From the two Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the position occupied by the scholar class in this period of history was really too important. Why? Because the scholar class monopolized the opportunity to study at that time, ordinary people wanted to get an education? Sorry, not qualified!
At that time, almost all the people who could read were from scholar families. When education became a monopoly of resources, the phenomenon of the gentry huddled together for warmth also appeared. This is the reason why the five surnames and seven hopes are so arrogant.
The so-called five surnames and seven hopes refer to the top class families of the Sui and Tang dynasties, they are:
Longxi Li Clan, Zhao County Li Clan, Boling Cui Clan, Qinghe Cui Clan, Fanyang Lu Clan, Xingyang Zheng Clan, Taiyuan Wang Clan.
There are 5 surnames in total: Li, Cui, Lu, Zheng, and Wang.
However, because the Li and Cui clans have 2 counties, they are called five surnames and seven hopes.
These five major families are amazing, before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when talking about the giants, the royal family had to stand on the side. These families are definitely the top giants that even the royal family cannot climb.
First, the royal family and the prime minister are difficult to climb the top giants.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin, everyone is familiar with it, a generation of Ming Jun, who created the rule of Zhenguan. But he was worried about one thing all day long, and that was the issue of marriage. So that I often sigh: My family has so many good sons and daughters, why do these five surnames and seven looks at these giants, and do not come to the door to get married?
At this time, the five surnames and seven hopes have actually begun to weaken, but people just can't look down on your old Li family, what can be done about this? Although Li Shimin and his family also claim to be descendants of the Longxi Li clan, the Longxi Li clan still feels that their family's blood is not pure, and they look down on the old Li family at all.
Not only was Li Shimin depressed, but the Tang Dynasty had a famous chancellor, Xue Yuanchao, who was also grumpy about this matter. In his later years, Xue Yuanchao once said that he had three major hatreds: the first was that he failed to participate in the examination for the imperial examination, the second was that he failed to marry a woman with the surname of Qiwang, and the third was that he could not participate in the compilation of the history of the country.
Who is Xue Yuanchao? He is from the Xue clan of Hedong, and the Xue clan of Hedong is one of the six great families in Kansai (Wei, Pei, Xue, Yang, Liu, and Du), and he is also a well-known magnate, plus he himself is the Prime Minister of Sheng Tang, and this identity is actually because he cannot marry a woman from the five surnames and seven wangs, which is regrettable, which shows how difficult this matter is.
This kind of problem was still very serious in the late Tang Dynasty. Tang Wenzong once wanted to find a good daughter-in-law for his prince, so he went to Xingyang Zheng's family to propose to him, but he was actually rejected by others! What's going on here? Won't the prince's wife be the empress in the future? Even the empress refused to do it, how high did the woman with five surnames and seven looks have?
In fact, it is not that people have a high vision, but that they are used to marriage within the five surnames and seven wang families, and they can't look at other families. In front of their gang of Hao clans, Tang Wenzong's family was simply a miscellaneous card in the Longxi Li clan branch, and it was not worthy of their family.
When the officials were compiling the "Clan Chronicle", Li Shimin coughed twice, hoping to improve the status of the Li clan in Longxi and elevate his own family by the way. As a result, the officials unabashedly listed Cui Shi as the first in the world, which made Li Shimin quite embarrassed. Now you know what kind of top tycoons the five surnames and seven hopes are, right?
Where did the second and fifth surnames and seven hopes come from? What is the capital they are bulldozing?
Any surname has a source, ancient myths aside, the first person who led this family to become rich is always the most cattle ancestor of this family.
They seized the opportunity, faced the difficulties, established a good family style, and were willing to invest in education. Moreover, the generations have not been broken, and the ethnic group is getting larger and larger, which can forge such a heroic family.
First, the two Great Li clans, the same lineage and the same origin.
Some people say that the ancestor of the Li clan is the ancient judicial god Gao Tao, and some people say that it is the later Taoist ancestor Lao Zi Li Er. There is no basis for all this, no matter what you say about Li Tan, this person is indeed the common ancestor of the two major Li families.
