In 188 AD, just four years after the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty suddenly ordered: In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the post of state pastor should be set up!
At the same time, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty also ordered that Liu Yan, who was serving as Taichang at that time, be appointed as the governor of Jiaozhou. Shortly thereafter, he was reappointed as the Governor of Yizhou.
This is the famous 'Waste History Limu' in the late Eastern Han Dynasty!
The so-called abolition of history and pastoral refers to the shelving of the original system of assassination in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the establishment of state pastors at the same time. Since then, the state pastor has become the largest magistrate in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and can have full jurisdiction over all important military and political affairs in a state. Even compared with the princes and kings of the founding period of the Western Han Dynasty, the power is not far behind!
And with the emergence of the official position of state pastor, the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty regime became faster and faster. Because after the emergence of the state pastor, the power within the local state and county was really too great! So later, this area under the jurisdiction of a state pastor gradually became an independent kingdom, completely out of the control of the central government of the Han Dynasty!
So, what did the real Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty think in history? Why did he still play such a hand when the world was about to fall apart? Didn't Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty think that the establishment of a state pastor would make the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty faster?
In fact, this matter is really not as simple as later generations thought.
In fact, when Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was alive, he had already anticipated the possible collapse in the future! The abolition of Shi Limu was precisely one of the means by which Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty prevented the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty!
If we want to really explain what is going on with the abolition of Shi Limu, we have to start with the administrative system of the Han Dynasty.
The county system implemented by the Han Dynasty was originally inherited from the Qin Dynasty. After Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he divided the entire Central Plains into 36 counties, and each county governed several counties. Through this form of organization at the county and county levels, the Qin Dynasty controlled the entire Central Plains for the first time.
After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, because of this two-level management system, it was indeed easier to use. Therefore, after Liu Bang's team successfully started a business, it also inherited the county system.
Of course, at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the county system did not pass through the whole country. Because of historical reasons, when the Han Dynasty first opened the country, it played the 'dual-track system', that is, the parallel system of the county system and the feudal system. It was not until later, after several vassal states with different surnames in the early Han Dynasty were all wiped out, that the county system was fully launched.
But then, as history continued to move forward, almost in the middle of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a problem arose for the first time in this system.
Here's the problem: there are too many counties!
In fact, from the first establishment of the county system by Qin Shi Huang to the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the number of counties has been increasing during this period. As for the reasons for the increase, there are probably two.
First, because of the expansion of territory, the land area has become larger. For example, during the reign of Qin Shi Huang, he attacked Baiyue and established Xiang County, Guilin County and Nanhai County. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he violently attacked the Xiongnu and opened up the Western Regions. By the time Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty died, the area that the Han Dynasty could control was almost twice as large as when the Qin Dynasty first unified the world!
Second, because in the process of eliminating those vassal states, several emperors of the Western Han Dynasty would reorganize the structure of the local counties. For example, after the end of the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty redivided the fiefs of the rebellious vassal states into counties. In this way, the number of counties will naturally be larger.
There are some controversies about how many counties there were in the Han Dynasty during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. But according to historical records, after the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty was in power, there were about one hundred and three counties in the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty!
One hundred and three counties, compared with the thirty-six counties under the command of Qin Shi Huang back then, the number is too much.
Having said this, some people may question: Isn't it a good thing that the number of counties has increased, and why did it become a problem for the Han Dynasty to rule the whole country?
The reason is very simple! Because when there are more than 30 counties, the emperor can manage it! But when there are more than 100 counties, the emperor can't manage it alone!
Here we introduce a modern concept called 'Dunbar Number Theory'.
To put it simply, it is a normal human being, and the number of human beings who can maintain a stable social relationship is generally about 150 people! After this number, you may remember the person's name, but the social relationship between two people will become very few, close to none!
It's just normal social relationships, and even less if it's an intimate relationship!
Therefore, in normal human society, there is often a very common situation: two people may be very good classmates or friends in the early years, but when they become adults, as long as they are not in the same social environment, they will have very little contact! Even the brothers who slept on the top bunk in college may have no contact at all after graduation.
And this theory, when it comes to the emperors of the Qin and Han dynasties, the same reason!
You must know that a county guard is qualified to report directly to the emperor! That is to say, there must be a social relationship between the county guard and the emperor. When there were thirty-six counties in the country, the emperor needed to maintain social relations with the thirty-six taishou. And when there are more than 100 counties in the country, the emperor needs to maintain social relations with more than 100 taishou!
But the problem is, in addition to Taishou, the emperor also needs to know other people!
The three princes and nine ministers in the center of the empire, some of the most capable generals in the army, the more favored concubines in the harem, and those clan relatives of the old Liu family will occupy one of the one hundred and fifty places. In this way, even if Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has no private life at all, his social circle cannot accommodate so many people!
