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Starting today, I am ready to start writing about the two Jin Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and then interspersed with the history of the West in the same period, so that you can connect The history of China and the world.
As we know, the two Jin Dynasties are the Western Jin Dynasty and the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Western Jin Dynasty began in 266 and ended in 316, while the Eastern Jin Dynasty lasted from 317 to 420.
Let's start with the Western Jin Dynasty. Five years before the founding of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Roman Emperor Valerian was captured by Shapur I of Sassanid Persia. The 51st year of the Western Jin Dynasty coincided with the rise of Diocletian of the Roman Empire from the rise to the abdication of the throne, and Constantine defeated his political rival Licinius.
The founding emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty was Sima Yan, known in history as Emperor Wu of Jin, and was the eldest son of Sima Zhao.
Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin
The Sima family, through the efforts of the brothers Sima Yi, Sima Shi, and Sima Zhao, as well as three generations of Sima Yan, usurped the throne from Cao Wei. Therefore, Sima Yan posthumously made Sima Yi Emperor Xuan, Sima Shi Emperor Jing, and Sima Zhao Emperor Wen.
During the period between Sima Shi and Sima Zhao, because Sima Shi was childless and died prematurely, he passed the throne to Sima Zhao, and Sima Zhao, at the behest of Sima Yi, passed on his younger son, Sima Yan's brother Sima You, to Sima Shi. Therefore, Sima Zhao had always intended to make Sima You the Crown Prince of Jin, in order to show that he was still in his brother's line. Of course, another reason was that Sima You was extremely talented, and the history books recorded that he "only saw the right side of Emperor Wu".
Sima You
However, Sima Yan, with the support of He Zeng, Jia Chong, Pei Xiu, Shantao, Yang Xuan, and others, finally ascended to the position of crown prince on the grounds of opposing the "abolition of chang li shao".
Sima Yan has always been criticized by historians, calling him "absurd and lazy, and the heir of the widow". But in fact, it is not a big evil. It can only be said that the ability is not enough, and it is indeed a bit unbearable to create a business in order to keep it.
Before the first ascension to Dabao and the destruction of Eastern Wu in 280, Sima Yan still rectified the rule of officials, the use of sages, and the prohibition of the province of law, and the people's livelihood, even in the Taikang years after the destruction of Eastern Wu, there was also the saying "rule of Taikang".
He once burned the pheasant head qiu (woven from the hair on the head of a pheasant) offered by sima Cheng as a sign of frugality.
However, on the one hand, since the end of the Han Dynasty, the extravagance of the scholar clan has become increasingly great, on the other hand, Sima Yan has lost his leniency and strictness in the administration, and the nobles and strong people dare not move, and although they burn Qiu Qiu to show frugality, they do not hesitate at all when they build a large number of civil engineering. Therefore, when he went to the home of Wang Ji (Sima Zhao's son-in-law) to eat, he saw that the puffer fish was very beautiful because he was steamed with human milk, and his face was unhappy, and he left before eating, but there was nothing he could do.
There is a saying in history that after Sima Yan destroyed Wu, he dismissed all the soldiers and soldiers in various counties to show peace, which is why later generations believed that the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" was able to start. But in fact, according to research, it seems to be a false rumor. Sima Yan should have simply removed the power of assassination in the non-military towns of the prefectures and counties, which was a normal move.
The Three Kingdoms returned to Jin
Sima Yan made his idiot son Sima Zheng his successor, agreed to Jia Nanfeng as a crown princess, and persecuted his brother Sima You the Prince of Qi, which was his greatest failure.
Sima Zheng was the second son born to the empress, and the first son died early, so it was only natural that Sima Zheng should be made crown prince. But then it was found that this Sima Zheng had a low IQ and was an idiot, and the most famous story was: He heard the toad in the garden calling, and actually asked the palace people, was this toad called for the public or for the private family?
Another story is more famous, when he heard that the people starved to death due to famine, he felt incredible, why don't the people eat meat?
Such an idiot son, why did Sima Yan have to take him as his successor?
The reasons are none other than the following.
One: Standing up long is not standing young, this is also a tradition. In addition, the competition with Sima You for the position of crown prince should leave a huge shadow in his psychology, so he has some compassion for his son, who is also the eldest son of the concubine.
Second: Empress Yang Yan's opposition, the mother is precious to the son, if Li Xian does not establish a concubine, then it is very likely that there will be no share of his son. Therefore, on the one hand, Yang Yan opposed it, and on the other hand, he actively co-opted the Jia Chong faction that helped Sima Yan ascend to the throne. At that time, Jia Chong was suspected by Sima Yan because his daughter was the princess of Sima You, the King of Qi, and Jia Chong's wife paid a bribe to Yang Yan, and the two sides hit it off.
Later, Yang Yan proposed that Na JiaChong's other daughter Jia Nanfeng be the crown princess, and Sima Yan, in order to balance Jia Chong's faction, and considering that marriage with Jia Chong could weaken the connection between Sima You and Jia Chong's faction, he agreed, but then he wanted to repent, which was even more difficult.
Three: The most crucial thing is that at that time, officials who opposed Jia Chong's faction, such as He Yu, Yang Hu, Wei Ou, etc., repeatedly played another crown prince, which once made Sima Yan hesitate, but a serious illness in the second year of Xianning (276 AD) made him completely change his mentality, and Sima Yan, the emperor of Jinwu at that time, may also have contracted the plague, so everyone thought that his life was short, so the voice of Sima You's succession began to spread. This was a piece of Sima Yan's heart disease, and it also led to his suspicion of these deposed princes. Sima You eventually died of depression under pressure from Sima Yan to force him to leave the capital and return to the fiefdom to establish a state (it is also said that he died at the hands of the Taiyi, for a conspiracy).
Fourth: There is also a saying that Sima Yan was very fond of his grandson Sima Song (the son of the idiot prince) and that Sima Zheng was the successor, in fact, he was preparing to let Sima Suo succeed to the throne in the future.
In short, Sima Yan's successor was ultimately his idiot son Sima Zheng.
Why do you say that Sima Yan is absurd?
After the destruction of Wu, he selected 5,000 beautiful women from the Wu Palace to the harem of the Jin Dynasty, resulting in tens of thousands of harem concubines and palace women, which is called "Tuo Ting Tens of Thousands". He also selected beautiful women from the noble families, causing the daughters of the eunuch families to look ugly.
What if there are more beautiful women? Every day he would drive the sheep cart to see which beautiful woman was parked in front of the door, and he would be lucky, because the sheep loved the smell of salt water, and the concubines would sprinkle the salt water on the ground in the doorway, and insert bamboo branches on the door. This is called "sheep cart looking lucky".
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