Chapter 6 Chapter 5 The First Empire: Setting the Example

From a realistic point of view, when the first emperor died, the Qin Empire disappeared.However, his achievements in unifying China will not be annihilated.Within 10 years a new dynasty would follow.Hereafter continued for 400 years.The Han Dynasty lasted about 200 years before and after the Christian era. At its peak, the population under its jurisdiction was about 60 million, comparable to that of the Roman Empire.Even in terms of the regions they control and the time of existence, the two empires can be compared.It's just that China's internal cohesion is beyond the reach of the West.

This new dynasty was highly flattered by Chinese writers because it was the first feat ever done by a commoner.Liu Bang, the pioneer of the Han Dynasty, was a humble local patrol officer in the Qin Empire.Two of his prime ministers, Xiao He and Cao Can, were small bureaucrats at the county level.Fan Kuai will be a general in the future, but he was just a butcher back then.Another general, Han Xin, once begged for food when he was humble, and Ying Bu and Peng Yue were once robbers.Judging from the situation of the commoners and ministers of the new court, the ruling power of the nobles in various fields must have been completely destroyed.In organizing a new regime, it is neither necessary to follow in the footsteps of the old clans, nor to rely on their fanfare.This is not to say that the conditions for social revolution in China are ripe. Even after thousands of years, China has not yet established a democratic system.At this time, it is even more insignificant to be able to accurately represent the large and uniform rural grassroots organizations.

The organizers of the Han Dynasty inherited the broad and uniform grassroots left by the Qin Dynasty, and used a flexible means to avoid the excessive extremes of the previous generation.The policy they adopted was basically "three steps forward, two steps back".With decades of management, it constituted a centralized bureaucratic system and became a model for the entire imperial period of China. The first major problem encountered by the new dynasty was that the empire was too extensive to be controlled by the central collective, so a "zebra-style" provincial organization was adopted.In some areas, the prefectures and counties established before the Qin Dynasty were still left intact, while in other areas, newly appointed princes were sent to keep them as their careers.The close relatives of the emperor's descendants, that is, the uncles, brothers, and brothers of the Liu family, are named kings, and the ministers among the heroes are named marquises.Their territory is completely wrong with the counties and counties directly under the central government.This situation of mutual supervision avoided the excessive centralization of power in the Qin Dynasty, but this was not a comprehensive retreat, and it was intended to recreate the situation of disputes during the Warring States period for a long time.Such an arrangement was purely a temporary expedient and was never expected to remain in place for a long time.Even before the founder Liu Bang passed away, many princes had been cut down and eliminated due to intentional or unintentional mistakes.Liu Bang's Empress Lu and subsequent emperors followed this policy and intensified it.In 154 BC, half a century after the founding of the empire, the court's actions put pressure on the kingdoms, thus arousing a full-scale rebellion.After the rebellion was suppressed, many kingdoms were abolished, and the remaining ones not only shrank in size, but also took over internal administrative powers from the central government.This policy of strengthening central rule reached its peak during the reign of the fifth emperor, Liu Che.Liu Cheyi was named Han Wu, and he lived from 141 BC to 87 BC.The 54-year Yuyu period was the longest in the entire Han Dynasty, and it had the most profound impact on the future.

Liu Che was the first to announce his position on imperial ideology.After synthesis, its purpose is to "remove all schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone".In fact, he and his close ministers expanded and extended the so-called "Confucianism" to include all kinds of theoretical and practical steps necessary for the benefit of centralized bureaucracy.The self-restraint advocated by Confucius, the generosity towards others, the spirit of humanism, the unity of family and relatives, and the thoughtfulness of etiquette all constitute the norms of the bureaucratic group's actions.Mencius advocated that the people's livelihood and the country are at stake, and it is undoubtedly respected.It was originally the purpose of the Legalists to emphasize agriculture and mulberry and denounce commerce, and it was also used to form part of the ideology of Emperor Wu's imperial system.Other legalist measures, such as the official patent of salt and iron, and the use of severe criminal laws to maintain people's discipline were also attacked.

