Preface
The difficulty of the crown prince ascending the throne
The autumn wind has risen, the leaves are falling, and it is a withering season. However, in the midst of this chill of slaughter, an unusual event is being staged -
A young man, dressed in a splendid costume and with a resolute face, is about to accept the inheritance of the position of the Son of Heaven. This seems to herald a hopeful new era on the horizon.
But is the wheel of history turning so simply, and are the gears of fate snapping together so easily? Is the inheritance of imperial power a cruel game for those who hold power?
When this boy ascends to the throne, does he really own the world, or is he just a pawn in the power struggle?
01 Liu Qi's crown ceremony operation
This is the problem faced by Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty. As a father, of course, he hopes to keep his son Liu Che's country. However, as a monarch, he knew better how complicated the succession to imperial power was.
The autumn wind is bleak, it is the blessing season of the season, but unfortunately the heavy cold heralds the approach of withering and twilight. Years of accumulation had curtailed his energy, and now the withering season had made him clearly aware that his life was coming to an end.
Liu Qi stared at the face of the crown prince Liu Che, remembering the scene of this newborn baby being held in his mouth. Decades have passed like a white horse, and this son has grown into a handsome and promising young man. Thinking that in a hundred years, the entire empire would be in the hands of this child, he couldn't help but feel apprehensive.
Especially when I think of the tragic experience of the country created by Taizu in the early Han Dynasty, it was almost wiped out in a few decades. The cruelty and helplessness brought about by those power struggles still give him endless warnings.
No, that kind of catastrophe must not be allowed to happen again. As a father, he must do everything in his power to keep his son's fortune, and as a monarch, he must ensure the smooth transmission of imperial power. Even if it cost him the last bit of his life.
So in the winter of the third year of the Later Yuan Dynasty (141 BC), the old man on the sickbed made a bold decision - to hold a crown ceremony for Liu Che in advance when he was only 16 years old.
According to the rules of the Zhou Rite, the crown prince must be at least 20 years old to perform this ceremony. But Liu Qi couldn't care about this much, and he wanted to use this ceremony to show the government and the opposition that this young man was fully qualified to take over the operation of this empire.
For this ceremony, Liu Qi issued a series of orders, and the entire Weiyang Palace was shrouded in busyness. The prince's new court clothes, ceremonial ceremonial guards, and sacrificial supplies, all the details must be arranged by himself. These menial tasks made him forget the torture of illness for a while.
Finally, on the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, Weiyang Palace was decorated with lights, and hundreds of officials gathered, and the grand occasion was unprecedented. When Liu Che put on the resplendent court dress and stood firmly on the crown stage, Liu Qi saw the resolute look on his face, and finally showed a relieved smile.
He believed that his son would be able to sustain the prosperity of the empire. Even if he can't do it himself.
However, does the young man with the crown really have the power of the Son of Heaven?
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02 Liu Che's difficulty in ascending the throne
Less than three months later, Emperor Jing died. Liu Che successfully ascended the throne of God, held the honor of the Ninety-Five, known as the Son of Heaven, and the minister of all nations. However, the reality is much more cruel than imagined.
Whether it is for the Empress Dowager Dou or Liu Che himself, the inheritance of power is not all smooth sailing. Because from the moment Liu Che ascended the throne, all his decisions had to be reported to the Empress Dowager Dou. Although Liu Che is the nominal Son of Heaven, all the power is still in the hands of the Empress Dowager Dou.
The seventeen-year-old boy emperor could not calm down. He had just experienced the death of his father, and he should have been immersed in grief, but the pressure on the court was so heavy that he had to quickly adjust his mentality and take on the suffocating responsibility.
He clearly remembered that his father's efforts to celebrate his crown ceremony during his lifetime were to hope that he would have the power to oversee the country. However, at this moment, what he did must also be reported to the Empress Dowager, which makes him so aggrieved.
A young man who has just been crowned has the name of the Son of Heaven, but he can't make any calculations. Obviously, he is no longer a child, but he still has to ask his elders about every step of their actions like a child. This dependence and fear made him feel humiliated.
He was desperate to prove himself and show the court and the opposition that he was grown up and able to take charge on his own. He even delusionally thought of reprimanding a few of his courtiers who dared to disobey him in order to assert his authority. Reason, however, told him that the current situation did not allow him to act rashly.
