The Rebellion of the Eight Kings, 16 years of bloody rain, human suffering, social turmoil, and the people of the Western Jin Dynasty lived in dire straits. The ethnic minorities in the north took the opportunity to go south and did all kinds of evil, killing the Han people.
From 307 to 311, in order to escape the war, the northern scholars and common people moved south, and the population of the Central Plains in the Yangtze River valley exceeded one million, a large part of which were scholars and nobles.
With dreams and hopes, they start a new life.
In 317, Sima Rui, with the support of the Langya Wang, ascended the throne as Emperor Yuan of Jin in Jiankang and established the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the early days of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Langya Wang clan became an important pillar of the Sima clan's regime, making this period known as "the king and the horse share the world".
The origin of the Langya Wang clan can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, and for four hundred years, they have been living in Langya, Shandong, and are known as the "Langya Wang" after the county. Wang Ji was the founder of the Langya Wang clan, who served as a doctor during the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, and was known in the court for his incorruptibility and courage to speak out.
The Wang family was already prominent in the Han Dynasty, especially in the era of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, Wang Ji's son Wang Jun served as the imperial historian, and in the late Western Han Dynasty, Wang Ji's grandson Wang Chong was even more official.
Although the Wang family has been a very popular minister, they have always adhered to the belief of loyalty and patriotism, and abide by the duty of courtiers, their virtuous name has been widely spread, and some people have even been poisoned because they do not want to rely on Wang Mang.
With the collapse of Wang Mang's new dynasty, after Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Chong's son Wang Zun was rewarded as a loyal and righteous man and appointed as a doctor in Taizhong. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Wang family has continued the glory of its predecessors, serving as officials in the court for generations, and based on loyalty and filial piety.
For example, in the Wei and Jin dynasties, Wang Xiang held the positions of Sikong, Taiwei, Taibao, etc., and his filial piety reached one of the 24 filial pieties in traditional culture.
His younger brother Wang Lan is the protagonist of "Wang Lan Zhenglu", one of the "Twenty-four Emperors". With the establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty, the status and prestige of the Langya Wang clan have reached a new height, they have gone through a glorious course of four hundred years, and those so-called "rich no more than three generations" and other spells have been broken in the Wang family for many generations.
However, the outbreak of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and the Scourge of Yongjia made the century-old family face an existential challenge for the first time.
The times create heroes, and the strongest "heir" in the family, Wang Dao, has emerged in history, promoting the Wang family to become strong and prosperous, opening a new era. The era of "kings and horses, sharing the world" has officially arrived.
Wang Dao, who has been in charge of the government for 20 years in his life, was respected by the emperor as the chief assistant. In 276 AD, Wang Dao was born into a prominent family, his grandfather Wang Lan was one of the twenty-four Guanglu doctors, and his father Wang was a magistrate to the town army Sima.
When he was a teenager, Wang Dao showed a vision and mind that surpassed his peers, and when he grew up, he did not serve in the imperial court, but was active in his hometown, and met Sima Rui, the king of Langya at that time, who was later the founding monarch of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
When he was young, Wang Dao had an accurate prediction of the situation at that time, that is, the Western Jin Dynasty would definitely be in chaos. In order to realize his ambitions and protect the Wang family, Wang Dao decided to rely on the Sima royal family, and he placed his bet on Sima Rui and assisted him wholeheartedly.
Sima Rui trusts and respects Director Wang very much, and the two are like brothers. In 305, Sima Rui was appointed as General Anton, and Director Wang was invited to serve as General Sima of Anton, and the 29-year-old Director Wang officially stepped into his career and unveiled his brilliant life.
In 307, Sima Rui followed Wang Dao's advice and moved to Jianye (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) to station, and Wang Dao and his family also moved south, and the Langya Wang clan became a political symbol from a regional symbol.
After that, in order to create a regime dominated by the northern scholars, Wang Dao began his political layout. In the first step, he contacted Gu Rong and He Xun, the leaders of the southern scholars of the former Eastern Wu, and invited them to join the Shi, which made the scholars of Wu land look down.
In the second step, he vigorously attracted the northern scholars to the south and recruited talents, so as to strengthen the influence of the northern scholar group in the south, so as to achieve the goal of balancing the power of the northern and southern scholars.
