The reason why Wang Mang is jokingly called a "crosser" is for two reasons:
First, he was collectively elected to the emperor's throne by the literati, a unique miracle under the ancient feudal monarchy;
Second, many of Wang Mang's policies for restructuring coincide with the modern concept of people's livelihood. For example, the implementation of the state monopoly system, the prohibition of the trade in slaves, the opposition to unrestricted land annexation, the implementation of the equalization of land system, the implementation of the people's livelihood welfare policy, and so on.
Of course, there are no crossers in reality. Wang Mang's ascension to the throne was essentially an attempt by the ancient Chinese Confucian group to use Confucian idealism to solve practical problems; and Wang Mang's final defeat gave them a heavy blow, declaring bankruptcy with the concept of governing the country with righteousness, and profoundly affecting the political process of later feudal dynasties.
When he first decided to "depose the Hundred Families and respect Confucianism alone", Emperor Wudi of Han must not have imagined that the group of scholars and masters who had grown up under his care would one day turn out to be his descendants' army.
The establishment of Confucianism is undoubtedly a major historical progress for the Western Han Dynasty court: it has changed the history of the previous regime dominated by meritorious officials, clans, and foreign relatives, allowing those literati who were born into the common people and have a good education to enter the national governance class at all levels, a large number of famous Confucian scholars as secretaries of state, their comprehensive quality and governance level far exceed the traditional nobles, the personnel structure of the feudal unified dynasty is becoming more and more perfect, and the emergence of "filial piety and zhongxing" is an example.
However, as the position of scholars in political life became more and more important, so did the political ambitions. Reading the sages, they always had their own ideas on how to build a society they liked, and at that time, the confucians' political demands were mainly twofold.
First, reproduce the ideal "liturgical music" to rule the world. For the sake of politicians, they should enjoy ceremonies and indoctrination, educate people to act in accordance with the etiquette system, have equality between the nobles and the lowly, be orderly from top to bottom, and claim their own deeds, so that the people will live and work in peace and contentment, and the country will be stable and peaceful.
This put forward specific requirements for the rulers, such as restraining their desires, being frugal and self-disciplined, governing the country with virtue, and winning the support of the people; practicing benevolent government and caring for the people's suffering; "saving punishment and reducing the people's burdens"; and correcting the unfair state of society, especially curbing mergers and dealing with slaves.
Second, combined with the Five Virtues Theory of the Yin and Yang Family, the theory of changing the law and letting the sages be proposed.
The so-called "those whose virtue is enough to please the people, God gives it." They believe that the founding lords of the human world were not chosen in accordance with a certain virtue of heaven (five kinds of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth), so they were all ordained saints;
And before they are appointed, they will certainly send a blessing from heaven to show signs; then they will establish rules and regulations according to their corresponding virtues, and change the color of their clothes, such as Tude Shang Huang, Huo De Shang Chi, Shui De Shang Hei, and so on;
After the saints created the Taiping Dynasty, they would definitely report to the heavens in the form of sealing Zen, so Emperor Wudi of han often sealed Mount Tai.
Correspondingly, if the virtues of a dynasty are no longer there, the heavens will also send signs to warn them, at which time the emperor should obey the mandate of heaven and give way to the throne, so that the new saints can be ordained to the throne.
In the late Western Han Dynasty, with the worsening of political corruption, the Western Han Dynasty had serious land annexation and a serious shortage of treasury finances, and the rulers "followed their own desires and wanted nothing"; while ordinary people became increasingly poor, either selling themselves as slaves or becoming "exiled by the people and going to the city", and the social crisis was fraught with social crises.
Under these circumstances, the above two currents of thought of the scholar and doctor have risen more and more, and even a "han-weary" mood has arisen, and the political public opinion advocating the transfer of the Mandate of Heaven and the Zen concession is also rising. According to the history books, even the Han Emperor once said to Dong Xian: "I want Fa Yao Zen Shun, why should I?" After all, he was so fond of Dong Xian that he naturally thought that the other party was a "wise man."
Wang Mang, on the other hand, fully meets all the requirements of Confucianism for "saints":
Although he was born into a family of foreign relatives who were in a state of power and opposition, Wang Mang was different from many relatives who were intoxicated with sound and color dogs and horses, he lived a simple and humble life; he was industrious and studious, and studied the "Rituals" with the great Confucian Chen Shan, never wearing Chinese clothes, and there was no difference between him and ordinary Confucians.
He behaved in a disciplined manner, his style was rigorous, he was loyal and filial, he served his mother and widow (his father and brother died early), raised his nephews, and served his uncles very thoughtfully; during the illness of his uncle Wang Feng, he accompanied him for more than a month, so that he was unkempt and filial than most of his sons.