There are also many beliefs, neither from Confucius' claims nor from Confucius' sayings, which are still included in this system.Emperor Wu climbed high mountains as emperor and prayed with mysterious rituals, hoping to have direct contact with the gods.His Doctor of Chaozhong believes that the five elements (wood, fire, earth, gold, water) and the five directions of east, west, north, south, five basic colors, five tonal scales, five personal virtues, and even five governance functions are all important. Cooperate and integrate with each other.For example, fire and color red are seen in summer and are related to the use of soldiers.This concept stems from a belief that any "thing" in the world, whether it is an actual item or a relationship and communication between people, all comes from a certain kind of related value on the spectrum, so it can be used mathematically The method manipulates it.Its roots lie in the fact that it is an ancient classic of unknown origin.This way of using false science to tell the truth is close to superstition.It revealed that the scholars of that day were under great pressure, and they were too eager to give a straightforward explanation of the phenomena of the world, including the things that could be learned.The courtiers of the Han Dynasty continued to carry out their claims in this poetic way, emphasizing that good government is based on ethical harmony, even confusing weather with politics.Only in this way, they also rationalized the autocratic imperial power, made it more moderate, and at the same time encouraged the self-confidence of all officials.Therefore, they feel that the way of the sky and the earth (we call it the natural law, natural law) is within their grasp.Even though the position of the Son of Heaven is hereditary and the ministers are good at writing, they can act as one in action because they have a common understanding.This confuses cosmology and politics.Calling it Confucianism in general serves a certain purpose, but its disadvantages are that once it has been manipulated, it will be difficult to shake it in the next two thousand years.It is true that its legacy is still alive today.

Westerners believe that the conservatism of the Chinese is due to the immutable factors in the environment.As long as these factors exist, China's state and society must maintain a certain structure.Few tourists today visit China without including the Great Wall at Badaling on their itinerary.The Great Wall first constructed by Qin Shihuang, which is located north of the 15-inch isohym, has long been decadent today.The existing brick wall was built in the 15th century, and the building above was added in the 16th century.The use of gunpowder in those days made similar fortifications obsolete elsewhere in the world.When the city wall stretching for thousands of miles is displayed before the eyes, as long as tourists know that it has been continuously repaired and refurbished, they will understand that the origin of China's border defense is almost the same as the origin of Chinese culture without explanation.Its relationship with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che is that this monarch is different from ordinary people. He ascended to the throne at the age of 16 and lived in the country for 54 years.But even though his military operations have been successful again and again, his goals have not yet been achieved.When he died in 87 BC, his war with the Xiongnu decimated the treasury, which was one of the main reasons for the decline of the Western Han Dynasty (also known as the Former Han Dynasty).

The Xiongnu is the name of an ethnic group that speaks the Altaic language. They invaded the north in the early days of Chinese history. After thousands of years, at least a dozen or more nomadic peoples of the same or different race came one after another.The early maturity of the Xiongnu organization was related to the unification of China's imperial system.This means that when the whole of China is unified, the nomads must have a similar structure, and vice versa.In the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu had already formed an alliance of 24 tribes. Their reach stretched 1,500 miles from the northeast to Qinghai.In 200 BC, they claimed to besiege Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, in today's Shanxi with 300,000 cavalry.The above figures may be exaggerated, but there is no doubt that in important battles they could not be difficult to 100,000 people, and it is not necessary to assemble them all, but to agree on the field and divide them into several columns.Because they live as nomads, they have an environmental advantage, which is what military theorists call "combat conditions coincide with living conditions."When the Chinese still need to organize mobilization, equipment, recruitment, and training, the strong enemy in the north can omit the above steps.Their young men are already on horseback, and their weapons are their means of livelihood.They are never short of liquidity.

