Chapter 11 When Daru meets Daru

As for the Great Confucianism in the late Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin was actually not ranked number one. Above him, there is another person who is more famous and more virtuous, who can be regarded as a model of Confucian scholars for all ages, and that is the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun. Nephew, Wang Mangwang Jujun who came from the famous Wang family. The so-called "when Duke Zhou was afraid of rumors, and Wang Mang was humble and corporal", Wang Mang, who had not yet become emperor, was really a moral model. He was studious, hardworking, frugal, and modest, and he was almost a collection of the best human qualities.Confucian scholars all over the world, including a large number of small and medium-sized landlords, all look forward to this Master Wang being able to take power, thinking that as soon as he takes power, the weather will be smooth, the world will be peaceful, the emperor will no longer be stupid, the court will no longer be chaotic, and the eunuchs will also be free. Stop playing power, your relatives will stop messing around, local officials will no longer fish for the common people, you won't die from the heat in summer, and you won't die from the cold in winter.In a word, heaven on earth is built.

Wang Mang is not only a great Confucianist like Liu Xin, he was a colleague and an old friend when he was a servant of the Huangmen together, and he has another characteristic that no one can compare to, that is, he admires the ancients extremely, and thinks that the ancients (mainly referring to before the Western Zhou Dynasty) ) Everything is good, but now everything is bad. If you want to do a good job in the current political situation, you must first respect Confucianism, second, respect morality, and third, restore the old style.Later, he usurped the power of the Han Dynasty, established a new dynasty, and immediately began to implement his ideals. The official name should be changed from the old one, the weights and measures should be changed from the old one, the legal system should be changed from the old one, and even the coins should be changed from the old one, wishing to travel through time and space. Just take the entire new dynasty back to ancient times.Liu's father and son's New Five Virtues Theory has been catching up to Fuxi, which is antique enough, and Wang Mang naturally likes it when he sees it.

Ever since, an old magician and an old dreamer hit it off. Wang Mang has caught up with the good times. Originally, his old Wang family has been a foreign relative for many years. Several generations of patriarchs have been good at doing things wrong, and his reputation has already become bad. His Wang Mang's reputation has to be obtained by drawing a line with his uncles and uncles. .However, the foreign relatives who succeeded the Wang family, including the Ding family, the Fu family, and Dong Xian, a beautiful man who got the position by rolling the emperor's bed with his sister and wife, are worse than each other. was cast aside by the whole society.So in June of the second year of Yuanshou (1 BC), Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty died, and the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun immediately snatched the jade seal, and made a comprehensive order. Wang Mang, who had been kicked out of the central government with an empty title, made a comeback.

The ruling and opposition parties were full of joy, and Wang Mang also upheld the spirit of Confucius who killed Shao Zhengmao, no matter how "gentle and honest" he was, he could not be as honest as his political opponents. The so-called "treat the enemy as cruel and ruthless as severe winter", put Ding , Fu, Dong and others stepped on it desperately.The more he stepped on, the higher his prestige, the higher the prestige, the more stable his power, so he became An Han Gong the next year, four years later became the Emperor She, that is, acting emperor, and three years later , officially usurped the throne successfully.

The Western Han Dynasty ended and the New Dynasty was established. As we said earlier, Han Confucianism is not a fundamentalist Confucian school. They said a lot and believed in a lot of things, but the ancestors Confucius and Mencius didn't mention or pay attention to it at all. That is "prophecy".The combination of Confucianism and folk superstition is rooted in the old master Dong Zhongshu, who said that "man and nature are one", after Emperor Yuan and Emperor Han Cheng made it more and more mysterious, and finally came to Liu Xiang and Liu Xin. , Blooming that gorgeous flower of evil.Wang Mang and Liu Xin are contemporaries, great Confucians, and good friends. Although he did not leave any great works or quotations, we can believe that his views and thoughts are not much different from Liu Xin. .

In other words, Wang Mang not only respects the ancient times, but also desperately wants to go back to the past, and like Liu Xin, he is superstitious to the extreme - after all, we can't get into other people's stomachs like Sun Monkey, so it's better to be fair It is said that Wang Mang, like Liu Xin, is superstitious to the extreme.In short, during Wang Mang's reign, all kinds of auspicious signs and auspicious objects sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain. The officially recognized auspicious signs in the two hundred years of the Western Han Dynasty may not have been as many as in the years before he proclaimed himself emperor.The so-called "what is good at the top, will be followed by the bottom", if Wang Mang didn't believe in these tricks at all, and he would beat him to death with a stick when the first auspiciousness came out, there would definitely not be a second or third one, all because of him Instigation or even love, the tricks made by idlers from all walks of life are so blooming.

For example, it is said that the seedlings grow three feet long, three ears grow on one barley, millet grows naturally without sowing, cocoons grow naturally without silkworms, nectar falls from the sky, clear springs grow from the earth, and the phoenix cheers. They all flew over, a stone cow appeared in Berkshire, and so on.There are all kinds of strange things and everything. Then, according to the theory of the old and new five virtues, these auspicious signs from heaven either bless the old dynasty in peace, or indicate that a new dynasty is about to be born.As the ruler, Wang Mang approved and recognized all kinds of auspiciousness, instead of angrily denouncing them as monsters. It is obvious that he did not want to build a new dynasty for the future of the Han Dynasty.But how to build a new dynasty?Wang Mang is a great Confucian who advocates "benevolence and righteousness". He does not engage in violent revolution. He wants to engage in peaceful evolution. This also coincides with Liu Xin's previous saying of "five virtues coexist with each other".Liu Xin's new theory is so useful to him, how can there be no reason not to use it desperately?

