Liu Yuan (between 249 and 253 – 310), a native of Xinxing (present-day northern Xinzhou, Shanxi), was the grandson of Yu Fuluo of the Southern Xiongnu, the son of Liu Bao, the king of Zuoxian, and the son of Huyan. Liu Yuan took over his subordinates after his father's death, until the rebellion of the Eight Kings in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, when the kings attacked each other, Liu Yuan took advantage of the civil strife in the imperial court and led the five Xiongnu to stand on their own in the state.
Liu Yuan was a Xiongnu who was bent on revitalizing the country and resuming business, and the reason why he called himself the emperor of Han was not only the political in-law factor between Hu and Han, but also related to Liu Yuan's life experience and the social situation at that time.
Liu Yuan lived in Han since childhood, loved to read, obsessed with Han culture, once worshipped the famous party scholar Cui You as a teacher, studied the Confucian classics and historical and military works of the Central Plains, and even "recited them all", deeply influenced and influenced by Han culture. This point is not difficult to see from the filial piety etiquette of Liu Yuan when he lost his mother at the age of seven, showing "shouting and mourning for his neighbors" ("Book of Jin").
Advocating Han culture made Liu Yuan wholeheartedly accept Sinicization, and the various encounters and injustices suffered by Liu Yuan in the officialdom were also an important factor that forced him to take the initiative to move closer to the Han people and Han culture. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, Wang Hun, Wang Ji and others recommended Liu Yuan to take on the important task of eliminating Sun Wu, but they were strongly opposed by Kong Sui, Yang Jue and others, especially the eight words in the admonition, "If you are not of my race, your heart will be different" ("Book of Jin"), which not only stung Liu Yuan's self-esteem, but also reflected the ethnic estrangement between Han and Hungary that was difficult to eliminate.
Kong Sui and Yang Jue were important ministers of the imperial court, representing the thoughts and concepts of a considerable part of the Han people in the government and the opposition, who despised and hated the Hu people, and even resisted the Huns like Liu Yuan, who were civil and martial, so that Liu Yuan was repeatedly discouraged, and even once in danger. Although Liu Yuan was ambitious, capable, and courageous, it was difficult to get the support and support of the Han people in the Wei and Jin dynasties, which paid attention to the background of the gatekeeper. Liu Yuan wants to achieve great things, wants to base himself in the Central Plains, and wants to get the support of the Han people, the best way is to pull up the Han flag and hope for the people.
Liu Yuan is well versed in history, in his opinion, from Qin to Jin, although there are several Han regimes, but only the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty have a long history, and the rest are short-lived, and even the Jin Dynasty in front of him is crumbling. Liu Yuan believed that "the Han has the longevity of the world, and kindness is in the hearts of the people", and named the country as Han, which can make the people of the Central Plains attached. Liu Yuan called the Emperor of Han, according to him, it is reasonable, "Brother dies and Brother Shao, it is not okay" ("Book of Jin"), since Han and Hun are about brothers, the elder brother dies, and the younger brother inherits, what is this not possible?
In addition to raising the Han flag, Liu Yuan also used a large number of famous people among the Han people to hold important positions, such as he appointed Cui You as the imperial historian, and appointed Lu Zhi, the great-grandson of Lu Zhi, a great Confucian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, as the Taishi of his son Liu Cong. Subsequently, Liu Yuan's troops pointed directly at the Western Jin Dynasty and achieved a series of military victories.
In order to win the hearts of the people, Liu Yuan suppressed indiscriminate killing and looting, but in the process of destroying the Jin Dynasty, although the indiscriminate killing of innocents, burning and plundering and adultery were prohibited, so that "the flow is scattered, and there are no two out of ten,...... and those who are there, sell their wives, give away their lives, die in danger, and have white bones" ("Book of Jin").
Liu Yuan became the queen in Zuoguo City, and after about 3 years, he led his troops south to leave here and open up a bigger situation. In 308, Liu Yuan was already fledgling, so he officially proclaimed himself emperor, changed the Yuan Yongfeng, and set the capital Pingyang, which is now Jindian Town, a suburb of Linfen.
With the expansion of Liu Yuan's influence, other anti-Jin forces such as Xianbei Lu Zhuyan, Di Chief Shan Zheng, and Donglai Wang Mi were attached to his command, and tens of thousands of displaced people in Hebei, Xu, Henan, Yan and other prefectures also rose up to burn the city and kill 2,000 stone chiefs to respond to Liu Yuan.
