Three Kingdoms Chronicle 0043: The last powerful emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Ling Emperor
The author of this article is the depths of dusk, and the editor-in-chief is Sasha, if reprinted, please be sure to indicate
Emperor Ling of Han, courtesy name "Emperor Xiaoling of the Eastern Han Dynasty", was the twelfth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, reigning from 156 to 189 AD.
Friends who are familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms should not feel too unfamiliar with this Spirit Emperor. He was the father of the last two emperors of the Han Dynasty, The Young Emperor of Han, Liu Xie, and Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han Xian. It was during his reign that the "Yellow Turban Rebellion" broke out on a grand scale and swept the whole country, resulting in a series of disasters in the world, the division of the feudal towns, and greatly damaged the prestige of the Eastern Han Dynasty court...
It was also after his death that important events such as He Jin's dictatorship, eunuch counterattack, and Dong Zhuo's entry into Beijing occurred. As a result, the prestige of the Eastern Han Dynasty was swept away, and from then on it became a puppet, and the world also entered a chaotic era of division of the masses...
That is to say, if you want to interpret the "Three Kingdoms Era", then the Han Ling Emperor is absolutely indispensable. He was not only the last real emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty (the subsequent Young Emperor Xiandi was a puppet), but also the supreme ruler in the Eastern Han Dynasty from peaceful to chaotic, from prosperity to decline. To some extent, he was the founder of the chaotic beginning of the late Han Dynasty.
Today, let us open the historical records to restore the Han Ling Emperor, the last real power emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Look at how he pushed the 400-year-old Han Dynasty to the brink of collapse during his reign of more than two decades in power.
Emperor Ling of Han, whose real name was Liu Hong, was the grandson of Emperor Liu Zhi of Han (the third emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty), but was not the son of Liu Zhi, emperor of Han. According to historical records, Emperor Huan of Han was debauched and promiscuous, and died of a healthy overdraft at the age of thirty-six, leaving no heirs (but several daughters).
After the death of Emperor Huan of Han, since there were no descendants to inherit the throne, the foreign relative Dou chose Liu Hong, who was in the "Hejian Kingdom" and hereditary "Marquis of Xieduting", to inherit the throne...
It can be seen that Liu Hong's ascension to the throne was completely "established" by others, and the person who established him was not the royal family surnamed Liu, but the Dou family as a foreign relative... This also directly proves that Liu Hong's innate inadequacy as an emperor is completely the product of foreign relatives interfering in politics. At the same time, it is also largely determined that Liu Hong's subsequent imperial career will inevitably be wrapped around the factor of "foreign relatives".
Sure enough, when Liu Hong just ascended the throne, Dou Wu, the great general of the Dou clan, was greatly praised for his meritorious support for Liu Hong. Other clans of the Dou family have also been added to the rank of knight, making power tilted for a while, and there is a tendency to "take over the government of the world". Not only that, Dou also contacted Chen Fan and others to prepare for a formal war with the eunuch clique, plotting to list the charges and arrest the powerful among the eunuchs, such as The Yellow Gate Order Wei Biao...
However, Dou's plan was not supported by the majority, but was instead gained the favor of the eunuch clique and launched a coup d'état on September 7 of the first year of Jianning (168 AD). As a result, Dou Wu, Chen Fan, and others were exterminated, and the people of the Dou family were either killed or sent to exile to barbaric places such as Jiaozhou... It can be said that this vicious struggle, known in history as the "September Coup", was a comprehensive victory for the eunuchs, and even such a respected person as Empress Dou was relocated to Nangong Yuntai to live.
That is to say, when Emperor Liu Hong's throne was not yet hot, a bloody "dispute between relatives and eunuchs" occurred in the court... It's just that the result of this struggle doesn't seem to be bad for Liu Hong. He was originally the emperor supported by the Dou clan, but his purpose was only to use him as a puppet to satisfy the political purpose of his own foreign relatives and domination of the government.
Now, didn't the rapid fall of the Dou clan give Liu Hong the opportunity to really ascend to the throne and seize the power of the emperor? Even people can't help but guess that this coup d'état itself was launched by Liu Hong himself, and the purpose was only to use the power of eunuchs to eliminate the foreign relatives in power...