Ever since, in the winter of the fifth year of the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 5), the former Huiguang Xie Xiao said: "Meng Tong, the magistrate of Wugong County under me, accidentally dug out a white stone when he was dredging a well. , as if it was a jade sacrificing to heaven, and there is a line of scarlet letters engraved on the stone, which reads 'declare Wang Mang, the Duke of Anhan, as emperor'." If Wang Mang has no ambitions and does not want to usurp the throne, he should tear up this memorial immediately , or throw it directly in Xie Xiao's face, but he didn't do that, instead suggesting that the ministers report this matter to the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun.The old lady got angry on the spot, saying that it was a lie to confuse the public, it was unbelievable, let alone carried out.

This is Wang Mang's first trial, but he got frustrated with it.He also considered that the time was not yet ripe, so he asked Tai Bao Wang Shun to fool the old lady: "Wang Mang has no other intentions, he just wants to be regent and increase his power." The old lady was confused for a while, and believed So I issued an edict and said: "I have carefully thought about the word 'to be the emperor', which should refer to the meaning of performing the power of the emperor. Well, then let An Han follow the example of the Duke of Zhou to assist the king and become a regent. .”

If we put aside other dynasties, Wang Mang should be called the regent, but Zhou Gong's regent has been in charge for a long time, and no one knows what his name was at the beginning, and there will be no similar examples in the future.So Wang Mang honestly and unceremoniously called himself "Emperor She", and changed the year name to "Jushe" by the way-it is probably because of this stinking example in the front, so only the regent will be named after that. No one dares to inherit the title of this weird "Emperor of Photography". After being the emperor for three full years, Wang Mang couldn't take it anymore, so a new wave of presenting auspiciousness, auspicious objects, and prophecy came into being.First of all, the traitor of the old Liu family, Liu Jing, Marquis of Guangrao, wrote a letter saying that in July of that year, the head of the pavilion at Changxing Pavilion in Linzi County, Qi County, named Xin Dang, had several dreams in one night, all dreaming that an angel came to tell him : "Emperor She must be the real emperor. If you don't believe me, just look at it. In this pavilion, there will be a new well." Xindang got up in the morning to look for it. Hey, a new well popped up on the ground for no reason. , and it is a hundred feet deep.

This is so weird that it came to grandma's house. Think about it, even if there is an angel in the dream, why not find an important court official, but find a small pavilion chief instead?This pavilion chief is not Liu San'er from back then... Then, in November, a stone ox was dug up in Bajun County, and a strange stone was dug out in Fufeng County, and they were all moved to Chang'an and placed in front of Weiyang Palace.Wang Mang went to watch with Taibao Wang Shun and other important officials of the court. While watching, suddenly a strong wind blew up, dust and sand filled the sky, fascinated everyone's eyes, and when the wind stopped and the dust fell, suddenly something appeared out of thin air. The "Bronze Talisman and Silk Picture" came, and it was written: "This is the prophecy of the heavens announcing the birth of the new emperor. The person who presents it should be a marquis." Wang Mang put these two weird things together and played it to the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, which meant: "It's destiny, my nephew, I will be the real emperor, so please stop insisting, aunt." When the incident broke out, the whole world understood Wang Mang's thoughts, so the most bizarre scene finally appeared.In December of AD 8, at dusk one day, a super courageous idler named Ai Zhang appeared out of nowhere. In front of the temple, the copper box was handed over to the temple guard.The officials handed in the copper box, and Wang Mang opened it to have a look, only to see that there was a "Picture of the Golden Chamber of the Emperor's Xingxi" and a "Book of the Red Emperor's Xingxiu Liu Bang to the Yellow Emperor's Golden Policy", all of which clearly stated "Wang Mang For the true emperor", and listed eleven names, all with corresponding official titles, saying that they should be the important assistants of the new emperor-of course, Aizhang's own name was also written in it majestically. The academic circles generally believe that this set of tricks was not inspired by Wang Mang, but the ingenuity of the mourning chapter. In order to be an official forged prophecy, he got his wish and helped Wang Mang to the throne of the emperor, and he also fell into a country. The good titles of Jiang and Meixin.But let's pay attention to the words "Chidi Xingxi Liu Bang passed on the Yellow Emperor's Golden Policy Book", which shows that it is the "Chidi" who asked Liu Bang to pass the Liu family to Wang Mang, that is, the Huodetian Emperor. This is according to Liu Xin's In theory, the Han Dynasty was identified as the virtue of fire.This proves that after Wang Mang came to power, he basically recognized Liu Xin's research results. So when Wang Mang finally got his wish and played the legendary "abdication" trick to establish a new dynasty, he immediately worshiped Liu Xin as the national teacher, named Jia Xingong, and confirmed his new theory of five virtues as the official theory.Wang Mang couldn't wait to announce that according to the true and perfect theory of "five elements inter-growth", the Han imperial family is the descendant of Emperor Yao, which belongs to the fire virtue, and he himself is the descendant of the Yellow Emperor, which belongs to the earth virtue, and the fire gives birth to the earth—"Red Emperor Xingxi Liu Bang passed on the Yellow Emperor's Golden Policy Book" very clearly, the one who accepted the abdication was the "Yellow Emperor" line of the Tude Heavenly Emperor-so the new dynasty succeeding the Han Dynasty is the most reasonable, reasonable, legal, appropriate, and compatible. fitting.He also specially sent a Confucian scholar named Zhang Han to explain to Baiguan. Up to now, a big tripod of the new dynasty in the Forbidden City is still engraved with a line of big characters: "The first ancestor of the Yellow Emperor, De Zha Yuyu, the first ancestor of Emperor Yu, De Zha Yu Xin...according to the soil and receiving virtue, the correct name is true".