As the ancient capital of Anyi, although the name is still there, but in fact has been completely integrated into the modern city, integrated into one, in this small town with a long history, it is now impossible to see the prosperity that was once the capital, but the crooked Anyi ancient tower still proves that it was once extraordinary here, Wei Wenhou, the founder of the hegemony of the Warring States Period, started his own hegemony, and the powerful Wei State has since entered history.
According to the ".Historical Records of the Wei Familyrecorded that Wei Jiang gave birth to Wei Ying, and Wei Ying gave birth to a son. Wei Xianzi served the Duke of Zhao of Jin, and after the death of Duke Zhao, the Liuqing of the Jin State became strong and prosperous, and the office declined.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Jin Qing (514 BCHan Xuanzi told the old man, Wei Xianzi began to preside over the state affairs of the Jin State, the Qi clan of the Jin State and the Yang Tongue clan slandered each other, and the Liuqing united to kill them, and annexed their fiefdoms, dividing their fiefs into ten counties,".Each of them made his son a doctorWei Xianzi, Zhao Jianzi, Bank of China Wenzi, and Fan Xianzi were all secretaries of the Jin State.
After a lapse of four years, Zhao Jianzi attacked the Fan family and the Zhongxing clan together with the Han clan and the Wei clan due to the Jinyang Rebellion, and Wei Xianzi's son Wei Hao participated in the operation with Zhao Ying.
Wei Hao's grandson was Wei Huanzi, who, together with Han Kangzi and Zhao Xiangzi, defeated Zhi Boyao and carved up his territory, forming a situation in which Han, Zhao, and Wei were divided into Jin.
Wei Huanzi's grandson was Wei Si, later Wei Wenhou.
It can be seen from this that the Wei family has been active in the power center of the Jin State after Wei Jiang, and has become the core force in it, and the prosperity of the family is inextricably integrated with the strength of the Jin State, and it is in this context that Wei Wenhou stepped onto the political stage.
As a descendant of Wei Huanzi, Wei Wenhou inherited the strong genes of the family, he is capable, idealistic, more ambitious, and has a kind of eloquence that others cannot match. Although he was young, he had the potential and skill of a statesman, and he wanted to build a new and strong country.
But the situation he faced wasAfter the three families were divided into Jin, the Zhao family benefited the most, obtained most of the territory in the northern part of the Jin Kingdom, occupied Handan and Zhongmu, and had great development potential. To the east, there was the emerging Han clan, whose sphere of influence crossed the Yellow River and the Zhongtiao Mountains, occupying the most advantageous strategic position. The Wei State was squeezed into the southwest corner, tightly surrounded by Qin, Chu, Zheng, Zhao, and Han in the Hedong Basin, and the development space was narrow.
As a descendant of the Wei family, Wei Wenhou did not rest on his laurels, and his ancestors migrated from the west of the Yellow River to the east of the Yellow River after a great deal of hardship to obtain the fiefdom of Wei, which made the Wei family gradually prosperous. Wei, Wei, Daye, the mountains are majestic, and the momentum is magnificent, what he does must be worthy of this name, so the ambitious Weiss, a series of planned and step-by-step actions, is in the pipeline.
1.Eliminate infighting and strive for an internal environment of peace.
After the Han, Zhao, and Wei families were separated, they guarded against each other and each had the intention of annexation. Zhao wanted to unite with Wei to destroy Korea in order to gain a way to the Central Plains;Korea wanted to unite with Wei to eliminate Zhao in order to gain a vast plain. But Wei Wenhou was very sober-minded, Han and Wei were much weaker than Zhao, and they were still powerless to fight against Zhao, and the result of taking the initiative to attack Zhao was bound to be self-destruction. Therefore, no matter who in Han and Wei jointly attacked the third party with Zhao State, he would be killed, and he would eventually be destroyed.
In view of this, the best solution is peaceful coexistence, mutual alliance, and mutual development.
So Wei Wenhou sent an envoy to explain his views on the development of the three families to the Zhao and Han clans at the same time: the Jin land was surrounded by mountains and rivers, and it was relatively closed. Only Zhao had the strength to develop outward, but because of the threat of Han and Wei behind him, he did not dare to expand outward. And Han and Wei are also unable to develop outward because of the existence of Zhao, so if the three countries fight internally, no one can grow, and only peaceful coexistence and joint outward expansion is the ultimate way out.
