Preface: This article is 8800 words long, please watch with caution.
In 15 AD, Du Wu, a merchant doing business, followed an army to storm the imperial palace in Luoyang City. Later, by a pool, he did not hesitate to cut off the head of an old man with a white beard. After that, the heads were hung on the city gates, and finally they were taken down and kicked. And this old man's body has long been eaten by everyone. Thus ended a dynasty that lasted only 15 years, and a dynasty that was not recognized by later generations.
However, just the day before, this gray-bearded old man was still worshipping the heavens as an emperor in the southern suburbs. He complained to heaven and burst into tears when he spoke. He said, "You look like there are thieves all over the world, why is that? I am the emperor and government according to the will of heaven, if I don't do a good job, you will send down the heavenly thunder and kill me!" However, what he was waiting for was not Heavenly Thunder, but a big knife from a merchant.
This is why the emperor of the new dynasty, Wang Mang, a faithful practitioner of Confucianism, an idealist and perfectionist, ended up like this? Could it be that he was really a traverser, and his ultra-modern governance ideas could not adapt to the times of the time, leading to the final failure?
Then I will analyze it in the form of an afterthought, with an article of up to 8,000 words, it turns out that the facts are not as simple as you think.
Wang Mang Establishes a New Dynasty: A Nonviolent Revolution Guided by Confucianism
Wang Mang's road to the throne was actually divided into two stages, the first stage was from Huangmenlang to Zaiheng, which was the highest power that a courtier could achieve, and the second stage was from the emperor regent to the true emperor, which was the smooth handover of the position of the Son of Heaven.
Wang Mang's journey as emperor is logical, like an elected emperor under modern democracy. Therefore, I don't see it entirely to say that Wang Mang's ambitions and conspiracies are all to become emperors.
Wang Mang is a typical second-generation official. His own aunt Wang Zhengjun was the eldest wife of Emperor Yuan of Han at that time, Empress. Because of this relationship, in 16 BC, Wang Zhengjun's five brothers were made marquis on the same day, becoming a prominent foreign force for a while. Among them is Wang Mang's father, Wang Man.
Wang Zhengjun stills
But among the children and nephews of Wang Zhengjun of the Wang family, they are like most of the foreign relatives of the Han Dynasty, except for Wang Mang, no one else has any appearance, so they know that one day they show off their wealth, build mansions and play with cars.
Wang Man died when Wang Mang was 13 years old. But his mother was very powerful, and since he was a child, he hired a very famous Confucian teacher for Wang Mang, making Wang Mang a diehard fan of Confucianism.
Portrait of Wang Mang
Therefore, Wang Mang not only acted in accordance with the requirements of Confucianism for himself, but also for his wife, children, and family. As a result, he became the only one among the nephews of Wang Zhengjun who was one of the best in terms of ideological ability and moral character.
Therefore, on the recommendation of Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, Wang Mang entered the imperial court at the age of 30 to become a Huangmenlang (the doorman transmission room of the emperor's office), and at the same time was made the Marquis of the new capital, and the fief was in the area of Xinye, Henan. Wang Mang's reputation was excellent, and he was unanimously praised by the scholar class and court officials at that time, and his position was constantly rising. In 8 BC, when he served the Great Sima Wang Feng away, he unsurprisingly became the new Grand Sima of the imperial court.
After that, he successively supported the Han Dynasty Emperor, the Han Ping Emperor, and his sons and daughters, becoming the elder of the three dynasties and the three princes of the three dynasties. Therefore, the imperial court granted him the title of Duke of An Han in 1 AD.
You must know that there were almost no dukes in the Han Dynasty, and only a few people were made dukes, including Wang Mang and Cao Cao. At this point, Wang Mang has encroached on the etiquette system of the Han Dynasty, which is intolerable in any dynasty, but Wang Mang's power is too great, and others can't help him.
He oversaw all the imperial government and also emptied the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun. His fiefdom was raised to 28,000 households, directly catching up with the former dynasty's Grand Sima Huoguang. At that time, when Wang Mang refused this reward, as many as 487572 commoners and officials in the whole world wrote to Wang Mang to accept the imperial court's seal.
