Chapter 16 Liu Che: The master of the unified system

In the thirteenth year after the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" was put down, Liu Che ascended the throne as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.He was in power for fifty-four years, changed the previous policy of recuperation and recuperation, and brought the empire back to the track of highly authoritarian and centralized power in one fell swoop. The Han Dynasty became the most powerful country in the world at that time.As far as the construction of the four basic systems is concerned, they were tested in Shang Yang, formed in Yingzheng, and integrated in Liu Che. In terms of the power distribution system between the central and local governments, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty promulgated the "Decree of Tweeting Grace", forcing the princes to enfeoff each other as lords, so that the fiefdoms had to be reduced by themselves. As a result, the centralization of power has been strengthened unprecedentedly.

In terms of controlling the thoughts of the whole people, he accepted the suggestion of the great Confucianist Dong Zhongshu, and proposed to "dispose of all schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone", making Confucianism the only orthodox thought, and the scene of a hundred flowers blooming that lasted for seven hundred years came to an abrupt end.Centralization of power must "unify" national thought, but each method has its own ingenuity. The historian Gu Jiegang once compared the different methods of Qin Shihuang and Han Wudi: "Qin Shihuang's unified thinking is not to let the people read books, and his method is the punishment of punishment; Han Wudi's unification The idea is to let the people read only one kind of book, and his method is to lure Li Lu. As a result, Shi Huang failed, and Emperor Wu succeeded.”

In terms of foreign policy, Emperor Wu opposed the previous appeasement policy and sent Wei Qing and Huo Qubing to fight against the Xiongnu all year round, recapturing Hetao and the Hexi Corridor, greatly expanding the territory.In the northeast, he sent troops to destroy Weishi Korea (now northern Korea), and set up four counties including Lelang. In the south, he made the Yelang and Nanyue regimes belong to the Han Dynasty, and the territory of the Han Empire was basically formed.While waging war, he also built water conservancy and roads on a large scale. In the twentieth year of his reign, in 121 BC, the Han army defeated the main force of the Huns and won the greatest victory in the war against the Huns. King Hunxie led 40,000 people to join the Han, and the whole country was greatly excited. Political prestige was also at its peak.However, in terms of economy, the central finance has experienced a critical situation of "insufficient expenditure".According to historical records, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "extended the foreign affairs of the four barbarians, promoted domestic utilitarianism, and prospered service expenses." Hundreds of millions of dollars, the county magistrate is empty."

It was against this background that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to introduce a series of tough nationalized economic policies, involving industries, circulation, finance, taxation and other fields. It was a real overall supporting system reform with top-level design implications. , the specific trader is Sang Hongyang. Before interpreting the economic reform of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there are three prerequisites that must be observed in advance: First, before the start of economic reform, political centralization and ideological unification had been fully completed; Second, the war against Hungary with the slogan of resisting foreign invasion created a moral justification for the centralization reform, and played a key role in uniting the hearts of the grassroots;

Third, the "Government of Wenjing" has left behind huge private wealth that can be seized.These three items are the objective conditions to ensure the smooth progress of the reform.In other words, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty grasped the "time window" for reform.