If there is one word that cannot be avoided in reading Chinese history, it is Confucianism. A culture that has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, many people still say that Confucianism is the essence of traditional Chinese culture and inherits this unified dynasty. Therefore, the history of the strong Han and the Tang Dynasty, let our nation rise again and again, Confucianism is indispensable.
If you look at history, it seems that this is indeed the case, since the Han Dynasty Han Wudi deposed the hundred schools of Confucianism, Confucianism began to take root in the feudal dynasty of two thousand years, becoming a long-standing ideological system. Then combined with the royal power, it had a position above ten thousand people under one person, and in many dynasties, it was the main group that restricted the imperial power.
History is often like this, it does not stand up to scrutiny, and if you think about it yourself, you will find different results. The prosperity of almost all dynasties basically has nothing to do with Confucianism, let's talk about them one by one. There are four prosperous eras in Chinese history, the reign of Wenjing in the Western Han Dynasty, the Kaiyuan prosperous era in the Tang Dynasty, the Yongxuan prosperous era in the Ming Dynasty, and the prosperous era of Kang Qian in the Qing Dynasty.
The first is the reign of Wen Jing, which refers to Liu Bang's son Liu Heng, the Hanwen Emperor, and Liu Heng's son Liu Qi of Han Jing. The two emperors lasted a total of 90 years. As we said earlier, from the Western Han Dynasty to the Han Wudi period, Confucianism was respected exclusively. And Emperor Wen of Han is the grandfather of Emperor Wudi of Han, Emperor Jing of Han is the father of Emperor Wudi of Han, and the rule of Emperor Wenjing advocates the art of Huang Lao, and the Taoist Laozi rules without doing anything. This prosperous era has nothing to do with Confucianism.
Then let's talk about the Kaiyuan prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty, which was the reign of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, who reigned for 44 years, and the Kaiyuan prosperous era "refers to the prosperous scene presented by the Tang Dynasty in the 29 years from 713 to 741. The seventh emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and his girlfriend is particularly famous, Yang Guifei, one of the four beauties, Yang Yuhuan. And the Tang Dynasty culturally respected Taoism, because the Tang Dynasty emperor's surname was Li, you see the Taoist Laozi name Li Er, the old Li family is their own people, Confucianism has no status in the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, Li Longji is an iron fan of Lao Tzu, and he has also published the Taoist academic research work "Tang Xuanzong's Imperial Note on the Taode True Classic". The emperor himself commented on the Tao Te Ching, so you see what does this pioneering era created by such a believer in the Taoist emperor have to do with Confucianism!
The third is the Yongxuan prosperous era of the Ming Dynasty, which was the reign of the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di, Emperor Mingrenzong and Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, a total of 33 years. Everyone knows Zhu Di that Zhu Yuanzhang's fourth son was named the King of Yan by Zhu Yuanzhang. Shortly after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he rebelled and became emperor, later Ming Chengzu.
He reigned for 22 years, with his son Akihito Sect reigning for less than a year and his grandson Zhu Zhanji reigning for ten years. People familiar with history know that there were many great Confucians in the Ming Dynasty, such as the Great Confucian Fang Xiaoxiao, but the Yongxuan prosperous era has nothing to do with Confucianism.
Why do you say that, you see how Fang Xiaozi died. We all know that Fang Xiaoxiao has created the highest record in history, the Ten Tribes. The general clan curses the nine races, but Zhu Di targeted Fang Xiaoxiao and made a penal innovation, slaughtering Fang Xiaozi's protégés, disciples, and friends, plus the nine tribes, just gathered the ten tribes.
During Zhu Di's reign, a large number of secret agencies were set up, such as Jinyiwei, and the East Factory closely monitored the government and the public. Moreover, he also marched south to conquer Vietnam. Five out of the desert north, three ploughs to capture the court, conquest of the Mongols, everything is the emperor's final say, and the Wen Chen has no status at all in Zhu Di.