In the third step, he combined the characteristics of Jiangzuo with a large population and abundant products, assisted Sima Rui, made great efforts to make the country prosperous, encouraged agricultural production, and implemented a policy of purity and inaction, so that the Jiangzuo area presented a peaceful and prosperous scene after several years of governance.
Director Wang and Sima Rui have a deeper and deeper relationship and are respected"Middle Father"and became the founder of ZTE and a meritorious hero. After Sima Rui ascended the throne as emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Dao was appointed to a number of important positions, and when he was congratulated by hundreds of officials, Sima Rui insisted on asking Wang Dao to sit on the royal bed to receive congratulations, but Wang Dao humbly resigned again and again.
In 319, Wang Dao was appointed crown prince and concubine, and under his promotion, the first position of historian in Chinese history was established. However, Wang's prominence aroused Sima Rui's vigilance, and coupled with his arrogance and dissatisfaction with Wang Dao's brother Wang Dun, Sima Rui decided to weaken Wang's power.
He promoted Liu Kui and Diao Xie, ministers who were opposed to the clan of the gate lords, and alienated Wang Dao. Then, he appointed Dai Yuan, an old scholar of Eastern Wu, as the general of the expedition to the west, and Liu Kui as the general of Zhenbei, stationed in Hefei and Huaiyin respectively, nominally to the Northern Expedition to Shile, but in fact to deal with Wang Dun.
However, Director Wang did not show any emotion, and he coped with all this calmly. As a mature politician, Director Wang has already made his own plans.
He acquiesced in Wang Dun's mobilization of troops from Wuchang to oppose Liu Kui and Diao Xie and vindicate his grievances. In 322, Wang Dun invaded Jiankang and killed Dai Yuan and Diao Xie, and Liu Kui fled to Shile, successfully defeating the political forces opposing the Wang clan.
On the other hand, Wang Dao led more than 20 brothers and nephews in the clan to go to the pavilion at dawn every day to wait for the punishment of the crime. Although anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is just a show, Sima Rui can only take this step down and reconcile with Director Wang.
In 323, Sima Rui died in grief and was succeeded by Sima Shao, Emperor Ming of the Jin Dynasty, and Wang Dao continued to assist the government and was reappointed as Situ.
Wang Dao, a veteran of the Three Dynasties, is a very popular minister. Although he leaned towards the government and the opposition, he was extremely principled, adhered to the position of the imperial family, resolutely countered the usurpation of power by his brother Wang Dun, and successfully swept away Wang Dun's rebellion.
In 325, Emperor Sima Yan of Jin Dynasty succeeded to the throne, and every time he saw Wang Dao when he was young, he had to bow down, and even wrote on the edict to Wang Dao that he would "say in fear", and the edict drafted by Zhongshu Province was called "Jingwen".
Due to Director Wang's age, on the first day of the first month of every year, Sima Yan has to get up in person to greet him, and greet Director Wang's wife Cao Shu with his family. In 338, Wang Dao was promoted to Taifu, and worshiped the prime minister, according to the Han Dynasty system, directly removed the establishment of Situ, and the power was returned to the prime minister, and the prime minister's position from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the Eastern Jin Dynasty has been "shelved in the cabinet" for four hundred years, and finally returned to the throne again in the period of Wang Dao.
In 339, the sixty-three-year-old Wang Dao died of illness, and Sima Yan mourned for three days, and the funeral etiquette was compared with the example of Sima Huoguang in the Han Dynasty. Wang Dun, although he is a brother to Wang Dao, he is a domineering minister who dares to pull the emperor off the horse.
When Wang Dun was young, he married Princess Xiangcheng, the daughter of Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, and was involved in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings after serving as the crown prince's housekeeper.
When Emperor Sima Zhen of Jin Hui was reinstated, Wang Dun was promoted to the rank of Loose Cavalry Attendant, General of the Left Guard, Da Honglu and Shizhong. At this time, the ethnic minorities in the north were rising and trying to take over the Central Plains.