When the two sides fought, the procedure was extremely cruel, because the battlefield was the desert and its surrounding grasslands, and the environment was already depressed.When the two sides confront each other, there is absolutely no possibility of retreating, especially the Han army.It is true that the defeated will hardly survive, even the victors will suffer heavy casualties, and escape is almost impossible.The number of captives is small, and the number of captives exchanged is especially small.Those who surrender will change their identities according to the law, and they will be barbarians for life.When the Han army was victorious, they took all the cattle and sheep of the tribe and regarded them as spoils of war.On the contrary, if the nomads were able to reach out and grab the Han people in the south, their cruelty would have little grace, and there would be little escape.The conquests of the Han Dynasty were nothing more than a prelude. In the future, the two cultures will still be cemented in history for a long time, and neither side can change the situation with permanent victory or total defeat.The impact has left a lot of lyrical works in Chinese literary and artistic works, some of them are patriotic, and they are gearing up to make a belligerent tone.There are also many heart songs that express war weariness and longing for peace during the chanting.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only visited the front for one week in 110 BC, and never set foot on the battlefield again.But when he conquered the Huns, he personally made the overall plan.He decided on the order of battle with troops and allocated the men and horses of each army.At the end of each battle, Emperor Wu also personally determined rewards and punishments. A typical battle involved 100,000 cavalry.The supporting infantry and logistical units are several times more, so it is normal to involve 500,000 troops each time.The Han army is usually divided into three and five routes to search for the enemy approaching, and the time and place for the rendezvous are pre-booked.They usually operate within 500 miles of their own army.It is common to never encounter an enemy army. The common situation is that the two armies face each other, and the battle is fierce.In the battle of 99 BC, the casualty rate on the Chinese side reached 60% to 70%, and few survived.In the battle of 119 BC, although the Han army won, 140,000 horses went out and less than 30,000 returned to the south.During Emperor Wu's long Yuyu period, he carried out such battles 8 times.In addition, he also sent troops to North Korea, which flattened the Southwest Yi, has penetrated into today's Vietnam, and also fought with the Tibetans in Qinghai.

What is the total cost of the war?Sima Qian briefly stated that only 1 shi of the 64 shi of grain transported from the mainland could be transported to the front. Although it cannot be regarded as true in fact, his statement at least revealed the difficulty of logistical problems.Moreover, Emperor Wu's strategy was to consolidate the frontier defense. When the threat of the enemy was eliminated, he would immigrate to the frontier on a large scale, which cost more.As a result, many methods of raising funds came into being, including property taxation from merchants, taxation on boat and car permits, redemption in lieu of punishment, government patents on salt, wine, and iron, and direct participation in business.All these confiscations, as well as the war itself, made the trend of centralization unstoppable.It remains to be explained below that the emperor himself had a great relationship with Wen Junzheng and the politics of the Han court.

Did Han Wudi break the spine of the empire with his military actions?The historical evidence does not allow me to draw such a simple conclusion.That is to say, at the climax of the Xiongnu war, the prosperity in China was not affected.The contradictions here also give those who care about Chinese history an opportunity to review a perennial problem: According to records, China is the only country in the world that has been directly taxing farmers from BC to the 20th century.The basis of this tax is extremely broad and very fragile, which is not found in Western experience.Among them, the situation described by Li Kui of Wei State in the Warring States Period is the most accurate.When Ban Gu wrote the "Han Shu" in the first century AD, he still felt that the taxation and finance section of the story were still closely related at that time.Li Kui's calculation he mentioned is as follows: 〖A farmer, with a family of five, manages one hundred acres of land.One and a half stones of millet are produced per mu.The annual harvest is 150 shi.One-tenth of the land tax, except for fifteen shi, there are still one hundred and thirty-five shi.Each mouthful of food is one and a half stones per month, and the five mouthfuls consume a total of ninety stones for a whole year.One hundred and thirty-five stones and ninety stones are removed, and there are still forty-five stones.Each stone is worth thirty Wen, and the remaining forty-five stones are worth 1,350 Wen in total.Excluding the 300 wen for public welfare such as holding sacrifices in the local area, the amount that can be used as family expenses is 1,050 wen.Clothes should cost 300 Wen per person, a total of 1,500 Wen for five people, less than 450 Wen.In addition, medical treatment and funeral expenses are not included, and additional taxes due to military mobilization are not included. 