The author, Lan Tai, is a signed author of toutiao number
I have always thought that Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jinwu, was a wise emperor who was grossly underestimated in history, and probably the most undervalued.
First of all, Sima Yan was one of the very few emperors in China who had a gentle personality and a magnificent temperament.
After the eastern Wu Sun Hao destroyed the country, he was taken to Luoyang, and repeatedly confronted Sima Yan at banquets, and said that he had also reserved a seat for Sima Yan in Jiankang and built a mansion, and Sima Yan only laughed it off.
In contrast, Zhao Kuangyin, the so-called generous Song Taizu, only let Later Shu Mengchang live for three days in Bieliang, and then "died of illness".
He played a game with the concubine, and the concubine injured his finger and complained that the concubine was worthy of being the daughter of a rude warrior, and as a result, he was scared back by the concubine in person: "(Sima Yi) Gongsun of the Northern Expedition, the West rejected Zhuge Zhuge and why not plant?"
When he heard this, he was not only not angry, but felt a little ashamed, if he changed to Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, not to mention the concubine herself, I am afraid that even everyone in this concubine's womb would be killed.
When he was the son of the world, a bunch of ministers wanted his father Sima Zhao to make his younger brother Sima You the Prince of Qi the Son of Qi, and if he had changed Cao Pi, he would have found an opportunity to give Sima You small shoes to wear after he ascended the throne, but he was still very lenient with Sima You, and he did not settle accounts with those ministers who were attached to Sima You in the party at that time.
The minister ridiculed him for being like Emperor Huan of Han and Emperor Ling of Han, and he was not angry, but instead laughed, "I have a courtier like you, so it can be seen that I am much stronger than Huan and Ling."
If Zhu Yuanzhang had been replaced, the Nine Clans of this minister would definitely not have been able to keep it.
Secondly, Sima Yan's rule of the country can be said to be "lenient", and the "Tai Shi Law" promulgated by him was known for its leniency and simplicity, and also abolished the Tun Tian system, which had been popular since the Three Kingdoms period, so that the economy and population rose steadily during his reign.
Everyone may wonder, why is the tuntian system so cruel?
The reason is that the Tuntian system invented by Cao Cao was not really recruiting displaced people to cultivate, but more like a kind of lifeless labor camp, not only to bear heavy land endowments, but also to accept Cao Wei's endless servitude; every time some people heard that they were going to be taken back to "Tuntian" by Cao Cao, a large-scale escape would break out; Cao Cao's conquest of Sun Quan was unfavorable, and he was ready to move the people of Huainan back to Tuntian, Henan, and as a result, more than 100,000 Huainan people fled to the south of the Yangtze River; Cao Cao's conquest of Liu Bei was unfavorable, preparing to move the hanzhong people to Tuntian, Shaanxi, and the sparsely populated Hanzhong suddenly fled tens of thousands of people. Even Zhang Lujun, who surrendered to Cao Cao, fled on a large scale.
However, because the Tun Tian system could indeed make the imperial court obtain a large amount of grain by squeezing the people, although Cao Cao's "Tun Tian" was extremely inhumane, Cao Wei was reluctant to abolish it.
It was not until Sima Yan usurped Wei's claim to the throne that Cao Cao's brutal Tuntian system was officially abolished.
In addition, during Sima Yan's reign, there was not a single uprising in Sichuan, for comparison, after the Wuhu Chaohua, Former Qin entered Shu in less than eight years when two tens of thousands of uprisings broke out, and The Western Wei established by Yuwen Tai entered Shu, and four tens of thousands of uprisings occurred in four years.
It can be seen from this that "the Shu people are obedient and have no heart to carry" is not a lie, and more importantly, the population of Sichuan has increased from 280,000 households at the time of the destruction of Shu to 36,800 households, and this is also under the circumstance that 30,000 households in Sichuan were relocated to Luoyang and other places during the destruction of the Shu Han.
However, why is it that when Sima Yan is mentioned now, everyone thinks that he is a emperor?
Mainly because he chose Sima Zheng, the "mentally handicapped", as his heir.
However, Sima Yan was bitter about this matter, and it can even be said that Sima Yan made a decision that Sima Yan made thoughtfully after fully absorbing the lessons of Cao Wei's overthrow.
