In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the world was in chaos. On April 23, 318, the news of the death of Emperor Huan of Jin reached Jiangdong, and the remnants of the Jin Dynasty all wept bitterly. Sima Rui, the King of Jin, ascended the throne on April 26 AD and was emperor of Jin Yuan. It can be said that the royal family of the Jin Dynasty, which was already a candle in the wind, was revived under the support of the southern warriors.
Sima Rui was very grateful to his large family for supporting him, and on the day of the enthronement ceremony, he added officials to them and even asked Wang Dao to "ascend to the throne and sit together" and govern together. After pulling back and forth a few times, Wang Dao finally said, "If all things are the same under the sun, why should the heavens look up?" And prevarication. Although Emperor Jinyuan gave up on this, his move really stunned all the courtiers present. The emperor respected Wang Dao so much, and after that, the status of the entire Wang family in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was under one person and above ten thousand people, and people at the time said that "the king and the horse share the world". So how did the Wang family support the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but why did they mess up the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty?
1. The Langya Wang Clan
Langya is located in the coastal area of Shandong, and many people in history have been named "King of Langya", and Sima Rui, the emperor of Jinyuan, is the most famous one. The Wang family also originated here, accumulating good names for many generations, wenzhi martial arts, and talents. During the reign of Wang Yan, a famous minister of the Western Jin Dynasty, many members of the Wang family were sent to key positions in the Jiangnan region as officials. Later, although Wang Yan was captured by Later Zhao Gaozu Shile and assassinated by tearing down the wall, the Wang family already had heavy troops and real power in the Jiangdong region—which laid sufficient political foundation and material preparations for the Wang family's later southern crossing.
Wang Dao, one of the founders of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was Wang Yan's younger brother and Wang Xizhi's uncle. In his early years, he befriended Sima Rui, the king of Langya. When the Western Jin Dynasty was gradually declining, Wang Dao had already seen the beginning, so he made up his mind to assist Sima Rui and had the heart to revive the Jin Dynasty. Sima Rui obeyed the advice of Wang Dao, no matter how big or small, and followed wang Dao's advice. After the outbreak of the Yongjia Rebellion, a large number of northern and central plains gate valves and warrior clans moved to the south, and Sima Rui was worried that his move to the south would not be accepted by the Jiangnan shi clan. However, Wang Dao, on the other hand, said that he should take advantage of this first time to go south to show the royal majesty to the southern warriors. Therefore, Sima Rui swung the royal honor guard, sat on his shoulder, and accompanied the northern warriors who migrated south on horseback, and the famous people in Jiangnan were amazed when they saw this formation.
In this way, Sima Rui and the others came to Jiangnan, and Wang Dao advised Sima Rui that at this time there were still many scholars who had moved south, and they should take the opportunity to buy people's hearts, and Sima Rui listened to the advice and selected many gentlemen and sages. Coupled with the fact that Wang Dao organized the Langya Wang clan in Jiangnan to be loyal to Sima Rui, Sima Rui's power increased step by step, and his dependence on Wang Dao became more and more serious, calling him "Zhongfu" and "Xiao He". In the midst of the applause, Sima Rui was proclaimed emperor, and he had the previous move of "ascending to the imperial bed and sitting together". Sima Rui wanted to rule the world with Wang Dao, not because he was afraid of Wang Dao's weight, but more because he was in awe of Wang Dao's personality. Wang Dao himself was definitely a loyal vassal of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with no intention of usurping the throne, and his loyalty was comparable to Zhuge Liang's assistance to Liu Chan. But he had a cousin, Wang Dun, who had a completely different personality, and turned the Eastern Jin Dynasty upside down.
