When many people watch the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", they feel that this history is very messy, first, there are too many names that cannot be distinguished, and second, some details are not understood.
In fact, this history is not chaotic, and when we understand the motivation behind "chaos", it is much easier to understand.
This article will start from the motives of the various characters in the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", and divide this turmoil, which lasted for 16 years, into three stages, and carefully review them.
In 266 AD, Sima Yan forced Cao Huan Chan to give way to the Jin Dynasty.
After ascending the throne, Sima Yan made a big reform, that is, he wantonly divided the clan as the king, and made it divide the military power, Sima Yan's uncles and brothers, etc., and there were as many as 27 people who were crowned kings at the same time.
Sima Yan's motives for doing this are not difficult to understand.
Due to Cao Wei's excessive suppression of the clan, this made the Sima clan take the opportunity to rise, as a vested interest Sima Yan, naturally want to take this as a lesson, so Sima Yan rewarded the clan relatives and wanted to use his power to consolidate Sima the world.
But obviously, such an operation also laid the foundation for the future "Eight Kings Rebellion".
In the first year of Taixi (290 AD), when Sima Yan was seriously ill, he ordered the chariot general Yang Jun (the father of Empress Yang Zhi) and Sima Liang, the king of Runan (Sima Yi's fourth son), to assist the royal family.
These two people, one is a relative and the other is a clan, and their seniority is high enough and their reputation is big enough, Sima Yan arranged this way, it is expected that they will be loyal to the imperial court, and they can check and balance each other.
It's a pity that Sima Yan didn't get what he wanted, and Sima Liang was soon squeezed out of the core of power by Yang Jun, and Yang Jun was in charge of the dynasty alone.
The strength of the Yang family's relatives continues to grow, the Sima clan is increasingly panicked, and the demented emperor Sima Zhen, the founder of the idiom "why not eat minced meat", it is difficult for this court not to mess up.
The first stage of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" also kicked off.
Sima Zhen ascended the throne and made Jia Nanfeng the queen, this woman was extremely violent, and she had to try her best to get rid of anyone who did not like her eyes, and if she saw other concubines pregnant, she would make people beat her abdomen and make her miscarry.
Sima Zhen was demented and was subject to Jia Nanfeng, in order to fight for the power of himself and his family, Jia Nanfeng began to spare no effort to control the inner court, win over celebrities, collude with clan relatives, and plant party henchmen.
She did this for two reasons.
The first is to deal with the current political enemies, namely the Empress Dowager Yang Zhi, the Empress Dowager Yang Jun and the Yang family's relatives.
When Jia Nanfeng was still the crown princess, she was almost eliminated by Sima Yan because of her violent personality and murder, and Yang Zhi interceded for her, but Jia Nanfeng thought that Yang Zhi maliciously slandered her in front of Sima Yan, so she was not only not grateful to Yang Zhi, but extremely resentful.
After becoming the queen, Jia Nanfeng planned to participate in political affairs many times, but was hindered by Yang Jun many times, so Jia Nanfeng also had no good impression of Yang Jun and Yang's relatives group.
Second, it was to deal with his future political opponent, that is, the crown prince Sima Shu.
Sima Shu is a "good grandson" handpicked by Sima Yan, and the future heir to the throne who is justifiable, but he is not Jia Nanfeng's biological son, and he has always been at odds with Jia Nanfeng.
What Jia Nanfeng is most worried about is that after Sima Shu succeeds to the throne in the future, it will be unfavorable to him.
In the first year of Yuankang (291 AD), Jia Nanfeng contacted Sima Liang, the king of Runan, and Sima Wei, the king of Chu (Sima Yan's fifth son), and ordered the two kings to crusade against Yang Jun, Yang Jun, Yang Jue, Yang Ji and others were all punished by the three clans, and the empress dowager Yang Zhi died of starvation after being demoted to a concubine, and the Yang family group collapsed.
After getting rid of the Yang family's relatives group, Jia Nanfeng immediately turned the gun and took Sima Liang and Sima Wei as the two "allies".
Sima Liang, the king of Runan, has a high rank and great fame, so Jia Nanfeng found Sima Wei with the so-called "secret edict", saying that Sima Liang was plotting to abolish the establishment, and ordered Sima Wei to kill Sima Liang.
Sima Wei and Sima Liang themselves also had old grudges, and after getting the so-called "secret edict", they didn't even think about it, so they slaughtered Sima Liang.
Unexpectedly, Jia Nanfeng's sword turned again, and it was also said that Sima Wei killed important ministers of the court, which was really a heinous crime, so he killed Sima Wei again.
