In the early Han Dynasty, the imperial court struggled in various forms for decades to solve the problem of local princes sitting on the big threat to imperial power. One of the important topics is the Tui Grace Order, which is known as the top or even the first yang conspiracy in ancient China. In fact, it was by no means a policy that only emerged during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, and since Liu Bang, the first head of the Great Han Dynasty, the emperor's determination and actions to strengthen centralized power have not changed - but the Liu Bang era has only dealt blows to princes with different surnames.
Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, was evaluated by the chairman as "the most powerful of the feudal emperors"
In the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, Jia Yi proposed in his "Public Security Policy" to "rebuild the vassals with less strength"—to establish more vassal states to dilute their power, which can be described as one word. Unfortunately, Jia Yi's suggestion did not attract enough attention from Emperor Wen of Han, or that the strength of the imperial court during the Han Wen Emperor period did not have an overwhelming advantage in comparison with the strength of the local princes, so Emperor Wen did not take many measures to weaken the princes.
Jia Yi was a famous political commentator and writer in the early Han Dynasty. Li Shangyin has the poem "Jia Sheng" - the Xuan Room Seeks Meritocracy to Visit and Expell Ministers, and Jia Shengcai is even more incoherent
After Emperor Jing took the throne, the power of the vassal states became even stronger, and even the opposition of some clan kings had reached the point of being revealed. Weakening the power of the princes had become an urgent matter for the imperial court, and Emperor Jing's favored vassals mistakenly believed that the princes should be held accountable for their sins and their fiefs should be reduced, and Emperor Jing feared that such a simple and crude policy of reducing the vassals would inevitably cause rebellion in the vassal states. Chao replied that the current situation is that they want to rebel if they cut the clan, and they will rebel if they don't cut the clan. If the clan is cut early, their plot of rebellion will be exposed early, and the scourge will be small, and if the clan is not cut now, when the vassal states are fully prepared to rebel again, the scourge will be even greater. Emperor Jing agreed with his words very much and ordered the reduction of the fiefdoms of the princes, and the princes were in an uproar, gritting their teeth with hatred for Chao. There is also a small episode here, Chao Mo's father heard about this matter, came from his hometown Yingchuan, and said to Chao Mo, the emperor has just taken the throne, you now hold great power, go and reduce the power of the princes of the Liu family, you and the emperor are far away, the princes and the emperor are surnamed Liu are close, you are alienated, what is the reason? Chao replied, "It is indeed like what you said, but if I do not do this, the status of the Son of Heaven will not be honored, and the country will be unstable." Chao's father said sadly, if you do this, their Liu family is safe, and our Chao family will be in danger! Seeing that Chao could not be persuaded, Chao Zhuo's father took poison and died.
Chao Cao (200 BC ~ 154 AD), Western Han dynasty politician and literary scholar
Sure enough, more than ten days after Chao's father died, the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" led by Wu Chu broke out. The rebels raised the slogan "Qing Jun sideways, blaming the wrong". At this point, mistakes naturally become victims. When Chao was killed, he was still wearing the court clothes of the previous dynasty, and the history records that Emperor Jing was "silent for a long time" for the matter of killing Chao, which may be regarded as the last trace of warmth left by the emperor.
Emperor Jing appointed the famous general Zhou Yafu, and in three months he put down the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, and all the seven princes who participated in the rebellion were killed, and the war greatly hit the power of the princes, except for Chu, the other six countries were abolished, and the right of the princes to appoint and remove officials and collect taxes was abolished, and the princes were not allowed to continue to govern the affairs of the fief, and could only receive taxes from the fief as a lilu. Through this series of measures, the threat from the power of the princes was basically eliminated, although the princely states still existed, but the princes lost their political rights, the actual status was no different from the county-level localities, the princes no longer had the strength to face the imperial court, and the centralization of power was greatly strengthened.
However, the hundred-footed worm is dead and not stiff, although after the vigorous beating of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, the princes still have a certain political and military strength, in order to completely solve the problem of excessive power of the princes, the minister of Emperor Wu of Han combined the experience of Jia Yi and Chao Error, and put forward a proposal to Emperor Wudi of Han to "push grace order" - I hope that the emperor will promote grace, not only the eldest son of the princes can inherit the title and fief, but the second and third sons of the princes can also have titles and fiefs, but the title should be reduced to a marquis, The feudal state is also a princely state. And the new kings who inherited the titles and fiefs of the old princes, his next generation still have to divide the titles according to the order of grace, "the descendants are endless", so that the kingdom will be smaller and smaller, the strength of individual kingdoms will become weaker and weaker, and the capital for confrontation with the central court will become smaller and smaller. This policy is indeed very clever, we know that under the patriarchal system, only the eldest son has the right to inherit, and the other children only have a symbolic reward, and we don't think about such a thing as dividing the land. Now the emperor suddenly "pushes grace", the second son and the third son can also share the land, but a little less than the eldest son, less is better than nothing! How could the second and third sons of the princes not be grateful for this policy? How can their asses not sit on the side of the imperial court ?? The imperial court nominally expanded grace, but in fact, the division of the hidden pokes and pokes disintegrated the internal forces of the princes, and also avoided the possibility of provoking the princes to take risks because of the simple and rude policy, and killing people with a soft knife can be described as both making money and shouting, killing two birds with one stone. The implementation of the decree of grace did achieve obvious results, and more than a hundred non-eldest sons of various vassal states were made princes, and the large kingdoms were dismembered into smaller princely states. Moreover, not only is it as simple as dividing the land, the princely state is subordinate to the county, and the status is similar to the county, which directly leads to the shrinkage of the kingdom and the increase of the direct control of the land by the imperial court, and after a little longer, the large kingdom itself falls apart, thus completely solving the problem of the kingdom's excessive fiefdom and threatening the central imperial power.
