Text: Cute eyes explore the world
Editor|Cute eyes explore the world
Preface
Liu Xin is a clan member, and Wang Mang is a relative, and the two represent different political groups. In the chaotic political environment of the late Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin's father Liu Xiang first fought against his relative Wang, and then Liu Xin was recommended but was deposed by Wang. The clan and the relatives have different political interests, and the two are supposed to be antagonistic.
But in fact, under the special historical background of the last years of the Western Han Dynasty, the two embarked on the road of political cooperation.
Why did Liu Xin abandon his clan stance and turn to his cousin Wang Mang? What did Liu Xin do to stabilize the relationship between the two sides? And then why did the two break up again, Liu Xin rebelled, and what happened between them?
Wang Mang returned to autocratic power in the imperial court
After Wang Mang was sent to the country, during the three years in the Nanyang fiefdom, he closed his door and kept to himself. His son Wang Shu killed the slave, and according to the law, Wang Mang still kept the marquis, and the master killed the slave, so that he could redeem the punishment with money. However, Wang Mang instructed his son and forced him to commit suicide.
This move was moved by many scholars and people, and they wrote to the emperor asking the emperor to reinstate Wang Mangguan. In the first year of Emperor Wai's first year (2 BC), a solar eclipse occurred, which, according to the prevailing Confucian doctrine of "heaven and man induction", meant that the emperor had misemployed people, which led to the dissatisfaction of the heavens with the emperor. As a result, scholars and doctors with Confucian status wrote letters to praise Wang Mang's merits, and Emperor Wai then recruited Wang Mang and other Wang children to return to Beijing to serve the Empress Dowager.
Wang Mang returned to the imperial court and did not immediately grasp the real power, until more than a year after he returned to Beijing, Emperor Wai died, and the Empress Dowager sent an envoy to summon Wang Mang into the palace, and Wang Mang returned to power. Wang Mang, who was in power, immediately impeached the emperor's favored minister, the Great Sima Dong Xian, who committed suicide the next day. The Empress Dowager recommended Wang Mang as the successor of the Great Sima.
Since Emperor Mourning had no children, the Empress Dowager and her ministers discussed with Wang Mang about the establishment of the emperor's heir. Later, it was decided to summon Emperor Yuan's grandson, Sun Yat-sen, as the heir of Emperor Wai, and Emperor Ping. Emperor Ping was only nine years old at this time, and he was still sick that year, so the Empress Dowager listened to the government, and the Empress Dowager entrusted the political affairs to Wang Mang, and the ministers also obeyed Wang Mang's orders, so Wang Mang's power leaned towards the government and the opposition.
There are many children of the Wang family who were recalled to Beijing to serve the Empress Dowager, including Hongyang Marquis Wang Li and Ahou Wang Ren. The two had a close relationship with the Empress Dowager, and they were upright and strong, and Wang Mang was very afraid that they would tell the Empress Dowager about their autocratic power, so he privately collected their faults and sent them to the fiefdom away from Jingshi.
During the reign of Wang Mang's auxiliaries, many foreign powers from all over the world began to pay tribute to the Han court. So the Empress Dowager named Wang Mang as the Duke of An Han. Wang Mang won the trust of the Empress Dowager, in addition to the kinship between the two parties, but also because Wang Mang was good at catering to her wishes. For example, Wang Mang bribed the attendants around the Empress Dowager and rewarded them, so that they praised their merits by the Empress Dowager's side day and night.
Wang Mang also learned from these attendants that the Empress Dowager was bored with the life of the palace, so he proposed that the Empress Dowager could travel around the suburbs of the capital by car all year round to care for orphans and women.
The Empress Dowager liked this kind of activity very much, so she trusted Wang Mang even more. After winning the trust of Empress Xiaoyuan, Wang Mang began to find ways to overthrow Empress Xiaoyuan. Because Empress Xiaoyuan ruled as the heroine during Emperor Ping, although Wang Mang controlled the government, many personnel appointments and dismissals had to be approved by Empress Xiaoyuan, which was not conducive to his own dictatorship.
The minister pointed out that in the past, many of the officials elected by the local government were incompetent, and the Duke of An Han should examine the conduct of these people, so that the Queen Mother did not have to worry about such a trivial matter.
After Wang Mang seized the power of appointment and dismissal, officials who did not conform to Wang Mang's wishes were dismissed, and officials who obeyed and depended on him were promoted. Among them is the depressed Liu Xin.
Of course, Liu Xin knew how powerful his relatives were in the imperial court. When he became emperor before, Liu Xin was a close confidant of the emperor because of his clan background, and he was recommended by the minister because of his Confucian status. But at this time, Wang Feng assisted the government, and Emperor Cheng believed in Wang Feng.
Liu Xin was appointed, Emperor Cheng asked Wang Feng for his opinion, Wang Feng thought it was impossible, so Emperor Cheng had to cancel the appointment of Liu Xin. In the past, because of the confrontational relationship between the clan and relatives, Liu Xin was not reused.
After Wang Mang took power and became the Great Sima, according to the experience of the two of them as the same doorman when they were young, Liu Xin took refuge in Wang Mang and was confident that he would be deeply used by him.
Liu Xin's shift in political stance
After the Confucian Emperor Yuan succeeded to the throne, a large number of ministers from Confucian status entered the court, and they began to infiltrate Confucianism into the imperial court policy. However, these Confucian ministers, who were responsible for governing the country and leveling the world, inherited the catastrophic thoughts of Dong Zhongshu, a master of scripture, and believed in it.
Because of the Xi theory of disaster and difference, with the frequent occurrence of natural disasters in the late Western Han Dynasty, it is very particular to attribute the cause of disasters to which power class.