This is why later, during the Three Kingdoms period, when Cao Cao was made the Duke of Wei, a group of loyal Han ministers such as Xun Yu strongly opposed it. Wang Mang is a lesson from the past, and Wang Mang's head was still placed in the Luoyang treasury as a warning.
Become a national uncle. In 3 AD, Wang Mang married his daughter to Emperor Ping of Han, and the political performance was more interesting. Initially, Wang Mang said that his daughter would not participate in the election of the empress, but as a result, thousands of people from all over the imperial court came to Wang Mang's palace every day to ask Wang Mang's daughter to participate in the election of the empress, and the final result was of course as everyone wished.
Jaeheng debuts. The Manchu Dynasty Wen Wu felt that Wang Mang, the Duke of An Han, was simply comparable to the Duke of Zhou during the reign of King Cheng of Zhou, and even better than the Duke of Zhou. So in 4 AD, a new title was created for him, called Zai Heng (Yi Yin's title was A Heng, and the Duke of Zhou was Fang Zai), ranking above the three dukes. A seal was also engraved specifically for this occasion as a confirmation of its status and official position.
That Wang Mang also followed the practice of the Duke of Zhou in the Zhou Dynasty, repaired the Ming Hall (it only took 2 months to complete), built a taixue, set up a full warehouse, and recruited talented people from all over the world to serve in Beijing. After that, he added Jiuxi (everything was carried out according to the scriptures such as Zhou Guan and Li Ji), and presided over the Ming Hall sacrifice.
At this time, Wang Mang also began to gather Confucians to begin to formulate a system of etiquette and music belonging to the Han Dynasty. Saikae County (at that time, there were Donghae Gun, Nankai Gun), and Hokkai District, but only Saikae County was missing.
However, such a high position, some people still feel that it is not enjoyable. Thus began Wang Mang's path to emperor. How to be an emperor? It all starts with a fortune, because in Confucianism, the Furui sent down from heaven represents the will of heaven, that is, the destiny of heaven is inviolable.
First in 5 AD, someone found a white stone in a local well that "told An Han Gong Mang as emperor". Wang Zhengjun knew at first glance that the time was fake, and did not agree with Wang Mang to do this. So at this time, someone stood up and agreed, such as Taibao Wang Shun. So on May 17, Wang Mang began to be called Emperor Regent, also known as Acting Emperor.
Everything related to Wang Mang was added with a regent character, such as regent palace, regent hall and so on. At that time, the name of the year was changed to Ju Zheng. The knighthood was also in accordance with the practice of the fourth class and fifth class of the Zhou Dynasty fiefdom, and hundreds of people were rewarded at every turn. And the legitimacy of all this lies in the fact that the Duke of Zhou ruled on behalf of King Cheng of Zhou, as well as Yi Yin's banishment of Taijia to rule on his own in the Tong Palace, and so on.
Then in 6 AD, Liu Jing, an imperial family member of the Han Dynasty, wrote that he dreamed that the heavens said that "the emperor should be the true emperor." So Wang Mang ordered people to transport all these things to Weiyang Palace. But where is the legitimacy of this true emperor? They found a basis in the Shangshu Kangxu, saying that the Duke of Zhou had been regent and king. There is no mention in the Spring and Autumn, only the regent.
Finally, in 9 AD, there was a "Red Emperor Xingxi passed on to the Yellow Emperor Jince Book". This certain character refers to the ancestor of the Han Emperor Liu Bang. He also said that he had eleven men to assist him. So in this year, Wang Mang officially became emperor and established a new dynasty.
Wang Mang was declared emperor
Wang Mang's usurpation reminds me of a modern political term: nonviolent revolution. Because all this seems logical, the whole process is like "boiling frogs" and cutting sausages, and nonviolence means that there is little resistance in the process.
