Liu Yuan said that the reason for Da Shan Yu was the struggle against the Jin Dynasty
In the first year of Yongxing in the Western Jin Dynasty (304), Liu Yuan raised troops against the Jin Dynasty in Zuoguocheng, which opened the prelude to the anti-Jin struggle. The frequent appearance of "Tu Ge" and the Southern Xiongnu in the historical books of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties has a long history of miscellaneous, so the statement that "Liu Yuan was a Xiongnu who slaughtered all kinds of people" is not groundless.
However, from the perspective of blood, Tu Ge and the Southern Xiongnu do have a clear distinction, so Liu Yuan cannot be both a descendant of Nandan Yu and Tu Zhuan, and there are still many unclear places.
At the end of Wei and the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, the general situation of the five Xiongnu tribes living around Jinyang was as follows: each department was dominated by Tu each Liu clan, and the real Nandan Yu descendant Liu Meng was in Deng Ai's book, and Jiaxian lived in Yanmen, and then there was the "Xiongnu Marshal Liu Meng rebelled out of the Sai" incident in the seventh year of Taishi (271).
The reason why Liu Yuan was supported was because of his family status. His father was the leader of the Tuge of the Prefecture, and the Tuge of the Prefecture was a noble family among the five Xiongnu.
As a result, Liu Yuan became "a nobleman among nobles, a prince among princes", and was qualified for world selection. After Liu Bao obtained the leadership of the Xiongnu tribe, the Central Plains Dynasty began to attach importance to the power of merging states and slaughtering each other.
Deng Ai suggested that the rebellion of the Liu Bao tribe could be exploited and divided into two states in order to weaken their power. Liu Yuan was appointed as the commander of the left department by the Jin court in the fifth year of Xianning (279).
His appointment experience is also worth noting. As a proton, his identity is closely related to the system of succession to the throne. According to the succession system of the minority regime, the son or brother is the first son.
To some extent, Liu Yuan's heir status seems to be certain. However, this is not the case. Liu Yuan held a position in Luoyang mainly because he was Liu Bao's son, which gave him the value of being a proton.
However, this does not mean that he already has the right to inherit. Strictly speaking, he is only qualified to inherit. In the context of the world elective system, there is an essential difference between the two.
The appointment of Liu Yuan as the commander of the left department by the Central Plains Dynasty was based on the Han people's long-standing understanding of the hereditary system. Therefore, they naturally appointed Liu Yuan, who was in Luoyang, as a hostage.
This is the same logic as the Eastern Han Dynasty's proton Hulan Ruo's corpse is only in Doulou Chu, and it does not mean that the tradition of the world election system has been destroyed.
If the Jin court did not interfere and took the initiative to appoint, then it is still unknown whether Liu Yuan's brother will be proclaimed as Da Danyu. Therefore, when using proton identity to prove the identity of its heirs, it must be done in the context of the same inheritance system, otherwise it is impossible to conclude that they are mutually sufficient and necessary conditions.
In fact, the process of Liu Yuan's establishment as a great single rather than a spontaneous successor to the throne is a further proof of the continuation of the tradition of hereditary election.
According to the "Chronicles of Liu Yuanhai", Emperor Hui's out-of-control behavior triggered the rise of thieves one after another. In this context, Liu Xuan and others said that although they had a false name for Shan Yu, they did not actually occupy any land.
Their original aim was to restore the current Xiongnu Wubu to the strong state of the Huhan Evil Shan period, rather than to establish a feudal state. Therefore, they followed the legal system of the Southern Xiongnu, and should also follow the traditions and systems of the Southern Xiongnu.
The logic of their thinking and behavior still matches the "nobles' meeting" of the tribal period.
Under the influence of the world election system, the Xulian clan of the Southern Xiongnu is no longer the family that once held real power. Therefore, at this meeting of nobles composed of Liu Xuan's representative Tu Ge Liu and Liu Yuan's father-in-law Hu Yanyi, they unanimously elected Liu Yuan, who was qualified for the new world election, as Da Danyu.