Does Sima Yan know that Sima Zheng has a problem with iq?
Of course, he knew, not only he knew, but also the Jin Dynasty courtiers knew, so after Sima Yan became seriously ill, the ministers hoped to support Sima You, the king of Qi, as the "emperor's brother".
However, the reason why Sima Yan still wanted to make Sima Zheng the crown prince was not only because he loved his son, but more importantly, Sima Zheng was sima Yan's eldest son, "Li Yan" was the core of the Zhou Li patriarchal system, and Confucianism attached the most importance to Zhou Li.
The replacement of the Cao family by the Sima family can in a sense be seen as a continuation or summary of the struggle between the eunuch group and the shiren group at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
For the Sima family, the best way to prove the legitimacy of their "Dai Wei" was to portray themselves as "Confucian scholars" and equate Cao Wei with eunuchs and legalists. In this way, it won the support of the family clans with Confucianism as their family to the "Jin Dynasty" established by the Sima family.
Therefore, Sima Yan ascended the throne and said that the empress dowager repeatedly issued edicts emphasizing the "difference between concubines":
Ding Hai, zhao said: "The difference between concubines and concubines, so distinguish between the upper and lower, clear and noble." In recent times, most of them have been favored internally, and the position of concubine after ascension has been chaotic. From now on, no concubine shall be allowed to use a concubine as a concubine. - Book of Jin
Sima Yan's edict was actually criticizing Cao Cao for making the Bian clan from the "advocate family" as his queen, and Cao Pi for making the Guo clan from a "slave" origin as empress, and taunting Cao Wei for being "uncultured" and not knowing the Heaven and Earth Avenue.
Under these circumstances, sima yan certainly could not have violated the most fundamental principle of Confucian ideology, "Li Yuan", otherwise how could he prove the legitimacy of the Sima family's "dai Wei"?
What's more, although Sima Zheng himself had problems with intelligence, Sima Zheng's wife's family power was enough to support Sima Zheng's "arch and rule", Sima Zheng's wife Jia Nanfeng was the daughter of Jia Chong, and the Jia clan in Pingyang was not only one of the most important families at the time of Wei and Jin, Jia Chong himself was Sima Zhao's nemesis, and in Sima Yan's work of the world, Jia Chong played a key role, and more importantly, Jia Chong was not only Sima Zheng's old man, but also the old man of Sima You, the king of Qi.
That is to say, as long as the Jia clan of Pingyang is willing to support Sima Zheng, then Sima Zheng has no problem in being an emperor who "rules from the arch", and later history has proved this, for example, the Northern Qi emperor Gao Yang was mentally ill, but because he trusted the chancellor Yang Yan and entrusted the major affairs of the state to Yang Zheng, the result was that "the lord is dim above, the country is ruled below", and during Gao Yang's reign, Northern Qi "Wei Zhen Rong Xia and Si Yu were stable." ”
Sima Yan's reuse of foreign relatives and his marriage to the shijia clan were themselves the result of the Sima family's reflection on the lessons of Cao Wei's overthrow.
In addition, there is another point, that is, although Sima Zheng has a problem with intelligence, Sima Zheng's son Sima Song is very smart, and Sima Yan likes this grandson very much, so in Sima Yan's view, even if Sima Zheng has a problem with intelligence, as long as the Pingyang Jia clan is well assisted by foreign relatives, and Sima Song can grow up quickly, then in fact, there is no big problem.
In fact, to a certain extent, it confirmed Sima Yan's judgment, when Jia Nanfeng got rid of Sima Liang, the king of Runan, and Sima Wei, the king of Chu, and sima Lun, the king of Zhao, for eight years in charge of the government, the political situation in the Western Jin Dynasty was very stable, and even there was a situation of "Yanran in the sea" and "tranquility in the government and the wilderness".
If it were not for Sima Zheng's illness, Jia Nanfeng forced the crown prince Sima Song (not from Jia Nanfeng), causing the clan to covet the emperor's throne and launch a mutiny, then the Western Jin Dynasty is likely to be as smooth as in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and if that happens, Sima Yan's choice of Sima Zheng as his heir is actually not wrong.