Mention Shanxi, most people can first think of han Zhao Wei in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, as well as the heroic Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms period, in addition to the famous story "Orphan of Zhao" also occurred in Shanxi, let people proud of the founder of the Tang Dynasty Li Yuan father and son also raised troops in Shanxi, celebrity allusions are countless, because of this, Shanxi has a wealth of precious ancient building resources, known as "the aboveground cultural relics to see Shanxi, the underground cultural relics to see Shaanxi" saying, But what can make people feel the ups and downs is the three branches of the Jin Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The name of the Three Jins is related to the Three Branches of the Jin
Shanxi is also known as the Three Jins, that is, it is related to the three branches of jin, the abbreviation of Shanxi is Jin, because during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period in the Shanxi region is a large country Jin state, in fact, the initial division of the seal is not Jin, but Tang, after the King of Wu, established the Zhou Dynasty, in order to maintain the rule of Zhou, the Zhou Dynasty implemented the sub-feudal system and patriarchal system, Zhou Tianzi sealed Ji Yu as a marquis, Ji surname Jin, Ji Yu is the son of Ji Fa, the king of Zhou Cheng, ji Shu, because he was enfeoffed in the hometown of Tang Yao, his country was originally named Tang, and his name was also Tang Shuyu. Tang is on the east side of the Yellow River and the Fenhe River. Later, his son Xie's father succeeded to the throne and ruled Jinshui, and the name of the country was Jin.
Tang Shuyu's name and sub-seals are very legendary, and King Wu of Zhou one day dreamed that the Jade Emperor said to him, your wife Yi Jiang will have a son named Yu, and I will give him Tang Land. It didn't take long for Yi Jiang to have a son, and there was a Yu character in the palm of his hand, so he named him Yu.
After the death of King Wu of Zhou, King Cheng of Zhou took the throne, and there was a rebellion in Tang, so the Zhou Dynasty sent troops to destroy Tang, and one day King Zhou Cheng and Shu Yu were bragging and chatting together, and King Zhou Cheng gave Yu a piece of tung tree leaf cut into the shape of a tung tree and said, "I will seal you with this." Shi Guan asked to choose an auspicious day to give Shu Yu a seal, and King Zhou Cheng said that we were bragging about it, but Shi Guan was serious: Tianzi had no jokes. King Cheng of Zhou had no choice but to divide the Tang lands among Shu Yu and give the country the name of Tang, and later his son changed it to Jin, and from then on Jin was inseparable from Shanxi.
After the three families were divided into Jin, the Jin state became the three princely states of Han Zhao and Wei, and these three princely states belonged to the jin state, so Han Zhao Wei was also called the three Jins, so this part of Shanxi also had the saying of the three Jins.
The Jin state was the leader of the princely states
After the division of the Jin state, due to the geographical advantages of the Jin state, it has always been a very powerful presence in the princely states, second only to the State of Qi of Jiang Taigong, and in fact, the hegemony of the Spring and Autumn Princely States was mainly carried out between the State of Qi and the State of Jin.
Although there are many versions of the Spring and Autumn Five Powers, but the two most undisputed are the Duke of Qi Huan and the Duke of Jin Wen, the other versions are because of more or less controversial, there will be multiple versions, and even appeared in the "Outer Compilation of the Collection of Qiqi Pavilion": Qi Huan Gong, Jin Wen Gong, Jin Xiang Gong, Jin Jing Gong, Jin Mourning Gong such a version, which shows the strength of the Jin State, it is absolutely a ride.
The weakening of the Jin state began with the division of the three branches of the Jin Dynasty, and the original central plains power was divided into three princely states whose natural strength was greatly reduced, so what happened to the three branches of the Jin Dynasty?
Two key figures in the three branches of the promotion
The Zhou Dynasty's sub-feudal system was to require the princely states to be re-sealed, called Dafu, Qing, etc., which also had fiefdoms, with the purpose of defending the princely states. However, during the rebellion of li ji of the Jin dynasty, the Duke Xian of Jin killed the princes one by one, and from then on, the Jin state no longer established gongzi and gongsun as nobles, and the history was called "Jin Wugong Clan". When the Jin Dynasty became the Duke of Jin, "the suitable son of the eunuch Qing was the right son, thinking that it was a public clan", Zhao Dun also substituted the doctors of different surnames as the gong clan, and the strength of the Jin office declined, and there was no reliable restraint on the rebellious Qing doctors.