II. The Rebellion of Wang Dun
When Wang Dun was young, he was definitely a bloody youth. The "Biography of Wang Dun in the Book of Jin" begins with a record that Wang Dun went to the home of the rich man Shi Chong's house for dinner. Shi Chong's life is extremely luxurious, not only the value of what he eats and drinks is remarkable, but even when he eats and goes to the toilet, there are more than ten maids serving each other, and the same is true for guests. Many of the guests were shy to change their clothes in front of the servants, but Wang Dun did not change his face. Then, Shi Chong invited the beauty to come to the table to persuade the wine, if the guests did not drink all the wine in the cup, the beauty would be killed. Wang Dao did not want to see Shi Chong kill people, so he had to drink alcohol, and soon he was drunk; while Wang Dun drank well, but he insisted on not drinking, Shi Chong beheaded three people in a row, but Wang Dun did not change his face. Later, after the crown prince Sima Suo was persecuted by Jia Nanfeng and moved to Xuchang, Jia Hou strictly ordered the official office of the Eastern Palace not to send them, and the "Biography of Wang Dun" recorded that "Dun and Washima Jiangtong, Pan Tao, Sheren Du Rui, Lu Yao, etc., risked forbidden to look at the side of the road and pray and weep, which was said by the times."
At first, Wang Dun, like his cousin Wang Dao, vigorously assisted the Eastern Jin dynasty. Sima Rui declared himself empress dowager, and Wang Dun served as the assassin of Yangzhou, and took the position of left general and governor of the capital to conquer various military forces. Wang Dun also lived up to the expectations of the people, strategizing, transporting troops like gods, quelling rebellions in many ways, and promoting his official positions repeatedly, all the way to the governor of Jiangyang, Jingxiang, and Guangdong to the military forces of the six states, and the military power in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was controlled by Wang Dun, and he was almost the highest military commander in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In this way, Wang Dao was in charge of political affairs, and Wang Dun was in charge of military affairs. Why did such a bloody young man later disturb the world in the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty?
Sooner or later, the proverb "The king and the horse share the whole world" passed into Sima Rui's ears, and he was also jealous of it. In order to have the power to balance the Wang family, Sima Rui reused Liu Kui and Diao Xie and others to strengthen the imperial power. Under the advice of Liu Kui, Diao Xie, and others, Sima Rui began to gradually alienate Wang Dao, and implemented a series of policies to prevent the expansion of the power of the gate valve. Wang Daosheng was pure and thick in nature, and did not think much of Emperor Jinyuan's practice of "crossing the river and demolishing bridges", and was humble and self-respecting.
After Wang Dun became powerful, he gradually became arbitrary and arbitrarily installed his own cronies in important positions in the imperial court. Wang's great contribution to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but now he ended up being snubbed and ostracized, and Wang Dun was unhappy and repeatedly wrote to the emperor. Sima Rui was really shocked when he saw Wang Dun's recital. The emperor was displeased and consulted his uncle Sima Cheng, the King of Tan. Sima Cheng immediately asserted, "Wang Dun will be in trouble." In order to prevent Wang Dun from rebelling, Emperor Yuan of Jin sent Sima Cheng to take up the post of Assassin of XiangZhou to contain Wang Dun.
As the situation became worse, in the first year of Yongchang (322 AD), Wang Dun raised an army, under the name of "Qing Jun's side", a crusade against Liu Kui, and marched to Jiankang. Fearing that a fire would break out in Xiangzhou in the backyard, Wang Dun sent someone to persuade Sima Cheng to "raise a big matter" with him. Sima Chengzhongyi immediately refused. Wang Dun was furious and sent his cousin to lead 20,000 elite troops to attack Changsha. Sima Cheng was not an opponent, and retreated to Hengyang while fighting, but unfortunately the city was captured and killed by Wang Dun's men.