Li Tan was the imperial master of the Qin state, and he had 4 sons, of which the eldest son Li Chong was the ancestor of the Li clan of Longxi, and the younger son, Li Jie, was the ancestor of the Li clan of Zhao County.
Li Chong's grandson was Li Xin, a famous general during the unification of the Six Kingdoms period of Qin Shi Huang, and among Li Xin's descendants, the most famous of the Han Dynasty was naturally the flying general Li Guang.
Therefore, during the Qin and Han dynasties, the old Li family had already made a fortune. Although Li Guang's family was slaughtered by Emperor Wu of Han, the foundation of other branches was still there, so it did not affect the development of the Li clan in Longxi at all.
In the Wei and Jin dynasties, due to the inability of the Sima family to give strength, resulting in the chaos of the Five Huhua, so the Li clan of Longxi produced another great hero, that is, Li Huan. Li Huan claimed to be the sixteenth grandson of the Flying General Li Guang, and established the Western Liang State in Liangzhou, which was also a storm.
And Li Huan, who was also posthumously considered to be his ancestor by Li Yuan, the ancestor of Tang Gaozu, shows that Li Yuan's family may not be descendants of the Eight Classics of the Li Clan of Longxi, and the situation of the broken generation in the middle is a bit obvious. And in order to survive, Li Yuan's father Li Xun married the Xianbei Dugu clan, which gave birth to Li Yuan. This is also the most criticized place of the Longxi Li clan: your family's blood is not pure!
Without relying on the imperial family, the Longxi Li clan also survived very well, and their family produced 10 prime ministers in a row in the Tang Dynasty, which was simply jaw-dropping.
Li Mu, the son of Li Jie, was one of the four famous generals of the Warring States, which was also the proudest ancestor of the Li clan of Zhao County. Li Zuoche, the military master beside Han Xin, was Li Mu's grandson. Li Zuoche's famous saying must be very familiar to everyone: The wise man has a thousand worries, and there will be a mistake; the fool will have a thousand worries, and there will be a gain.
Li Zuoche's seventeenth grandson, Li Kai, served as a zhishu attendant in the Western Jin Dynasty. Coinciding with the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, Li Kai did not want to mess with these people, so he moved with his family members to the south of Zhao Guoping County, where the Li clan of Zhao County multiplied.
Second, the two major Cui clans are recognized as the highest gates in the world.
Which family was the most cattle family in the Tang Dynasty? Many people definitely say that it is the old Li family, but it is not. Even historians asserted that the Cui clan was the highest gate in the world of the Tang Dynasty and the head of the Hao clan in the north, which shows how cattle the Cui clan is.
The ancestors of the Cui clan can be traced back to the Taigong Buddha-figure of Jiang Taigong. Jiang Ziya's fiefdom was the State of Qi, and Jiang Jizi, the eldest son of the Duke of Qiding, was enfeoffed in Cuiyi, so his descendants took Cui as their surname.
Cui Jizi's eighth grandson, Cui Zhu, was a famous courtier in the State of Qi. After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, Cui Yiru, a descendant of Cui Zhu, was given the title of Marquis of Eastern Lai by the Qin Dynasty. At this time, Cui Shi began to split in two:
Cui Yiru's eldest son, Cui Ye, inherited the marquisate of Donglai in the Han Dynasty and settled in Qinghe Dongwu City, where he was the ancestor of the Qinghe Cui clan.
Another of Cui Yiru's sons, Cui Zhongmu, ran to Boling to settle in Anping. Cui Zhongmu is the ancestor of the Boling Cui clan. Zhuge Liang had a good friend who always called himself Boling Cui Zhouping, a descendant of this line.
Since then, the old Cui family's reproduction speed has been quite amazing, and due to the good conditions, a bunch of babies have been born. So 10 branches were divided into one after another.