This election process was not interfered with by external factors such as the Central Plains Dynasty, and it coincided with the previous situation of Hugh Li Shan.
The Central Plains Dynasty tried to interfere with the succession of the Southern Xiongnu by means of pledge, which led to frequent chaos. When nothing could be done, the Xiongnu tribes returned to the world election system. The reason for Liu Yuan's ascension to the throne is his descendant lineage of the Tu family, and the other two reasons are his ability and leadership temperament, Liu Yuan has strong leadership, broad knowledge, and certain political and cultural literacy.
Therefore, his election is in line with the tradition of ethnic minorities to elect the strong.
Liu Bao and Liu Yuan's father and son further consolidated their power in the five Xiongnu tribes through their marriage with the Huyan clan, and also reached political cooperation with some former Southern Xiongnu nobles.
These Southern Xiongnu nobles played a key role in the support of Liu Yuan. In addition, Liu Yuan also had a certain influence among the Han scholar class in Bingzhou, when due to the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the world fell into chaos, and many Han scholars were disappointed in the Jin court and were willing to follow Liu Yuan.
Although according to Liu Xuan and others when Emperor Yongxing of Jin Hui instigated the five armies in the first year, Liu Yuan was able to control a population of only more than 20,000 people, but the "Biography of Beidi" recorded that at the end of the Wei Dynasty, the central governor could manage more than 6,000 Luo, living in Daling County.
This totals 30,000, and is generally estimated to be more than 200,000.
These 200,000 people came from the old Southern Xiongnu tribe in Fuluo, Tuge in Bingzhou, and other Xiongnu castes, and the composition of the personnel was very complex. Although the Huyan clan and the Liu clan had established a cooperative relationship, it was impossible to determine whether the other nobles and chieftains had submitted to Liu Yuan's leadership.
In addition, the Xiongnu tribes unified by Liu Bao were later split, and although the other tribes were controlled by the Tu Ge Liu clan except for Liu Yuan's left, it is uncertain whether they obeyed Liu Yuan's orders.
Therefore, in order to gather as many people as possible, Liu Yuan had to forge a lineage and pretend to be the orthodoxy of the Nan Danyu family, so as to establish his identity as the legitimate heir of the Xiongnu Danyu.
During this period, from the end of the Han Dynasty to the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, in the decades when Liu Yuan raised his army, the noble families of the Southern Xiongnu tribes who moved inward changed from the Xulian clan to the Tu Ge Liu clan, but the tradition of the hereditary election system was still preserved.
When the Central Plains Dynasty was strong and unified, it could directly intervene with the successor of the Xiongnu tribal leader; When the Central Plains was in turmoil and there was no time to take care of the Xiongnu tribes, their traditional inheritance methods were reused, which also provided a historical background for Liu Yuan to be established as Dadanyu.
However, Liu Yuan's becoming the Great Shan Yu and the establishment of the Han State cannot be equated with this, at this time he was still only the leader of the tribal alliance, and apart from the title, there was no essential difference from his father Liu Bao.
Liu Yuan fled back to the Xiongnu Wubu under the pretext of Sima Ying, in fact, in order to get rid of the control of the Jin people, use the prestige accumulated by the family since Cao Wei to develop his own power, and wait for the time to be ripe, so that the Xiongnu Wubu could restore the state of the early stage of the Southern Xiongnu, so as to independently dominate in the troubled times.
However, Liu Yuan's original intention was not to overthrow the Western Jin Dynasty as he said, but to aid Sima Ying, who was holding the Son of Heaven hostage. This is diametrically opposed to his later strategic attitude of rebelling against the Western Jin Dynasty and establishing an independent state.
As Liu Yuan said: "Ying doesn't need my words, she runs against herself, and she is a real slave." However, I have nothing to say, and I must save it."
Liu Yuan's attitude changed, and the establishment of the Han state brought the Southern Xiongnu and Bingzhou Tu from tribal state to state form, and at the same time, this change also brought about the establishment of monarchical power.
In order to adapt to this change, the old power structure had to be changed, and this change was reflected in the supporting acts that established the imperial power, such as the establishment of the prince and the division of feuds.