Of course, the most important thing is that in everyone's view, Wang Mang's usurpation not only has a theoretical and legal basis, but also does not adopt the violent revolution of successive dynasties. In the eyes of the world, this change of dynasty is more like the position of the Son of Heaven between the ancient holy king Yao Shun, which is in line with the most ideal state of Confucianism. This approach made Wang Mang's prestige and status more popular and heavenly.
Wang Mang's Path to Emperor: The Ideal Emperor in Confucianism
Because he is not only the third prince of the imperial court, but also the elder of the three dynasties, he supported the three emperors, and his status and merit are indeed unprecedented and unexpected. Coupled with the fact that he has an aunt Wang Zhengjun who is the Empress Dowager and the foreign forces of the Wang family, Wang Mang's career and future can be described as promising.
After he claimed that the emperor also found a good ancestor for himself, that is, Emperor Yu. As for how he calculated it, I won't go into details.
According to those Confucianists, even the Duke of Zhou and Yi Yin they worshiped could not compare with Wang Mang. Therefore, in their opinion, a sage like Wang Mang cannot be subordinate to others. He should be made emperor and lead the Confucians of the world to build a dynasty as perfect as the Zhou Dynasty, where the Duke of Zhou was located, a perfect dynasty in which Confucius pursued the rule of the etiquette system and the orderly order of superiority.
Only when he was a child, he followed the requirements of Confucianism, and put such requirements on his wife and children and grandchildren. Wang Mang's approach gave him a very high reputation and status in the DPRK and the people. His son mistakenly killed a slave, and Wang Mang forced his son to commit suicide, because in Wang Mang's view, human life is equal.
Not only that, after he mastered the official instruments of the imperial court, he not only built the Mingtang Palace in accordance with the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty, but also formulated the etiquette system belonging to the Han Dynasty in accordance with the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty. Even if it was a killing, he followed the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty.
For example, in the face of the rebellious prince Liu Chong, he demolished the palace where they lived and built a cesspool on it. Or the foreign forces Wei who killed the emperor, compared them to the rebellion of the Duke of Zhou to destroy Cai Wugeng.
The process of Wang Mang becoming emperor was accompanied by the act of heavenly ordination. Because in the view of Confucianism, we must "fear the mandate of heaven, the words of others, and the saints." From the earliest white pheasant to Mizui Shiraishi, and then to the Shushu Furui, there are a total of 12 times.
In particular, the lamentation, which directly and blatantly made a handbook saying that the ancestor of the Han Emperor, Liu Bang, made Wang Mang the emperor, all of this seems so absurd. But Wang Mang accepted it gladly. In order to make Fu Ming look real, he actually found a person who bought cooking cakes in the people to be his former general Chongxin Gong.
When he became emperor, in order to show the people of the world that he obeyed the heavens, he sent twelve people to the whole country to publicize those Furui Heavenly Mandate to all parts of the country, thus creating legitimacy for himself to represent the Han regime. Because of this, everyone began to frantically make talismans in order to obtain official positions and status.
After that, Wang Mang was even more obedient in the process of governing the country. For example, Black Dragon Stone asked him to move the capital, and he began to prepare to move the capital to Luoyang. When I heard that a flood had washed away the riverbank, it was explained that "taking soil town water" was an auspicious omen for the Xiongnu's demise, so I directly sent troops to fight the Xiongnu to death. Even for this purpose, civil engineering and so on, demolition of the palace and construction of nine temples.
Of course, speaking of this, it reminds me of 1,000 years after Wang Mang's death, when Wang Anshi shouted the loud slogan "The Mandate of Heaven is not enough to fear", which is a terrifying and terrible thing in the eyes of people who are deeply influenced by Confucianism. Therefore, Wang Anshi's change of law was collectively opposed and hated by people other than the emperor, and Wang Anshi was scolded by them as a traitor for 800 years after his death.
Since it is a legitimate and reasonable dynastic change, it should be a thriving new dynasty. How did it take only 15 years to overthrow it, and what was the reason for the failure?