During the Western Jin Dynasty, a large number of warriors chose to take refuge in the south, known in history as the Southern Crossing of the Cloth Crown (as if the Hu people did not wear clothes or hats), but the Boling Cui clan and the Qinghe Cui clan chose to stay in the north to watch.
No way, the family business is in the north, who wants to give up casually? Cui Hao, a famous minister of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was the leader of the Cui family in Qinghe.
Unfortunately, due to the prison of national history, emperor Taiwu of northern Wei killed Cui Hao and most of his people, resulting in heavy losses for the Cui clan in Qinghe. However, there were more people in the Cui clan, and Tuoba Tao could not catch it, for example, Cui Hao's cousin Cui Wei ran to the south and went to the Liu Song Dynasty as an official.
The Qinghe Cui clan produced 13 prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty. The Boling Cui clan, in the Tang Dynasty, produced 16 prime ministers. It is worthy of being the highest gate in the world.
Third, the Fanyang Lu clan can be called the Imperial Master Family.
The ancestors of the Fanyang Lu clan are not so far away, and the celebrity ancestors that can be traced back are the Eastern Han Dynasty Great Ru Lu Zhi. Lu Zhi was a teacher to Liu Bei and Gongsun Zhan, who had participated in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Uprising and was a celebrity who was in and out of the picture.
Dong Zhuo wanted to kill Lu Zhi that year, but he was jealous of his reputation, so he did not do it for a long time. Cao Cao was also Lu Zhi's younger brother, and during the Northern Expedition to Wuhuan, Cao Cao passed by Lu Zhi's hometown of Zhuo County (also Liu Bei's hometown, haha!). ), once specifically mentioned Lu Zhi. Praise him as a model for officials.
The ancestors are like this, and the family style can be imagined. Therefore, among the descendants of Fanyang Lu's family, there are frequent celebrities. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of The Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Fanyang Lu family was also famous, such as Liu Kun, who followed the dancing of chickens, and Lu Chen, who fought in the north, who was the representative of the Fanyang Lu clan.
Lu Chen's aunt married Liu Kun, so after Liu Kun was killed by Duan Piluo, Lu Chen worked for a long time with Duan Piluo's nemesis Duan Mobo, vowing to avenge Liu Kun.
After Lu Chen's death, his two sons went in opposite directions:
The eldest son, Lu Xun, originally worked in Later Zhao, and later ran to the south, mixed with the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was known as Nanzu.
The fourth son, Lu Yan, after his father was killed, chose to follow Murong Zhuyan and stayed in the north, known as Beizu.
It is worth mentioning that Lu Yan, who remained in the north. Lu Yan's grandson Lu Jing (鲁靖), who served as the Northern Wei Emperor Taichang (太常丞), had three sons, namely Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, and Northern Qi.
Fourth, the Xingyang Zheng clan is relatively weak in strength.
The origin of the Xingyang Zheng clan is relatively mysterious, dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. King Li of Zhou's younger son Ji You (姬友) was enfeoffed to Zhengdi and historically known as Duke Huan of Zheng. Therefore, the descendants of their family, after a few years, changed the surname of Ji to the surname of Zheng.
Among the subordinates of Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, there was a man named Zheng Jun, and Zheng Jun's son Zheng Jun arrived in the Western Han Dynasty at that time and served as the Grand Si Nong. He moved his place of residence to Kaifeng, Henan, which is the ancestor of the Xingyang Zheng clan.
During the Two Han Dynasties, there were not many celebrities of the Xingyang Zheng clan, such as Daru Zhengxing and Zheng Zhong's father and son. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei Shangdang Taishou Zhenghun was also the Xingyang Zheng clan. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were countless officials from the Zheng clan of Xingyang. Their family also produced 10 prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty.
Fifth, Taiyuan Wang's, born with rosacea?
Strangely, the old Wang family can also be traced back to the celebrities of the Zhou Dynasty. King Ling of Zhou's crown prince Ji Jin was posthumously recognized as their ancestor. Because the ethnic group was too large, the Taiyuan Wang clan was divided into two branches: the Wang clan of Qi County, Taiyuan County, and the Wang clan of Jinyang County, Taiyuan County.