However, in the end, the Confucian minister Wang Zhang was killed, and his relatives remained in power. In the late Western Han Dynasty, faced with a serious social crisis, the righteous voices represented by Confucian scholars such as Gong Yu, Gu Yong, and Bao Xuan sharply exposed the corruption of society and the darkness of politics. The deterioration of the political environment directly affected the fate and behavior of Confucian scholars.
They were killed as the source of the trouble, but they were killed in the spirit of saving the crisis of their rule, which could not but dampen the enthusiasm of the Confucian class to save the Liu dynasty. Liu Xin was a representative of the Confucian class, and was also excluded from the imperial court due to the deterioration of the political environment. After failing to establish the ancient scriptures as a scholar, he was sent back to his hometown.
After the collapse of Emperor Mourning, when Wang Mang held the government and recommended Liu Xin to enter the court as an official, Liu Xin must have thought a lot. Following Wang Mang naturally meant a change in his political stance, but as a Confucian scholar, only in this way could he realize his ideal of governing the country and leveling the world. He was about forty years old at this time, unlike his father Liu Xiang, who was exempted from official duties and was at home in his old age.
If he refuses Wang Mang's call, according to his understanding of Wang Mang's character, it will be difficult for him to have the opportunity to return to the court to participate in political affairs in the future. For example, Wu Jianglong's example, "When Wang Mang was young, Mu had a relationship with Long, and Long was not very attached." In the early days, Wang Mang admired Wu Jianglong's fame and wanted to befriend him, but Wu Jianglong ignored him.
After Wang Mang came to power, he secretly looked for his faults and impeached him, so Wu Jianglong was sent to the border area, and he was not transferred back to Beijing until his death.
Comparing the consequences of responding to the call and not being drafted, Liu Xin calculated left and right, and finally decided to take refuge in Wang Mang. This marked a complete abandonment of his original clan position and a shift in his political position.
Since Liu Xin has abandoned the position of the Liu clan, in order to realize his Confucian political ideals, he naturally has to rely on Wang Mang, who is in power. Many of the measures taken by Liu Xin and the suggestions he put forward did objectively help Wang Mang's dynasty when there was a crisis of Liu's rule in the late Western Han Dynasty. And these measures also stabilized the political cooperation between Liu Xin and Wang Mang.
Establishment of the "New Five Virtues"
The founder of the "Five Virtues is Zou Yan, a native of Qi in the late Warring States period. At that time, the country had not yet been reunified, and Zou Yan, as a member of the intellectual class, hoped to put forward a new idea of being appointed to unify the world in the future, so as to maintain the legitimacy of the regime. He pointed out in "The Fortune of the Lord" that the monarch must obtain one of the "five elements", and the heavens must show its signs, so he sat on the throne safely.
When his virtue declined, another virtue rose up in the "Five Elements" to take his place. In this way, the cycle goes on in accordance with the order of the five elements, and the change of dynasty in history is completed in a regular manner.
When Zou Yan founded the "Five Virtues and the Beginning of the Theory", he started from the Yellow Emperor, thinking that the Yellow Emperor had the soil virtue, and then the soil virtue declined.
At this time, the Yellow Emperor in the ancient history system was followed by Yu, so Yu naturally became the emperor of Demud. Zou Yan arranged this order, and according to his ideas, he pressed one of the five elements to each emperor, constituting the most regular history. This doctrine he founded was very popular with the rulers of the time, and naturally had many followers.
When Qin Shi Huang annexed the world, according to Zou Yan's theory, he said that his Qin State had the charm of water virtue hundreds of years ago, and it was his own water virtue that Ke Zhou Huode.
Yu
Through such a statement, it is to show that Qin's destruction of the Six Kingdoms was the mandate of heaven. The Han Dynasty was established on behalf of Qin, and according to Zou Yan's "Five Virtues from the End", it was Tude who Keshuide was, so the Han Dynasty should respect Tude. However, the moral fortune of the Han Dynasty has changed repeatedly, and there have been three theories of water virtue, earth virtue and fire virtue.
Water virtue was first proposed by Zhang Cang in the early Han Dynasty, and pointed out that the Yellow River broke downstream, which is the symbol of water virtue in the Han Dynasty. This statement is officially recognized because it corresponds to the historical fact that the ancestor of the Han Dynasty established the Black Emperor Shrine in the "Five Pavilions", and has not changed in the early Han Dynasty for several decades. But after all, Shui De said that it did not conform to the law of the Mandate of Heaven recognized by people, and there was already controversy during the period of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty.
In the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he announced the restructuring and determined that the Han was the soil virtue and the water virtue of the Qin Dynasty. But in the later period of the Western Han Dynasty, it was popular to say that the Han was a fire virtue. Got Liu Xin's strong push.
With the continuous occurrence of natural disasters in various places in the later period of the Western Han Dynasty, Confucianism, who had improved his political status, wrote to the emperor according to the theory of "heaven and man induction", and the opinion that the disaster events would indicate a ruling crisis in the Han family. At first, the emperor used rumors to confuse and punish the scholars, as mentioned earlier in the Yuhong incident. However, with various natural disasters causing the lower classes of people to live in hardship and even death, the incidents of the lower classes gathering to rebel against the imperial court have occurred many times.
As a Confucian scholar, Wang Mang must know the way of respecting the king, and as a relative, there is no need to exterminate the previous dynasty, so he decided to use the first way to claim the emperor. At this time, the idea of "Empress Yao of the Han Dynasty" had been widely accepted, and the order of Yao Shun was also recognized in the hearts of Confucian scholars. Wang Mang thought he was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor in his genealogy "Ziben", saying that the Yellow Emperor's surname was Yao, and Yu Shun was born eight generations later.
In this way, it is not a logical thing for Yao Chan to give up the throne to Shun, and then it will be smoothly passed on to himself as a descendant of Shun? In order to make the order of the five virtues conform to the order of dynastic succession, Liu Xin refabricated an ancient history system in the "Shijing."
