The emergence of the three kingdoms can be said to be a state in which the rise of the clan was blocked by the Han clan and once interrupted. Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Sun Wu all faced the clan power within their borders. The different policies adopted by the three countries on the issue of the clan also caused the different fates of the three countries.
In his later years, Emperor Sun Quan of Wu was a series of major cases against the clan, especially the "seizure case" involving many clan members caused by the "Nanlu Dispute" on the issue of establishing heirs, which can show us the context of the struggle between the rulers and the clan clan in the Wu regime under Sun Quan.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, "Nanlu Dispute"</h1>
In the later years of Sun Quan's reign, due to the premature death of the eldest son Sun Deng and the second son, Sun Quan was crowned the third son and crown prince in the fifth year of Chiwu, and in August of the same year, the fourth son was made the King of Lu. There was no difference in etiquette between Crown Prince Sun and Sun Ba, the Prince of Lu, and they lived in the same palace, which aroused the discussion of the courtiers. The courtiers wrote letters one after another, believing that there should be a difference between the crown prince and the king of the domain. Sun Quan ordered the two to divide the palace and set up their own subordinate officials, and Sun Ba began to resent Sun He, and also opened a dispute between the two princes. History is called the "Nanlu Controversy".
Sun Ba privately befriended many ministers and organized the framing of Prince Sun He. Sun He also fought against Sun Ba, with the support of a large number of ministers. Because many ministers and generals were involved in this political struggle, it caused another political turmoil during Sun Quan's reign.
In the end, when Crown Prince Sun and Sun Ba, the deposed prince, were ordered to commit suicide, there were many ministers who died or lost power due to the struggle between the two sides, which can be said to have brought a devastating blow to the stability of Sun Wu's political situation.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the divergence and unity of the family</h1>
Whether it was Lu Xun, Gu Tan, Wu Cang, Zhu Zhao, Zhuge Ke, Teng Yin, Shi Ji, Ding Mi, and others who supported Crown Prince Sun He, Bu Qi, Lü Dai, Quan Chun, Lü Zhao, and Sun Hong, or Zhu Zhao, Qu Huang, Zhang Chun, Quan Shu, Wu An, Sun Qi, Zhuge Qi, Yang Zhu, and others who were cited as confidants by both sides, almost all of them were of clan origin.
The clans of the two factions can not be simply distinguished by geographical division, because zhuge ke and Ding Mi, which are typical northern overseas Chinese, are also actively linked with the native clans of Wudi in the two factions, and even the phenomenon of Zhuge Ke and Zhuge Qi's father and son each supporting one person. It can be said that the clan, regardless of any identity and region, actively participated in this two-house conquest, and most of them only chose the object of support based on their own estrangement from their own relatives, and there was no factional dispute within other clans.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, Sun Quan and the clan</h1>
The reason why the ministers within Sun Wu's regime only supported them with relatives and estrangement, regardless of region, on the issue of establishing heirs accurately reflected Sun Wu's political environment and the delicate relationship between the monarch and his ministers at that time. In particular, lu xun, who was the prime minister, and Lu Xun, who was the first local power, were involved, indicating that the entire group of ministers had reached a level of solidarity with the issue of establishing an heir. Sun Quan's attitude toward his courtiers and the means he ultimately chose in dealing with this issue also illustrate the contradiction between the attributes of Sun Quan's family and the clan.
1. The special attributes of the Sun Quan family
Sun Quan's inheritance in Jiangdong was established on the basis of his father and brother. His father, Sun Jian, was a famous military general at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Fuchun people of Wu County, according to legend, after Sun Wu, were officials for generations. It can be seen that Sun Jian was born into the Shu clan or a weakened clan, and the family has served as local officials for several generations, and has not served as a central official or local official.
In the early years, Sun Jian's family was ostracized by several other clans in Wu County, causing Sun Jian to be exiled to rely on military merit to gradually rise. It can be said that sun wu's rulers formed an entanglement with the clans of Jiangdong at that time.
After Sun Jian's death, Sun Ce briefly defected to Yuan Shu and, relying on the support of Zhou Yu and Sun Jian's subordinates, formed an army to return to Jiangdong and eventually occupied Jiangdong. It can be said that Sun Ce relied on Sun Jian's old team and his own huaisi group to create the Jiangdong foundation. Moreover, in the course of years of conquest, Sun Ce killed the Jiangdong clan, especially the Lu family of Wu County, and Lu Kang, the Taishou of Lujiang, died at the hands of Sun Ce.
This also caused the Jiangdong clan to keep a long distance from sun wu in the early days of Sun Wu, adopting an attitude of not resisting but not cooperating. Therefore, before being assassinated and dying, Sun Ce entrusted Zhang Zhao and Zhou Yu of the Huaisi clique to assist Sun Quan, and left Jiangdong with the will to return to Huaishang when he could not gain a foothold.
2. The compromise between Sun Quan and the Jiangdong clan
Sun Quan was only eighteen years old when he succeeded, and the entire regime was in a typical state of suspicion of the lord and the state. In order to quickly get rid of this unfavorable situation, Sun Quan took advantage of the conquest opportunities of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao in the Central Plains to choose relative neutrality, alleviating external oppression; he adjusted the combination of various forces in the inward-looking ruling area, and quickly recruited a large number of native clans to serve as officials.
After giving military, economic and political rights to all ethnic groups, the political situation in Jiangdong was unified in a very short period of time, and it won unanimous support within the territory. After that, he attacked Huang Zu in Jiangxia three times, and finally killed Huang Zu, took revenge on his father, and took the initiative in political public opinion. However, at this time, Sun Quan's position was still unstable, and the clans in the territory were clearly divided into two factions, and Sun Quan could only maintain a balance between the two factions to achieve the purpose of maintaining his rule.
