There were 14 emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and only 4 reigned for more than 20 years. They are:
The founding prince who reigned for 33 years, Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu.
Liu Zhi, the Emperor Huan of Han, reigned for 21 years.
Liu Hong, the Han Ling Emperor, reigned for 21 years.
Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han, reigned for 31 years.
This is very scary, because in addition to Liu Xiu, the other 3 emperors are more famous in history. What fame? Very bad fame, of course!
Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han Xian, not to mention, reigned for 31 years and also served as a puppet emperor for 31 years. He was successively taken over by Dong Zhuo, Li Dai, and Cao Cao, and finally lost the Great Han Jiangshan.
What about Emperor Huan of Han and Emperor Ling of Han? Zhuge Liang once mentioned such a sentence in the "Table of Renunciation":
Pro-Xianchen, far from the little man, this first Han so Xinglong also; pro-small people, far xianchen, after that Han so the decadence also. When the former emperor was there, whenever he discussed this matter with his subjects, he did not hesitate to sigh and hate Huan and Lingye.
What do you mean? To explain this briefly:
Liu Bei often sat with Zhuge Liang and nagged, and when he mentioned the Western Han Dynasty, the two of them nodded their heads one after another, thinking that the emperor of the Western Han Dynasty was close to the sages and away from the villains, so the Western Han Dynasty prospered.
But when the two mentioned the Eastern Han Dynasty, they shook their heads repeatedly, why? Because the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty was close to the villains and far away from the sages, the Eastern Han Dynasty declined. In particular, the two guys, Emperor Huan of Han and Emperor Ling of Han, directly dragged down the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Good fellow, the Han Huan Emperor Liu Zhi was able to enter Zhuge Liang's "Table of Teachers" and be treated as a negative teaching material by Liu Bei, the emperor, it is definitely not simple! So what kind of emperor was Emperor Huan of Han?
First, the doll in the hands of foreign relative Liang Ji.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was a very special dynasty, and there were many emperors in this dynasty. The emperor is too young to rule on his own, so who does he have to rely on? Of course, it was the people of the mother's family and the eunuchs around him.
Therefore, the Eastern Han Dynasty has long been trapped in the phenomenon of eunuchs and foreign relatives successively ruling. The same was true during the han huan emperor's time, after all, his throne was purely picked up. Look at who the predecessors in front of him are, you can see what's going on.
First, the throne of Liu Bao, the Emperor of Hanshun, was obtained by the eunuchs through conspiracy. Therefore, during the han shun emperor, eunuchs held power for a long time. And Emperor Shun of Han's empress Dowager Liang had a very domineering brother Liang Ji. Liang Ji cooperated with eunuchs and held the government for 19 years, until he sent the 30-year-old Han Shun Emperor away.
Second, Liu Bing, the Emperor of Han Chong, succeeded to the throne at the age of 2 and died at the age of 3. Liang Ji hadn't even had time to empty him.
Third, the Han Emperor Liu Yi was selected by Liang Ji from among the Han clan relatives to inherit the throne. The child ascended the throne at the age of 8 and was taken by the age of 9
harm
finish. Don't look at his young age, he looks at Liang Ji unhappy, and gave him the nickname "General Of the Eight". Liang Ji almost died of anger and resolutely poisoned him.
In this way, Liu Zhi, the Emperor of Han Huan, was made emperor by Liang Ji. Now you will understand that the first 3 emperors of The Han Huan Emperor were all liang ji's puppets, which directly led to him becoming liang ji's puppets.
But Emperor Huan of Han was not willing! He planned to get rid of Liang Ji. However, the resources that Emperor Huan of Han could use were too few, and he could only ask for help from the eunuchs around him.
The eunuchs already had a history of being in power, and now that they have listened to the dispatches of Emperor Huan of Han, let alone be happy! Therefore, under the arrangement of Emperor Huan of Han, the eunuchs teamed up to clean up Liang Ji!
Second, he became a puppet in the hands of eunuchs.