Those who inherit the mandate of heaven and are the first to be kings, the first virtue begins with wood. The decline of the Fuxi clan, the rise of the Shennong clan, with fire to inherit the wood, so it is the virtue of fire. Shennong's no, the Yellow Emperor's made, fire gives birth to earth, so it is Tude. The Yellow Emperor Tude also conforms to Zou Yan's statement, but the earliest emperors started from Fuxi, which obviously provided a basis for his new theory "Five Virtues and Symbiotic Theory".
In order to make the Han family conform to the Fu of Hou Yao's Huode, Liu Xin added Shao Hao between the Yellow Emperor and Zhuan Xuan, which is obviously different from what Sima Qian said in the previous era. Liu Xin's "New Five Virtues and Beginning Theory" is obviously to serve Wang Mang's cause of acting on behalf of the Han Dynasty.
Wang Mang informed the lower-level officials in the border area through documents at each level that the Han dynasty in his "new room" was the mandate of heaven, and the Han family had declined, so you should serve me, the true son of heaven.
Commanding troops to suppress Zhai uprising
In September of the second year of Ju Se (7 AD), Taishou Zhai Yi of Dongjun (now Puyang, Henan) gathered more than 100,000 troops, supported Liu Xin of the clan as emperor, and crusaded against Wang Mang. But within a few months, it was suppressed by Wang Mang. Let's take a look at the reason for Zhai Yi's army. Zhai Yi made it very clear in his article on the crusade against Wang Mang that Wang Mang poisoned Emperor Ping and acted as emperor because he wanted to cut off the Han Dynasty.
As the son of Prime Minister Zhai Fangjin, he was fortunate to be able to guard the county for the Han Dynasty, and both father and son were deeply favored by the Han, and they should crusade against the enemy for the country in the way of monarchs and ministers to stabilize the country. It can be said that these reasons for crusading against Wang Mang are too high-sounding, and the deep-seated reason for Zhai Yi's rebellion may lie in the contradiction between Zhai's father and son and his cousin Wang.
Because of Chen Xian's close relationship with Emperor Cheng's uncle, the Wang family, Chen Xian repeatedly impeached Zhai Fangjin, and because Zhai Fangjin won the trust of Emperor Cheng, he was never deposed. However, the relationship between Zhai Fangjin and his relative Wang became more and more tense, and later Zhai Fangjin impeached Wang Li, Marquis of Hongyang, for accepting bribes when recommending talents, concealing the truth and not recommending them according to the character conditions.
Chen Xian
Zhai Fangjin also stood on the opposite side of his cousin Wang because of his close relationship with Chun Yuchang. Zhai Fangjin served as prime minister for more than ten years, local disasters occurred frequently, and the ministers who attached to their relatives Wang blamed the reason for the prime minister's inaction, and Emperor Cheng ordered the removal of Zhai Fangjin from his official position, and Zhai Fangjin was forced to commit suicide the next day.
The contradiction between Zhai Yi and Wang is that when Zhai Yi was appointed as the governor of Nanyang (now Nanyang, Henan) to inspect the place, Wan's county commander Liu Li did not respect him, and Zhai Yi immediately denounced his crimes, and escorted Liu Li around Wanxian County in a prisoner car and escorted him to prison. Because the county order Liu Li and Quyang Hou Wang Gen are married home, Quyang Hou played Emperor Cheng, and spit out Zhai Yi's bitter water, so Emperor Cheng asked the prime minister, Zhai Fangjin sent officials to order Zhai Yi to release the county order Liu Li, and Zhai Yi was also dismissed.
Zhai Yi was the first to attack from Dongjun, and all parts of the country responded. When the news of Zhai Yi's rebellion reached Gyeonggi, thieves from the 23 counties under his jurisdiction also swarmed up, attacking and burning down government offices, looting and plundering the property of officials and people. In order to avoid the further expansion of the situation, Wang Mang appointed Liu Xin as the general of Yangwu to garrison Wan, and appointed Liu Li as the Taishou of Chen Liu (Chen Liu, southeast of Kaifeng, Henan).
It is like a place where Zhai Yi is powerful and shocking the world, and Zhai Yi has been an official here for many years, and he is very respected by the local people. Wang Mang appointed Liu Xin as the leader of the garrison in this place, apparently to prevent Zhai Yi from leading troops to attack this place. Once Zhai Yi captured Wandi, he could quickly lead his army to Chang'an, posing a mortal threat to Wang Mang.
Liu Xin
And Chen Liu is the only place for Dongjun to reach Wan, and appointing Liu Liren, who has a conflict with him, to guard here can effectively resist Zhai Yi's attack. In December, Wang Mang's troops first defeated Zhai Yi's elite troops in Yucheng (present-day Qixian County, Henan), and then arrested Zhai Yi in Guyuan and abandoned him in the city. Liu Xin has meritorious achievements in the process of guarding Wanwan this time. At first, Wang Jun sent troops to attack Zhai Yi with a strong crossbow general, but was dismissed from his post because of no success. And Liu Xin was reinstated after the victory of the suppression.
One was dismissed for ineffectiveness and the other was restored to his original position, which can show that Liu Xin took the initiative to defend Wang Mang's regime in the suppression of Zhai Yi.
Liu Xin
Although Zhai Yi was the first to attack from Dongjun, Zhai Yi once served as the lieutenant of Nanyang County, which can be said to be the place where Zhai Yi started. Wan is the seat of Nanyang County, so Nanyang County is very important to Zhai Yi. But Nanyang County has Wang Mang's fiefdom, Wang Mang's mother Gong Xianjun's fief is also in Nanyang County, before Wang Mang had spent three years in the wilderness, during the period of Emperor Cheng, his uncle Chengdu Hou Shang wrote a book, willing to divide the household to Wang Mang.
