Chapter 16 Chapter Thirteen The Rise and Fall of the Later Han Dynasty

From the time when Emperor Guangwu ascended the throne in 25 A.D. to the usurpation by Wei in 220 A.D. in the Later Han Dynasty, there were a total of 192 years. If Dong Zhuo was abolished and established in 189 A.D., when the East raised troops to fight against Zhuo and the actual division, there were 175 years in total. Years; its luck is slightly equal to that of the former Han, but its national strength is far inferior to that of the former Han.This is because the latter Han moved its capital to Luoyang, and its control over the west and north was not as convenient as that of the former Han; The reason.The four hundred years of the Han Dynasty are also called the prosperous age of China. In fact, the later Han Dynasty has gradually revealed the opportunity of decline.Emperor Guangwu was a practical statesman.He knew that after the chaos, he was eager to recuperate, so he blindly reduced officials to save trouble.Retire the meritorious officials and enter the civil service.The high-ranking and respected Sangongs also only admired their politeness, and they used strict laws and practices to supervise and blame. Although sometimes they were too strict, they were quite autocratic. The secret of "people", so the politics at that time were quite clear.In 57 AD, Emperor Guangwu died and Emperor Ziming was established.It can also abide by its legacy.In 75 A.D., Emperor Ming collapsed and Emperor Zizhang was established. Although the politics gradually became looser, he was still able to enjoy his career and live in peace.Emperor Zhang died in 88 AD.It has been a total of 52 years since Gongsun Shuping came to this place in 36 A.D., and it was the era of peace in the Eastern Han Dynasty.Hu Hanxie Shanyu of the Huns made an appointment with his sons to succeed him.In the sixth pass, he died in Hudu and died in Shanyu. He violated the contract and killed his younger brother.Bi, the son of the former Chanyu, led the south at that time, but refused to accept it.In 48 A.D., he established himself as Huhanxie Shanyu and came to surrender.The Chinese are located in today's Suiyuan territory.Since then, the Huns have been divided into south and north.The Northern Huns were in decline and chaos.In 89 A.D., Nandan submitted a letter seeking to merge with Beiting.Emperor Shihe was newly established and young, and the Empress Dowager Dou came to the court.Seeing that Dou Xian violated the law later, he wanted to make him make meritorious service to redeem himself, so he took Xian as the general and sent troops to defeat the Xiongnu.In the following year, it was broken again in Jinwei Mountain (approximately the Altai Mountain in northwest Mongolia).Since then, the northern Xiongnu have fled far away and cannot be a trouble to China.The northeastern part of the Western Regions is vulnerable to the control of the Huns.In the southwest, after breaking away from the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty, powerful countries such as Shache and Khotan came out to attack other countries with the intention of annexing them.At the beginning of the rise of the Later Han Dynasty, many countries were willing to send their sons to serve, so please send a guardian.Guangwu forbids it.During the reign of Emperor Ming, Banchao was sent as an envoy.Ban Chao was wise and brave enough, and brought a small number of people to stay in the Western Regions, and dispatched soldiers from various countries to conquer those who were not convinced. In 91 AD, the Western Regions were pacified.The Han Dynasty re-established the capital protection, with Chao as it.The Later Han Dynasty did not put much effort into management outside the territory, and its success is similar to that of the Former Han Dynasty, which can only be described as a coincidence.