By the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, Zhu Zhanji no longer relied on Wen Chen, and he used another operating system, that is, eunuchs were in power. An inner book hall was opened to teach eunuchs to read and write, participate in imperial politics, and take power to manage specific affairs.
In this case, an eternal prosperous era was actually formed, what role do you say Confucianism played? This prosperous era has basically nothing to do with Confucianism.
Not to mention the prosperous era of the Qing Dynasty, according to Confucian ideology, the Qing Dynasty was considered a foreign race. It is not orthodox, Confucianism does not look at the Manchus, and the Manchus do not look at the Han. You see that the Qing Dynasty divided people into four classes: first-class Manchus, second-class Mongols, third-class cloth (household slaves), and fourth-class Han. Han you are the lowest, many people have seen Qing court dramas, in the Qing court court, most of the people in power are Manchus, Mongols. Longkodo, Pearl, Sony, Suksaha, Qibilong, Ao Bai, people simply do not look at the Confucian set.
Why does a Confucian culture, which has been passed down for two thousand years, not create a heyday in history, and all the prosperous times have nothing to do with Confucianism? So don't you think it's strange?
We can't help but ask, what role did Confucianism play in the history of more than 2,000 dynasties? Some people say that it promoted the prosperity and strength of the country and the continuation of the dynasty.
Confucianism doesn't have a saying that self-cultivation and family rule the country and the world, you see that they are a group of people with a sense of social responsibility, who care about the world and have a heart for all directions. The heart is loaded with the welfare of the rivers and mountains, and the people are suffering. As long as they are allowed to control this country, the world will be smooth and rainy, the country and the people will be safe, prosperous, and all nations will come.
Is this really the case?
In fact, during the reign of the two thousand dynasties, Confucians were really given such an opportunity to let Confucian sages ascend the throne to manage the country. Some might say, no, right? As far as I know, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, it seems that none of the emperors are Confucian masters, and the five dynasties and ten kingdoms of the Wei and Jin dynasties are all martial artists with knife handles, killing like numb, let alone Confucianism.
You remember correctly, because this dynasty was very short, only fifteen years, so it did not impress everyone. This is the new dynasty founded by Wang Mang between the Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties, which perished in a total of fifteen years.
This can be regarded as the country founded and operated by Confucian disciples in Chinese history, completely in accordance with the Confucian ideological system. To show you what they did, first of all, this Wang Mang can be called a sage under the Confucian ideology at that time, with very good morality and impeccable character.
For example, he was a great sima at that time, and he was powerful and powerful. As a foreign relative, this identity is generally arrogant and arrogant, but Wang Mang is an exception and very low-key. Kind, fair to officials, not favoritistic, one day his son lost his hand and killed a maid, and according to the law at that time, the problem was solved.
But Wang Mang did not agree, the murder should pay for his life, forced his son to commit suicide, and finally his son could not really commit suicide.
Moreover, his wife wore shabby coarse cloth clothes all year round, so much so that some officials in the dynasty went to Wang Mang's house to mistakenly identify him, thinking that Wang Mang's wife was the old mother of the family.
At that time, the whole country praised Wang Mang's character and behavior morality, you are the reincarnation of a saint, a model of Confucianism. Everyone unanimously elected Wang Mang, you must be the emperor, the imperial court needs you, and the people need you. After several prevarications, Wang Mang really couldn't resist everyone's enthusiasm and became the emperor.
After becoming emperor, Wang Mang became more diligent, working more than ten hours a day, according to the Confucian concept of Togu reform, to build the country.
The golden age ideal of Confucian scholars, going back to the third generation, the era of Xia Shang and Zhou. Engage in a divided sealing system and use the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty, but you think that hundreds of years have passed since the Zhou Dynasty, and many policies at that time have not been recorded. They also couldn't figure out how the Zhou Dynasty did it. No matter what, first change the official name and place name, all according to the name of the Zhou Dynasty.
