If the demise of Northern Wei began with the Six Towns Uprising, then the decline of Northern Wei began with Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke. It was precisely because Emperor Xuanwu reused his uncle Gao Zhao, connived at his control of the imperial government, and killed The Emperor that he opened the prelude to the infighting among the Northern Wei Mongol clans, intensified the contradictions between the imperial court and the six towns, and led the country to embark on the road of destruction. Yuan Ke was very clear about Gao Zhao's use of his trust to control the government and kill the Emperor. However, he not only did not stop it, but also connived at his actions, and even gave Gao Zhao the green light to control the government of the dynasty, so that the contradictions within the imperial court reached an uncontrollable level. His death caused this contradiction to erupt en masse, which led to a series of political upheavals. So the question is, Yuan Ke knows that conniving at Gao Zhao is harmful to the country, so why would he do it?
Judging from the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Yuan Ke did this as a last resort, but chose the wrong method. After Tuoba Hong, the Emperor Xiaowen of northern Wei, moved the capital to Luoyang, the prelude to the Sinicization reform was opened. This Sinicization reform brought the northern Wei national strength to the peak, once again overpowering the Southern Dynasty, known in history as "Xiaowen Zhongxing". However, there are great problems in Tuoba Hong's Sinicization reform, the most important of which is the comprehensive absorption of Han culture.
Although this practice helped the Xianbei and other ethnic minorities in the north to quickly integrate into the Han nationality, learn the advanced production technology of the Han nationality, and make the national strength grow by leaps and bounds, it also absorbed a lot of the dross in the Han culture and laid hidden dangers for the country's development. Among them, the door valve political system established by the Han scholar group since the Wei and Jin dynasties is the most influential among the Dross of Han culture, and it is also the most harmful to the country.
The harm of the door valve political system mentioned above, and the reasons for the frequent emergence of short-lived dynasties in the Wei and Jin dynasties for more than four hundred years, will not be repeated here. This harm was also inherited when Tuoba Hong, the Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, carried out Sinicization reforms, and was deeply engraved in the reformed Northern Wei system. During the Tuoba Hong period, the door valve system of the Northern Wei Dynasty was established, with the eight surnames of the Xianbei people and the four major surnames of the Han nationality as the top door valves, and the door valves at all levels below were arranged in turn, enjoying different political privileges. In this way, the struggle between the door valves was inevitable, and the expansion of the struggle directly affected the imperial power over the country. After Yuan Ke ascended the throne, the gate valve forces were in a monopoly position in the imperial court, and in order to strengthen the imperial power and strengthen the centralization of power, he took a series of measures.
Among the door valve forces at that time, the Gu Ming ministers represented by Yuan Xi and other emperors were the most powerful, and below them were the forces of the Xianbei door valve and the Han door valve. Such forces formed an alliance and controlled the government and national resources, making it impossible for the newly enthroned Yuan Ke to personally govern, and the emperor's position was in vain. Therefore, he took measures to regain imperial power, on the one hand, to unite with the Xianbei gate valves outside the imperial family, and on the other hand, to seek support among the Han door valves. In this process, the representative of the Xianbei gate valve is the Yu clan in the eight major families, of which the most important is the father and son of the forbidden army commander Yu Lie and Yu Zhong, while the representative of the Han door valve is the foreign relative Gao Zhao. Yuan Ke's trust in Gao Zhao also exceeded that of Yu Lie's father and son, using him as an important helper to eliminate the power of the imperial clan.
Gao Zhao, strictly speaking, was not a member of the Central Plains Gate Valve Clan, but because he was a foreign relative, he gained the unreserved trust of Yuan Ke. Gao Zhao was actually a Goryeo man, and it is said that his ancestor was Gao Gu of the Bohai Gao clan, who fled to Goryeo in order to escape the wars of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and became the representative of the Goryeo Clan. Modern scholars have found that the Goryeo Gao clan and the Bohai Gao clan are not one, so Gao Zhao actually pretended to be the reputation of the Bohai Gao clan before entering the Northern Wei Men clan circle. The Bohai Gao clan is very famous in Chinese history, although it is not within the four Han gate valves of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it also has the saying that the Gao clan of the world is out of the Bohai Sea, and its status is very prominent. For this reason, Tuoba Hong married Gao Zhaorong, gao Zhao's sister, as a concubine and gave birth to his second son Yuan Ke.
