The Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty have one thing that is very similar: the problem of the king of the domain. Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, was not at ease with the king of the domain with a different surname, so he created his son and other descendants of the liu surname as the king of the same surname, and let them cooperate with the central government to manage the land and guard the frontier.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang divided his sons into the kings of the domain, and each domain occupied a piece of land and cooperated with the central government to manage the local people. Whether it was the Han Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, the king of the clan had military power in his hands. Once the central government had an affair, the king of the clan could cooperate with the imperial court to resist foreign insults or quell the rebellion. For example, during the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, the army of Liu Wu, the younger brother of Emperor Jing of Han, cooperated with the central government to resist the rebel attack. During the Ming Dynasty, the armies of Zhu Di, the King of Yan, and Zhu Quan, the King of Ning, were able to defend the mongols from the south in the north.
However, the issue of the king of the clan is also a problem for the central government. Once the king of the clan became larger, it would inevitably threaten the imperial power. The Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu and the Battle of Jingnan are a true portrayal of the threat of imperial power by the kings of the Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty! Therefore, the emperors of the Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty both thought of a series of ways to eliminate the power of the king of the domain.
However, the effect of the emperors of the Han and Ming dynasties was completely different: Emperor Wu of Han and Ming Chengzu completely solved the problem of the king of the domain, while the Jianwen Emperor cut the domain but was driven off the dragon chair by the king of the domain. What are the deeper reasons behind this?
Liu Che (156 BC – 87 BC), also known as Emperor Wu of han
First, Emperor Wu of Han and Ming Chengzu not only took care of some of the interests of the king of the domain, but also maintained centralized power, which was very feasible. Emperor Jianwen's aggressive tactics triggered a fierce confrontation between the kings of the clan.
In 127 BC, emperor Yan proposed to Emperor Wu of Han that the Tui En Order be implemented to cut off the power of the king of the domain and strengthen the centralization of power. Emperor Wu of Han adopted the advice of his father. The Tuien Decree stipulates that except for the eldest son of the king of the clan who inherits the throne, the rest of the sons of the clan are enfeoffed in the original domain, and the newly sealed waiting state is not under the administration of the original domain state, but under the administration of the local counties, which is equivalent to the central government directly administering the local waiting state.
How small are these smaller and smaller vassal states? The larger vassal state had only more than a dozen cities, and the smaller houguo was only a few tens of miles, and through the Tuien Order, the areas directly administered by the central government of the Han Dynasty accounted for 80% to 90% of the country's territory. The lands of the counties, the administrative units directly under the central government, intersect with the canine teeth of the princely states, and the lands of the counties also occupy favorable terrain. Even if the feudal state dared to rebel against the central government, the central government could quickly quell the rebellion. The result of the implementation of the Tuien Order was that the kingdom of the domain became smaller and smaller, the descendants of the princes of the clan became lower and lower, and finally became commoners.
Zhu Di (1360-1424), also known as Ming Chengzu, Yongle Emperor
In 1402, Zhu Di ascended the throne and changed his era name to Yongle. In order to strengthen the centralization of power, Zhu Di began to cut the domain, and his practice of cutting the domain was divided into the following points:
First of all, for the obedient king of the clan, "the right to cut the army does not cut the treatment."
Ming Chengzu cut off the guards of the three clan kings of Zhou, Min and Liao, retaining the treatment of the three clan kings, and making the clan kings feel at ease and obey the central government. A king without an army is equal to a toothless tiger.
Secondly, the disobedient king of the clan was directly reduced to a commoner.
Zhu Bo, the King of Qi, had a flamboyant personality, and after Zhu Di ascended the throne, Zhu Bo became even more arrogant and arrogant. Zhu Di warned the King of Qi, hoping that the King of Qi would be at ease and submit to the central administration. However, the King of Qi just did not listen to Zhu Di's words, and secretly recruited assassins and magicians to try to divide the local area. Zhu Di took timely measures to detain the King of Qi in the capital and not allow him to return to the domain, and chai Zhi, the commander of the Qi King's escort army, was arrested and killed by Zhu Di.
In the eighth month of the lunar calendar in 1405, Zhu Di reduced the King of Qi to a commoner. Zhu Sui, the king of Gu, was arrogant and arrogant, brutally murdered Zhongliang in his fiefdom, and premeditated a coup d'état to overthrow Zhu Di. In 1417, Zhu Di reduced King Gu to a commoner and was later imprisoned.
Above_ Zhu Di ascended to the throne through the Battle of Jingnan
Finally, the king of the clan was not allowed to return to the fiefdom.
