Chapter 2 2. The unveiler

The unveiler of the new era is Yuan Shao. There are two new eras, one is called the Three Kingdoms, and the other is called the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.This is of course an imprecise statement.Because the first half of the Three Kingdoms belonged to the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the second half belonged to the Wei and Jin Dynasties.The twenty-fifth year of Jian'an in the Han Dynasty is the first year of Huangchu in Wei Dynasty; the fourth year of Tianji in Wu is the sixth year in Xianning in Jin Dynasty. Where did the Three Kingdoms come from? However, since the "Three Kingdoms" by Chen Shou, the saying of the Three Kingdoms has become a convention.What's more, the Three Kingdoms are indeed different from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the characteristics of the times are different, and the ruling class is also different.However, the unveiler was Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao was not highly rated in history.This is because he is a loser, but also because he is really lackluster.For example, exterminating eunuchs is neither human nor wise.Not all eunuchs are bad people, how can they be killed?Political struggle should unite the majority, so how can we not ask indiscriminately and kill everything? It's a pity that Yuan Shao made such a mistake. It is now impossible to know with certainty what he thought, nor to defend his mistake.But it is certain that Yuan Shao participated in the struggle between his relatives and eunuchs for profound reasons, not for personal grievances.If there are interests, he also represents a group, a class, or even a trend.

This group is the gentry. This class is the gentry landlords. This trend is that the gentry landlord class takes power. So, is Yuan Shao a nobleman? yes. What is a gentry?Literally understood, it is the family of scholars.Scholars, as a class, were the lowest level of nobles in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the highest level of commoners (scholars, farmers, businessmen, and scholars) in the Qin and Han Dynasties.Simply put, they are scholars or intellectuals.Strictly speaking, they are intellectuals whose profession is reading. Reading has no economic benefits, and the way out for scholars is to be an official.The central government of the empire, after only respecting Confucianism, welcomes them to join the ranks of officials, so as to gradually transform the military government at the beginning of the founding of the country into a civilian government.

What is the result?It is the fashion to study and become an official.So those who study for generations study and serve as officials for generations.The more officials become bigger and bigger, the more books they read. If the population is prosperous, coupled with the fact that students and old officials are all over the world, special families and power groups will be formed, and even official careers will be monopolized. Such a family is called a gentry. In other words, the gentry is a family that has been an official for generations. This is the case with Yuan Shao's family. From the great-great-grandfather down, four generations have held the positions of "three lords", known as "four generations and three lords".The three princes of the Eastern Han Dynasty were Taiwei, Situ, and Sikong.Their status is higher than Jiuqing (government ministers), second only to emperors (heads of state), and equivalent to prime ministers (heads of government).The four generations and three princes of the Yuan family are of course an out-and-out noble family.

The gentry group is actually a professional bureaucratic group. Corresponding to the gentry are the nobility and common people.The nobles are the royal family, relatives and dukes.Their status is respected, and their titles are hereditary, so they are noble.But nobles may not be educated, let alone educated, and may not have prestige.The only ones with prestige are the gentry who inherit poetry and books, so the gentry is also called the famous family. A famous family must be a famous family, and a famous family is often powerful, so it is also called a powerful family.Yuan Shao's family is "powerful all over the world".Perhaps it was because of this reason that Yuan Shao was proud and arrogant at a young age. It wasn't because he didn't see celebrities, nor did he go to the court for recruitment, but he made friends with a large number of social sages and celebrities from all walks of life.

This incident caused dissatisfaction among the authorities.Zhao Zhong, the head of the eunuch, said: "Yuan Benchu ​​should not be called by the court, but raised a group of death squads. I don't know what this kid wants to do!"Uncle Yuan Kui (read Ruwei) also scolded him: You want to destroy the Yuan family!Only then did Yuan Shao restrain himself a little, and served under the general's command. It seems that Yuan Shao didn't take an upstart like He Jin seriously. He later teamed up with He Jin, but there was actually another reason. All in all, nobles have titles and power, gentry have power and prestige, and those who have nothing are common people.The common people are often poor, so they are also called the poor family or the Han family.There are also scholars in the common or poor families, but they have not been able to become nobles because of poor official luck or family fortune.

