In the first month of the seventeenth year of Yongping (74), just after the New Year, Liu Zhuang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, as usual, ordered his ministers to prepare to visit the original mausoleum.
The original mausoleum was the first mausoleum in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The father of Emperor Hanming was Liu Xiu and his mother was Yin Lihua.
On the eve of setting out to visit the mausoleum, Emperor Han Ming had a dream.
In the dream, he looked back at the young prince who was testing his parents' knees. The three of them were talking and laughing, and their parents loved each other, just like at the beginning. It seems that everything is the same as the truth except my inexplicable appearance. The beauty of the dream made him feel sideways, and he planned to change his posture to continue his dream. Who knows, the next second, the dream will be gone.
After Emperor Han Ming was sober, he couldn't let go for a long time.
This year, the Han Emperor who lost his family happiness was 47 years old. It has been ten years since his beloved mother Yin Lihua died.
After completing the programmed burial ceremony the next day, Emperor Han Ming specially came to the bedroom of his mother Yin Lihua to see things and think about people.
Because of his long-term depressed mood, he burst into tears when he saw his mother's old story, which touched all the people with him.
However, "if you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight." The loneliness and loneliness of Emperor Han Ming is a cage that he can't escape all his life.
People often say, "Love me, love my dog". Liu Zhuang, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, had a direct relationship with his mother from ordinary prince to crown prince to reigning in the world.
His mother Yin Lihua is the ex-wife of Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty. Before Liu Xiu became famous, he once regarded "being an official as a golden boy and marrying a wife as Yin Lihua" as his ultimate goal in life. Then, Liu Xiu realized his boyhood ideals one by one by closing the Kanto and pacifying Longxi, but failed to do so in choosing a queen.
In the process of its rise, the Guo family in Hebei played a key role, which made it necessary to consider the influence of Hebei Group after the establishment of the Eastern Han Empire.
Finally, after careful consideration, Liu Xiu can only let Guo Shengtong, the daughter of the Guo family, be the queen, and Liu Qiang, their eldest son, be the prince, while Liu Yang, the prince born by Yin Lihua (renamed Liu Zhuang after being the prince), condescended to be the Duke of Donghai.
Although the process was tortuous and mixed with the helplessness of Emperor Guangwu, Yang never let his father down. History shows that Liu Yang was kind and humble by nature. "At the age of ten, he could read Chunqiu.
Liu Yang's disappointing, don't ban their mother and son in the heart of guangwudi increased a lot of weight.
At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu was busy with government affairs. In order to provide a better growth environment for his beloved son, Liu Yang is often called by his father to study politics.
On one occasion, while listening to the report of state and county officials on the local reclamation, I came across a secret letter behind the official document handed by Chen, which said, "Yingchuan and Hongnong can ask, but southern Henan and Nanyang can't ask."
When Liu Xiu found something fishy, he asked local officials for advice.
None of Chen's officials are stupid. When they saw this, they quickly faltered: "This is a leaflet found on the way to Beijing, and the content inside is not credible. I hope your majesty can see it clearly. "
Liu Xiu certainly knew that they were deliberately talking nonsense, but there was no evidence to prove the connection between this letter and the official documents of Chenliu County.
Just as he was about to give up, Liu Yang next to him suddenly interjected: "There are many close ministers in Henan Imperial City, many relatives in Nanyang Imperial City, and many family members."
Liu Yang means that the reason why officials in Chenliu County talk nonsense in front of the emperor is because their work is "thankless". Whether in Henan or Nanyang, people live either as heroes who have made great contributions to the creation of the empire or as dignitaries related to the emperor. In such a county, it is common for houses in the field to exceed the standard, but officials can only admit that they are unlucky. Who dares to care?
Liu Yang's explanation made Liu Xiu sit up and take notice. You know, Liu Yangnian was only 12 years old.
At this point, after Guo Shengkun entered the palace, she always had a bad feeling towards Yin Lihua, and she was also dissatisfied with Liu Xiu's devotion to other women. Therefore, when Liu Xiu really sat firmly in the world, the contradiction between Empress Dowager Cixi broke out without hesitation.
In the 17th year of Jianwu (4 1), Liu Xiu personally deposed Guo Shengkun and replaced him with Yin Lihua. In the abolished imperial edict, Liu Xiu said: "The queen is resentful and has repeatedly violated religious orders ... Without Guan Yu's virtue, she has the wind of Lu and Huo. How can she entrust a young orphan with respect and honor?" ?
