From the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties to the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the feudal era lasted for more than 2,000 years, and the south of the Great Wall of China was ruled by many dynasties, among which the Han Dynasty was significantly different from other dynasties.
The national fortunes of the Han Dynasty lasted for 400 years, and during this period, there were two founding masters, they were Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Xiu, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, and the descendants honored Liu Xiu as Emperor Guangwu.
Liu Xiu is regarded as the founder of the country because his path to the throne is similar to that of many of the founding masters, who pacified the princes of all parties in the chaos of war and finally achieved the great cause of unification.
Liu Xiu was the founder of the country, but among the many founders, his reputation does not seem to be as loud as others. This can also be seen in movies and TV series, where he has a relatively small number of appearances.
Why is Liu Xiu's influence so small? We can find the answer in the history of the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty was divided into two phases, the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty was founded by Liu Bang, enjoyed the national fortune for 210 years, and was replaced by Wang Mang's new dynasty, which lasted for 14 years and then perished.
Two years later, Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, continuing the incense of the Western Han Dynasty. Therefore, Liu Xiu is the founder of the country, and his merits and influence cannot be ignored.
From the perspective of historians, the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty are seen as two separate dynasties. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to regard the Eastern Han Dynasty as an independent dynasty and regard Liu Xiu as the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
However, from the perspectives of Liu Xiu and Liu Bei, both the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Shu Han Dynasty were the continuation of the Western Han Dynasty and the inheritance of the foundation of the Western Han Dynasty. As a result, Liu Xiu is also known as the lord of Zhongxing of the Han Dynasty, and when the Han Dynasty was facing collapse, he re-emerged and restored Liu's rule, allowing the foundation established by Liu Bang to continue for two hundred years.
In addition, there are two Song dynasties in Chinese history, namely the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty was founded by Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, while the Southern Song Dynasty was established by Gaozong Zhao after Zhao Gou established a Song dynasty in the southeastern corner of Bi'an.
Although the Southern Song Dynasty is called the Song Dynasty, it is actually different. Its first emperor, Zhao Gou, was only supported by the rest of the Song dynasty and established power in the south to continue the Song lineage. The Southern Song Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty are only separated by a river, and there is no other deep meaning.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Tu Timur went into exile in the desert and established a regime in exile, which was called the Northern Yuan by later generations. The Northern Yuan Emperor was still the Zhizheng Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty and had not changed hands. This situation is different from that of the Han Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, and even compared with the Southern Song Dynasty.
Through the above elaboration, we can see that the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty were essentially different. The branch of the surname Liu established this new dynasty, and the founder of this new dynasty was Liu Xiu.
At the same time, the Eastern Han Dynasty can also be considered a continuation of the Western Han Dynasty and is known as the Han Dynasty Zhongxing. Therefore, Huang Liuzhu, a professor at Northwest University, believes that Liu Xiu can be given at least two laurels, one is the "King of Zhongxing" and the other is the "Emperor of Dingding".
Moreover, an emperor like this who has both the titles of "Zhongxing" and "Dingding", Liu Xiu is undoubtedly unique. So, what is the background of Liu Xiu, who is known as "the only person"?
How did he ascend to the throne step by step?
Liu Xiu's royal bloodline and glorious history Liu Xiu, after the Han Dynasty clan, was of the same clan as Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty, and the sixth son of Liu Fa, the king of Changsha. Liu Bei's ancestors, Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan, and Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, were Liu Fa's ninth and tenth brothers, respectively.
However, since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the title of the royal family has gradually decreased, and by the time of Liu Xiu's father, it has been reduced to a grassroots official position such as a county order. Despite this, Liu Xiu still has the blood of the royal family.
However, Liu Xiu was able to become the emperor of the Han Dynasty, which was almost impossible under normal circumstances. However, one day in 5 BCE, Liu Xiu was born with a red light throughout the room, a sign that often indicates that the newborn baby will have great things to do in the future.
Liu Xiu's father did not wait for the day when he could make a big difference, and died early in the county magistrate's office, when he was only nine years old. Soon after, his uncle Liu Liang took him and several of his siblings into Nanyang.
