Chapter 57 16. Sinicization of Emperor Xiaowen

Zhongli's situation did not improve at all.Emperor Qi Ming was worried that the defense would be tight, so he sent General Cui Huijing of the Left Guard and General Pei Shuye of Ning Shuo to rescue Zhongli and confront the Wei army.The Wei army encountered a disease during the march, and Situ Feng Dan, brother-in-law of Emperor Xiaowen and nephew of Empress Dowager Feng, also fell seriously ill and died in the army (Feng Dan's death was also the beginning of the rapid decline of the relative Feng's power, which will be discussed later).Before the war started in the Northern Wei Dynasty, one general was lost first, and morale was extremely low.Even under the full command of Emperor Xiaowen, Zhongli was still unable to attack for a long time, and the Wei soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Emperor Xiaowen had no choice but to transfer the main force to Shaoyang Island, a small island in the Huai River, to build castles, and built cities on the opposite banks of the Huai River. , in order to cut off the Southern Qi reinforcement route in all directions.It was Xiao Tanzhi who was in charge of the war in the Xuzhou area, and he sent Pei Shuye to attack the two cities on the shore and quickly took them down.

Emperor Xiaowen witnessed the defeat of the Wei army and realized that it was still difficult to gain a foothold in Huainan. He adopted Gao Lu and Lu Rui's suggestions and gave up the offensive plan.In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Fu Jian, he ordered former general Yang Bo to lead 3,000 infantry and 500 cavalry to form a formation on the south bank of the Huai River to resist the attack of the Qi army, and then dared to calmly cross the Huai River with a large army. Yang Bo is the only bright spot in this campaign.It was spring, the river was full of water, and the Southern Qi army marched by land and water, gathering from all directions.Yang Bo ordered his subordinates to line up in a circular formation to prevent the Qi army from pursuing, and led the soldiers to charge into the formation, killing many Qi soldiers, leaving corpses all over the ground, and he was terrified.Seeing that the army had crossed and the river receded slightly, Yang Bo took the remaining 300 cavalry, waved his weapons and shouted at the ships of the Southern Qi: "I am going to cross the river now, and those who can fight can come up!" The Southern Qi army unexpectedly No one dared to move, watching Yang Bo cross the Huai River and head north.

The remaining attacks also made no progress.The Wei armies of Yiyang and Nanzheng fell into arduous siege battles, and finally had to retreat because of insufficient successors and it was difficult to maintain.Zheyang's situation was even worse. Several generals under Tuoba Luan were unable to coordinate with each other. Lu Yuan and Wei Zhen wanted to find opportunities through a temporary truce, while Li Zuo, on the contrary, attacked day and night, causing many casualties.The Southern Qi reinforcements arrived and launched a general attack on the Wei army. Li Zuo fought alone and was defeated.Emperor Xiaowen was greatly annoyed by this battle. He demoted Tuoba Luan's title, and deposed Lu Yuan, Li Zuo, and Wei Zhen as civilians. This was the heaviest military punishment since the Northern Wei Dynasty fought against the Southern Dynasties.

The second Wei-Qi war (also known as the Huai-Han War) ended in the failure of the Northern Wei's offensive.After learning from the pain, Emperor Xiaowen decided to return to the right track and carry out the once-interrupted reform plan.The essence of the reform is to transform the Xianbei people from the outside to the inside. Before aggressively attacking the Southern Qi Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen issued an edict prohibiting officials and common people from wearing Hu clothes.This ban is obviously aimed at the Hu people who are mainly Xianbei. Everyone is used to wearing national costumes, but they are not used to changing to Han clothes all at once, not to mention that many Xianbei rulers who were born as military generals look down on Han people in their bones.So everyone scolded Emperor Xiaowen for abandoning his ancestors in private, and complained a lot.

The voice of dissatisfaction reached the ears of Emperor Xiaowen, and he understood that it was time to show his cards to the officials to explain the importance of reforming customs.In the eyes of this "Xianbei Han bone" emperor, the benefits of Sinicization are obvious: one is to inherit the orthodoxy and no longer be a barbarian in the eyes of the common people, so as to stabilize the rule; the other is to promote the economy and use farming culture Replacing the nomadic culture was equivalent to replacing the backward with the advanced at that time; the third is to eliminate contradictions, and eliminate the boundaries and barriers between the Han people and the Hu people from the system.