There were several sources of chaos in the later Han Dynasty, the most important of which were foreign relatives and eunuchs.The former royal family, its predecessor, was originally a powerful clan.The clan has its own law of succession to the clan.When the patriarch dies and the legal heir is young, a person is pushed out from the clan to temporarily exercise the power of governance, which is called the regent.If the wife of the former patriarch and the mother of the current patriarch act as an agent, it is the so-called mother's empress.It was originally a political habit in the former Han Dynasty that the clan was entrusted to the outside, and the foreign relatives assisted the government in the Chinese and Korean Dynasties.Although the former Han Dynasty was usurped by foreign relatives, when a system has not collapsed, there are disadvantages. People always think that it is the people who are not good, and they will not blame the system.In this way, there were frequent monarchs in the later Han Dynasty, so naturally the system of regents of the royal family could not be produced, but only the mother and queen would rule the court; the mother and queen would naturally appoint foreign relatives.At the beginning of the monarch, he was originally similar to a township head or county head.He is very close to the people.Later, the country expanded and became larger, and it was several times different from the original country, but the monarchy system remained the same.He is naturally separated from the people and lower-level officials because of the large number of levels.And because of her high status, she has a tendency to be pampered and superior, and the relationship is so important that she has to live in seclusion.So he didn't get close to the ministers of the current dynasty, but only practiced with some eunuchs and concubines.This is the reason for the success of the past dynasties, and it is also a reason for political corruption.The misfortune of the foreign relatives in the later Han Dynasty began in the time of Emperor Zhang.Emperor Zhang's empress, Dou Shi, had no sons.Song Gui gave birth to Ziqing and made him the prince.Liang Gui gave birth to his son Zhao, and Empress Dou raised him as his son.Later, he falsely murdered the nobles of Song Dynasty, abolished Qing as the king of Qinghe, and made Zhao the prince.Emperor Zhang collapsed and was established for Emperor He.The younger brother Dou Xian monopolizes power.Since Emperor He was the elder, he conspired with the eunuch Zheng Zhong to kill him. In 105, Hedi collapsed.It is said that Emperor He's prince had died many times, so Emperor Shang, who was only a hundred days old, was fostered by the people.Empress Deng stood up to meet him.Next year, come back to life.It is to welcome the son of King Qinghe, who is Emperor An.Empress Dowager Deng came to court for fifteen years.After the death of the Empress Dowager, Emperor An took charge of the government, appointed the empress' elder brother Yan Xian, and favored the eunuch and nurse Wang Sheng, and the politics was very chaotic.Empress Yan had no children, and Li's family in the harem gave birth to a son, Bao, who became the crown prince.Later, he killed Li and abolished the insurance. In 125 years, Emperor An Ruwan, Dao collapsed.The queen returns home from a secret funeral to welcome Hou Yi, the grandson of Emperor Zhang.He died that year.The eunuch Sun Cheng and others welcomed the abolished prince Bao, who was Emperor Shun.Cheng and other nineteen people were all named Liehou.However, it was not long before he was condemned many times.Emperor Shun appointed Liang Shang, the queen's father, who was quite cautious.After Shang died, Ziji succeeded him, and his arrogance and indulgence were unprecedented. In 144, Emperor Shun died and Emperor Zi Chong was established.Collapse next year.Liang Ji greeted Li Zhang's great-great-grandson Zhidi.Because of his youth and cleverness, he was killed by Ji.He also welcomed Emperor Huan, the great-grandson of Emperor Zhang.Thirteen years after the establishment of Emperor Huan, he conspired with the eunuch Shan Chao and other five people to kill Liang Ji, and since then the eunuch has gained power again.

Because of the eunuch's gaining power, the so-called disaster of party imprisonment was aroused.Eunuchs and eunuchs are originally two different things.The original meaning of the word eunuch is to learn in the government office, but later it changed to the meaning of serving people in the noble family, as mentioned in Chapter 41.The scale of the royal family is naturally larger than that of the Qing doctor, and there are also people who serve him in the palace. This is the person who served Emperor Hui in the "Prince's House" when he was the prince).Eunuchs were not exclusively used at first, and at the beginning, the rank of eunuchs was much higher than that of eunuchs, so eunuchs should never be used.But later, the punishments were excessive, and some scholar-bureaucrats were castrated (for example, Sima Qian was ordered by the Chinese Secretary after receiving the castration, which is a good example); there were also people who were born eunuchs; , not all captives or sinners.As a result, his ability and character gradually improved, and he could be used as a eunuch.After Empress Dowager Deng came to court in the later Han Dynasty, several kinds of officials in the palace, such as Zhongchangshi, all changed to eunuchs, and eunuchs became synonymous with eunuchs' officials.Although the eunuch's status has been improved, since he was a prisoner and a sinner at the beginning, the society will always treat him as another kind of person, and the scholar-bureaucrats look down on him even more.At this time, the scholar-bureaucrats and nobles were all well-known and easy to make friends with.One is due to the habit of the nobles in the Warring States period, and the nobles like to support scholars, and the scholars like to travel, and the other is due to the needs of elections at this time. It has been mentioned in Chapter 43.Most of the eunuchs at that time had children and relatives, and they either worked as officials outside and were tyrannical, or they lived in the countryside and were arrogant.It is a good opportunity to establish a name by using the law to punish him, or stirring up public opinion to oppose him.Scholar-officials and eunuchs, then turned into fire and water.This group of literati and bureaucrats with good reputation and friendship naturally cannot help flaunting each other and making friends with each other.The Taixue in the capital has many scholars and is close to politics, so it naturally becomes the center where they gather.It is a taboo in politics to form cliques to enter into business, attract like-minded people, and confuse right and wrong.The scholar-bureaucrats at that time could not help but suspect this.And with this one charge, you can catch them all in one go, how convenient and enjoyable it is!The eunuch then pointed out that the celebrities who opposed them at that time were party members and persuaded Emperor Huan to imprison them. Later, they were pardoned because of his stepfather Dou Wu's words. In 167, Emperor Huan died and had no son. Empress Dou and Wu Ding set up a ban, and welcomed Emperor Zhang's great-great-grandson Lingdi.The Empress Dowager is in court.Dou Wu was close to celebrities, and Chen Fan, who was benevolent to the Dou family, became a grand tutor, so he himself was a celebrity.The eunuch who seeks to punish and gain power is killed instead.The queen mother was also depressed and died.Emperor Ling is old, not only does he not know how to rectify, but he even worships and trusts eunuchs, allowing them to control the government and cause chaos all over the world.And blindly amassing extravagance.At this time, the source of chaos was already lurking, and if he was given opportunities to erupt every day, it would become an unmanageable situation.

