In 141 BC, with the death of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, officially ascended the throne, and history entered the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
However, what many people don't know is that when Emperor Wu of Han first ascended the throne, he was actually only sixteen years old.
Moreover, at the beginning of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the power in his hands was actually very limited. It can even be said that he is a puppet emperor at all.
At that time, the real people of the Han Dynasty were actually the Empress Dowager Dou and the Queen Mother in the harem, that is, the grandmother and mother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
As for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, although he was nominally the emperor, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty handled daily government affairs, he needed to 'play the East Palace'. In other words, you have to ask your grandmother and mother for instructions on everything, and you have no autonomy at all.
What's going on here?
In fact, the predicament of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty at the beginning of his ascension to the throne was not really his grandmother's intention to control the government. To be precise, in this story, there are actually no villains, let alone simple bad guys.
The real crux of the problem is actually the inconsistency of everyone's thinking.
This story, in fact, has to start with the grandmother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Empress Dowager Dou, the grandmother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, is also a legendary figure. In the early years, Empress Dowager Dou was born at the bottom, and later by mistake, she entered the palace and became a palace maid, which was recognized by the Empress Lu.
Later, under the arrangement of Empress Lu, she married Liu Heng, who was still acting king at the time, that is, the later Emperor Wen of Han. Within a few years after that, Empress Lu died, and then Liu Heng was elected emperor.
After Liu Heng ascended the throne, because he had no son-in-law, he set up his eldest son Liu Qi as the crown prince.
And Empress Dowager Dou, as Liu Qi's biological mother, naturally became the queen smoothly.
For more than 20 years after that, throughout the era of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Dou was the empress and her position was extremely stable. After Emperor Wen of Han died and Emperor Jing of Han ascended the throne, Empress Dowager Dou went one step further and directly became the Empress Dowager.
In this way, when Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty died again, the Empress Dowager Dou at this time had become a living fossil of the high-level of the Han Dynasty. Many old ministers in the court are relatives and friends of the Empress Dowager Dou.
In this state, Empress Dowager Dou's control over the imperial court can naturally be seen.
In addition, there is actually another important reason why Empress Dowager Dou can take power. That is the group in power before her, which has basically been wiped out before.
Before Empress Dowager Dou, there were actually two queens in the Han Dynasty. One was Liu Bang's empress Lü Pheasant, and the other was Zhang Yan, the empress of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty.
And among them, Empress Zhang Yan is the granddaughter of Empress Lu.
Therefore, in the action of overthrowing Lu that year, the entire Lu family was cleaned up by the hero group. And Zhang Yan, as the granddaughter of Empress Lu, the family behind her was liquidated almost at the same time.
As a result, there is no one of the relatives who are ranked before the Empress Dowager Dou.
As for the family after the Dou family, the family of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's biological mother, Wang Huan, has just begun to rise at this time, and there is no way to compete with the Dou family for the time being.
In addition to his relatives, after Emperor Wen of Han ascended the throne, he tried his best to suppress the meritorious group and the princes and kings of the old Liu family.
Therefore, after the death of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the group of founding heroes of the Western Han Dynasty has become a climate. And after the end of the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, the princes and kings of the old Liu family were also not good.
As for the ministers of the court, as well as those of the big families. I'm sorry, because the probation system had not yet appeared at that time, and even if these people could reach the top, the number of them was relatively small.
With the strength of these people, they can't compete with the Dou family either.
Therefore, at the beginning of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's accession to the throne, the Dou family, as a family of relatives, would appear to be a dominant family. And Empress Dowager Dou, as the person in charge of the Dou family, naturally has the highest power.
Of course, the most important thing is that Emperor Wu of Han was too young when he ascended the throne. When Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne, he was only sixteen years old. If you put it today, you just started high school.
Therefore, before Emperor Jing of Han died, he actually made it clear that after his death, he must first have the queen mother to help assist the government. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty really came of age, he gradually delegated power to him.
This kind of thing, in fact, is not new. For example, Qin Shi Huang back then, at the beginning of his accession to the throne, his mother Zhao Ji was also in charge of power. So at that time, there was basically no objection to the fact that the two queen mothers were in power.
It was in this state that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne.
For the grandson of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Dou is actually very supportive. At that time, the two sons of the Empress Dowager Dou had already died, so the Empress Dowager Dou could only support her grandson.
Second, among these sons of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che is actually the best performer, and he is the most suitable to be the emperor. Compared with him, the other sons of Emperor Jing of Han are somewhat deficient.
In this way, apart from supporting Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Dou actually had no other choice.
However, then, with the successful accession of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the throne, the relationship between the two ancestors and grandchildren began to become very delicate.
This is mainly because there is a big difference in the thinking of Empress Dowager Dou and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Empress Dowager Dou was born in the late Qin and early Han dynasties and experienced many wars. In the process of her growing up, the Han Dynasty completely unified the world, eliminated the king with a different surname, and the world was completely peaceful.
At the same time, at the beginning of the founding of the Han Dynasty, it also chose to govern the country with Huang Lao Thought and choose to rule by inaction. At that time, the Han Dynasty showed a trend of high liberalization. The law is relatively lenient.
And above the bottom line of the law, no matter what you do, as long as you don't break the law, basically no one will care about you.
It was in this state that the Western Han Dynasty ushered in the era of the Lvhou Dynasty and the famous Wenjing Zhizhi. In the past few decades, the Western Han Dynasty has been inactive for a long time, and the social economy has also begun to develop rapidly.
But at the same time, we must also admit that the so-called rule by inaction also has drawbacks.
According to the ruling ideas of the high-level leaders of the Western Han Dynasty at that time, as long as the common people did not break the law, they could basically do anything. As a result, in the later period of the reign of Wenjing, everyone's behavior began to refresh more and more.