In this way, the first two "cannon fodder kings" of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" went offline, and Jia Nanfeng completely controlled the overall situation.
The reason why Sima Liang and Sima Wei were able to become Jia Nanfeng's "allies" was because they had the same motive, that is, to get rid of the Yang family's relatives group.
Sima Liang planned to replace Yang Jun, and Sima Wei planned to become the voice of the younger generation of the Sima family, but they both underestimated Jia Nanfeng so much that they became cannon fodder.
But obviously, Jia Nanfeng's ambition and pattern are not as big as Lu Pheasant, Wu Zetian and others, she only wants personal power to do whatever she wants, but she never cares about government affairs, so she leaves the government affairs of the court to her cronies to take care of.
This is the first stage of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings".
Under the control of Jia Nanfeng, in the next eight years, the court situation in the Western Jin Dynasty was quite stable, and there was not much of a moth.
However, with the passage of time, Jia Nanfeng's sense of crisis has become more and more urgent: Emperor Sima Zhen will eventually grow old, and the crown prince Sima Shu will eventually ascend to the throne, if Sima Shu takes the throne, he will inevitably be liquidated, what should I do?
As a result, Jia Nanfeng began to be a demon again, and took advantage of the situation to kick off the second phase of the "Eight Kings Rebellion".
In the ninth year of Yuankang (299 AD), Jia Nanfeng framed the prince Sima Shu, saying that he was plotting rebellion, and Jiao Zhao demoted Sima Shu to a concubine and imprisoned him in Xuchang, and at the same time took out the son of his brother-in-law Han Shou, saying that this child was the son of himself and Sima Zhen, and wanted to make this child the prince.
Good guy, this is not a simple abolition of the crown prince, this is to make Sima Tianxia change his surname.
Such a move will naturally cause strong resistance from the Sima clan.
The first to come out was Sima Lun (Sima Yi's ninth son), the king of Zhao with a high seniority, Sima Lun has always been the head of Jia Nanfeng, and he flattered Jia Nanfeng to the fullest, so he was able to control the military power.
But now, in such an important matter as changing the dynasty, Sima Lun must resolutely safeguard the rights and interests of the Sima family.
Not letting the Jin Dynasty change its surname is one of Sima Lun's motives for opposing Shui Jia Nanfeng.
And behind this motive, there is another wishful thinking of Sima Lun: he not only wants to kill Jia Nanfeng, but also forces Jia Nanfeng to kill the crown prince Sima Shu, because he is also afraid that Sima Shu will find himself to settle down after he takes the throne, and he has the ambition to be the emperor.
Therefore, Sima Lun, who had a heavy army, was not in a hurry to start a war against Jia Nanfeng, but first let people spread rumors in the capital, saying that the prince's henchmen were going to launch a coup d'état to get rid of Jia Nanfeng.
Jia Nanfeng panicked when he heard this, and simply didn't do anything, since he couldn't solve the problem, he solved the person who created the problem, and directly sent someone to poison the prince Sima Shu.
In this way, Sima Lun was in the arms, the crown prince Sima Shu died, and there was no major obstacle to his path to becoming the emperor, and the crusade against Jia Nanfeng was even more justified, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
Soon, Jia Nanfeng's forces were defeated by the anti-water Sima Lun, who demoted Jia Nanfeng to a concubine, poisoned him with gold dust wine, and then wantonly hunted down and killed Jia Nanfeng's henchmen.
If the matter ends here, Sima Lun should still be able to be a powerful minister in peace, and maybe there will be no more turmoil later.
But obviously, Sima Lun's ambition was too great, and he first imprisoned the emperor Sima Zhen, and then usurped the throne.
Sima Lun called the emperor, it is not only a bad name, but also a bad word, in order to win over the courtiers, Sima Lun wantonly added a hundred civil and military officials, and even the slaves under his hands were given titles.
During the Jin Dynasty, it was stipulated that the hats of senior officials should be decorated with mink tails, because Sima Lun wantonly made officials worship the lord, so that the mink tail was not enough for a while, and the dog tail could only be found to replace, which is also the origin of the idiom "dog tail continues to mink".
Sima Lun's operation had two effects.
First, it taught those later kings, because no matter who was in power later, they all learned from Sima Lun and rewarded civil and military officials to win people's hearts.
The second is to teach those civil and military officials, because they know that no matter how much the Sima clan's people fight around, they don't have to care, even if they don't stand in line, they can keep safe, and they can also be added to the ranks.
Sima Lun's usurpation of the emperor, and he was soon besieged by the Sima family.