No matter whether Guo Shengkun is really like all kinds of evil deeds in the world, comparing her to the first dynasties like Hehuo is enough to show her determination to abandon her children.
Seeing that his mother was mercilessly abandoned by his father, Liu Qiang, as a prince, knew that he would miss the throne. It is better to abdicate than to occupy the "pit".
Thus, with a "retired" prince, Yang's fate was upgraded to Zhuang's fate. The change of imperial clan indirectly led to Emperor Gaozu Liu Zhuang becoming extremely suspicious after he ascended the throne.
Time has come to Yongping for thirteen years (70 years), and Emperor Han Ming has firmly grasped the transfer of power.
However, as a "suggestion", he can never change his grumpy temper. Different from the friendly courtiers of Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty, Emperor Hanming not only personally punished the ministers, but also made the former ministers and nobles supervise and report to each other.
In short, when dealing with officials, he has a principle: don't stop quarreling with me!
Maybe I always remember that when my brother Liu Qiang was abolished, my father once commented that it was "too wasteful". After Liu Zhuang ascended the throne, his sense of insecurity increased day by day.
In order to maintain the imperial power, he specially planted his own eyes everywhere, constantly monitoring the courtiers' every move, much like Zhu Yuanzhang, the "monk emperor" of later generations.
However, he wholeheartedly arranged this "24-hour security monitoring system without dead ends" for his eldest brother and former prince Liu Qiang, but the other party was not blessed. In the second year after Emperor Hanming ascended the throne, Liu Qiang died suddenly in the East China Sea. But no one can imagine that after more than ten years, the system carefully built by Emperor Han Ming is still in operation.
In the 13th year of Yongping, Emperor Hanming received a tip that his younger brother Liu Ying, the king of Chu, was suspected of rebelling in the fief!
It was Yan Guang who broke the news for him. He planted "Imperial 007" in Chu. According to Yan Guang's report, the king of Chu used Wang Ping and Zhong Yan from Yuyang as symbols in the fief a few days ago.
The so-called "map symbols" refer to maps and military symbols. With these two things, whether the other party is really rebellious or not, at least the mercenary's self-esteem can't run away.
After hearing the news, Emperor Han Ming was extremely nervous.
Once upon a time, Liu Ying, king of Chu, and Emperor Hamming were brothers.
Liu * * * has 1 1 sons. In addition to abolishing Guo Shengtong and Yin Lihua, they each produced five emperors for Guangwudi, and Xu, who once won glory, gave birth to a son, namely Liu Ying, the king of Chu. Because Liu Ying was not born after Guo and Yin, his position among the scholars of Guangwu Emperor was not high. But Liu Zhuang, who was filial and peaceful since childhood, took good care of this younger brother.
When her father died, Liu Zhuang made Xu the Empress Dowager Chu and let her enjoy her old age in the fief of her son Liu Ying.
After Liu Ying arrived at the fief, he followed the example of the previous dynasty and studied The Art of Huang Lao for a long time, staying in the world and praying for immortality.
If this situation continues, the two brothers will probably not take the step of tearing their faces.
Since Emperor Han Ming dreamed of meeting the "Little Golden Statue" and introduced Buddhist classics to build the White Horse Temple, Liu Ying, who was far away from Chu, began to believe in Buddhism again. At home, Liu Ying, the king of Chu, has great respect for Lao Zi and the pagoda. What is even more suspicious is that when the court set up "Liao Yingying Camp" to prevent the Huns from invading the territory, it even took the initiative to hand over dozens of fine silks, and by the way, it apologized that it was a vassal country and was sinful, and it was willing to "send silks to atone".
If we talk about the trip of the King of Chu as a Buddhist, the word "karma" may explain his behavior of turning himself in for no reason. However, from the perspective of maintaining imperial power, the strange behavior of the king of Chu just confirms his "unwarranted" treason crime.
Soon, Emperor Han Ming, whose younger brother was to blame, disposed of Liu Ying, the king of Chu, and thus built the "King of Chu Prison".
In history, because of Chu prison, "thousands of refugees were killed", the number of people imprisoned by collective punishment reached as high as ten thousand. The furious Emperor Han Ming even ordered that the families of prisoners sentenced to death for their crimes should not be taken into custody, and offenders should be treated as accomplices.
