Wang Mang was born in 45 BC.
His childhood was said to be lucky and lucky, and bad luck was also unlucky.
It is said that Wang Mang is lucky because he was born in a prominent family, and his aunt is called Wang Zhengjun, who is the queen of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty. The so-called "one person gets the Tao, the chicken dog **" The seven aunts and eight aunts of the Wang family are all wiped out, either getting rich or becoming officials, and many people are not petty officials - Wang Mang was 18 years old when his five uncles were made marquis on the same day. Among all the relatives, Wang Mang's uncle Wang Feng was the most official, and he was the great Sima of the dynasty - equivalent to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Western Han Dynasty.
said that Wang Mang was unfortunate because he was not stained because of this, because his father Wang Man died very early, leaving only orphans and widows. The uncles were officials and marquis, and they had nothing to do with Wang Mang's family, and his life was still quite poor.
But compared with his brothers and sisters in his family, Wang Mang has known the hardships of life since he was a child, but he knows more about studying hard. Wang Mang not only reads hard, but also treats people very well, respects his elders, and has a particularly high emotional intelligence.
Among the many elders, Wang Mang was especially filial to his uncle, that is, the great Sima Wang Feng. During Wang Feng's serious illness, Wang Mang served carefully, and every time Wang Feng used the medicine, he had to taste it himself, and he could even accompany Wang Feng for up to a month without taking it, causing him to be often unkempt.
Wang Feng was deeply moved by this behavior, and Wang Mang's reputation in all aspects was very good, so Wang Feng asked the Queen Mother and the Emperor to reuse this person before he died. The queen mother is the previous queen Wang Zhengjun, because at that time Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty was dead, and the new emperor was her and Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty's son Liu Biao, that is, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty.
Under the care of his aunt Wang Zhengjun, Wang Mang was named Huangmenlang soon after, and then promoted to the captain of the shooting sound.
Huang Menlang was regarded as the emperor's little secretary in the Western Han Dynasty, mainly playing a role in communication and communication between the emperor and the ministers, so although the official position was not large, the position was quite important.
"Shooting Sound Captain" is one of the eight school captains established during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The status of the "school captain" in the Han Dynasty was quite high, and he had the right to lead the troops, and belonged to the emperor's direct Praetorian Guard, and his salary reached 2,000 stones. The author of the sentence "Those who offend me as a strong man, although they are far away, will be punished" is called Chen Tang, and what he did in the Han Dynasty at that time was to shoot a sound captain.
It should be said that after Wang Mang became the captain of the shooting sound, the gears of his fate began to turn.
It should be said that Wang Mang was already a big official at that time, but he was still very humble.
Wang Mang has great respect for the ** in the court, regardless of the size of the official position, and will provide relief to those poor celebrities, no matter how far or near. And he took money out of his family with real money, and even took out his own carriage, horses and clothes to share with others, resulting in almost no savings.
It is conceivable how quickly such a Wang Mang's reputation has risen, celebrities and scholars have begun to write in front of Emperor Han Cheng to talk about Wang Mang's various advantages, and some uncles in the Wang family have also begun to be proud of this virtuous nephew, and are even willing to give him their own land.
After a series of twists and turns and personnel struggles, Wang Mang finally sat in the position of Da Sima at the age of 38. But even though he sat in such a high position, Wang Mang did not change his humble style in the slightest, and the rewards given to him by the emperor, even his own money, were taken out and distributed among others.
Once, Wang Mang's mother was sick, and those ** nobles sent their wives to visit. According to etiquette, Wang Mang should let his wife go out to greet him. On that day, when the ladies came to the door of Wang Mang's house, they saw a woman wearing a cloth dress and a short skirt walking out, and they all thought that it was Wang Mang's maid who came out to lead everyone in.
But just as Wang Mang was embarking on a new level in his life, the situation changed: Emperor Han Cheng, the son of his aunt Wang Zhengjun, died.