It was the Qiang Rebellion that seriously hurt the vitality of the Later Han Dynasty.China and the barbarians were always separated by frontiers.On the true meaning of nationalism, the advanced nation has the responsibility to lure the backward nation and should not focus on isolation.But assimilation must be done gradually.Before assimilation has progressed to a considerable extent, the mutual boundaries cannot be abolished abruptly.Because a difference in culture is a difference in life, it cannot be made to live in the same way, and if you want to force people with different lives to live together, it will inevitably lead to disputes.This is an important reason for the Wuhu chaos in China, and the Qiang chaos in the later Han Dynasty has already led the way.The northeastern border of today's Qinghai Province was originally the land of the Qiang people in the Han Dynasty.When Wang Mang was in charge, he satirized the Qiang people to donate land and established a Xihai County.Without the strength to open up, the frontier fortress was withdrawn because of it, and the Qiang people invaded the interior.In the early years of the Later Han Dynasty, there were repeated rebellions, and they were conquered by China, and they all moved to the interior.As a result, more and more people descended from the Qiang and scattered in what is now Gansu.During the reign of Emperor An, it led to a large-scale rebellion.At this time, political corruption and local officials had no intention of guarding the land, so they all moved counties to the interior.If the people are not happy to migrate, they will be forced to drive them away, and they will die in countless displacements.It took more than ten years to send troops to suppress it, and the generals were corrupt. The cost reached 24 billion, and it was barely over.Emperor Shun rebelled again, and the military expenditure reached 8 billion Shebillion. Emperor Huan appointed Duan Jiong and slaughtered him extensively before he calmed down.However, on the northwest side, the desolation is getting worse, and the generals are gradually becoming arrogant, and there is a big source of chaos lurking.

Appealing to rationality in every situation is only possible for well-educated people within a certain range.The majority of the rest, and the behavior of this part of people outside a certain range, are still dominated by custom and traditional thinking.There is no reason to explain this kind of customary and traditional thinking. If you want to investigate it carefully, it often conflicts with our other knowledge, so people ignore it and admit it unconditionally. This is the so-called superstition.What gives power to superstition is religion.Religion is powerful in motivating people.When there are many tribes, the teachings of religion are limited to one tribe and are not enough to attract people from other tribes.It will not be the case after unification.The movements of the various minor religions, which gradually amalgamated to give rise to the great ones, are described in Chapter 54.In the Han Dynasty, the upper and lower classes were carried out separately.In the upper class, Confucius was gradually regarded as a god-man, which can be seen from the respect of Confucius by internal scholars (called Wei in the Eastern Han Dynasty) at that time.But in the upper class, those who are well-educated and rational are not allowed to be controlled by such superstitions, so they were soon overthrown by metaphysics against superstition.In the lower society, various superstitions gradually combined to form Taoism in later generations.It was its beginning in Han Dynasty.The most important ones are Zhang Jiao's Taiping Road and Zhang Xiu's Five Dou Rice Road.Taoism reached Kou Qianzhi in the Northern Wei Dynasty before it completely compromised with the government. Before that, it was very fiercely opposed to the government.They use spells to cure diseases, etc., as tools for incitement and union.Zhang Xiu rebelled and was immediately put down.Although Zhang Lu later separated Hanzhong, he only set up ghost soldiers and others, closed himself to the outside world, and practiced his theocracy, which has nothing to do with the overall situation.But Zhang Jiao was very powerful.Started in 184 AD.His disciples spread all over the eight prefectures of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Henan, which are now Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provinces.But Zhang Jiao seems to be a person who can only incite and has no political ability, so he is defeated soon.However, the small chaos at this time has spread everywhere and is not easy to stop, and the remnants of the Yellow Turbans are also difficult to eliminate.So the governor was changed to the governor of the state, and the two-level system was changed into a three-level system, which made it easier for some ambitious people, that is, those who still called the governor and the county guards who also had military power in their hands.The trend of division gradually formed, waiting for an opportunity to explode.