Chapter 5 5. Crash across the board

From the time when Cao Wei replaced the Eastern Han Dynasty to when the Northern Wei Dynasty destroyed Beiliang, the "Wei, Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms" in history totaled 219 years.Including the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty after Dong Zhuo entered Beijing and before Cao Pi became emperor, it was exactly 250 years.If we use the simplest words to describe these two and a half centuries, there is only one word - chaos. At the same time as chaos, it is corruption. Corruption is almost the nature of the Jin Dynasty.Once, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty Sima Yan asked his minister Liu Yi: Which emperor of the Han Dynasty would Ai Qing like to compare me to?

Liu Yi replied: Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling. Emperor Wu of Jin turned pale with shock: Isn't this too much? Liu Yi said: Huan and Ling sell their officials, and the money goes to the official treasury; your Majesty sells their officials, and the money goes to private doors.In this way, His Majesty is not as good as them. Emperor Wu of Jin had no choice but to ridicule and said: They don't have a direct minister like you. Liu Yi was telling the truth.The Western Jin Dynasty was corrupt and decadent from the very beginning.Historians once described it this way: the gentry at that time considered it wise to behave like animals, their ability to find a job by not following the right path, and their nobleness to be irresponsible when they were officials.The officialdom is full of busy people, but there are no virtuous people in the court.Everyone has only two goals: one is fame and the other is profit.

This is true for the high-ranking gentry, as well as for the poor and common people. Such as Jia Chong. Jia Chong is the father of Empress Jia who caused the "Eight Kings Rebellion", and his own father is Jia Kui.Jia Kui resolutely defended the Cao Wei regime.At that time, there were even rumors that Sima Yi died of fright because he dreamed that Jia Kui had turned into a ghost, which shows that Jia Kui's stand was firm and clear. However, Jia Chong became an accomplice of the Sima family, and the little emperor Cao Mao died in his hands.At that time, because Cao Mao was dissatisfied with the fall of power, he led his own soldiers to attack Sima Zhao's Prime Minister's Mansion, but none of the soldiers in the Prime Minister's Mansion dared to step forward.But Jia Chong shouted and said: Isn't it just for this time that Xianggong raises soldiers for thousands of days?

So Cao Mao was killed. This is of course an extremely serious crime, which neither Confucian ethics nor imperial law can tolerate.Therefore, when Sima Zhao convened a meeting to discuss the aftermath, the minister Chen Tai made it clear that only cutting Jia Chong at the waist might calm down the public anger. Sima Zhao asked: Is there a second plan? Chen Tai said: This is the best, there is no second. Of course Sima Zhao would not accept it.His solution was to find another scapegoat.Their father and son are actually grateful to Jia Chong, otherwise Jananfeng would not be able to be the queen.In fact, Jia Chong did Sima Zhao a great favor: he did what Sima Zhao wanted to do, and let the guy keep the mask on his face.

That's right, a Confucian mask of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness. The mask was put on long ago.From Sima Yi to Sima Yan, this family has always valued courtesy and filial piety.After Sima Zhao's death, Sima Yan insisted on mourning for three years despite the minister's dissuasion.He said: I am a Confucian student, and I pass on etiquette to my family. How can I forget my true colors just because I am the emperor? This is really ingenious.As the head of state, no emperor has ever performed this ceremony in history.Sima Yan insisted on doing this, just to flaunt that he is a pure Confucian and an authentic gentry.

However, this "pure Confucian" is very lustful. There are even tens of thousands of women in his harem. Even he himself doesn't know who to sleep with, so he has to ride a sheep cart around the palace, and enter wherever the sheep stop Room.Those poor women inserted bamboo leaves into the windows and sprinkled salt water on the ground, hoping that the sheep would come to her door. The only one who disagreed was Hu Fang. Hu Fang is the daughter of Hu Fen, the general who conquered the South, and was canonized as a noble concubine by Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty.The tiger girl of the general gate didn't think that the emperor was so great, she cried loudly after entering the palace, and refused to give an inch when playing games with Sima Yan.

