Wang Mang's head, which was regarded as a treasure by successive emperors, was treasured for 272 years, what is special about it?
As we all know, our country has a history and culture of 5,000 years, and there are countless treasures that have been handed down from ancient times to the present, and each of them represents the traditional culture of our country. But there are also many treasures that are still scattered to this day, exhibited in foreign museums. In ancient China, there were some strange treasures that people could not understand, just like Wang Mang's head, which was treasured until 272 AD, and the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty treasured it as a treasure, so what was so special about it?
In 9 AD, Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and changed the name of the country to the "New" Dynasty, followed by the "Wang Mang Reform" that we often see in history, but in the end it failed to change the embarrassing situation under the heavens, but it made the life of the People of Li more difficult, resulting in uprisings everywhere, wanting to overthrow Wang Mang's rule. It was not until 23 CE that Liu Xiu captured Chang'an and put Wang Mang to death.
After Wang Mang's head was cut off by a knife, after the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu ascended the throne, he ordered others to paint Wang Mang's head with a layer of black paint and treasure it in the state treasury. Since then, the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty have collected Wang Mang's head as a treasure in the imperial palace and passed it on to the Jin Dynasty. In 272 AD, in the 5th year of Yuan Kang, the Western Jin Dynasty Emperor Hui, the arsenal in Luoyang suddenly caught fire, and the head of Wang Mang in it was also burned. At that time, the whole palace sighed, and why was Wang Mang's head stored for so long?
In fact, there are many considerations in this, the most important of which is to be vigilant. As a foreign relative, Wang Mang's usurpation of the throne and his eventual death is the best case of the emperor's vigilance. And this head is also constantly alerting the emperors, do not trust their foreign relatives, otherwise there will be no good end. And Wang Mang's head was used as a wake-up call, constantly ringing in the ears of successive emperors. And in ancient times, because it was very superstitious, it was believed that the head of the evil person could ward off evil spirits, and when he was alive, he was very vicious, and after he died, he could compete with evil things, which is what we know as "attacking poison with poison." What do you think about this?