The Three Kingdoms is a well-known history in China, and all the Chinese and historical enlightenment are the Three Kingdoms.
There is no doubt that the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu were all fighting for reunification and were just wars, and if these three countries were all fighting for separatism, China would certainly not praise the three kingdoms, which is not in line with the mainstream view of history.
But recently there is a very popular view, after all, the brilliant Three Kingdoms and the later Western Jin Dynasty's "Five Hu Chaohua" is only about 100 years apart. Then, some people have to ask: Is it because the Three Kingdoms conquest lasted for a hundred years and the population was drastically reduced that led to the "Five Hu Chaohua", so that Zhuge Liang did not become the culprit of the "WuHu Chaohua"? Is this statement correct?
Let's take a good look.
Was the population of the Western Jin Dynasty really small?
Everyone knows that the population at the end of the Three Kingdoms period was very small, and even when Mao Zedong read the history books and saw that the population of the three countries at the end of the Three Kingdoms was only 7 million, equivalent to the population of a prefecture-level city, he was also stunned and sighed: Liu Guanzhang's large knife and spear were more powerful than the atomic bomb.
But it has to be said that the population data of the three countries are questionable.
Chinese history books are in the Jichuan style, mainly recording the historical stories of emperors and generals, which was created by Sima Qian. However, a country cannot be without a record of the system, so Sima Qian also wrote the "Zhi" and "Table" to record the canonical system.
Therefore, our data on the population of 50 million in the Western Han Dynasty comes from the Book of Han and Geography.
However, Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is simple in words, only a chronicle and no zhi table. Therefore, the population of the three countries lacks the first record of the time. All about the population of the Three Kingdoms period is actually recorded in the Tang Dynasty.
The record of the population of the Three Kingdoms era that we see today comes from the Tongdian of Du You of the Tang Dynasty and the Book of Jin compiled by Fang Xuanling of the Tang Dynasty, that is to say, the population of the Three Kingdoms Era ultimately came from the history books of the Jin Dynasty compiled by the Tang Dynasty.
Tongdian Food Records: Wei Wu according to the Central Plains, Liu Bei cut Bashu, Sun Quan had all the land of Jiangdong. The Three Kingdoms stand tall and the war continues. and Pingshu, with 280,000 households, 940,000 mouths, 102,000 soldiers with armor, 40,000 officials, 943,423 households, and 5,372,881 mouths. In addition to the income of Pingshu, at that time, the Wei clan only had 663,423 households and 4,432,881 mouths.
Emperor Taikang of the Jin Dynasty, Pingwu, received his map, 530,000 households, 32,000 officials, 230,000 soldiers, 2.3 million men and women, and more than 5,000 harems. Kyushu is the same, about 2,459,840 households, 1,616,338,6363, which is the greatest of this Jin.
According to records, Cao Wei had a hukou of 660,000, Shu Han had a hukou of 280,000, and Sun Wu had a hukou of 530,000.
It is worth noting that the ancient record of population is actually not how many people, but how many hukou, this is the accurate record, how many people in a hukou in ancient times? After all, we have to count the number of people, historian Tan Qijun proposed, one hukou is about equal to 6 people, why 6 people? According to the current saying, it is the grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, eldest son, and second son. That is to say, this is basically the number of household registrations, after all, there were very few only children in ancient times, and maternal grandfathers and maternal grandmothers generally did not live in their grandparents' homes.
There are a total of 1.46 million households in the three countries. If one household is equal to 6 people, then the population of the three countries is a total of 8.76 million people.
That is, the total population of the three countries is 8.76 million people.
But this data is very questionable, the problem is not in Shu Han and Sun Wu, but in Cao Wei.
As we all know, Shu Han only occupied one prefecture of Yizhou and the land of Hanzhong, and Sun Wu occupied Jingzhou and Yangzhou. The six other nine states are in the hands of Cao Wei, and if you look at the map, you can see that there are more states and counties in the north than in the south, and the number of states and counties in Cao Wei is very large.
Shu Han has a state with 280,000 household registrations, Sun Wu two states have a household registration of 520,000, this is almost the same, the average hukou of each state is about 250,000, Cao Wei has six states, it should be 1.5 million households, ah, how come only the household registration is 660,000, less than half?
