At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, during the period of Emperor Ling (the father of Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty), that is, the era when the Yellow Turban Rebellion occurred, there was a significant phenomenon of corruption, that is, the phenomenon of selling officials was particularly serious.
Therefore, some descendants blame the reason for the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty in part on the dictatorship of eunuchs, buying lords and officials, causing chaos in the country, such as Luo Guanzhong, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the second episode, Liu Tao said, "The disasters are all caused by the ten permanent servants selling officials and harming the people, and bullying the monarch", and the title has the words "eunuch erection", and the likes and dislikes are obvious.
There are two meanings in this, the first is that the main responsibility of selling officials is eunuchs, and the second is that the main reason for the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty is selling officials. But in reality, both of these are problematic.
In fact, the biggest dealers are Emperor Ling and the Queen Mother, there is no doubt about this, and the money mainly fell into the hands of Emperor Ling and the Queen Mother. He keeps all this money, or wealth, in ***.
Of course, the eunuchs around Emperor Ling, especially the most trusted eunuchs, also got a lot of benefits from it. There are two main benefits, one is ***, and the second is that the children of the eunuch family can buy officials, and these people can't be officials according to the orthodox way.
However, the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty could not control the imperial power, but only depended on the imperial power, which was different from the late Tang Dynasty. In the matter of selling officials, Emperor Ling is decisive, and the eunuchs are just getting cheap.
Ancient people often liked to blame women or eunuchs for the demise of a country, if they could find a scapegoat. The eunuchs of the late Eastern Han Dynasty may have been saddled in this way.
In fact, the emperor and the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty can basically be regarded as one and have a very close relationship. In many cases, the only force that the emperor could rely on was the eunuchs, and even the emperor's mother may also be the object of political struggle, because the queen mother and relatives did not want to give power to the emperor.
The empress dowagers of the Eastern Han Dynasty were particularly fond of picking small emperors.
Secondly, Sandstorm believes that the reason for the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty basically has little to do with selling officials, of course, this is just a personal opinion, and there will definitely be a lot of controversy.
Of course, it is better not to have the phenomenon of selling official positions. But if so, how harmful?It is not that a widespread corruption will lead to the demise of a dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty was also a corrupt dynasty where official sales were prevalent, but the Qing Dynasty survived for many years even in the face of internal and external troubles.
Some people say that the Qing Dynasty did not sell officials with more than four grades. But in fact, whether to sell or not is of little significance to ordinary people, and it is the middle and low level that directly squeezes ordinary people. The Qing Dynasty did not sell ** not for the sake of the people's itch, but to prevent problems with the state power.
There is an important difference between the Qing Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, the Qing Dynasty was the imperial examination system, and the Eastern Han Dynasty was the recommendation system.
Under the imperial examination system, selling official positions squeezed the way out for the poor and deprived a considerable part of the opportunities.
But under the election system, the situation is not so serious. The people who are elected are basically people in a circle, and there is basically no possibility of ordinary people being promoted.
For lower-class people, he can't be an official in the first place, and he can't afford to buy an official, so the official selling system has nothing to do with them.
The system of selling officials was only a redistribution of power among the nobles, and its impact was not so great. A **, whether he has bought an official or not, his nature is unchanged.
In fact, many famous families bought officials, the Yuan family and the Cao family, and they didn't see them complaining about anything.
Emperor Ling died, and if his son Emperor Shao was stable, then Sha Storm thought that the Eastern Han Dynasty could still continue. However, at the time, various accidental factors in the political struggle converged to lead to the loss of power of the emperor and the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty. If God had rolled the dice again, it might not have turned out that way.