Although the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty was Sima Yan, the real founders were his grandfather Sima Yi, his uncle Sima Shi, and his father Sima Zhao. Among the three sons of Sima Yi, Sima Shi, as the key role of "inheriting from the top to the bottom", played an extremely important role as an "intermediary" for inheriting his father's legacy and developing the cause of usurpation.
Among Sima Yi's three fathers and sons, Sima Shi played the role of "middleman"
In fact, Sima Yi has many sons, and the reason why he chose Sima Shi to succeed him is not only to consider his eldest son status, but more importantly, to find many "strengths" in him, and these "strengths" are the necessary elements for the successor, and they are indispensable. These "strengths" boil down to the following two points:
1. The heart is fierce and fierce, and the fruit is killing
Sima Yi knew very well that if he wanted to continue the great cause of usurping the throne, he must be cautious when choosing a successor, because if there was a mistake in the middle, it would definitely end up with the slaughter of the entire family. This successor, in addition to the need for outstanding talent, must also be fierce in dealing with political opponents, so that he can not be countered by his opponents and turn the good situation upside down. Through the investigation of the sons, Sima Yi found that only the eldest son, Sima Shi, was worthy of this task.
Sima Shi was loyal on the outside and indecent on the inside, not only treating political enemies with murderous effects and being unrelenting, but also ruthlessly eradicating the people closest to him once they found that they might hinder their plots, and was a bloodthirsty shameless person. Before and after Sima Shi came to power, he killed many people in the most brutal way, including his beloved wife Xiahou Hui, which was really cold-blooded.
Xiahou Hui was poisoned and killed by Sima Shi for breaking the Sima family's conspiracy
Since Xiahou Hui married into the Sima family, he and Sima Shi were in love, like glue, and loved each other badly, and within a few years of their marriage, they had five daughters in a row. Xiahou Hui accidentally discovered that his father-in-law and husband were plotting against him, and out of kindness, he attacked Sima Shi from the side, hoping that he could restrain the horse from the cliff. However, for Xiahou Hui's kindness, Sima Shi, instead of waking up, became murderous and eventually killed his beloved wife.
Empress Jinghuai Xiahou, Zhen Hui, Zi Yuanrong, Pei Guo Chenren also... Later, he knew that the emperor was not a pure subject of Wei, and then he was the nephew of the Wei clan, and the emperor was deeply jealous of him. In the second year of the Qinglong Dynasty, he collapsed with the death of the duck, when he was twenty-four years old, and was buried in the Pingling Tomb... After that, there were no males and five females. See Book of Jin, Vol. 31, Liechuan No. 1, Empress Dowager Shang.
After Sima Shi came to power, in order to completely eliminate the power of the Xiahou family, he even falsely accused his brother-in-law Xiahou Xuan of "plotting rebellion", not only executing him, but also exterminating his three tribes. Xiahou Xuan was a famous scholar in the Zhenhai, and at first he had a very good relationship with Sima Shi, but now because of his close relationship with the Cao Wei royal family, he actually ended up in the death of the clan, which was really chilling.
Xiahou Xuan was accused by Sima Shi of exterminating the Three Tribes because of his close relationship with the imperial family
Sima Shi was still so cruel to his beloved wife and brother-in-law, what would happen to others could be imagined. However, from the perspective of Sima Yi's expectations for his son, Sima Shi did not disappoint his father, and he was really the best candidate for continuing the family business.
2. The heart is strong and the heart is like the sea
However, in addition to being cruel and black-hearted and being effective in killing, all the "big people" who are plotting to usurp the throne must also have a strong heart, have super strong and super stable psychological qualities, and be able to achieve "Taishan collapsed in front of him and did not change color", only in this way can he calmly handle various changes. How strong is Sima Shi's psychological quality? We can get a glimpse of one or two from the canonical records.
On the eve of the Gaopingling rebellion, when Sima Yi informed his two sons Sima Shi and Sima Zhao of the coup plan, the reactions of the two were very different. Among them, Sima Zhao was so frightened and uneasy after receiving the news that he could not sleep all night. However, Sima Shi, on the other hand, did not take this matter to heart at all, eating and resting as usual, and even snoring loudly when he slept at night. The strength of Sima Shi's heart can be seen.
Sima Shi has a strong psychological quality and a strong heart
Emperor Xuan's general Cao Shuang (曹爽) was a secret strategist, and he was alone with Emperor Qianhua and The Knowledge of Emperor Wenfu. He told him that the emperor was sleeping as usual, and Emperor Wen could not sit down. In the morning, the soldiers sima men calmed down inside and outside, and the formation was very neat. Emperor Xuan said, "This son can be." See Book of Jin, Vol. II, Emperor Ji II.
Not only that, Sima Shi's heart was like the sea, and his behavior was more secret than that of his father, which could be verified by his secret raising of dead soldiers. Ostracized by the general Cao Shuang, Sima Yi's father and son lived idly at home for ten years, during which they were repeatedly suspected. During this period, Sima Shi did not sit still, but in a very secret way, he raised three thousand dead soldiers in the folk for emergency, which was rarely known, and even Sima Zhao was kept in the dark.
Sima Shi's heart was like the sea, and he had raised three thousand dead soldiers in the folk
When the coup d'état occurred, three thousand dead soldiers received a call from Sima Shi, gathered in Luoyang City overnight, and performed Qigong in the ensuing battle ("In the beginning, Emperor Yin raised three thousand dead soldiers, scattered in the human world, and gathered in one dynasty, and the crowd did not know what was out of it.) Ibid.). At this point, everyone knew that Sima Shi had long been unscrupulous, and the secrecy of his actions was beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
Judging from the above two points, the reason why Sima Shi was selected by Sima Yi is not only because of the eldest son, but more importantly, because of his fierce and fierce style of killing, as well as his super psychological quality and secretive personality, which is really a good "successor".