This article is a series of 172 intensive readings of Chinese history, and the "History of the Two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties" is serialized in 15 (click on the blue character to view the previous part), welcome to watch.
In the last years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu, who had become powerful from suppressing the peasant uprising and pacifying Huan Xuan, seized actual power. By the second year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (420), he kicked the Eastern Jin Emperor away, established himself as emperor, and established the Song Dynasty, still in Jiankang.
This was the beginning of the Southern Dynasty.
01. Liu Yu's Northern Expedition
Liu Yu (363-422), nicknamed Ji Nu, was born in Pengcheng, Xuzhou (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu) and lived in Jingkou (present-day Zhenjiang, Jiangsu). When he was young, because of the early death of his father, he had farmed the land, caught fish, sold straw shoes, and because of gambling, he owed the Jingkou clan 30,000 yuan in money, and was tied to a horse stake by Diao Kui. Later, he served as a minor officer under the northern general Liu Gaozhi.
After Liu Gaozhi defected and surrendered to Huan Xuan, he was stripped of his military power and hanged himself while his subordinates were scattered and mistakenly believed that his son had been killed. Liu Yusui gradually took control of the former Northern Province. Soon, he joined forces with Liu Yi and He Wuji to raise an army at Jingkou, marched into Jiankang, overthrew Huan Xuan, and seized the military and political power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Liu Yu knew that he was from a humble background and it was difficult for him to become a country. In order to increase his prestige and facilitate the replacement of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he launched the Northern Expedition.
In 409, he attacked the Southern Yan Empire, and southern Yan was founded for 11 years and perished. More than 3,000 Xianbei nobles were killed in their capital Guanggu (Qingzhou, Shandong), and the last emperor, Murong Chao, was sent to Jiankang (Nanjing, Jiangsu) to be beheaded.
Three years later ( 413 ) , Liu Yu sent his general Zhu Lingshi to attack the Western Shu kingdom. Before the army reached Chengdu, the king fled in terror and hanged himself in the woods, and the lifespan of the Western Shu Kingdom was only 9 years.
Three years later (416), Liu Yu mobilized the entire army of the Eastern Jin Empire to attack the Later Qin Empire.
Later Qin was a large country among the small states in the north, and once threatened the northwest, the Kingdom of Western Qin was once annexed by it, and the Kingdom of Southern Liang also claimed to it. However, the helian-thriving Huxia Empire had been encroaching on it in the north, and Yao Xing, the king of later Qin, who was originally called emperor, later changed his title to king, expressed humility. He repeatedly attacked Helian Bobo, was defeated many times, and was completely destroyed along the border. However, the most fatal injury was that some of Yao Xing's sons, in order to compete for the throne, launched the Rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty.
In February 416, Yao Xing died, and his eldest son Yao Hong succeeded to the throne, restoring the title of emperor. The throne made those princes and grandchildren mad more than the throne, and one after another rebelled, and the elite troops were all consumed in the civil war. In August, Liu Yu launched a major attack, and in August 417, chang'an was captured, and Yao Hong was captured, along with the crown prince's grandson, and sent all to Jiankang (Nanjing, Jiangsu), beheading them one by one. The country that murdered Jian Jian was founded for 34 years.
So far, Liu Yu has been a national hero, and the national prestige of the Eastern Jin Empire has reached its peak in his hands for a hundred years, and the next step is of course to sweep away the other remnants of the separatist regime and restore the old rivers and mountains.
Unfortunately, Liu Yu is only a half-cut hero. His heroic career, so far. His goal was not to unify China, but to take the throne of the emperor.
In 418, Liu Yuyu, who had returned to Jiankang, poisoned the idiot emperor Sima Dezong and installed his younger brother Sima Dewen to succeed him. Two years later ( 420 ) , Sima Dewen was deposed and established himself as emperor.
The demise of the Eastern Jin Empire brought a bloody example to future history, and the former emerging regimes always retained the lives of the monarchs who lost their thrones. Liu Yu was not, and he would kill them all.
This kind of killing began to become a tradition, and the monarch who had lost his throne had to be extinguished, just like the ominous snake scorpion.
02. Internal revision of state affairs
At the same time as the Northern Expedition, Liu Yu also took some beneficial measures in internal affairs.
Liu Yu was born in the cold door. He saw that the Eastern Jin Dynasty regime was weak and weak, mainly because the power of the shijia clan was too large, so after taking power, on the one hand, he still showed respect for the clan and let them remain rich; on the other hand, he strengthened the centralization of power, weakened the local armed forces, and made the imperial family serve as the political and economic center and military town of Yangzhou, Jingzhou and Southern Xuzhou, and also reused some of the generals of the original Northern Province.
In order to limit the control of the clan over the labor force and increase the income of the imperial court, Liu Yu implemented the tujue in the ninth year of Yixi (413). To establish a local nationality for expatriates in exile to the South. This was carried out in accordance with Huanwen's "Gengjiao Soil Break", which was another resolute and effective soil break after Huan Wen.