So Emperor Cheng made Mang the new marquis, and the fief was under the jurisdiction of Nanyang County. During the period of Emperor Mourning, Wang Mang was dismissed from his post and returned to the fiefdom, distributing the family's money to the guests and the local people, so he was very respected by the local county guards and the people in Nanyang for three years in the fief, since Nanyang was very important to the enemy army.
It is also very important to himself, so the significance of Wang Mang's choice of an absolutely reliable person to be stationed in Nanyang is self-evident. It can be seen from here that Liu Xin is definitely an important confidant of Wang Mang at this time.
Although the time before and after this incident was very short, it was a great blow to Wang Mang. After the incident, Wang Mang didn't think about tea and dinner, and took his son to the suburban altar and temple to pray day and night. On the one hand, he sent the great doctor Huan Tan to issue a proclamation to the world, saying that he was only temporarily exercising imperial power and would return the power to his son in the future.
On the other hand, he sent seven cronies and generals to attack Zhai Yi's troops, and sent many people to be stationed at various important passes to guard dangerous places. After the rebellion was suppressed, Wang Mang thought that his prestige and virtue were growing day by day, and that he had been recognized by the Mandate of Heaven and supported by the people, so he immediately planned to become emperor.
After the death of the emperor, the funeral system was served
In September of the third year of Ju Se (8 AD), Wang Mang's mother Gong Xianjun died, and Liu Xin and other Confucian ministers wrote a letter, suggesting that Wang Mang adopt the funeral etiquette practiced by the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty for the princes. Although Wang Mang, as the son of his mother, should abide by filial piety, he does not have to serve three years of mourning, and he uses a slightly lighter linen to win affection.
Because Wang Mang, as the great sect of the Han Dynasty, when the emperor was too young to govern the world, he had the responsibility not to mourn for his private relatives, and it should be carried out according to the ancient etiquette system. This is actually to prepare public opinion for Wang Mang to become emperor.
Wang Shun's campaign to proclaim Wang Mang emperor did not exist in isolation, and Liu Xin, one of Wang Mang's henchmen, immediately raised the issue of the funeral system after the death of Gong Xianjun. After the death of Wang Mang's mother Gong Xianjun, Liu Xin took the lead in the recital, on the one hand, to show that Wang Mang had made great contributions to the country's peace since he became a photographer.
Liu Xin was selected as one of the four auxiliaries
In the first month of the first year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (9 AD), Wang Mang led his ministers to hold the seal of the Empress Dowager and present it to the Empress Dowager, obeying the order and abolishing the name of the Han Dynasty. The new dynasty was established, Wang Mang was rewarded for meritorious deeds, and his confidants and ministers were all knighted and conferred, and Liu Xin and his family were also among them. Wang Mang's reuse of Liu Xin is conducive to stabilizing the political cooperative relationship between the two.
During the Xiaoping period, Liu Xin was named the Marquis of Red Retirement. The title of Marquis of Hongxiu actually stabilized the relationship between Wang Mang and Liu Xin to a large extent. As mentioned earlier, Liu Fu, the prince of Chu Yuan, was made a marquis of Hugh in the first year of Emperor Jing (157 BC), and was made a marquis of Hong three years later. Because Liu Zhang, the sixth generation of the Liu family who inherited the marquis, had no descendants, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty abolished this title.
Now that Liu Xin has inherited this title again, it can be seen that Wang Mang is grateful from the bottom of his heart for Liu Xin for assisting him in building a new Han dynasty. In the new dynasty, the official position of the fourth assistant was higher than that of the third duke, which shows that Wang Mang attached great importance to Liu Xin. Whether he was named a "national teacher" or located in the "Shanggong", we know very well that Liu Xin at this time was highly used by Wang Mang.
This shows that Liu Xin helped Wang Mang to represent Han, and still received Wang Mang's feedback. In order to stabilize the cooperative relationship between the two, Wang Mang further named the next generation of Liu Xin's family as a marquis.
The son of Liu Xin was named the Marquis of Yixiu
In order to stabilize the ruling order of the new dynasty and fantasize that his new dynasty would flourish like the ancient Five Emperors, Wang Mang sought the descendants of the virtuous emperors, intending to continue their sacrifice to their ancestors.
In this way, Liu Xin's son Liu Di was named Yixiu Hou, which can be regarded as a branch of the inheritance of Tang Yao, the ancestor of the Liu family. While respecting the way of ancient emperors, Wang Mang also used Liu Xin's ancestor to win people's hearts.
Liu Xin has three sons, why is Liu Die reused by Wang Mang? It turns out that Liu Die is Liu Xin's eldest son, who once served as a lieutenant general, and is Wang Mang's personal guard, so Wang Mang likes him very much. Liu Die is also highly valued by Wang Mang, which can also stabilize the cooperative relationship between Liu Xin and Wang Mang.
Wang Mang has a strong desire for authoritarianism, and he wants to be in power for generations. Zhen Feng, Liu Xin, Wang Shun and others obeyed his intentions, and in return, Wang Mang made the direct descendants of these people again.
Why Liu Xin was reused at the beginning of the new dynasty
After the dictatorship, Wang Mang implemented many policies that were conducive to the people's lives and educated the people. For example, in the first two years of the Yuan Dynasty (2 AD), there was a severe drought and locust plague in Qingzhou in the east, and there was a shortage of food, and the people had to beg everywhere. An Han Gong, Sifu, Sangong, Qing Dafu, and officials donated houses and land to help the people solve their difficulties, and the imperial court sent envoys to be responsible for exterminating locusts.