〗 Li Li's remedy was to sell grain with the help of the government.When there is a surplus of grain in the market, it will be purchased by the government, and if it is insufficient, it will be sold by the government.In the era of Emperor Wu, this policy was presided over by Sang Hongyang, the leader of the governor of Sudu (Minister of Food and Acting Minister of Finance).Sang was born as a businessman, and at this time he also made profits for the public to raise part of the income to make up for military expenses.Once this method was used by him, it was imitated again and again in many dynasties. Li Kui's calculation above became the general criterion in China's autocratic era, and it is as eternal as the Great Wall.The numbers may vary from time to time, but the formulas and principles are beyond the memory of historians.Under this kind of policy, farmers are always forced to develop farmland, and when the cultivated land is mature, they always use precision work to increase production.Therefore, although Chinese farmers are not subject to manor control and enjoy ideal freedom, each farmer is also a self-cultivator, and can be regarded as a small businessman.Just because of the narrowness of the local market, they often suffer from usury and various exploitations.When the government buys or sells grain, its business is beyond the competence of a group of literate bureaucrats, and there is no appropriate law to ensure the smoothness of the procedure.In short, the government's business involves changing figures, while the way of agricultural regulation regards everything as a stereotype.This lack of coordination has produced tragedies in Chinese history over and over again.It should be noted that when some later dynasties tried to partially commercialize their finances, they always encountered strong resistance, and none of them achieved long-term and satisfactory results.Taking the Han Dynasty as an example, Sang Hongyang died unexpectedly. From this, it can be inferred that his plan has no hope of success. Now that the degree of centralization has been so, the Chinese bureaucracy has to pay attention to the emergence of tenant farmers.The strength of the government is determined by its ability to obtain food and manpower from a large number of small farmers.Every time a landlord appears, there is always a tendency to threaten the tax base.Judging from the above examples, the small owner farmers are also unable to provide for another landlord.It's just that China's approach usually ignores the overall situation and is still influenced by centralization.By advocating the small yeoman rather than the landlord, they have half-mixed the convenience of their own regulation with a standpoint of humanity.Of course, egalitarianism without managerial depth cannot be regarded as complete and thoughtful in economic thinking.But on the other hand, since there is a need for all centralized planning (such as dealing with the Huns' invasion), we cannot criticize all measures as "wrong".What can be asserted is that taxation and land possession are closely related, and both need to cooperate with the central administration.Such involvement constitutes a major fixed feature in China's macroscopic history. The expropriation during the reign of Emperor Wu made the people miserable because of the above situation, which has been mentioned by Sima Qian and Ban Gu.The Han Dynasty still gave provincial (county) bureaucrats considerable power, and they could choose their bureaucrats, but the lower-level officials who were close to the people always lacked the close relationship between the lord and the feudal domain in the feudal system.Its tax is 1/15th (less than 7%) of what is harvested on the land, and the poll tax is 120 coins per adult per year.In addition, there is military service, which can make every young man of age go to the front for 3 days, or pay 300 yuan as a service fee.For the national wealth of the Han Dynasty, this tax rate cannot be regarded as extremely harsh, but it is comprehensively imposed on the whole people when it is collected, regardless of whether the peasant household has only 5 mu of land.In rural areas, the tax rules are all implemented in an orderly manner.During the reign of Emperor Wu, some people criticized that the actual tax paid exceeded the statutory "several times".There is a strange thing about it. For example, when the emperor visited various places in 108 BC, many county guards were blamed for insufficient preparation and supply. Two county guards even committed suicide to apologize.It can be seen that in terms of logistics, the superiors have exerted the greatest pressure on the subordinates. Not only are there still unsatisfactory things in the end, but there is also a huge gap between the ideal and the reality. After the death of Emperor Wu, his policy of actively raising borders has been abandoned.Fortunately the Huns were not able to maintain their unity before long.The Chinese side sent another expeditionary force to the grasslands in 72 BC.In 55 BC, the Xiongnu split into five tribes to conquer each other.The Southern Xiongnu then descended to Han and accepted the name of China, which made the Han court reduce the border defense again. However, in these military operations, there has been a successful case of the emperor's relatives gaining power.Liu Che is a strong-willed person, and he is also deeply afraid that his power will fall into the hands of others.In his private life, he could not forget his love for women, so many twists and turns occurred.In military operations he rewarded his favorite generals too generously and punished others too harshly.In short, in the process of conquering the Xiongnu, he assembled a huge amount of power, which could neither be institutionalized nor delegated.Li Guangwei was able to win the hearts of the people, and the Han army and the Huns had the same respect for him, but he was never rewarded.In the last battle, he was forced to turn around, and finally lost his way while marching.The general Wei Qing, the half-brother of the empress Wei's husband, threatened to report to the emperor to be punished by the imperial court. Li Guang, out of shame and indignation, drew a knife and committed suicide.But on the other hand, Wei Qing's three sons are still children, and they have been enshrined as princes because of their father's military achievements.Another general, Huo