Yu Liang, the huiji clan, hid more than a thousand people and was executed by Liu Yu; Sima Xiuzhi, who had shielded him, was also deposed.
Liu Yu also cut down and merged prefectures, counties, and counties on a large scale, greatly streamlining the duplicate institutions. These measures have allowed the Government to control a larger population, increase incomes and relatively reduce the burden on farmers.
Following the tujue, Liu Yu ordered exemptions from household transfers in individual regions. The change from the Eastern Jin Dynasty's oral tax collection to asset taxation was beneficial to the poor people with few assets.
He also reduced the municipal tax and exempted some miscellaneous taxes, such as the prohibition of levying cars and cattle from the people, and the government needed to buy from the people.
In the ninth year of Yixi (413), Liu Yu had Emperor An of Jin order that 40 hectares of the empress's fat Zetian be given to the poor. It also prohibits the clans from sealing the mountains and occupying the water, and prohibits the powerful from collecting taxes from the peasants who collect firewood and fish.
Liu Yu ordered that the soldiers be exempted from being civilians and that some of the criminals be released to return to the peasants.
Liu Yu himself lived a very frugal life. After he was promoted to lieutenant, someone in Ningzhou contributed an amber pillow, which was unique in shape, beautiful in light and color, and valuable. Liu Yu heard that the amber pillow was effective in treating wounds, so he ordered people to mash them and distribute them to the generals.
The bed where he lived had an earthen tent at the head of the bed, and the walls were hung with kudzu lanterns and hemp rope whisks. Later, Emperor Xiaowu saw him and called him "Duke Of Tianshe".
03. The rule of Yuan Jia
Liu Yu was a relatively effective monarch, but unfortunately he fell ill and died less than three years after becoming emperor. His eldest son, Liu Yifu, took the throne, ignored political affairs, and was killed by the chancellor Sikong Xu Xian. Xu Xianzhi and another chancellor, Zhongshu Ling Fu Liang, supported Liu Yu's third son, Liu Yilong (407-453), known as Emperor Wen of Song.
Emperor Wen of Song continued to implement Liu Yu's policies. He repeatedly issued the "Litian Edict" to reward agricultural production, asking officials throughout the country to lead the peasants to cultivate well; if the peasants lack seeds, the government should lend them; where production is not good, officials must be punished. He also personally led the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs to the outskirts of Beijing to hoe a few times to set an example for everyone.
One year, there was a drought in Jiangnan, and rice could not be planted, so Emperor Wen of Song ordered a change to wheat planting. He attached great importance to the construction of water conservancy. Many embankments, weirs, and pi have been repaired, such as Qianpi, Liumen Weir, Marenpi, etc.
In the twelfth year of Yuan Jia (435), there was a large flood in the area of Danyang and Wuxing, and he allocated millions of rice at a time to the victims of the five counties.
He continued to check the hukou, cleared out the hidden hukou that the large landlords had embezzled, and registered them in the government's household registration, increasing the income of the state. The household registration of Emperor Wen of Song during the Yuan Jia period became the basis for the later Qi and Liang dynasties.
Emperor Wen of Song attached great importance to the selection of officials. Talented people are used heavily, and corrupt officials are severely punished. Liu Zunkao of Southern Liang Commandery (南梁郡太守) (in charge of present-day Runan, Henan Province), was the cousin of Emperor Wen of Song, who was greedy for money and profits, embezzled food allocated by the imperial court for disaster relief, and was deposed from his official post.
He also attached great importance to culture, and successively set up Confucian, Xuan, Shi, and Wenshu academies.
Because Liu Yu's father and son implemented the above series of policies, the politics of the early Song Dynasty were relatively stable, and the social economy gradually prospered. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Song for about 30 years, he used Yuan Jia (424-452) as the era name, so it was historically called "the rule of Yuan Jia".
Classic General History of China (16 volumes) ¥168 purchase
The content of this article is compiled from the "History of the Two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties" of the China International Broadcasting Publishing House's China Reading Book "Classic Chinese General History".
There are 16 books in the complete set of "Classic Chinese General History", namely: "Xia Shang History", "Western Zhou History", "Spring and Autumn History", "Warring States History", "Qin and Han History (Part I)", "Qin and Han History (Part 2)", "Three Kingdoms History", "Two Jin And Northern And Southern Dynasties History", "Sui and Tang History (Part 1)", "Sui and Tang History (Part 2)", "Five Dynasties History", "Song Dynasty History", "Yuan Dynasty History", "Ming Dynasty History", "Early Qing Dynasty History", "Late Qing History".
This set of books was carefully compiled by more than a dozen older historians born in the first half of the last century and took several years to compile. From the historical migration of xia and shang to the late Qing dynasty, the panoramic depiction of 5,000 years of Chinese history is professional and authoritative, and it is easy to understand, suitable for all ages, passing down classics, and it is worth learning and cherishing.