Then the assets of the families of the people of the whole country were counted, and all the people who had less than 20,000 yuan, and the counties and counties that were affected by the disaster had less than 100,000 assets, were exempted from paying rent and tax. The patients affected by the disaster were placed in the dormitories built with the help of the construction and treated by the imperial court. In addition, people who die in disasters receive a certain amount of burial expenses.
In the third year of the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (3 A.D.), Wang Mang set up a system of famous goods such as travel and clothing, and there were clear hierarchical regulations on the health of the officials, the send-off, the marriage, slaves and maids, the farm house, and the supplies. Wang Mang also established the official palace and the school palace. In the school with many students, there is a teacher who teaches the scriptures.
In sparsely populated schools, it is enough to set up a teacher who teaches the scriptures of filial piety. Liu Xin should have been one of the main planners of the top-down change in the religious system, as Liu Xin had always served as an academic and cultural leader and senior political adviser in Wang Mang's political clique.
On the one hand, Wang Mang's policies are conducive to the people's life and education, and on the other hand, they can be used to win the people's support for his dictatorship.
In the spring of the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (4 AD), Wang Mang "sent eight people including Situ Sizhi Chen Chong to branch the world and observe the customs". The purpose of this move is to investigate the customs and Xi of the people in various places, and more importantly, to show that since Wang Mang came to power, he has refreshed the social atmosphere by educating the people.
In the autumn of the fifth year of the Yuan Dynasty (5 A.D.), eight envoys of customs returned, all saying that the people of the world were simple and simple, saying that since the reign of An Han Gong, the social situation had been greatly improved, and many folk songs praising Wang Mang were collected and played.
As an important minister of culture, Liu Xin is also among these eight people. Since then, "Liu Xin and Chen Chong and other twelve people have been appointed as princes with Zhimingtang and missionary education." During the period of Emperor Mourning, Liu Xin failed to argue for the establishment of ancient scriptures as a scholar. During the period of Emperor Ping, Wang Mang was in power and began to respect the ancient scriptures, so he established a doctor of ancient scriptures such as "Zuo's Spring and Autumn Period", "Mao's Poems", "Yili", "Ancient Texts and Books", and "Zhou Guanjing".
Since then, many of Wang Mang's measures to reform and rejuvenate have come from the ancient scriptures that Liu Xin argued for. For example, Wang Mang's land reform policy and the implementation of the "Wang Tian system" were based on ancient scriptures.
Wang Mang himself believes that the reason why Yao Shun has endured for a long time is because of the implementation of the ancient "Jingtian system", that is, the current "Wang Tian system", where land is controlled by the state and distributed centrally.
As for another reform measure in the economy, namely the "five-level credit loan", Liu Xin was the direct mastermind. Liu Xin was indeed very important in the early days of the New Dynasty, on the one hand, he had a close political alliance with Wang Mang, and on the other hand, it may be related to the early days of the establishment of the New Dynasty, Wang Mang's intention to win over the Liu clan of the previous dynasty.
Because not only Liu Xin was reused, but other Liu clans at that time were also treated with different degrees of preferential treatment.
At the end of the reign of the Han Dynasty, the society was chaotic, and it was difficult to fully realize the right of the descendants of the local royal family to be exempt from military service and conscription. Although it was protected by the central government's decree, the local county guards still ignored the edict and suppressed the clan.
Wang Mang attached so much importance to the Liu clan and protected their privileges, which did have a great effect on stabilizing the new dynasty he established at the beginning, which was also the fundamental reason why Wang Mang reused Liu Xin. But when the regime was stable and the rebellions of the Liu clan occurred one after another, Wang Mang began to suppress the Liu clan.
Why Liu Xin was no longer reused in the middle and late New Dynasty
Liu Xin almost never gave Wang Mang a document about the talisman, but Wang Mang admired the talisman very much, and Liu Xin's later non-reuse had a lot to do with the talisman.
Zhen Feng, Wang Shun, and Liu Xin were all Wang Mang's confidants and ministers at first, and Wang Mang's title to the emperor was greatly helped by these people.
However, after Wang Mang became emperor, he still respected the talismans, and some people who were far away from the court and tried to climb to the throne often became important ministers of the court by making talismans. Zhen Feng's father and son were very angry at those officials who achieved equality with themselves by simply offering talismans.
It was precisely because of the jealousy and suspicion among the scholars and doctors that the new regime was constantly attritional. At the end of the second year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (10 AD), Zhen Feng's son Zhen Xun made a talisman, claiming that the new room should be divided into seals with Shaanxi County (now Sanmenxia, Henan) as the boundary, with Zhen Feng as the right uncle and Taifu Pingyan as the left uncle, like Zhou Gong and Zhao Gong did "divide Shaanxi and rule".
Wang Mang immediately complied, but when Zhen Feng was about to report on his work, Zhen Xun made another talisman and called Wang Mang's daughter, who was originally the queen, his wife.
Wang Mang is a person who respects and believes in the talisman, and it stands to reason that he should immediately accept the arrangement of the talisman. But in fact, Wang Mang is not a person who is willing to accept any talisman, but chooses to accept what is beneficial to him.
In this Zhen Xun Fu incident, Wang Mang suspected that the minister slandered him because of resentment, and also wanted to use this to kill the chicken and make an example, so he immediately ordered Zhen Xun to be arrested, Zhen Xun fled, and Zhen Feng committed suicide.
A year later, Zhen Xun was arrested and interrogated, and the incident implicated Liu Xin's two sons and a doorman. As a result, the officials involved in the incident were all given death.
In the first year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (9 AD), Liu Xin was still serving as the official position of Jing Zhaoyin. But three years after the founding of the People's Republic of China after this incident, Jing Zhaoyin was served by Wang Mang's relative Wang Jia. It is clear that since the "Zhen Xun Incident", Liu Xin was removed from his substantive position, and Wang Mang began to deliberately suppress this former political ally.
