Liu Yuan, originally a Xiongnu Shan Yu, later returned to the Jin Dynasty and was named King of Zhao.
Liu Yuan was born in the north of Xinzhou, Shanxi, and since he was a child, he loved to read scriptures and historical books, especially "Zuo Chuan Spring and Autumn" and "Sun Tzu's Art of War". He was the son of Liu Bao, the Zuoxian king of the Southern Xiongnu, and in 303 AD, he united the Han and Xiongnu tribes to lead a large-scale anti-Jin struggle.
Liu Yuan was a diligent and studious political leader, and his efforts were highly recognized by Cao Wei, Sikong, Wang Chang and others. His teacher, Cui You, Cao Wei's Shangdang, also personally taught him to study history books and classics.
All this shows that Liu Yuan has outstanding talent and perseverance.
In 279 AD, Liu Bao, the left marshal of the Xiongnu, died, and Liu Yuan was rewarded for this and began to be an official in the Western Jin Dynasty. During his tenure, he performed well and managed well, while also reading through the art of war texts and having in-depth exchanges with Cao Wei and the Western Jin court.
As such, he was well aware of the power structures of Cao Wei and Sima.
During the Cao Wei period, the wealthy families of the Shi clan tended to prioritize their own interests when the imperial court power faced a crisis, so when Sima Zhao staged a coup d'état in Gaopingling, the members of the clan did not stand up to resist, and even the scholars attached themselves to and supported the Sima clan.
In the end, Sima succeeded in seizing power with little resistance.
In the early days of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan was well aware of the lessons of the fall of the Cao Wei regime, so he tended to strengthen the power of the clan while giving them military power. In order to ensure a balance of political power, the imperial court implemented a series of policies to ensure the stability and durability of its rule.
Although Emperor Wu of Jin conferred the title of king to his clansmen, some clans privately accumulated troops, which laid a hidden danger for the later wars.
Liu Yuan's ancestor, Mao Dunshan Yu, was a proton, but after he bravely returned to the tribe, he ** his father, conquered other tribes, and finally succeeded in unifying the grassland.
This story allows us to see the lessons of the polarization between the clan and the nobles, as well as the experience of the Xiongnu ancestors in merging regimes. The successful experience of Liu Yuan's ancestors undoubtedly had a profound impact on his later development.
The Southern Xiongnu were attached to the Han Dynasty for many years and became part of the Central Plains, and Liu Yuan was a bystander and learner of this evolutionary process. Although Liu Yuan was born in the Central Plains, he believed that the Southern Xiongnu no longer had substantial territory, and they had little to gain from sharing benefits with the Han family.
Therefore, he integrates his thinking into long-term planning.
During his tenure as the northern governor of the Western Jin Dynasty, Liu Yuan won widespread praise for his iron-faced selflessness and strict law enforcement, attracting the heroes of the five Xiongnu tribes and the famous Confucian scholars of the Central Plains to come to take refuge.
He was then promoted to Auxiliary General and Champion General. Later, the Rebellion of the Eight Kings broke out, and Liu Yuan's clansmen in his hometown Zuoguo City, because Mao Dun was married to Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, married the princess of the Han family, so the descendants of Mao Dun were surnamed Liu.
In 304 AD, the first year of Yuanxi, Liu Yuan called the king of Han and appointed his wife Huyan as the queen. He showed his power structure in terms of official appointments:
A year after Liu Yuan started his army, he followed the advice of Shizhong ** and decided to seize the opportunity to have a decisive battle with the Western Jin army. He planned to kill Liu Kun, the general of the Western Jin Dynasty who came to conquer, pacify Hedong, call the emperor Li, and attack southward, occupy Chang'an, as the capital of the country, and then capture Luoyang, following the example of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, to establish hegemony.
This suggestion was completely in line with Liu Yuan's wishes, so he decided to go all out and conquer the battle all the way, and the momentum was unstoppable. Soon, Xianbei, Di Shan Zheng, Shi Le and others also surrendered to Liu Yuan one after another and were awarded official titles.
In 308 AD, Liu Yuan was proclaimed emperor, and within a year he made full use of the important contribution of the Di people in his proclamation to the emperor, and in order to win them over, he married his beloved daughter to Shan Zheng's son early.
In addition, he also crowned several of his sons, among which the eldest son Liu He was named the king of Liang, the eldest son Liu Cong was named the king of Qi, and Liu Yu was named the king of Hejian.
In the process of establishing the country, the reserve has become an inevitable demand. In order to avoid a repeat of the tragedy of the collapse of the previous dynasty, although the clan relatives have been divided, it is also necessary to prevent the various forces from posing a threat to the prince and the imperial power.
Liu Yuan adopted an ingenious strategy, and he named his fourth son, Liu Cong, as Shan Yu of Taida Shan Yu, and led Liuyi. The power held by Shan Yutai was second only to that of the emperor, and it was able to effectively restrain the power of other minority groups.
At the same time, his youngest son, Liu Yi, was in charge of managing the Han Chinese. In this way, the three formed a solid iron triangle, which checked and balanced each other, and successfully maintained and consolidated the rule of imperial power.
Liu Cong, like his father Liu Yuan, has been diligent and studious since he was a child, and has a talent for both civil and military affairs. During the period when he lived with his father in Luoyang, he made friends with celebrities and aspirants and accumulated rich network resources.
During his tenure as a military attache in the Western Jin Dynasty, he actively participated in front-line warfare and accumulated rich combat experience.
After the establishment of the Han State, Liu Cong was appointed as Da Shan Yu and promoted to Da Sima, leading a powerful army of 100,000 elite soldiers, enjoying great prestige and strength.
And Liu He is the eldest son of the first Empress Huyan, Liu Cong and Liu Yi are the sons of Empress Shan Yu, and behind them are the powerful Di forces.
When the Huns were still living in the steppes, they practiced a council composed of distinguished people to elect Shan Yu. After being proclaimed emperor, in order to appease the nobles of the Liu family, Liu Yuan named Liu Huanhuan as the king and served as the great situ, the Huyan family was named the county prince and served as the imperial historian, and Liu He was appointed as the great Sima.
The three metric systems of the Han State From the point of view of appointment, the Liu nobles were still at the core of power. Therefore, the establishment of the crown prince means that it is carried out in the presence of these nobles, thus maintaining the legitimacy of the crown prince.
The Han State under Liu Yuan implemented a centralized system, skillfully stripping the power of the nobles to elect heirs and bringing them into control. The purpose of this is to strengthen the centralization of power, improve the efficiency of governance, and ensure the stability and unity of the country.
Even though Liu Yuan's reform of the power structure was continued in the Han State, from a historical point of view, the reform of the power structure of the Han State played a pioneering role in the establishment of state power by ethnic minorities and has high historical reference value.