The first to raise troops was Sima Jian, the king of Qi (Sima Yan's nephew).
Originally, Sima Jian was with Sima Lun, and the two worked together to deal with Jia Nanfeng's forces, but after the success, Sima Lun only gave Sima Jian a position of "guerrilla general", Sima Jian was very unhappy about this, and then Sima Lun transferred him to Xuchang.
After Sima Lun became the emperor, he took Sima Jian as the general of Zhendong and the three divisions of Kaifu Yitong, wanting to appease Sima Jian, but how could Sima Jian be a fuel-efficient lamp?
Sima Jian raised the army Qin Wang, and was responded to by Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu (Sima Yan's sixteenth son), and Sima Hao, the king of Hejian (the grandson of Sima Yi's third brother Sima Fu), and the three kings besieged Luoyang and fought several fierce battles, and the casualties of the Jin army on all sides added up to more than 100,000.
In the end, Sima Lun was defeated and killed, and the kings supported Sima Zhen to restore the emperor's throne.
But at this time, a very strange thing happened.
Sima Ying, who had made great contributions, said that he did not want any reward, and he did not stay in Luoyang, but returned to Yecheng in a hurry, and Luoyang was assisted by Sima Jian.
Why?
is because Sima Ying is extremely resourceful, and his move will not be seen until the third stage of the "Eight Kings Rebellion".
This is the second stage of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings".
At this stage, except for Sima Ying, the motives of the other kings are also obvious.
Sima Lun's rebellion against Jia Nanfeng was to protect Sima's country, so that Jia Nanfeng could be forced to kill the crown prince Sima Shu, and to pave the way for himself to become the emperor.
Sima Jian followed Sima Lun to attack Jia Nanfeng, also to protect Sima's country, and then raised troops to Qin Wang, not only to take revenge on Sima Lun, but also to gain political capital and world fame for himself.
Sima Ying and Sima Hao raised troops to respond to Sima Yin, although they were to gain political capital, but at the same time, they also had their own scheming, and these scheming of theirs were also the main motives of the kings in the next third stage of the "Eight Kings Rebellion".
In the first two stages of the "Eight Kings Rebellion", the two groups of relatives were collapsed, and the power of the clan returned to the peak of power in the Jin Dynasty.
At this time, there is a big problem in front of these clans, and it is also a great opportunity: the crown prince Sima Shu has died, Sima Shu's three sons Sima Yu, Sima Zang, and Sima Shang have also disappeared one after another, and the emperor Sima Zhen has become extinct, who will inherit the unification?
plotting to usurp the throne, Sima Lun's defeat is already a lesson from the past, and no one dares to do it so blatantly.
But even if you can't be the emperor, if you can control the emperor and the future emperor, it's a good choice.
As a result, around the core issue of "heir to the throne", the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" ushered in the third stage.
In the second year of Yongning (302 AD), Sima Jian, the auxiliary government, asked Sima Qin, the king of Qinghe, to be the crown prince and take the post of "prince and prince" himself, so that he would come from the autocratic government.
Why Lisima Tan?
There are three reasons, one is because Sima Qin is the grandson of Sima Yan and the nephew of Sima Zhen, and he can inherit the throne according to the etiquette law, the second is because Sima Qin was only eight years old at the time, and the third is because Sima Tan's father Sima Yao has died.
Isn't it difficult to control a young child without a father who will be emperor in the future?
Sima Jian was wishful thinking, but how could the other kings agree?
Sima Ying and Sima Hao, who had besieged Luoyang with him, united with Sima Yi, the king of Changsha (Sima Yan's sixth son), to attack Sima Yin.
Due to blood relationship, Sima Hao (the grandson of Sima Yi's third brother Sima Fu) is too far away from the throne, and he has no chance to reach the top at all, so his motive is to support Sima Ying (Sima Yan's sixteenth son) to ascend to the throne, and it is okay to make a slaughter himself.
Of course, Sima Ying has the ambition to be the emperor, according to the etiquette of "brother to brother", he is indeed qualified to inherit the throne, but he did not show it at this time.
Sima Ying's routine is to play the drama of "Gao Feng Liang Festival", and to play the means of "three resignations and three concessions", he wants to show his "generosity" to the world, in order to create a public opinion base that his virtue is enough to inherit the throne, so he didn't want any rewards before, and he didn't stay in Luoyang, it seems that he doesn't love power.
Who would have thought that Sima Ying was also ambitious, and it was just a matter of not praising Sima Ying as the "emperor's younger brother", but he actually held an 8-year-old little prince out, how could Sima Ying at this time not engage Sima Yin in death?
