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introduction
When it comes to collecting, everyone's first impression is whether it is a famous painting that has been passed down through the ages, or an antique that is worth a lot, or a work of art with collectible value.
These are the most common in everyone's eyes, but have you ever seen a human head that is collected as a treasure?
In ancient history, there is such a famous person, whose head has been treasured by successive royal families for 272 years, this person is the controversial new emperor Wang Mang, who sought the power of the Han family Liu as a foreign relative.
(Wang Mang's head)
Later, due to natural disasters and man-made disasters, peasant uprisings broke out in the New Dynasty, and Wang Mang's fifteen-year reign of the New Dynasty collapsed, and his head was not only cut off by the rebel army, but also collected by Liu Xiu, the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
So, what is so peculiar about Wang Mang's head? Let the king of a country make such a move!
(Portrait of Wang Mang)
First, the cultural relics unearthed from mysterious ancient tombs are suspected to be modern civilization
Wang Mang has been controversial in history, some people think that he is a great traitor who seeks power and usurps the throne, while others think that he is a far-reaching and selfless reformer, and the reason for such a statement has to start with an unearthed cultural relics.
In May 1922, in Yaowan Village, Hanjiang County, Yangzhou, a mysterious ancient tomb was discovered by archaeologists, and through the excavation and study of the ancient tomb, archaeologists believed that the age of the tomb existed during the New Dynasty period ruled by Wang Mang.
In this ancient tomb, archaeologists have also unearthed a miraculous bronze object that amazes and even terrifies experts, a caliper made of bronze with a fixed ruler and a scale measured on a movable ruler to collect the chronological inscription.
(Unearthed bronze calipers)
Although it looks heavily rusted, experts can tell at a glance that the gadget is very similar to a modern vernier caliper.
Before the discovery of this bronze caliper, almost all the experts in the world believed that the vernier caliper was first invented by the French mathematician Jonil Beer.
Today, the bronze caliper unearthed, except for the absence of a vernier, is almost identical to the vernier caliper in use today.
Doesn't that mean that about 2,000 years ago, the ancient mainland had the invention of vernier calipers.
(Comparison of two calipers)
From the burial objects of the Xinmang period, this bronze caliper is ahead of its time, so that the archaeologists' hearts are extremely shocked, but they look at each other, after all, in the ancient tomb of thousands of years ago, anyone will be shocked to find something suspected of modern civilization.
With more excavations and research, experts determined that the casting time of the bronze caliper was the first year of the founding of Wang Mang's new dynasty, that is, around 9 AD.
It is particularly worth mentioning here that the bronze caliper is said to be designed and invented by Wang Mang himself, so it is also called "Wang Mang caliper", so now the question is, as an ancient person, why can Wang Mang invent such advanced measuring tools, is he a traverser?
(Wang Mang is a crosser?) ）
An alternative foreign son, a moral model in the eyes of the world
Wang Mang was born in a foreign family in the Western Han Dynasty, because his aunt Wang Zhengjun was an empress, the Wang family was extremely powerful at that time, and his clan had nine marquis and five great simas, which can be regarded as the most prominent family in the Western Han Dynasty.
Although Wang Mang was in a powerful foreign family, he lost his father and brother at a young age, and could only take his elderly mother and widowed sister-in-law to live with his uncles in the clan.
Unlike the extravagant Wang style, Wang Mang was humble and studious, and even more unpretentious in life, serving his mother attentively at home, respecting his widow's sister-in-law, and carefully nurturing his deceased brother's son.
(Portrait of Wang Zhengjun)
While other Wang disciples were acting as foreign relatives outside to prey on the people, he gathered magi and served the uncles of the clan with all his heart, and even used his meager wealth to help the poor people in the city.
Wang Mang's various actions made him look so different among the many sons and daughters of dogs and horses, but it was also because of his kindness and charity that he became famous and became a moral model in the eyes of the world at that time.
(Portrait of Wang Mang)
As his fame spread, Wang Mang was gradually valued by Wang Feng, the uncle of the official Grand Sima, and was promoted to the imperial court as an official, and after entering the imperial court, he was conscientious, and everything handled by him could be taken care of in an orderly manner.
When Wang Mang was thirty years old, he was again appreciated by Emperor Cheng of Han and made the new capital marquis, and thus he began to rise to prominence in the officialdom.
However, Wang Mang, who was in a high position, did not act rashly, but kept a low profile, and did not lose the habit of making friends and virtuous because he was in power, and even scattered his own income to help the common people and the customers around him.