This is certainly not possible. Because at this time, Liu Hong was only about ten years old, just a child who had not even grown fully hair. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, he was not the son of Emperor Huan of Han, and he did not live and grow up in the imperial palace at all in his childhood, let alone have any power and supporters in the dynasty. Just imagine, a doll who had just come from abroad and was ignorant of the idea of bringing the capital to the capital immediately organized a coup d'état, which was too far-fetched to say...
But in any case, once the Dou clan was removed, there was a power vacuum in the imperial court, and Liu Hong officially got rid of the control of foreign relatives, and began his ruling career of more than 20 years. Objectively speaking, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, where the emperor was generally short-lived and the imperial throne changed frequently, this reign time was already relatively long. That is to say, Liu Hong's ruling time is still relatively abundant, which is enough for him to exert himself and do a good job.
However, in the literature records of later generations, the evaluation of the Han Ling Emperor was inseparable from keywords such as "favoring eunuchs", "fainting and incompetent", and "selling officials and lords". Even Dong Zhuo, who was later brutal and ruthless, did not have any good words when talking about the Ling Emperor (the Book of Later Han records: Dong Zhuo: The Lord of the World, It is advisable to be wise, and every time he reads the Ling Emperor, it is infuriating! ）。
Is this really the case? Liu Hong, the Emperor of Han Ling, is really just such a useless, absurd, and does not ask about political affairs, but only knows the fish and meat people?
I'm afraid the problem is not so simple. We should still judge it as objectively as possible according to the detailed record of the 21-year reign of the Han Ling Emperor in the history books.
First of all, was the Han Ling Emperor really completely faint and incompetent?
At least, he has made some contributions to culture.
According to historical records, in the fourth year of Xiping (175 AD), Liu Hong, at the suggestion of his ministers, ordered Confucian masters to correct the text of the Five Classics. He also asked Cai Yong to write in three fonts: ancient Chinese, Great Seal, and Lishu, and carved it on a stone stele and erected it outside the Taixue Gate, which is called "Xiping Stone Classic" in history.
Since then, the Five Classics have had a standard version, providing readers with a model of Confucian classic textbooks, and later Confucian descendants can use it as a standard... It can be said that the engraving of the Xiping Stone Classics created a precedent for the Stone Classics of Chinese dynasties, inspired the invention of the later pounding method, and also had an indirect impact on the invention of printing technology later.
In the first year of Guanghe (178 AD), Liu Hong set up the Hongdu Gate, which was not only the earliest junior college in China, but also the earliest literary and art college in the world. In this school, the Confucian classics were not studied, and in the Han Dynasty, when "Confucianism was exclusively respected", the old concept of Confucian classics as the only educational content was changed.
According to historical records, HongduMenXue recruited a large number of civilian children to enroll, and thus broke through the class of nobles, landlords and other classes, monopolized the school's resources, so that the commoners could also get the opportunity to display their talents. There is no doubt that this is still of great progressive significance in the ancient times of feudal society. Even the imperial examination system in the later Sui and Tang dynasties, as well as the establishment system of various specialized schools, also learned from it.
In addition, Liu Hong himself is also quite accomplished in literature, not only likes calligraphy and song, but also leaves a lot of famous sentences. He himself created works such as "Huang Xi Chapter" with a total of fifty chapters, and later pitied the crown prince Liu Xie for having no mother when he was young, and then remembered Wang Meiren and created "Chasing Virtue Endowment" and "Ling Yi Song". "Han Poems" also contains his works: "Merchant Song".
It can be seen that the Ling Emperor is still quite insightful in the field of culture. He has taken various measures in this regard and made considerable reforms, all of which seem to be of considerable progressive significance even now.
However, to evaluate an emperor, it is natural that we cannot start from a narrow perspective such as personal talent and cultural expertise. In essence, the emperor is the supreme ruler of the country, and politics is the main business. There were more talented emperors in history, but because of this, they did not do the right thing, and eventually led to the corruption of the country, and there were not a few (Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Zhao Tuo, the Emperor Huizong of song, Xiao Xuan, the Emperor of Liangyuan of the Southern Dynasty, etc.).
And what did the Han Ling Emperor do in court politics?
Naturally, it cannot be linked to the word "good", but it cannot be simply summarized by the word "faint".