Emperor Cheng of Han did not leave a son, and the newly succeeded Emperor Ai of Han was the nephew of Emperor Cheng of Han. The phrase "mothers are more precious than children" is sometimes especially important in the royal family. As soon as Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty died, his mother Wang Zhengjun became the "Empress Dowager", and her rank was one level higher, but the real power was gone - the real power went to the hands of Emperor Hanai's biological mother, Empress Dowager Ding, and his grandmother, Empress Dowager Fu.
In the midst of an inevitable palace infighting, Wang Zhengjun showed extraordinary political skill, and she immediately asked Wang Mang to "beg the bones" - claiming that he was old and sick, and asked to resign and return to his hometown - in order to save his life. Emperor Ai was not allowed at first, but then Wang Mang was immediately involved in the power struggle between the old and new forces, obviously he had to clearly stand on his aunt's side, which undoubtedly offended the mother and grandmother of Emperor Han Ai, so he could only "beg for bones" again, this time, Emperor Han Ai approved.
At this time, the world of the Han Dynasty has changed: the members of the Wang family promoted by Wang Mang's aunt Wang Zhengjun were dismissed from office, and those who were demoted were demoted, and Wang Mang himself was almost demoted to a concubine. All the key departments** were controlled by new relatives, that is, relatives of Emperor Hanai's mother and grandmother's family.
But even at this stage, Wang Mang still hasn't changed. After he returned to his fiefdom as the Hou Ye, he has been closed, and he is also very respectful to the local **, and he does not put the Hou Ye on the shelf at all. During this period, a famous incident also happened:
His second son, Wang Shu, once killed one of his slaves, which seems to be severely punished according to the law today, but in the Han Dynasty, it was really not a big deal for a nobleman to kill one of his slaves. But Wang Mang was furious when he found out, and finally forcibly ordered his son to commit suicide. This incident caused a lot of sensation at the time.
Wang Mang stayed in his fiefdom for three years, during which all kinds of ** avenged him and helped him say good things, and the number of letters reached hundreds, and finally Emperor Han Ai couldn't resist it, and ordered him to be recalled to the capital.
It had only been more than a year since Wang Mang returned to the capital, and the situation changed again: Emperor Han Ai also died.
The Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun found a way to get the jade seal of the country on the same day, and then set up the nine-year-old Zhongshan King Liu Jian as the emperor, which was Emperor Ping of Han. Wang Zhengjun re-became the empress dowager, and Wang Mang was re-named the Great Sima - overnight, the Wang family turned the tables against the wind and regained power.
If Wang Mang's life career can be divided into stages, then this should be Wang Mang's first stage so far.
At this stage, Wang Mang appeared in an almost perfect image. There are many people in later generations who say that Wang Mang has always been scheming and deceiving the world, but if you calm down and think about it:
Wang Mang lived a simple life, honored his elders, and distributed money, including forcing his son to death, all of which were real knives and guns, and if he had a little bit of fraud, such as being hard and simple on the surface, carrying people with fine clothes and food on his back, or killing his own son and secretly letting him go (he didn't have that need in the first place), it would never have escaped the eyes of the people at that time and the records of the author of the Book of Han.
According to Professor Ge Jianxiong's point of view, not to mention whether Wang Mang was selling his reputation and fame, even if he was cheating, if everyone was cheating like him, the political atmosphere in the Western Han Dynasty at that time would not be so smoky.
And I think that Wang Mang should never have thought of being an emperor at this stage, even if he has the so-called "ambition", he just wants to get ahead, be a bigger official, and glorify his ancestors. In officialdom, who doesn't want to pursue progress? What's more, Wang Mang did not do anything to frame others or even be insidious and despicable, he only achieved his goal by being strict with himself and letting others know that he was strict with himself.
Of course, Confucius said that the supreme state of a gentleman is "people do not know and are not ashamed", but Wang Mang at least did not harm the interests of others, right?
When Wang Mang returned to the position of Grand Sima, his reputation and power reached a new level.
In this way, he also entered the second stage of his career.
Judging from the traditional Confucian orthodoxy, the choices made by Wang Mang at this stage may not be so "pure".
Wang Mang, who regained core power, was already the number one minister of the Western Han Dynasty at this time. In this context, Wang Mang is still very humble in doing things - but the "humility" at this time already has a relatively clear purpose.