Wang Dun judged the situation and crossed south with his brother Wang Dao to help Sima Rui gain a firm foothold in Jiangdong and won the support of the Jiangdong Shi clan. From 311 to 315, he pacified Shi Huayi, the assassin of Jiangzhou, suppressed the rebellion of Bashu Du Tao and other displaced people, and stabilized Sima Rui's partial security regime.
In 318, Wang Dun was promoted to the rank of general, and he served as the head of Zhonghe and Jiangzhou, and the entire middle reaches of the Yangtze River were under his control. However, Wang's power gradually aroused Sima Rui's suspicions.
In 322, Wang Dun raised an army at Wuchang, claiming to be fighting against the traitor Liu Kui, and then attacked Jiankang in the east. Sima Rui couldn't bear it and said that he would personally lead the army to fight him, but he obviously underestimated the power of the Wang clan.
The establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was inseparable from the support of the gate lord clan, and the Wang clan, as the leader of the clan group, controlled most of the power in the court, and Sima Rui was destined to face opposition from the clan when he used Liu Kui, who had no clan background.
Without the support of the scholars, Sima Rui could only fight alone, but in the end he failed. Wang Dun replaced Wang Dao's position and grasped the power of the court, and Sima Rui was completely emptied.
But Wang Dun's power did not stop there, and he even wanted to replace the Sima clan, but because his behavior was too excessive, even Wen Qiao and other ministers of the scholar clan strongly opposed it, and finally failed to succeed.
But Wang Dun did not give up, and in 323 he led an army to rebel and take control of the Gyeonggi region, directly threatening Sima Rui's position. Director Wang couldn't stand it anymore, so he directly led the army to crusade against Wang Dun, and made a complete political cut with Wang Dun.
When Wang Dun was seriously ill, in order to boost morale and eliminate Wang Dun's deterrence in the hearts of the soldiers of the Jin army, Wang Dao joined forces with Sima Shao and released the news that Wang Dun had died.
This news convinced the Jin army and morale, and finally defeated Wang Dun's rebels. However, after Wang Dun himself learned of this "death", he was very angry and wanted to personally supervise the battle, but due to his poor physical condition, he could not make the trip.
In the end, Wang Dun died of serious illness and resentment at the age of 59. When the news of Wang Dun's death came, his rebel army collapsed. Compared with Director Wang's grand funeral, Wang Dun's fate was much more miserable.
After his death, Sima Shao ordered his body to be taken out, his clothes burned, his knees placed in a kneeling position, beheaded and whipped his body, and his head hung in the south of the city for public display. The Langya Wang clan arose in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, developed in the Wei and Jin dynasties, and reached its peak in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Sima Rui's journey from the east to his ascension to the throne mainly relied on the strong support of Wang Dao and Wang Dun brothers of the Wang family.
During this period, Wang Dao and Wang Dun were in charge of the internal and external affairs, and Wang Dao was in charge of the government, leading the northern and southern scholars, and taking power and decision-making. Wang Dun mastered the military, fought everywhere, sat in Jingzhou, and controlled Jiankang.
The children of the Wang family occupy important positions in the imperial court, and the Langya Wang family is equal to the power of the Sima royal family, and is praised by the people as "the king and the horse, the world".
In the context of the death of Wang Dao and the rise of the Xie clan of Chenjun, the Wang clan gradually declined and no longer held power. However, the high status and prestige of the Wang family in the imperial court cannot be surpassed by other families, and only the Chenjun Xie family can be compared with it, and they are jointly praised by later generations"Wang Xie"。
In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, although the reputation of the Langya Wang clan was high, its strength was relatively weak. As a result, the descendants of the Wang family began to turn from the political realm to the literary world, and had a profound impact on ethics, national classics, and literature and art.
For example, Wang Jian in the Qi Liang period was a famous Confucian master, Wang Rong and Wang Ji were all well-known poets at that time, as well as Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher of the Eastern Jin Dynasty that we are familiar with.
In the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the rise of the imperial examination system and the Anshi Rebellion, the era of the gate lord clan came to an end, and the glory of the Langya Wang clan has become history.
The Wang family had four prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty, including Wang Fangqing, Wang Rui, Wang Yu, and Wang Jun, but compared with the Langya Wang family of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it is really insignificant.
After 700 years of ups and downs, the Langya Wang family finally shined like a star in the sky of history.