The Western Jin Dynasty, in fact, has a weak presence in China's thousands of years of ancient history, mainly because it was a short-lived dynasty, from 266 AD to 317 AD, the third emperor and four emperors, a total of 51 years, before doing anything and hurriedly perished. Many people in later generations attributed the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty to Emperor Jin Hui, saying that Emperor Jin Hui was a fool, and the most famous allusion is that the ministers under him reported that the people were in a famine, and the people had no food and starved to death, and Emperor Jin Hui said, "Why not eat minced meat"? Therefore, many people say that because of Emperor Hui of Jin's dementia, foreign relatives and princes seized power, and the Rebellion of the Eight Kings broke out, which eventually led to a serious weakening of national strength, and finally broke out the Five Hu Chaos, and the Western Jin Dynasty perished.
But is that really the case? Is Emperor Jin Hui a foolish emperor? Did the civil unrest in the Western Jin Dynasty break out because the emperor was a fool and was easily controlled by foreign Qi and princes? The real historical fact is most likely not the case.
First of all, Emperor Jin Hui was not really this fool. The history books say that Emperor Hui of Jin only said the allusion to "why not eat minced meat", this allusion comes from the "Book of Jin, Emperor Hui", but this history book also records such a story, in the Battle of Swinging Yin in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, Sima Yue, the king of the East Sea, held Emperor Hui of Jin hostage and fought fiercely with Shi Chao, Sima Yue was defeated, and the personal safety of Emperor Hui of Jin in the defeated army was also seriously threatened, at this time, Ji Shao, a close attendant around him, stepped forward to protect Emperor Hui of Jin, but Ji Shao himself died, and blood even splashed on Emperor Hui Jin's clothes, Later, the incident calmed down and the attendants prepared to wash the emperor's clothes, and Emperor Hui of Jin said, "This is the blood of the Ji attendants, don't wash it off". Being able to say such words shows that Emperor Jin Hui is not stupid. And the reason why he said the words "why not eat minced meat" is because he grew up in the deep palace and failed to experience the life of ordinary people, plus he was surrounded by a group of sycophants, who were blinded to the real situation.
Secondly, the direct cause of the Western Jin Dynasty was the destruction of foreign tribes in the Wuhu Rebellion, and in 316 AD, Liu Yao, who was of Xiongnu descent, attacked Chang'an, and the Jin Emperor surrendered, and the Western Jin Dynasty perished. The main reason is the long-term internal friction of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, in fact, almost all of the royal family in the late Western Jin Dynasty participated in the civil war, not only the eight kings at all, but these eight kings fought the most ruthlessly. So what caused the Rebellion of the Eight Kings? The fundamental reason still lies in the Sima family, from Sima Yi, Sima Shi Sima Zhao's brothers to Sima Yan, these founders of the Western Jin Dynasty led to the tragic end of the Western Jin Dynasty.
As we all know, the Western Jin Dynasty of the Sima clan originated from Cao Wei, and although Cao Wei also captured the rivers and mountains of the Han Dynasty, at least Cao Cao and Cao Pi's father and son were still very talented, and they also treated the last emperor of the Han Dynasty well. The Sima family is different, and the reason why Sima Yi was able to control the power of the late Cao Wei period was not that Sima Yi had the image of "eagle eyes and wolf Gu" as said in the TV series, but that he was very good health. Sima Yi lived to be 72 years old, and survived the death of the three generations of Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Rui, you must know that these three generations of the Cao family are very successful monarchs, and a bunch of famous courtiers and generals who were able to suppress the Sima family during the Cao Wei period were all burned to death by Sima Yi, it can be said that Sima Yi easily got the hairy boy of the Cao family Cao Shuang in the change of Gao Pingling with Gao Shou.
The Sima family had been firmly in control of the Cao Wei regime from the late Sima Yi period to Sima Zhao, and later the late emperor of Cao Wei, Cao Xin, could not stand the well-known "Sima Zhao's heart" and decided to attack Sima Zhao, only to be stabbed to death by Jia Chong's subordinate Chengjidang Street halfway. This kind of open murder of the monarch set a bad example, which also directly led to the notoriety of the Sima family in the public opinion and history books of the time. Sima Zhao did not deal with this kind of unscrupulous matter well, but simply pulled Chengji as a scapegoat, and did not do anything to the initiator Jia Chong, which further aggravated the sins of the Sima family. Therefore, the Sima family, without the moral high ground, adopted the method of a reign of terror, punishing opponents in the form of destroying the three tribes, and then adding officials to the knighthood of those supporters, acquiescing to their corruption and a series of illegal acts. Although this dark way of ruling helped the Sima family successfully gain the world, the price paid by later people was also very heavy.
The Western Jin Dynasty spread to Sima Yan's generation, and the corruption and extravagance and waste within the country had reached a very serious level, but Sima Yan did not make any decent changes. Originally, according to the agreement, Sima Yan should pass the throne to his younger brother Sima Yu, because Sima Zhao's brother Sima Shi (posthumously named Emperor Jing of Jin) had no heirs, so Sima Zhao passed his son Sima Yu to Sima Shi as heir, originally Sima Zhao was going to pass the throne directly to Sima Yu, but because Sima Yu was too young at the beginning, he was succeeded by his brother Sima Yan, and agreed that the throne would pass to Sima Yu after Sima Yan's death. Sima Yu is actually very famous and capable. However, Sima Yan later repented, made Sima Yu the king of Qi and ordered him to leave the state capital and return to the fiefdom, causing Sima Yu to eventually die of indignation.
After Sima Yan's death, he was succeeded by his son Sima Xin, who was Emperor Hui of Jin. When Emperor Hui of Jin succeeded to the throne, there were Yang Jun family of the Empress Dowager Party, Jia Nanfeng family of the Empress Party, and a bunch of royal kings outside, these forces completely emptied Sima Chen, even if he was not a fool, in this situation, it was estimated that it would be difficult to survive if he did not learn from his predecessor Liu Chan to pretend to be a fool. Later, several major forces fought with each other, and finally evolved into an internal struggle in which the eight Sima families were killed and killed, and the people who fought were not happy, and finally let the poor Hu people in the north take advantage of the void to pick up the cheap, so Chinese history also entered the era of five chaotic China, and it was more and more difficult for the Han nation to survive in the north.
Therefore, the fundamental reason for the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty was that the Sima family seriously trampled on the social and political morality at that time, which seriously damaged the social atmosphere, resulting in panic within the country, good people were hiding in the bamboo forest to take drugs, and bad people were poor and extravagant in the court.