Wang Mang's Defeat: The Holy Pilgrimage Dream offended everyone
We say that no matter what kind of emperor history is, it will not offend everyone, and there will always be some people who support him. But Wang Mang, the emperor, is powerful, he moved all the people cake, and really offended the people of the whole world. So what did he do to offend the whole world?
To say it well is the dream of the holy king and holy pilgrimage in his heart, and to say it badly is to act perversely. In his opinion, his own dynasty should be on par with the Holy Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty. How to do it? Let's start with a name change! He changed his name not only to the official title, but also to local names, as well as the names of surrounding ethnic minorities.
For example, according to the official position system of the Zhou Dynasty, the official positions that lasted for two hundred years in the Han Dynasty were all revised from top to bottom. For example, Da Sinong was changed to Xihe, Taichang was changed to Zhizong, Shaofu was changed to Gonggong, Jinwu was Fenwu, and so on.
The name change led to three huge problems that completely angered the bureaucracy.
The first is that the salaries of officials cannot be guaranteed. Because it was completely implemented in accordance with the official system of the Zhou Dynasty, it led to an increase in the number of state officials, and the official system was too complicated, so that a complex Yulu system was produced. This not only makes the administrative system unable to adapt for a while, but also the position is unknown, resulting in the normal payment of officials' salaries, and the salary of officials has been in arrears.
For example, each person below the secretary of state only has one horse or two horses of cloth a month. It was not until the fifth year of Tianfeng (18 AD) that the official salary began, from the lowest 66 Hu to the standard of Wan Hu. No way, everyone began to seek personal gain for themselves.
Then the name change led to confusion in administrative measures. For example, when changing a place name, the name of a place is often changed several times, up to 5 times. This change made it impossible for everyone in the world to get used to it. In the "Notes on the Classic of Water", the Northern Wei dynasty Daoyuan recounted a large number of place names that were changed by Wang Mang. There were thousands of changes, which made it impossible for the people living in the area to adapt, and the local officials of the imperial court could not adapt.
Finally, the normal office between officials is threatened. After he came to power, he used imperial power, and his suspicion of court ministers became more and more serious. Whoever dares to attack others, Wang Mang will use whomever he wants. Moreover, many officials privately raise soldiers and help them retaliate against other officials, resulting in conflicts between officials. In particular, people who have contributed like Laizhang were also reprimanded by Wang Mang.
Beating officials
Wang Mang himself acted arbitrarily, handling political affairs in every detail like Zhuge Liang. Eunuchs were appointed to head many important departments. In this way, the ministers of the DPRK and China are all at risk, and there is no peace. In this way, officials in the dynasty also began to resent Wang Mang.
The last straw that overwhelmed the camel's back was Wang Mang's edict to thoroughly investigate the property of officials, which led to the complete madness of officials.
Renaming minorities. For example, the Xiongnu changed to subordinate to slaves, Goguryeo was changed to Xiaguryeo and so on. Just when he sent officials to exchange seal letters with the Xiongnu, people did not take it seriously at all, and some even directly sent troops to rebel. This eventually led to the isolation of the Western Regions from the Central Plains in the fourth year of Tianfeng (17 AD).
Changing the name of the minority completely angered the Huns, so they began to harass the border. In a fit of anger, Wang Mang mobilized the resources of the whole country to gather 300,000 people from the 12th Route Army to attack and deter the ethnic minority forces in the north. However, the war did not take place in the end, in which not only the army could not be fully assembled, but even the supplies could not be supplied.
Of course, because the army that arrived there could not be restrained, they had to loot and loot in the local area, which became a new scourge on the border. After that, because the imperial court had no war for a long time, they were finally cut off from their homes. After these armies were reduced, the Xiongnu found themselves deceived and invaded the territory, and the imperial court could not recruit the whole country's army again.
Such a tossing back and forth made the world complain.
After Wang Mang came to power, he promulgated six economic policies to the world. These include the salt, iron and wine monopoly system, the government equalization system, the government lending system to the private sector, and the tax system for the use of national collective resources. These policies were reaffirmed nine years later. In fact, these economic policies had little impact at the time.