In the nineteenth year of Taihe (AD 495), Emperor Xiaowen gathered his officials and suddenly asked: "Do you hope that my great Wei is the same as Shang and Zhou, or that I can't even compare with Han and Jin?" The emperor's younger brother Tuobaxi Xianyang immediately said: "I hope that your Majesty will surpass the previous monarchs!" Emperor Xiaowen asked again: "Then do you think we should change customs or stick to the old ways?" Tuobaxi replied: "I hope that your Majesty's government will be renewed every day!" Emperor Xiaowen smiled and said, "Is that the hope that is limited to me, or is it that the hope is passed on to future generations?"

Tuobaxi said: "Of course I wish I could live forever!" Emperor Xiaowen said to the officials: "Since this is the case, I should issue an edict to reform Han customs, and you must not violate it." Mu Tai, Tuoba Pi, and Lu Rui, several Xianbei veterans, began to mutter and said: "We Xianbei people have always been brave and good at fighting. We started in Daibei and established our capital in Pingcheng. Now we have moved our capital to Luoyang, and some people can't adapt to the climate here. , many people have already fallen ill; if the Chinese customs are reformed again, I am afraid that the family and the country will perish!"

Emperor Xiaowen frowned, and asked his servant Li Chong and others: "What advice do you have?" Li Chong was originally a Han Chinese, so he naturally strongly supported the overall Sinicization and praised the wisdom of reforming Chinese customs.The young royal family headed by Tuobaxi also gave their full support, saying: "If you obey the orders of the superiors, who dares to violate them!" Only then did Emperor Xiaowen nod his head, and said: "The Master said: 'If the name is not correct, the words will not be followed; if the words are not followed, the affairs will fail; "Zi said Shiyun", old man shaking his head!) Now I will issue an order to abolish the northern language (that is, the Xianbei language) and change to the correct pronunciation of Chinese. It is difficult for people over the age of 30 to change their accent all at once. Come on; people under the age of 30, and those in the court, can no longer speak the northern language like before. If there is any violation, you will be demoted immediately. What do you think?" Tuo Baxi and others immediately supported, Mu Tai and others Although the veteran was very unhappy, he was outnumbered, so he had no choice but to follow the crowd.

Therefore, Emperor Xiaowen successively issued reform orders from this year: prohibiting the use of the northern language in the court, and those who violated it will be dismissed from office; There is no history of currency; learn from the Lu people in the Spring and Autumn Period to formulate the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the heavens; set up a school in Luoyang; stipulate funeral rites, and the Xianbei who moved to Luoyang were buried in Henan after their death, and they were not allowed to return to their hometown. In the following year, Emperor Xiaowen issued an edict: "Northern people call Tuo Tuo, and later Ba Ba. Wei's ancestors came from the Yellow Emperor, who was King Tude, so they were Tuoba clan. Tuo is the origin of all things, and now the surname is Yuan (from then on. We changed all the Tuoba clans to the Yuan clan). Many of the old clans of heroes had very complex surnames, and they were changed to Han surnames." Xianbei's compound surnames often take one of the syllables and change them to the single surname of the Han nationality, such as: Qiu Muling The surname was changed to the Mu surname, the Buliugu surname was changed to the Lu surname, the He Lai surname was changed to the He surname, the Dugu surname was changed to the Liu surname, the He Lou surname was changed to the Lou surname, the Wuxiu surname was changed to the Yu surname, and the Hexi surname It was changed to Ji's family, and Yuchi's family was changed to Wei's family.These eight surnames have made outstanding contributions since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

In order to be in line with the family system of the Han people in the Southern Dynasties, Emperor Xiaowen designated the four surnames of Fanyang Lu, Qinghe Cui, Xingyang Zheng, and Taiyuan Wang as the four major surnames of the northern Han people, and included the daughters of these families into the harem.He himself "led by example", called Li Chong's daughter into the harem as his wife, and designated his six younger brothers to marry girls from the four major surnames and the Li family in Longxi (that is, Li Chong's clan) as wives.Although this method is suspected of arranged marriages, it is greatly beneficial to the Xianbei regime's determination of the surname family and its full integration with the Han people. (It can be seen that the so-called national integration was not all voluntary at the beginning. In the long history, the fate of many people cannot be shifted by personal will. For individuals, it may be particularly painful, but for the nation As far as culture is concerned, it may contribute to future generations.)

