Author: Our special guest author Jinlingwu
In 82 AD, Emperor Liu Zhao's empress Dou of han zhang competed with Song Guiren for favors, framed Song Guiren on the grounds of "the art of victory", and sentenced him to prison. In the whole incident, the person who acted as a dog's leg for Empress Dou was a eunuch, and his name is known to this day, but at that time he was just a speculator who saw the wind and steered the rudder, and even he himself could not imagine that his name could be remembered by future generations.
He is Cai Lun.
1. Eunuchs ascend to the throne
As a eunuch, Cai Lun was unfortunate, before the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were still uncastrated eunuchs; after the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs were purified, Cai Lun was more unlucky, he was born in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. But he was also fortunate that the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu claimed that the empress dowager would return all power to Shang Shutai in order to strengthen the monarchy's centralization. If the emperor is strong and employs people properly, the imperial power will be highly concentrated, but the Han Guangwu Emperor, the Han Ming Emperor, and the Eastern Han Emperor after the Han Zhang Emperor are all gentle people, it is difficult to control the situation, and the struggle between foreign relatives is intensifying, and in order to find helpers to balance each other, the foreign relatives will push the eunuchs to the stage of history and let the eunuchs participate in the government.
It is in this context that Cai Lun came to the stage of history.
▲ Cai Lun
Cai Lun followed his father to farm when he was young, and entered the palace at the age of fifteen, because of his cleverness and cleverness, his IQ and emotional intelligence were both high, and Cai Lun quickly went from a small eunuch to a small yellow door and a yellow door waiter. The reason why Cai Lun is a speculator is because he has a unique vision, is good at observing words and colors, and is better at taking sides.
In 82 AD, the struggle between Empress Dou and the Song nobles intensified. Empress Dou was childless, Song Guiren's son Liu Qing was the crown prince, Empress Dou for her own future, for the future of the Dou family, must get rid of Song Guiren, so she tried every means to find song Guiren's stubble, outside let several brothers Dou Xian, Dou Du look for their faults, inside cai lun and other eunuchs framed in many ways, and finally kung fu paid off, Empress Dou found the opportunity. When Song Guiren was ill and did not know who to hear about rabbits being able to cure diseases, he immediately mobilized relatives and friends to look for them, but this matter happened to be made by Empress Dou who was waiting for the whole person. Empress Dou immediately asked Cai Lun to write a letter accusing him of "embracing evil and flattering" and "wanting to be a skill of victory", and this move of the Song guiren also tired the crown prince Liu Qing, who was criticized for being "confused and impermanent" and demoted to the title of King of Qinghe, and liu Zhao, the son of Liang Meiren, was made crown prince. At the same time, Song Guiren was arrested and imprisoned, and the person who tried the case happened to be Cai Lun, who had already defected to Empress Dou, and Song Guiren had no physiology and committed suicide by drinking medicine in prison.
The power struggle in 82 AD ended in empress Dou's victory, just seven years after Cai Lun entered the palace. After this incident, Cai Lun became a close confidant of Empress Dou and began to enter the center of power.
In 88, Liu Zhao died of illness and Liu Zhao ascended the throne, and Empress Dou was promoted to Empress Dowager Dou. Cai Lun naturally became a favorite courtier, and was given the title of Zhongchang Waiter, accompanied by Liu Zhao, "Yu Shan Drapery", ranked more than two thousand stones.
Second, science and technology reformers
It was during Liu Zhao's reign that Cai Lun fully displayed his talents. As a courtier, in front of Liu Zhao, Cai Lun "devoted himself to prudence, counted the number of offenses, and gained and lost", relying on his own talent and integrity, and devoted himself to assisting the little emperor. On the other hand, Cai Lun has put his scientific and technological talents to the fullest.
Once, when Liu Zhao's sword was broken while playing with his sword, Cai Lun took the initiative to ask Miao to forge swords and royal utensils for the royal family. In order to forge high-quality utensils, Cai Lun painstakingly studied the tools books, personally forged swords, and finally forged strong and durable swords, cups and other utensils. After Liu Zhao's pro-government, he saw that the heavy Bamboo Jian was tired every day, so Cai Lun, who was distressed by the emperor, invented or improved the papermaking technique.
Before Cai Lun, there was already the existence of "paper", he improved the papermaking technique, and the Caihou paper made by this was rapidly promoted, "since the world is not in use", changing people's lifestyles, changing the social development process, which is of great significance, and papermaking has also become one of the four major inventions.
Because of the invention of Cai's papermaking, the word "Cai Lun" is almost a household name in China, and it is well-known even abroad. In 1978's book Mike Hart's List of 100 People Influencing the Course of Human History, Cai Lun ranked sixth (later changed to seventh), which shows how well Cai Lun is recognized by the world.
In 92 AD, Liu Zhao, with the help of another eunuch, Zheng Zhong, cleaned up Dou's foreign relatives. Dou Xian was forced to commit suicide because of the rebellion, and at the same time, Dou Du, Dou Jing, and others died, and Empress Dou was imprisoned. In 97 AD, Empress Dou fell ill and died. In 105 AD, Liu Zhao died of illness, and was followed by a new foreign relative, the Deng clan dominated by Empress Dowager Deng Sui, and Cai Lun, who had always acted opportunistically, naturally threw himself under the Tang clan. Empress Deng set up two small emperors in a row, firmly grasping the government in her own hands, cai Lun, as Empress Deng's right-hand man, naturally stepped on the clouds, was named the Marquis of Longting, Changle Tai servant, and went to the peak of her life, becoming the first person under Empress Deng.
It was not until Empress Deng died of illness in 121 AD and Emperor Liu Hu of Han'an took over that Cai Lun's good days came to an end. Because Emperor Liu Hu of Han was Liu Qing's son and the grandson of Song Guiren, Cai Lun knew that Emperor Han'an would be finished after he took power, so he committed suicide in the same year.
Cai Lun is definitely a genius, in addition to his dedicated assistance to the little emperor, his contribution to science and technology is worthy of praise in any era. The reason for his success, in addition to relying on his own talent, also depends on a strong background of the times.
The eunuch's ascension to the throne benefited from the struggle of foreign relatives and the formation of the centralized system of Shangshutai, the struggle of foreign relatives provided opportunities, and Shangshutai provided a platform, so it was not uncommon for various eunuchs in power since Cai Lun and Zheng Zhong. However, Cai Lun was much weaker than the later eunuchs, far from reaching the height of the "Five Eunuchs", Cao Jie, and Wang Fu, and he had to choose to turn to one side to survive, and there was Empress Deng after Empress Dou, and accurate speculation benefited him a lot. But it was also these accurate speculations that made him offend Emperor Han and finally had to choose to commit suicide.
After experiencing the Four Emperors and Two Emperors in his lifetime, Cai Lun was ranked as the Ninth Qing and was given the title of Marquis, but these titles were not worth mentioning at all compared with his papermaking skills.
Historical sources: "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", "Zizhi Tongjian"
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