Zhu Quan, the King of Ning, helped Zhu Di to seize Jiangshan, but Zhu Di was always uneasy about the "good plan" king of Ning in his heart. To this end, Zhu Di did not let King Ning return to his fiefdom, but let King Ning relocate to Nanchang. King Ning was a wise man, he played the piano and wrote books all day in Nanchang, and the friends he made only talked about academics, not politics. Zhu Quan knew how to cultivate obscurity, and lived until the orthodox years, and was able to die well.
Through the means of cutting the domain of Emperor Wudi of Han and Ming Chengzu, we can see that the means of cutting the domain of Emperor Wudi of Han and Ming Chengzu not only take care of the treatment of the king of the domain, do not give the king of the domain the excuse to rebel against the central government, but also achieve the purpose of maintaining centralized power.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's edict did not directly overthrow the domain, allowing the king of the domain to enjoy the original living treatment, while gradually reducing the area of the domain, and thus achieving the purpose of cutting the domain.
Ming Chengzu adopted the practice of "collecting military rights and guaranteeing treatment", allowing the king of the clan to enjoy the original living treatment, but he was unable to confront the central government in terms of military strength.
Emperor Wu of Han and Ming Chengzu's methods of cutting the domain and their political thinking were quite mature.
Huang Zicheng (1350-1402), a native of Fengyi County, Jiangxi (now Dakeng Village, Dagangshan Township), was named Xiang Xiang (湜), zi cheng (字子澄), in character lines
On the other hand, the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao was much more impatient.
After Zhu Yunzhang ascended the throne, heeded Huang Zicheng's advice and sent a force to directly attack Kaifeng, the zhou king's garrison, arrest the zhou king and send him to Yunnan. This was tantamount to completely depriving the King of Zhou of his treatment as a vassal and reducing him to a commoner. Immediately afterward, Zhu Yunjiao adopted extremely impatient and tough tactics, using the same method to cut off the power of the Min King, the Xiang King, and the Dai Wang, and reduce them all to civilians.
In order to resist Zhu Yunjiao's impatient policy of cutting the domain regardless of family affection, the Xiang King's family set themselves on fire, but the Xiang King's actions did not touch Zhu Yunjiao's heart. When Zhu Yunjiao used the same means to target the spearhead of the slashing clan at Zhu Di, for the purpose of self-preservation, Zhu Di had to rebel, due to Zhu Yunjiao's blind command, the million Ming army could not defeat the 100,000 Yan army, Zhu Di successfully boarded the dragon chair and became Ming Chengzu, zhu Yunjiao's slashing of the clan ended in complete failure.
If Zhu Yunjiao had learned more from Emperor Wu of Han's Tuien Order, adopted the practice of preserving the treatment of the king of the domain and maintaining the centralization of power, and gradually reduced the political and military privileges of the king of the domain, Zhu Yunjiao's slashing of the domain might have been successful. Unfortunately, Zhu Yunjiao did not have the mature political mind of Emperor Wu of Han, and Zhu Di's methods of cutting the domain were much more mature and stable than Zhu Yunjiao's.
Liu Qi (188 BC – 141 BC), also known as Emperor Jing of Han
Second, Emperor Wu of Han and Ming Chengzu had two major political prerequisites for the success of cutting the domain: Emperor Wudi of Han had the "negative teaching materials" of his father Emperor Jingdi who cut the domain and triggered the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu as a lesson for reference, and Ming Chengzu himself was born as the king of the clan, and he could put himself in the position of the king of the clan and put himself in the position of the king of the clan to plan a more comprehensive strategy of cutting the clan, which was an external political advantage that Zhu Yunjiao, who grew up in the deep palace, could not compare.
Why was Emperor Wu of Han able to cut the domain successfully? In addition to the best of both worlds in the Tuien Order to "retain the treatment of the king of the clan and maintain centralized power", there was another important reason: the "negative teaching materials" of the Han Jing Emperor.
Liu Qi, the Emperor of HanJing, also wanted to cut the domain, but the han jingdi's cutting of the domain triggered a fierce confrontation between the kings of the domain. Liu Liu, the King of Wu, and Liu Jiao, the King of Chu, drew together five vassal states to launch a rebellion to overthrow the central government. Liu Qi took tough measures, appointing Zhou Yafu as a general and leading the Han army to quickly quell the rebellion. In just 3 months, the Han army wiped out the living forces of the Wu-Chu rebels.
The Han Jing Emperor's slashing of the domain to trigger the rebellion of the feudal state was equivalent to providing the best "negative teaching material" for his son Emperor Wu of Han, and Emperor Wudi of Han had to think of a way to not only prevent the rebellion of the king of the domain and retain the treatment of the king of the domain, but also to shrink the kingdom and maintain the centralized power of the domain. In the end, the Tui En Order proposed by the main father was in line with Emperor Wu of Han's idea of cutting the domain.