As mentioned earlier, Liu Hong's ascension to the throne is actually "congenital deficiency". He was originally the Marquis of Xieduting in the Hejian Kingdom, and since his grandfather's generation, he has been far away from the court, and he cannot say that he has any foundation in the dynasty. The dispute between the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the fall of the monarchy have long been around. What can he change as a "foreign emperor"?
To put it bluntly, the only thing he could do was to try his best to move between the major forces of foreign relatives, eunuchs, and courtiers, to mediate their relations and balance their interests. When everything is settled, wait for the opportunity to seek a breakthrough and let the power really return to the hands of the emperor.
In fact, Liu Hong has also made considerable efforts in "political reform."
Internally, he set up a small group of his own, the Shizhong Temple, to directly handle some government affairs, bypassing the bureaucracy of the foreign dynasty and the sphere of influence of eunuch interference.
Externally, he also created a system of recusal of officials called the "Three Reciprocal Laws", which forcibly restricted the relationship between relatives and families and could not become officials in the other state and county.
In addition, there is a so-called "two-state" recusal system: for example, if a person in A state serves as an official in state B, then during the term of office of A, a person from state B cannot serve as the governor of state A, and vice versa.
Not only that, Liu Hong also let the sons of Liu Shihou enter the dynasty as officials, and used the power of "imperial relatives" to oppose foreign relatives and eunuchs. At the same time, he also vigorously reused the students of Hongdu Gate School, making them serve as assassins, Shangshu, and waiters, so that these children from civilian origins could also have the opportunity to become officials...
It can be seen that the Han Ling Emperor was still quite bold in his political reforms. He was bent on reshaping the imperial program and re-establishing the royal prestige during his reign, so that the Eastern Han Dynasty could return to the "right track".
However, the idea is good, but the reality is helpless. As the saying goes, freezing three feet is not a day's cold, and the political problems of the Eastern Han Dynasty over the past hundred years have long been deeply rooted, and is he alone, who can easily solve it in a short period of time?
To put it bluntly, what Liu Hong took from Emperor Huan of Han was a mess full of holes. Officials at all levels are corrupt, they are making a lot of money, and droughts, floods, locusts, and other disasters are rampant everywhere, and there are complaints everywhere, and the people are not happy about their livelihood... This is only an internal problem, and externally there are many powerful enemies such as Xiliang, Xiongnu, Xianbei and so on...
Just imagine, such a severe internal and external situation, so many problems are complicated, I am afraid that even if Emperor Wu of Han is reborn, he will have a headache. Not to mention the Han Ling Emperor whose ability and foundation are far inferior to the former?
In fact, the various political reforms of the Han Ling Emperor did not have any good effect, but on the contrary, they led to a large number of oppositions and triggered a new round of contradictions. For example, his reuse of the students of Hongdu Gate School caused the opposition of the original Taixue Confucian students, refusing to be with them and doing everything against them.
Coupled with the original eunuchs and foreign relatives, not only the organization is huge, but also the influence is staggered, making the Han Ling Emperor completely lonely and difficult to sound... As a result, it has accumulated diseases and is difficult to cure, the government and the opposition have turbulently changed the Eastern Han Dynasty, and now new contradictions and antagonisms have been introduced, which will only accelerate the consumption, and there is little vitality left...
In the end, Liu Hong found that the only eunuchs he could rely on most were the eunuch eunuchs who were closest to him and seemed to be the most obedient. Helplessly, he could only follow the old path of the previous emperors - favoring eunuchs. Thus, during his reign, the number of eunuchs increased more than in the previous dynasty, to the point of dazzling.
He even broke through the regular system and appointed twelve eunuchs as zhongchang attendants at a time, which is the origin of the famous "ten permanent attendants" in history.
Next, we will talk about the most notorious thing left in history about the Han Ling Emperor - selling officials and knights.
The so-called sale of officials means to overthrow the previous system of promoting officials, such as "raising filial piety and honesty, gathering the people's hopes," and instead directly collecting money and using money to "buy." In fact, this kind of thing was not uncommon in ancient Chinese feudal society, and it could even be regarded as a way for the feudal dynasty to make up for financial difficulties by allowing the people to donate money and goods to the state in order to obtain knighthood and official positions.