Thus, the Jin state, which had always been known as the overlord of the Central Plains, by the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the power of the monarch also declined, and the actual power was controlled by six masters (Han, Zhao, Wei, Zhi, Fan, and Zhonghang), as well as large families such as Hao and Luan. Each of them had his own territory and arms, and attacked each other. Later, two families (Fan and BocQ) were annexed, leaving the Zhi family, the Zhao family, the Han family, and the Wei family. Of these four, the Zhi family has the greatest power.
The two characters who decided that Han Zhao Wei would divide jin instead of the Zhi family were one Zhi Boyao and the other was Zhang Mengtan.
Zhi Boyao was the leader of the Zhi family, at that time the strength of the Zhi family in the Jin Dynasty was the strongest, if there was no accident to annex Han Zhao Wei, it would be sooner or later, but when the strength was strongest, it was often the most lightly taken, and Zhi Boyao made such a mistake.
Under the banner of reviving the strength of the Jin state, Zhi Boyao asked the three families of Han Zhao and Wei to donate a hundred miles of land and household registration to the Duke of Jin, and the Han and Wei families feared the strength of the Zhi family, so they gave it up separately, but the Zhao family refused to donate due to their weak strength, so Zhi Boyao threatened the Han and Wei families to send troops to attack the Zhao family.
Zhao Xiangzi, the head of the Zhao family, knew that he was outnumbered, so he led his soldiers to retreat to Jinyang, which is now Taiyuan, so the three families surrounded Jinyang, and Zhao Xiangzi could not break through, and the three families could not attack it.
In this way, it is unfavorable to the defensive side, no matter how big a city is, there is also a day when the supplies are used up, so Zhi Boyao thinks that he will win and becomes more proud and complacent.
In order to speed up the capture of Jinyang, he used the Jinshui on the edge of Jinyang as a means of attack, first let the soldiers dig a diving canal to Jinyang, and blocked the dam upstream to store water, just in time for the rainy season, the water in the dam was full, Zhi Boyao let the soldiers dig the dam, the water flooded the entire Jinyang, the people in the city were displaced, but it strengthened the resistance of the common people.
Not only that, Zhi Boyao also showed everywhere, pulled Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi together to inspect the water potential, and triumphantly told the two people: They all say that the river is a natural barrier, and in my hands I can still use it as a weapon to attack a city.
Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi were secretly surprised, because each of them had a river in their fengyi, and maybe one day Anyi and Pingyang would also suffer the same fate as Jinyang.
At this time, the second key figure appeared.
This person was Zhao Xiangzi's protégé Zhang Mengtan, who said to Zhao Xiangzi that the Han and Wei families did not sincerely follow Zhi Boyao, so that we could take advantage of the opportunity, and I wanted to go out and persuade them.
So Zhang Meng talked about going out of the city to find Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi, Xiao Zhi moved with reason, coupled with Zhi Boyao's flying performance, so that the two families, who already had a feeling of rabbit death and fox sorrow for the Zhao family, strengthened their determination to fight against the Zhi family together, so the three families made a plan to attack the Zhi family together.
Zhi Boyao was originally proud and arrogant, and there was no defense against the Han and Wei families, and the three families also learned from Zhi Boyao, and in the middle of the night, the three families dug a dam and let the water flood into the Zhi family's military camp, and the soldiers of the Zhao, Han, and Wei families rushed to kill them together with small boats and rafts. The soldiers of the Wise Family, countless people who have been hacked to death and drowned in the water. Zhi Boyao's entire army was destroyed, and he himself was captured and killed by the three families.
In order to avoid future troubles, Han, Zhao, and Wei began to lead an army to attack the Zhi clan's Fengyi, killing more than 200 members of the Zhi Bo family at a time, and the world was shocked! Even the land of the Zhi family was divided equally by the three families, and the Jin Dynasty Duke was very dissatisfied with the performance of the three families, and originally wanted to borrow troops to fight, but the three families jointly attacked the Jin Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty Duke was powerless to resist and could only flee, and the three families divided the last bit of the territory of the Jin Dynasty, although later the Jin Dynasty Duke took the throne, but the territory was limited to the capital.
In 403 BC, the three families of Han, Zhao, and Wei sent emissaries to Shangluoyi to see King Weilie of Zhou and asked Zhou Tianzi to make all three of them princes. King Zhou Weilie thought that it was useless not to admit it, so it was better to be a shunshui person, so he officially crowned the three families as princes. After the three families were divided into Jin, only the seven families of Qi Chuyan, Han, Zhao Wei, and Qin were left in the big country at that time, which also marked the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the advent of the Warring States Period.