Emperor
So is this enough to show that the so-called "top-level yang scheme" of the "Push Grace Order" is really such a strange scheme? Apparently not. After the unremitting efforts of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing's father and son, by the time Emperor Wudi of Han took the throne, the strength of the central court already had an overwhelming advantage over the local princes. Before the decree was issued, some of the princes had been cut down because of minor mistakes, and the princes were already in a state of blame. At this time, the implementation of the order of pushing grace is just to get off the donkey and give each other a decent face. And the imaginary united front objects - the eldest sons of the princes and princes who have been pinched by the weakness of human nature, if they really have the strength to compete with the imperial court and the princes, they would have long been involved in the power struggle for the feudal country, and they do not need the court's favor order. If there were no effective blows to the princes during the period of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, the imperial court had the advantage of crushing, and Emperor Wu's tui grace order could undoubtedly not be enforced, otherwise why did Emperor Wen of Han not implement the tui grace order? Is it really because this strategy is so brain-burning and complicated that only the mind of the Lord and Father can come up with it? Or when the town of the late Tang clan was divided, the arrogant jiedu envoys were also quite able to give birth, and there were many sons, why didn't the emperor dare to give them a favor order? .
If you turn your attention to the Song Dynasty thousands of years later, you will find that in the history of the early Song Dynasty, there was also an event that was very similar to Tui Grace Ling - Song Taizu released military power with a glass of wine. Although this incident is thousands of years away from the Tui Grace Order, the essence is the same, and it is all a threat to the imperial power by the emperor in order to relieve the noble heroes who hold great power.
With the addition of the yellow robe, Zhao Kuangyin was "forced" to become the emperor
Historical sources have a very brief record of the right to release the army with a glass of wine. In the second year of Jianlong, one summer in 961 AD, after Song Taizu retired from the dynasty, he summoned the trusted generals of the forbidden army to drink, and the wine was half full, and Zhao Kuangyin initiated an emotion, saying that if it were not for your support, I would not be able to achieve the position of emperor, but I became an emperor but it was better to be a temperate to make happiness, and I slept restlessly every day. The forbidden army generals Shi Shouxin and Wang Xuanqi felt a taste as soon as they heard this, and quickly replied that now that the destiny of heaven has been determined, who dares to have two hearts? Where did Your Majesty say this? Song Taizu began his words of conscience and said: Even if you don't have two hearts, once your people are greedy for wealth, just like you did to me back then, and put the yellow robe your body, even if you don't rebel, will you still be up to you at that time? Shi Shouxin and these people quickly kowtowed and said, we are really stupid, we didn't expect this layer. I hope His Majesty will show us a clear way. Zhao Kuangyin replied in a good time, "Isn't it good that people have a short life, and people live in the world, nothing more than wanting to ask for wealth, and now that you hand over the power in your hands, I will reward you with more gold, silver and jewelry, and marry you as children and daughters, and the princes and subjects will not suspect each other, isn't it good? After saying this, Shi Shouxin and the others nodded and said yes, and the next day they called for the removal of their military rights. At this point, the problem of the heroic generals threatening the imperial power was completely resolved.
This story has always been talked about by people, saying that Song Taizu's personality is full of charm, his language skills are brilliant, and he lifts a big threat from the inside between talking and laughing. But if you think about it a little, it's almost impossible. In the five dynasties and ten kingdoms before the Northern Song Dynasty, the warlords were divided, and the king of grass was the king of grass if he had a gun, and An Chongrong, the jiedu of the post-Tang period, said this sentence: "The Son of Heaven has a kind of ye, and the strong soldiers and horses are the ears." Which of those generals in command does not regard themselves as very arrogant and lawless? I want to rely on a drink and say a few so-called thoughtful words, so that these proud soldiers obediently hand over the rights in their hands, thinking too much, right?
A glass of wine releases military power. Not only solved the threat, but also achieved the good name of Song Taizu for treating heroes well
In fact, long before formally challenging Shi Shouxin and others, Song Taizu had already made preparations, and in leap March of the second year of Jianlong, Song Taizu dismissed the supreme commander of the forbidden army, and Murong Yanzhao's post was checked in front of the palace, and he was reappointed as the jiedu envoy of Shannan's eastern province; At the same time, he removed the general of the forbidden army, Han Lingkun, from the post of commanding envoy of the road army, and ordered him to serve as the history of the Chengde army. It can be seen that the release of military power by a glass of wine is neither so turbulent as it seems, nor is it an improvised performance of Song Taizu, but a painstakingly planned political drama. The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty had a very clear understanding of this issue - if the trustworthy number of people did not control it, how could they dismiss the soldiers with distorted words and irony? If it weren't for the absolute superiority between Song Taizu and their strength, where could they be relieved of their power just by relying on a few words?
We do not deny the political wisdom and deep insight into human nature of schemes such as Tui Grace Order, but the reason why the scheme can be successfully implemented is not how subtle its underlying logic is and how ghostly it is, but long-term planning and strength foundation. Otherwise, what you can't get under the negotiating table, you can't expect at the negotiating table.