"Liu Jingsheng's son Ruo parche ear" is Cao Cao's disparagement of Liu Biao's son. Liu Biao's two more sons, Liu Qi and Liu Chun, did not know which one Cao Cao was talking about, and they did not behave well anyway. Liu Qi and Liu Chun are typical of nest fighting, although this is largely not their personal will. Liu Biao's eldest son was Liu Qi, but he favored his younger son, Liu Qi, which led to a conflict between Liu Qi and Liu Qi, causing infighting between them. The situation of squeezing out the eldest son and supporting the younger son was not uncommon in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, and Yuan Shao was a lesson for the past. So why did Liu Biao do this?
"Rabbits walk on the street, a hundred people chase it"
One of the more mainstream and traditional inheritance systems in ancient China is the primogeniture system. For example, Sima Zheng, the son of Sima Yan, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, was not too intelligent, but Sima Yan ignored the objections of his ministers and insisted on supporting Sima Zheng, which eventually led to Jia Nan's interference in the government and contributed to the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" that destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty. However, in order to avoid infighting between the clans as much as possible, under normal circumstances, many rulers still designated the eldest son as the heir.
Of course, this inheritance system is not a static standard, especially in the chaotic era of the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty. Xiaobian mentioned the example of Yuan Shao at the beginning, but in fact, it is not only Yuan Shao. This also occurred in the Eastern Han court, where the general He Jin supported Liu Xie, his nephew, the eunuch Quan Shuo, who was secretly edicted by Emperor Ling of Han to support Liu Xie' younger brother Liu Xie, leading to the fire between the two.
Yuan Shao intended to support his young son Yuan Shang, and after Yuan Shao's death, the second Yuan began to fight, and finally let Cao Cao break through each other, and the fisherman gained profit; even Cao Cao once had such a tendency, first planning to support Cao Chong, hesitating between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi after Cao Chong's death, and finally choosing the eldest son Cao Pi. Although Cao Cao did not choose Cao Zhi in the end, the dispute between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi's sons still made Cao Pi feel threatened, and had a greater impact on Cao Wei's policy of containing the clan.
Yuan Shao showed his preference for Yuan Shang, that is, when he sent Yuan Tan, Yuan Xi, Gao Gan, and others to Qingzhou, Youzhou, and Hezhou, and left Yuan Shang in his stronghold of Jizhou, Frustrated Zhi proposed that "rabbits walk in the streets, and a hundred people chase them", if the position of the heir is not accurate, it will cause competition. In a chaotic world, this kind of competition accompanied by internal friction will undoubtedly hurt the interests of the whole.
The same is true of Liu Biao. Liu Biao's eldest son was Liu Qi, but he favored Liu Qi, causing Liu Qi to be seriously threatened. In order to protect himself, Liu Qi joined forces with Liu Bei's clique living in Jingzhou, requested to replace Huang Zu to go out as Jiangxia Taishou and take control of Jiangxia County, and after Liu Biao's death, he also planned to compete with Liu Qi for the position of Jingzhou Mu, because Cao Cao's timely southward retreat to Jiangxia; and Liu Qi was also coerced by the Jingxiang famous scholars and wang clans, and surrendered to Cao Cao, and Liu Biao's twenty-year-old jingzhou foundation was lost overnight.
Liu Biao favored Liu Chun's reasons
Yuan Shao died in the seventh year of Jian'an (i.e., 202 AD), and Cao Cao completely eliminated the Yuan forces in the twelfth year of Jian'an (i.e., 207 AD), these are all lessons from the past. So why did Liu Biao ignore Yuan Shao's mistakes and favor Liu Qi, causing the contradiction between Liu Qi and Liu Qi? There is an explanation of the reason for Liu Biao's practice in the historical data: Liu Biao married his wife Cai Shi, and Cai Shi was optimistic about Liu Qi, so he often praised Liu Qi in front of Liu Qi, and over time Liu Biao was affected, and the balance in his heart began to flip.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Chun was the son of Lady Cai and Liu Biao, so Lady Cai supported Liu Chun; although there was no such relationship in history, it was not much different, and Liu Chun's wife was from the Cai clan and was Lady Cai's niece. With such a layer of in-law relationship, Cai Shi naturally supported Liu Chun. After Liu Chun ascended to the throne, they could continue to manipulate their authority by virtue of their status as "foreign relatives".