In the first year of Herui (309), Liu Yuan concentrated his forces to attack Luoyang. Although the people of Luoyang hated the rotten Jin Dynasty, they refused to accept the rule of the Huns. The two attacks were met with fierce resistance from the Luoyang army and civilians, and Liu Yuan was forced to retreat.
In July of the second year of Herui (310), Liu Yuan died of regret and reigned for six years. Liu Yuan "borrowed the corpse to return the soul" under the banner of the Han Dynasty, showed extraordinary political acumen and political means, and also achieved a certain goal, but the Han regime he established was essentially the dictatorship of the Xiongnu aristocracy and the upper class. In his later years, Liu Yuan saw that the ethnic estrangement between the Han and the Huns was difficult to erase, and said that the Han "to cherish the people's hope" was becoming more and more unworkable, so before his death, he restored the old system of the Xiongnu tradition and implemented the "Hu and Han partition".
Due to the complicated situation in the north and the infighting among the southern Xiongnu ruling group at that time, the Xiongnu Han and Zhao states established by Liu Yuan and his descendants only existed for 26 years before disappearing.
The Han State established by Liu Yuan was the first independent regime established by the grassland people in the interior, and although it only existed for 26 years, it left a glorious page in Chinese history and occupied an important position in the history of the Chinese nation.
The establishment of Liu Yuan's Han regime further pushed the Central Plains into war and turmoil, and at the same time changed the ruling structure of the five Xiongnu tribes since Cao Cao, and restored the traditional old system of the Xiongnu. But the conditions were prepared for a deep integration of the various ethnic groups.
The Han State established by Liu Yuan was the earliest secession regime of the Sixteen Kingdoms, and since then China began a period of fragmentation and chaos, and its ambition to conquer the Central Plains has become the precursor of the Northern Dynasties of the Sixteen Kingdoms and even the later generations of the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Qing and other northern ethnic groups to enter the north and then unify the Central Plains. Liu Yuan was later considered to be the culprit of the "Five Hu Chaohua", which is also for this reason. It can be said that Fu Jian, Yuan Hong, Yu Wenyong and other British lords of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Northern Dynasties are continuing Liu Yuan's unfinished business. In this sense, the Han Kingdom of Short Zuo, the remote Zuo Guocheng, and Liu Yuan himself are undoubtedly historical symbols with permanent influence.
However, the Zuoguo City, the capital of the Han Kingdom, which he built, is little known.
Zuo Guocheng is located in the south village of the territory of Xishan County, Shanxi. During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Liu Yuan of the Xiongnu established the capital of the Xiongnu Han State, and now only the ruins remain.
Zuoguo City, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are the Gao Wolf Yi where Bai Di and Gaoluo live, and the Han is Gao Wolf County. From 140 A.D. Xihe County moved away from the stone, here was built as the city of Zuoguo, to 304 A.D. Liu Yuan gathered here to call the King of Han, during this period of 164 years, the city of Zuoguo is the core of the Southern Xiongnu tribes, the head of the Southern Xiongnu in the Cao Wei period - Nandan Yuting settled here. It has become the core base of the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Qian, Di and Qiang ethnic minorities in the north, and has been glorious for more than 400 years, giving birth to a strong "Lishihu" people, and producing a milestone in the history of ethnic integration. Therefore, Liu Yuan was able to quickly gather a large number of Xiongnu troops here and quickly establish a political power.
After Nandan settled in the court, he carried out creative management here. It followed and expanded the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han Dynasty cities, backed by the eastern mountains and facing the Beichuan River. According to the mountain situation, build the city wall, the east, south and north sides are surrounded by the post and build, the east city wall is built along the ridgeline, the inner and outer twin cities, strictly defend. The inner city is rectangular in shape, and the outer city changes irregularly with the terrain. The overall construction is three parts: the inner city, the west city, and the east city, and it has become a military city defense that sets the city and encompasses the city, combines the inside and outside, and takes care of each other. The outermost perimeter is 9,932 meters, and the total area reaches 8.7 square kilometers.
