The Queen Mother of the West Jutianzhu (Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb Portrait Stone Rubbing)
There is no hope in this world
The Western Han Dynasty has reached the end of the strong crossbow, and proverbs about the decline of the Han family abound, and some also give a specific timetable, "the doom of the three sevens" and the "disaster of one hundred and six" are coming.
Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to remove Zaifu as a disaster, and in the second year of Jianping (5 years ago), he once changed his name and "was ordered again", but these measures were to no avail. Among the people, the people who were tormented by droughts and floods, famines, thieves, and exploitation, after being hopeless in this world, chose to bow down at the feet of the Queen Mother of the West.
In the spring of the fourth year of Jianping (3 BC), Kanto suffered a continuous drought, and then, a huge mass incident broke out. The people seem to be enchanted, running in all directions, holding wooden strips or hemp stalks, passing each other, called "line edicts", and running to Chang'an one after another, meeting up to a thousand people on the road, they are wearing hair and bare feet, and the line is in a hurry. After the twenty-sixth of the county, when the summer came, he rushed to Chang'an, the capital division. In Chang'an, the believers of the Queen Mother of the West held sacrifices in the streets and alleys, set up a game bureau, performed music and dance, and came to worship the Queen Mother of the West. In addition, they also passed on the talisman, saying that "whoever wears this talisman can not die, and if you do not believe, you can see white hair under the doorway". And so it was not until the autumn that the events subsided.
Mastermind behind the scenes
This seems to be a spontaneous religious fanaticism of the people, but on closer examination, it is a well-organized political movement, the people of the twenty or thirty counties in the Kanto region (accounting for about one-third of the number of counties and countries in the country) are suddenly driven by the same belief, in the form of a transmission of edicts, galloping thousands of miles, and even using the post station of the official family to preach, gathering in Chang'an, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, singing, dancing, sacrificing, drumming, noisy, and noisy for several months, there is no state apparatus to curb it? Without systematic organization and financial support, and without the powerful forces behind the scenes, it is unimaginable that civilians can set off such a huge flood.
Strangely, this movement has come and gone, and there is no trace of it. The question, then, is, who is behind it, and why did he orchestrate such a campaign? The historical records are obscure. If you observe the political situation before and after the four years of Emperor Jianping of the Han Dynasty, you may be able to find clues about the mastermind behind the scenes.
In the entire era of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, because of the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun of Xiaoyuan, the relatives of the Wang family controlled the power, "the children of the Wang family are all doctors and servants of the Cao, and the officials are full of power." Following Wang Feng, Wang Yin, Wang Shang, and Wang Gen, the rising star Wang Mang became the leader of the family.
But the tide has changed. Emperor Cheng of Han died without a child, and his nephew, Emperor Ai of Han, ascended the throne. Emperor Wai was naturally close to his mother's family, and Fu and Ding's relatives rose up and tried to challenge the Wang family. Wang Mang had to go into the wilderness. For three years, he kept his own hands and waited for the right time. During this period, there were still hundreds of officials who wrote to Wang Mang to complain about grievances, which shows that the power of the Wang family is deep-rooted. At the time of the edict incident, Wang Mang was in the opposition and seemed to have nothing to do with it.
A few months after the event, in the first year of Yuanshou (2 BC), the sky showed a vision of a solar eclipse, and the emperor issued an edict to sin himself. Zhou Hu and Song Chong took the opportunity to vigorously praise Wang Mang's merits, and so, under an edict, Wang Mang returned to the center of power.
It can be seen that on the timeline, the edict is sitting at the turning point of Wang Mang's rejection. So, does this matter really have nothing to do with Wang Mang?
Ambition helps
In the edict incident, there is one person's feelings that are very important, and that is Emperor Han Ai. For most of Jianping's four years, he felt invisible pressure pressing in. In the following year, Emperor Ai of Han, who was tormented by panic, ordered Wang Mang to return to the court. Obviously, in this political wrestling, he lost. So who is the biggest beneficiary of this incident, who may be the maker of the incident, the answer is: Wang Mang.