As early as the pre-Qin period, in order to alleviate the crisis of insufficient grain stocks and ineffective disaster relief during the locust plague, Qin Shi Huang collected grain from the rich families in China. Afraid that the forced expropriation would chill the hearts of the big households, they threw out a gimmick of "donating grain for knighthood", which opened the head of selling knighthoods in Chinese history.
Later, in the Han Dynasty, the Han Jing Emperor also used this trick, and even came up with a new trick of "the criminals donating grain to atone for their sins", so as to collect the excess grain of the domestic family and use it where it is more needed. After that, Emperor Wu of han, in order to support the huge consumption of grain and grass needed by the Northern Expedition against the Xiongnu for many years, also paid for the knighthood in exchange for the grain donated by the rich and powerful households...
However, objectively speaking, "knighthood" and "official position" are different. Titles are more similar to "honorary titles", although they have some political influence, but they do not have real power. Qin Shi Huang, Han JingDi, Emperor Wu of Han, etc., used their titles as sales products, but they still did not have much impact on the country, but had a certain degree of impartiality.
To put it bluntly, if I have made meritorious contributions in fighting a war, I should be awarded a military meritorious knighthood; when an official has made political achievements, he should be awarded a meritorious military merit; then, I should donate the grain and money that my family has painstakingly saved to the country and help thousands of other poor people, shouldn't I get the honor of "meritorious service"?
However, at the beginning of the Huan Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the "selling of knighthoods", which was not exaggerated in the past, began to change towards "selling official positions".
According to historical records, during the Huan Emperor's period, domestic natural disasters were continuous, and the border Xiongnu frequently harassed, while the national treasury was empty, the tax revenue was weak, and it was not enough to rely on the money that used to sell knighthoods. Moreover, in the hundreds of years before the Han Dynasty, the sale of knighthoods had been sold too widely, and people and families with knighthood honors were already commonplace and not easy to fool.
In order to get more money from the people and maintain the national treasury and the national economy, Emperor Huan of Han came up with the method of "selling officials" and obtained huge benefits in a short period of time.
However, the hidden dangers of this move are also very large, not only fundamentally corrupting the official system of the Han Dynasty, but also deepening the exploitation of the people at the bottom to a large extent. Because official positions are different from titles, official positions have real power, and they can also use the power in their hands to make profits and realize.
To put it simply, since official positions and powers can be bought with money, it is equivalent to acknowledging that official positions and powers can also be used to earn money. It is even more tacit that the past illegal acts such as embezzlement and bribery, exploitation of the people, etc., are legal...
Or to put it bluntly, the person who bought the official spent a lot of money to sit in this official position and grasped the corresponding power, then he must definitely find a way to get back the money spent on the official. How to get it back? Of course, it is just taking bribes, embezzling money, and fishing for the people...
However, the Han Huan Emperor's "selling of officials" and other such things were basically just an emergency measure, and they were not officially put on the table, but were carried out in a semi-secret way, and the scope of the impact was still relatively limited.
However, by the time of the Han Ling Emperor, the act of selling officials was completely expanded and made public. It was even publicly announced through the official tone that it was possible to spend money to buy positions from the Marquis of Guannei to the subordinates of Guangluxun, Such as Tiger Ben and Yulin...
Not only that, but there are also various regulations for selling officials, such as: local officials are twice as expensive as court officials; county officials have different prices; and officials must also pay money according to the price for promotion. Even, there is a similar "bidding" activity today, where those who seek officials can evaluate the bid, and the person with the highest bidder can win the bid...
There is no doubt that this model of openly selling off officials is simply a very absurd method to undermine the state system of the Eastern Han Court. Many rich and powerful people who have no official skills have sat on the throne of official positions at all levels; and those who originally had a deep understanding of the people's feelings and the ability to govern were frightened by the high "official fees" and abandoned their official positions and left...
Obviously, the consequences of all this will eventually be borne by the common people. In particular, the large amount of silver money spent by the buyers of officials must be recovered from the common people... Originally under the influence of natural and man-made disasters, the people who had difficulties in living and eating were now exploited to death by this system of selling officials and living, and they cried out all over the place...
From the perspective of posterity, The Han Ling Emperor's move was undoubtedly stupid and short-sighted. It also makes people wonder why the monarch of a country in the halls of fame did such a thing that self-destructed the government and the people.