In 2 B.C., the ethnic minorities of Yizhou (today's Yunnan and Burma) brought in a white pheasant, that is, a white pheasant, which caused a stir in the government and the public.
According to historical records, when Zhou Gongdan of the Zhou Dynasty was the regent to assist King Zhou Cheng, an ethnic minority sent a white pheasant from thousands of miles away, saying that he was moved by the selfless behavior of Zhou Gongdan - this is a sign of recognition of the respected regent.
And Wang Mang has just been in power, and such a thing has already happened.
Of course, most of the people behind this kind of dramatic story are planned, but since the play is performed, someone must take it, some applaud, and some applaud.
How did Wang Mang do it? He waved his hand again and again, and said, "Oh, how can this be my personal credit?" I'm so ashamed. So he suggested that the pheasant should be used as an offering to the royal temple, rather than being accepted personally.
The pheasant was just an introduction, and the ministers took this opportunity to make suggestions to the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun: Oh, Wang Mang is really amazing, his exploits can already be compared with Huo Guang of the previous dynasty, and he should be rewarded with the same as Huo Guang - Huo Guang assisted Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty back then, which contributed to the "Zhaoxuan Zhongxing" to a considerable extent.
Wang Mang was single-handedly raised by his aunt Wang Zhengjun. This year, Wang Zhengjun is 72 years old, as a generation of political strong women, Wang Zhengjun herself is a little confused, she asked the ministers:
Is Wang Mang's credit really that great? Is it because he is my relative that you exalt him like this? ”
Of course, the ministers shook their heads and said yes and no, it was Wang Mang's own exploits that really moved the world, so they unanimously asked the Queen Mother to make him the Duke of An Han, and also asked to expand his fiefdom.
Wang Mang immediately wrote a letter after learning of the request of the ministers, saying that he decided state affairs with the four members of the team of Da Situ Kongguang, and if he wanted to make meritorious contributions, it was also a collective first-class merit, and the reward could not fall on him alone.
Next, every time he issued an edict to reward him, he refused once, and in the end, everyone couldn't resist Wang Mang, and the four of them were rewarded together. So since they are all rewarded, is Wang Mang willing to accept the title of "Duke of Anhan"? He still refused and resolutely resigned, so the Queen Mother issued another edict: increase the fiefdom of Wang Mang by 28,000 households, seal the Taifu, and call An Guogong.
How did Wang Mang do it? He said that he was sincerely afraid and had no choice but to accept the title of "An Guogong", but returned the land and households that had increased the reward, saying that he would wait for the people of the Han Dynasty to live more prosperously.
The more he shirked, the more the officials refused to let him, and he was stuck back and forth. As a result, the Queen Mother could only issue another edict: You can retreat the fiefs and households, but your money, men and horses, and rewards will be doubled. And Wang Mang resolutely refused to accept this, saying that I can't get this benefit alone, and I want everyone to get it.
In desperation, the imperial court could only give the final solution:
Adult men in the country are increased by the first rank, and officials of the rank of more than 200 stones, regardless of whether the probationary period has expired, are all regularized, and thirty-six marquis are crowned, and then a series of benefits are given to the senior ** and their descendants......
It is conceivable that now everyone in the world is saying that Wang Mang is good, but Wang Mang feels that it is still not enough.
He proposed that there are still many ordinary people in the world who do not have enough to eat, so he donated 1 million yuan, 30 hectares of fertile land, and suggested that the queen mother wear coarse clothes and hand over ten counties of private fiefdoms. Once a natural disaster occurred in the world, Wang Mang began to eat vegetarian. In the first two years of the first year, when there was a great drought in the country, Wang Mang took the lead, and 230 large and small ** donated their land and houses to donate to the victims, and 1,000 houses were built in Chang'an City to accommodate the victims.
It's come this far, and it's not counted.
When Emperor Ping of Han reached the age of electing the queen, when everyone's eyes were on Wang Mang, he publicly said that the daughter of his Wang family was low in talent and unworthy, and insisted that he could not be listed as a candidate.