Therefore, in terms of personal relations, Gao Zhao is Yuan Ke's uncle and is trusted by Yuan Ke. However, from the perspective of historical materials, the reasons for Yuan Ke's connivance of Gao Zhao are far more than this, and he has a deeper consideration. The basis of Yuan Ke's trust in Gao Zhao's family was based on the closeness of his uncle's family, which was inseparable from the cause of the early death of his mother Gao Zhaorong. Since Yuan Ke was not the only crown prince of Tuoba Hong, he was close to the Goryeo Gao clan before becoming crown prince, which made the relationship between the two families excellent. After his eldest son, Yuan Ke ,元恂), was deposed and killed by Tuoba Hong for opposing Sinicization and causing a rebellion, Yuan Ke became crown prince as the second son. However, unlike Yuan Ke, who had the support of the humble and conservative nobles, nor did he have the close relationship between the clan kings such as Yuan Xi and the Mengmen clan, so he could only rely on the Gao clan politically.
After taking the throne, Yuan Ke faced the dilemma of the clan king's forces and the door valve clan jointly controlling the government, and could only choose to open the gap from the low-level door valve. The Yu Lie father and son he chose were not superior families among the eight major families of the Xianbei clan, and their power was relatively excluded. Although The Goryeo Gao clan where Gao Zhao is located is inextricably linked to the Bohai Gao clan, in fact, everyone does not recognize it, and it is also a state of discrimination in the Han gate valve circle. These two families could not gain political interests in the context of the Zongwang's power controlling the government, so they successively threw themselves into the camp of Yuan Ke, which laid the foundation for Yuan Ke to attack the Zongwang forces and regain imperial power. It can be said that they made great contributions in the process of Yuan Ke's pro-government, so they became the ministers of Yuan Ke's rule.
In addition to the family's power against the xianbei and Han superior door valves, another reason why Gao Zhao's favor was favored by Yuan Ke was from Goryeo. Goryeo was not the traditional sphere of influence of the Central Plains Dynasty and was considered a barbarian land. Although the Goryeo Gao clan labeled the family as a branch of the Bohai Gao clan, they were treated as barbarians in the door valve circle. This exclusion and suppression made it very difficult for the family to survive, and it had to rely on imperial power to gain a foothold in Luoyang. The Gao Zhao family did not have the basis for extensive marriage in the Central Plains, and had little contact with other door valve families, so the political structure was relatively simple. Yuan Ke's heavy use of Gao Zhao, not only can crack down on the Xianbei and Han door valve forces, but also do not have to worry about Gao Zhao's alliance with other door valve families for personal gain.
In order to strengthen the influence of the Goryeo Gao clan, Yuan Ke connived with Gao Zhao's forcing the death of the empress from the clan and replaced Gao Zhao's niece Gao Ying as empress. This made the Goryeo Clan unique in the imperial court, and its power overpowered the various gate valve families. With the help of the Goryeo Goryeo clan, the opposing clan kings were purged, and the main clan kings such as Wonsho were convicted and executed. Through this series of means, Yuan Ke suppressed the power of the Emperor Zong, the Xianbei and han Mongol clans, and regained the imperial power of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the history books, Gao Zhao is often regarded as a traitor to the power, but in fact, Gao Zhao is a tool of Yuan Ke. Gao Zhao's control of the imperial government and the suppression of the unjust killing of Emperor Zong were all accomplished under the direction of Yuan Ke. In order to strengthen the centralization of power, Yuan Ke would naturally carry out unlimited connivance with Gao Zhao.
This operation of Yuan Ke temporarily stabilized the political situation of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it also laid a major problem for the country. When he was alive, the Clan King's forces and the Gate Valve Clan did not dare to challenge the imperial power, and naturally could not resist Gao Zhao's control of the imperial government. However, after the death of Yuan Ke, Gao Zhao, with the weak forces of the Goryeo Gao clan, was unable to confront the Zongwang and the Zhongyuan Gate Valve, which became the direct cause of the country's internal strife. Although the Goryeo Clan held a lot of power during the reign of Yuan Ke, this family was after all a foreigner and had a shallow foundation in the Central Plains, which was its fatal flaw. Without the support of imperial power, let alone fighting with the power of the Emperor, any Central Plains gate valve can destroy them. From this point of view, Yuan Ke's centralized power is extremely unstable, and it is inherently unable to rule the country for a long time.
Once the Gao clan is destroyed, in order to seize the status of the Gao clan, the various gate valve families will naturally fight, which will aggravate the risk of civil unrest in the country. It was precisely because of this situation that the Northern Wei Dynasty quickly fell into chaos after the death of Yuan Ke, and the chaotic government could not control the country at all. In this case, the outbreak of the Six Towns Uprising would be even more harmful to the country, and it would also put the Northern Wei Dynasty on the road to extinction.
To sum up, Yuan Ke's connivance with Gao Zhao's seizure of imperial power was understandable, but it was a big mistake to let Gao Zhao control the imperial government, or even to rule the Xianbei and Han clans. Gao Zhao had neither this ability nor the Goryeo Clan had the resources and prestige to match. Their control of power can only become the target of the major families to scramble, and it will also become a source of national turmoil, putting the Northern Wei Dynasty on the road to extinction.