Coupled with the military action of the Han Jing Emperor to quell the rebellion, it dealt a heavy blow to the military strength of the state of the domain, so that the military strength of the imperial court was in an absolute advantage over the military strength of the state of the country, so that Emperor Wu of han, backed by the powerful military strength of the imperial court, boldly launched the tuien order to cut the domain. Even if some of the clan kings wanted to rebel against the central government, Emperor Wu of Han was able to quickly crack the case of rebellion by the clan king. For example, Liu An, the king of Huainan, had the idea of overthrowing Emperor Wu of Han, but before the plan was implemented, Emperor Wu of Han cracked Liu An's rebellion, and thousands of people were executed because of Liu An's case.
Above_ Territory of the Western Han Dynasty
Why was Zhu Di able to formulate a comprehensive and steady strategy for cutting the domain? The important reason for this is that Zhu Di himself was born as the king of the clan, and he served as the King of Yan in Beiping for 20 years, guarding the frontier for the Ming Empire. Where are the common weaknesses of the king of the clan, and how to reduce the privileges of the king of the clan while avoiding the rebellion of the king of the clan, Zhu Di can think of it. Zhu Di, who ascended the throne as the king of the domain, was naturally able to formulate a strategy of cutting the domain that could not only take care of the economic interests of the king of the domain, but also maintain the best of both worlds.
To put it simply, Zhu Di, who was born from the king of the clan, could cut the clan from the perspective of the king of the clan.
Above_ Zhu Yunjiao (5 December 1377 – ?) That is, Emperor Jianwen
And Zhu Yunjiao? Growing up in the deep palace, he had never experienced anything in the world, his personality was weak, and his political experience was seriously insufficient. After Zhu Yunjiao ascended the throne, his heavy minister Qi Tai once put forward some correct suggestions for cutting the domain, such as cutting the head of the clan to cut the strongest Yan king Zhu Di, so that the thief could capture the king first. However, the politically immature Zhu Yunjiao did not take Qi Tai's advice, but adopted Huang Zicheng's suggestion to cut off other weaker feudal kings first, preparing zhu Di, the King of Yan, with an opportunity to take advantage of it.
Zhu Yunjiao had never been the king of the clan, and would not consider a more comprehensive strategy for cutting the clan from the perspective of the king of the clan like Zhu Di. The speed of his cutting of the domain was fast, but the lack of follow-up measures to keep up with it further led to the death of Zhu Bai, the king of Xiang, who set himself on fire, causing widespread dissatisfaction among other clan kings. Eventually, Zhu Yunjiao's slashing of the domain sparked a large-scale civil war, and he was eventually driven off the dragon chair by his uncle.
Above_ Map of the Ming Dynasty
Third, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Ming Chengzu took other measures while cutting the domain to consolidate the effect of the cutting and maintain and strengthen the imperial power. Zhu Yunjiao did not take any supporting measures to maintain and strengthen the imperial power.
In order to consolidate the effect of cutting the domain, Emperor Wu of Han and Ming Chengzu adopted a series of supporting strategies to maintain imperial power. In 106 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty divided the country into 13 supervision areas and sent Assassin Shi to supervise the feudal states, houguo, and local counties. In order to crack down on the collusion between the king of the clan and the local magnates to endanger the central government, Emperor Wu of Han also appointed Zhang Tang and many other cool officials to secretly monitor the king of the clan and hao qiang, and the case of Liu An, the king of Huainan, was tried by Zhang Tang. Together, emperor Wu of Han controlled the situation in the whole country, and the Han Dynasty truly achieved national unification during emperor Wu's reign.
In order to consolidate the imperial power, in addition to setting up normal supervision institutions such as dispatching imperial history, Zhu Di also restored the Jinyiwei secret service organization and set up an East Factory to monitor the place. The establishment of the factory health organization brought many negative effects to the politics of the Ming Dynasty, but it also played a role in maintaining centralized power to a large extent at that time.
Above_ Jinyi Wei flying fish suit physical picture
And Zhu Yunjiao? In addition to quickly cutting the domain with immature and tough means, he did not take corresponding measures politically to maintain the imperial power, consolidate the results of the cutting in time, and finally ended up with a tragic end of being expelled from the dragon chair by his uncle.
Emperor Wu of Han and Zhu Di succeeded in cutting the domain, and these two emperors created the prosperity of the Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, and the prosperity of Han Wu and Yongle is still talked about by the people of the country. And Zhu Yunjiao's immature slashing clan let himself be thrown off the dragon chair and disappeared. Zhu Yunjiao's level of governance was really far behind that of Emperor Wu of Han and Ming Chengzu.
author:
Chastity
Correction/Editing:
Lilith
Resources:
[1] Book of Han, History of Ming
[2] "Prosperous Western Han Dynasty", Hou Yangfang, CITIC Publishing House
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author