Wang Mang, who is in the opposition, will never be satisfied with idle clouds and wild cranes, and he will definitely try his best to find an opportunity to regain power. There is an example of an organization official complaining about grievances, but it does not seem to have a significant effect. As a result, the people's worship of the Queen Mother of the West became a boost to Wang Mang's ambition.
Judging from his later actions, Wang Mang is very good at organizing and using the people, and his desires that are inconvenient to express clearly rely on mobilizing the people to express them. During the reign of Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang wanted his daughter to become the empress, but he pretended to be modest and did not let his daughter participate in the selection. This emperor's family affair actually attracted a large-scale letter to the letter, "more than 1,000 people are guarding the book every day", so Wang Mang got his wish. Wang Mang pretended to resign Xinye's fiefdom, but in fact, the plotter was even greater, "the people were not subject to Xinnoda and the people wrote before and after 487,572 people", so Wang Mang won the glory of adding nine tin. The fact that thousands of people are writing at every turn does not mean that the people's enthusiasm for political participation is really so high. In fact, perhaps during Wang Mang's absence, he began to use the Wang family's connections all over the world to run a network all over the country, and if he needed, he could command the world.
In the spring of the fourth year of Jianping, there was a great drought, and Wang Mang's time came. In the year of the great drought, the people are not able to make a living, and it is most likely to be instigated by a little lure. As a result, the edict suddenly became a prairie fire. Despite the spread of the edict like wildfire, Wang Mang was able to control the situation. When the time is right, you can stop. After the autumn, the crowd dispersed. If it weren't for the cause, the incident would have been like a meteor.
Image packaging
The edict incident brought Wang Mang back to the center of power, and also made him realize that the strong appeal of the Queen Mother of the West among the people must be well used. When Emperor Han Ai died and Emperor Ping of Han ascended the throne, Wang Mang planned the image packaging of the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun in order to further consolidate his power.
The Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun is the foundation of the big tree of the Wang family. After experiencing the Shinono crisis, Wang Mang realized that it was necessary to make the Empress Dowager supreme in the eyes of the people, so that the emperor could not be shaken, in order to ensure the stability of the royal family. So, he began to deliberately create the image of Wang Zhengjun, and the omen of the sand foothills and the dream of the moon were born. In response to the people's devotion to the Queen Mother of the West, Wang Mang "ordered the Queen Mother to drive around the suburbs at four o'clock to see lonely widows and chaste women". At this time, Wang Zhengjun was already a seventy-year-old woman, although she was in high spirits. She walked among the people, visited the cold and asked about the hardships, and gave wide and universal benefits, and in the eyes of the people, it was like the Queen Mother of the West came to the world.
In the second year of Ju Se (7), Wang Mang released "The Great Message", and Wang Zhengjun was clearly associated with the Queen Mother of the West:
The Empress Dowager Zhao has the right of the sand deer in Yuancheng, the auspicious of the Yin Jing heroine Shengming, with the generation of Yuan, in order to rejuvenate the charm of the world, and then won the response of the Queen Mother of the West, the sign of the gods, to bless my imperial family, to settle my great sect, to Shao my heirs, to succeed my Han Gong.
After usurping the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang honored Wang Zhengjun as the empress dowager of the new room, and issued an edict to characterize the edict as auspicious, "the generation of the mourning emperor, the edict of the world, and the auspiciousness of the queen mother of the west", and Wang Zhengjun "should be the mother of the past dynasties, and it is clear and clear".
When Wang Zhengjun became the embodiment of the Queen Mother of the West, the Queen Mother of the West also rose to the status of a national religion. "Old Han Yi" said that "the sacrifice (west) queen mother in the stone room, all in the 2,000 stone order long shrine", all counties and counties are worshipping the west queen mother, which should be the system during Wang Mang's reign. As a result, the country is enshrined everywhere, everyone worships, and the glory of this goddess, driven by Wang Mang's ambition, has reached an unparalleled peak. The country changed color, and the nephew of the living Queen Mother of the West, the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, replaced the emperor of the Han Dynasty and sat on the throne.
Miao Zixi, "Watching My Life: A History of China on Murals", Peking University Press, 2022.9