In order to alleviate this humiliation, he immediately named his biological mother Wang as the empress dowager and his grandmother Dou as the empress dowager, in order to re-establish the family hierarchy and consolidate his authority. However, this was not enough, and he knew that if he wanted to truly control the power, he had to think of other ways......
03 Behind the reform of Confucianism
Faced with the current situation of Empress Dowager Dou's imprisonment, Liu Che had a bold idea in his heart. Perhaps, by reforming the ideology, he can make this empire truly his own.
So Liu Che decisively appointed Dong Zhongshu as the minister of state, admiring his Confucianism, hoping that this would inject new vitality into the country. He also tried his best to restore the Ming Hall and implement Confucian etiquette, preparing to let Confucianism replace Huang Lao's policy of governing the country.
In fact, Liu Che did not promote Confucianism entirely for political purposes. Perhaps it was because the morality of benevolence contained in this doctrine was compatible with the fortitude and patience of his nature. He saw that Dong Zhongshu influenced Liu Fei with Confucian benevolence, and he also sincerely felt that the country needed more benevolent and virtuous people.
So he invited the great Confucian Shen Gong to preside over the construction of the Ming Hall, hoping to cultivate more loyal ministers. At the beginning, the stern and silent old man did not impress him, but he was determined to uphold Confucianism and let the people of the world understand that he was aiming to be on the same track in the Nine Domains.
The strategists around him, Dou Ying, Tian Wei and others were also more interested. Some of them may also have the heart of a human, but more often than not, it is out of expediency. After all, if she can break the ideological imprisonment of Empress Dowager Dou, it will be tantamount to shaking the foundation of her rule.
Therefore, at the instigation of Zhao Xuan, Liu Che made a bold move -- announcing that all government affairs in the future would no longer need to be reported to the Empress Dowager! This was undoubtedly a blatant provocation against the Empress Dowager Dou and detonated an inevitable storm of power!
In fact, Liu Che's heart is not without hesitation. After thinking about it, he was also worried about whether it was too arrogant and what serious consequences it would incur. However, Zhao Juan and others repeatedly praised him for his wisdom and asked him to boldly comply with the expectations of the government and the opposition.
Perhaps it was the pride that surged in his nature, or perhaps the joy of gaining support overwhelmed his mind, and at that moment, this impulsive decision was made without thinking. The consequences are far more serious than imagined......
04 The brutal game of power
In this regard, the Empress Dowager Dou, who is over the age of six, has long turned a blind eye. She used the powerful to sue herself and forced Liu Che to stop all respectful behaviors. Liu Che could only compromise, and Zhao Juan and others were also liquidated.
This is probably the heaviest blow Liu Che has experienced in his life. He realizes that the real power game is far more cruel than imagined, and that a high-sounding torrent of ideals cannot shake the foundations of vested interests. The contest between faith and politics above the court is full of ruthlessness and helplessness.
When Zhao Juan and Wang Zang were forced to go to prison, and even ended their lives in prison, the naïve idealism of young people was shattered into powder in this cruel reality. In a trance, he saw the sneering faces of his relatives and magnates at his feet.
He realized that the Empress Dowager was far more powerful than he imagined, and that she had in her hands checks and balances that the Son of Heaven could hardly match. Perhaps from the outset, this plan to consolidate power by honoring Confucianism was naïve and foolish.
The inheritance of power is never idealistic, on the contrary, it is more like a contest of life and death with an undercurrent surging. Young people are far from having reached the realm of comprehension of this. When his ideals were disappointed, Liu Che's heart was not only filled with endless regret and pain, but also disappointed in human nature and confused about the future.
However, history does not stand still. When Liu Che calmed down and pondered, he realized that his enthusiasm and ideals alone were not enough to match the vested forces. Only by constantly accumulating strength and waiting for the right time can we turn things around and truly regain power.
epilogue
When we ask history, we are perhaps asking what power is. Does it really belong only to the rulers who wear their crowns in fancy clothes, or is it in the hands of vested interests that are undercurrents?
Perhaps, many years later, when this young man finally regains power, will he remember his helplessness and humiliation when he ascended the throne? Will he realize that the essence of so-called power is a constant game and struggle?
Perhaps this is where the helplessness of history lies. When we ask about power, we are actually asking about human nature. And the rules of the Game of Thrones, I'm afraid, have never changed.