Because there are too many people in this family, there are many impersonations in later generations. For now, the Lao Wang family ranks second in the population among the surnames in China, second only to the Old Li family.
Situ Wang Yun of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Wang Ling of Cao Wei were all well-known figures in the Taiyuan Wang family.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, among the Wang clans of Taiyuan Jinyang, Wang Yu was destroyed by Liu Yu. However, Wang Yu's grandson Wang Huilong escaped. Wang Huilong ran to the north and became a famous vassal of Northern Wei.
At that time, the leader of the Northern Wei clan was Cui Hao of the Cui clan of Qinghe, and Cui Hao's younger brother Cui Tian learned that Wang Huilong was a descendant of the Taiyuan Wang clan, so he immediately married his daughter to him. Why is it so certain? It turned out that the Rosacea of the Taiyuan Wang clan had been passed down from generation to generation, and the nose was very large, which could be recognized at a glance, and was even called "a natural noble species" by Cui Tian.
The influence of the qiwang family with the surnames of three or five on the politics of the Tang Dynasty.
The strength of the five surnames and seven hopes is too strong, and the marriage of generations and the intricate relationship make the Tang Dynasty court very tricky. Let's do it to them, there's really no way to do it! Don't do it to them, but they're so arrogant.
The most crucial thing is that these people have money and land, and they can even organize a handful of powerful armed forces, so they ask you whether the ruler of the old Li family has a headache or not? Why are they so arrogant? This is to ask Li Yuan.
When Tang Gaozu Li Yuan started his business, some people in the scholar clan tentatively asked Li Yuan: The Sui Dynasty has perished, so where should these landlords go?
Li Yuan laughed: The Sui Dynasty is gone, then they are the landlords of the Tang Dynasty!
The meaning is very clear, as long as you local tycoons support my old Li entrepreneurship, I will definitely protect the glory and wealth of your family in the future. With this reassuring pill, people are naturally willing to let go and follow Li Yuan.
Moreover, the five surnames and the Qiwang family, in the Tang Dynasty, produced a number of prime ministers, and the ordinary officials were innumerable, do you want to overthrow these people? That's naïve. There is no way, we need these people to govern the place, after all, ancient talents are scarce resources, and the five surnames and seven hopes once monopolized educational resources.
Summary: Wu Zetian struck hard, and Huang Chao took a pot.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin had no choice but to sigh at them. Emperor Gaozong of Tang, under the guidance of his daughter-in-law Wu Zetian, actually thought of a bad idea: the children of the five surnames and the Qiwang family were not allowed to marry!
This trick is enough to lose! People rely on mutual marriage to ensure that the family is rich for generations, and now you do not allow people to marry, and after a long time, the major families have broken off contact, and they will not be able to help each other! After that, it is much easier to break each one.
After Wu Zetian came to power, he vigorously supported the children of the Cold Gate, especially in the examination system, and began to increase the number of scientific expeditions and expand enrollment at the same time. Only by allowing more cold disciples to enter the official field can we curb the madness of the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes Family. During this period, the meritocracy was truly achieved.
Unfortunately, Wu Zetian's strength was not enough, so the five surnames and the Qiwang family were still very cattle. The person who really solved this problem is the famous "chrysanthemum poet" Huang Chao.
After the Huangchao Rebellion, he burned and plundered in Chang'an and Luoyang for a long time, thus offending many nobles with five surnames and seven wangs. These people refused to work under Huang Chao's hands, so what else did they have to do?
Huang Chao was furious and pulled out the children of the five surnames and seven wang families in the major cities on his territory and brought them out to face the Fa on the spot. This wave of blows directly annihilated the Five Surnames Qiwang Family. Even if there are still many side branches, it will not be a climate after that.
References: Old Book of Tang, Zizhi Tongjian