Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty Liu Xiu Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty was the founding king of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there are not many evaluations of him in the history books. But among the founding monarchs of previous dynasties, Liu Xiu can be said to be a perfect monarch, he is modest and cautious, benevolent, and has a bookish atmosphere.
Some people say that Liu Xiu was the lord of Zhongxing in the Han Dynasty and was not the founding emperor. But in my opinion, Liu Xiu's merits are no less than that of his ancestor Liu Bang. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the descendants of the Liu family lost the country and were usurped by Wang Mang, which led to chaos in the world and division of the Quartet. It was Liu Xiu who rose from the troubled times, pacified the Quartet, and re-established the country surnamed Liu. Without Liu Xiu, the Han Dynasty would have long since ended, and the title of the founding monarch was more suitable for him than that Liu Xiu was the lord of Zhongxing.
But did Liu Xiu aspire to the world from the beginning? Not really. Liu Xiu, driven by fate, walked out of a different path from what he imagined. Liu Xiu was originally a descendant of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, but with the passage of time, Liu Xiu's father was just a small county magistrate, and what was even more tragic was that his father died very early, Liu Xiu became an orphan when he was nine years old, and their family completely became ordinary people. The young Liu Xiu once went to Chang'an to study for a few years, and his dream at that time was to be an official to be a ruling Jinwu, and to marry a wife to marry Yin Lihua. He studied hard for his ideals, but Wang Mang's usurpation of power disrupted everything.
Wang Mang ended the rule of the Western Han Dynasty, and during his reign, the world was in turmoil, and in order to resist Wang Mang's regime, many rebel armies appeared one after another. Liu Xiu's brother Liu Xiu is bold, likes to make friends with heroes, after the chaos in the world, Liu Xiu decided to take advantage of the chaos to raise troops, Liu Xiu's character is cautious, after he thought about it, he thought that it was indeed a good time to raise troops, so he and his brother got up together. He and his brother played an important role in the war against Wang Mang. At this time, Liu Xiu only wanted to assist his brother Liu Xiu, and he had no other ideas, but soon another incident happened that disrupted his plan.
At that time, the Green Forest Army elected another Western Han clan, Liu Xuan, as the emperor, and was called the first emperor. Liu Xuan's existence made Emperor Genshi feel threatened, so Emperor Genshi secretly ** him. Liu Xiu, who had just won a battle abroad, was very sad when he learned of his brother's death, but he didn't dare to show it. In order to save himself and avenge his brother, Liu Xiuqiang endured his emotions and asked the first emperor for guilt. Liu Xiu's humble attitude satisfied the vanity of Emperor Gengshi, so Emperor Gengshi did not attack Liu Xiu, but gave him the opportunity to develop outside. In order to survive, Liu Xiu continued to grow his power and embarked on his own path to the emperor step by step. Liu Xuan's death changed his life once again.
According to Liu Xiu's original idea, he should be a small official, and when he is old, he will retire to the countryside, be a farmer, and be at ease all his life. But under the coercion of fate, he went against his own ideas and became the king of a country. Liu Xiu has a generous temperament, even if he became the emperor, he did not change much, in the treatment of the founding heroes, and the attitude of the ancestor Liu Bang is completely different, he tried his best to keep the subordinates who accompanied him to fight the country, and treated people with sincerity, so after the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were no political changes. Judging from Liu Xiu's years as emperor, there is really nothing to blame, he is a real Ming Jun.
Taking people as a reference, you can know the gains and losses; Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall.