The Han Dynasty was the first golden age in China's history, which lasted 405 years, during which there were a total of 29 emperors, the most well-known of which was Emperor Wu of Han, wenzhi martial arts were top-notch, but the real heyday of the Han Dynasty was realized in the hands of his great-grandson, that is, The Han Xuan Emperor Liu Yi, why did the future generations respect the Han Wu Emperor more than the Han Xuan Emperor?
The life of Emperor Xuan of Han was legendary, his grandfather was the crown prince of the Han Dynasty, Liu Zhao, the prince of the Han Dynasty, who committed suicide due to the case of Wu Jiao, and his whole family was destroyed, and he escaped the disaster while still in his infancy, but he was also taken into official prison. Fortunately, with the help of Ting Wei's supervisor Feng Ji, he survived and grew up healthily under Feng Ji's arrangement. When he was five years old, some warlocks said that there was a heavenly temperament in prison. Emperor Wu of Han wanted to kill all the people in prison, but At this time, Bing Ji guarded the gate of the prison and insisted on not allowing people to enter, and later Emperor Wu of Han also woke up and pardoned Liu Yiji.
After that, Feng Ji sent Liu Yi to his grandmother's brother's house. Before his death, Emperor Wu of Han took Liu Yi to the Court for adoption. During his growing up, he was a ranger, liked to travel in Chang'an, Sanfu area, study, live in the folk for a long time, see the suffering of the people, see the hardships of those people caused by his great-grandfather Liu Che's poor military force, he was able to be familiar with the rule of the people, and he could distinguish between loyalty and adultery.
Later, Huo Guang and others abolished Liu He, the king of Changyi, and discussed the establishment of a new emperor, and Feng Ji recommended Liu Yiji, and after consultation with everyone, Huo Guang welcomed Liu Yi as emperor, and was known as Emperor Xuan of Han. After Liu Yi came to power, he attached great importance to the rule of officials, advocating that those who were officials should be reformed, care for the people as the most important, and oppose bullying and oppression of the people. To this end, he personally participated in the selection of grass-roots officials, strictly evaluated officials, and clearly distinguished rewards and punishments. Therefore, during the period of Emperor Xuan of Han, the rule of officials was particularly clear, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the satisfaction of life was also greatly improved.
In contrast, his great-grandfather Emperor Wudi of Han Liu Che did not do enough, and "poor soldiers and martial arts" is the unanimous evaluation of Emperor Wu of Han in later generations. Especially during the Han-Hungarian War, causing a lot of harm to the people, the Book of Han has a clear record: "Inheriting filial piety and luxury, after the division and brigade, the sea was wasted, the household registration was halved", a general became a thousand bones, according to historical records, before the Han Wu Emperor succeeded to the throne, the population of the Han Dynasty was 50 million, and the Han Wu Emperor was reduced by half during the Han Wu Emperor period, which shows the great harm to the people. In addition, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty also liked to build a large number of civil engineering and parade around, losing a lot of people's strength and financial resources.
In addition, in terms of official governance, Emperor Wu of Han did not do a good job, and in the "Records of History" he listed a biography of some people, called "The Biography of Cool Officials", and in this biography are all cool officials of the Period of Emperor Wu of Han, such as Zhi Du, Zhang Tang, Zhao Yu, and so on, although most of the cool officials are relatively incorruptible, and they only attack the rich and nobles, but they often play with the law, attack political enemies, and monopolize power, but they undermine the fairness of the law, advocate the atmosphere of severe punishment and harsh law, so that many innocent people are also deeply trapped in the legal net, bringing suffering to the people.
In the later years of Emperor Wu of Han, the Han Dynasty began to fall into internal and external troubles. In his later years, Emperor Wu of han was suspicious and spoiled villains, and was extremely sensitive to "witches", and because of the case of witches, many innocent people were killed, including the crown prince Liu Zhao, and empress Wei Zifu all committed suicide because of the case of witchcraft.
Therefore, in comparison, Emperor Xuan of Han was more like a good emperor, but the reason why Emperor Wu of Han was able to compete with qin shi huang, the "emperor of thousands of years", was because of his martial arts. Man is a man who can make mistakes, and you can't just stare at his faults.
Ideologically, Emperor Wu of Han "deposed a hundred families and respected Confucianism alone", from the perspective of the environment at that time, this is appropriate, when Emperor Wu of Han just ascended the throne, Huang Lao's thought prevailed, especially the power of Empress Dou's gang, Huang Laozhizhi advocated quiet and inaction, suitable for the dynasty to recuperate and not conducive to the expansion of the dynasty, at this time the Han Dynasty after the cultivation of the rule of Wenjing, the national strength has been greatly improved, if there is no breakthrough, it will only make the dynasty gradually lose its vitality, and finally corrupt in the prosperity.
The admiration of imperial power in Confucian thought is in line with the idea of Emperor Wu of Han, and the high concentration of imperial power can allow him to free his hands and feet to realize his own heroic strategy.
In terms of civil rule, he founded Taixue and established for the first time an institutionalized and systematic education system; reused literati and sages, collected books throughout the country, and established a national library; established and improved the inspection system, as long as there are talents and people who are proficient in Confucian culture, they can become officials after investigation, so the employment of emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is also eclectic, such as Gongsun Hong, who used to be a prison official, Gongsun He's father was still a Hu person, the great general Wei Qing, Huo Fuyi was the illegitimate son of a small official, and so on; a comprehensive reform of the calendar was carried out, and an accurate "Emperor Wu of Han" was promulgated. The Taichu Calendar"; the implementation of the Tuien Order, eliminating the hidden dangers of the division of the princely states in the early Han Dynasty; the implementation of salt, iron, and wine monopolies; and the severe crackdown on nobles, powerful people, and rangers.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was most praised for his martial arts, pacifying ancient Korea in the east, pacifying the Western Qiang in the west, appeasing the southwest, opening the road to the western region, recovering South Vietnam in the south, and dealing a major blow to the Xiongnu in the north, especially during the Han-Hungarian War, appointing major generals such as Wei Qing and Huo Toyi to sweep away border troubles, which was a major victory of agricultural civilization over nomadic civilization and laid the tone of the Han Dynasty's "strong Han" in China's history.
Therefore, Emperor Wu of Han was stronger than Sun Tzu Han Xuan Emperor in terms of contribution, and he was also stronger than him in wenzhi martial arts, even if the criticism of him in the history books was more understandable, as a monarch of a feudal dynasty, his rule had historical limitations, but he was remembered by more people, his contribution was recognized by more people, during his reign, a new order covering education, scholarship, culture, politics, economy, military, calendar, etc. was established, laying the basic pattern of the future feudal dynasty, the merit is in the contemporary era, and the benefits are in the thousands of autumns.
Sima Guang's evaluation in the Zizhi Tongjian is the most pertinent: Emperor Xiaowu was extravagant, he was tortured, he was extravagant, he was extravagant, he was foreign affairs, he believed in gods and monsters, he wandered excessively, he made the people tired, and he became a thief, so there were few who were different from Qin Shi Huang. However, Qin yi died, Han Yi prospered, filial piety can respect the way of the previous kings, know what is commanded, love loyalty and straight words but the wicked deceive. Good and tireless, rewarding strictly, changing it late, taking care of the people, so that there is the loss of the dead Qin and the disaster of the dead Qin!
At the same time, we also want to praise Emperor Xuan of Han, although he did not make a meritorious contribution that affected the millennium, but he cleaned up the mess left by Emperor Wu of Han, stabilized the Han Dynasty, he rectified the rule of officials, for the sake of the people, his people will remember him, a person who contributed to the people is just as a hero.