This is the garrison of the left commander of the Xiongnu in Nandan Yuting, commanding and supervising the five military divisions of the Xiongnu. At that time, Cao Cao distributed the five parts of the Xiongnu to the area of Luliang Mountain, and the core of its leadership was in the city of Lishizuo. The Southern Xiongnu ruling group lived, held meetings, entertained, studied internal affairs, dealt with various issues, and coordinated relations between the Wuhu and the Hu and Han. In the first year of Emperor Hui of the Western Jin Dynasty (304), Liu Yuan, the leader of the Southern Xiongnu, made a report on the current situation and tasks here according to the environment of heaven and man at that time. It is believed that during the Han Dynasty: our ancestors and the Han Dynasty were brothers, sharing weal and woe. The current situation is: the Wei and Jin dynasties prospered, and there was nothing to do with the empty name and no land, and all the princes and princes were reduced to the ordinary people. The current situation and tasks: Sima's cannibalism and boiling all over the world provide a God-sent opportunity for us to rejuvenate the country!
As a result, under the background of the cannibalism of the royal family of the Jin Dynasty, the oppression of the Hu people, natural and man-made disasters, and the people's lack of livelihood, a Xiongnu Han State with Liu Yuan as the emperor quickly hatched out of the nest. Liu Yuan launched a Xiongnu uprising here, which soon overthrew the Western Jin Dynasty and ruled most of Shanxi and the core parts of the Central Plains such as Chang'an and Luoyang. It became the first state power established in the interior of the mainland by an ethnic minority who migrated internally. Because the Hu people had such a base area, hundreds of thousands of Hu people in northern Shaanxi, northwestern Shanxi, and southeastern Shanxi had spiritual support, which laid the ideological and organizational foundation for the chaos of ethnic minorities and the establishment of the 16 states. This command center, located in the deep mountains and rivers of the Luliang Mountains, commanded the "Wuhu" thousands of troops to fight in the east and west, fighting for cities and plundering land. Like a mysterious theater backstage, the "Wuhu" tribes dressed up here, received their lines, and then on the Chinese stage, "chaos, you sing and I will sing", and performed a live drama of the "Sixteen Kingdoms" melee.
Located in the eastern part of Luliang Mountain, Fenyang and Xiaoyi are strictly blocked from "Lishihu". There are six walls in Fenyang, and the "Water Jing Note" cloud "The Southern Wei Dynasty placed the six walls under it, preventing it from leaving Shi Zhuhu, because of the big town." "Fenzhou Mansion Chronicles" stated, there are eight gates in the north of the fifteen miles, "Liu Yuan sent Qiao Song to attack the West River, because of the construction of this city, the city has eight gates" commonly known as Luocheng. There is Banqiao City, and the "County Chronicles" records that "Liu Yuan hit Liu Kun here." "Xiaoyi City has a partial city village, "Xiaoyi County Chronicles" contains, after the Sixteen Kingdoms, Zhao Lishi Marquis to prevent the northwest Zhuhu from building a city here. It can be seen that the majesty of "Lishihu" at that time was not false in the historical books. All of this, as well as the Later Zhao and Great Xia Kingdoms, have a deep relationship with Zuo Guocheng. At that time, Zuoguocheng became a central sacred place in the minds of the Hu people who moved to the interior, and the power of its example even inspired later Yuan and Mongol and Manchu rulers.
Today, there are still many relics of Hu soldiers' conquest in the Luliang area. The city walls of Zuoguo City still exist and are basically intact. The ruins of Zuoguo City are located in the middle reaches of the Beichuan River, in the south village of Fangshan County, our province. The city was expanded on the basis of the ruins of Gaowolf City in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Gaowolf County in the Han Dynasty.
The ruins of Zuoguo City are composed of four cities, which are located on the loess hills and the steep loess hills around them, with a special shape and a rare plane layout in China. The ancient city wall is built on the south, north and west ring hills, and the east city wall is built along the ridgeline. The outermost total circumference of the ancient city is 9,932 meters, and the ruins of the ancient city are well preserved.