And the reason why Sima Ying and Sima Hao contacted Sima Yi and asked Sima Yi to be the internal response of the Beijing teacher was actually uneasy and kind.
Because Sima Yi is also the son of Sima Yan, he also has a high reputation and reputation, but his troops in Beijing are extremely weak, Sima Ying and Sima Hao hope that he will be the first bird, and hope that he will be defeated or even killed by Sima Jian after the incident, the two kings can use this as a pretext to call on the world to discuss Sima Yin, and then they can take advantage of the situation to depose Sima Zhen and support Sima Ying as the emperor, which is completely possible.
Sima Yi first went to the palace to snatch the emperor Sima Zhen, and then brought Sima Zhen to the front line of the battlefield to attack Sima Yin.
The soldiers under Sima Jian, seeing that the emperor was at the forefront of the opposite side, where did they dare to shoot arrows recklessly?
Under the trap of throwing rats, Sima Jian was quickly defeated by Sima Yi, beheaded and shown to the public, and was violently corpsed for three days.
Sima Yi won and took charge of the imperial court, which made Sima Ying and Sima Hao very disappointed, Sima Jian was actually killed by Sima Yi, so what excuse should they use to enter Luoyang?
If the light does not work, the dark will come.
Sima Hao secretly sent assassins to attack Sima Yi, but these assassins were all discovered by Sima Yi and were killed by Sima Yi.
The dark one can't do it, so let's come to the light.
If there is no name, as long as you want to fight, you can fight with a suitable excuse.
At that time, there was a rebellion in Shudi, and the closest to the rebels was Sima Hao of the garrison Chang'an, but Sima Hao said that whoever loves rebellion will rebel, anyway, I will not quell the rebellion, and it is important for me to engage in internal fighting and seize power.
As the new ruler of the imperial court, Sima Yi naturally has to find ways to quell the rebellion, since you Sima Hao does not go to quell the rebellion, then the imperial court will send troops over by itself.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the counterinsurgency troops sent by Sima Yi arrived in Guanzhong, they were detained by Sima Hao and refused to let them go.
So Sima Hao of Chang'an and Sima Ying of Yecheng united, and those who were clear with knives and guns fought with Sima Yi.
The two kings besieged Luoyang again, and Sima Yi embraced the city and defended it.
Sima Yi is also a talent, since he brought Sima Zhen to the front line to fight and defeated Sima Jian, he found the secret of victory, as long as the battle started, he brought Sima Zhen to the city wall.
In this way, although it was a two-front battle, Sima Yi was always able to repel the two kings.
There's no way, the emperor is on the city wall, how can the two kings attack with all their might?
After several months of fighting, the Jin armies on both sides suffered more than 100,000 casualties.
However, at this time, Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea (the grandson of Sima Yi's fourth brother Sima Kui), who served in the court, was afraid that Sima Yi would fail due to lack of food, so he colluded with the generals to remove Sima Yi from all his positions, and tied Sima Yi up and sent him to Sima Hao's subordinate Zhang Fang, who was burned alive by Zhang Fang.
At this point, the fruits of victory were divided between Sima Ying, Sima Hao and Sima Yue, who had picked up the leaks.
Sima Jian is dead, and the crown prince Sima Tan, who was invited by him, was naturally abolished, and the position of the heir to the throne was vacant again.
The role of "gentleman" is played by Sima Ying, and Sima Hao, who intends to support him on the throne, naturally has to act as a "wicked person".
If nothing else, Sima Ying, who successfully became the "emperor's younger brother", will inherit the unification in the future, which is a sure thing.
But this Sima Ying may have some serious illness, at this time, he was already the "imperial brother", and he actually left Luoyang and returned to Yecheng, leaving only an "agent" to control the court situation for him.
Looking at the history books, which prince of a country would have "remote control" of the government in this way?
If nothing else, then an accident.
Seeing that Sima Ying was far away in Yecheng, Sima Yue, who was in Luoyang, couldn't sit still, he proclaimed himself the "Metropolitan Governor", learned from Sima Yi, and brought the emperor Sima Cheng to the front line, leading more than 100,000 troops to Yecheng.
I don't have to say, although Sima Zhen is a demented emperor, but when it comes to the words "royal driving and pro-conquest", there are few emperors who are more experienced than him throughout the ages, and he is always on the front line, how can the word "brave" be good?
Obviously, Sima Yue made a mistake.
Before the emperor was hugged to the front line, of course Sima Ying did not dare to shoot the emperor.