You say what is the use of this thing, of course, there are economic reforms, various system innovations, a lot of coins, anyway, all kinds of tosses, at the end of Wang Mang's reign, in order to cope with the swarming rebel army, the young Wang Mang chose to whitewash the peace after the big marriage, in order to avoid others calling it absurd, and in order to show his supporters that he has the ability to maintain his rule, Wang Mang dyed his white hair black, and the black-haired Wang Mang seemed to be in his prime, but he still failed to save the new dynasty. From a morally perfect person, he began to hypocritically disguise himself and cover up his perilous rule. Seven months later, the capital was breached, and Wang Mang was killed. The state established under the Confucian consciousness took only fifteen years from its establishment to its completion. The perfect Confucian who relies on moral flaunting has done all his bad things in order to maintain the image of the non-existent sages, and has become an evil hypocritical thug.
Finally, do you know how much the rebellious people hate this moral sage emperor? First he cut off Wang Mang's head and hung it on the city wall, but then he felt that it was too cheap and took it off again. Cut his tongue, everyone ate it separately, gritting their teeth. Finally, Wang Mang's head was kicked as a ball, and he was soon kicked.
Looking back at this history, it is really hard to imagine that a model of Confucian morality ended up like this, which is really embarrassing.
It seems that Confucianism can't do this thing as an emperor, how about being a courtier?
The history of the Ming Dynasty proves that even stubborn Confucians can not be courtiers. You see in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the emperor did not expect Wen Chen to take charge of affairs. The emperor did not go to the dynasty, Jiajing, Wanli, Tianqi, and ruled the country through eunuchs and secret services.
What everyone didn't expect was that the country was in good weather, everything was running normally, and Wanli also helped Korea resist the Japanese invasion and overturned Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
However, when Chongzhen came to power, he changed his previous bad habits and did not miss work. Diligent and thrifty, Chongzhen can see the minister in clothes with torn cuffs, good emperor.
And follow the advice of the courtiers, you say what to do, do it. All according to Confucianism.
After coming to power, first kill Wei Zhongxian, the Holy Ming Monarch. Chongzhen also had a bad life, and a few days after coming to power, Li Zicheng rebelled. During his seventeen years in power, he was worried about external troubles, and outside was Houjin's Emperor Taiji. Internal and external difficulties, fighting on two fronts, generally speaking, in this case, first give peace talks to one of the parties and extinguish the fire on the other. Then concentrate on defeating the remaining enemies, right.
Chongzhen also had this idea, and privately signaled Shangshu Chen Xinjia of the military department to negotiate peace with Houjin. After Jin got it, deal with Li Zicheng wholeheartedly!
Good Chen Xinjia went to talk, but this matter was an oversight and was leaked. The courtiers in the court, the imperial historian officials have stopped working, this is not in line with Confucian morality, how can you negotiate peace, is this not a traitor? How can the majesty of a king be tarnished?
Chongzhen can't help it, these Confucian Wen Chen grasp the moral high ground, and then put this peace talker Chen Xinjia to death.
So Chongzhen dynasty, what you see now. During his 17-year reign, the internal peasant uprising was plague for 17 years, and the outside and post-Jin were dry for 17 years.
If you go through 2,000 years of ancient dynasties, you can't find such incomprehensible scenes. Internal worries and external troubles are working at the same time, and neither side can win. Li Zicheng, Emperor Taiji took the initiative to negotiate peace, but the courtiers did not agree, but they still insisted on fighting on both sides at the same time.
Do you think about how much wealth can withstand such a toss according to the productivity of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, the country that does not die is a ghost?
Wen Chen Yanguan under Confucian education, the emperor of Confucianism, according to Confucian ideology. History has proved that the country did not become strong, but quickly died.
It seems that Confucianism makes the country strong, and this logic is not credible.
And here is another example, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Confucianism already existed. But the strange thing is that none of the seven heroes of the Warring States used the Confucian set to govern the country, but the top soldiers were strong and strong, and their combat effectiveness was bursting.