Maybe the Queen Mother Wang Zhengjun was really a little old at this time, she naively thought that Wang Mang's statement was true, so she agreed. As a result, it immediately "aroused public indignation", and there were as many as 1,000 students, students, and ordinary people who went to the palace gate every day to ask for Wang Mang's daughter to be the queen. In the end, the Queen Mother could only beg Wang Mang: Why don't you let your daughter be selected!
Wang Mang reluctantly nodded in agreement, and the subsequent result naturally did not have any suspense: his daughter became the queen indisputably.
According to the usual practice, the queen's dowry is 20,000 catties **, 20,000 yuan. Wang Mang didn't want a cent, only collected 40 million yuan, and distributed 33 million of it to the other eleven women who participated in the election of the queen. The Queen Mother was moved and ordered to reward Wang Mang with another 23 million yuan, of which Wang Mang gave 10 million to the poor in the Wang family.
According to historical records, at that time, there were 487572 people in the country who wrote to ask for additional rewards for Wang Mang (all accurate to single digits), and the princes and nobles kowtowed when they met the queen mother in the palace, saying that Wang Mang was too good and must be rewarded well.
To be honest, in the first five years of Wang Mang's rule, he did a lot of things that won the hearts of the people, and it also proved his prestige. For example, in order to let capable people from all over the country live in Chang'an, he ordered the construction of 10,000 houses - when the people in the capital heard this, there was no xenophobia at all, and they were very active, and 100,000 people participated in the voluntary labor construction, and all of them were completed in 20 days.
By the first month of the fifth year, 902 princes and nobles had jointly signed a letter to "add nine tins" to Wang Mang - to enjoy a guard of honor similar to that of the Son of Heaven, under one person and above ten thousand. In the autumn, the customs and folk songs collected from all over the country have as many as 30,000 words of songs praising Wang Mang.
Then, at the age of 14, Emperor Ping of Han died.
The death of Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty marked the end of the second phase of Wang Mang's career. If Wang Mang was simply pursuing progress in the first stage, in the second stage, it cannot be said that he has no ambition to become an emperor.
This can be seen from what happened after the death of Emperor Ping of Han.
When Emperor Ping of Han died, counting up, the great-grandson of Emperor Xuan of Han had five princes, forty-eight marquis (one level lower than the princes). Emperor Ping of Han is also the great-grandson of Emperor Xuan of Han, so they are all brothers, and in other words, if you want to find royal blood, there are actually many choices.
But Wang Mang insisted that "brothers cannot inherit each other", so they must find one from the great-great-grandson of Emperor Xuan of Han - to be a younger generation.
As a result, he chose Liu Ying, who was only two years old at the time.
Obviously, Wang Mang's pursuit is not to pay attention to seniority, but to think that those brothers are already adults and are difficult to control, so he must choose a child to be the emperor, so that he can continue to control the power and even make the next move.
In the same month that the two-year-old emperor Liu Ying ascended the throne, someone dug up a white stone in that place in Xianyang, Shaanxi.
On the white stone, nine words were clearly written in red:
sue the Duke of Han and Wang Mang as emperor".
In fact, everyone knows very well the operation behind this kind of thing. At this time, it was like playing "werewolf killing", Wang Mang almost wrote the words "I am a werewolf" on his face, and many people, especially the Liu family's clan, even if they were not "prophets", saw it clearly, so all parts of the country began to resist one after another, and some even used force to resist.
But it's too late.
On the one hand, the powerful regular army was in the hands of Wang Mang, and he easily pacified these so-called "rebel armies"; On the other hand, the hearts of the people at that time were indeed here with Wang Mang, and many people believed that Wang Mang was an unborn great sage, and even believed that he would bring a good life to the people of the world.
Therefore, after Wang Mang eliminated those opposing voices that did not form a climate, the rest were all voices of "persuasion".
"Persuasion" is always indispensable in the routine of "auspicious": some people claim that they are dreaming, dreaming that the heavenly prince told him that Wang Mang is going to be the emperor, someone dug a stone ox from the well, and someone found a strange stone, in short, it is implied that Wang Mang is the true son of heaven.