3. Relying on the drawbacks of clan rule
After the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan carried out many military operations in order to further unify the forces in the territory, especially the clan forces in Jiangdong. In order to maintain the unity of military operations, hereditary powers were given to the armies led by members of the clan. This promoted sun wu's military operations at that time to attract the active participation of the clan, but it also laid the groundwork for the later clan to focus on maintaining the family's military strength and ignore the regime.
Except for the infiltration of Jiaozhou after the Battle of Chibi and the capture of Jingzhou on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Sun Wu's subsequent foreign military expansion all ended in failure, and even Lu Xun, known as "Zhou Lang", did not seize new territory for Sun Wu. This made Sun Wu's military operation not aimed at seizing the other side's land, but at gaining the population to increase the strength of his own clan, and the Jiangdong clan was obviously more enthusiastic about the crusade against Shanyue than for the world, because the parts obtained from the crusade against Shanyue could be organized under their command.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > IV. Struggles and Defeats between Sun Quan and the Clan</h1>
Sun Quan's early compromise with the Jiangdong clan resulted in Sun Wu's regime being more similar to the aristocratic feudal state of the West, a loose form of state with a common monarch composed of many nobles. When Sun Quan realized the harm of this form, he took relative measures to save it, such as supporting Lü Yi to suppress the clan forces by raising a great prison.
Although it suppressed the rise of the clan to a certain extent and withdrew some of its power, it also caused the reunity of the clan within the territory. Sun Wu's clan no longer used the past geographical division, nor did it use the native clan and the overseas Chinese as a boundary barrier, but formed a unified interest group that directly faced the imperial power. The emergence of this situation was unexpected by Sun Quan.
1. Sun Quan's initial attempt
When Sun Quan first began to emerge, he attempted to use imperial power to forcibly eliminate the influence of the clan. In the seventh year of Chiwu, Sun Quan detected rumors of discord between the crown prince and King Lu, and immediately ordered the two not to have contact with foreign ministers, and the scope of activity was limited to the place of residence and the place where they handled daily affairs. Because at this time, shortly after the Lü Yi incident, there was an urgent need for a stable environment within the regime, and it was not suitable for large-scale integration and struggle.
In addition, Sun Quan has already attacked a number of overly powerful clans through the Lü Yi incident, and there is no longer a need to forcibly suppress other clans. But this effort to settle the dispute was doomed to failure, as the princelings and the Lu royals in the clan had begun to attack each other and influence the clan members. They all saw the opportunity as an opportunity to elevate their political status. Thus the party struggle within the clan continued.
2. Sun Quan used the clan to fight
Sun Quan changed his strategy after seeing that this dispute could not be eliminated by cold means, and used the mutual attack and suppression in this party dispute, executed a number of clan members, and took the opportunity to promote the clan and clan members who preferred him, especially those who were close to his own political views.
Sun Quan first suppressed the main members of the princelings during the attacks of the two factions, Gu Tan, Gu Cheng, Lu Yin and others were exiled and deposed, Lu Xun was also forced to commit suicide in sun quan's repeated accusations, and the crown prince was eventually deposed. When the political balance favored Sun Ba's party, sun ba was suddenly executed, and the main members of lu's party, Wu An, Sun Qi, and Yang Zhu, were also convicted and killed. In the end, the issue of establishing an heir ended with the young sun Liang being made crown prince, and the overseas Chinese zhuge Ke and The patriarch Sun Jun, who advocated the Northern Expedition, jointly assisted the government.
3. The ultimate failure of Sun Quan's strategy
Sun Quan's struggle to suppress the clan forces can be said to be the result of both defeats. Although Sun Quan temporarily suppressed the opposition in the clan, he also paid a painful price for the deposing of the crown prince and the suicide of King Lu. Lu Xun, the most militarily talented of the clan, and a large number of talented civilian and military generals were also killed or exiled, which was also a huge loss to Sun Wu's regime.
In the end, the situation was only that Sun Quan's younger son Sun Liang was deposed and eventually killed after seven years on the throne, and the auxiliary chancellor Zhongzong Emperor Sun Jun killed Zhuge Ke of the overseas Chinese tribe to monopolize power, which was exactly the opposite of Sima Yi of Cao Wei killing Cao Shuang.
After Sun Jun's death, Sun Qi continued to dominate the power, causing collective opposition from the clan and the sixth son of the new emperor Sun Quan, Sun Quan. After another coup d'état, Sun Qiu was killed, and Sun Xiu briefly took control of the regime. However, when Sun Xiu died of illness, the clan collectively disobeyed Sun Xiu's will and established Sun He's son Sun Hao as emperor. It can be seen that the clan forces at that time have re-emerged and reached the point where they can control the new monarchs.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Comparing the development trajectory of the cao wei and sun wu clans, it can be said that it is surprisingly consistent. After being suppressed by Cao Rui or Sun Quan, they all experienced a period of silence, such as Sima Yi's feigned illness and Zhuge Ke's killing. But when the time was ripe, he did not hesitate to regain power and even kill the emperor.
It can be said that Sun Wu's example can show that even if Sima Yi lost to Cao Shuang, other clans would continue to rise and eventually replace Cao Wei. Sun Quan's struggle with the clan in the issue of establishing heirs was also like this, although a certain degree of victory was temporarily achieved, but in the end it was revived by the clan, but only temporarily delayed the rise of the clan.