For a time, there were countless dignitaries involved in the rebellion of the king of Chu. However, on the question of how to treat Liu Ying, the "culprit", Emperor Hamming suddenly made a 180 turn. Mindful of the so-called "congeniality", Emperor Hanming only deposed Liu Ying and moved the capital to Danyang (now Xuancheng, Anhui), which was not as bad as his relatives. Xu Renmei was the Empress Dowager of Chu.
However, Liu Ying committed suicide by depression shortly after he moved to Danyang.
Although Emperor Han Ming treated the ministers harshly, he was always clear-headed on the issues of the whole world.
Shortly after his younger brother Liu Ying committed suicide, the biggest Yellow River water conservancy reconstruction project in the era of Emperor Han Ming was successfully completed!
As the birthplace of the Central Plains civilization, the prose of the Yellow River is often directly related to the rise and fall of a dynasty. It happened that this "mother river" was silted up and his temper was a bit like that of Emperor Han Ming. As long as there is a "dissatisfaction", it will spontaneously change the predetermined track. Every breach brings a devastating disaster to the downstream people. Therefore, emperors in imperial times usually dare not change the direction of the Yellow River easily. People born and raised in Sri Lanka always combine the turbidity of the Yellow River with the evaluation of the monarch.
In order to win the hearts of the people, Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty, took the risk of ordering military action against the Yellow River. But at that time, the Eastern Han Dynasty had just been established, and everything was in ruins, so the matter of repairing the Yellow River finally went away. Results In the later period of Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty, the Yellow River captured the Huai River many times, and the downstream flooded in many places, resulting in incalculable losses.
Facing the pros and cons of building the Yellow River, Emperor Gaozu Liu Zhuang acted arbitrarily, trying to recruit hundreds of thousands of civilian workers to follow Wang Wu and Wang Jing, who had worshipped on the riverbank, to manage the Yellow River. He has an eye for pearls. Since Wang Jing, a water conservancy expert, was appointed as the leader of the Yellow River flood control front-line headquarters, the life of the people in the lower reaches has been getting better every day.
Because the river regime of the Yellow River often changes, in order to ensure the water safety of the people in the lower reaches, Wang Jing immediately arranged for migrant workers to dredge the riverbed after inspecting the general situation of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and redesigned the flood routing of the Yellow River, which increased the water level gradient of the riverbed and greatly enhanced the sediment carrying capacity of the Yellow River when flowing.
At the same time, Wang Jing also ordered people to build dams on the river defense line from Xingyang, Henan Province to the Yellow River estuary for nearly a thousand miles. On this Qianli dam, he designed a sluice every ten miles. In order to ensure the smooth progress of each discharge, the accountability system of "river length" initiated by Wang Jing took effect immediately on the day when the river embankment was completed. In Jing Wang, through the form of "one official and one sluice", the newly-built dams along the Yellow River are always in a state of discharge. In this way, the flood control pressure in the lower reaches of the Yellow River was quickly relieved.
The Yellow River prevention and control system established in Jing Wang was quite advanced at that time.
On the day when the dam was completed, Wang Jing selflessly taught the local people all her gains from river regulation, such as the method of landfill breach.
Since then, the flood of the Yellow River has suddenly decreased. Even in the period of Emperor Huan of Han Dynasty (146- 168) and the period of Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty (266-290), there were some local spillovers, but in general, Wang Jingzhi benefited the coastal people for more than 800 years.
After the renovation of the Yellow River, Emperor Han Ming quickly obtained the biggest wave of population welfare since the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Statistics show that at the end of Emperor Guangwu, the total number of households in the world was about 4.28 million, and the total population was about 2 1 10,000. In the eighteenth year of Han Yongping (75 years), that is, the fifth year after the success of river management, there were 5.86 million households with a population of more than 30 million.
Emperor Han Ming was not satisfied with this. Under the background of imperial economy and population development, he became more strict with himself and his imperial clan.
Just as Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty, said in his will that he was "useless to the people" and asked for a thin burial, Emperor Han maintained an attitude of "following the rules of the emperor's funeral". When he built his own mausoleum, he simply asked the company to "make the water flow without graves; After ten thousand years, sweep the floor for sacrifice. "
In order to achieve Mencius' political realm of "the people are the most important, the country is the second, and the monarch is the light", he directly asked his vassals to "make way" for the people all over the world.
