In 180 BC, after Lü Hou's death, the Han Dynasty chancellor Chen Ping and Taiwei Zhou Bo united with some of the Liu clan and suddenly revolted to wipe out the Lü clan in power; subsequently, when discussing who to make emperor, they considered it again and again, and selected Liu Heng, the acting king with the best personality and the thinnest foundation. The question is, why did this seemingly soft persimmon Liu Heng not become a puppet of the heroes later?
First of all, the heroes did not have the idea of supporting a puppet emperor. As the first civilian government in history, there was no corresponding soil in the society of the early Western Han Dynasty.
The Western Han Dynasty was the first regime in Chinese history to be established by the commoner class. Some historians even believe that as a low-level citizen, his real name is "Liu Ji" (not a word) based on the ranking, and later changed to "bang" - meaning state. There is a certain truth to this view, "there is no complaint in the state, no complaint at home", "the office of the Great Zai, the six canons of the establishment of the state, and the king of the state to rule the country"... An ordinary person is unlikely to dare to use "state" as a name.
The imperial court elders in the early Western Han Dynasty were the famous "cloth generals" in history: Xiao He, Cao Shan, Ren Ao, Zhou Jiao, Shen Tujia and other people were all grass-roots officials, Chen Ping, Wang Ling, Lu Jia, and Li Shang were all "white disciples", Zhou Bo made a living by weaving silkworm utensils and blowing pipes at funerals, Fan Hao was a butcher who killed dogs, douba was a small merchant who sold silk, Lou Jing pulled a cart for people, and only Zhang Liang was from the Korean nobility. Of course, Liu Bang's foreign relatives are also from ordinary families.
From the grassroots counterattack to the founding hero of the dynasty, the experience of the above-mentioned personnel proves a truth: compared with talent, a person's acquired opportunities and experiences are more important, and following the leadership and standing on the right team can often change people's lives. No joke: If you can follow Liu Bang, 80% of your friends who read this article can also be brought into the founding of the country.
Back to the point. After defeating Xiang Yu and purging the remnants of the nobles of various countries, the aristocratic politics since the Spring and Autumn Warring States period was completely defeated, and the composition of the personnel of the early Western Han Dynasty regime was probably the following levels:
The highest level is naturally the emperor;
On the second level, the king of the clan clan and the hero. Liu Bang also agreed with them: "No king can be a king unless he is surnamed Liu, and he must not be a prince unless he has merit." The heroes also included lü's relatives.
In the third layer, various lang officials, who "guard the portal and charge the military horse", refer to the attendant officers, and later derive various internal and external positions.
The fourth level, the official, is the clerk in the government organ.
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the regime consisted of the above groups, which can be called a simple or even simple ruling collective. It can be said that in the case of Han Xin being purged at a fixed point and Zhang Liang retreating from the torrent, none of the many powerful figures in the early Han regime had the ability to control Qiankun and be solipsistic, and their strength came from the large collective, the Western Han Dynasty, a dynasty established purely by civilians.
They are all part of the system, not individual heroes like Xiang Yu, so they must do their best to maintain the system on which they depend. This is where Liu Bang boldly handed over power to the Meritorious Group before his death.
Therefore, among the heroes of the Western Han Dynasty, there were no powerful figures. They overthrew Zhu Lü only because the other side had broken the unspoken rules of harmonious coexistence and benefit sharing between the clan and the heroes; when Lü Hou broke the alliance of the White Horse, the heroes were actually already foolish, but they were only hindered by Lü Hou's power and waited for the opportunity.
After joining forces with the clan to destroy the Lü clan, they needed to establish a new emperor to dissolve the increasingly tense relationship and coordinate the interests of all parties; as for supporting a puppet, it was neither feasible (the clan with military power was not a good stubble) nor necessary (the puppet was not able to ensure the common interests of all parties); and the reason why Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han, was chosen was because he was old, had a good reputation, and his foreign relatives and families were weak (not to destroy the pattern), and it was most likely to satisfy the demands of all parties, nothing more.
The second reason: Emperor Wen of Han was intelligent enough and well-patterned. He understands almost everyone's needs and holds the weapon of "Ezra Gramgang".
Shouldering the heavy responsibility of maintaining the balance of power between the imperial family and the heroes, Liu Heng rushed to Chang'an to ascend the throne. This background determines that his governing style must adhere to two words: reconciliation (or coordination). Looking at his subsequent performance during his reign, he almost perfectly met the needs of the ruling clique and also met the demands of all strata of society in the Western Han Dynasty.
For the Meritorious Group, Liu Heng originally had doubts, in order to ensure that everything was foolproof, before entering Chang'an, he held meetings, divination, and sent people to fight the front station; when entering Chang'an, let Song Chang and Zhou Bo have a confrontation and temptation on the Wei Bridge. However, after he officially ascended the throne, he handled the relations between the parties with a broad mind and a superb means of gentleness and rigidity.
In order to remove the power of Zhou Bo, the leader of the Gongchen clique, Emperor Wen of Han knocked on the side, avoided hard-hitting, used public opinion, and sent people to lobby, and successfully made Zhou Bo voluntarily go to the field without the slightest conflict;
When his old subordinate Zhang Wu accepted bribes, he did not play cards according to common sense - he took out his own personal gold and silver reward to the other party, making him ashamed and playing a role in cursing;
When his uncle Bo Zhao committed a capital crime, Emperor Wen of Han sent a group of ministers to cry around him until the other party committed suicide, which can be described as a standard soft knife to kill people;
Zhao Tuo, the king of Nanyue, proclaimed himself Emperor Wu, and Emperor Wen of Han summoned his brothers who remained in the Central Plains, and gave the high-ranking official Houlu and revenge with virtue, and the ashamed Zhao Tuo immediately canceled the imperial title and bowed down to him.....
This kind of style of making it possible to use soft kegang and let the other party have the strength to make it impossible has almost become the label of Emperor Wen of Han.
On the other hand, in order to alleviate the class contradictions brought about by the "Han system with the Qin system" and severe punishment, Emperor Wen of Han abolished a large number of tortures, such as "collecting the money and sitting together", "corporal punishment", etc., and eased tense social relations;
At the same time, he led by example and practiced frugality, "after twenty-three years on the throne, the palace court was full of dogs and horses", the harem concubines "could not be dragged to the ground, and the accounts could not be embroidered", and on his deathbed, he ordered that no metal should be buried in his mausoleum, and only clay pots made of mud could be used;
In addition, adhering to the policy of "not bothering the people", he lightened the small endowments and reduced the burden on farmers, effectively stimulating productivity. According to the history books, during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, "he devoted himself to the people with virtue, enriched himself with the sea, and prospered with etiquette and righteousness."
Therefore, although not as talented and martial as the later Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Wen of Han was recognized as a representative of the "Ming Jun" as one of the four emperors of the Western Han Dynasty who were given temple names (Liu Bang of han Taizu, Liu Heng of Han Taizong, Liu Che of Han Shizong, and Liu Qian of Hanzhongzong). Moreover, he was the first emperor in history to put into practice the "benevolence" advocated by Confucianism, effectively correcting the harsh punishment system along the Qin Dynasty, laying the foundation for the ruling character of the Han Dynasty, and having a profound impact on future generations of emperors.
From this point of view, when Zhou Bo and other meritorious groups supported Liu Heng out of their own interests, they inadvertently contributed to the Western Han Dynasty and the development of history.