After several "surgeries" by Emperor Wei Xiaowen, Qiqiqingliu achieved initial success.What is intriguing is that while the contradictions between the Han people and the Xianbei people are decreasing day by day, another kind of social class division appeared in the Northern Wei Dynasty due to the artificial division of the gentry and the Han people, so that within thirty years, the Northern Wei Dynasty fell into a complete split.We can say this: "The Northern Dynasty prospered under Emperor Xiaowen and died under Emperor Xiaowen." The paradox of history. Emperor Xiaowen implemented Sinicization measures, but his crown prince Yuan Xun disapproved from the bottom of his heart.It turned out that Yuan Xun was the exact opposite of Emperor Xiaowen. He didn't like reading, and he was obese. Riding a horse on the grasslands of Pingcheng was more suitable, but when he ran to Luoyang, south of the Yellow River, he felt worried.In summer, he couldn't stand the heat, and he only wanted to go back to the old capital.Emperor Xiaowen gave him Hanfu, but he only put it on in public to show off, and changed back to the previous Hufu when he returned to Donggong Mansion.Gao Daoyue, the concubine of the Donggong Mansion, repeatedly persuaded him earnestly, but instead of listening, he held a grudge.Emperor Xiaowen went to Songshan to offer sacrifices, and Yuan Xun was in charge of staying in Luoyang.He discussed with the left and right, prepared a fast horse, killed Gao Daoyue, the thorn in his side, and prepared to run back to Pingcheng overnight. Yuan Yan, the leader of Luoyang City, noticed Yuan Xun's actions and immediately closed the city gate.Yuan Xun couldn't leave the city, so he returned to the East Palace.Shangshu Lu Xiu secretly informed Emperor Xiaowen, and Emperor Xiaowen was shocked.Knowing that the situation in the city had been stabilized for the time being, he kept silent, finished the sacrifice as usual and returned to the palace, ordered someone to arrest the prince and bring him in front of him. The prince's skin was torn apart and he almost passed out, so the left and right helped the dying prince away. After a few months, Emperor Xiaowen's anger subsided a little, and he called a group of ministers to discuss the abolition of the prince.Prince Fu Muliang and others disagreed, took off their hats and kowtowed to intercede.Emperor Xiaowen thought for a while and said: "Your pleadings are a private matter, and I am discussing state affairs. The ancients said: 'The righteousness destroys relatives'. Now Yuan Xun dares to violate my order and wants to rebel against the north. This is How can he be forgiven if he is not a king? If he is spared, it will be a disaster for the country, and I am afraid that after my death, there will be chaos in Yongjia in Wei State!" Ordered to depose Yuan Xun as a commoner and make his second son Yuan Ke the crown prince , And sent troops to put Yuan Xun under house arrest.What happened to Yuan Xun was exactly the same as that of Liu Yikang in the Song Dynasty. Soon after, it was rumored that someone was going to rebel and support him. Emperor Xiaowen was worried, and ordered him to commit suicide with a glass of poisoned wine. After Yuan Xun was abolished, the opposition reformists represented by Mu Tai did not give up.Empress Dowager Feng once wanted to abolish Emperor Xiaowen, but Mu Tai desperately persuaded Empress Feng to change her mind, so he was very favored by Emperor Xiaowen.Now a large number of Xianbei nobles are dissatisfied with the reform, and they all find Mu Tai, wanting to change the world and stand out. Mu Tai, Lu Rui and others secretly planned to support the emperor's uncle Yangping Wang Yuanyi as emperor.Yuan Yi was a sensible person, he agreed to Mu Tai on the surface, and sent someone to report to Emperor Xiaowen in private.Emperor Xiaowen invited Yuancheng, the king of Rencheng who was ill, to capture Mu Tai, Lu Rui and their accomplices in one fell swoop, and executed them all.After this round of blows, the forces opposing the reformers almost perished, and Emperor Xiaowen's measures of gentleness and iron fist showed their power.