There were basically no accidents in the next process, Wang Mang still pretended to resign again and again as usual, but it was really difficult to disobey the public opinion, and soon pushed the boat along the river, forcing the 3-year-old "crown prince" Liu Ying to "Zen Rang" and become the emperor himself.
That year, it was 8 AD, and the 53-year-old Wang Mang spent 31 years ending the life span of more than 200 years in the Western Han Dynasty, establishing a "new" dynasty, and becoming the emperor himself.
At this time, Wang Mang entered his third stage and faced a new problem:
Next, what kind of emperor are you going to be?
Those who are familiar with this period of history know that Wang Mang's life path took a sharp turn in his third stage - and the situation that caused it was basically "made" by himself.
Let's take a look at the more important things that Wang Mang did after becoming emperor.
Look at the land first. Wang Mang advocated Zhou etiquette, and as soon as he came up, he announced that the whole country would restore the "well field system" of the Zhou Dynasty, and all land would be nationalized, called "Wang Tian", which could not be bought and sold. In addition, just as land could not be bought or sold, slaves and maids were no longer allowed to buy or sell.
The nationalization of land is basically inoperable. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the problem of land annexation was indeed very serious, but in the face of those big and powerful landlords who held a large amount of land in their hands, Wang Mang actually had no practical way, so the final result was that the peasants at the bottom could only share a very limited amount of land. As a result, from top to bottom, they all complained about Wang Mang.
The prohibition of the sale of slaves and maids was of course progressive, but in the context of the time, it could not be prohibited at all, at most it was only transferred from the table to the table. And even if buying and selling is prohibited, the social class and identity of slaves and maids have not changed at all, they have no survival skills, and if they do not rely on the big landlords, they can only starve to death in the end.
In order to implement the policy, Wang Mang decided to use strict law enforcement and torture, which led to a large number of people being imprisoned and tortured, and the whole country complained. Three years later, the policy could no longer be implemented, and Wang Mang could only slap himself in the face, announcing that land and slaves could be bought and sold again, resulting in a great damage to his authority.
Let's look at the market. Wang Mang announced many fair trade policies and set up a number of state-owned markets, the starting point is still good, but it also lacks operability, which ultimately leads to more means and opportunities for the original officials, businessmen and chaebols to plunder the common people.
If there is still something understandable about Wang Mang's introduction of these policies, then there are still many policies and behaviors that make people feel a little inexplicable.
For example, at that time, there were Beihai County, Nanhai County and Donghai County in the Western Han Dynasty, but there was no Xihai County, so Wang Mang forced the Qiang people in the west to give up a piece of wasteland on the other side of Qinghai Lake and divide it into Xihai County, forcing many people to emigrate there - just to make up a concept of "four seas" in the southeast and northwest.
For another example, at that time, since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty has basically intimidated the surrounding ethnic minorities and neighbors, and everyone is willing to pay tribute to the Han Dynasty. But Wang Mang felt that this was not enough, and he ordered that the name of "Xiongnu" be changed to "Gongnu" and "Slave", and the name of "Shan Yu" was changed to "Obey Yu", and he felt unhappy that there was a word "Gao" in "Goguryeo", and forced people to change their names to "Xiaguryeo".
This kind of personality humiliation for no reason led to the surrounding ethnic minorities to rebel one after another, so Wang Mang sent hundreds of thousands of troops to requisition, not to mention the loss of money and labor, and the inability to win the war all at once, resulting in endless border wars and empty treasury.
After Wang Mang became emperor, he revised a large number of place names, building names and official titles across the country. These names are already very familiar to everyone, but Wang Mang pursues a "new" word, and as a result, the place names in some places have to be changed four or five times a year, and every time an edict is issued and an official document is issued, the old name must be remarked behind, which artificially reduces a lot of efficiency, and for no reason makes ** and the people have a sense of disgust for **.
