Chapter 11 The Burden of the Throne: The Separation of Theocracy and Secular Power

Many tiresome regulations attached to the royal or priestly office naturally had an effect: either they refused to take the office, so that the royal or priestly office tended to have no successors, or although there were successors, they were suppressed by these regulations. reduced to a listless puppet or a reclusive hermit under the burden of his own, so that the government slipped from his impotent hands into the firm grip of those accustomed to rule anonymously. among.In some countries this rift in supreme power gradually deepened until it led to a complete and permanent separation of divine and secular power: the old royal families retained their purely religious functions, while power passed into the hands of younger and more powerful families.

Let's take an example.As mentioned earlier in this book: In Cambodia, it is often necessary to impose the throne of the king of water and fire on the unwilling successor.On Savage Island [located in the south-central Pacific Ocean, east of the Tonga Islands. ], that monarchy is practically at an end, since no one can be induced to accept this dangerous honor.In some areas of West Africa, after the death of the king, the royal family always holds a secret meeting to decide the heir to the throne. Whoever is chosen is suddenly arrested, bound and sent to the house of God to be imprisoned until he agrees to take over the throne.Sometimes the heir to the throne also finds a way to evade the honor being imposed upon him.There was a fierce chieftain who was known to be everywhere armed, and who was determined to check by force any attempt to make him king.The savage Tim of Sierra Leone, who elect their king and reserve the right to flog him on the eve of his coronation, are so eager to take advantage of this constitutional right that sometimes the unfortunate monarch does not wait to rise to the throne. Alas.Therefore, if the powerful chiefs held a grudge against someone and wanted to cut him off, they elected him king.Formerly, when a man was proclaimed king, it was the custom to put him in fetters, and whip him painfully; big axe.So we should not be surprised to read that in Sierra Leone, where the above-mentioned custom prevails, "except for Mandingo and Suze, very few kings were natives. The opinion of the people is quite different from ours, and few of them wished for such honors, much less heard of competing for and seeking them."

The Japanese emperors seem to have taken expedient measures early on, giving up the honor and burden of supreme power to their young sons.Maharaja [The term Maharaja is the name given by foreigners to the generals of the Japanese shogunate era (1192-1867). They established the shogunate, controlled the power of the country, controlled the emperor, and made it a false name. ] rose and became the temporary ruler of Japan for a long time. Its origin can be traced back to the ancient times when a certain emperor gave the throne to his three-year-old son. The monarchy was usurped from the young prince. The cause, the brave and skilful general overthrew the usurper and restored the weakened emperor.On the surface, the emperor has imperial power, but he himself has the actual power. The titles he won are hereditary to his descendants and become the ancestor of the shogunate lineage.Until the second half of the 16th century, the Maharajas of Japan were active and powerful rulers.However, the same fate as the Emperor also fell on them.Caught in the same inextricable web of custom and law, they are reduced gradually to mere puppets, who do nothing at all in their palaces, empty bureaucracy, while the real affairs of government are taken care of by the government.Tokyo [Tokyo, the capital of the late Le Dynasty in the history of Vietnam, is now Hanoi. ]'s monarchy went through the same process.The king of Tokyo lived as idle and indolent as his predecessors, and was deposed from the throne by an ambitious adventurer named Mo.Don't become a king from a fisherman.The king's brother Li overthrew the usurper, installed the old king, and reserved the title of general commanding the national army for himself and his descendants.Since then, although the kings of all dynasties have the title of king and vanity, they no longer really rule the country.They live in deep palaces, and all real political power is dominated by hereditary generals.