introduction
At the beginning of the revolution, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, shared weal and woe with a group of civilian ministers and generals, and was in the same boat through thick and thin. With his outstanding leadership ability and the character of leading by example and putting his life and death on the line, in the process of revolution, Liu Bang gained a large number of loyal followers, and after the victory, Liu Bang did not forget the merits of these ministers, and they all added officials to the knighthood, so there was a famous "Fengpei Meritorious Hero Group" in history.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the "Fengpei Meritorious Service Group" was the most important political force at that time, and played an indelible role in the consolidation of the empire. Liu Bang's scale of dividing the princes can be said to be unprecedented, a total of 145 meritorious men were crowned, these heroes had extremely high power at that time, but with the development of the Han Dynasty, the Gongchen Group gradually withered, and its prosperity and decline were closely related to Liu Bang's "White Horse Covenant".
At the beginning of the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, Gaozu Liu Bang wantonly sealed it, and the power of the Meritorious Group was unprecedentedly large
Han Xing from the autumn of the first year of Qin II, the age of Chu Chen Zhi, the first pei duke Xiong jun, three years and then the west to destroy Qin, the title of the king of Han, five years Of dong Ke XiangYu, that is, the emperor's throne.
In 209 BC, the "Chen Sheng Wuguang Uprising" broke out at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and an "anti-Qin wind" immediately flourished, and the Peixian clique led by Liu Bang also joined the revolution.
Because of his popular popularity, Liu Bang's power expanded rapidly, and he was invincible in the war, and by 202 BC, Liu Bang declared himself emperor and established the Western Han Dynasty.
In the process of pacifying the world, the clique forces led by Xiao He, Fan Duo and others played an important role, because most of the people in the clique came from Pei County at that time, so after the victory of the war, people called it the "Fengpei Meritorious Hero Clique".
These heroes obtained prominent titles by virtue of their military merits, and in the process of crowning themselves princes, these heroes gained very close ties with each other, constituting a powerful political and military system, which played an extremely important role in the consolidation of royal power in the early Han Dynasty.
It has to be said that Liu Bang is a rare king in history, and his degree of nostalgia for the past is the highest among the kings of previous dynasties, which belongs to the typical gratitude and retribution.
No matter who they are or what their origins are, as long as they have followed Liu Bang and helped Liu Bang attack the world, even if their contributions are humble, Liu Bang will certainly reward them.
According to the "Records of History", when Liu Bang raised an army in Pei County, there was such a small soldier, just because he was the first person to open the city gate, Liu Bang still did not forget after the victory of the war, so he named this pawn Dai Hou.
Liu Bang is a person who makes good use of talents, when assigned, often people make the best use of their talents, in addition, Liu Bang can also share weal and woe with everyone, on the battlefield, Liu Bang is often the first person to rush to the enemy army.
All this has made Liu Bang win the hearts of the people and gain a large number of followers, and these followers are also inseparable.
In the course of war, there are often some reward and punishment measures, and Liu Bang's promise to everyone has never been lip service, but has achieved "words must be done, and deeds must be fruitful."
This also made the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty unprecedentedly large, a total of 145 ministers were crowned, the scale is unprecedented, in the division of the prince, but also an unprecedented addition of a female prince.
It can be seen that at the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang attached great importance to the heroes who assisted the founding of the country, and the rewards given were also very heavy, but the status of these heroes gradually declined with the development of the Han Dynasty.
During the time of Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty, the Nine Secretaries of the Three Kingdoms and the Kingdom Minister were all served by the heroes of the early Han Dynasty, and by the time of the Jing Emperor, the heroes of the Early Han Dynasty had lost control of the great power, and their political status had also been affected, and gradually declined.
So what happened in the process of the gradual decline and fall of the Fengpei Gongchen Group? Why did it decline so quickly?
Constrained by the "Alliance of the White Horse", coupled with Emperor Wen's jealousy and vigorous rejection, the power of the Gongchen Group suffered a serious blow
The power of the Meritorious Group was too high, and the power of Lü Hou was growing day by day, and the "Alliance of the White Horse" should be born from time to time
During the Chu-Han War, in order to network all the military forces in the world and make his own power stronger, Liu Bang once sealed a number of kings with different surnames, and these princes assisted Liu Bang in attacking the world under the banner of the Han army and made great achievements.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the power of the heroes was very large, and Liu Bang gradually felt that the kings of the opposite sex were unreliable after all, afraid that they would rebel and endanger their own throne and Jiangshan, so they began to plan to eliminate these hidden dangers.
After becoming emperor, Liu Bang used various pretexts to kill these kings with different surnames, taking Han Xin as an example.
The victory at the Battle of Xiaxia made Han Xin the "King of Chu", and the following year, Liu Bang took Han Xin captive to Chang'an City, demoted him to the Marquis of Huaiyin, and then killed Han Xin with the help of Lü Hou.
In addition to Han Xin, Peng Yue, Yingbu, and Lu Xie were also killed one by one.
After eliminating these kings with different surnames, the princes with the same surname were sealed to ensure the stability of the country. Later, due to the gradual increase in Lü Hou's power, Liu Bang was worried that Jiangshan would be taken by him, so in his later years, he established an alliance with the Qunchen on the White Horse.
The kingdom lives on forever, and the Hmong people are given.
Those who are not the king of the Liu clan, the whole world strikes together, and if there is no merit and does not pay attention to it, the world will condemn it. --- The Alliance of The White Horse
Liu Bang and the ministers made a covenant by killing the white horse, and stipulated that non-members of the imperial family could not be crowned kings, and those who did not receive military merit could not be crowned as marquises.