In fact, all dynasties in ancient China, when ruling the country, inadvertently followed this law. For example, in the later Qing Dynasty, only officials with a minimum rank of four grades were qualified to report to the emperor on their work, while officials below the rank of four could only greet each other in ordinary times. There are no special circumstances, and there is no right to report directly at all.
In fact, this principle is the same! In the Qing Dynasty, there were only a few dozen officials above the fourth rank. Coupled with the other people that the emperor needed to know, together they formed the emperor's social circle.
Therefore, after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty carried out large-scale expansion, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty felt such distress for the first time: he had no impression at all of the many local county guards who reported directly to him! Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not know what kind of work this Taishou was responsible for. Every time he arranged work, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had to find his secretary and adviser first and ask about the relevant situation before he could make a decision!
It's hard to do!
If it's one or two people who need it, maybe it's not a big problem. But if there are too many people who need to be directly managed, Emperor Wu of Han will not be able to complete this job even if he is exhausted. So in 106 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty finally ordered to update this system with a 'patch'.
In this year, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered that the whole country be divided into thirteen supervision districts!
In this way, the Han Dynasty's assassination history system was freshly baked.
In the history of the Han Dynasty, 106 BC was actually a very special year. In this year, in addition to the establishment of the assassination system, Wei Qing, the most important general of the empire, also died of illness. Taken together, these two things can almost be seen as a sign. Since then, the stage of large-scale foreign expansion of the Western Han Dynasty has basically ended.
Of course, the reason why it ended was not because it didn't want to continue expanding. It's because all the places around the Han Dynasty that can farm have basically been taken down. Further afield, there may be some places where you can farm. But because the distance was too far, the Han Dynasty was already beyond the reach of the whip.
Keep these things in mind.
Because of these things, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, they will directly determine the decision of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.
From the establishment of the history of assassination by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there was basically little change during this period. I have to say that this set of county systems with a patch of assassination history is still relatively easy to use. Because after that, the emperor can directly listen to the assassin history and the central officials report their work, and there is no need to directly connect with so many taishou.
In addition, the history of thorns in the Western Han Dynasty was basically only responsible for supervision. As for matters such as military, administrative, and personnel appointments and dismissals, the assassin generally has no power to intervene.
But at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, this system went wrong again.
To put it simply, because in the late Western Han Dynasty, the country began to have problems everywhere. Although the assassin itself is an official position in charge of supervision, it is inevitable that some practical work needs to be done in the actual operation process. For example, leading troops to suppress rebellions, or directly intervening in the actual management of local affairs.
This kind of change has made the assassin who was originally only in charge of supervision more and more powerful, and gradually became a 'magistrate' who is above the Taishou.
The most important thing is that in the face of this change, even the emperor of the Western Han Dynasty at that time could not change.
This was because there were too many problems within the Western Han Dynasty at that time! If the original old system was followed, after the Taishou reported to the central authorities, and then the central authorities made decisions, it would have been too late for many things! In particular, once such a matter as a local rebellion occurred, someone had to coordinate the local military and political resources and quickly suppress it.
In the beginning, Taishou was able to do this job. Because the rebellion in the early stage was often confined to a single county. But later, the scale of the uprising or rebellion grew, often affecting several counties at once!
At such times, it is necessary to have an official position that can control the resources of several counties to accomplish this task.
So, in 8 BC, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty ordered that the original history of thorns be renamed 'Zhou Mu'. And then it's up to the state pastor to do the job.
In fact, in the later dynasties of all dynasties, this kind of situation will appear. In the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty, this official position was called Jiedu Envoy. In the middle and late Ming and Qing dynasties, this official position was called the governor.
Then, after the establishment of the state pastor in the Western Han Dynasty, the situation was actually quite similar to that of the Ming and Qing dynasties! After the emergence of the state pastor, the state pastor in these places did not directly support the army and stand on its own, but directly began to rebel. Instead, they worked actively to maintain the rule of the Han Dynasty.
In this regard, the state governors in the late Western Han Dynasty were actually very similar to those local governors in the late Qing Dynasty.
And later, after Wang Mang usurped the throne, Wang Mang further strengthened the state pastoral system. Under Wang Mang's arrangement, the state pastor had greater real power. But at the same time, Wang Mang set up various means to prevent the state pastor from rebelling.
Therefore, this set of state pastoral system, in the late Western Han Dynasty and Wang Mang period, actually played a great 'positive role'. At least, the system is effective in maintaining rule. Under this system, the governor can mobilize more resources to suppress rebellions in the state and county. The emperor could use various other means to prevent the state pastor from rebelling.
Of course, the most important reason is that this system has not been implemented for a long time. Before those state ministers had time to establish their own lineage power in the local area, the Western Han Dynasty died, and Wang Mang was overthrown. If there is a certain state pastor who can stay in a certain state for a long time and stay for more than ten years in one breath, it is estimated that Wang Mang will also have to face the situation of the state pastor's rebellion.
After that, it was time for the Eastern Han Dynasty.
After the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in terms of system, Liu Xiu inherited most of the systems of the Western Han Dynasty. But only the state pastoral system was abolished by Liu Xiu!
The reason is very simple! Because in peacetime, the power of the governor is really too great. And in peacetime, the Eastern Han Dynasty did not need to set up such a large official position of real power! There was no need for this at all!
Therefore, after arriving in the Eastern Han Dynasty, until the world was in turmoil, what the Eastern Han Dynasty implemented was the 'Thorn History County System' after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty patched it.
This situation actually lasted until the Yellow Turban Uprising, which was also the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. Before the Yellow Turban Uprising, this system of assassination was responsible for supervision and Taishou was responsible for management, and there had never been any major problems. But after the Yellow Turban Uprising broke out, the problems faced by the Western Han Dynasty reappeared!
Although after the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, Emperor Ling of Han immediately mobilized troops and suppressed the main force of the Yellow Turban Army. However, after that, there were still small-scale uprisings in various places, which caused Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty a great headache! At this time, the Eastern Han Dynasty had to set up another official post to be able to control the military and political resources of a state, so that these small-scale uprisings could be quickly suppressed.
Speaking of which, some people may ask: Couldn't the assassin who was originally in charge of supervising it do this work? Didn't the assassin do such a thing in the Western Han Dynasty?
This method, Emperor Han Ling has actually thought about it a long time ago!
After the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty immediately dispatched the Central Army of the Eastern Han Dynasty to suppress the main force of the Yellow Turban Army. Because the Central Army was relatively strong, the main force of the Yellow Turban Army was suppressed after only eight months of trouble. But after that, in the face of frequent small-scale rebellions in various places, the central army of the Han Dynasty simply did not have time to pass!
Then, Emperor Ling of Han ordered that the assassins in various places be temporarily responsible for organizing the army in the local area. Then, let the assassin lead the troops to suppress it.
After the implementation of this method, Emperor Han Ling originally thought that it could solve the problem very well.
But as a result, after Emperor Ling of Han delegated power like this, the situation became even worse!
The reason is very simple! Because those assassins have long been in collusion with local state and county officials. After they came to power, they did not work at all, but only used their power to embezzle on a large scale! So in the end, instead of decreasing, the number of small-scale rebellions in various places increased!
And among them, many small forces that rebelled may have been forced to rebel by the local assassination history!
It was in such a state that in 188 A.D., Liu Yan, the Taichang of the dynasty, proposed to re-establish the post of 'state pastor'. Then use the state pastor to replace the original history of thorns!
Where did this Liu Yan come from?
In fact, we really don't know much about Liu Yan's early experience. Although in the history of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Yan was a particularly important person. But before putting forward the suggestion of 'abolishing Shi Limu', there is really not much record of his personal experience in the history books.
We only know that his ancestor is the fourth son of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Liu Yu, the king of Huaiyang. Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty had a total of fourteen sons, of which Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was the tenth, and then Liu Bei and their ancestors were the ninth.
In addition, Liu Biao, who later became a man in Jingzhou, is also a descendant of the fourth Liu Yu. So relatively speaking, the relationship between Liu Biao and Liu Yan is actually a little closer than that with Liu Bei.
Because he was born in a clan, Liu Yan's career back then was easier than ordinary people. As soon as he became an adult, he was able to serve in the local state and county as a small official. Later, he passed the examination of the probation system, passed the 'virtuous and square' examination in the assessment, and officially obtained the national establishment.
After the establishment, Liu Yan successively served as the commander of Luoyang County, the assassin of Jizhou, the Taishou of Nanyang County, Zongzheng, Taichang and other positions. But as for what he did during this period, there is no record in the history books at all.
However, from his resume, we can roughly see that Liu Yan's life has been quite smooth! At least, compared with Liu Bei later, Liu Yan has already started a Tianhu.
In this way, before the abolition of Shi Limu's incident, Liu Yan held the position of Taichang. According to the official system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taichang was one of the nine qing, in charge of cultural education and sacrifices.
After the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, Liu Yan saw that the Eastern Han Dynasty was full of wolf smoke, and the Eastern Han Dynasty regime was in danger and could be destroyed at any time. So at this time, Liu Yan wanted to go to the edge of the empire, find a place to occupy the mountain as the king, and live his own stable life. But the problem is that his official position is too constant, and he does not have the power to go to the local level.
Therefore, after that, Liu Yan made a suggestion to Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, proposing to re-establish the post of state pastor! Then, he could take the lead in serving as the state pastor and set an example for everyone.
In this way, the plan of abolishing Shi Limu was put in front of Emperor Ling of Han.
