Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, believed that one of the important reasons why the Qin Dynasty died was that there were no sons with the same surname as princes. Therefore, after he established the world, he adopted a sub-feudal system, that is, the remote areas of the country were assigned to the princes of the Liu clan (after the elimination of the kings with different surnames), so as to play a role in allowing the sons of the local clan to defend the central imperial power.
However, after several generations, the blood ties between the emperor and the kings of the Liu clan became weaker and weaker. Moreover, the princes continued to expand their own strength, as if forming a trend of confrontation with the central court. In this context, the Han Jing Emperor Liu Qi adopted the imperial master Chao's suggestion of cutting the domain, which led to the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms".
After the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" was put down, the power of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty was severely frustrated, and the authority of the central imperial court was greatly consolidated. However, Emperor Jingdi of Han did not solve the problem once and for all, so after Emperor Wu of Han, the son of Emperor Jingdi of Han, took the throne, how to prevent the princes from becoming bigger and stronger became a new challenge for the young Tianzi.
In 127 BC, Emperor Wu of han adopted the advice of the chancellor's father and issued a decree of tuien, stipulating that after the death of the princes, in addition to the eldest son of the prince to inherit the throne, other princes could also divide part of the kingdom and become princes.
On the surface, the Tuien Ling was the Emperor's generous benevolence, allowing the sons of the clan to be evenly exposed. The actual purpose was to make the "cake" in the hands of the princes smaller and smaller, so that it could no longer form a strength to compete with the imperial court.
The cleverness of tuien ling is that it makes full use of the weaknesses of human nature. Originally, the throne was the inheritance system of the eldest son, that is, the eldest of the concubines inherited the territory, army, and property of the old prince, and there was nothing for the other sons. However, the Tuien Order required that after the death of the old prince, each son could receive a part of the family property. In this way, except for the eldest son, who was very unhappy, the other princes were very happy and strongly supported this edict. Because the overall interests of the old prince were not damaged, he could not afford to fight with the imperial court. In this way, it is equivalent to turning the problem of the imperial court into a problem within the family of the princes, and the pain points of the imperial court will naturally be solved. Therefore, later generations called the Tuien Order an unsolvable conspiracy.
Emperor Wu of Han's edict was so successful that the Han Dynasty never threatened the central court again.
By the beginning of the Ming Dynasty more than a thousand years later, Emperor Jianwen, the second tianzi of the Ming Dynasty, was also facing a situation in which the tail of the king of the domain could not be lost. However, Emperor Jianwen did not learn from the successful experience of Emperor Wu of Han, but instead adopted the way that Emperor Jing of Han spoke with his fists and slashed the domain by force. As a result, the imperial army accidentally "overturned" under the condition of absolute superiority in strength, and was defeated by the army of Zhu Di, the King of Yan. Emperor Jianwen disappeared after his defeat, and Zhu Di, the King of Yan, successfully usurped the throne, and was known as Emperor Taizong of Ming (renamed Ming Chengzu during the Jiajing dynasty).
So the question is, Tuien Ling is known as an insoluble Yang plot, why did Emperor Jianwen not take the road to success, but to touch the stones to cross the river so that he accidentally overturned the boat? In fact, the root of the problem is that the environment is different.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the suggestion of the Main Father's Tuien Order, but the first person to put forward a similar view was not the Main Father, but the Western Han Dynasty famous scholar Jia Yi.
Jia Yi had proposed to Emperor Wen of Han the idea of multiple distributions of princely states, but Emperor Wen of Han did not adopt it. The reason for this is not that Emperor Wen was short-sighted, but that he did not have the conditions for implementation. At that time, the Western Han Dynasty was in a state of ruin, and the country was in urgent need of recuperation and could not withstand the toss of strong winds and waves. In a situation where stability overrides everything, the set of pushing and shoving is obviously too risky and radical.
By the time Emperor Wudi of Han reigned, the environment was completely different. The power of the princes was severely weakened in the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" and they were completely unqualified to negotiate with the imperial court. Therefore, no matter what the imperial court asks, they must in principle obey unconditionally. What's more, on the surface, the Tuien Order did not harm the current interests of the princes. Therefore, the reason why Emperor Wu of Han was able to successfully implement the Tuien Order was largely because the two generations of his ancestors and father laid a solid basic plan for him.
In contrast, during the Jianwen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, although the overall strength of the imperial court was far above that of the kings of various domains, several Sai kings such as Qin and Yan had more elite combat troops in their hands. Therefore, when Emperor Jianwen's slashing sword was about to cut at the head of the King of Yan, the King of Yan also had cards in his hand, so he dared to fight back. As long as the king of the clan is not a fish on the chopping board, then it is naturally not easy for the imperial court to slaughter him by means of tuying and ordering.
In addition, the princes of the Western Han Dynasty had relatively large territory, so the Tuien Order allowed each prince to divide a certain proportion of the territory. The fiefdoms of the Ming Dynasty clan kings were all one city and one place, and there was not much space to divide in itself, so the attraction to the sons of the clan kings was naturally very limited. Therefore, the operational space for trying to cause contradictions within the clan king's family by means of a push order is almost non-existent.
Therefore, although Tuien Ling is known as the Insoluble Yang Conspiracy, in fact, it is not so divine. Emperor Wu of Han was so successful in adopting the Tuien Order because he chose the right way at the right time. Once the time and environmental conditions changed, such as during the Jianwen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, there was no room for the Tuien Order to play, and naturally there was no unsolvable Yang plot.