Because of the repeated changes of the currency, such troublemaking behavior completely deformed these economic measures of Wang Mang. During his administration, he changed the monetary system five times.
The big money of the Wang Mang era 50
- The first time was in the 7th year of AD (the second year of Juxing), and the re-minted currency was divided into 5000 wrong knife, 500 qiao knife, and 50 big money;
- The second time was in 9 AD (the year of his accession to the throne), that is, the sword coin was abolished (which means that the surname Liu of the Han Dynasty had perished, and the knife was part of the Liu character and should be abolished) and re-minted the small coin. Six minutes in diameter and one baht. Just like that, use big money 50, small money;
- The third time was in 10 AD, when money was simply abandoned and five grades of treasures were adopted. But no one enforced it, and everyone still used big and small money, and privately used five baht money. The whole country uses cloth money passes, and you can't go anywhere without cloth money;
- The fourth is to simply abolish large and small money, and use cloth to use with money.
Wang Mang's coinage
As an important medium for the normal functioning of society, money is indispensable in many aspects of the state. For example, the imperial court rewards and officials, military and soldiers pay wages in currency, peasants need money to buy agricultural tools and daily necessities, pay taxes, etc., industrial manufacturing needs money for various wages and product sales, merchants need money to do business settlement, and so on.
Therefore, this change to the currency is too frequent, and there is no standard that makes it illegible, and the resulting confusion makes people unusable and confused. Behind this monetary policy is a severe punishment system, which can be punishable by death. Finally, these policies were abolished a year before the fall of the new dynasty, but to no avail.
The Book of Han records that in fact, only five baht money is actually approved by everyone.
First the national land was reclaimed, the private ownership system was abolished, then the land was divided according to the well field system in the early Zhou Dynasty, and finally the land sale was banned. If this policy is strongly implemented, many people will benefit. However, the ideal is plump, and the reality is skinny. This allocation scheme may seem simple, but there are many problems that need to be solved.
Ida system
Because in his opinion, whether the whole country uses nine states or twelve states, he can't figure out for a while, so he has to put it on hold for the time being. Under the conditions of that era, Wang Mang could not even completely figure out the distribution and population of the country's acres, how to divide it? How do you count more points and less points? How to ensure that there are no more points and less points in the distribution process?
In fact, until the day Wang Mang was killed, his acre distribution system had not yet been implemented. Those princes who stayed in the capital and had not yet been sealed began to oppose him, because Wang Mang had always promised them that drawing bread could not be fulfilled. This was 9 years, and if he did not get a fief, he had to pay for it at the imperial court's expense.
The measures of dividing fields offended the powerful families of Arita at that time, including those who had titles in the imperial court. Among them were princes of the former Han Dynasty and princes of the New Dynasty. At the same time, the previously vassal princes were abolished and changed to duke, and the barbarian king's name was changed to hou.
All the princes of the Han Dynasty were changed to dukes, and then stripped of the seal and became commoners. Many Liu clans were given the surname Wang.
The most infuriating thing is that since you are engaged in reform, you will continue to do it. All policies became semi-pulling projects, such as name change, etiquette, etc., which were not fully implemented, so they had to continue to adopt the system of the Han Dynasty. Of course, this also included the prohibition of land and the slave trade.
Ancient farming farmers
Some people have analyzed that the well-field system was abolished hundreds of years ago, and it is certainly not feasible to use it now. So Wang Mang ordered the resumption of the sale of fields, without legal restrictions. Originally, people were happy to divide their fields, and they no longer worried that their fields would be forcibly bought, but after the method of prohibiting the purchase and sale of fields was abolished, everyone began to worry that their fields would be insecure, so that the farmers who cultivated the fields did not hate you?
The same is true, of course, with the abolition of the policy of banning the sale of civilians. Moreover, it is stipulated that those who raise slaves must pay 3,600 money, you must know that at this time, the gong's servant is 800,000 yuan per year, which means that if he raises 100 slaves, he has to pay half of the money a year.