The nobility, the gentry, and the common people are the three classes of the landlord class. The question is, what is the point of this distinction? The significance lies in representing the three historical stages of the Chinese Empire. Unlike the Roman Empire, which started from city-states, the Chinese Empire evolved from states.In the era of states, the emperors, princes, and officials were all lords, but in the era of empires, it was bureaucrats who had neither land nor hereditary.Therefore, the ruling class of the state is the lord class, and the ruling class of the empire is the landlord class.

This is the first point. Second, the same landlord class has different types.The most suitable for the imperial system is the common land landlord.Because the landlords of the common clan had neither noble blood nor prominent family status, they could only enter the political power through the imperial examinations, which, on the contrary, ensured the centralization of power, ethical governance, and agency of officials in the empire. The one closest to the state era is the aristocratic landlord, because from the noble lord to the noble landlord, there was only one step away.Therefore, when a state becomes an empire, the aristocratic lords will become aristocratic landlords; it is a historical necessity that the ruling class will eventually change from aristocratic landlords to common people landlords.

However, transformation requires a process, and it is the gentry who inherit the past and usher in the future.The gentry value family status like nobles, and study and become officials like common people, which is just for transition.Therefore, the Qin and Han Dynasties were the era of noble landlords, the Sui and Tang Dynasties and after that were the era of common landlords, and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties between them were the era of noble landlords. What Yuan Shao represents is this trend. This trend is not surprising.In fact, by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the gentry had become the third largest power group in the dynasty, starting and partially realizing the three major goals of their own development: monopolizing official careers, controlling public opinion, and becoming powerful.

This is no small matter.If you monopolize your official career, you will occupy the superstructure; if you control public opinion, you will master the ideology; if you become powerful, you will master the economic foundation.If things go on like this, sooner or later the empire will belong to the gentry group. It is just around the corner that the gentry and landlord class will take power. What is needed now is an unveiler. Yuan Shao walked up to the stage like this, but he was not the first person to unveil.The first person is Chen Fan.Chen Fan is a great celebrity, who ranked first on the list of celebrities in the first disaster of the party. He is an opinion leader with strong appeal and influence (please refer to the ninth volume of the history of China, "The Two Hans and Two Romes").

Tied for the top of the list with Chen Fan, also known as the "Three Monarchs", there are foreign relatives Dou Wu and clan Liu Shu (grandfather of Emperor Hanling).The scholar group elected Dou Wu, Chen Fan, and Liu Shu as leaders, which is not only a united front, but also the aspiration of the people. In other words, it's time for the eunuch group to dismiss. So Chen Fan decided to attack.His suggestion to General Dou Wu, like Yuan Shao's later, was to destroy all eunuchs.It's a pity that the Empress Dowager Dou who was facing the court, like the later Empress Dowager He, did not agree with the plan of shooting to death; and this method of making enemies in an all-round way forced the eunuchs to fight for their own survival. This happened in the first year of Jianning (AD 168).At that time, Dou Wu had only served as a general for nine months, and Emperor Han Ling was only thirteen years old, and everything was under the control of the eunuch group.As a result, Dou Wu was defeated and committed suicide, and Chen Fan, who led more than 80 students to protest, was also arrested and imprisoned.An eunuch said viciously to him: "You old man, let's see if you can smash our jobs and take our heads?" Chen Fan died, and his unveiling had to end in failure. But what should happen will happen.Twenty-one years later, Yuan Shao took over Chen Fan's unfinished mission.And because of his audacity and recklessness, the two major groups of foreign relatives and eunuchs died together, leaving only the gentry on the stage. So, can the gentry make a big splash? cannot. Because Dong Zhuo is here.