A Journey to the Hole Filling of the Chinese Imperial System

Mondo History Updated on 2024-01-29

China's history is long and long, and the Chinese political system is layered to fill holes, which is ironic, but the result is that a batch of professional emperors have been cultivated, and power has become more and more centralized.

During the period of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, the world was the public. Emperors are elected by various tribes, and only those who are elected by all ethnic groups are qualified to be emperors. Of course, it is mainly based on influence, and prestige is as important as virtue. The Yellow Emperor, Emperor Yu, and Yao Shun are all among the best, but if you take a closer look at the relationship between the three emperors and the five emperors, it is essentially the prototype of the world.

The relationship between the three emperors and the five emperors and the relationship between later dynasties.

There is actually a blood relationship or marriage relationship between the three emperors and five emperors, and their descendants also have blood relations with many later dynasties, which is very surprising to everyone, right?

The Suiren clan is the father of the Fuxi clan.

Fu Xi is the father of Emperor Yan of Shennong and Emperor Xuanyuan Huangdi.

Fu Xi married Nuwa Niangniang, and gave birth to the gods of the four seasons: Qinggan, Zhu Sidan, Bai Daran, and Mogan;

Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor was the grandfather (grandfather) of Xuanyuan Huangdi;

Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor was the great-grandfather (great-grandfather) of Emperor Yu

颛顼 was the uncle of Emperor Yu;

Emperor Yu was Tang Yao's father;

Tang Yao is Yu Shun's father-in-law;Tang Yao's two daughters, Empress E and Nuying, are all married to Yu Shun!

His descendant, Qin Shi Huang, founded China's first feudal dynasty, the Qin Dynasty

Dayu, the descendant of Zhuan, established China's first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty

Another descendant of the Jin Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan, founded the Jin Dynasty

The descendants of Emperor Yu's son Qi established the Shang Dynasty of Shang Tang;

The descendants of Emperor Yu's son Houji, Ji Chang (King Wen of Zhou) and Ji Fa (King Wen of Zhou), established the Zhou Dynasty;

Emperor Gaotao's descendants, Tang Gaozu and Tang Taizong Li Shimin, established the Tang Dynasty

From here, the history of the Chinese is that power is concentrated in the hands of a few people, and during the period of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, they did the reality of the family and the world, and laid out a public archway for the people and the people. In the Xia Qi era, the direct archway was lost. Dayu's son Qi, because he is the emperor's son, has a higher prestige than Dayu's legal heir "Yi", received the "Yi" Zen concession, and successfully became the monarch and became the founder of the Xia Dynasty. Later, even the steps of Zen Rang were saved, and the family world began.

The Xia and Shang dynasties implemented a feudal system, and the princes of the world abided by etiquette and jointly supported the rule, which was also exposed and buried by later generations.

In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the turmoil of the country brought about the prosperity of culture and thought, and after a hundred schools of thought, the Qin State after the Legalist reform became the division of tigers and wolves, and the wind and clouds annexed the six countries, and the world was unified. Qin Shi Huang invented the first set of political tools to centralize power, and the county system appeared on the stage of history and lasted for more than 2,000 years.

Qin Zhi II died in the country, and the source was that there was no crown prince, and Li Si and Zhao Gao took advantage of the loophole.

After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, this lesson was immediately learned, and the Han Dynasty's monarchs and ministers concluded: "Qin Yi did not make a decision to support the Su earlier, and Hu Hai deceived and established himself, and he made the worship extinction." "The Qin Dynasty did not establish Fusu as the crown prince early, allowing Hu Hai to take advantage of the loophole, which led to its demise. Therefore, in the second year of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (205 BC), Liu Bang, who was still in the middle of Rong Ma, set up Liu Ying as the crown prince, plugging a political loophole left by Qin Shi Huang.

Han Gaozu Liu Bang in order to fill the hole of Qin Shi Huang, set up the prince early, but did not guard against his wife, after Liu Bang's death, only 17-year-old Liu Ying ascended the throne, Liu Ying has little experience, the main power is in the hands of his mother Lu Hou. Empress Lu has a very strong desire to control, and she has to take care of everything, and later directly kills the descendants of the Liu family, and the hall is full of kings surnamed Lu.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted this lesson and appointed his youngest son Liu Fuling as the crown prince, and then killed Liu Fuling's mother, Mrs. Gou Yi, to prevent her from dictating in the future. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was afraid that everyone would not understand, so he also made a special explanation. He said: "In ancient times, the country was in chaos, and the lord and the mother were strong. The heroine lives alone and is arrogant, promiscuous and self-indulgent, and she can't help it. The woman doesn't hear about Lu Hou's evil?”

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up a crown prince and killed the concubine, so it stands to reason that there should be political stability next, right?As a result, the gourd of the queen mother's intervention in politics was pressed, and the scoop of the minister was floated again.

The prince doesn't have a mother, and he's too young to be in charge of the government, what should he do?Before his death, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appointed a group of ministers as ministers of care, led by Huo Quai's younger brother Huo Guang. As a result, Huo Guang was called the first powerful minister in Chinese history. Huo Guang has a very strong personality, after he took power, he killed his political enemies Shangguan Ji and Sang Hongyang, and also killed the important figures in the royal family, the eldest princess and Yan Wangdan.

Since then, Huo Guang has become the de facto emperor, and he has the final say in matters big and small. Liu Fuling died of illness at the age of 21 without a son. Huo Guang decided to let Liu He, the king of Changyi, the owner of the famous tomb of the Marquis of Haiding, be the emperor, but Liu He only reigned for 27 days, and Huo Guang hated him very much, saying that he made more than 1,000 mistakes in less than a month, an average of 40 times a day, so he was abolished, and then he was set up Emperor Xuan of Han. Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty respected Huo Guang very much on the surface, but in fact he was very afraid of him, and he was very uncomfortable when he was with him, saying "If there is a thorn in the back". This is how the emperor felt about his ministers. Although Huo Guang himself had a good death in history, but after he died, the Huo family was still unlucky, his son Huo Yu was beheaded, Huo Yun and Huo Shan committed suicide, the Huo family was beheaded, and his wife and nephews were all killed or committed suicide.

Those who threaten the imperial power include powerful local feudal towns, enemies and foreign troubles, powerful ministers, relatives, concubines, eunuchs, traitors, and villains. Almost everyone stared at the emperor's authority and wanted to replace him at the first opportunity.

Therefore, the emperor must use one person against the world and one person against all political forces. Therefore, the nature of power must be inherently high-pressure and exclusive, to suppress all forces that threaten oneself. But the emperor only has two eyes and two hands, and there are too many factors that need to be guarded against, and in many cases he can't take care of it, so there are loopholes everywhere, and he pressed the gourd and scooped.

Related Pages