The earliest part of the ancient city is the ruins of the Warring States Gao Wolf Yi, which is located in the middle. The circumference of the city is 1280 meters, and the total area is 0.064 square kilometers. Among them, the northwest part has become a ruined wall, and the southeast rammed earth wall foundation is basically intact. In the city and in the rammed earth layer, some pre-Qin excavated pieces, tiles, bronze vessels, etc. have been unearthed, which fully prove that the city was built during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The second city is the Han Dynasty Gaowolf county town expanded on the basis of Gaowolfyi, the rammed earth foundation of the city wall is basically intact, the circumference of the city is 2135 meters, and the total area is 0.31 square kilometers. Zuoguo City is the inner and outer cities that are expanded on the basis of Gaowolf County. The inner city has a circumference of 3,180 meters and a total area of 0.54 square kilometers, while the outer city has a circumference of 4,315 meters and a total area of 0.69 square kilometers. There are 10 horse face relics around the outer city wall, which are basically intact. A total of five ruins of city gates have been found along the main passage of the city's outer defense system, two of which are basically intact. The city is bordered by the Beichuan River in the west, the city wall is seriously washed by the flood, it is vaguely recognizable, only the original stone strip is left at the base of the west wall; the south is bordering the river, you can look at the Nanchuan River in the distance; the earth bridge ditch in the north is the moat, you can inspect the open area of Beichuan and the ground direction of the southeast Xiaxigou, constitute the barrier of the periphery of the city. The southeast corner of the city is the commanding height of the whole city, the altitude is 1193.4 meters, the rammed earth city wall is high and steep, the end point is a cross-shaped cross, it can overlook all corners inside and outside the city, control the whole city, and is the command center of the whole city. Zuoguo City started from Gaowolfyi to the foot of Liangquan County in the third year of Sui Daye (607), and it has been used for more than 1,000 years, and it has been abandoned for more than 1,400 years.
There are cultural layers in different periods such as Yangshao culture, Longshan culture, Warring States period, Western Han Dynasty and Eastern Han Dynasty in Zuoguo City.
The inner city of the left country is rectangular, and the outer city surrounds the inner city with the change of terrain. The city is condescending, it can be described as a strong city, from the perspective of military geography and historical geography, it can be called the first natural barrier north of the stone.
In ancient times, it was a place where the Lan Dynasty was connected to the north, Pingyang in the south, to the north of Shaanxi to the west, and to Taiyuan in the east, so the strategic position was very important. In particular, it enters the depths of Yunding Mountain and the area of Pangquangou to the east, which is still a famous large pasture in Shanxi, so it provides a good stage for the activities of nomads.
The Beichuan River makes a bend from the west of the city to the east and flows south
According to Guangxu's "Yongning Prefecture Chronicles", Liu Wanghui Mountain, there is a "horse drinking pool", which was once Liu Yuan's horse ranch, and "the Yuan Temple still exists". There is Liu Yuanxing Palace in Sihao Village in Wucheng Town. Lucheng (now Lishi Shanglouqiao Village) was built by Liu Kun, the assassin of Jin and Prefecture, to attack Liu Yao's fortress. There is Liu Kun Temple in Matou Mountain, and there is Shile Tomb in Yulin Mountain. Until more than 1,000 years later, more than 30 villages in this area also organized temple fairs to worship "Shi Leye".
Zuoguo City has a history of 2,500 years. Such a well-preserved ancient city, unique layout and unearthed precious cultural relics are famous in the province, and it is one of the few ethnic minority capitals in the country. On May 25, 2006, the ruins of Zuoguocheng were promoted from a provincial-level cultural protection unit to the sixth batch of key cultural relics protection units in the country.
The internal relocation of the Wuhu was carried out under the control of the Central Plains government, and the melee of the Wuhu was a tragedy of uncontrolled ethnic contradictions. But standing on the ridge of history, you will see that the sinicization of Wuhu is like ice and snow melting into spring water, and its fresh water of life overflows the fields and continuously injects into the wilderness of the survival and development of the Central Plains nation, which effectively promotes the integration of the Chinese nation's civilization in politics, economy, culture and blood, and effectively enhances the vitality of the Chinese nation's survival.
Although there is no Xiongnu nation in today's China, it has long been integrated into the bloodline of the Chinese nation. The descendants of the Xiongnu and experts and scholars from all over the world are discussing the whereabouts of the Southern Xiongnu, in fact, their capital is in the city of Lishizuo, and their blood flows in your body. This is the ancestral court of the Great Xia State in northern Shaanxi, and it should become a holy place for the descendants of the Xiongnu at home and abroad and the northern ethnic groups to worship and pay homage.
Source: Sanjin Ancient Civilization