The Western Han Dynasty, also known as the Former Han Dynasty, was another great unified dynasty after the unification of the Qin Dynasty. The tyranny of the late Qin II, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose up, the world's haojie gathered to respond, and the remaining six kingdoms of the Warring States period were restored. In the chu-Han war, Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, was defeated and killed himself, and Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, was called emperor and the name of the country was Han, but the Western Han Dynasty, as a unified country, not only had many princes, but the special status of the princely kingdoms was maintained for nearly fifty years, which greatly affected the centralization of power.
First, destroy the great chaos in the Qin world, and seal the king to buy people's hearts
Qin Shi Huang conquered the Six Kingdoms by force, the land was exhausted but the people's hearts did not return, the second generation had no way, the world was cut down, the remnants of the old people on the land of the Six Kingdoms, they all missed the former aristocratic royal family, the reason why Xiang Yu and Han Xin were able to successfully restore the country, it also depended on the support of the people. Xiang Yu did not comply
"The King of the First To Settle"
After Establishing King Huai's grandson Xiong Xin as the "Righteous Emperor", he also sealed the Eighteen Road Princes, not only to stabilize the "wolf ambitions" of these leaders, but also to regain the trust of the people of the world. And Liu Bang said that the emperor and the queen were divided into seven kings with different surnames, but also to buy people's hearts, but the monarch was jealous, the people's hearts were unpredictable, and the king could only satisfy the desires of the moment, and when the world reshuffled the cards, who would want to be just the princes and not the "emperor"?
Second, the world is established, and Gao Zu fulfills his promises
Xiang Yu was divided into eighteen princes, and although Liu Bang led the "King of Han", he was blocked by three generals of the Qin Dynasty, and was forced to become the "King of Hanzhong", because he was jealous of Xiang Yu because he entered Guanzhong first, so he rebelled. Liu Bang was not the only one who wanted to rebel against Xiang Yu, in the first year of han (206 BC), the rebellion of the princes of Qi and Zhao, in the second year of Han (205 BC), Liu Bang led the five princes to have 560,000 soldiers and horses, and captured Xiang Yu's capital Pengcheng, how to expect Xiang Yu to lead the elite troops back to help, Liu Bang was defeated,
"All the princes are restored to Chu and turn their backs on the Han"
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The repetition of the princes made Liu Bang deeply aware that "people's hearts are unpredictable", and the disobedience of the generals made him also a headache, Han Xin was only open-minded, in order to stabilize this uneasy element, Liu Bang promised to be the king and promised to expand his fiefdom, Han Xin was satisfied, and then continued to do things for Liu Bang. In addition, in order to oppose Xiang Yu, Liu Bang also had to bribe Yingbu, Peng Yue and other kings with heavy profits to open up other battlefields. When the city was destroyed, Liu Bang was proclaimed emperor, and the title of king was to fulfill his original promise.
Third, the princes with different surnames are "capricious", and the royal family with the same surname is difficult to defend the central government
Liu Bang claimed to be the empress, and divided seven kings with different surnames, according to the reason, the world has been decided, there is no problem in rewarding merit, but Xiang Yu was attacked by the group because there were too many princes and kings who were divided, although Liu Bang only sealed seven, which one's prestige and merits were not as good as the sun in the sky, and the merits of the lord, Liu Bang remembered the capriciousness of the princes, so he planned to act first, cut off the threat of Han Xin, the king of Chu, and then Yingbu, Peng Yue, Zang Di and other kings were all degraded by him, in order to defend the Liu Dynasty, and made an alliance with the ministers:
"Not the King of the Liu Clan, the World Strikes Together"
The original intention of the White Horse Alliance was to use Tongzong to consolidate the Han family's world, but it also made the princes with the same surname bigger and stronger, "Since the surname is Liu, why should I honor you as an emperor instead of calling myself emperor" The idea prevailed, when the Han Jing Emperor wanted to cut the domain to strengthen the centralization of power, the kings with the same surname rebelled one after another, and the local princes who originally defended the central government stabbed the sword at the emperor, and the county system that lasted for fifty years in the early Han Dynasty was abolished, and only the county system during the Qin Dynasty was retained.
Although the Western Han Dynasty unified the whole country at the beginning, but the difference with the unification of the Qin Dynasty is that Yingzheng destroyed the six kingdoms with the strength of one country, and at the same time saw the defects of the Zhou Dynasty's sub-feudal system, so it was changed to counties; Liu Bang unified the world not by relying on his own Hanzhong land, but by uniting with the princes of Xiang Yufeng to get the world, the implementation of the county-state parallel system on the one hand is to fulfill the original promise to these people who follow them, on the one hand, to stabilize people's hearts, but unfortunately this can only maintain temporary stability, the princes with different surnames have rebelled, and the princes with the same surname have rebelled. Abolishing feudalism is already the general trend.