Today, I talk about the nephew of Wang Zhengjun, the empress dowager of the Yuan Emperor, who is also a famous figure in history, called Wang Mang, the character Jujun. Wang Mang was a man of great wind and water in the imperial court, even in the wild, but as soon as he caught the opportunity, he would try his best to expand his power.
He embraced Confucianism from an early age and was familiar with Confucian books. It is rumored that when the Duke of Zhou was handling political affairs on behalf of the lord, he once touched the Yue Clan and moved them to come and offer the holy relics even if they were thousands of miles away. Therefore, when Wang Mang handled the government, he wanted to be as famous as the Duke of Zhou assisted King Cheng.
So Wang Mang hinted at an ethnic minority outside the country and asked them to call themselves the Yue Clan, who also came to offer white pheasants. Then Wang Mang's men spread the news everywhere, preaching that this was the auspicious rui brought by Wang Mang, which was similar to the auspicious white pheasant effect brought by the regent of the Duke of Zhou a thousand years ago, so Wang Mang's ruling was called a wonderful one, and it was really a top cry.
In this way, they created a momentum and made Wang Mang the Duke of An Han. But Wang Mang was not satisfied, and in order to make his position more secure, Wang Mang sent his daughter to the palace as an empress.
According to the rules of the time, the empress's father should have a fief of a hundred miles to be worthy of his status, so when Wang Mang's daughter had just become empress, someone wrote to the emperor, saying that the land on the xinye side should be given to Wang Mang, so that the fief could be as large as a hundred miles. Coupled with the popular momentum, Wang Mang's status at that time was so high that he was regarded as a saint.
In order to curry favor with Wang Mang's right-hand man Wang Shun and others, they suggested that "Zai Heng" be used as Wang Mang's title, taken from the character Ah Heng of Yi Yin, the famous chancellor of the Shang Dynasty, and merged with the position of Dazai of the Duke of Zhou, showing that Wang Mang could be compared with these two sages.
In the 4th year of the First Yuan Dynasty (4 AD), Empress Wang issued a decree to crown Wang Mang as Zaiheng, his mother was given the title of Gongxian jun, and his two sons were given the title of Marquis of Liehou. This was full of glory, and Wang Mang's status was getting higher and higher.
After Emperor Yuan ascended to the throne, the use of Confucianism as the way of doing things became the norm, Wang Mang in order to show his achievements in civil rule, whitewash the peace of the world, in the first 4 years of the Yuan Dynasty, according to the ancient ritual records in the book, established the Ming Hall, Lingtai, and Yong, and let the world's literate people and strange people gather together in Chang'an, let them talk about Confucian classics, and create a scene of peace and prosperity.
Those literati who served in the court, seeing this scene, knew that they had a place to play, and wantonly patted Wang Mang's ass, praised Wang Mang, and even proposed to use the "Jia Jiu Xi" written in ancient books to show the honor of Wang Mang, a contemporary Zhou Duke.
Jiu Xi is more similar to the emperor in terms of clothing, carriages and horses, and honor guards, showing that its status is above the princes, only below the emperor. This was a great disrespect, but the empress dowager approved the suggestion. In this way, Wang Mang's status was almost on par with that of the emperor.
Empress Wang may have had to do this, trying to calm things down and appease Wang Mang, but this actually fueled Wang Mang's ambitions, and he could not hold back more and more. Wang Mang's minions thought of another idea in order to give him supreme power.
They found a white stone and said that they found it when they beat someone from the well, only to see that on the white stone, there were 8 red characters written in clear colors: "Tell the Prince of An Han that Wang Mang is the emperor." This is the same as Chen Sheng Wu Guangyu's belly collection of books, making the same technique.
The chancellor Yu Shun immediately entered the palace to see Empress Wang, claiming that this was providence and should be done, and he supported Wang Mang as regent. In 6 AD, Wang Mang ascended the throne as emperor with the era name "Ju Regent".
@Ruyi said literature history
Wang Mang's ambitions were not small, so step by step, in accordance with the ancient etiquette system, he did not follow the truth, successfully ascended to the throne, sat on the dragon chair, and seized the Han Dynasty's Jiangshan.
Although Wang Mang's ending was not very good, he still became emperor and spent a lifetime of effort for this goal.
People who have no goals and will deviate from the direction, have dreams, and forge ahead in order to achieve their ambitions, are also worthy of respect.