Therefore, some historians say that Cao Wei may have a large number of hukou "shading", after all, Cao Wei is the era of the rise of the door valve system, and a large number of displaced people are willing to attach to the door valve, which is not in the household registration statistics.
Some people say that such a statement is all speculation and has no factual evidence.
But in fact, the household registration statistics of the State of Wu were in the period of Sun Hao, and similarly, during the period of Sun Hao, the Western Jin Dynasty unified Sun Wu and eventually unified the Three Kingdoms.
How many people were there in the Western Jin Dynasty?
According to the "Book of Jin and Geography", the population of the prefectures under the heavens, Sizhou Hukou 470,000, Yanzhou 80,000, Yuzhou 120,000, Jizhou 320,000, Youzhou 70,000, Pingzhou 20,000, Hezhou 60,000, Yongzhou 110,000, Liangzhou 30,000, Qinzhou 30,000, Liangzhou 80,000, Yizhou 150,000, Ningzhou 90,000, Qingzhou 50,000, Xuzhou 90,000, Jingzhou 350,000, Yangzhou 320,000, Jiaozhou 20,000, all of the above added up, 2.46 million households, according to the calculation of 6 people per household, the Western Jin Dynasty has 14.76 million people.
As mentioned earlier, the sum of the household registrations of the Three Kingdoms of Wei Shu Wu was 1.46 million households, and as a result, the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty was 2.46 million households, and there were 1 million more households and more than 6 million people. Could it be that within 20 years of the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty, 6 million babies were born out of 8 million people across the country?
It is the population of the giants "shaded", seeing the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty, thinking that the world is too peaceful, and the population will all come out.
Therefore, the Three Kingdoms Scuffle led to a sharp decline in population, which should be inaccurate, because the Three Kingdoms scuffle was mainly in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and when the Three Kingdoms were established in 220 AD, in fact, there were not many large-scale wars, and by the time 289 AD of the Western Jin Dynasty, it had been 69 years, and in ancient times, 30 years as a generation, 69 years could already reproduce two generations of population.
We can also find a similar period to the Three Kingdoms.
The same is the chaotic world, the same Three Kingdoms, there is a period, that is, the Northern Zhou, Northern Qi and Southern Chen Three Kingdoms of the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, the territory of Southern Chen is smaller than Sun Wu, the territory of Northern Qi is smaller than that of Cao Wei, and the territory of Northern Zhou is larger than that of Shu Han. Northern Qi, like Cao Wei, occupied the economically developed Yellow River Kwantung region with many prefectures and counties.
The population of these three countries, because of its close proximity to the Tang Dynasty, is recorded in the Tang Dynasty's Duoxiu history books.
According to records, Northern Qi had 3.03 million hukou, Northern Zhou had 1.32 million hukou, and Nanchen had 510,000 hukou.
In contrast, Cao Wei had a hukou of 660,000, Shu Han had a hukou of 280,000, and Sun Wu had a hukou of 530,000.
We can find that Nanchen not only has an area similar to sun Wu, but also has the same number of households, because at that time in Jiangnan, only two places, such as Jiankang and Jiangling, were developed on a large scale, and even Qiantang was very backward at that time.
In contrast, the Northern Zhou and Shu Han hukou can be found to have 1 million more households than the Shu Han, probably because the Northern Zhou Dynasty has more Guanzhong areas than the Shu Han, and the Guanzhong area has been densely populated since ancient times.
However, Northern Qi, which was far less than Cao Wei, had a population of four times more than Cao Wei, was this normal?
Therefore, Cao Wei may be far more than so many people, and the phenomenon of "shading" of the giants is more serious.
Therefore, it is said that the war in the Three Kingdoms led to a large number of sharp declines in population, perhaps there is an exaggeration, at that time, there should be more than 7 million people. Moreover, the end of the Han Dynasty was more than 100 years away from the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, and it was as ridiculous to say that Zhuge Liang was responsible for the Yongjia Rebellion, just as it was ridiculous to say that Gao Huan was the founder of the rule of Zhenguan.
Moreover, the population of the Western Jin Dynasty was 14.76 million people and 2.46 million households, which was a small population?
not necessarily. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, the Tang Dynasty began a large-scale demographic result that found that in the three years of Zhenguan, the population of the Tang Dynasty was 3.1 million, calculated by 6 people in a household, 18.6 million people.