In addition, because of the long-term ignorance of the grassroots, the local heroes of the Western Han Dynasty began to rise rapidly. The influence of many Haoqiang in the local area is even greater than **!
These things are huge social hazards, and they will explode sooner or later.
Therefore, during the reign of Wenjing, a small number of knowledgeable social elites began to think about how to solve this problem. Among these people, the most representative is the famous strategist Jia Yi and the teacher Chao Cuo of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty.
And the solution they gave was to change the Han Dynasty's governing thinking, from the original Huang Lao Thought to Confucianism, to give the freedom of the people in the world, and add some constraints.
This is also the prototype of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who later 'deposed a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone'.
There is actually a great deal of controversy about this solution in later generations. Although this plan does solve the problem of too free society, it has added a shackle since then, and it can no longer reproduce the situation of a hundred schools of thought.
In fact, not only in later generations, but also before the decision was really made to exclude Confucianism, there was actually a great deal of controversy among the high-level Han Dynasty and the entire Han Dynasty ideological circle.
And Empress Dowager Dou and Emperor Wu of Han happen to be at the two extremes of this controversy.
Because Empress Dowager Dou has experienced the relationship between war and chaos, she naturally thinks that Huang Lao's thinking is better. Although she also knows that advocating the rule of inaction will bring a lot of problems to society. But this practice will make the world more peaceful and the people live a better life.
In contrast, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who had just ascended the throne, was more inclined to support a change in Confucianism. Because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had just ascended the throne, he was in the prime of life, and he wanted to do something.
Moreover, since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was born, what he has seen is the peace of the Han Dynasty. In his eyes, doing more harm than good is actually doing more harm than good.
This kind of ideological difference is often not directly resolved through simple communication. Both sides are for the good of the country, but no one can guarantee that their choice will be the best choice.
As a result, contradictions began to arise between the two sides.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, he wanted to start doing things as soon as possible. However, he also knows that his grandmother is still relatively strong at present. If he did not have the support of his grandmother, then his reform would not have succeeded.
So next, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty chose a relatively compromise plan, that is, to let Dou Ying and Tian Wei, who were relatives, be promoted to the highest level of the Han Dynasty. Especially Dou Ying, who was directly promoted to prime minister.
In this way, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took the initiative to protect the interests of his grandmother and mother. But at the same time, the two relatives he promoted were staunch reformers, and both of them were more supportive of Confucianism.
In addition to this, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also promoted two Confucian scholars, Zhao Juan and Wang Zang. These two Confucian scholars are equivalent to the henchmen of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, speaking for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in the court.
In the process of promoting these people, Empress Dowager Dou did not stop them too much. But then, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty moved more and more, and soon began to gather more Confucian scholars to discuss the revision of the state etiquette system.
At this point, Empress Dowager Dou couldn't sit still.
Empress Dowager Dou was willing to support Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and she also hoped that her grandson would make a difference. But at the same time, in the view of the Empress Dowager Dou, carrying out system reform so quickly is not conducive to the stability of the country.
So next, Empress Dowager Dou began to obstruct the New Deal openly and secretly, using her power to listen to the government to limit the speed of reform of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
In this regard, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and those Confucian scholars who were eager to reform naturally could not bear it.
So then, more than a year after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty officially ascended the throne, these Confucian scholars finally began to attack the Empress Dowager Dou. Some Confucians, led by Zhao Juan and Wang Zang, publicly wrote a letter demanding that the two empress dowagers be withdrawn from their power to obey power. In the future, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not need to notify the harem, and he could make his own decisions directly.
For the writings of these Confucian scholars, Empress Dowager Dou was naturally furious. immediately said that these two people were deceiving the world and stealing their reputations, and rumors were confusing the emperor. Next, Empress Dowager Dou ordered the ministers below to collect evidence of the two people's corruption and perversion of the law, and constantly poured dirty water on these two people.
At the same time, Empress Dowager Dou put pressure on Emperor Wu of Han and asked Emperor Wu of Han to arrest the two.
In the face of huge pressure, Emperor Wu of Han finally did not resist it, and could only choose to temporarily put the two in prison. Then, after the two were imprisoned, they died in prison soon after.
After this turmoil, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty knew that as long as his grandmother was still alive, he was destined to be unable to carry out drastic reforms. So next, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty completely reined in his edge and began to do things in a low-key manner, while obeying Empress Dowager Dou's words.
Of course, in private, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was still secretly cultivating manpower and actively preparing for his future assumption of power.
And when Empress Dowager Dou saw that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was so knowledgeable, she naturally gradually calmed down her anger. In the final analysis, Empress Dowager Dou did not support Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, she supported and did not want Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to implement the new policy so quickly. And when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty no longer mentioned the matter of the New Deal, the Empress Dowager Dou naturally supported Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty again.
In this way, until a few years later, as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty cultivated more and more people, he gradually became full-fledged. And the legendary Empress Dowager Dou also died eventually. Just a year after the death of Empress Dowager Dou, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty officially adopted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion and officially 'deposed the Confucianism of the Hundred Schools'. A year after the implementation of Confucianism, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty launched an ambush in Mayi, officially starting the war with the Xiongnu.
This is the story of the beginning of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
In general, at the beginning of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, his position was not yet stable, so he was eager to reform, so he was finally suppressed by the Empress Dowager Dou. But at the same time, Empress Dowager Dou is not a villain, she just has different political views from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
In addition, Empress Dowager Dou's suppression is not necessarily a bad thing. Judging from the later historical development, the suppression of the Empress Dowager Dou did make Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty more mature and more skillful.
Without the support and suppression of Empress Dowager Dou, I am afraid it is really difficult to say whether Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty could later become the first emperor of the ages.
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