Liu Xin's dismissal from his post for not being reused can be seen as his own misfortune, because he has been indirectly involved in the "Zhen Xun Fu" incident. But the suppression of the Liu clan was also completely intentional by Wang Mang. Because Wang Mang was proclaimed emperor, the children of the Liu family, who received his favor, not only did not attach themselves to the central government, but repeatedly rebelled against the emperor.
Wang Mang's move removed all the Liu clans who still held official positions and began to strip them of their political power. He also abolished all the sacrificial activities in the ancestral temple of the Han Dynasty in Beijing, with the aim of of course to strike at the cohesion of the Liu clan. Liu Xin was not reused in the middle and late stages of Xinmang, and it had a lot to do with Wang Mang's character.
Wang Mang was stubborn and self-serving, and he himself was able to represent the Han through step-by-step dictatorship, so he was always wary of the power grabbing by his ministers. The cause of the "Zhen Xun Incident" was that Wang Mang found Wang Sheng, who was selling cakes, through the talisman, and made Wang Shenggui an important minister on an equal footing with other henchmen, and then played a role in suppressing his confidants in this way.
For the minister's ultra viress behavior, Wang Mang gave a severe punishment. For example, Fu Pingyan, one of the four assistants, entered and exited the palace, because the attaché exceeded the quota, he was severely reprimanded by the palace guards, and his words and deeds were not inferior. Ping Yan's attaché arrested and detained the guards. When Wang Mang heard about this, he immediately sent troops to surround the Taifu Mansion, arrested the attaché, and immediately executed him.
Wang Mang's character flaws quickly dampened the ministers' enthusiasm for supporting the new dynasty, but on the other hand, he reused some flattering and shameless officials, most of whom were uneducated and unskilled, thus hastening the demise of the new dynasty.
The new regime was in jeopardy
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in the second year of the "Zhen Xun" incident, Liu Xin was involved, Liu Xin was holding the ideal of Confucianism to govern the country and level the world, but he was not reused for a long time, which naturally made Liu Xin deviate from Wang Mang, and the two also had different attitudes towards Fu Ming.
Finally in the fourth year of the emperor, Liu Xin wanted to kidnap Wang Mang and then surrender to Liu Xiu in the east, but the kidnapping plan was reported to Wang Mang, and the plan failed, and Liu Xin committed suicide. Liu Xin's rebellion was not a way for him to save the Liu dynasty by "saving the country by curves", but a comprehensive result of various factors.
Liu Xin's rebellion occurred in July of the fourth year of the emperor's reign, when the new regime was already in jeopardy.
The precariousness of the new regime is manifested in two aspects, that is, inside the new dynasty and outside the new dynasty. In the new dynasty, the people who supported Wang Mang as the emperor in the original Western Han court, Wang Mang promised to be rewarded with a marquis, but after the establishment of the new dynasty, Wang Mang did not keep his word, did not keep his promises, and only wrote "empty checks" for the rewards of officials.
Therefore, Ban Gu accused Wang Mang of liking empty words, although he acted in accordance with the ancient law and rewarded his subordinates, but he was actually stingy. The lack of rewards for officials naturally increased the exploitation of the lower classes, which aggravated the chaos of the new Korean society. There were many natural disasters in the local area, the production of the fiefs of the officials was reduced, and the imperial court was reduced in income, so the officials could not live and had to exploit the people. Natural disasters have caused crop damage and reduced yields.
"Scarce things are expensive", the price of cereal crops has risen, and the people at the bottom cannot afford to consume, so they can only become thieves. The thieves gathered together and openly confronted the central power, which made the new dynasty even more chaotic. Wang Mang's harsh punishment not only failed to stop the chaos, but caused the people to lose confidence in his regime.
Wang Mang pointed out that when the army goes out to fight, if it dares to violate the law, it can be carried out at any time without waiting for the autumn and winter seasons to be executed. As a result, the people were so frightened that they didn't dare to speak when they met them on the road. But more people rallied against the new regime.
Within the new dynasty, due to the popular revolt, thieves were concurrent, and a large number of troops needed to be sent to suppress them.
To add insult to injury, the outside of the new dynasty was at war with foreign tribes in the four directions, which consumed the combat capability of the Central Plains army and dispersed the limited forces of the new dynasty.
Since most of the soldiers of the new dynasty army came from the Central Plains, long-distance battles naturally breed diseases, which also weakens the combat effectiveness of the army to a certain extent. In the first month of the fourth year of the emperor's reign, the Han soldiers were supported by Wang Chang and other troops in the lower reaches to attack Wang Mang's army that came to suppress them, and as a result, Wang Mang's troops were all killed by the Han soldiers in the battle.
After the Han soldiers defeated Wang Mang's elite troops, those who followed Liu Bosheng in the uprising all claimed to be generals, attacked cities, occupied territory, and issued proclamations along the line, publicizing their own ideas and denouncing Wang Mang's crimes.
In March, "Pinglin, Xinshi, and Xiajiang soldiers Wang Chang and Zhu Kun jointly established the Holy Duke (Liu Xuan) as the emperor, changed the year to the first year of the change, and worshiped hundreds of officials."
This move formally established a hostile regime against Wang Mang and began to compete with Wang Mang for the world. After the establishment of the first regime, the plan to capture the city was intensified. In April, Liu Xiu and Wang Chang attacked Yingchuan and "went down to Kunyang, Yun, and Dingling". In the many battles between the two sides, the Battle of Kunyang was the decisive battle to determine who would seize state power.
In June of the fourth year of the emperor's reign, the new dynasty's Dasikong Wang Yi and Da Situ Wang found an order to set out from Luoyang and wanted to go to Wanxian (now Nanyang, Henan), planning to pass through Yingchuan County (now Yuzhou, Henan) and pass through Kunyang City (now Pingdingshanye County, Henan).