In the imperial court, there was one person who was even more panicked than the emperor- Wang Dao. Kneeling in front of the palace gate every day, he pleaded with the emperor and said that he had no intention of rebellion, in order to protect the lives of the rest of the Wang family. Under the advice of Zhou Yan and others, Sima Rui walked barefoot to Wang Dao to lift him up, expressing his belief in Wang Dao's personality. Later, Sima Ruibai made Wang Dao the forward Governor of Dadu, and Dai Yuan was made a che riding general, and Wang Dun was jointly attacked. However, these people were all civilian subjects, and they could not resist Wang Dun's attack at all, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty soldiers and horses were defeated and scattered and fled. When the city was destroyed, Diao Xie was killed, Liu Kui fled to Later Zhao, and Emperor Yuan of Jin said to Wang Dun, "If the Gong does not forget this dynasty, then the world can still be at peace; if not, return to Langya to avoid the Xian Road." However, Wang Dun did not give a fierce hand and gave the emperor enough face, and at that time, the time was not ripe, he did not depose Sima Rui, and led a large army back to Wuchang. Later, Wang Dun was appointed as the minister of state and the governor of the Chinese and foreign armies, and his power was unprecedentedly powerful, and the imperial power was basically emptied. In January 323, Sima Rui became ill and died of a serious illness, and his eldest son Sima Shao succeeded him as Emperor Ming of Jin.
3. Wang Dun plotted rebellion
Sima Shao had only been on the throne for three months, and Wang Dun gradually felt that his physical condition was deteriorating, and the pace of usurpation of the throne was gradually tightened. Wang Dao and other courtiers also felt the urgency of the situation and advised the emperor to step up preparations to prevent Wang Dun from plotting rebellion.
Wang Dun took Shen Chong and Qian Feng as the masterminds, and Zhuge Yao, Deng Yue, Zhou Fu, Li Heng, and Xie Yong as his minions. However, Qian Feng was an unusable and self-righteous person, and it was his instigation that led Wang Dun to a dead end step by step. Qian Feng and Wang Dun's eldest brother Wang Han led a large army and soon attacked Jiankang. Although Wang Han and Wang Dun were brothers, they were far from leading their troops to fight, and The general Duan Xiu under Emperor Ming, with only a few thousand soldiers, attacked the rebels at night and defeated Wang Han. Wang Dun was furious when he heard this, and wanted to personally command the army to supervise the battle, but unexpectedly his health was getting worse and worse, and he was unable to command the army, so he had to give up, and soon he fell seriously ill and died.
According to the Book of Jin, when Wang Dun was seriously ill, Qian Feng asked Wang Dun: "If you don't hide it, you should pay for it in the future (if you don't avoid it, you should deal with the aftermath)." Wang Dun was also very self-aware, knowing that his inherited son Wang Ying should not be a tool, so he replied: "Extraordinary things, how can ordinary people do!" And should be young, and encore should be a big thing. After I die, Mo Ruo will release the troops, return to the imperial court, and save the portal. Return to Wuchang, collect troops to defend themselves, contribute not to waste, but also in the calculation. And I still exist, and the crowd is down, in case of luck, the plan is also. And Qian Feng went back and told his colleagues: "The plan under the public is the best strategy." "So he made a plot with Shen Chong, and Xu Dun died and made a difficult decision." Shortly after Wang Dun's death, Qian Feng and Shen Chong continued to attack Jiankang, but they were not generals, and Wang Dunyi died, and the rebel army was soon quelled.
Although Wang Dun turned the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty upside down and was about to abolish the emperor, it did not have much impact on the status of the Langya Wang clan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and still cultivated many outstanding talents like Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi.
From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties for more than 1700 years, the Langya Wang clan trained a total of 92 prime ministers and more than 600 literati and celebrities. This is thanks to Wang Dun's rebellion, Wang Dao's dedication and responsibility, taking into account the overall situation, so that the Langya Wang clan was not angered by the emperor. If Wang Dun could also assist the Jin Dynasty with the same dedication as Wang Dao, with his bravery and good fighting, he would definitely be called a model of loyal subjects and a model of famous generals, but it was a pity that he made a mistake in his thought and was mistaken for life.
Author: Breeze to Xi