Zhonglang first established this position in the Qin Dynasty and was later abolished during the Northern Song Dynasty, which lasted for more than 1,500 years. In this time, the power and position that Zhonglang will have are also constantly changing. Among them, during the Period of the Yellow Turban Rebellion at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the gold content of Zhonglang's position was the highest ever.
I believe many people have heard such a sentence:
"Therefore, Beizhong Lang will lu Zhi, the famous hai nei, learn confucianism, a model of scholars, and a country of Zhenganya!"
Among them, this Lu Zhi was not only Liu Bei's teacher, but also Cao Cao's most admired idol in his early years, and his official position at that time was Zhonglang General; later Lu Zhi was exonerated, and the person who took over Lu Zhi's army was called Dong Zhuo, and his position was also Zhonglang General.
At the same time, in the pacification of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, two famous generals of the Eastern Han Empire performed the most brilliantly, known as the Imperial Shuangbi at that time, and also the two most qualified and prestigious people in the Eastern Han military circles, their names were Huang Pusong and Zhu Juan, and the two of them at that time held the positions of Left Middle Lang General and Right Middle Lang General.
From here, we can see that the general zhonglang at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty can already be said to be the bearer of the military circles of the Eastern Han Empire, and his power and status cannot be said to be low.
Of course, Zhonglang's original position was not so big. In the pre-Qin period,"
Zhonglang
"It was only as a close attendant of the monarch that its function was generally to manage the emperor's chariots, horses, and defend the monarch, take care of the living quarters, etc., and there were only six hundred stones.
In the early Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty, Zhonglang began to be responsible for controlling the emperor's bodyguards, so he was renamed Zhonglang General, and at that time Zhonglang was divided into three official positions: Five Senses, Left and Right, namely Five Senses Zhonglang General, Left Zhonglang General, and Right Middle Lang General. In a sense, the rank of the Zhonglang general at this time was still not high, and it was equivalent to the leader of the guards around the emperor.
Then during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to protect the safety of the imperial palace, he deliberately set up an elite imperial forbidden army to take the title of ""
For the wings of the country, such as the forest of the sheng
The meaning of ", that is, the Yulin Army." And the commander of this army, known as "
General Yubayashi Nakaro
”。 As a result, General Zhonglang officially became a high-ranking general in charge of the Emperor's Forbidden Army, and Feng Lu also became two thousand stones, which was equivalent to the local counties and counties.
Later, the HanPing Emperor officially named the palace guard"
Tiger Ben Lang
", and their commander-in-chief is called"
Tiger Ben Zhonglang General
”。 Since then, the generals of Zhonglang have changed from three to five, namely the generals of the five senses, the generals of the left middle lang, the generals of the right middle lang, the generals of the Yulin Zhonglang and the generals of the Tiger Ben Zhonglang, who are mainly responsible for commanding the emperor's bodyguards and forbidden troops, and the qilu is two thousand stones.
By the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhonglang would gradually become an important and popular official position, and its functions would become more extensive from commanding the forbidden army to becoming a senior general who commanded the army.
In a sense, the ranks and positions of military generals in the Eastern Han Dynasty can be mainly divided into three levels:
General, Lieutenant General, Lieutenant Colonel
It is equivalent to our current generals, lieutenant generals, and major generals.
Because the position of general at that time was not very common, and it was usually only in the event of a large-scale war that he was called a general of the commanders, the highest official position that the military generals could obtain in peacetime was Zhonglang General.
It is precisely because of this that after the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the commanders of the three armies sent by the Eastern Han government to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion were basically Zhonglang generals, so that Zhonglang would suddenly become unlimited, and the power and status they possessed were directly comparable to those of senior generals.
However, just as the so-called Chengye Yellow Turban Uprising, defeat also Yellow Turban Uprising, because of this great rebellion, so many generals obtained military merit, so various general positions were appointed, such as later Emperor Fu Songren was appointed as the left car riding general, Zhu Junren was recognized as the right car riding general. In this context, the gold content of Zhonglang General naturally dropped by a notch.
Later, when these generals had become warlords on one side, they would usually appoint them as zhonglang generals in order to win over their right-hand men.
For example, Zhang Hao under Yuan Shao, Gao Shun under Lü Bu, Zhuge Liang under Liu Bei, Zhou Yu under Sun Ce, and so on, were all appointed as Zhonglang generals. In this context, Zhonglang will not only change from a central official to a local official position, but also become a bit of a rotten street, and its gold content will naturally drop by another notch.
Of course, at this time, Zhonglang will at least have some value, because it is still a very difficult thing to get it.
In a sense, the person who wants to get the position of general of the middle lang must be the most important or powerful person under the warlords of the divided side, equivalent to the second-in-command within the group, otherwise it will become a local official position, but it is not easily obtained by ordinary people.
However, in the later stages of the warlord melee, more and more people with military merit began to be popularized, and Zhonglang was directly reduced to a mid-level general and no longer served as the commander of the army. After the formation of the Three Kingdoms, Zhonglang will have completely become a fictitious title, with no practical value at all, and it is difficult to see its name in the history books.
It was not until the Tang Dynasty that Zhonglang was restored to the position of commander of the janissaries of the various provinces, with the rank of Zhengsi pin (正四品) and a high-ranking military position. In the early years of the Song Dynasty, Zhonglang was used as a fictitious title, which was officially abolished not long after.