Although his father's official position was not prominent, they left him with enough money to live on. When he was twenty years old, he traveled to Chang'an to study in Taixue of Wang Mang's new dynasty.
There, he became acquainted with Deng Yu, the famous "marshal" in the commentary "Romance of the Eastern Han Dynasty". After studying in Taixue, he returned to Nanyang to engage in agricultural production. However, the world under Wang Mang's rule was in chaos, and the heroes rose together.
As a local tyrant in Nanyang, Liu Xiu and his elder brother rebelled together. Their slogan was "Restore the cause of Gaozu and lay the autumn of eternity". At that time, Liu Xiu was only twenty-seven years old.
At that time, there were two largest rebel forces, one was the Red Mei Army, which originated in Shandong, and the other was the Green Forest Army, which originated in Hubei. The troops led by Liu Xiu and his elder brother were called the Chunling Army, which mainly cooperated with the Green Forest Army.
However, Liu Xiu's initial stage was not smooth, and he suffered his first defeat in an engagement with Wang Mang's army, in which his sister and several of his sister's children were killed by the rebels.
However, Liu Xiu united several branches of the Green Forest Army in time, and after integrating the forces, he successfully turned the tide of the battle and defeated Wang Mang's army. At the beginning of 23 AD, the main generals of the Green Forest Army supported Liu Xuan of the Western Han Dynasty as emperor and established the first emperor, which is also known as the "first emperor" in history.
As a coalition of the Green Forest Army, Liu Xiu's power was not great at that time, so he also obeyed Liu Xuan as emperor and accepted his leadership. His elder brother was named the Great Situ by Emperor Gengshi, and he was named the general of Taichang Biao.
During the fall of Wang Mang's regime, the Battle of Kunyang-Wancheng was one of the most famous battles. In this battle, Liu Xiu's famous generals Du Mao, Cen Peng, Yao Qi, and Ma Wu appeared together, making the battle very lively.
Among them, the bloody plots such as Jia Fuli's killing of the four doors and the battle of the intestines are even more moving. At that time, the defenders of Kunyang were only 9,000 people, but Liu Xiu persuaded the defenders to hold on to Kunyang, and led more than a dozen cavalry out of the city at night, gathered 17,000 elite soldiers around, and provided external assistance to Kunyang.
The Battle of Kunyang was of great significance to Liu Xiu. In this battle, Liu Xiu personally led more than 1,000 elites to repeatedly charge Wang Mang's army, and personally killed dozens of enemies, forcing Wang Mang's army besieging Kunyang to retreat.
Subsequently, Liu Xiu led the army to launch a sneak attack from behind Wang Mang's army, and the battle situation was extremely tragic. Although there were as many as 420,000 defenders besieging Kunyang, under Liu Xiu's heroic charge, they were finally overwhelmed and corpses were scattered all over the field.
The defeat of Wang Mang's new regime in the Battle of Kunyang led to the collapse of the regime. Soon after, the Green Forest Army invaded Chang'an, Wang Mang was killed in the melee, and the new dynasty was destroyed.
Only half a year later, the first emperor Liu Xuan ascended the throne. However, Liu Xiu's outstanding performance in the Battle of Kunyang aroused Liu Xuan's suspicions, and he killed Liu Xiu's brother under various pretexts.
This news shocked Liu Xiu, who was still fighting. However, Liu Xiu did not give up because of this, but continued his journey, eventually establishing the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Liu Xiu calmly analyzed the situation, leaned over to confess to Liu Xuan, and did not mention the killing of his brother. Although Liu Xuan wanted to kill him, he was confused by his humble attitude and did not make a move. He quietly followed Liu Xuan, waiting for the opportunity.
Soon the opportunity came, and the separatist forces north of the Yellow River and east of the Taihang Mountains made Liu Xuan intend to send him to pacify and complete the unification of the Hebei region. Although there were objections, Liu Xiu finally set off.
After integrating the rebel forces in Hebei, his strength increased greatly, and then he broke away from Liu Xuan and established himself as emperor in 25 AD, with the capital Luoyang, and the country name was still "Han". At this time, the world was divided into forces such as the "Xuan Han" of the first emperor, the "Han" of Liu Xiu, the "Fu Han" of Kui Huan, and the "family" of Gongsun Shu.