According to the explanation generally agreed by later generations, the Han Ling Emperor was for his own pleasure and profligacy, so he used this way to obtain the capital of his "absurd drunken dreams and deaths".
It is true that Liu Hong's private life is indeed very chaotic.
According to historical records, he liked to amuse the inner court, and when he saw the donkey and felt new, he drove a small donkey cart to play in the palace every day. Many bureaucrats and doctors in Beijing have followed suit, and the price of private donkeys has risen sharply for a while...
And the eunuchs also threw themselves into their favor, found a dog, dressed up, put on a crown, wore a court dress, wore a ribbon, and then in the early morning, swayed and swayed to lead the dynasty... You know, in the early dynasty, when the national military aircraft was discussed, the civil and military officials were all under the ranks of the imperial palace, and at this time, a dog was brought over and dressed as a courtier, which was a naked humiliation of the Manchu Dynasty' civil and military affairs.
Instead of getting angry, Liu Hong clapped his hands and laughed and praised: "What a dog official!" Except for the eunuchs, the whole audience was very embarrassed, but they dared to be angry and did not dare to speak...
Liu Hong also likes to play the simulation game of "going deep into the folk", ordering people to imitate various simulation scenes such as streets and markets in the harem. And let the palace concubines go in and play various roles, some of them dressed as various merchants and vendors, and the other part dressed as customers and passers-by who bought things...
In addition, there are singing, monkey tricks, acrobatics... He himself put on the clothes of a merchant and pretended to be a merchant selling goods, walking around in this man-made bazaar, or drinking in a hotel, or quarreling, fighting, fighting with shopkeepers and customers, so that it was not lively...
In terms of female color, Liu Hong certainly can't be left behind, and he built a garden named "Naked Pavilion" in the West Garden, with as many as a thousand houses in between. Green moss covers the steps, canal water circulates around the thresholds, and the canal is planted with huge lotus flowers from the south.
Then he ordered the palace ladies to strip naked and chase in them, and as for himself, he also participated in it from time to time, and the concubines of the palace were happy...
However, was the money that Emperor Han Ling obtained by selling officials really all spent on pleasure?
In fact, according to historical records, as early as the beginning of the Han Ling Emperor's public sale of officials, he designed a very complete system, and there was a special account to store this money. Although the history books do not indicate the use of this money, according to the available data, this huge amount of silver, except for part of it in the West Garden for royal expenses, was mostly used for some things that the Han Ling Emperor himself wanted to do.
For example, the aforementioned "Hongdu Gate Study", and the purpose of the Han Ling Emperor to engage in this academy is to a large extent to establish a team of "Tianzi disciples", so that they can become officials at all levels, and use this to control the whole world... Running a school costs money, recruiting a large number of non-governmental people to enroll, and even more needing the Han Ling Emperor to pay for it himself, and the cost in the meantime is undoubtedly huge.
According to historical records, it is probably not a coincidence that the Han Ling Emperor's implementation of the "selling of officials and knights" and the preparation of the "Hongdu Gate Study" occurred in the same year (Guanghe Yuan year, 178 AD). The biggest possibility is that the Han Ling Emperor used the money obtained from selling officials to run the Hongdu Gate School and cultivate his own people...
In addition, the history books also record that at that time, many people who relied on spending money to buy officials and held high positions did not take the lead for long, and were deposed by the Han Ling Emperor by various means (such as Cao Cao's father Cao Song, who spent a huge amount of money to buy a lieutenant for only seven months).
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What was Emperor HanLing trying to do?
In fact, this is also part of his "political reform". On the one hand, he used the sale of officials to accumulate wealth and enrich the treasury of the imperial court; on the other hand, he used the sale of officials to frequently purge officials at all levels and crack down on the rich and powerful clans; on the other hand, he used the money obtained from selling officials to establish a loyal and loyal "SS army" (Hongdu protégés, and later the Xiyuan Army) on both the civil and military sides...
I have to say that Liu Hong's idea is really strange enough. In order to realize his "imperial power" and promote his own political ideas, he chose such an extremely risky path. First "broken" and then "new", first "messed up" and then "governed", this brain hole, open up really big enough...
However, in the end, we also know what the result will be...