Qubing, was the queen's nephew and was always favored by the emperor.It was rumored from all sides that the frontline generals were hungry and hungry, and Huo Qubing's kitchen cart returned south with some treasures left over, and the emperor ignored it.It was only because Huo Qubing died young that he could not be named a general.Later, this name fell on the head of his half-brother Huo Guang. Huo Guang never sent troops to the fortress in his life, but he became the center of political disputes. After the death of Emperor Wu, Huo Guang served as regent and assisted an eight-year-old emperor. After 13 years, this age-old emperor died first without a subnet.After discussing with the queen, Huo Guang welcomed a prince as emperor. It took only 27 days. He thought that this emperor's heir did not meet his ideal standards, so he abolished it and replaced it with another descendant of Emperor Wu.He was only 18 years old, and others pointed out that he and Huo Guang were extremely disturbed when they were in the same car. However, Huo Guang did not achieve the authority that no one dared to challenge.In 80 BC, he carried out a purge, and many people who opposed him were executed, including the aforementioned Sang Hongyang who carried out Emperor Wu's finances.Existing historical materials are written based on the court records of that day, which indicate that these people intended to conspire against each other, attempting to depose the emperor and install another prince.It can be seen that the conflict between them and Huo Guang can be traced back to many narrow-minded disputes and family disputes. However, under the influence of Confucianism at that time, Huo Guang's administrative measures were deeply popular.During his administration, the border defense policy of Emperor Wu's great joy has been significantly restrained.During his 20 years of presiding over state affairs, taxes have been exempted and reduced, and negotiations with the Huns have also begun.In 81 BC the imperial court hosted a group of public debates on the patent policy of salt and iron.Later, the government gave up the patent on wine brewing. On the whole, it is impossible for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che and Huo Guang to see through the true meaning of their own actions in history at a glance.Even after thousands of years, it is still not easy to understand all of them.While discussing their behavior and personalities, what few people have thought about is that the Chinese imperial throne is an institution that cannot be reasonably maintained in the world.The emperor is not a god, but has the character of both.He is unreasonable but not completely unreasonable, and he is also stepping on two boats.He can't adopt humanism like Confucianism, nor can he add Falun to be all stern and selfless, and he must take into account the strengths of both families.That is to say, in the early days of the autocratic era, the emperor had appointed 130,000 bureaucrats to govern 60 million people. He could rely on very few means, and his solution to the problem had to go through countless contradictions and ambiguities on the one hand, and on the other hand to have Authority and boldness. A sympathetic reader can understand that the responsibility of the Son of Heaven is to be the Son of Heaven, but he is accidentally sent by fate to deal with a situation.If we look at this from the other side, we can imagine that the Mississippi River will change its course and tend to enter the sea in Florida; a drought and locust plague will completely destroy all crops in Iowa and Kansas; and most of the border with Canada in the north is desert , with only a few oases among them.The emperor of the Han Dynasty regarded himself as the best farmer in the world, and issued circulars from time to time to express his concern for people's livelihood.We cannot condemn the rest as affectation.For they subsisted by taxing the small yeoman, and had no other means of subsisting.Just from a metaphor, the system and administrative method they designed is still an inverted pyramid, with the top heavy and the bottom light.The farther away from the authority, the more the gap between the original thought and the more, so the power must be concentrated on the top.Sometimes the ideal of perfection and the actual situation can be astonishingly different. In the court of Xi'an.Semi-religious arrangements enhanced the status of the emperor.He is the last authority in the world, and his arbitration carries the power of divine judgment.Under this style of work, a tradition of power politics has been created, and all technical issues are regarded as moral right and wrong.Even today, this habit still appears in many cases.If the person standing at the top cannot get rid of human weakness, when the government changes shifts or policies change, all kinds of conspiracies and tricks may overflow beyond control, and reach inside and outside the court. Huo Guang died peacefully in 68 BC.But a coup two years later killed his wife, children and most of his relatives.But a series of events are still in the ascendant, and the relatives still play an important role in the political insider inside the palace.The general is only a title in the court and has not participated in the conquest of the border.Traditionally, this position was always held by the emperor's brother-in-law or uncle. In fact, the person who occupied the position was always a politician, not a senior general.In short, he relied on his fame and power to make the courtiers lose face, and his power was inseparable from the master of the palace.Once this traditional rule has been established, it can only continue to develop in the future, and finally Wang Mang usurps the throne. Wang Mang is one of the most bizarre characters in Chinese history.On the one hand, he was accused of being a position-winger, a hypocrite, and a master of manipulating speech, but on the other hand, he was also praised as an