After entering the dynasty as an official and holding a high position, Wang Mang also maintained his Confucian nature. He was conscientious, more respectful than ever, and especially courteous to the scholars; he was incorruptible and frugal, and the rewards and money he received were used to entertain the celebrities, and even sold his carriages to help the poor.
As for the family members around him, Wang Mang was strictly disciplined. His wife was "clothed without dragging her knees", making many people think that she was a servant of the family; the son Wang was killed as a domestic slave, and Wang Mang not only severely punished him, but even forced him to commit suicide to apologize.
After Wang Mang was crowned Zaiheng and An Hangong, he vigorously promoted the indoctrination of liturgy, built ceremonial buildings such as mingtang, Peiyong, and Lingtai, and built 10,000 houses for scholars, which further won the support of Confucianism.
It can be said that all of Wang Mang's behavior was highly consistent with the standards of Confucian behavior recognized at that time. Therefore, from the emperor down to the commoners, Wang Mang was considered to be very virtuous; in the eyes of the scholar class, Wang Mang, who was in a high position, almost completely fit the image of the "Holy Lord" in their political theory, and was a perfect object of sage and Zen.
When Wang Mang refused the reward given by the imperial court in 5 AD, a total of 487,527 people wrote to support him, and the only opponents were Liu Chong, the only ones who opposed it, Liu Chong, and Dongjun Taishou Zhai Yi.
After a series of processes such as manufacturing Xiangrui, jiajiuxi, and naming Wang Jianfengguo, Wang Mang successfully became emperor in 9 AD, and the Confucian ideal of "Zen sage" was put into reality.
Judging from the content of Wang Mang's subsequent reform, it is obviously a comprehensive attempt by Confucian governance:
Abolish land trading, implement the royal field system, and divide the cultivated land equally under the world;
Abolition of slave trade;
The monopoly of salt, wine and iron was implemented, and the mountains, rivers, rivers, and mining resources were nationalized;
The government replaces private capital and provides low-interest lending;
Implement monetary reforms.....
All of the above reform measures are aimed at curbing land annexation and eliminating inequality between the rich and the poor, and even if the much-maligned currency reform is aimed at trying to abolish the currency in the hands of the giants and fundamentally eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor. This fully reflects that Wang Mang's reform of the system was nothing more than a collective effort by the Confucian group at that time to establish an ideal "cosmopolitan world":
The journey of the avenue is also the public of the world. Choose the wise and the able, preach faith and cultivate harmony. The old man does not kiss his relatives alone, nor does he have only sons and sons, so that the old will have an end, the strong will be useful, the young will grow, and the widows and the lonely will be nourished. Men have points, women have returns. It is not necessary to hide it from itself if it is evil to the earth; it is not necessary to be evil from the body, nor does it have to be for itself. It is the reason for the conspiracy to close but not to be happy, the theft and the thief without doing it, so the foreign household is not closed, which is called datong.
This pursuit is certainly worthy of respect.
So while many of us think of Wang Mang's reforms as rather advanced and as if they were crossers, they are in fact nothing more than the practice of traditional Confucian ideas. This also proves that although the times have changed, the pursuit of human society is actually the same; modern people pursue fairness and welfare, but as early as thousands of years ago, the ancients have called for it and worked hard.
But this vigorous reform soon ushered in a fiasco, and the reasons for this were none other than the following:
First, ignoring social laws, implementing simple and crude routines without priority, it has suffered unanimous opposition from almost all vested interest groups, and the backlash of the landlord class is particularly strong, which objectively makes the Liu clan office gain a lot of support;
Second, Wang Mang's claim to the title of emperor only realized the change of dynasty in the upper group, and the officials at all levels of the new dynasty were basically the old officials of the past, which led to Wang Mang's restructuring without an organizational basis to support it, and could only thunder and rain and be small and superficial, and even many corrupt officials and corrupt officials intensified their corruption in the name of restructuring, making ordinary people more and more disappointed in Wang Mang's regime;
Third, Wang Mang and his supporters are all scholars after all, the measures seem to be perfect, but the ideal is very full, the reality is very bone, and some policies are too backward to the times, it seems like "retro for the sake of retro and retro", which does not work at all.
Therefore, the refreshing transformation of Wang Mang's reform system in the Confucian world was aborted, which was not actually Wang Mang's personal failure, but a major setback to the political ideals of the Confucian group. Since then, the change of law has deprived xian xian's theory of the masses and the support of public opinion, and the position of the scholar group in the national political system has been redefined. The "Zen concession process" demonstrated by Wang Mang was completely reduced to a cover for the usurpation of the throne by the powerful ministers in later generations, which is even more of a great irony.