In the seventh year of Guanghe, that is, in 184 AD, the Yellow Turban Rebellion that surged throughout the country broke out, causing the Han Ling Emperor to panic at once. I have to say that he had completely misjudged the degree of decline of his country and the degree to which the people of the world could bear the pain of political reform. Selling officials and knights, Hongdu Menxue... These methods of reform, which he thought were drastic, had already reaped devastating consequences before they had achieved any results.
As we all know, the so-called political reform can only be carried out smoothly under the premise of national tranquility and stability. After such a disturbance as the Yellow Turban Uprising, the reform of the Han Ling Emperor could only be a miscarriage in the middle of the way, and the fetus was stillborn...
In order to quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liu Hong had to stop the hongdu menxue plan and once again use a large number of foreign relatives (how to enter, He Miao, etc.), scholars (such as Huang Fusong, Wang Yun, Lu Zhi) and so on. Most of the money he had earned from selling official titles was also used to suppress the rebels.
Not only that, in order to make up for the lack of military strength of the imperial court to quell the chaos, Liu Hong also ordered the various states to be too defensive and recruit troops to quell the chaos. This undoubtedly delegated the power of the imperial court to the local government to a large extent, resulting in a large number of feudal towns and divisions, so that the whole country supported the army to respect themselves, and no longer fully followed the orders of the imperial court.
On the other hand, Emperor Hanling also had to rely more heavily on the eunuch clique around him, because due to the influence of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the imperial court's control over the local area had weakened. Moreover, the power of the foreign relatives and the scholars has once again become stronger... At this moment, the eunuchs have undoubtedly become the only weapon that the emperor can use against them...
However, at this point, it seems that it has not yet reached the time of despair.
After all, at this time, the Han Ling Emperor was still in control of the real power in the imperial court. As the Yellow Turban Rebellion subsided step by step, he also gradually walked out of his previous "hedonistic" life in West Garden. At this time, he was only in his mid-30s, and he was in his prime, so he should still have enough time to continue to clean up his stalls and slowly realize his political reform intentions.
However, perhaps because of the previous absurd pleasures, liu hong's body was overdrawn; or perhaps because of the "emperor's short-lived curse" that the Eastern Han Dynasty had always had, Liu Hong's body soon declined.
According to historical records, in October of the fifth year of Zhongping (188 AD), Liu Hong was also able to ride a horse and hold a sword to review the army, hold a military parade ceremony in Luoyangping, and call himself the "Supreme General". Only half a year later, in April of the sixth year of Zhongping (189 AD), Liu Hong died at the Nangong Jiade Hall, ending his 21-year career as emperor at the age of 33...
What is more serious is that due to the influence of various reasons, Liu Hong failed to determine his "heir to the throne" before his death. This led directly to leaving a worse stall after his return to heaven, and thus induced a series of problems that followed...
Why didn't emperor Han Ling have an heir until his death? Because the emperor is not an ordinary person, the issue of the emperor's heir directly determines the candidate for the next emperor, not just making a decision and writing an edict, which can be easily solved.
Throughout ancient Chinese history, under the centralized system of feudal society, the decision to choose the "prince" identity will involve the interests and purposes of all forces, the balance between various power groups, and will also affect the future trend of the country and the rise and fall of honor and disgrace, and even determine the direction of history...
Especially in the era of national turmoil and social instability, the process of selecting the crown prince of the country is on the cusp of the storm and is full of bloody struggles. On the surface, it is only a matter of the emperor choosing an heir, but secretly, all forces will use this as an opportunity to seek their greatest political interests, and will do some terrible things by all means.
We know that Emperor Hanling had two sons, one was the older brother Ofe Emperor Huan born to Empress He, and the other was the younger brother of Wang Meiren. Since Wang Meiren had previously been poisoned by Empress He (who was still He Meiren at the time), the Crown Prince was raised by his grandmother, Empress Dong, the mother of Emperor Hanling...
Liu Hong actually knows the advantages and disadvantages of his two sons very well.
Although Liu Wei was older, because he grew up outside the palace in his early years, he was not influenced by the royal atmosphere, resulting in cowardice, frivolous behavior, and lack of kingly spirit. On the contrary, although Liu Xie was young, because of the good royal education he received from childhood, he showed a quick wit, cleverness, prestige, and dignified behavior at a young age.