idealist, even a revolutionary figure.Circumstances show that he may have some characters close to the above judgment, but no simple title is enough to sum up his life and deeds.Fortunately, we study history from a long-term and far-sighted standpoint, so there is no need to bring out his detailed biography. Wang Mang, the nephew of the empress dowager of the Han Dynasty, also married his daughter to another emperor, thus becoming the queen's father.Before he himself became regent in 1 BC, her three uncles and one elder brother had successively assisted the government under the titles of Da Sima and Da General for 28 years.At that time, the court of the Han Dynasty was stale and lifeless. If Wang Mang could revive the decline at this time, his achievements may impress historians.It is only that he exaggerates, so that all the proclamations he makes with his flamboyant language are all the more blind, and his affectation is all the more unforgivable. The problem he dealt with is not difficult to explain: the Han Dynasty was based on a huge rural economy, and because of this structure, the court could only govern in the spirit of the public.It's just that the Han Dynasty had existed for two hundred years at this time, and the palaces and foreign relatives were entrusted with the title of "inner court" because of their favor, which was opposed to the "outer court" of other officials and officials.The latter are generally promoted by seniority, and most members attach great importance to the Confucian concept of benevolence, people and things.Also during this same period, the manpower and land in the general countryside, which had always formed the basis of paying taxes to the soldiers of the empire, tended gradually to fall into private hands, which was called "annexation" at the time.Once this phenomenon occurs, these resources will escape the government's control in the future.This issue is also inextricably linked to the monarchy in 2000. Since the land tax is collected from each mu of land, and the poll tax is also based on each person, it stands to reason that his change of owner (including the purchase of slaves) should not affect the amount of tax revenue.However, this situation occurred in the ancient countryside, and the tax books could not be revised at any time to reflect the actual situation, that is, a similar situation existed in the Roman Empire at the same time.No matter what kind of precise method was used to investigate the original booklet, there will only be one rigid quota in various places in the future.In China, household registration is the unit, and tax shortages are often caused by population migration and property changes.The shortcut for local governments to solve this problem is to transfer the receivable amount to other accounts and let them make up the original amount.But this will only cause people to flee, the losses will be even greater, and the extent of the bad influence will also increase in a spiral manner.It turns out that the tax rate is light, and if it is not handled legally, it may make the taxpayers miserable.Heavy taxes can even force good people to become bandits.Other than that, there is only tax deduction, but this method will also cause a decrease in morale in the bureaucracy. We have no way of ascertaining the situation before Wang Mang took over, but he once said that he saw the tax, that is, the tax collected had reached half of the production products.Although it is not without exaggeration, it can also be seen that the situation is serious. But whatever his motives, Wang Mang did not make any detailed preparations when he proposed reforms.He believes in Chinese classics, and really thinks that pyramids can be built upside down.He fully thought that since he was performing the duties of the emperor in Xi'an, his imperial decree could be fully implemented in the remote areas of the border area.When things backfired, he hurriedly retreated completely.The usurping reformer worked around the clock, and his economic policy involved the use of farmland and slaves, both of which were owned by the state and could not be bought or sold.His financial policy regards all cloth and turtle shells as currency, maintaining a complicated exchange rate with gold, silver and copper dollars.Under his leadership, the items patented by the government increased, and the scope of the government's business operations also expanded, including banking.When the environment required him to regard himself as the Son of Heaven both in name and in substance, he stopped pretentious and took the throne in AD 9.The upper layers of the bureaucratic organization have been replaced by him in batches, but the grass-roots organizations have largely remained the same except for their names.Sometimes he changed the name of government agencies entirely, thinking he had made substantial reforms, and relied on espionage politics to enforce his policies. Wang Mang's story aroused the curiosity of Western writers.They thought it was a miracle that China had such a "liberal" economic policy in such a prehistoric age.Aside from their admiration, they, like Wang Mang himself, overlooked an important historical link: the modern West can be managed with numbers, but traditional Chinese bureaucratic organizations cannot be managed with numbers. Needless to say, Wang Mang's reforms failed.When his economic policies came to nothing, farmers rebelled.Later, the armed forces gradually worshiped Liu Xiu, the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, the founder of the Qin and Han Dynasties.Wang Mang was killed in 23 A.D. Two years later, Liu Xiu proclaimed himself emperor, and the Han Dynasty was "Zhongxing".At that time Xi'an was still in the hands of the peasant army, Liu Xiu used Luoyang as his capital, and his flag was all red to distinguish it from the yellow of the "pre-Han".Therefore, the former Han Dynasty is the Western Han Dynasty, and the later Han Dynasty is the Eastern Han Dynasty.