Wei Wenhou's views were unanimously endorsed by Zhao and Han, and they reached a consensus:Give up infighting and develop separately. This result is extremely important to Han, Zhao, and Wei. It was the formation of this consensus that enabled the three to eliminate their worries, each find their own way of survival and development, and at the same time began to develop their strength, expand externally, and finally became one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States.
Wei Wenhou's proposition has changed the course of history and the pattern of development, which shows the high strategic vision of Wei Wenhou.
2.Promote the reform of the law, and make every effort to make the Wei State bigger and stronger.
The troubled environment and his ambition prompted Wei Wenhou to take the lead in implementing the reform of the law in China. In order to make the Wei State strong, he first appointed sages in an eclectic manner, he was a corporal, Zixia, Duan Ganmu, Tian Zifang, etc., and appointed Li Kui and Zhai Huang as ministers, Le Yang, Wu Qi as generals, Ximen Leopard Zhiye and so on. These scholars, who came from small nobles and even commoners, began to play a role in all aspects of politics and military affairs, and clan politics was gradually replaced by bureaucratic politics. Then he used Tian Huang as the prime minister to reform the maladministration, took Leyang as the general's foreign strategy, used Li Kui to teach the law and the scriptures to govern the country according to the law, and hired Zixia to give lectures in Xihe to teach Confucian culture.
Due to the comprehensive operation of politics, economy, military and culture, Wei showed a thriving vitality and became the overlord of the Central Plains.
Intensive cultivation and development of agriculture. Li Kui promoted the principle of intensive cultivation based on the teaching of the best geographical advantages, comprehensively utilized the fields and mountains and rivers of the Wei State, and improved the unit yield and land use efficiency of the cultivated land of the Wei State. In order to balance the price of food, he also invented ".Ping(díActThe interests of citizens and peasants have been well balanced, the country's ability to resist risks has been greatly improved, and the society has been stabilized.
Take advantage of ** and accumulate wealth. Wei Wenhou took advantage of this characteristic to encourage the people of Wei to engage in commercial activities, and exchanged silk from the south, leather from the north, jade from the west, and fish from the east, so that Wei gained a lot of wealth and the treasury was gradually enriched
Formulate laws and regulate behavior. The Jin State is a country with a tradition of the legal system, and it is very supportive of doing things according to law. The written law presided over by Li Kui played a huge role in the political life of the Wei state, and this set of laws was later adopted by the Qin state of Xiangong, Xiaogong, and Shang Ying, and influenced China for 2,000 years.
Famous Confucianism lectures, cultural infiltration. In order to capture the land of Qin, Wei Wenhou adopted the method of both civil and military, in addition to military strikes and policy attacks, he also carried out cultural infiltration, famously".The West River SchoolIt was in this context that it was precisely because of the Xihe School that Wei replaced Lu as the cultural center of the Central Plains at that time.
The reason why Wei was able to dominate for a hundred years in the early Warring States period was, on the one hand, it certainly had strong military strength, and from another point of view, the cultural self-confidence established and the use of culture to attract talents were also another reason why Wei was strong.
3.Expand externally and expand your territory.
Since the Zhao clan was in the north and the Han clan was in the east, Wei Wenhou deliberated again and again and focused his development on the Qin state in the southwest.
Wei Wenhou twenty-seven (420 BCIn that year, Wei appointed Wu Qi as the main general, crossed the Yellow River to the west, and launched a war against Qin, and the Wei army won successive victories and seized large territories. Wei Wenhou thirty-three years (414 BCLi Kui led the Wei army to break through the Qin army's Xihe defense line, and then Wu Qi led his troops into the hinterland of Qin, and the throat of the Weihe Plain was exposed to the Wei army, and the whole Qin country was shocked. There is no danger to defend in the Weihe Plain, once Zheng is lost, Wu Qi can push all the way to the west, and the army will be in the capital of Qin, Yongcheng, and the Qin State will be in danger of destroying the country.