After getting rid of Liang Ji, Emperor Huan of Han finally breathed a sigh of relief. For this reason, Emperor Huan of Han was very grateful to the eunuchs and planned to give them an official and a knighthood. He made all five major eunuchs Marquis, known in history as "Marquis of Wu".
These five eunuchs, from then on, began to take over the government, and the military and political power of the DPRK and China fell into their hands. Emperor Huan of Han had just left the tiger's den and entered the wolf's den again!
Emperor Huan of Han also vaguely discovered the arrogance of the eunuchs, which had the style of Liang Ji at the beginning. For this reason, Emperor Huan of Han also began to slowly limit their power, but the effect was limited.
Because Emperor Huan of Han's method was useless, in order to suppress these five eunuchs, he added new eunuchs to enter the circle of power, and as a result, the newly elected eunuchs, although they divided the power of those five eunuchs, at the same time, their own strength also increased greatly.
Feng chao xinfeng marquis, 20,000 households, Huangwuyuan marquis, Yaodong Wuyang marquis, each fifteen thousand households, giving money 15 million each. The Marquis of Cai and the Marquis of Hengruyang each gave 13,000 households and 13 million yuan each. Five people are sealed on the same day, so the world is called "Five Marquises". He also made Liu Pu, Zhao Zhong, and eight others the marquis of Xiaohuangmen. Since the power was returned to the eunuchs, the court was in chaos. --- Book of the Later Han Dynasty
This practice is equivalent to changing the soup without changing the medicine. Emperor Huan of Han never gave a hard heart and killed these eunuchs. So the government began to decline day by day.
Third, the scourge of the party, The Han Huan Emperor destroyed a group of loyal soldiers.
It is not impossible for eunuchs to be in power. After all, there is no shortage of eunuchs in history who have the ability and conscience. But the point is that these eunuchs supported by Emperor Huan of Han are not good birds.
They use their power to profit themselves. Collude with local officials and embezzle private property. Almost no evil. As for governing the country, I'm sorry, they don't have the ability.
If we continue to do so, the Han Dynasty will not have a few years to live. For this reason, many loyal and righteous people in the Han Dynasty began to form an anti-eunuch alliance, intending to cooperate against eunuchs.
For example, when Nanyang Taishou Chengyan learned that Emperor Huan of Han was amnesty for the world, he still killed Zhang Feng, a local wealthy merchant who was good friends with the eunuchs, and more than 200 clans and guests.
There was also Runan's taishou Liu Zhi, who also ignored Emperor Huan's pardon and beat Xiaohuangmen Zhao Jin to death, which was reported to the imperial court.
The eunuchs found that their men had been picked up by these people, and they were naturally very unhappy! Therefore, he ran to Emperor Huan of Han to file a complaint. Emperor Huan of Han only saw that his orders had been disobeyed, but regardless of the reason behind it, so he killed Cheng Yan and Liu Qian.
The eunuchs, who had tasted the sweetness, began to use the incident to purge the opposition. They constantly instigated Emperor Huan of Han and ordered the arrest of more than 200 people with lofty ideals. For a time, it made people panic.
Summary: The main problem of Emperor Huan of Han was that he was relatively stupid.
This evaluation is not excessive at all, why? Because he can't see the essence behind the phenomenon. He saw that someone had violated his pardon, so he knew to kill these violators. But he could not see why so many people had broken his pardon.
He knew that eunuchs were chaotic and would not be of any benefit to the government. However, instead of solving this problem head-on, he chose more eunuchs to decentralize power, which led to more and more eunuchs eager to try.
He only saw that the eunuchs around him helped him solve Liang Ji, but he couldn't see that the eunuchs around him did not have the ability to govern the country at all. Therefore, what Emperor Huan of Han saw was what he saw, and he did not know that what he saw with the naked eye was not necessarily the truth.
The villains zhuge Liang spoke of were referring to these eunuchs, and the xianchens might have been those courtiers who were involved in the scourge of the party that Emperor Huan of Han had ordered to arrest. Such an emperor ruled the Han Dynasty, and it was strange that the Han Dynasty could be good.
Reference: Book of the Later Han Dynasty