At this time, Kunyang City had surrendered to the Han army and was defended by the Han army. The other troops of the new dynasty also joined up, and Wang Yi, Wang Xun and other commanders commanded the army to surround Kunyang City, and the disparity in strength between the two sides was huge, so it stands to reason that they could easily capture Kunyang City.
However, because several commanders did not agree on the offensive plan, they did not give the order to attack the city for a long time, and the fighters were delayed. At this time, Liu Xiu mobilized thousands of troops from Yun County (now Yuncheng District, Luohe, Henan) and Dingling County (about 50 miles northwest of Yuncheng District, Luohe) to rescue Kunyang City.
The supporting army and the Han soldiers of Kunyang City surrounded the new dynasty army and quickly won the war. When the officials in Guanzhong who were attached to Wang Mang's regime heard the news, they were all terrified, and thieves from the lower strata of society also rose up one after another.
Wang Mang saw that the people were increasingly joining the ranks of thieves, threatening his rule more and more, and he also wanted to get out of the crisis quickly. He first issued an edict to the world: he knows the mandate of heaven, and he can change the era name every six years in the future to ensure the stability of the world. Wang Mang wanted to regain the trust of the people through the trick of the talisman. Then he said that he had a destiny to eradicate the thieves.
In the end, seeing that the talisman was useless, Wang Mang directly sent the doctor and the confessor to teach the people to boil the grass and trees into glue to help the affected people tide over the difficulties. However, all these measures to save the people from the miserable life at that time did not help at all. Wang Mang's regime lost the support of his ministers and the hearts of the people internally, and he also failed repeatedly in the external wars with the original regime, and his fate was already doomed, and Liu Xin did not want to be martyred, so he sought a way to redeem himself.
Retaliate against Wang Mang for killing his son
During the Qin and Han dynasties, revenge prevailed, and even women at that time had avenged their fathers. In addition, there are those who take revenge for their brothers, uncles, and friends. Liu Xin hates Wang Mang, of course, there is an element of revenge.
In Liu Xin's decades of dealings with Wang Mang, although Wang Mang reused and constantly rewarded Liu Xin and his family members, he was not at all merciful to Liu Xin's family's betrayal of him, and Liu Xin's three children were killed by Wang Mang because of their involvement in the betrayal of Wang Mang.
In the second year of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the "Zhen Xun Incident" occurred, which involved many ministers in Wang Mang's regime, not only because Liu Xin was not reused, but also because Liu Xin's two sons were also killed.
Liu Xin's daughter, Liu Su, was also forced to commit suicide for participating in the plan of Wang Mang's son Wang Lin to kill Wang Mang. At first, Wang Mang's wife was blind, and Wang Mang ordered his son Wang Lin to serve her.
Wang Lin committed adultery with Wang Mang's attendants, and Wang Lin was afraid that the matter would be revealed, so he planned to kill Wang Mang. Wang Lin's wife is Liu Xin's daughter, Liu Su, who will observe the stars, support Wang Lin's rebellion, and tell him that the incident will succeed. Later, Wang Lin was demoted to another place to be an official, and he was afraid that the rebellion plan would be revealed, and he was even more afraid.
So he wrote to his mother, complaining that the emperor was too strict with his son. When Wang Mang went to visit his wife's illness, he found this letter and suspected that Wang Lin had malicious intentions, so he arrested Yuan Bi and others for interrogation.
Yuan Bi fully admitted that Wang Lin had committed adultery with him and premeditated the murder of his father, and afterwards, Wang Lin was forced to commit suicide. Wang Lin's wife, Liu Su, and Liu Xin's daughter were also forced to commit suicide because of their astrological understanding and support for the rebellion plan. Liu Xin loves his children very much, but several of his children were ruthlessly killed by Wang Mang, which undoubtedly ignited Liu Xin's revenge.
Wang She's plan to kidnap Wang Mang was supported by Liu Xin
Liu Xin's disappointment with the new regime and his hatred for Wang Mang's murder were not enough to immediately prompt him to take the risk of rebellion, and it was Ximen Junhui, a disciple of the Wei general Wang She, who first proposed the rebellion plan. The revival of the Liu family was not the slogan that Ximen Junhui first attached to, but here it was just an excuse for them to betray Wang Mang's plan.
"Liu's revival" appeared for the first time, from the second year of the emperor (21 AD) on the local divination person, the history of "Wei Cheng Yin Li Yan and the diviner Wang conspired, the situation is Yan said: since the new room ascended the throne, the slaves and maids of the people are not allowed to sell and buy, the number of money and goods, the number of troubles, the military commotion, the four Yi and invasion, the people are resentful, the thieves are rising, and the Han family is revived. ”
Wang Kuang also wrote a book of prophecy, pointing out that Wang Mang's new dynasty would soon fall, and the descendants of the Liu family should inherit the ancestral cause and revive again. Li Yan asked his subordinates to copy the book so that it could be circulated, but before it could be circulated, he was denounced by his subordinates. Wang Mang immediately sent people to arrest Li Yan and execute him.
Although the book was attached to the king's situation, it also showed that the lower class people at that time were dissatisfied with the new dynasty regime, and they longed for a new dynasty to replace Wang Mang's regime, and at this time, the only thing that could be pinned on was the clan surnamed Liu of the previous dynasty.
"The name of the national teacher" refers to Liu Xin, who had changed his name to Liu Xiu at that time, and at this time Liu Xiu of Nanyang had already achieved great things, and it is said that he was actually referred to in the book. Nanyang Liu Xiu himself is also good at prophecy, and these prophecies of Liu Xiu as the revival of the Liu family may have been made by himself, and then widely disseminated throughout the country.
Ximen Junhui's remarks of "Liu's revival" were also supported by Wang She.