No one knew what kind of attitude Emperor Han Ling had when he heard this plan. But under the circumstances at that time, it is estimated that only Liu Yan is the most suitable to propose this plan.
Because within the central government of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, in the entire team of the Three Princes and Nine Secretaries, only Liu Yan was born in the old Liu family. Although it is the generation of Emperor Ling of Han, the blood relationship between the two sides cannot be further away. But at least, it is more appropriate for someone from the old Liu family to make this suggestion than it is to put forward it by other relatives, eunuchs, or people from the scholar family.
If it was He Jin, Jian Shuo, or Runan Yuan's people, they would come up with this plan. It is estimated that Emperor Han Ling's first reaction will definitely not be to agree, but to directly cut them down to prevent them from rebelling!
And when Liu Yan proposed this plan, this problem was placed in front of Emperor Ling of Han.
At this time, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, didn't he know that after the establishment of the state pastor, it would lead to the expansion of local forces?
Of course he does!
But he couldn't think of anything else!
When thinking about this question, we must bring the perspective of Emperor Han Ling in order to understand why Emperor Han Ling agreed to this plan. From the perspective of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty: At this time, the country was revolting everywhere, and those local scholars were basically taking advantage of this opportunity to quickly recruit soldiers and horses, strengthen their power, and possibly become independent at any time.
If there is no state pastor, there is a high probability that there will be frequent uprisings in the local area, and eventually a larger uprising will be formed. But if a state pastor is set up, maybe it can be delayed for a while!
In addition, later historians speculated that Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty at that time may have a little other 'selfishness'. In the eyes of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty at this time was already in danger, and the world could be in chaos at any time. In this case, it is better to give power to the old Liu family and their own family. In this way, even if the world is in chaos in the future, and there is another scuffle, in the end, it will be someone from the old Liu family who will be the emperor, and the result will not be bad!
Of course, this speculation is just speculation, and there is no evidence. As for whether Emperor Han Ling thought so at that time, only God knows.
In short, for Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty at this time, if he did not set up a state pastor, the Eastern Han Dynasty might perish immediately. And the most important thing is that Emperor Ling of Han did not know about those things in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. In his opinion, after the implementation of the state pastoral system in the Western Han Dynasty, the effect was actually quite good!
After all, none of the state pastors in the Western Han Dynasty chose to rebel, they all fought for the country until the last moment.
So in the end, Emperor Ling of Han issued an order and approved Liu Yan's plan. But while approving this plan, Emperor Han Ling actually had a heart. Judging from all indications, Emperor Han Ling left two backhands at that time!
First of all, there are only two kinds of people who can serve as state pastors. One is Liu Yan's own family of the 'excellent' old Liu family, and the other is the leader of the scholar clan who is extremely loyal to the Eastern Han regime, and the representative of this kind of person is Huang Wan.
Obviously, it is not easy for these two types of people to become independent after they are sent to the local government.
Secondly, after setting up the state pastor, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty did not set up a state pastor in thirteen states in the world at the same time. It's about where there is a problem, where to set up a state pastor. Perhaps, after the problem is over, Emperor Han Ling wants to remove the state pastor from his official position again!
From this point of view, the state pastor in the heart of Emperor Ling of Han may be more like the 'minister of the Qin Mission' in later generations.
After the abolition of Shi Limu's plan was approved, the first batch of state pastors appointed by Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was actually only three. These three state pastors are: Yizhou Mu Liu Yan, Youzhou Mu Liu Yu, and Yuzhou Mu Huang Wan.
At that time, Yizhou, Youzhou and Yuzhou were counted, and the uprising was the most violent.
In addition, there is actually a small story here: it is said that Liu Yan first took a fancy to Jiaozhou in the south. He applied to Emperor Ling of Han for the first time, and he also went to be the pastor of Jiaozhou himself. But as a result, there was a man named Dong Fu at that time, who was said to understand feng shui. He said that there is a king in Yizhou. So later, Liu Yan changed his application and applied to go to Yizhou to be a state pastor instead.
As for Liu Yan's change, Emperor Han Ling didn't seem to take it too seriously at that time, and directly approved it.
This is the 'Abolition of History and Pastoral Husbandry' incident in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
In fact, when Emperor Ling of Han approved this plan, he also thought about it a lot, and left it behind. But what he never expected was that he had just approved the plan, and less than a year later, he himself would die!
With the death of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the Central Committee of the Eastern Han Dynasty quickly lost control! And the original remnants of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty were all invalid later.
As for Liu Yan, after arriving in Yizhou, he quickly grasped the local military and political power and completely dominated one side. From this time on, until Liu Bei entered Sichuan, Yizhou was basically the territory of Liu Yan's family.
At the same time, seeing Liu Yan's success, other separatists in other places also followed suit. So soon, after Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, state pastors from all over the country sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. And with the emergence of state pastors in various places, the world of the Eastern Han Dynasty has completely fallen apart.