So Qin Jiangong mobilized heavy troops to defend Zheng on the one hand, and on the other hand, sent envoys to invite Qi and Chu to send troops to attack Wei to reduce the pressure on Qin, but in the face of Wei's strong strength, these small means were useless after all, Wei Wenhou 38 years, Wei completely occupied the Xihe region, Wei's territory greatly expanded, and it was no longer the small country that cowered in the Hedong Basin. Wu Qi also seized a large area of land from Rong Di to the north, where Wei set up administrative institutions such as Shangjun and Shaanxi, and controlled the best communication channel between the west and the Central Plains.
The Qin state was forced to build fortifications west of Luoshui, and Wei Wenhou built a great wall on the east bank, which crossed Weishui to connect with Yin and Jin at the southern end and reached Diaoyin City at the northern end. In this way, Wei suppressed Qin west of Luoshui for 80 years, so that Qin could not communicate with the Central Plains, and Wei was alone in Guanzhong, using its geographical monopoly to control Qin and seek violence from it, Wei became stronger and stronger, while Qin was weakened more and more.
At the same time, the state of Zhao was in constant decline. Zhongshan continued to strengthen its offensive against Zhao, and as a last resort, Zhao asked Wei for support, and Wei Wenhou agreed to help Zhao eliminate Zhongshan, but only if Zhao would be wise in return for Wei's attack on Zhongshan, and Zhao Liehou agreed. Zhidi is located in the northern part of Wei proper, and is the strategic point where Zhao poses the greatest threat to Wei, and has always been Wei's heart disease, and Wei Wenhou took this opportunity to solve this major problem in one fell swoop.
The process of Korea's development to the south was not smooth, Zheng and Song were not as weak as they seemed on the surface, and South Korea, which had been unable to attack for a long time, was also seeking help from Wei, so Wei sent troops to attack Song, took advantage of the situation to occupy the interior of the river in Korea, and opened the exit to the south.
Therefore, after settling the Xihe War, Wei Wenhou launched an attack on Zhongshan in the north, and helped Korea to attack the Song in the south, so that Wei's power developed to the south of the Yellow River. Under the excellent command of Le Yang, Wei Wenhou lived for forty years (407 BCWei broke the Zhongshan State, relieved its threat to the Zhao State, and at the same time sent the crown prince to govern Zhongshan, and the Lingshou area of the Zhongshan State was given to the meritorious Le Yang, Pai Le Yang led the troops to garrison Zhongshan, and appointed Li Kui as the prince to assist the prince, under the governance of the prince Zheng, Le Yang, and Li Kui, the situation in Zhongshan gradually stabilized, and became one of the most dynamic territories of the Wei State.
Wei Wenhou forty-one years (406 BC), Qi Xiangtian mourned the death of the son, the Tian clan who was in charge of the power of the Qi State had a civil strife, Tian Hui rebelled and asked for help from the Three Jins, the combined forces of Han, Zhao and Wei sent troops to the Qi State, until the Great Wall of the Qi State, Tian He was forced to cede the land and sue for peace, the monarch of the Qi State King Qi Kang was captured, and the three Jin monarchs met Zhou Tianzi together, and the King of Qi Kang asked Zhou Tianzi to canonize the Three Kingdoms as princes.
Forty-four years of Wei Wenhou (403 BCIn front of the palace of Zhou Tianzi, the sound of nine tripods sounded, and King Weilie of Zhou officially recognized the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei as princes, and ranked them with the Marquis of Jin. In this year, China officially entered the Warring States Period, and the history of Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" in the Song Dynasty began in this year, and the first thing recorded was that Wei Si, Zhao Ji, and Han Qian became princes.
Fifty-one years of Wei Wenhou (396 BCWeiss died, and the crown prince ascended the throne.
This is Wei Wenhou's brilliant life. In the history of more than 250 years of the Warring States period, Wei was the first strong and powerful country, Wei Wenhou reigned for 51 years, selected the virtuous and capable, cultivated virtue and politics internally, and governed martial arts externally, and was finally named a vassal state by Zhou Tianzi. More importantly, Wei Wenhou's appointment of Li Kui to preside over the reform of the law and the building of the legal system set a precedent for the Warring States and influenced Chinese politics for 2,000 years. He worshipped Zixia as his teacher, raised the status of Confucianism to an unprecedented height, achieved the purpose of collecting the hearts of scholars, and was the initiator of later emperors respecting Confucianism to win the hearts of the people, and his political, economic, military, and cultural experience in governing the country also became a classic sample of the Chinese Empire in later generations.