Soon after, the Red Eyebrow Army defeated the Green Forest Army, captured Chang'an, and overthrew the "Xuanhan" of the first emperor. Emperor Gengshi was forced to demote to the king of Changsha, and was soon killed by the Red Mei army, and the Xuanhan regime came to an end.
The Red Eyebrow Army supported Liu Penzi of the Han Yuan branch as the emperor, and the country name was still "Han". However, in 27 AD, Liu Xiu defeated the Red Mei army and invaded Chang'an, and Liu Penzi's "Han" finally perished.
Liu Xiu showed magnanimity to Liu Penzi, sealed him in a high position, and let him enjoy his old age in peace.
Liu Xiu's Han army, at the suggestion of Ma Yuan, launched an attack on Kui Huan in Longyou and successfully brought it into submission. However, despite this, after Kui Huan's death in 33 A.D., the secession regime south of the Great Wall"Start a family"Still difficult to conquer.
In the process, the two successive commanders, Lai She and Cen Peng, were assassinated by assassins sent by Gongsun Shu. After twelve years of hard work, Wu Han was finally defeated in 36 AD"Start a family", Gongsun Shu was also killed in the battle.
Finally, Liu Xiu succeeded in unifying the whole country and restored the rule of the Han dynasty.
Liu Xiu excelled in both the military and the governance of the country, and is known as the founder of Guangwu Zhongxing. In his post-reunification governance, he focused on solving people's livelihood problems, such as reducing taxes and forced labor, implementing state relief, fighting corruption and eliminating hegemony, developing agriculture and water conservancy construction, and abolishing and merging counties and counties, so as to reduce the burden on the people.
During this period, although the war caused serious population losses, Liu Xiu's policies improved the lives of the people at the bottom.
Twenty years later, the countable population of the Eastern Han Dynasty increased significantly, reaching 20 million, more than double the number in the early days of his accession to the throne. He knows very well that it is easy to fight the world, but it is difficult to rule the world.
After the Eastern Han regime was stabilized, he conferred the title of liehous on a number of heroes who followed him in the southern and northern wars, giving them high status, but depriving them of administrative power.
At the same time, he also recruited a large number of technical talents into the officialdom sequence to effectively communicate and implement his policies. Liu Xiu was not in a hurry to expand his territory, and during his more than 30 years as emperor, he always devoted himself to internal governance, regarding external expansion as a secondary task.
If the surrounding alien races did not provoke a war, Liu Xiu would not take the initiative to attack them.
Under Liu Xiu's rule, the strategy towards the Xiongnu adopted the policy of peace and proximity in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and at the same time used ingenious means to divide and disintegrate the Xiongnu internally. By 48 A.D., the Xiongnu ** were the Northern Xiongnu and the Southern Xiongnu.
The Southern Xiongnu submitted to the Han Dynasty and became part of the Han Dynasty, while Liu Xiu achieved the strategic goal of surrendering the army without a fight. In the Western Regions, the general Dou Rong was stationed for a long time to manage the countries of the Western Regions, and at the same time, he was also accumulating strength to prepare for the opening of the Silk Road.
In 57 AD, this year was the last year of Liu Xiu's life.
Before his death, Liu Xiu completed his historic mission, received the envoys of the Japanese kingdom from the East China Sea, and gave them a seal ribbon, and named their leader the king of the Japanese slaves, which may be the earliest emperor in Chinese history to receive Japanese envoys.
Liu Xiu died at the age of sixty-two and enjoyed"Guangwu"and the nickname"Sejo"The temple number. His perfect life has received great attention from posterity, and he is even called him"The most learned, the most proficient at war, and the most skilled at employing people"。
It may be that it is too perfect and lacks dramatic and turning elements, resulting in a sparse number of films, television and literary works depicting Liu Xiu, and the quality is uneven, with the exception of the commentary "Romance of the Eastern Han Dynasty".
This also makes Liu Xiu's image in the folk a little vague and not prominent enough. Therefore, I am very much looking forward to seeing a high-quality work with Liu Xiu as the protagonist, and I hope that through this work, this "perfect" emperor who combines Dingding and Zhongxing can be widely disseminated among the people.