The Lamentations of the Two Jin Emperors: The Trembling Emperor Jianwen (Part 1)

Emperor Jianwen Sima Yu was the youngest son of Emperor Sima Rui of the Yuan Dynasty. He was born in the third year of Taixing (320 AD), and was deeply loved by his father because of his intelligence from an early age. Unfortunately, when he was 3 years old, his father died of grief due to Wang Dun's rebellion; when he was 7 years old, his mother Lady Zheng died again, and Sima Yu, who had become an orphan, wept silently because of his extreme grief and asked for heavy filial piety for his birth mother. According to the Book of Jin and the Chronicle of Emperor Jianwen, "Emperor Cheng mourned and promised. "As everyone knows, Sima Yan, the Emperor of Cheng, was one year younger than this little uncle, and he was only 6 years old at the time, and it was not a little funny to be approved by him? However, his status as a close relative of the imperial family has always made him have a very high political treatment, and the knighthood has also been repeatedly transferred between the King of Lang and the King of Huiji, and the administrative positions have successively served or concurrently served as the General of the Scattered Horse, the Right General, the Attendant, the General of the Fu Army, the TaiChang, the General of the Fu Army, etc., and once assisted his niece-in-law Empress Chu to "specialize in ten thousand opportunities". However, no matter how high his treatment and status, once he was put on the emperor's throne, he would have to face a real power faction like the deposed emperor Sima Yi, Sima Huanwen the Great.

Sima Yu (320 – 12 September 372)

When Sima Yu ascended the throne, he was already 52 years old. On the first day of his ascension to the throne, Huan Wen wanted to explain to him his original intention of deposing Sima Yi and supporting sima Yu, in order to ease the so-called "relationship between kings and subjects". However, as soon as the two men met, Sima Yu couldn't help but "cry dozens of lines" ("Jin Shu, Renegade Biography, Huan Wen"), so that huan wen did not say a word, and he resigned.

On the third day of his ascension to the throne, Huan Wen framed Sima Yu's brother Sima Xi the Prince of Wuling for plotting a rebellion with another relatively distant imperial family, Sima Huang, the new king of Cai, and arrested him in front of Sima Yu. And the emperor Sima Yu, facing Sima Xi and others, sorrow came from it, and he couldn't help but cry bitterly, but there was nothing he could do. It was only when Huan Wen requested that Sima Xi and others be killed that Sima Yu issued an edict saying, "Sorrow and trepidation in the heart of Sima Yu, such a thing is still unbearable to hear, let alone to be spoken out!" Let's discuss it again. ”

On the fifth day of his ascension to the throne, Huan Wen killed Sima Yi's three so-called "evil breeds" and their mothers, and Sima Yu was naturally helpless.

On the seventh day of his ascension to the throne, Huan Wen once again went to the top and insisted on killing Sima Xi and others. Sima Yu handed huan wen an edict in his hand and said, "If the Great Jin Dynasty can continue, Huan Gong had better be able to carry out the edict of the day before the fall; if the mandate of heaven has changed, the emperor asks to give way and avoid it, so as not to block the way for the xianneng to advance." When it came to this part, Huan Wen did not dare to force too much, and Sima Xi and others were able to save their lives. As for the ministers surnamed Yin and Yu who were involved in this case, they did not have this blessing, and were condemned by Huan Wen's "clan curse" and "died of the duck", and those who were lucky enough to slip through the net fled into the wilderness.

Ten days later, Huan Wen left the capital, first to Baishi and then to his aunt (both in the area of present-day Dangtu, Anhui), but still firmly controlled the imperial government, and made his confidant Xi Chao the post of Zhongshu Waiter and waited by Sima Yu's side. Although Sima Yu was the most honorable emperor, he could not only be silent or silent or nodding his head and obeying orders for what Huan Wen did, but he was always worried that he would be deposed and exiled like Sima Yi. Every day, he trembled, fearing that evil would fall from heaven. One day, he asked Xi Chao: "The length of life is not considered; I just want to ask: Will the big event that just happened in recent days happen again?" Of course, Xi Chao knew that the "big thing" mentioned by the emperor meant that Sima Yi had been deposed, so he replied: "Sima Huan is working hard internally to consolidate the society and restore the Central Plains, and the minister is willing to use the lives of a hundred members of his family to vouch for Sima Huan: The extraordinary act that happened a few days ago will never happen again." After some days, Xi Chao took a leave of absence to go back to visit his father Xi Yu (pronounced yīn), and Sima Yu knew that Xi Yu was loyal to the imperial family, so he said to Xi Chao: "Greeting Lord Ling Zun for Xi Chao, the affairs of the country, have reached such a point, and as a king, he is powerless to change, ashamed and painful, how can he say it clearly!" Casually recited two poems expounded by the scribes of this dynasty: "The heroes are in pain, and the loyal subjects mourn the humiliation of the Lord." ("Jin Shu JianWen Emperor Ji") Yin Bi, burst into tears.

Emperor Jianwen Sima Yu "collapsed in Dongtang" in July of the second year after he ascended the throne, at the age of 53 and reigned for only eight months. On July 23, when he was unwell, he urgently summoned Huan Wen to return to the imperial government and issued four edicts in a row for one day and one night, but Huan Wen could not resign. On the twenty-eighth day, seeing that he really could not bear it, he made his 11-year-old son Sima Yao the crown prince at the last moment, and left a testament, asking Sima Huanwen to assist the government, and in the edict, he learned from Liu Beituo's appearance as Zhuge Liang, saying: If a child can assist, he will assist him; if not, "the king will take it upon himself" (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 103). Who knew that Wang Tanzhi walked in with this edict and actually tore it up in front of Sima Yu! Although Sima Yu was already critically ill, his brain was still quite sober, and he said to Wang Tanzhi: "The so-called world, that is, things that have been obtained inadvertently, why do you have to be so real?" Wang Tanzhi replied, "The world is the domain of Emperor Xuan and Emperor Yuan, so how can Your Majesty decide without permission?" "Emperor Xuan refers to Sima Yi, who created the foundation of the Great Jin Dynasty; Emperor Yuan was also "zhongxing" in Jiangnan; why did you, the descendant who inherited the inheritance and enjoyed his success, give away the inheritance of the old ancestor at will?

(Cold in the Heights: The Emperor and His Descendants Series No. 128)