Liu Biao behaved badly among the warlords at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and he was also a big figure who controlled Jingzhou for nearly twenty years, from the perspective of reality, the various clan commanders in Jingzhou were eliminated; the Jingnan rebellion was put down; the land of four wars was able to resist the enemy; and even had the spare strength to vigorously develop cultural undertakings and absorb scholars and scholars from the outside world, Liu Biao should be regarded as a qualified ruler.
Xiaobian believes that it is difficult for such a character to change his decision-making because of the simple pillow style, especially the fundamental issue of heir. The reason why Liu Biao compromised with Cai Shi, showed the cultivation of Liu Qi, and sent Liu Qi to Jiangxia, perhaps because his own strength was too thin.
Liu Biao "rode into Jingzhou alone", crossed the blockade of Yuan Shu in Nanyang and entered Jingzhou, and joined forces with the Ku and Cai clans to eliminate the various clan commanders in Jingzhou, laying the foundation for his rule in Jingzhou. However, Liu Biao was nominally the lord of a state, but he did not have absolute power in his hands to suppress the local clan. Liu Biao's confrontation against Zong Shuai was through the power of the Shijia Wang, so who would curb the ShiJia Wang? There is no such power. Therefore, during the reign of Liu Biao, the children of the Ku clan, the Cai clan, and the Huang clan were distributed everywhere, and the official residences were important. Under the constraints of these people, Liu Biao could not do so if he wanted to kill Han Song, who persuaded him to surrender to Cao Cao.
Due to the system of avoidance of local supervisors, most of the local governors of the Eastern Han Dynasty were parachuted in by outsiders, which was not only an obstacle to Liu Biao's control of Jingzhou. However, many people often try to form a force of their own, such as Yizhou Mu Liu Yan absorbing displaced people to form Dongzhou Shi; Youzhou Mu Liu Yu treated Wu Huan and Xianbei forces with kindness; Jizhou Mu Hanfu deliberately drew soldiers from his hometown of Yingchuan; Xuzhou Mu Taoqian recruited troops from his hometown of Danyang; and even Gongsun Zhan knew how to reuse the so-called "villains" to suppress the sons of the Youzhou family.
However, Liu Biao did not do this, or did not have the ability to get rid of the Jingzhou Wang clan, not only marrying cai himself, but also allowing his son to continue to marry cai. Liu Biao was born in 142 AD, and when he entered Jingzhou, he was close to fifty years old. The ancients married early and had children early, and Liu Qi, as the eldest son of Liu Biao, may have formed a family and could not marry the Cai family. Therefore, Liu Biao chose his youngest son Liu Chun. In this way, Liu Chun was obviously able to gain the support of Cai Shi, and although Liu Biao may not be really optimistic about Liu Chun, he had to compromise with Cai Shi when he was highly dependent on Cai Shi, showing a tendency to abolish Chang Li Young.
brief summary
Under the blockade of Yuan Shu and the internal zongshuai of Jingzhou, Liu Biao "rode into Jingzhou alone" to sweep away the northern part of Jingzhou, and was a very courageous person, who performed well among the warlords of the late Han Dynasty. However, in the subsequent development, Liu Biao was not able to think of danger in peace and did not develop his own concubine strength like other warlords.
Of course, there are risks in doing so, such as Liu Yan's reuse of "Dongzhou Shi" to lead to the rebellion of the local large households in Yizhou; Gongsun Zhan also suffered a rebellion, but if he did not do so, even the governor of a state would be bound, eroded, and hollowed out by the local Hao clan. The infighting between Liu Biao's two sons, Liu Chun and Liu Qi, was facilitated by the Jingxiang Wang clan; and after Liu Biao's death, Jingzhou instantly defected to Cao, which was also the result of Liu Biao's "chronic suicide".
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of the Later Han Dynasty