The logic of everything in the end is that in Wang Mang's eyes, everyone is an anti-thief and a rebel thief. In the midst of the many opposition, the crime rate is getting higher and higher. For example, those who oppose the well-field system, those who secretly keep five-baht money, those who spread rumors that big money will be canceled, people who secretly hide slaves, people who buy and sell land, and people who make talismans indiscriminately. For example, for the currency problem, it is to use the joint sitting system, and five families mint money in one house. Many punishments are direct confiscation of official slaves.
In this way, there is such a situation, Anxin works at home but cannot pay taxes, behind closed doors but afraid of being minted by neighboring neighbors and sitting together, Anxin that doing business outside is basically punished by law, and those officials take the opportunity to harm the people. In such an era, everyone is at risk, and there is no way out except to rebel and become a thief.
At this point, whether it was the officials of the imperial court and the localities, or the businessmen, or the peasants who farmed, or the army who served as soldiers, they were all offended by Wang Mang, except for those Confucianists, of course. Of course, in the end, Confucian also abandoned him, and in the history of the next thousand years, whenever Wang Mang was mentioned, there was only one word in history books and articles: traitor.
It's familiar to you too, just like they scolded Wang Anshi later.
Wang Mang saw that people all over the world were against him, and he didn't understand why. Until the final sacrifice to the heavens, he was still complaining to God. What to do about it? So a lot of ridiculous things appeared.
Fangshi practice
For example, in the face of rebellious people, Wang Mang did not send people to encircle and suppress, but did a powerful fight to curse them. Then change General Ning Shi to General Geng Shi, thinking that there will be auspicious rui and tranquility in the world. After that, he set up the army according to the ancient rites of course, such as from 5 people to 25 generals, and then calculated that there were 13.5 million soldiers, and he really organized the army according to the requirements and issued orders to the whole country.
Food was expensive throughout the country, and he used spells to eliminate it. Self-soothing and cover-up, studying atrial techniques with Fangshi, and so on. In the end, he believed that he could remove the calamity by crying, and even led the ministers to cry in the southern suburbs.
Green Forest Chimei Uprising
The revelation given to us by Wang Mang's death
Wang Mang is still wondering when he dies, why did his dynasty become like this?
From Wang Mang to become an official to become an emperor and then to rule the world, everything seems to be completely according to the requirements of Confucianism, and he also governs the country according to the example of Confucian sages. He believed that if he pursued such a concept of governing the country, he would usher in a prosperous era of "the world is happy".
In fact, everything that Confucians are concerned with is a superstructure, and in their eyes, the underlying conceptual logic of the economic foundation is only a trivial thing, and it is not worth mentioning at all. It can be seen from their division of society into four classes: agriculture, industry, and commerce. However, it is what they overlook that makes them walk every step of the way, although based on good intentions, leading to the end result being out of shape and dragging their loyal fans into the abyss.
Western economist Hayek
Just like the wise saying of the Austrian economist Hayek in the 20th century: the road to heaven ends up in hell. Wang Mang used 15 years of emperor dream to tell us Chinese this truth 2,000 years ago.
This sentence seems to be a perfect personal ideal blueprint, but in fact there is a big pitfall. Because many people always take it for granted that as long as people follow this step, they can achieve it step by step.
After Wang Mang became a die-hard fan of Confucianism, he strictly followed the blueprint of Confucianism, first cultivated himself to make his private virtues impeccable, then the Qi family asked his family to do the same, and then he implemented the policy of Confucianism in his own position when governing the country.
Finally, he ascended the throne to level the world, of course, in the position of emperor, he still followed the requirements of Confucianism, and promoted the royal way of ruling the country with propriety, music, and benevolence, and everyone saw the final result.
In fact, Wang Mang's experience tells us that in the thousands of years of ideological inheritance of the Chinese nation, including Confucianism, we must not blindly believe that a certain idea can solve the problem perfectly. Future generations can only selectively inherit and carry forward according to the social reality in which they live, and it is by no means copying and perfectly copying. If so, the end result is waiting for failure.