Compared with the eldest son, Liu Xie, Liu Xie was undoubtedly a better candidate to inherit the throne. Because he has the ability and quality to be an emperor, it is more reassuring to hand over the country and mountains to his hands... As far as Chong Liu Hong let his mother personally raise Liu Xie after Wang Meiren's death, he was obviously more inclined to Liu Xie between his two sons.
However, as just said, the issue of establishing an heir involves all aspects of consideration, as well as the balance of interests of all forces, so Liu Hong has also been undecided. After all, the "primogeniture inheritance system" is a tradition set down by the ancestors, as the saying goes, "abolish the long and young, take the way of chaos", if Liu Hong dares to easily break the traditional system of inheritance of the eldest son, it is easy to cause chaos and cause a series of problems.
What's more, Liu Jie's mother was empress dowager, and her uncle He Jin was a great general with military power, and he had been presiding over the work of suppressing the Yellow Turban Rebellion and deterring the princes of the world. Under the grim situation in which the fire of the peasant uprising in the whole country was still completely extinguished and the states and counties in various places supported the army and respected themselves, the He family, as a foreign relative, was an important weight that Liu Hong used to balance the situation in the whole country. If liu xie is casually discarded and Liu Xie is made crown prince, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the He family, lead to turmoil in the DPRK and China, and perhaps cause great chaos in the world...
Moreover, liu xie's support forces were too small, and empress dowager Dong and her family, Dong Zhong, and others, whether in military and political ability or in the middle of the dynasty, could not compare with the He family. Although it is possible to rely on the power of the eunuch clique, because in the past few decades, the eunuchs have been in power, and several emperors have favored them, resulting in the scholar group and the common people being extremely disgusted with the eunuch clique, and the opposition is extremely loud...
What should Liu Hong do?
In fact, the problem facing Liu Hong is a dead end. Li is not, not standing is not, Li Liu is not, Li Liu Xie is not... This matter was hesitant, procrastinating again and again, and accidentally dragging it until he was seriously ill and dying.
However, although he was seriously ill, Liu Hong's brain was still not confused. He first expanded the organization of his own guards unit "Xiyuan Army", set up "Xiyuan Eight Lieutenants" (among whom we are familiar with Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Chun Yuqiong, etc.), and appointed the leader of the eunuchs, his confidant Jian Shuo, as the commander of the Xiyuan Army. And took the opportunity to transfer He Jin out of the capital and go to the northwest frontier to serve as a grand official of the overseers...
It can be seen that Liu Hong was still partial to his youngest son Liu Xie in the end, and finally decided to use the power of the eunuch party to help Liu Xie ascend the throne and inherit the unification. This shows that he considered the problem from the perspective of his "Liu family royal family" and was willing to pass the throne to a son who was more talented and more suitable to be an emperor.
To put it bluntly, if Liu Hong passed the throne to Liu Wei, then I am afraid that the Liu family would have a hard time turning over. Liu Xie's personality is weak, lacks opinion, and is unable to run the government, making it clear that he is only a coward and can only be a puppet. At that time, whether a foreign relative is in power or a eunuch is in power, he can only be the nominal emperor, manipulated by others everywhere, like a marionette pulling a string to make people call...
What if the throne was passed to Liu Xie? Although it will lead to the recurrence of the "dispute between relatives and eunuchs" and trigger turmoil in the court, it will also further deepen the position of the eunuch clique in the dynasty; it will also cause dissatisfaction among the people of the world and bring more opposition voices...
However, with Liu Xie's ability, he can be independent and autonomous after adulthood. Although it may not be possible to completely suppress eunuchs and foreign relatives, the actual power of the Eastern Han Dynasty will once again return to the hands of their Liu family. But at least, he will not be easily manipulated and willing to be a puppet of the power group. The worst, can also become an emperor with real power, will not be worse than his father Liu Hong...
However, things always turn out unexpectedly.
Liu Hong also did not expect that the progress of his plan to support his youngest son, Liu Xie, was far from catching up with the speed of his physical decline and deterioration. Coupled with the fact that He Jin did not eat his strategy of "moving the tiger away from the mountain", under the pretext of insufficient troop strength and the need for time dispatch, he dragged it down like this...
