In ancient history, the children of the founding emperors were relatively large. Among them, although Sima Yan, the founding emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, did not have a strong sense of existence, he also had 26 sons and more than ten daughters. In order to win over the family and consolidate the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan married many daughters to them. For Wang Dun, who the author wants to talk about today, he comes from Langya Wang. However, as Sima Yan's son-in-law, Wang Dun eventually plotted to usurp the power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
One. Specifically, Wang Dun (266-324), a native of Linyi, Langya (now Linyi City, Shandong Province). During the Western Jin Dynasty, Wang Dunying married Princess Xiangcheng, the daughter of Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty (Princess Wuyang in "Shishuo Xinyu Note") as his wife, and was worshiped as the commander of the horse, and later served as the prince's housekeeper. In the first year of Yongning (301), Sima Lun, the king of Zhao, usurped the throne and became emperor. At that time, Wang Dun participated in the crusade against Sima Lun. In April of the same year, Sima Lun was defeated and killed, and Emperor Hui of Jin was reinstated. Wang Dun was promoted to the rank of Loose Cavalry Attendant, Left Guard General, Da Honglu, and Servant because of his merits.
In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, Wang Dun's younger brother Wang Daoze served as Anton Sima Sima in the Sima Rui shogunate, and was deeply trusted by Sima Rui. Wang Dun then worked with Wang Dao to help Sima Rui establish prestige in Jiangdong, so that Sima Rui gradually gained the support of the Jiangdong scholars. In the first year of Jianwu (317), Sima Rui was called the king of Jin, established the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and officially proclaimed himself emperor in the following year, known as Emperor Yuan of Jin in history. Because of his meritorious service, Wang Dun was first promoted to the general of Zhengnan, and then entered the general to worship the general, and served in Zhong and Jiangzhou.
Two. As we all know, Sima Rui was able to establish a country in Jiangnan because of the support of the northern and southern gate valve clans. The Langya Wang clan played a decisive role in it, so it was extremely powerful after the establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Wang Dao was in charge of the government, Wang Dun held the military power outside, and the children of the Wang family were all in important positions, so that there was a saying that "the king and the horse share the world". Of course, the strength of the brothers Wang Dao and Wang Dun also made Sima Rui, the emperor, suspicious, which was also an important reason why Wang Dun later rebelled.
In the fourth year of Taixing (321), Sima Rui assigned all the soldiers he had requisitioned to Dai Yuan and Liu Kui, nominally to defend against the Later Zhao regime in the north, but in fact to guard against Wang Dun. In September of the same year, Yuzhou Thorn Shi Zu died of illness. Coupled with the visit of Zhou who had died the year before, Wang Dun realized that the Eastern Jin Dynasty had no generals who could compete with him. So, he decided to raise troops to enter Beijing.
In the first month of the first year of Yongchang (322), Wang Dun raised troops in Wuchang (Jiangzhou Prefecture, in present-day Ezhou, Hubei) and attacked Jiankang in the name of crusading against the traitor Liu Kui. In ancient history, military generals who raised troops often used excuses such as "Qing Jun's side". In this regard, Wang Dun is naturally no exception.
Soon after, Wang Dun succeeded in occupying Jiankang. In this regard, Sima Rui not only sued Wang Dun for peace, but also canonized him as prime minister. At this point, the power of the government was all vested in Wang Dun, and Sima Rui was completely emptied. Sima Rui fell from power, so he died of grief at the end of 322 AD. Sima Shao ascended the throne and was known as Emperor Ming of Jin in history.
Three. In April of the first year of Taining (323), Wang Dun moved from Wuchang to the town of Guyu (in present-day Dangtu County, Anhui Province), stationed in Yuhu in the east of the city, and led Yangzhou Mu himself, directly controlling the Gyeonggi region. At that time, Wang Dun conspired with Qian Feng and other cronies to usurp the Jin, and was accidentally learned by his cousin Wang Yunzhi (Wang Shu's son). In the end, the news was also learned by Emperor Ming of Jin. In this regard, in the author's opinion, the ** within the Wang family is obviously the key factor in Wang Dun's defeat.
Of course, the more important reason is that Wang Dun fell ill soon after. In June of the second year of Taining (324), seeing that Wang Dun's physical condition was deteriorating, Sima Shao immediately decided to crusade against Wang Dun and personally stationed in the middle hall outside the Xuanyang Gate in Taicheng. At the same time, in order to eliminate the fear of Wang Dun among the soldiers, Sima Shao declared that Wang Dun was dead, and only used Qian Feng as the target of the crusade. Wang Dao also led the children of the clan to mourn for Wang Dun. The soldiers of the Jin army believed in Wang Dun's "death", and their morale was immediately boosted.
Soon after, Wang Dun's side was demoralized and suffered successive defeats. Wang Dun was furious when he heard the defeat and wanted to force the sick body to go to the front line to supervise the battle, but finally failed to make the trip due to serious illness and fatigue. Wang Dun was deeply ill and resentful, and died in the Guxiao Military Mansion that day at the age of 59. In July of the second year of Taining (324), Emperor Ming of Jin hung the heads of Wang Dun, Shen Chong and others on the Zhuque Bridge in the south of the city to show the public, and the rebellion of Wang Dun was completely quelled. However, this did not change the situation in which the emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was weak and the scholars controlled the government.