In 316, Liu Cong conquered Chang'an and captured Emperor Shu of Jin, declaring the destruction of the Western Jin Dynasty. On the surface, it was Liu Cong, a Xiongnu, who destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty, and it was the Rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty that weakened the strength of the Western Jin Dynasty, but in fact this was only a very superficial reason. And the reason for the real demise of the Western Jin Dynasty was foreshadowed in the Han Dynasty.
The Xiongnu who destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty were the Southern Xiongnu annexed during the Western Han Dynasty
Emperor Wudi of Han killed all sides, and all the surrounding Hu people did not submit. Moreover, the Western Han Dynasty after Emperor Wudi of Han was a dynasty without a national gate, and it was also very tolerant of the Hu people. For example, the attached Southern Xiongnu nobles were given the surname Liu, which is the same surname as Liu Che, the emperor of Hanwu, and the surname of the country.
In fact, the great achievements created by Emperor Wudi of Han made the Han Dynasty rise to the world. In addition to the Southern Xiongnu, there were also ethnic minorities such as Xianbei, Wuhuan, Di, Qiang, and Qiang, who lived with the Han and were basically sinicized. For example, Liu Yuan, who founded the Xiongnu Han state, served under Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu. Originally, he was loyal to the Western Jin Dynasty and completely sinicized and accepted Han culture. But he couldn't stand the foolishness of the people around him, and finally established the Xiongnu Han state as the orthodox heir of the Shu Han. Of course, the Xiongnu Han state is a historical name, and the regime established by Liu Yuan is called the Great Han. Interestingly, the Di people in Sichuan rebelled before Liu Yuan, established a regime called Cheng, and later changed it to Han, also claiming to be the rightful heir of Shu Han.
Why mention the Xiongnu people attached to the Han Dynasty, because it was the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty who brought the Hu people into the interior. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, he was still a strong general, and in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the country was broken and the people were not living, and under such circumstances, Cao Cao could still conquer Wuhuan in the north and win a great victory. Gongsun Yuan can also beat Hu people all over the ground to find teeth, and Zhang Liao, Sima Yi, and others can easily abuse Hu people. Therefore, the Hu people were in awe of the Han Dynasty. To make a living under the nose of the big man, it is natural to clamp his tail.
The Rebellion of the Eight Kings took advantage of the Hu people and gave the Hu people the opportunity to grow
After more than ten years of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, Sima Yue, the king of the East Sea, finally won. However, in the past ten years, the princes and kings within the Western Jin royal family fought fiercely, which seriously harmed the military, economy and people's livelihood of the Western Jin Dynasty. Among the eight kings, there are not a few who use the power of Hu people to help themselves stand and help the field. To put it bluntly, the Hu people attached to the Two Han Dynasties all worked for the Han people. When it came to the Rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty, the status of the Hu nobles was suddenly high, because the princes and kings needed them during the Rebellion of the Eight Kings.
In layman's terms, it is the two Han soldiers who are strong and brave, put the Hu people around them to death, and basically completely assimilate them into the Han people. Even at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, even during the Three Kingdoms, the Hu people did not dare to make trouble. But whenever he made a fuss, he was beaten fat. But when it came to the Western Jin Dynasty, the royal family fought between each other, and the final victor Sima Yue treated the Hu people and the military mediocrity and incompetence. Therefore, the Hu people attached to the two Han Dynasties were slaves and laborers, but in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the rabbit suddenly turned into a jackal. In the vernacular, if you can suppress the Hu people attached to it, the Hu people are sheep; Can't suppress the attached Hu people, Hu people are wolves. In this sense, the bane of the Five Hu chaotic China was first planted by Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, and the two Han Dynasties constantly had Hu people attached to the Han Dynasty.
The great infighting of the Western Jin Dynasty actually caused no less harm to the people than the Five Hu Chaohua. The five hu chaos is the result of the Western Jin Dynasty's inability to suppress the Pandora's box of the Hu people inside. In fact, the Western Jin Dynasty's great internal fighting strength was insufficient, and the wolves were lured into the house, which stimulated the ambition of the Hu people.
Emperor Wudi of Jin copied the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of the Western Han Dynasty
Sima Yan, the emperor of Jin Wu, did not learn the lesson of the early division of princes and kings in the Western Han Dynasty, and due to the division of the Western Han Dynasty, the power of the princes was not restrained, and eventually the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms occurred due to the military power in the hands of the clan kings. Similarly, the princes and kings divided by Emperor Wu of Jin also had military power. Once the princes and kings have military power, when conflicts of interest arise between the princes and kings, and when there is a struggle for power, it is inevitable that the military will be in trouble.