(Wang Mang and other officials)
Through courtesy to the corporal externally and honest and thrifty internally, Wang Mang was highly respected by the people among the people, and his reputation far exceeded that of his powerful uncles.
With the blessing of fame, he went more and more smoothly on his career path, just at this time the Great Sima Wang Gen was seriously ill, and with his extraordinary talent and political skills, the 38-year-old Wang Mang finally ascended to the high position of the Great Sima.
However, the good times did not last long, with the sudden death of Emperor Hancheng and the succession of Emperor Hanwei, just as the so-called son of heaven and courtier, Wang Mang was beaten into the "cold palace".
(Emperor of Han)
Subsequently, in order to avoid becoming a victim of the power struggle, Wang Mang, who knew the time, voluntarily resigned his post and returned to the fief Xinye.
Third, return to the peak of power, ambition gradually revealed
During the period of seclusion in Xinye, Wang Mang no longer cared about imperial politics and lived a life like a famous man and a wild crane, but his son Wang Yu was accustomed to the life of a powerful person, and even if his father was no longer in a high position, he still did not change his temperament.
Until one day, Wang Yu accidentally killed a slave, he thought it was a trivial matter, but Wang Mang learned about it, but let his life be worth his life, in the face of his father's severe punishment, Wang Yu begged bitterly, but Wang Mang was not moved, and in the end there was no way, he could only commit suicide to apologize.
Although Wang Mang lived in seclusion in Xinye, many officials and people petitioned for him at that time, hoping that Emperor Han would reinstate his officials.
(Portrait of Wang Mang in his old age)
Probably seeing that Wang Mang was indeed deeply popular with the people, Emperor Han recalled him to the capital, but instead of reinstating him, he let him serve Wang Zhengjun.
In the second year of Yuan Shou, the 24-year-old Emperor of Han Wei suddenly died violently, and on the night of his death, the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun took away the jade seal of the kingdom, and because the Emperor of Han Moi did not leave any heirs, Wang Zhengjun in order to stabilize the imperial power, issued an edict to the courtiers to recommend the candidate of the Great Sima.
Discerning people knew that the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun wanted to choose from her family, so the ministers of the imperial court recommended Wang Mang, and not long after, Wang Zhengjun issued an edict to his nephew Wang Mang, and then appointed Grand Sima and Lu Shangshu, and at the same time was in charge of the forbidden army in the palace.
(Wang Mang and Emperor Ping of Han)
In this way, Wang Mang returned to the peak of power, and after ascending the throne, he supported the nine-year-old Hanping Emperor to ascend the throne, and with this puppet emperor, Wang Mang was loved by the court and the public.
With great power in his hands, he gradually began to expose his ambitions, first using his power to exclude dissidents in the DPRK, suppress officials with different political views, and then win over his fellow parties to expand his influence.
(Picture and text are not related)
Under this series of operations, Wang Mang gradually took political power into his own hands, in order to further consolidate the throne and power, he let his daughter enter the palace to run for empress, and after a carefully planned operation, Wang Mang's daughter was successfully elected empress of Emperor Hanping.
The daughter became the empress, he is the emperor's father-in-law, Wang Mang's power at this time is more and more expanded, his ambition is also increasing, he learned the lesson from the last time from the peak fell to the bottom, and the idea of simply calling himself emperor in his heart was born, in order to make himself logical to ascend the emperor's throne, Wang Mang has been looking for an opportunity, and soon, this opportunity came.
(Picture and text are not related)
Fourth, the Han dynasty built a new one, and ruled Jiangshan for fifteen years
In 6 AD, Emperor Hanping, who was only 14 years old, died of illness, so Wang Mang specially selected Liu Ying, who was only two years old, as the crown prince, in addition, he also called himself "Regent Emperor" with the permission of Wang Zhengjun, which means to handle government affairs on behalf of the emperor, as well as real power.
Sitting in the position of acting emperor, Wang Mang worked hard to a higher level, and in the court at that time, there were many of his henchmen, and these people were naturally anxious for Wang Mang to make him happy, and for a while, officials in various places reported one after another, claiming that there were various fortunes among the people.
Without exception, these fortunes all said that Wang Mang was the so-called true son of heaven, hoping that the Empress Dowager would act according to the instructions of heaven, and in 9 AD, Wang Mang finally could not resist his ambition to become emperor and forced his aunt Wang Zhengjun to hand over the jade seal of the kingdom.
Looking at his nephew, who was completely different from the past, Wang Zhengjun was angry, and directly smashed the jade seal of the kingdom on the ground, so that this jade seal symbolizing power was missing a corner.
