Author: Our special guest author Lu Wu
If Jia Yi had not died young and only lived for 33 years, the history of the Han Dynasty and even China might have been different.
Jia Yi, a native of Luoyang (present-day LuoyangDong, Henan), was a famous political commentator and literary scholar in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, known as Jia Sheng.
Taking the current standards, Jia Yi can definitely be regarded as an outstanding young man in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, a proper "scholar bully", and it has been recorded in the literary history: Young and talented, at the age of eighteen, he was called by the people of the county with good literature.
As a good young man who studies well, Shitu is Jia Yi's most ideal and correct upward path.
Sure enough, at the age of 21, on the recommendation of his teacher Wu Gong, he was summoned to the central government by Emperor Wen of Han Liu Heng and appointed as a doctor, that is, the emperor's think tank personnel, responsible for giving advice. Since then, Jia Yi has stepped onto the stage of political activities.
From entering the political arena at the age of 21 to his untimely death at the age of 33, the time is not long, just 12 years, but Jia Yi left behind political, economic, people's livelihood, national defense, and diplomatic heritage abounds, after his death, his ideas and policies were still implemented by the Han Dynasty, making great contributions to the strength and prosperity of the Han Dynasty.
<h1 class="ql-align-center" >, with grain in hand, and not panicking</h1>
In the Zizhi Tongjian Han Ji V, many of Jia Yi's views on the agriculture of the Han Dynasty at that time were recorded. The text records: Han is Han, forty years, the accumulation of public and private, it is still sad. That is, unfortunately, there is a drought of two or three thousand miles, and the country and Hu are sympathetic to each other?
Jia Yi was very worried about the atmosphere of emphasizing business over agriculture in the early Han Dynasty. Forty years after the founding of the Han Dynasty, the national treasury and private grain storage were still pitifully small, while commerce was becoming more and more prosperous, and more and more people gave up farming and threw themselves into the tide of economic construction of the Han Dynasty.
"Once the sky does not rain on time and there is a drought, what do we need to do to help the people?" Suddenly there is an emergency on the border, millions of soldiers need to be recruited, what to take to supply military supplies? War and drought occur at the same time, the country's financial resources can not cope with it, the roar gathers and plunders, the food is changed, the world will be in chaos, if it develops to this point, how can it be stopped? ”
Jia Yi's three questions greatly worried Emperor Wen at that time, and eventually, Emperor Wen issued an edict to hold a ceremony of "borrowing the field", that is, the emperor personally went down to the field to cultivate and set an example for the people of the world, and this ceremony continued until Emperor Wen's death.
Tianzi all went to the ground to work, and this was also earned, so the upward and downward effects, officials at all levels went to the ground, and the status of agriculture in the early Western Han Dynasty continued to rise.
It can be said that sufficient grain reserves played an important role in the stability of the early Han Dynasty, and also enriched the national strength of the Han Dynasty in a short period of time, laying a solid foundation for the southern conquest and northern war in the late Han Dynasty.
<h1 class="ql-align-center" > two, the mighty princes and the weak center</h1>
Han Gaozu's ancestor Liu Bang called himself empress, and he divided Liu's sons into various places and claimed the title of king, in addition to being a reward for the clan relatives who had followed him for many years of conquest, more importantly, in order to strengthen the rule of the whole country, "fight the tiger brothers, fight the father and son soldiers", for the clan relatives who flowed with Liu clan blood, he still trusted a little more.
Regarding the shortcomings of the princes, Jia Yi's propositions were recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian Han Ji VI. Jia Yi comprehensively analyzed the relationship between the princes and the central government to Emperor Wen, and proposed measures to continuously divide the princely states to weaken the princely states and send the princes out of the capital to his own fiefdoms, but Emperor Wen only adopted a part.
In the end, during the third year of Emperor Jing, the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu proved the correctness of Jia Yi's analysis of the princes.
After quelling the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, Emperor Jing took the opportunity to weaken the power of the local princes, so that they could only pay taxes and lose the right to directly govern the kingdom.
When Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty came to issue the "Tui En Order" proposed by his father, allowing the princes to divide their fiefs into several pieces and divide them among their sons, thus actually dispersing and weakening the power of the princes, which was the full implementation of the policy of "building the princes and reducing their strength" put forward by Jia Yi.
The policy of "building princes and building up the princes with less strength" reflects Jia Yi's advanced thinking, although it played little role in the reign of Emperor Wen, it was finally realized during the reign of Emperor Jing and Emperor Wu, and played an important role in the long-term peace and stability of the Han Dynasty.
< h1 class="ql-align-center" > three, the competition for the right to issue money</h1>
Great power wars are often competing for the right to issue global reserve currencies, and the era of metal currencies is mainly for gold and silver.
More than 2,000 years ago, Jia Yi's economic thinking should not be underestimated, and he also knew the importance of the right to issue money. According to the Zizhi Tongjian Han Ji VI, Emperor Wen ordered the abolition of the ban on private money minting.
When Jia Yi heard this, he was greatly worried and immediately went to Emperor Wen, who advised Emperor Wen on whether the law was good or evil, from the drawbacks in the coin minting process, from the difficulty of central government management, and from all aspects of the power to issue coins, but Emperor Wen did not adopt it.
The direct consequence was that the Han Dynasty coins were not unified, the circulation of coins was not smooth, the gap between the rich and the poor was more serious, and some princes and princes issued coins, and the wealth expanded rapidly in a short period of time, indirectly providing sufficient funds for the later rebellion.
Until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the private minting of money was finally abolished, and the central government began to uniformly mint money and recovered the right to issue money.
< h1 class="ql-align-center" > four, Taoguang yang obscure diplomacy</h1>
In the position of dealing with the Xiongnu, with the national strength of the Han Dynasty at that time, it was certainly not possible to be tough. At that time, Han Gaozu's ancestor Liu Bang personally led a large army to attack the Xiongnu, and as a result, the siege of Baideng, if it were not for Chen Ping's dedication, would almost not be able to return, so the early Han Dynasty would implement a policy of peace and pro-family.
Jia Yi believed that he and his relatives could not stop the Xiongnu from invading, and put forward the strategic idea of combining Confucianism and law, that is, "german warfare": "serving the four Yi with great virtue", supplemented by the technique of "three tables and five baits", the core idea of which is Taoguang and obscurity.
On the whole, Jia Yi's propositions are still far-sighted, and they have the effect of subjugating soldiers without fighting, as exemplified by the beauty plan of the Yue King, and then there is the model of Emperor Wen of Sui dividing the Turks. The book of soldiers has the cloud attack heart as the top, the siege of the city as the bottom, Jia Yi can be said to be well versed in its way.
However, this set of obscure diplomatic theories did not apply to the environment at that time, and the core problem was the weakness of the Han Dynasty's national strength and its inability to afford such a huge foreign expenditure.
Although Jia Yi was confident in his measures to subdue the Xiongnu and was willing to carry out his plan himself, he was unable to make the trip.
However, Jia Yi's strategy was not completely useless, and after that, this policy won the peaceful environment for the Western Han Dynasty for more than 30 years of domestic construction, and also laid the foundation for Emperor Wu's eventual victory over the Xiongnu, and Jia Yi made such an outstanding contribution to the long-term peace and stability of the Western Han Dynasty, which made Emperor Wu of Han very grateful.
Throughout Jia Yi's 12-year political career, although he was slandered and degraded, he did not ascend to the position of secretary of state, and did not fully display his ambitions, but his forward-looking thinking, excellent insight, accurate judgment, and outstanding contributions were unmatched by the secretaries of state at that time.
Wang Anshi's evaluation of him was very pertinent: a momentary plan was implemented, who dao king Bo Jiasheng. The title is self-exalted, and the ancient He is the Secretary of State of Wan.
His untimely death was indeed a huge loss for the Han Dynasty.
Reference: Zizhi Tongjian
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