Chapter 6 5. Tuobagui's merits and demerits

Through the establishment of a series of Sinicization and feudalization systems, Tuoba Gui's Northern Wei Dynasty began to undergo qualitative changes, and his lifestyle gradually changed from being nomadic to nomadic and farming.This enabled him to steadily control Bingzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou and other places recently captured from Houyan, and then seek the world.In just over ten years, under the leadership of Tuobagui, the Northern Wei Dynasty became the most eye-catching country of hope in the troubled times.He took the throne in Pingcheng in the first year of Tianxing (AD 398) and became the founding emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, that is, Emperor Wei Daowu.

After the system, comes the culture.Although Tuobagui's martial arts are world-class, he has to admire the many smart people in the Central Plains, so he asked a doctor named Li Xian: "What is the best thing in the world that can improve people's intelligence?" (I'm afraid This is also a question that many people are concerned about) Li Xian is a scholar, of course he replied without hesitation: "There is nothing better than books." Tuobagui asked again: "Then what book is the best?" Li Xian said: "Then you have to count the classics. This kind of book can not only teach people how to think about problems, but also teach people the principles of life."

Tuobagui's interest came, and he continued to ask: "How many books are there in the world? If I want to collect them, how can I collect them all?" Li Xian said with a smile: "Since there were early book deeds (that is, words carved on vessels, tortoise shells, bamboo pieces, etc.), many books have been added in each dynasty, and even today, there are countless books. Yes. If the lord is interested, you can order the states and counties to search, as long as you have the heart, it is not difficult to collect." Tuobagui was overjoyed, so he issued an order to let officials from all over the country search for books on a large scale among the people, and send them all to Pingcheng, the capital. (This time the collection was not very successful. After years of wars, even if someone wanted to collect books, it would be difficult to guarantee that these books would not be harmed by the flames of war. But in any case, Tuobagui, as a ruler, mobilized the power of the whole society to collect After collecting a certain number of classics, he still made considerable contributions to the cultural protection and arrangement of the Sixteen Kingdoms and Southern and Northern Dynasties.)

"Using Han to control Han" is the basic guiding principle for Tuoba Gui to rule the Han people in the Kanto region, and this is the fundamental reason why he was able to surpass many previous Hu regimes in the Central Plains. (For example, the front and back Yan are typical family regimes. If a family prospers, the world will prosper, and if a family dies, the world will perish; the former Qin Dynasty attempted to blindly promote ethnic migration without cultural recognition, which eventually led to failure.) However, after all, he was the first Mobei Xianbei leader to enter the Central Plains, and it was impossible for him to be very trustful and close to the Han people.It can also be seen from the previous question and answer with Li Xian that he has very little knowledge and education, and his early cultural education was limited. understand its advantages.The difference in cultural background makes the early stage of cultural integration inevitably experience terrible pains. This is the problem Tuobagui faced back then, and it is also the problem faced by modern humans in today's multicultural conflicts.These problems were intertwined, coupled with Tuoba Gui's suspicion (a common character defect common to most Hu people's monarchs), and finally led to many tragedies, and Tuoba Gui himself did not die well because of this.

After the Northern Wei Dynasty attacked Zhongshan, the capital of the Yan State, there was a shortage of food for a time, and the common people were unwilling to pay the grain rent. Tuobagui asked the officials for advice.Cui Cheng, a Han counselor, said: "Collecting mulberries can also be used as food. In ancient times, flying owls (that is, owls whose calls are ugly) changed their pronunciation after eating mulberries. There is a clear record in it." The allusion to the sound change can be found in "The Book of Songs · Lu Song · Panshui" "Pianbi Flying Owl, gathered in Panlin, eats my mulberry, and has my good voice." He was misunderstood by Cui Cheng. Cui Cheng is also a branch of the Cui clan of the Qinghe family, known for his virtue and talent in the Central Plains. He is well aware of the atrocities committed by the Northern Wei army in the war, but it is impossible to directly tell Tuoba Gui pointed out, so he adopted this method of admonishment, which not only helped Tuoba Gui solve the problem, but also reminded him without hurting his body.)

Tuoba Gui had never read it, and he didn't understand this. Since the army needed food, they had to let the common people pay mulberry for rent, but he hated Cui Cheng's use of owls to insult the Xianbei people who entered the Central Plains.Cui Cheng was worried that the Wei army would labor the people, and said: "You can let the soldiers go to the forest to pick mulberries in the season, and they will be gone." Tuobagui was very angry, and said: "The battle has not been won yet. Let the soldiers disarm and go into the forest to pick mulberries, how decent? What are you talking about!" So he held a grudge against Cui Cheng.

A few years later, when Yao Xing attacked Xiangyang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xi Hui, the defender of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, asked for help from Tuoba Zun, the general of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Tuobagui's cousin. Gui was very dissatisfied, thinking that this was a sign that the Eastern Jin generals looked down on him, and ordered Cui Tu and another counselor Zhang Gun to reply to the letter, specifying that they would use derogatory titles of the Eastern Jin emperor in the letter.After writing the letter, Cui Yi and Zhang Gun called the emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty "your lord". Tuobagui was so angry that he said, "I told you people to demote the people of Jin in your letter, how dare you call him "your lord?" ', hum, and that 'Brother Xian' is really a match made in heaven!" The old and new accounts were settled together, Cui Yong was bestowed with death, and Zhang Gun was demoted.