It stands to reason that Wang She, who is a relative of Wang Mang, should not stand on the opposite side of Wang Mang, but why does he support this statement? The reason is that Wang She's and Wang Mang already had a deep contradiction.
During the period of Emperor Cheng, Wang Gen once recommended Wang Mang to take over his position as the Great Sima, Wang She's father was really kind to Wang Mang, but Wang Mang changed his nickname without permission on the pretext that Quyang's nickname was not beautiful, and Wang Shi was dissatisfied with this. This can be seen from Wang She's disparaging remarks about Wang Mang when he was trying to win Liu Xin's participation in the rebellion plan.
Also involved in the rebellion plan was the great Sima Dong Zhong, so why did Dong Zhong also participate in it? First of all, let's talk about the authority of the great Sima, the official position of the great Sima was the name of the official position of the Taiwei during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
An Zuozhang and Xiong Tieji pointed out that with regard to the functions and powers of the Taiwei, the so-called "military affairs" and "main soldiers" were "in fact only military advisers to the emperor in the Western Han Dynasty, and the Taiwei himself did not have the right to send or lead troops, and the power to exercise military orders was completely vested in the emperor."
As for Wang Feng, Wang Mang and other children of the Wang family as the official position of the Great Sima, but they have always held the real power, in fact, they are also the general Lingshang Shushi, and their weight is far from the official position of the Great Sima of the new dynasty here. In order to change his lack of real power, it is completely understandable that Dong Zhong participated in the rebellion plan.
Since the establishment of the new dynasty, it ended with Dong Zhong, and Wang Mang appointed a total of seven great Simas, including Zhen Han, Kong Yong, Lu He, Miao Xin, Chen Mao, Yan You and Dong Zhong.
Wang Feng in film and television dramas
Except for Zhen Han, who died of illness and Kong Yong, who resigned on his own initiative, everyone else was deposed by Wang Mang. For example, in the sixth year of Tianfeng (19 AD), the upright and strict Yan You had a disagreement with Wang Mang on the issue of whether to attack the Xiongnu, and Wang Mang was furious, so he dismissed Yan You from the official position of Sima and replaced him by Dong Zhong.
Wang Mang's attack on upright officials will definitely have some inspiration for the courtiers, which may have directly contributed to Dong Zhong's detachment from Wang Mang. After Wang Shi and Dong Zhong plotted to rebel, they went to Liu Xin's residence several times and wanted to conspire with him, but Liu Xin did not agree at first. However, when Wang Shi further pointed out that he should not fall with the new dynasty regime and should first ensure the safety of his family, Liu Xin relented and conspired with Wang Shi and Dong Zhong to rebel.
Liu Xin knew the art of Xi disaster and told them that the eastern army would definitely succeed. Wang and Dong were in a hurry to launch, but Liu Xin, who was convinced of the catastrophic phenomena, said that he should wait for Taibaixing to appear before acting. Taibai said that the Western Qiujin, "righteousness, words." Righteousness is lost, the autumn order is reversed, the gold is hurt, and the punishment is too white." Liu Xin hoped to wait patiently for the appearance of Taibaixing, which showed that Wang Mang was a faint king, did not listen to his ministers, and God did not bless the new dynasty, and the new dynasty was doomed.
In order to ensure the success of the plan to kidnap Wang Mang, Dong Zhong tried his best to win over Sun Ling, who was in charge of the army at this time. Sun Ling was timid and afraid, and when he returned home, he told his wife about the conspiracy.
His wife couldn't keep it a secret and told her brother Chen Han about it, and Chen Han wanted to denounce them to Wang Mang.
In order to avoid a catastrophe, Sun Ling and Chen Han went to denounce Dong Zhong together, and Wang Mang sent messengers to summon Dong Zhong, Liu Xin, Wang Shi and others respectively. At this time, Dong Zhong was training the army, and he could kill the envoy, and then list Wang Mang's crimes, and lead the army into the palace to kill Mang. But I don't know if Dong Zhong believed in the heavens too much, or hesitated, he didn't care about the suggestion of the protector Wang Xian to attack the palace immediately at this time.
Dong Zhong then entered the palace with Liu Xin and Wang Shi to see Wang Mang, Wang Mang ordered them to reply and confess, so Zhonghuangmen killed Dong Zhong with a sword.
After Dong Zhong's death, his descendants and soldiers flocked to the entrance of the palace, all with swords out of their sheaths and arrows on their bows. Shi Chen, the first general, inspected the palace and told Dong Zhong's subordinates that Da Sima had gone insane and tried to rebel in vain, and had been executed. Seeing that the tide was turning, the army laid down their arms. After that, Liu Xin and Wang Shi committed suicide.
Because Liu Xin and Wang Shi were close relatives and former ministers, Wang Mang was afraid of giving the people of the world the impression that he was going to collapse due to internal instability, so he did not publicly announce their punishment.
Liu Xin, Wang She, and Dong Zhong's plan to kidnap Wang Mang and then surrender to the Eastern Han Army ultimately failed, but within a few months, Wang Mang's regime collapsed, which is very sad.
Author's point of view
From the collapse of Emperor Mourning, Wang Mang's heavy appointment as the Great Sima, and the second recommendation of Liu Xin, to the fourth year of the emperor's rebellion, Liu Xin and Wang Mang have cooperated for more than 20 years.
From the close cooperation between the two at the beginning, that is, Liu Xin was the core member and confidant of Wang Mang's group, to Liu Xin becoming the veteran hero of the new dynasty regime, and then to the rupture of the relationship between Liu Xin and Wang Mang, to the point that they would not stand on each other, and they would live or die.
There are many reasons for the relationship between the two people, including the subjective reasons of the two themselves, as well as the objective influence of social trends.
#文章首发挑战赛#