In fact, the pot that the princes and kings had independent military power could not all be handed over to Sima Yan, the emperor of Jinwu. Because it was still in the Wei period, the Sima Yi family continued to appoint people from their own family to collect military power. For example, Sima Yi's brothers Sima Kui and Sima Fu. In the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, Sima Qi, King of Hejian and Sima Yue, King of the East Sea, were the grandsons of Sima Fu and Sima Kui, respectively.
Because the princes had independent military power, this weakened the military power of the states and counties, and the states and counties had to rely on the princes militarily, and even politically to the princes. To put it bluntly, the military power of the state has actually become the personal army of the princes. This is also why after more than ten years of fighting in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Western Jin Dynasty did not have much decent military strength.
In fact, the number of Hu troops who destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty was not large, such as Liu Yuan, who established the Han state, and had an army of tens of thousands of people. Shi Le, a member of the Qiang tribe, also rolled 30,000 or 40,000 people and dared to claim the emperor. Although the number of Hu troops is not large, there are no public soldiers in the states and counties, only the private soldiers of the princes and kings, how can you resist. Therefore, a rogue-style army like Shi Le can casually attack cities and land north of the Yangtze River, burning and looting, and the main attack is that there is no national army in the prefecture and county. After the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, the Western Jin Dynasty was a shell in military terms except for the hundreds and twenty thousand elite troops in the center.
As Sima Yue, who mastered the army of the Western Jin Dynasty, was militarily incompetent, more than a hundred thousand elites could not defeat Liu Cong's thirty or forty thousand, the Western Jin Dynasty did not perish, is there still heavenly reason?
You look at what those readers were doing during the Wei and Jin dynasties
Those who like literature must be unable to bypass the Jian'an poetry school from the late Eastern Han to the Wei and Jin dynasties, as well as Jian'an literature. But at the same time, we have to mention a quiet talk style that readers in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, which was a disaster for the country. What is called clear talk, to put it bluntly, it is to put it bluntly, it is to swing the dragon gate array, Kan Dashan, and talk on paper.
Readers in the Wei and Jin dynasties liked Qinggao, and talented learning must be used in metaphysics and Qingtan. Just as the so-called empty talk misleads the country, these high-ranking readers must refuse when the state recruits them to be officials, otherwise they will not be able to show your high quality. The most typical is the former Shu Han official Li Mi who uttered the idiom of "standing in a shadow", and the ruler of the Western Jin Dynasty recruited Li Mi into the dynasty as an official because of filial piety, and he was stunned to write a sincere, emotional, and touching "Chen Qingmei" to refuse to be a minister.
The seven sages of the bamboo forest, meeting is Kan
In a sense, in the Western Jin Dynasty, those famous men were not keen on being officials, but keen on gathering a group of people all day to brag about the skin, which also led to the fact that the ruling class of the Western Jin Dynasty had few capable people. After all, there are so many vacant positions in power, and those who have talent are not available, and those who are mediocre will definitely go up. After Sima Yue took control of the imperial government, he wantonly promoted and appointed his own cronies, but these of his own people could only be used as slaves, not at all.
Epilogue:
Even if there was no Rebellion of the Eight Kings in the Western Jin Dynasty, as time passed, the kinship between the princes and kings continued to fade, and the friction between the princes and kings would continue to increase. Just like the blood princes of the Western Zhou Dynasty, they will attack each other after a long time, and eventually they will lead to the end of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings. Because since the Western Jin Dynasty Emperor Sima Yan, the next emperors are all puppets. The imbalance of power will inevitably be contested by all parties, and eventually the dynasty will change. All kinds of chaos in the late Eastern Han Dynasty will be staged in the Western Jin Dynasty.
The demise of the Western Jin Dynasty planted the root of the bane from the Western Han Dynasty. The rulers of the Western Jin Dynasty made frequent moves and constantly introduced the Hu people into the whirlpool of battle, allowing the Hu people to accumulate strength. At the same time, the rulers of the Western Jin Dynasty fought each other internally, causing disasters one after another, self-destroying the Great Wall and abolishing their martial arts. All this is in preparation for the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty. The society of the Western Jin Dynasty was again deformed, and famous men and talented people would rather brag about the mountains at home than serve the imperial court. People who are willing to serve the imperial court are basically incompetent, can such a dynasty not perish!