Liu Bang was the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, zhou Bo was the founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty, and before his death, Liu Bang said to Lü Hou: The one who stabilizes the Liu family must be Zhou Bo. Unexpectedly, in Liu Bang's words, after Lü Hou's death, Zhu Lü rebelled, and Zhou Bo and Chen Pingren launched a mutiny in Chang'an, beheaded the Lü clan, and then established Liu Bang's fourth son Liu Heng as emperor, which was Emperor Wen of Han.
Zhou Bo originally thought that he had established a weak and obedient emperor, but he did not expect that Emperor Wen of Han was a generation of male lords, and after consolidating his imperial power, Emperor Wen of Han began to weaken the rights of meritorious servants, if nothing else, in order to consolidate military power and prevent the situation of foreign relatives or the monopoly of power of heroes, Emperor Wen of Han, in order to beat Zhou Bo, also put Zhou Bo in prison, almost taking Zhou Bo's life, fortunately, Emperor Wen of Han's mother, Empress Bo, came forward to save Zhou Bo's life.
Logically speaking, Zhou Bo was the greatest meritorious servant of Emperor Wen of Han's ascension to the throne, and he should be rewarded well, so why would Emperor Wen of Han put Zhou Bo in prison and prepare to kill him?
The reason is actually very simple, Emperor Wen of Han wanted to consolidate power, and Zhou Bo was a person who did not know how to give in, in addition, Zhou Bo also had great merits, in the Han Dynasty, the official to the chancellor, this is already the highest official position, there is no seal, Zhou Bo twice served as a chancellor, and was twice deposed by Emperor Wen of Han.
After the death of Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Jing of Han took the throne, this is the grandson of Liu Bang, the set of methods that Emperor Wen of Han treated Zhou Bo repeated in Emperor Jingdi of Han and Zhou Bo's son Zhou Yafu, in fact, politics is like this, the wise emperors are desperately trying to consolidate power, and ministers with high merit and do not know how to give in will often have a fundamental conflict with the emperor, which is the story of Emperor Wen of Han and Zhou Bo, which is repeated in Han Jingdi and Zhou Yafu.
Zhou Yafu was able to be activated by Emperor Jing of Han because when Emperor Wen of Han was alive, during an inspection of the military camp, because the discipline of the Camp of Zhou Yafu was strict, and outsiders did not order anyone to enter, including the Emperor, so Emperor Wen of Han praised Zhou Yafu's rigorous level of military governance, since the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, there have been few wars, and there are even fewer excellent generals in the army, so Emperor Wen of Han told Emperor Zhou Yafu of Han jing before his death that it was available.
It is one thing to be able to use it, it is another thing to be famous, the reason why Zhou Yafu was famous in the Han Jing Emperor Dynasty was because of the merits, which was even greater than the merits of his father Zhou Bo at that time, how to say that Zhou Bo Ligong was in a chaotic world, and Zhou Yafu Ligong was in a peaceful and prosperous world, because Zhou Yafu led the army to quell the only Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of the Han Jing Emperor Dynasty.
Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han
It should be known that Emperor Jingdi of Han behaved quite flustered during the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, if it were not for Zhou Yafu's strict administration of the army and his strategy, he did not know whether Emperor Jing of Han could save the throne, which was the work of reconstruction for Emperor Jingdi of Han, so soon after the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms was settled, Zhou Yafu was promoted by Emperor Jingdi of Han to be a minister, a western Han minister under one, above ten thousand people, which was the most powerful official in the Western Han Dynasty.
As an emperor, Emperor Han Jing was naturally on top, even if Zhou Yafu had great merits, from the emperor's point of view, Emperor Han Jingdi hoped that Zhou Yafu would obey his authority and obey his own will, after all, no emperor would find a person who worked against him every day to cooperate, and Zhou Yafu was still a high-ranking official like Xiang Xiang.
Emperor Jing of Han and Zhou Yafu began to have contradictions because Zhou Yafu was not a completely obedient minister, as early as during the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, during the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Emperor Jing of Han once issued an edict to let Zhou Yafu lead an army to attack the rebels, but Zhou Yafu did not obey the emperor's edicts, and still did not move, Emperor Jing of Han was because of the pressure of the empress dowager in order to save his brother Liang Wang, he ordered Zhou Yafu to attack the rebels, but Zhou Yafu made the decision to stay still according to the situation on the battlefield, although Emperor Hanjing did not blame Zhou Yafu for this matter. But this incident made Emperor Han Jingdi feel uncomfortable, that is certain, and he did not even listen to the emperor's orders, even if it was wrong, which made Emperor Jingdi of Han jing worried.
Later, Zhou Yafu opposed the Han Jing Emperor's foreign relatives and the Xiongnu's demotion to the post of Marquis, which directly triggered the anger of the Han Jing Emperor, although Zhou Yafu refuted the emperor with Liu Bang's words that "non-Liu must not be called a king, and non-meritorious cannot be crowned a marquis", although Zhou Yafu was right, in the eyes of Emperor Jing of Han, this was a power game. As a result, Emperor Jingdi of Han still demoted the Xiongnu to the title of Marquis regardless of whether Zhou Yafu agreed or not, which triggered Zhou Yafu's resignation protests, and Emperor Jingdi of Han also approved it.
After that, Emperor Han Jing invited Zhou Yafu into the palace and invited him to dinner, but did not give Zhou Yafu chopsticks, Zhou Yafu was angry, looking for the person in charge to ask for chopsticks, Han Jingdi immediately said: Is this not enough to satisfy you? Zhou Yafu reluctantly knelt down to apologize to Emperor Jingdi of Han, and then Emperor Jingdi of Han asked Zhou Yafu to get up, and only said one word, and Zhou Yafu left without looking back.
So why did the Han Jing Emperor invite Zhou Yafu to dinner and not give chopsticks?
In fact, Emperor Jing of Han wanted to test Zhou Yafu, if Zhou Yafu respectfully asked Emperor Jingdi of Han for chopsticks, Zhou Yafu should be fine, and he might be reinstated as an official, but at this time, Zhou Yafu still adhered to his principles, did not realize that the monarchy of feudal society was actually supreme, whether the emperor was right or wrong, the minister should obey, but Zhou Yafu not only did not listen, but played a temper.
Asking Zhou Yafu to eat without giving chopsticks means that it means:
All your zhou yafu's merits are successful under the platform authorized by the emperor, without the emperor, you don't even have chopsticks to eat, although you Zhou Yafu has the ability and has rice to eat, but without the platform and resources given by me (Emperor Hanjing), you (Zhou Yafu) are nothing, not even chopsticks to eat a meal
The implication is that Emperor Han Jingdi let Zhou Yafu show weakness and show obedience, which is such a simple meaning, but Zhou Yafu and his father Zhou Bo are a rough person, who only knows how to go straight, too straight, does not understand political skills, does not understand what the emperor wants, and actually dares to play small with the emperor, Zhou Yafu's behavior has directly made Emperor Han Jing kill.
Because Zhou Yafu's merits are very high, and there is no fault, so even if the Han Jing Emperor moved to kill, he could not kill Zhou Yafu, and could only wait for Zhou Yafu to make a mistake, and as a result, Zhou Yafu's son soon made a mistake and bought five hundred armor shields to prepare for Zhou Yafu's funeral, the law at that time did not allow weapons to be hidden, and the armor shield was also a weapon, so the Han Jing Emperor ordered Zhou Yafu to be sent to prison, and finally Zhou Yafu died in prison, he was a victim of the Han Jing Emperor's consolidation of imperial power.