According to the patriarchal clan system of the Han Dynasty, except one son who succeeded to the throne as emperor, all the other sons were given fiefs to a county by the king.
In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty usually divided the vassals into Xuzhou, Jizhou, Yanzhou and other places with relatively rich economy. Moreover, in order to ensure that children and grandchildren can eat underwear in the fief, such as Liu Qiang, Donghai Gong, who was abolished as a prince, not only enjoyed the food city in the county, but also took the rich Lu County at that time, taking Lu as the capital and living in the Lu Palace in the Western Han Dynasty.
In the fifteenth year of Yongping (72), when Emperor Han Ming wanted to enfeoffment the adult prince under his knee, he said, which of these black sheep under my knee is qualified to compare with my brothers? Since the fief my brothers got from their father was a county, I, Liu Zhuang, hereby declare that I will give my fief of half the county to this group of Xiong Haizi as fief, and the rest will still be kept by the central unified staff and returned to the people!
Similar to thin burial, this decree of Emperor Han Ming has a good starting point, but it is quite difficult to implement.
However, it is precisely because of his own exemplary role that a large number of honest officials appeared in the Meiji created by him, which indirectly contributed to the arrival of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Harmony.
Because Emperor Hanming always insisted on "respecting the old martial arts system and not daring to violate it", he also copied and carried forward the excellent policies of Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty from time to time in terms of people's livelihood policies.
At that time, the Eastern Han Dynasty inherited the system of the Western Han Dynasty and implemented the policy of "flat taxes and reduced taxes" among the people. The so-called "fake commons" is to distribute state-owned mountains, rivers, lakes, stored farmland and seed tools to the poor who have no land, encourage farming, and promise not to tax them in the short term to protect the basic rights and interests of the poor.
On the basis of maintaining this policy, in the 13th year of Yongping (70 years), Emperor Hanming issued a special decree: "The waterfront canal goes to the fields and gives it to the poor. No power is solid. "
What do you mean? It is to distribute the fields with poor farming ability along the Yellow River to the poor who have no land, and let them settle near the dams built by Wang Jing and others, so as to divert water to irrigate farmland and become self-reliant. In this way, even if these barren land can't cultivate enough food regularly and quantitatively, at least it won't let the landless starve everywhere.
Of course, this policy was destroyed by those powerful people who were forced to "cut the meat". This is also the reason why people miss Emperor Han Ming.
During his eighteen years in power, although his character was criticized, he created a "world is at peace, people have no corvee, people are older than men, and people are rich".
In August of the 18th year of Yongping (75), 48-year-old Emperor Han Ming suddenly died in the front hall of Luoyang East Palace.
In the last will, the son of heaven who died young still remembered frugality.
He asked all descendants of the royal family not to be extravagant after his death. When you worship him, you just need to offer a ladle of water and some bacon. After a hundred days of mourning, you can take off your clothes and return to normal life. If the heir dares to claim compensation, it can be regarded as a violation of the laws of the ancestral temple and handed over to the courtiers for heavier punishment.
As Ye Fan said in Ji Zan of Ming Di in the Later Han Dynasty, "Emperor Han Ming worked conscientiously. Danger and respect, political investigation and rape win. Prepare chapter objects and keep a thin tomb. Always waste code and obey the law. Watch the clouds on the stage and worship the old. Only the achievements of the emperor will add luster to the literary examination. "
Throughout his life, he was always able to distinguish between being strong and cruel to the imperial clan and being kind to the people under his rule. Maybe this is what a good emperor should look like.
References:
[Southern Song Dynasty] Ye Fan: The Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Zhonghua Book Company, 2005.
[Song] Sima Guang: Zi Jian, Zhonghua Book Company, 2009.
Lai Xue: On the Character of Emperor Han Ming, Its Causes and Influence, Journal of Xianyang Normal University,No. 1 issue, 20 13.
Zheng Changxing: Han Ming Di and Yongping Politics, Journal of zhoukou normal university, S2, 1996.
Ren Boping: Reasons for the Long-term Safe Flow of the Yellow River after the Eastern Han Dynasty —— Discussion with Mr. Tan Qixiang, Academic Monthly, No.9, 1962.
Gao Min: On the two types of "fake commons" system in Han Dynasty, Search,No. 1985,No. 1.