But at this time, Sima Ying was already the "emperor's younger brother", if the emperor died, he would be the legitimate heir to the throne, and he even wished that the emperor would die early so that he could succeed to the throne, where could he still be manipulated by Sima Yue's routine?
Sima Ying's troops, aiming at Sima Yue's front army, shot fiercely, and pounced on them with a roar, which scared Sima Yue a lot, and directly left the emperor Sima Zhen and ran back to the fiefdom of the East China Sea.
The emperor Sima Zhen, who was forced to "drive the expedition in person", fell into the hands of Sima Ying again and was taken to Yecheng.
In fact, the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" has been carried out for so many years, and the world has long been not peaceful, if Sima Ying can calm down and hold his breath at this time, and slowly wait for the succession, maybe the world of the Jin Dynasty can be pulled back on track.
But Sima Ying was no, he neither returned to Luoyang, nor did he plan to let the emperor Sima Zhen return to Luoyang, not wanting to stabilize the situation, but instead raised troops to recruit the disobedient Youzhou warlord Wang Jun.
Wang Jun was beaten, so he led the Xianbei cavalry as reinforcements, successively defeated Sima Ying's troops, and led the army to continue to approach Yecheng, Sima Yue, who was originally beaten away by Sima Ying, also raised troops to chase Sima Ying fiercely.
Sima Ying couldn't defeat the enemy, so he led the Huns to help, but he still couldn't beat it, so he could only rush back to Luoyang with Sima Zhen.
It can be said that the "Five Hu Chaohua" was actually introduced by Sima Shi himself.
At this time, it was Sima Hao's subordinate general Zhang Fang, who took the emperor Sima Zhen, the "imperial brother" Sima Ying, and the king of Yuzhang Sima Chi and others and moved to Guanzhong.
Sima Hao, who originally supported Sima Ying as the "emperor's younger brother", was really angry at this time, giving you a chance that you would not be useful, giving you a chance that you would not be useful, they would help you on the wall, who can you blame if you can't sit still?
Annoyed, Sima Hao deposed Sima Ying as the heir to the throne and renamed Sima Chi, the king of Yuzhang, as the "imperial brother".
Soon after, Sima Yue fought all the way to Chang'an, Sima Ying and Sima Hao were both defeated, and the two kings eventually died.
The "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", which lasted for 16 years, came to an end, and Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, picked the final fruits of victory.
Of course, Sima Yue could not ascend to the throne of the emperor because his bloodline was too far away (the grandson of Sima Yi's fourth brother Sima Kui), but he could still be a powerful minister.
Soon after, the most "brave" dementia emperor Sima Zhen was poisoned, and the "imperial brother" Sima Chi succeeded to the throne, which was for Emperor Huai of Jin, and Emperor Huai of Jin, like his nephew Emperor Jin Chu, was finally captured by Liu Cong and died.
In the 51st year of the Western Jin Dynasty, just a few years after the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", it came to an end with a short life.
A turmoil made the land of the Jin Dynasty scorched for thousands of miles.
The "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" may seem chaotic, but once we understand why and why each king fought each other, and understand the different motives of each of them, this history will not seem so complicated.
Yang Jun wanted to be a powerful minister who covered the sky with one hand, so he excluded the Sima clan.
In order to kill the Yang family's relatives group, Jia Nanfeng wooed the Sima clan and used two of the kings as "cannon fodder".
Jia Nanfeng intended to change the surname of the Jin Dynasty and stepped on the bottom line of the Sima clan, so he was killed by the backwater, and a prince died by the way.
The death of the crown prince and the death of the grandson made the emperor have no queen, which led to a clan struggle with the "heir to the throne" as the core contradiction, which was the main theme in the middle and late stages of the "Eight Kings Rebellion".
Among the eight kings, those with distant bloodlines want to be powerful ministers, those with close bloodlines want to inherit the throne, those with iron heads dare to arrogant the emperor, those who dare to take the emperor to the front line, those who are iron and simple are cannon fodder, those who are scheming play routines, those who have no routines play shameless, and those who have no bottom line pull foreign aid......
Although they are blood relatives of the clan, how is the internal struggle different from the feud?
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why after Jia Nanfeng died, Yang Xianrong was in the position of the queen a few times, and why Sima Tan, the crown prince, was also established and abolished, abolished and established, and abolished again, and finally died of untimely death.
Because for careerists like the "Eight Kings", such an abolition is actually the embodiment of their strength in the "Crown Prince Dispute", and the battlefield between them is not only in the front of the army, but also in the court, in the East Palace, and in the harem.
All in all, the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" can be said to be a good bird, if there must be, then Sima Yi can be counted as one.