The Qin Dynasty written on the theme of this issue has not mentioned the Qin Dynasty until now because I have always had a question.
Why did the first powerful dynasty in Chinese history, the Qin Dynasty, could not look down on Confucianism, and burned books to pit Confucianism. Could it be that Qin Shi Huang knew early on that Confucianism was unreliable? Or does Confucianism hinder the strength of the state and state.
In the history of our nation, we can always rejuvenate and stand on the world stage. Perhaps in our genes, it is not Confucianism that really makes us strong, but pre-Qin culture?
Of course, with this skepticism, let's look at Chinese history. You will have different discoveries, such as from the perspective of foreign invasion, from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the only dynasty that really overturned the foreign invasion was the Qin and Han dynasties.
Yue Fei of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote a poem, full of rivers and reds, in which there is a passage in which he is hungry for beard meat, laughing and thirsty for Xiongnu blood. It sounded very relieved and heroic, but Yue Fei did not realize it until death, and died with hatred.
But the Qin Dynasty did it, beating the Xiongnu and calling their mother. After the reunification of the six countries, 300,000 troops were sent to garrison the border to watch the Huns, don't come, come and beat you. You see, the Xiongnu at that time were not too well-behaved, polite and obedient.
Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty made the Xiongnu famous in history, and the Xiongnu took the initiative to seek peace, and the Southern Xiongnu surrendered to the Great Han. The glorious moment of military force of the entire ancient dynasty was the Great Han. Those who violate our strong man will be condemned from afar, so some people say that our nation is not martial, it is pure nonsense, and they do not understand this nation at all.
When I looked at the Three Kingdoms before, I always had a question, in the late Western Han Dynasty, the eighteen-way princes first slashed each other, and then the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu beat each other. This period is not short, nearly 200 years, why have you not heard of the Xiongnu taking advantage of the void?
Later, I understood that the value of force in the Qin and Han periods was not blown, even if the Central Plains dynasty was divided, they did not play.
Whether it is the seven heroes of the Warring States or the three kingdoms, any vassal state can beat the Xiongnu very obediently.
Then it doesn't work, such as Sheng Tang, a figure like Tang Taizong's god of war, who failed to conquer Goryeo three times.
In 751 AD, the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Dufu army and the Muslim and Central Asian allied forces of the Arab Empire met in the battle of Taros, and the Battle of Taurus, the Tang Dynasty was defeated.
Not to mention the Song Dynasty, first signed an alliance with the Liao State, and fought with the Liao State for half a pound and eight taels. The battle against the Jin Dynasty also ended in failure, Jing Kang was humiliated, and the emperor was captured by the Jin Dynasty.
In the end, the country was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty ended, dying due to foreign invasions.
The same was true of the Ming Dynasty, and in September 1449, Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Qizhen made a Northern Expedition. As a result, the defeated emperor was also captured, which was the change of Tumu Fort. A repetition of the shame of the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was founded in 1368, and the emperor was arrested by the Northern Yuan 81 years later.
It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition to Mongolia and Zhu Di's five desert north did not have a good effect on the Mongols who fled from the Yuan Dynasty. Only then did he leave such a great calamity to his descendants that conquest of the Northern Yuan became the daily routine of the later emperors of the Ming Dynasty.
In the end, the Ming Dynasty also died, and foreign tribes invaded.
Of course, there are many reasons for the demise of a dynasty, and we only look at it from the ability to resist foreign invasions.
Qin Han is undoubtedly the strongest existence of the ancient dynasty, so from this perspective, let's take a look at why the Qin Dynasty is so powerful and what is the reason behind it.
I'm going to write here today, and the update will continue,
Let's go back to the pre-Qin period to see what the powerful genes of our nation are. Why is it said that there is no dime in relation to Confucianism?
Why pre-Qin culture is the background and foundation of Chinese culture.
Why do the seven heroes of the Warring States definitely not respect Confucianism,