(New dynasty established, Wang Mang and coins)
In the face of his aunt's resentment, Wang Mang naturally did not care much, after all, the winner is the king, and the loser is Kou, and then he forced Liu Yingchan to be in his own position, and after becoming a treasure, he changed the name of the country to a new one, and Wang Mang, who was 54 years old at the time, officially started his imperial career.
He began a series of reform policies, and due to political corruption in the late Han Dynasty, the powerful and powerful everywhere annexed a large amount of land, while the people were displaced.
(Wang Mang reformed comics)
So in the first step, he ordered that the land of the world be changed to Wang Tian, and the original private land should be replaced by Wang Tian, which at first glance looks similar to the modern land reform policy, but has a completely different point, making the two systems go to different fates.
That point is the difference in the background of the times, the era in which Wang Mang's new dynasty was a feudal and underdeveloped ancient society, and land meant huge productivity for a country, and when the powerful and rich felt that their interests were damaged, they would naturally rebound.
(Coins)
Not only that, Wang Mang abolished the Han Dynasty's five-baht money, creating a more complex 28-grade coin system, and nationalizing industries such as salt and iron.
These reform policies with strong modern colors were once the reason why later generations thought that Wang Mang was a traverser, but the various policies he created were obviously not in line with the current environment, and while causing heavy losses to powerful families, they also brought greater disasters to the people.
(Picture and text are not related)
Because at this time, Wang Mang's regime began to become precarious, plus various natural disasters came, man-made disasters also appeared, with the peasants everywhere unveiled uprisings, the people set off a wave of recklessness, of which the two armed forces of Chimei and Green Forest were the most powerful.
Although Wang Mang successfully usurped the throne, he did not have extraordinary military talent, and saw that the number of the rebel army was getting bigger and bigger, and finally he attacked Chang'an.
(Chimei Rebel Army)
There was no way, Wang Mang had to lead a retinue of more than a thousand people to flee to the gradual platform of the large liquid pool in the Weiyang Palace, but in the end he was killed by the rebel army, and the person who took his life was a businessman surnamed Wu, and the one who cut off his head was the captain Gongbin.
Fifth, the reason why the head was treasured by the royal family
In this way, the new dynasty of Wang Mang, which lasted for 15 years, also collapsed, and then his head was painted black, and the flesh and blood on it were removed by private law, leaving only the facial bones preserved.
As the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he collected his head in the imperial family, and in the long river of history, this head was treasured by the imperial families of Wei and Western Jin Dynasty until 295 AD, during the reign of Emperor Hui of Jin, it was burned in a fire.
(Wang Mang's head)
The ancients often said that the body was affected by his parents, in the eyes of the ancients, the separation of the corpse was the highest punishment for a person, after Wang Mang's death, his head was collected by the royal family, to say that the emperor of the ninety-five, what kind of treasure has not seen, why is there a soft spot for a head.
That's because Wang Mang's head has extraordinary significance. Wang Mang, as a usurper who sought power and founded the new dynasty, his status was extraordinary.
Defeating him and cutting off his head is a symbol of victory, an honor, and a trophy that can be used as a show-off, Liu Xiu is the leader of the rebel army and the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he naturally wants to tell the world that he is the orthodox of the people's heart, so he will collect Wang Mang's head.
(Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu)
As we all know, Wang Mang's success in seeking the Han Dynasty was due to the incompetence of the rulers, and it was the Western Han royal family that favored foreign relatives, only cared about pleasure, and abandoned government affairs, so that the unscrupulous courtiers and thieves with bad intentions could have an opportunity.
Now treasure the head of the thief Wang Mang, and then pass it on from generation to generation, admonishing future generations to work hard to govern, believing that by doing so, it will definitely sound the alarm for future generations of people in power, so that while weakening the power of foreign relatives, they must also know how to balance the relationship between the court and various classes, only in this way can we avoid the repetition of the past mistakes of the demise of the rivers and mountains.
However, it is a pity that from the perspective of the development of later generations, Wang Mang's head is not a panacea, nor can it prevent the change of dynasties, if a country wants to rely on a head to Anbang, it will not be far from extinction, so the development of a country depends on the people, and the ruling ability of those in power.
(Picture and text are not related)
China's 5,000-year civilization, countless characters have appeared one after another, but silently retreated, such as Wang Mang and other historical figures, will eventually disappear with the torrent of time, but there is still a place for them in the history books.
Resources:
The mystery of Wang Mang's head being hidden[OL].Historical Information Network,2022-06-07