Eastern Han Dynasty (Founding Emperor Liu Xiuand the Western Han Dynasty (Founding Emperor Liu BangCan it be considered a dynasty?
On this issue, in fact, everyone has discussed a lot, because it also involves the question of whether Wang Mang's new dynasty is a new dynasty.
To be honest, if I understand that if we look at the development of a normal unified feudal dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty are actually not one dynasty.
Because the problem in the late Western Han Dynasty is actually the problem of land annexation that will occur in the later period of every feudal dynasty, according to the normal development logic, after the land annexation reaches a certain stage, then the old Liu family will be finished.
It's just that because Wang Mang and the new dynasty he established are here, God assists him and carries a black pot in time. Wang Mang's reforms stirred up social contradictions and killed a large number of people, but in actual effect, they reduced a large part of social contradictions.
In a strict sense, Wang Mang's new dynasty is actually equivalent to a change of dynasty, but because of the failure of the reform, and the time of the new dynasty is too short, and the "Book of Han", one of the 24 histories, lists Wang Mang as a "rebel minister" to describe, so the new dynasty is often not recognized by the orthodox historiography.
In fact, even within the Eastern Han Dynasty, they themselves were quite entangled in whether to continue the Western Han Dynasty.
On the one hand, the Eastern Han Dynasty wanted to admit that it was a continuation of the Han Dynasty, and on the other hand, they also wanted to be a little cautious about setting up their own doors, after all, continuation and founding of the country were not an event of equal magnitude.
At this point, we can see it from the Taimiao system of the Eastern Han Dynasty. June 22 of the first three years has not been the day (8/5/25), Liu Xiu in 鄗 (Now Baixiang County, Hebei ProvinceNanqianqiu Pavilion Wucheng Mo (Now Hebei fifteen miles shopHe was enthroned as the emperor, and the country name was still "Han", and he was known as Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, and he was changed to Yuan Jianwu.
In August at the Huai Palace (In present-day Piyang County, HenanHold ceremonies to worship Emperor Liu Bang of Han Taizu Gao, Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty Liu Heng, and Emperor Liu Che of Han Shizongwu, and publicly declare that what he inherited is the temple of the Han Dynasty.
In October of this year, Liu Xiu set the capital in Luoyang, and according to the tradition of the previous dynasties, he built a Taimiao in Luoyang, which was called the Gao Temple at that time, and put all the tablets of the gods and lords of the 11 emperors in the Western Han Dynasty.
According to our previous historical habits, whether a dynasty has changed its dynasty or not is mainly to see whether they have changed their ancestors, which is one of the important proofs.
Since Liu Xiu has brought all the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty, and starting from Liu Xiu, every generation of emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty (Except for those little emperors who hurriedly ascended the throne at kindergarten ageAll of them have to go to Chang'an City and worship the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty in the Taimiao in Chang'an.
If according to this situation, there seems to be no problem that the Eastern Han Dynasty is a continuation of the Western Han Dynasty, not to mention that the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty are both the names of our descendants, and at that time everyone was called Han.
But it didn't take long for Liu Xiu himself to make a fuss, and this moth was almost exactly the same as the careful thinking of the later Emperor Jiajing of Ming Shizong, that is, the question of "who is my father" (The controversy over the Jiajing Great Rites of the Ming Dynasty
Liu Xiu's father is Liu Qin, the commander of Nandun County, although the ancestors and the emperor of the Western Han Dynasty can be regarded as a family, but since the generation of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the family has lived separately, and his generation has long been out of the five suits.
Therefore, when Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty Liu Xiu was sacrificing to the Son of Heaven of the Western Han Dynasty, he also built a four-parent temple in Luoyang and put his biological father, grandfather, and great-grandfather into it.
It doesn't seem like a problem to us today. But at that time, the temple was blown up, and the ministers all jumped out to oppose it, saying that your four-parent temple was unreasonable.
Said that since you recognized the emperor of the Western Han Dynasty as your ancestor, then your father can't be your father, since you want to inherit the influence of the Western Han Dynasty, then you have to recognize a father again, from now on, your father can only be the Han Yuan Emperor Liu Zheng who is a generation older than you.
As for your father and mother, Luoyang couldn't accommodate it, so Emperor Guangwu finally agreed and moved the Four Relatives Temple back to his hometown.
Therefore, in the end, the Eastern Han Dynasty implemented the three-temple system, with a high temple in Luoyang, a high temple in Chang'an, and a four-parent temple in Liu Xiu's hometown.
From here, in fact, all the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty thought that the Eastern Han Dynasty was equivalent to a new dynasty, but they still relied on the residual power of the Western Han Dynasty, so in legal terms, it was still a continuation of the Han Dynasty.