The "White Horse Alliance" played a pivotal role in consolidating imperial power, and was also inextricably linked to the decline of the Meritorious Group.
When Gaozu died, Lü Hou took power, depriving the heroes of their powers, causing discontent
In 195 BC, Gaozu Liu Bang died, and was succeeded by his eldest son Liu Ying, emperor Hui of Han.
After Emperor Hui ascended the throne, due to his cowardly personality, the power of the court was controlled by Empress Lü and his foreign clique.
"Take the guest from entering the Han Dynasty as the marquis, and also appoint the three marquises, and the soldiers will enter the city first, and the King of Han will dissolve Pengcheng, and from it, the relapse soldiers will set the world in gaozu." --- The Chronicle of History
Lü Hou had assisted Liu Bang in attacking the world, and Lü Hou's brother also occupied an important position in the group of heroes at that time, so it is reasonable to say that the two people with such special merits should be highly respected, but in fact, they are not.
When dividing the official titles of the Lü clan, even if one gui was an empress and the other was a national uncle, the two people with such status and prestige were still ostracized by the gongchen clique.
After lü became empress, the Lü clan listened to the government of the dynasty, and vigorously sealed the Lü clan, and tried to expand the power of the Lü faction, so that the Lü clique controlled the power of the dprk, deprived some other meritorious people of their powers, and occupied a large amount of territory, resulting in the original "three-legged standing" (emperor, meritorious and clan kings) State has a tendency to tilt toward the emperor, causing dissatisfaction among the other two forces.
When Emperor Wen came to power, he was jealous of the Meritorious Group and weakened it wantonly
After Lü Hou's death, his people lost control of the imperial power, and the Han Shao Emperor Liu Gong was also suppressed by the Gongchen clique and the kings of the clan because he could not control the situation, and was eventually executed.
Under the pressure of the Liu clan, the heroes could not choose the undeserved acting king Liu Heng to take the throne, and the history was called Emperor Wen of Han. At this point, the power of the Korean Gongchen clique reached a peak state, but its power was too high, which caused Emperor Wen to be jealous.
At the beginning of Emperor Wen's reign, he showed great rejection of the heroes, transferred the power of the court to guard, abolished the position of lieutenant who had previously been monopolized by the heroes, and required the heroes living in Chang'an City to return to the fiefdom to live, these measures greatly dealt a blow to the threat of the heroes to the imperial power, and caused the power of the heroes group to be seriously hit
When Emperor Jing came to power, the Gongchen clique completely lost its military power and gradually declined
In 157 BC, Emperor Wen of Han died and was succeeded by Emperor Jing of Han, Liu Qi.
During Emperor Jing's reign, he adopted an active policy of cutting down the domain and vigorously attacked the power of the princes of the Liu clan, and this overly radical reform caused strong dissatisfaction among the Gongchen clique, led by Shen Tujia and Yuan Ang.
However, Emperor Jing ignored the objections of these heroes, and eventually caused Shen Tujia to vomit blood and die. Since then, the relationship between Emperor Jing and the heroes has become more and more rigid.
After the outbreak of the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms", although Emperor Jing and the Gongchen clique were very stiff, they had to rely on the Gongchen clique to suppress it, so they re-established the post of "Taiwei". Zhou Yafu was sent as a lieutenant, and Dou Bao was made a great general to balance Zhou Yafu.
After quelling the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms", as the power of the princes was greatly weakened, Emperor Jing no longer needed to rely on the Gongchen clique to maintain imperial power, on the contrary, the Gongchen clique became the biggest obstacle for Jingdi to strengthen the imperial autocracy.
After the war, Emperor Jing appointed Zhou Yafu as his chancellor, but Zhou Yafu did not realize that the imperial power was gradually expanding, and still wanted to restore the imperial power, restrict the imperial power, and vigorously follow the "Alliance of the White Horse" and oppose Emperor Jing's sealing of the king as a marquis.
After that, Zhou Yafu resigned from the phase, and Liu She became the phase.
This became a turning point in the gradual decline in military power of the Early Han Dynasty Gongchen Clique.
In the first year of the jing emperor's reign, Liu She deposed the chancellor, and then emperor Jing and Empress Dou discussed only two heirs, and there were no meritorious men, which also showed that at this time, the Hanchu Gongchen clique would no longer occupy the position of the chancellor that had been monopolized by him, and Emperor Jing did not even need to consider the Gongchen clique, so he set the phase, and the power of the Hanchu Gongchen clique was further weakened.
During the period when Wei Xuan was a chancellor, both inside and outside the Han Dynasty was in a relatively stable period, there was no major war, and the "White Horse Alliance" established by Gao Zu also contained the Gongchen clique of the early Han Dynasty, at this time the Gongchen clique had completely lost its military power and only had an empty title left, which also showed that the Gongchen clique had already gone into decline.
epilogue
In the process of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the Fengpei Meritorious Group played an indelible role, and there is no doubt that these ministers were the founding fathers of the Han Dynasty, but in the continuous development of the Han Dynasty, they gradually declined, and the reasons for this are thought-provoking.
Many scholars have always believed that during the period of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, due to their political means, it led to the decline of the Gongchen clique, in fact, Han Gaozu's "White Horse Alliance" should not be forgotten, and the rise and fall of the Gongchen clique was closely related to it. The phrase "no merit and no marquis" allowed the gongchen clique to control power and enjoy a very high political status, and at the same time, during the period of Emperor Jing and Emperor Wen, because they could not directly participate in the military, they gradually declined.
bibliography:
Historia
Book of Han
The Book of Han