That is to say, in the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the population was actually similar to that in the early years of the Tang Dynasty! After all, these two periods, both of which have experienced decades of war, need to recuperate, the total population is similar, and the population of these two periods is still larger than that of han Gaozu in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty.
As a result, during the Zhenguan period of Li Shimin, not only destroyed the Eastern Turks, but also destroyed Tuguhun and Gao Changguo, Li Shimin also became the "Heavenly Khan", and by the time of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, the population of the Tang Dynasty had reached 3.8 million households and 22.8 million people.
More than 15 million people, compared with today's 1.4 billion Chinese is indeed less, but in the ancient agricultural society period, there have been many, China before the end of the Ming Dynasty, the population has been tens of millions of scale, at that time, has accounted for about one-fifth of the world, the world's population is only a few hundred million. 15 million people, even today, is the size of a medium-sized country. In 1850, england had a population of only 15 million people, which did not prevent them from establishing the "British Empire".
So, 15 million people, not a lot.
The same 15 million people, how the Western Jin Dynasty continued to revolt, and eventually the people did not have a good life, the rebellion of the Eight Kings, and the chaos of the Five Hu.
With the same population of 15 million, how did the Tang Dynasty eventually destroy the Eastern Turks and Tuguhuns, and Li Shimin became the Heavenly Khan?
It seems that it really has nothing to do with population, it has to do with the emperor, and this is the gap between Sima Yan and Li Shimin.
Second, the destruction of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms are responsible?
Some people say that even so, the Western Jin Dynasty took over the mess, but the Tang Dynasty took over the legacy of the Sui Dynasty.
I'm afraid this is even more wrong.
Yes, during the Tang Dynasty, it is true that the ethnic integration of the Wei and Jin dynasties for hundreds of years has eliminated the ethnic problem, and at the same time, the imperial examination system has gradually reversed the door valve problem.
In the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the problem of door valves could not be solved for a long time, although the three kingdoms of Wei Shu and Wu were committed to promoting the cold door and suppressing the door valves, but ultimately failed, with the proposal of Chen Qun's "Nine Products in the Right System", Cao Wei chose to cooperate with the door valves.
However, even if there is a door valve problem, the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty is also because it is too decayed!
Sima Yan unified the Three Kingdoms and destroyed Sun Wu. However, under the excellent situation of national reunification, Sima Yan began to flutter, breeding feelings of pride and complacency. In life, from advocating frugality, luxury and corruption began to be carried out, and the social atmosphere of the Western Jin Dynasty began to deteriorate, and bureaucrats and ministers competed to embezzle wealth and show off their wealth. The social climate became corrupt, and the Western Jin Dynasty became one of the most corrupt regimes in history.
First of all, the royal family itself is very decayed.
As we all know, Sima Yan, emperor of the Jin Dynasty, was a palace woman in the civil election. There were thousands of harem palace women, but he was still not satisfied, and after destroying Wu, he transported thousands of palace women from the Wu Palace to Luoyang. In this way, the harem palace women reached 10,000 people. Because there were too many palace women, Sima Yan did not know where to go, and sometimes he sat in a car pulled by a sheep and walked around the palace, and the car was parked at the door of which palace girl, where he spent the night. In order to gain the favor of the emperor, some palace ladies sprinkled salt on the door so that the sheep would come here to eat grass. This story is familiar to everyone.
Secondly, the high-ranking officials of the imperial court were also completely decayed.
The story of Shi Chong and Wang Kaibi Fu Doubao is very typical.
In order to show his wealth, Wang Kai asked his subordinates to brush the pot with sugar water. After Shi Chong heard about it, he asked the cook at home to cook with a candle as a firewood fire.
Wang Kai asked people to make a walking barrier with purple silk cloth at the door of their home, which was forty miles long. Shi Chong then used the brocade to make a fifty-mile step barrier at the door of his home, when the brocade was more expensive than the purple silk cloth.
Wang Kai painted the house with spices, and Shi Chong painted the walls with red paraffin wax.
