Text: Tachiaki Idle Man (Shigeba Shinichi Original Team Member)
In the fifth year of Zhongping, the Han Ling Emperor carried out two major reforms that affected the political situation of the Eastern Han Dynasty, one of which was the "abolition of Shi Limu", which began in March, that is, changing the history of the state to a state pastor and delegating power to local officials.
The original intention of the Han Ling Emperor to reset the state pastor was to strengthen the rule of the localities, so as to concentrate forces on dealing with the rise of the Yellow Turban Army and the large-scale rebellion on the frontier, so as to maintain the stability of the Han Dynasty. To this end, the Han Ling Emperor reset the state pastor, which can be called a clear purpose, design optimization, appropriate measures, smooth process and the selection of people and the characteristics of the state, but the results were greatly disappointed: the power of the state pastoral was expanded, the centralized power was weakened, the princes were divided, and the grass-roots political power disintegrated.
The reason why the consequences of the Han Ling Emperor's resetting of the state pastor and the assumption before the implementation of the idea and the process of implementation are so different are due to the following reasons.
First, the Eastern Han Dynasty system.
The economic base determines the superstructure. The superstructure is the sum of social ideologies based on a certain economic basis and the corresponding political and legal systems and facilities. Class relations, the state apparatus, social ideology, the corresponding political and legal systems, organizations and facilities, etc., all belong to the category of the superstructure. Compared with the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty regime was established with the support of powerful landlords, so the powerful landlords enjoyed political and economic privileges. Especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the power of powerful landlords developed rapidly, and the political power was basically in the hands of powerful landlords. Through the annexation of land and the establishment of farms, powerful landlords have emerged a manor economy with Eastern Han characteristics that is large in scale and diversified, living in groups and has attached guests, strong clan patriarchal colors and private armed forces. Compared with the self-employment economy, the manor economy has a strong ability to survive and develop. With the continuous development of the manor economy, powerful landlords controlled local political, economic, and military power. The Han Ling Emperor carried out the reform of "abolishing Shi Limu", which made Zhou Mu a feudal official who combined administrative and financial military power, thus causing the zhou mu to support the self-respect. For the sake of common interests, the state pastor and the powerful landlord formed a community of interests, and elected people with high moral standing or ability to be dock marshals, and the phenomenon of "princes from all sides, the large ones even counties and the state, the middle ones with infant cities, and the small ones gathering and descending strangers" led to the formation of dock walls and the disintegration of grass-roots political power, so that the Eastern Han Dynasty regime had already existed in name only.
Second, people's hearts are not ancient.
The human heart has something to take, to take what is called likes and dislikes. (From the "Yan Family Training, Phonetic Words") The human heart here refers to people's wishes, feelings, etc. After the Han Ling Emperor reset the state pastor, the first three people were selected liu yan, Huang Wan, and Liu Yu to be the pastors of Yizhou, Yuzhou, and Youzhou. Liu Yan's early administration of Yizhou was quite effective, that is, he implemented a policy of tolerance and favor to the rebels, and also cracked down on local heroes and strong forces in order to stabilize the situation in Yizhou; Huang Huan took up the post of pastor of Yuzhou, not only quelled the thief Lu Liang who was causing trouble in Yuzhou, but also managed Yuzhou with great sound and color, and was named the Marquis of Guanxi for his outstanding political achievements; Liu Yu won the hearts of the people during his tenure as pastor of Youzhou, not only quelling the civil unrest in Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju, but also extensively administering benevolent government and allowing Youzhou to live and work in peace and contentment. Huang Huan and Liu Yu were loyal to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Huang Huan was first deposed because he had objections to Dong Zhuoqian, and then died at the hands of Li Dai and Guo Feng for participating in the murder of Dong Zhuo; Liu Yu, first categorically refusing yuan shao and others to support him as emperor, then resolutely refusing Han Fu and others to ask him to take charge of Shangshu, and then resolutely recruiting Gongsun Zhan, who plundered the people, was defeated and beheaded by the emissary Duan Xun. Although Liu Yan was the proposer of "abolishing Shi Limu", his actions in the middle and late period of Yizhou showed that he had bad intentions: not to quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion and protect the Han Dynasty; but to divide one side and protect the prosperity of the family. Unfortunately, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, most of the state pastors were not loyal Andi Han clan relatives like Liu Yu and loyal Liu Huan, but ambitious Eastern Han warlords like Liu Yan.
Although the Han Ling Emperor reset the state pastor, although the idea was beautiful and the process was optimized, the result was sad, and the fundamental reason was that the political and economic system of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the people's hearts in the late Eastern Han Dynasty were not ancient. This was something that the Han Ling Emperor had never imagined.
Author's Note: Ignorance of the times refers to not knowing the trend of the times or the current situation. Emperor Hanling was implementing the process of "abolishing Shi Limu", although the idea was beautiful and the process was optimized, but ignored the two major factors of system and people's hearts, which eventually led to the self-respect of the state pastor, the division of one side, and the warlords fighting. So-called: this time, another time.