Sima Yan was furious: You are such a general! Hu Fang retorted: "Fighting Gongsun Yuan in the north and rejecting Zhuge Liang in the west, what kind of person is this kind of person?" It is said that Sima Yan was ashamed. Sima Yan should indeed be ashamed, but not because Sima Yi had served in the military, but because of the hypocrisy of him and his dynasty.This empire built on the basis of intrigue, intrigue and plunder can be described as a combination of greed, extravagance, cruelty, cunning, and licentiousness, but what it holds high is the moral banner of Confucian ethics.

Flags are required.The banner is the direction, and the banner is the strength.The words "benevolence, righteousness and morality" are written on the banner to distinguish them from Cao Wei.Cao Cao adhered to the "Legalist Han Family Line", and Zhuge Liang did the same (please refer to the tenth volume of the history of China, "Three Kingdoms").The Sima regime of gentry Confucianism must of course do the opposite, which is the foundation of their country. But what about the actual actions?Killing the king and usurping the throne is unfaithful, deposing the queen mother is unfilial, killing innocent people is unkind, fighting for power and profit is unrighteous, and losing power and humiliating the country is incompetent.Excuse me, where is Confucian ethics safe?But I saw: full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, full of male robbers and female prostitutes.

What is the result? The spiritual pillar of the Chinese Empire collapsed. The pillar is Confucianism.After respecting Confucianism alone, after generations of unremitting efforts, it has become the soul of the Han nation, and it has also maintained the stability of the Han Dynasty for more than 300 years. How can it be said that it collapsed? In addition to the duplicity of the Sima family, there are also problems with Confucianism itself. The problem is that Confucianism has become official learning (officially called Confucianism).Official studies are authoritative and political.Both of these two determine that Confucianism will lose the original vitality of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and become deified, rigid, and dogmatic, and become something that people hate.

That's exactly what happened. The characteristics of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty are cumbersome and pedantic, and second, bewitching and absurd.In other words, he insisted on words and played tricks.For example, a scripture with five words can produce a commentary of 20,000 to 30,000 words.In a simple sentence, one can see the mysterious and subtle meaning.Is this still academic or ideological? of course not. Therefore, even the rulers (such as Wang Mang and Liu Xiu) were bored by the later development of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty, let alone truly intelligent scholars and intellectuals.So after entering the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the upper class "abandoned chapters and sentences (abandoned Confucianism), and people valued different arts (adopted non-Confucian heresies as fashion)", and a new and advanced trend of thought swept across the world with the momentum of prairie fire.

The first to rise is metaphysics. Metaphysics is the symbolic achievement of ideology and culture in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and metaphysicians advocate clear talk or metaphysical talk.As the name suggests, its characteristics are not difficult to imagine: stay away from politics, avoid reality, have nothing to do with morality, despise common affairs, only care about profound theoretical issues, and yearn for an extraordinary and elegant life. This is a pure philosophy that is truly rational and speculative. Such a philosophy is of course a strong impact on Confucianism, which emphasizes ethics, politics, and reality, not to mention Buddhism.The Buddhism introduced in the Eastern Han Dynasty was also the culture of "Yi and Di", and it was less "Chinese" than the "Five Hu". However, it was generally welcomed by intellectuals and rulers. Buddhism is a foreign culture, while metaphysics is the internal opposition.Confucianism has been attacked by internal and external forces, and it is actually powerless to resist.Without this spiritual pillar, the spiritual world that the two Hans had built with great difficulty could only collapse across the board. Yes, these are hopeless times.The land is torn apart, the regime changes frequently, the current situation changes rapidly, and the flames of war are endless. No one knows whether they really feel safe, including those emperors. The chaos of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, first of all, was in the hearts of the people. Troubled times produce heroes, but also ideas.In fact, just as the rituals and music collapsed in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there are a hundred schools of thought contending; there is the decay and decay after the end of the Han Dynasty, and there is also the demeanor of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.The difference is that the contention of a hundred schools of thought is highly respected, but the demeanor of the Wei and Jin Dynasties is mixed.Among them, the mysteries are exactly what we need to explore.