Not only that, the "West Garden Army" that he had high hopes for was also co-opted and bought by He Jin (the Lieutenants of the West Garden Military Academy, such as Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, all of whom were relatively close to He Jin), instead appointed by Liu Hong, the commander of the West Garden Army, Jian Shuo, and gradually lifted up (later when He Jin eliminated Jian Shuo, the West Garden Army had no objection)...
What happened later, everyone knows.
When Liu Hong swallowed his last breath and cried out for his life, it was when He Jin led his army into the palace, and added his body to Liu Hong's yellow robe and embraced the throne.
In this regard, the "dispute between relatives and eunuchs" in the Eastern Han Dynasty was staged again, and soon intensified, entering a white-hot point. Kill Jian Shuo, force Empress Dong to die, summon the princes qin wang... He Jin pressed the eunuchs step by step, and there was a great tendency to completely eliminate the castration clique. And the eunuchs fought back desperately, summoning He Jin into the palace under the guise of Empress He and secretly killing him...
Next, there were events such as eunuchs threatening the emperor to flee, Dong Zhuo entering the capital to hegemony, and the crusade of the combined forces of the princes... The world of the Eastern Han Dynasty finally ushered in the chaotic world of the masses rising together and warlords fighting...
In summary, how should we evaluate the Han Ling Emperor, the last real power emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty?
Is he worthy of the title of Ming Jun? Of course not.
During his reign, his life was absurd, he coveted enjoyment, favored eunuchs, and was incompetent in governing the country, dragging the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was already weak in the wang, to the point of collapse, and naturally could not be named "virtuous".
So, is he a dimwit? It can be said, but it cannot be simply summarized by the word "fainting".
It should be said that his literary talent and his deeds in the "reform of the education system" are still obvious to all. Moreover, in the course of his administration, he had many ideas and carried out bold political reforms.
Of course, his ideas and models of reform, from the perspective of our descendants, can be described as strange and absurd... In the two-pronged way of "selling officials and knights" and "Hongdu Menxue", on the one hand, the old officials were purged, and on the other hand, the new officials were replaced... Not only did it take a huge step, but it also completely misread the current situation of the country and overestimated the limits that ordinary people could bear.
Perhaps, it is also unfair to attribute the reason for the eventual collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Han Ling Emperor alone.
After all, the problem of the dynasty has been around for a long time, and the hundreds of years of foreign relatives interfering in politics and the dictatorship of eunuchs have long accumulated sharp social contradictions.
However, the Han Ling Emperor was also duty-bound. It is precisely because of the absurd reform ideas and absurd governing concepts during his reign that the previous contradictions and problems have not been resolved, but have been further sharpened and expanded...
Perhaps, if the Han Ling Emperor was really just a "faint" emperor, he only knew that he coveted pleasure and did not think about the government. Then the Eastern Han Dynasty, under the simple toss of eunuchs and foreign relatives, may be able to survive for a few more years, and will not perish so quickly.
However, it is because of his "fainting" that so many things will be tossed out. In the end, the remaining vitality of the Eastern Han Dynasty was exhausted, and the entire country was on the verge of destruction...
PS: Regarding the Han Ling Emperor's nickname "Emperor Xiaoling", what does this "filial piety" and "ling" character mean?
In fact, there is nothing to explain, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, except for Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, and Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Guangwu, all of the others have a "filial piety" character in their complete titles. For example, The Han Jing Emperor - full name "Han Xiaojing Emperor", The Han Wu Emperor - full name "Han Xiaowu Emperor", Han He Emperor - full name "Han Xiao and Emperor" and so on.
As for the word "spirit", according to the ancient interpretation, it is "chaotic without damaging the spirit". This is a "vicious rumor" that represents the corruption and absurdity of the government during his reign.
Historically, monarchs with the nickname "spirits" were not good things... For example, Jin Linggong (training dogs to kill ministers, and eventually being killed), King Chu Ling (good waist, Jianzhang Huatai, and finally hanged himself), Qi Linggong (arbitrarily abolished, causing civil unrest), Cai Linghou (killing his father, and eventually being booby-trapped) and so on.
And this spiritual character of the Han Ling Emperor represents the absurd behaviors of selling officials and lords, spoiling eunuchs, and fornicating the court during his reign.
I have to say that this "spirit" nickname is still very compatible with him...
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