest level of Qi state politics, and there are still many strong enemies on the way to the peak of power.
Instigating infighting, fishing for profit: It is difficult to change the stable power structure without struggle, so the Tian family began their conspiracy to instigate infighting. In 545 BC, the Tian clan, together with the Bao, Luan, and Gao clans, defeated the Qing clan, who was in charge of state affairs, and the state administration of the State of Qi was changed to be run by the Luan and Gao clans; in 532 BC, the Tian clan took advantage of the contradiction between the Luan and Gao clans to defeat the Luan and Gao clans, and the exiled Dukes of the State of Qi, Gongsun, were recalled to the country and returned their fiefs, which immediately enabled the Tian family to gain the support of the gong clan forces representing the monarch. In 490 BC, the Duke of Qi Jing, who ruled the State of Qi for 58 years, died, the state affairs of the State of Qi were still jointly ruled by the Guo family and the Gao family, the monarch of the State of Qi was Lü Di, the sixth generation of the Tian family, Tian Beg, ostensibly pretended to support the state and the Gao family to govern, but secretly instigated the infighting between the two families, and also provoked the contradictions between the guo, the Gao and the Shi Dafu family, and finally Tian Qi joined forces with the Bao family and other Shi Dafu families to launch a coup, and the Guo and Gao families were defeated. Subsequently, Tian Qi summoned another son of the Qi JingGong of the Various Scholars' Families to support Yang Sheng as the Duke of Qi mourning the Prince of Qi, and because of his merits, the sixth generation of the Tian family, Tian Beg, began to serve as the Xiangguo of the State of Qi. Bao Mu of the Bao family, who had won all the battles with the Tian family in all the struggles, was at odds with the Duke of Qi, Bao Mu killed the Duke of Qi, and the seventh generation of the Tian family, Tian Heng, defeated the Bao clan on this ground, and the son of the Duke of Qi, Tian Heng and The Supervisor, jointly served as the Left and Right Xiangguo, and later the Duke of Qi Jian favored the Letter Supervisor, alienating the increasingly large Tian clan, Tian Heng launched a coup to kill the Duke of Qi and the Duke of Qi, and also supported the younger brother of the Duke of Qi as the Duke of Qiping, so that the state of Qi was controlled by the Tian family alone.
"Fake public welfare and private interest", inviting people's hearts: The Tian family has germinated the ambition to fight for it from the fifth generation of Tian Hengzi, and in addition to using conspiracy means to eliminate those families that are stronger than them, they also use their power to "fake public welfare and private interest" to invite people's hearts. This is not to say how much profit the Tian family has gained, but to use the official affairs of the state to give grace to the people and make the people's hearts turn toward the Tian family. From the sixth generation of Tian Beg, they used the way of "big bucket out, small bucket in" to give favor to the people, and compete with the office for the people's hearts, this way the Tian family carried out for a long time, and later the people's hearts and minds of the Qi state were towards the Tian family instead of the Lü family of the king of the State of Qi. Although some people of insight in the State of Qi also reported to the monarch that this means of inviting the tian family to buy people's hearts and minds, the generations of monarchs starting from the Duke of Qi Jing did not stop the Tian family very well.
The indignation of the country and the happiness of the princes: After the Tian family entered the high echelons of the Ruling State of Qi, they consciously made good friends with the neighbors of the princes. In addition to advocating for the support of the Jin state's shifu and the Jin state monarch's struggle for power, after killing the Duke of Qijian, he generously returned the territory occupied by the State of Lu and the State of Wei occupied by the State of Qi, and later allied with the three families of Han Zhao and Wei who were preparing to divide the State of Jin. These actions won a safe international environment for the Tian family to gradually seize power, and at the same time allied with the three early powers of the Han, Zhao, and Wei warring states, winning their support for the Tian clan.
Thousands of ancient tricks, willing to be green
By the time Tian Heng, the seventh generation of the Tian family, tian chengzi, was in charge of the state of Qi alone, the Tian family had basically possessed the strength to usurp the throne. However, after all, the Tian family has only experienced nearly two hundred years of reproduction and development in the State of Qi, and its foundation is not deep compared with the hundreds of years of operation of other scholars and masters in the State of Qi. In particular, the Tian family has just taken charge of state affairs, and although the domestic support force is large, there are still many other forces within the State of Qi that may challenge the status of the Tian Family, so Tian Chengzi Tian Hengxiang came up with a strange plan for thousands of years, so that the Tian Family completely grasped the power of the State of Qi, large and small.
Tian Heng chose a woman of more than seven feet in qi to fill his harem, thus making his harem women hundreds, but he did not want to enjoy himself, but let his guests and housekeepers enter his harem, regardless of whether they asked, they were willing to be green. Finally, by the time Tian Heng died, he actually had more than seventy sons. If you are familiar with the history of the Warring States, when the famous General Le Yi of the State of Yan attacked the State of Qi, he occupied more than seventy cities, only the two cities of Jimo and Ju were not occupied by the State of Yan, that is to say, when the State of Qi became the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, there were only more than seventy cities, so it is estimated that there were not necessarily so many in Tian Heng's time. Therefore, when Tian Heng's son Tian Pan was in charge of the state affairs of the State of Qi, he arranged for his brothers and his own people to be the masters of all the cities of the State of Qi, large and small, thus completely controlling the State of Qi, and the Emperor of the State of Qi, the Lü Clan, had become a lonely man.
Wen and Wu are both held and the Tian clan is qi
By the time of the eighth generation of the Tian family, Tian Pan, through the more than seventy brothers left by his father Tian Heng, the Tian family had completely controlled the State of Qi. In essence, the Ueda clan had replaced the Lü clan, but how to gain the recognition of the princes and Zhou Tianzi in name.
First of all, using common interests, the Tian family formed an alliance with the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao, and Wei, especially to make friends with the more powerful State of Wei at this time, and to win more diplomatic support.
For this reason, the Tian family began to expand to the surrounding areas, showing strength, and it was time for the small princely states that had been returned to the land in order to make friends with the princes. During this period, the State of Lu continued to find attacks from the State of Qi, and the State of Wei was also attacked by the State of Qi. If you really eat me, you will spit it out, and the Tian family began to show their fangs.
Later, when Tian He, the eleventh generation of the Tian family, Tian He finally asked Zhou Tianzi to recognize Tian He's status as a prince through the powerful Wei state of Wei Wenhou, and Tian He finally became the Marquis of Qi, and at this time, Lü Lu, the prince of the State of Qi with the surname of Lü, had long been driven to the seashore and there was only one city left.
End
Through more than two hundred years of hard work, the Tian family finally succeeded in replacing the descendants of Lü Shang, the Duke of Jiang, who had been established for hundreds of years, from a family of fallen princes to become the monarchs of the State of Qi. The history of the State of Qi behind the Tian clan is relatively clear to everyone, as the last of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States to be destroyed by Qin Shi Huang, the State of Qi was destroyed in 221 BC. But the history of this family is still not over, and more than two hundred years later, this family has established a very famous regime in history. In 8 AD, the Western Han Dynasty, which ruled China for more than two hundred years, was usurped by Wang Mang, a foreign minister, who established a new dynasty, and Wang Mang posthumously sealed a series of his ancestors, and judging from the genealogical lineage that Wang Mang announced for his family, he was also a descendant of Tian Quan.