Why would it be? Wang Mang has become a traverser in the eyes of people, and some people have made a careful argument that Wang Mang is Peng Jiamu, the scientist who disappeared in our country. Not only is the commentary made with a double fish, but three major pieces of evidence that are not in line with the times are also listed
One is the much-hyped Wang Mang's wife miniskirt incident. For example, according to the Book of Han, in 8 BC Wang Mang was already the third duke as a great sima. One day, his mother fell ill and many officials in the DPRK visited their families. When they arrived at Wang Mang's house, Wang Mang's wife came out to greet them.
Unlike everyone's gorgeous clothes and delicate makeup, Mrs. Da Sima was dressed without makeup. The clothes he was wearing were not dragged to the floor, and the apron made of coarse cloth reached the knees. The people next to everyone told everyone that this was the honorable Mrs. Da Sima, and everyone knew that the family members of the original Da Sima were so simple! Isn't it the same as a slave's dress!
Modern waistband
Many people think that Wang Mang's person let his wife wear a miniskirt, which is completely inconsistent with the dressing requirements of women in that era, and this Wang Mang must be a traverser. In fact, Wang Mang himself was deeply influenced by Confucianism, was strict with himself and his family, and dressed plainly at home. And his wife's dress is not a miniskirt, but a layer of cloth as an apron after wearing Hanfu, just like the waist that modern people wear when cooking.
The second is the invention of the bronze vernier caliper. In 1992 in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, a cultural relic - bronze caliper - was unearthed in an ancient tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was listed as a national first-class cultural relic because of its preciousness. Its structure and dimensions are very similar to those used in modern industry. Many people have used it in Wang Mang's era according to historical records, proving that Wang Mang invented this caliper, which also shows that Wang Mang is a traverser.
A bronze caliper excavated from a tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty
Who invented the bronze vernier caliper? The role of this vernier caliper is mainly to measure various data of the item, including length, width, depth and so on. Around 300 BC, the Qin state implemented the Shang Martingale Transformation Law, and one of the important measures was the unification of weights and measures. Moreover, after the Qin Dynasty unified the world, continuing to implement this measure throughout the country was also one of the important achievements of Qin Shi Huang.
So since unified weights and measures is to make a national standard measurement tool, how to do it? That is, there must be a very accurate measuring tool, and the bronze vernier caliper is this type of tool. In fact, not only that, including the various weapons and tools manufactured by Qin Shi Huang to unify the world are very standardized production, can it be done without such tools?
weights and measures
Therefore, it is likely that this caliper was invented and widely used 300 years ago. Is there anything wrong with Wang Mang's use?
The third is the many policy strategies proposed during his reign. Keynesian-like economic measures such as equalization, state lending, and so on. Most of the measures were used before Wang Mang, and all of Wang Mang's measures were obtained from books.
What book? One is "The Tube". The protagonist described in the book, Guan Zhong, a talent who helped Qi Huan to become hegemonic, is currently recognized as the first economics master in the mainland. He launched the first economic war in Chinese history.
In addition, less than 50 years after Wang Mang's birth (81 BC), in the court of the Han Empire, a top debate tournament was held by elites from all over the country. And this debate was recorded by later generations, which is the ancient Chinese economic book "Salt and Iron Theory" that has been passed down to this day. The person who wrote this book is Huan Kuan.
I think that as long as the people in the world read these two books, and then look at Wang Mang's six economic measures, it is really not worth mentioning. In fact, after reading "Salt and Iron Theory", you will find that Wang Mang is an economics poor student. Like the Confucians in the book, he looked down on government officials represented by Sang Hongyang.
What is strange is that one Taoist book and one is a political secretary, whether Wang Mang really read it carefully, I doubt that he has read it but has not studied it thoroughly.
In addition, seemingly advanced economic measures and ideas like Wang Mang are not ahead of their time. Those ideas contained the same policy of governance that Confucianism had always pursued, such as emancipating slaves, prohibiting the slave trade, and dividing land equally. Since Wang Mang is a diehard fan of Confucianism, he will definitely implement these political blueprints pursued by Confucianism, and there is nothing wrong with it.