In the Southern Song Dynasty, the "dragon in the word" Xin Abandoned Disease once wrote "Yong Yu Le Jingkou Beiguting Huaigu", there is a saying in the words "Xieyang grass tree, ordinary alley strange, humane slave once lived." Think of that year, Jinge iron horse, swallowed like a tiger. ”。
The "slave" mentioned by Xin Shuyi is Liu Yu, the founding emperor of the Southern Dynasty Liu Song Dynasty, Liu Yu is known as the "First Emperor of the Southern Dynasty", historians praise him as "the king of the dingchao dynasty", he calls the emperor after rectifying the administration of officials, lightly dispensing with thin endowments, abolishing harsh laws, caring about the sufferings of the people, in order to eliminate the threat of ethnic minorities in the north, he also led the northern expedition many times, "swallowing arrogance like a fierce tiger" created the most extensive period of the territory of the six dynasties of Jiangzuo, it can be said that Liu Yu was a very accomplished monarch!
However, for thousands of years, posterity has always been grumpy about the extermination of the Sima family when Liu Yu usurped the throne, believing that this is the biggest stain on Liu Yu's life, and what he did was even inferior to Sima Yan!
Really? Is there something else hidden in this?
First, let's compare what Sima Yan and Liu Yu did after usurping the throne
Sima Yan was the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty, the grandson of Sima Yi, the Emperor Xuan of Jin, the nephew of Sima Shi, the Emperor of Jinjing, and the eldest son of Sima Zhao, Emperor Wen of Jin, and in the second year of Xianxi, Sima Zhao died of illness, and Sima Yan succeeded his father to the throne of Jin and became a new generation of rulers of Cao Wei.
However, Sima Yan's ambitions were far greater than those of his fathers, and he did not want to live in seclusion behind the scenes, eager to become the true "Ninth Five-Year Supreme", so in December of the second year of Xianxi, Sima Yan followed the story of "Cao Pi Daihan" and forced the then emperor Cao Yichan to be in him.
Cao Yan was also aware of current affairs, knew that the general trend had gone, and simply "abdicated and gave way to Xian", sima Yan ascended the throne and made Cao Yan the King of Chen Liu, and allowed him to enjoy many "privileges", such as "using the Tianzi Banner, preparing a five-hour deputy car, and traveling to Wei Guo Zhengshuo" and so on.
In the first year of Tai'an, Cao Yi died of illness and was able to die well, and the imperial court also gave him the title of "Emperor Yuan", which can be said that Cao Yi's status, treatment, and ending are the best among the kings of the fallen kingdoms in all generations!
When the Eastern Jin Dynasty reached the tenth emperor, Sima Dezong, the Emperor of Jin'an, Liu Yu, who was born in the Cold Gate, relied on his internal pacification of the peasant revolt, the elimination of the separatist forces, the external conquest of the southern and northern wars, and the destruction of countless huge military feats of the enemy to "soar up", from an unknown Northern Prefecture military Sima to the most powerful person in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the official worship xiangguo, the king of the Song Dynasty, and the overall military and political power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty!
The power reached such a point that it was necessary to "usurp the throne and claim the title of emperor", so on January 28, 419, Liu Yu assigned Wang Shaozhi to kill Emperor An of Jin, and then made Sima Dewen emperor, for Emperor Gong of Jin.
In July 420, Liu Yu followed Sima Yan's example and drew up a Zen edict and forced Sima Dewen to "abdicate and give way to Xian", Sima Dewen had no objections, gladly accepted, and "signed and pledged" the abdication edict, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was destroyed!
After the fall of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu declared himself empress, demoted Sima Dewen to the title of King of Lingling, moved to Moling, Sima Dewen went with his family, although Sima Dewen was extremely cooperative, but Liu Yu was not at ease with it, often sent people to monitor him, and finally sent people to brutally kill him in 421 AD!
Liu Yu and Sima Yan's usurpation of the throne can be described as "generally the same", both of which forced the monarch to abdicate and give way to Xian, but why did the two behave differently when they claimed the title of empress?
Second, under deep investigation, there are at least three reasons:
First: to break the hope of the Sima family's restoration.
Liu Yu was born in the grassroots and embarked on the peak of his life with great military merit, but in addition to himself, he did not have strong clan support, which can be described as "shallow foundation", and there is a huge crisis hidden behind prosperity!
And the Sima family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty inherited eleven emperors, with deep roots, countless sons of the clan, and if Liu Yu left Sima Dewen, it was tantamount to leaving the Sima family with the opportunity to make a comeback, leaving a "time bomb" for himself, so Sima Dewen must die!
Second: to remove obstacles for their children and grandchildren.
Liu Yu was nearly sixty years old when he ascended the throne as emperor, which was considered to be an advanced age in ancient times, and his heir Liu Yifu was only a teenager and still senior, Liu Yu knew that he could intimidate everyone in his lifetime, and once he died, there must be former courtiers who deceived Liu Yifu when he was young and supported Sima Dewen's restoration.
Therefore, he simply killed Sima Dewen and made those ill-intentioned former courtiers stop thinking, so that his son could successfully inherit the throne!
Third: In order to deter the family clan, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was a typical "aristocratic door valve politics", the class solidification was serious, and the han disciples did not have the day to emerge at all, and there was only one case like Liu Yu who was born poor but could rely on military merit to become an extremely popular subject.
Even so, those magnates from the family clan still looked down on Liu Yu, but only because of Liu Yu's power, they had to give in, and after Liu Yu succeeded to the throne, he was determined to rectify the rule of officials, break through the barriers of class solidification, and make the Han disciples have a head.
However, this was bound to be strongly hindered by the magnates, and in order to eliminate the obstacle, Liu Yu killed Sima Dewen with his own hands, in order to deter the family clan and reuse the Han shi.
Speaking of a thousand ways and ten thousand, the reason why Liu Yu wanted to kill Sima Dewen was because Sima Dewen's existence posed a threat to him, and the reason why Sima Yan treated Cao Yan kindly was because Cao Yan did not pose any threat to him, and Sima Yan and Liu Yutong, as the founding monarchs, the situation was completely different.
Liu Yu was created by himself, the Sima family had grasped Cao Wei's military and political power as early as after the "Gaopingling Change", and when Sima Yan succeeded to the throne, the Sima family was already deeply rooted, and he was completely sitting on his own success, and did not have to worry about cao Wan's threat to him at all.
brief summary:
There is a saying in the "Augmented Xianwen" that "Heavenly Reason is Clear, Retribution Is Not Happy", the predecessors did evil to the posterity, karma should have a god, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian of Han to "abdicate and give way to Xian", he replaced himself, his descendant Cao Yi was punished, and was forced by Sima Yan to write an abdication edict, and Sima Yan could not escape the end of "retribution is not happy", and his descendant Sima Dewen was replaced by Liu Yu!
This tells us a truth, there is a natural reason in the darkness, do not do it with good and small, do not do it with evil, do more good deeds, there will always be blessings, bad things are done more, then they will inevitably be punished, even if this retribution does not appear in themselves, it will also affect future generations, so we must "do more good deeds to produce good results, and benefit future generations." ”！
In addition, when evaluating whether a monarch is a mingjun, we must focus on the people, rather than his own deeds, even if a monarch's character is noble, his people are hungry all day long, living in the depths of the water, he is not a mingjun, and if a monarch can make his people live and work in peace and contentment, happiness and happiness, even if he has some shortcomings in himself, and even his style of conduct is despised, he can be called a mingjun!
What do you think?
References: "Augmenting Xianwen", "Yong Yu Le Jingkou Beiguting Huaigu"
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