Wang Kai was even at a disadvantage several times, so he found the emperor's nephew, Sima Yan, who was very supportive of his uncle, and gave him a coral tree two feet high. Wang Kai felt that this time he could win the game, so he invited many colleagues and Shi Chong, who wanted Shi Chong to submit to the public. Who knew that Shi Chong, who picked up an iron ruyi beside him, smashed the coral tree at once. Wang Kai was about to get angry, but Shi Chong said, I will pay you, so I let people get more than a dozen coral trees, the tallest ones are three or four feet, and the shortest ones are also two feet high, let Wang Kai pick them at will. At this point, Wang Kai completely lost.
These two perverted guys not only fought for riches, but also lost their humanity, and once Wang Dun and his brother Wang Dao went to Shi Chong's house for a banquet. Wang Dun insisted on not drinking, and as a result, Shi Chong beheaded three beauties, but he still did not drink. Wang Dao rebuked Wang Dun, but Wang Dun said viciously, "He killed his own family members, what does it have to do with you!" ”
Some people have advised Sima Yan, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, that the country is too corrupt and that the trend of extravagance should be curbed, but Sima Yan himself is the most extravagant person, how can it be banned? Leave it alone.
Such a fight for wealth shows complete perverted decay, and in the end the bureaucracy is completely necrotic, all of which are bought and sold.
After the ten-year Rebellion of the Eight Kings, the water conservancy project fell into disrepair, the tuntian was all deserted, and under the natural disaster, drought and locust plague were rampant, and finally the people could not survive, and could only rise up, but some of the people were Xiongnu and Xiongnu.
Looking back at the Tang Dynasty, especially Zhenguan, I have to say that frugality is the mainstream.
Today we mention the Tang Dynasty, we all say Sheng Tang, as if the Tang Dynasty gave people the impression of luxury and luxury.
But in fact, this is the result of a hundred years of accumulation during the Tang Xuanzong period, and in the early days of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty was very frugal.
Emperor Taizong of Tang used the Sui Emperor as a negative teaching material everywhere, and the Sui Emperor was very extravagant, so he demanded frugality, and in order to save the cost of the palace, he released three thousand palace women at a time. Magistrates were forbidden to pay tribute to rare treasures, and generous burials were strictly prohibited.
In the fourth year of Tang Taizong's Zhenguan, the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Eastern Turks, Tang Taizong was very humble because of rheumatism, and the Sui Dynasty palace in Luoyang was very humble, so he ordered the construction of the Luoyang Palace.
It was such a legitimate reason that the chancellor Zhang Xuansu strongly opposed, saying that the reason why the Sui Emperor had destroyed the country was that he did not sympathize with the people's strength, causing the people's resentment to boil over, and the people could not bear it.
Tang Taizong woke up as if in a dream, immediately stopped building the palace, and rewarded Zhang Xuansu.
Tang Taizong's idol was Emperor Wen of Han, Who was frugal all his life and advocated thin burial, and his mausoleum was the shortest of the Western Han emperors, but in the last years of the Western Han Dynasty, after the peasant rebel army invaded Chang'an, he excavated the magnificent Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han, but he was very courteous to emperor Wen of Han's mausoleum.
It was precisely because Tang Taizong advocated frugality that ministers also followed suit, and a culture of advocating frugality was formed during the Zhenguan years. Wei Zheng's family had no extra finances, Cen Wen's residence was low-lying and damp, and the ministers at that time were frugal. The people also finally got the opportunity to recuperate. The Zhenguan Politician records: "In the past twenty years, the customs have been simple, the clothes are not splendid, the wealth is rich, and there is no disadvantage of hunger and cold. ”
It is precisely because of the accumulation of the Tang Taizong period, after a long half century of inheritance by Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian, that in the era of Tang Xuanzong, there was a prosperous Tang Dynasty atmosphere.
It was also because of the profligacy of Emperor Wu of the Western Jin Dynasty that led to the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty, and after a corner of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty of a hundred years was finally replaced by Liu Yu's Southern Dynasty.
Li Shangyin has a famous sentence: After looking at the former virtuous country and family, the success is caused by thrift and thrift, and the contrast between Sima Yan and Li Shimin is not strong enough? It is true that the Three Kingdoms failed to completely solve the problem of door valves, but door valves originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, grew up in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and did not die until the five generations, 700 years, not one or two dynasties can solve.
Since this is the case, the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty is entirely self-inflicted, and can it be blamed on others?