At this stage, the situation is actually relatively clear:
When you Wang Mang was frugal, hard and simple, including forcing his son to commit suicide, he tossed himself and did not harm the interests of others, so everyone praised you desperately. But you are tossing like this now, harming everyone's interests, especially the interests of all classes of people from top to bottom, and there is not even a class to help you, do you say that your emperor's seat will sit for a long time?
It was precisely during this period that natural disasters continued, all kinds of droughts, floods, plagues, and locust plagues came and went, and the people everywhere could not eat enough, and the treasury was so empty that they could not take out the money, so various uprisings began to appear, among which the most powerful were the Green Forest Army in the south and the Red Eyebrow Army in the north.
In 25 AD, the embattled Wang Mang was trapped in Chang'an, and was broken through the city by the rebel army, and finally retreated to the palace gate.
Wang Mang was eventually killed by a merchant, his head cut off for merit, his limbs mutilated, and his reward for his life. A few days later, Wang Mang's head was hung publicly, and according to the Book of Han, the common people threw stones at his head, and some even cut off his tongue and ate it.
List of high-quality authors Wang Mang's life is over here, but I believe that including myself, after reading his life, I should still be very embarrassed.
For a long time, Wang Mang appeared as a treacherous and pedantic, hypocritical and naïve historical figure, but in fact, if you think about it carefully, how can the diametrically opposed words treacherous, pedantic, hypocrisy, and naivety appear in the same person at the same time?
I agree with a sentence from Mr. Ge Jianxiong in the book:
Wang Mang not only wants to be an emperor, but also wants to be a reformer and a saint, so that the goal that is divorced from reality is doomed to his tragic end. ”
Wang Mang has actually faced several crossroads in his life, and I personally don't believe that Wang Mang wanted to be an emperor from the beginning of his career. In the process that followed, everyone praised and sought after him more and more, even to the point of the stars, so his own mentality also changed step by step, and step by step he felt that the original "impossible, completely impossible" slowly became "completely possible" and even "imperative".
So, is everyone really sycophant, or blinded by lard? Not necessarily.
As mentioned earlier, at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there were indeed various signs of the collapse of a feudal dynasty. Not to mention anything else, just talking about land annexation, although Wang Mang repeatedly refused, but look at the rewards for him, they are all tens of thousands of acres of land rewards, ** are tens of thousands of catties and tens of thousands of catties of land, it can be seen that the landlord Haoqiang Group's monopoly on land and wealth has reached a shocking point.
In this context, a person who is strict with himself, lenient with others, upright, filial and honest is born, of course, will bring great hope to everyone, I believe that many of them sincerely hope that there is such a saint who can lead everyone to reform, and give everyone a bright future.
But it's a pity that Wang Mang is both and isn't.
said that he was because he did not slack off after becoming the emperor as he wished. If he was really planning to usurp the throne, he could have started to be lustful and enjoy the life of an emperor, but he didn't, he really wanted to reform. It is not bad to say that Wang Mang is "Tuogu reform", but Wang Mang may not be "Tuogu", he really believes it, and he wants to use the ancient system to create a peaceful and prosperous era from the bottom of his heart.
To say that he is not is because his heart's desire is far beyond his ability, mainly completely beyond the historical environment and social background of the time. Mr. Ge Jianxiong's evaluation is:
Under the condition that it is impossible to increase social wealth without limit, it is ......absolutely impossible for (Wang Mang) to curry favor with all classes, strata, and interest groups in society at the same timeIt's wishful thinking. ”
It is true that Wang Mang's final ending was tragic. He could have died well as a powerful minister, or he could say goodbye as an ordinary emperor who changed the dynasty, but he was overconfident and chose a path beyond his own ability and the background of the times.
Finally, a little detail:
When the rebel army invaded the palace of Chang'an City, Wang Mang probably had more than 1,000 people around him, including guards, ministers, doctors, eunuchs, and retinues, many of whom defended Wang Mang to the death, and finally either died in battle or were killed together with Wang Mang.
In fact, they didn't have any other options at that time, such as taking off their official uniforms and escaping. But they all chose to go to the road of death with Wang Mang.
It was also the last choice they made at the crossroads of their lives.
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