From the establishment of the Three Kingdoms to the return of the Three Families to the Jin, no one expected that it would be Sima Shi who unified the Three Kingdoms, since Sima Yi defeated Cao Shuang in the Gaopingling Coup, Sima Shi controlled Cao Wei's power, Sima Yi hereditary power in his hands to his son Sima Shi before his death, Sima Shi passed on to Sima Zhao, Sima Zhao passed on to Sima Yan, Sima Yan established the Western Jin Dynasty, unified the Three Kingdoms.
Why could Sima Yi easily control Cao Wei's regime with just a coup d'état? It makes people feel that Sima Yi's usurpation of power is too simple, think of the time when Cao Cao, the founder of the Cao Wei regime, fought more than thirty years of war to barely unify the north, sima Yi only relied on a coup d'état to take Cao Shuang, and took the entire Cao Wei, which makes people feel somewhat unconvinced.
There are three main reasons why Sima Yi can succeed:
First, Cao Wei's political power was too concentrated, and there was no other political power to contain it.
If you want to understand the centralism of political power, let's briefly talk about the history of the emperor's power development.
Sima Yi succeeded in the Gaopingling coup
Since Qin Shi Huang created the emperor system, the emperor is the supreme ruler of the world, with supreme power, in fact, the power in the hands of the emperors of the successive dynasties is not the same, Qin Shi Huang when the emperor is absolutely supreme, say one is not two, so the second died, to the Han Dynasty, in fact, the emperor power of the Han Dynasty is not as good as the Qin Dynasty, such as Liu Bang, want to change a prince, can not do, manchu Wenwu opposition, so the emperor is not anything can do.
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the System of Xiang Was implemented, and the power of Xiang was divided into part of the imperial power, so Emperor Wu of Han wanted to implement the internal dynasty system, set up Shang Shutai and Shang Shu Ling, and then divided some of the power of Xiang Xiang, and by the Time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the implementation was also the Shang Shu Tai administration, and the political forces of the Western Han Dynasty had imperial and meritorious forces in the early days, and later increased the power of foreign relatives, and Wang Mang was a foreign relative who seized power.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were three political forces, namely: eunuchs, foreign relatives, and scholars. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the emperor's short life span, there were many small emperors and foreign relatives, eunuchs monopoly, but the Eastern Han Dynasty has been stumbling to survive, the fundamental reason is that the political forces can not be monopolized, for example, in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are often foreign relatives monopoly, but foreign relatives have not been able to usurp the throne, not that foreign relatives do not want to, but there are other forces to contain, this is the eunuchs and scholars.
The Eastern Han emperor could use eunuchs to fight foreign relatives to regain power
Don't look at many emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty are young and on the throne, even if there are often foreign relatives monopoly power, but the emperor can unite the eunuch forces to overthrow the foreign relatives when he grows up, and then the emperor can take power, the most typical is the general Liang Ji, Liang Ji even the disobedient little emperor dares to poison to death, this power is big enough, Liang Ji controls the military power, but also sends people everywhere to monitor the emperor, the Han Huan Emperor Liu Zhi was forced to unite five eunuchs in the toilet to conspire together, and finally killed Liang Ji and successfully regained power.
Back to the Wei Dynasty established by Cao Pi, Cao Pi implemented a high degree of centralization, cracking down on various political forces, the Wei Dynasty practiced pure bureaucratic politics, there was no other political force, the officials of the DPRK and China could not form a party, Cao Pi learned the lessons of the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty, strictly prohibited eunuchs, foreign relatives, and imperial families from interfering in politics, all written into the law, Cao Pi in order to centralize power and prevention, even at the expense of attacking his own brothers, such as Cao Zhi, Cao Pi only gave wealth, did not give political power, and often moved Cao Zhi's fiefdoms around, It is to avoid Cao Zhi's party.
Cao Pi practiced a high degree of centralization of power
There were no other political forces in the imperial court, the power of the Wei Dynasty was highly concentrated in the hands of the emperor, and no force could contain the power of the emperor, when the emperor was wise, the politics was clear, when the emperor fainted, the politics was dark, and when the emperor was young, the power would fall by the wayside.
When Cao Rui died, leaving an 8-year-old Cao Fang to become a small emperor, the little emperor could not govern the country, so he could only let people assist him, so Cao Rui found two auxiliary ministers, that is, Sima Yi and Cao Shuang, who shared all the power of the emperor and exercised the emperor's supreme power on his behalf, and was not constrained by other political forces.
The Wei Dynasty did not have eunuchs to intervene in the government, no foreign relatives to monopolize power, and there was no imperial family to hold power, Cao Shuang was not a royal family, his father Cao Zhen was only Cao Cao's adopted son, at best only a close confidant of the Cao family, so when Sima Yi and Cao Shuang assisted the government, they actually held the highest power, and they were not controlled and contained.
The Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui continued Cao Pi's policies
The concentration of power is a double-edged sword, there are advantages and disadvantages, when the power of the Wei Dynasty is concentrated in the hands of Sima Yi and Cao Shuang, there is a risk, once the power is possessed, no one will give up, so Cao Shuang wants to exclude Sima Yi, one person in power is better than two separations of power, and Sima Yi took a taoguang and obscure method, to pretend to be ill to deceive Cao Shuang, and then launched a Coup d'état to get rid of Cao Shuang.
As soon as Cao Shuang died, the supreme power of the entire Wei Dynasty was controlled in the hands of Sima Yi, this power was highly centralized, uncontrolled, and unchecked, in fact, it was the power of the original emperor, including military power and political power, so when Sima Yi got rid of Cao Shuang, no one could threaten Sima Yi, and no one dared to oppose Sima Yi, the result of opposition was only death, look at the three rebellions in Huainan, it seems to be huge, all ended in failure, because Sima Shi used the national strength of the entire Cao Wei to fight the rebellion, this kind of power no one can resist, Therefore, Sima Shi was able to hereditary and pass on Cao Wei's power, which was the first reason why Sima Yi could easily seize it.
Cao Ruituo lonely Sima Yi
2. The warrior clan and the royal family compete for power.
During the Three Kingdoms period, although there was no other political force, there was a class that was rising, that is, the Scholar Group, the so-called Scholar Group was a family of bureaucrats and scholars who had been passed down from hundreds of generations, in the imperial court, they had been officials for generations, they had fame and capital, in the local area, they formed a manor economy, hid the population, had money and people, and at the same time they also controlled the recommendation of public opinion and talents.
The use of intermarriage between different clans has formed an intricate relationship, which links their common interests together, and the rise of the clan will continue to require the imperial court to give higher political power and status, and although they enter the imperial court, although they do not blatantly form a party, they form a group with the same interests, which conflicts with the imperial power.
When Sima Yi launched a coup d'état, most people in the entire imperial court actually supported Sima Yi, including Jiang Ji, Chen Qun and other bureaucrats from the shi clan, even Sima Yi himself was from a famous and prestigious family, with a huge family, and it was easier to be consistent with the interests of the shi clan.
The king and the horse share the world
These people and clans united against Cao Shuang, who represented the imperial family, and after the overthrow of Cao Shuang, Sima Yi shared power with the Shi clan, and this trend continued until the entire Western Jin and Eastern Jin Dynasties, and in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, this situation was reversed, the Shi clan controlled the power, and the emperor became a decoration, such as the popular saying in the Eastern Jin Dynasty: The king and The Horse share the world.
Among them, the king is the Langya Wang clan headed by Wang Dao, the horse is the Sima royal family, the World of the Sima family has come to the back, and the tragedy of that year has been repeated, this is the cycle of history, the Sima clan can not change the historical trend, there is a contradiction between the warrior clan and the imperial power, and there is also a struggle for power.
Therefore, when Sima Yi launched the Gaopingling coup, the shi clan rushed to support Sima Yi, they wanted to share power and improve their political status, while the imperial family of the Wei Dynasty appeared weak and could not compete with it, after the success of Sima Yi's coup, almost no one dared to oppose, not so much no one, but rather no power to oppose, no military power and political power, what to take against Sima Yi? Even if there is, it may not be able to win, which is the second reason why Sima Yi can easily seize power.
Sima Yi gained the support of the Shi clan to launch the Gaopingling coup
Three, two consecutive generations of emperors short-lived.
Cao Pi was the founding prince of the Wei Dynasty, but he only served as emperor for 6 years before he died, only 40 years old when he died, Cao Rui was the second emperor of the Wei Dynasty, he took the throne at the age of 23, died at the age of 26, was emperor for 13 years, and died at the age of 36, the first two emperors of a dynasty had such a short life span, so it caused a serious political problem, that is, the age of the third emperor must not be old.
The third emperor Cao Fang was only 8 years old when he ascended the throne, so he gave Sima Yi and Cao Shuang the opportunity to assist the government, and there was a later process of Sima Yi and Cao Shuang's struggle for power, and only then did Sima Yi launch a coup d'état in Gaopingling, but cao Pi and Cao Rui lived for more than ten years, and there was no chance for Sima Yi to usurp the throne, which was the inducement.
Cao Pi and Cao Rui had two consecutive emperors with short lives
But then again, even if Sima Yi did not usurp the throne, according to the political system of Cao Wei, there would be different "Sima Yi" to usurp the throne, because the scholar class at that time was rising, and the strength was very large, and it was impossible for all the emperors of a dynasty to be wise lords, nor could all the emperors be in their prime, but any few faint kings or small emperors would also be usurped by human rights subjects, which was the drawback of a high concentration of power.
If Sima Yi was born in the Song Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, he could not usurp the throne at all, because the political systems of the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were already relatively sound, and even if the emperor did not go to the dynasty for decades, the imperial court could still operate normally, the fundamental reason was that there were political forces to balance the imperial power, and the emperor did not want to do anything, such as the Jiajing Emperor and the chancellor's great ceremonial event was debated for several years, but this was already the Ming Dynasty, in the Cao Wei era, obviously the political system was not sound, which was also one of the reasons why Sima Yi could successfully usurp power.