This incident greatly damaged Tuoba Gui's image among the Han people, and it can be described as endless disasters.Later, Sima Xiuzhi, the imperial family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and others planned to defect to the Northern Wei Dynasty because of the Huanxuan Rebellion. After hearing about Cui Tu's murder, they were very frightened, and finally decided to change their families and went to Houqin and Nanyan.After knowing the truth, Tuobagui regretted it very much, and then he was extra tolerant to the northern scholars who made mistakes. Years of war kept Tuobagui's spirit in a state of high tension. He was worried that he would decline prematurely, so he took a medicine called "Hanshi San".This is a medicine popular among Han scholars at that time, mainly used to relieve psychological anxiety and uneasiness (it can be seen that it is a favorite of the leisure class, ordinary people can't even eat enough, how can they have time to take this medicine? ).This medicine was originally created by Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, to treat typhoid fever, but it has been transformed into an ancient drug. After eating, it is easy to become addicted and prone to seizures.What happens when it happens?In fact, it is similar to the symptoms of mania: fever, restlessness, running wild, and so on.Once Tuoba Gui took more medicines, the drug-induced attacks would naturally become more and more frequent. He would often not wake up for several days, or not eat for several days, and even talk to himself for no reason, and his temper became even more irritable and moody.Gradually, his suspicions reached the point where he couldn't get any worse, and sometimes people close to him would be stabbed to death on the spot for no reason (this is very similar to Cao Cao in his later years, he killed innocent people indiscriminately, and was mad. As a generation of monarchs, these characteristics escaped However, the criticism of later generations. By the way, Tuobagui and Cao Cao do have similarities in experience).Ministers may be executed by him for an inadvertent wrong sentence, even his relatives and officials are no exception.Tuoba Zun was bestowed to death by Tuoba Gui for being rude after drinking; Sikong Yuyue was also executed by Tuoba Gui because of his flamboyant clothes and arrogant manner; another cousin of Tuoba Gui once made great contributions in the battle of conquering Yan When Tuobayi, king of Wei, saw Tuobagui killing the minister, he was suspicious, so he took his family and wanted to escape the country, but Tuobagui sent people to chase him back and kill him.

People in the Northern Wei Dynasty were in turmoil, and natural disasters continued to occur in the country. Tuobagui knew about these situations. Although he had the intention of admitting his mistakes, he was very negative. There was no remedy. His only concern was the issue of the succession to the throne.After he made his eldest son Tuoba Si the crown prince, he decided to follow the old example of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty killing Mrs. Gouyi and kill Liu Guiren, the biological mother of Tuoba Si, because he was worried about the phenomenon of the mother's dictatorship in the future. The system that "the son is precious and the mother dies".It should be said that this system objectively played a certain role in promoting the stability of the Northern Wei Dynasty regime, but encountered minor troubles at that time.Tuoba Si was a very filial child who cried day and night in the palace. Tuoba Gui was very angry when he found out and ordered Tuoba Si to enter the palace immediately.Tuoba Si's subordinates all said: "The emperor has a bad temper and is angry again. There must be accidents when entering the palace. It is better to find a place to hide for a while and wait until the emperor's anger subsides before entering the palace." Tuoba Si thought it was reasonable, He quietly left the palace and hid outside.

The prince disappeared, and Tuobagui was even more stimulated.His other son Tuobashao, king of Qinghe, was a typical rogue son who roamed the streets and alleys. His mother, He Shi, was the younger sister of Tuobagui's mother, that is, Tuobagui's biological aunt.When Tuobagui was young, he saw that she was very beautiful in the tribe of the Helan clan, and he wanted to marry her regardless of her being a married woman. Empress Dowager He objected, persuading him: "Absolutely not, She is too beautiful, and she already has a husband, so she can't do such a thing." Tuoba Gui refused to listen, and sent someone to assassinate her aunt's husband, marry her by force, and give birth to this "rebellious son".

Tuoba Shao took pleasure in robbing pedestrians all day long.Tuobagui was very angry when he heard about it, so he hung him upside down and threw him into the well, and only fished out when he was about to die.For this son, Tuoba Gui and Mrs. He often quarreled, and they quarreled so much that they couldn't leave each other. Finally, one day, he got impatient and imprisoned her, preparing to execute her. Mrs. He was not willing to sit still, she secretly asked someone to send a message to Tuoba Shao, asking him to save her.Tuobashao, who was only sixteen years old, brought his own subordinates and a "miscellaneous army" composed of palace eunuchs, over the wall and entered the palace overnight, and rushed all the way to the Tian'an Temple where Tuobagui lived.Tuobagui's violent emotions in his last years had already created a terrifying atmosphere in the palace. The guards were all in danger and did not dare to stop them. Only someone shouted: "The thief is coming!" Tuobagui woke up from his dream and saw the situation Unfortunately, he searched everywhere for defensive weapons but could not get them. The thirty-nine-year-old founding emperor died in the hands of his own son. (Tuoba Gui spent his whole life in martial arts when he was young, which initially established the living space of the Northern Wei Dynasty; in middle age, he practiced martial arts to a certain extent, and began to accumulate the cultural heritage of a dynasty; unfortunately, in his last years, he still could not escape the fate of his character, and his behavior to some extent It also destroyed the previous achievements. However, the new empire he left behind is enough for future generations to operate and develop for a period of time. The next task facing the Tuoba clan is how to carry forward Tuobagui's foundation.)