The Eastern Jin Dynasty’s clan politics formed and stabilized for a hundred years, because the imperial power was weak, the clan’s strength was too strong, and the power of the clan was too strong, and different clans controlled the balance between each other. So we can understand it this way. If the elements I mentioned above change, then the political structure of the power will collapse or even disappear. The opportunity for these factors to change is the battle of and Feishui . The Battle of Feishui, which broke out in 383 AD, was a famous case in the history of ancient wars in our country where we won more with less. Everyone knows that Eastern Jin Dynasty defeated former Qin Dynasty with less victory and more. It saved half of the country and allowed the continuation and development of the Central Plains culture that was in the south. After the Battle of Feishui, the leader of the Xie family, Xie An , who commanded the battle, also reached its peak in prestige, so that the power was so powerful that it aroused the suspicion of the imperial power. At this time, the external crisis was temporarily lifted, which meant that the internal struggle was about to begin, and the imperial power had no other scruples, and began to cheer up and fight for power with the clan.
The Battle of Feishui
On the eve of the Battle of Feishui, Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty appointed his younger brother Sima Daozi and Xie An and others in charge of the government. After the Battle of Feishui, Xie An was jealous because of his merits, so he voluntarily surrendered his power to Guangling, which is today's Yangzhou, but he died soon after arriving in Guangling. From then on Sima Daozi completely took the power of the government and government in his hands. Many people may be surprised, why did Xie An hand over power? His clan power is so powerful, why not resist? Because Xie An has a very personal personality and a celebrity demeanor, he has always thought about living in the garden and living in the countryside, indulging in the landscape, and dismissing fame and wealth and power. He is restrained and respects imperial power. If this is a person like Huan Wen , seeing this opportunity, it is estimated that he would have rebelled directly.
Route map of the Battle of Feishui
Because Confucianism is the science of governing the country and pacifying the world, Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty also began to reuse Confucian students.Establish Confucianism. This means that the imperial power must be revitalized. At that time, the other big door after the Xie family was the Taiyuan Wang clan, but the Taiyuan Wang clan had no military power at hand, and no outstanding figures in charge of the government. Their status and power were mainly derived from their marriage with the royal family. The queen of Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the concubine of Sima Daozi, king of Kuaiji, all came from the royal family of Taiyuan. Therefore, although the Wang Clan of Taiyuan is also a clan, it is completely different from the clan who can share the world with the Sima family before. He can only be subordinate to the imperial power and play a role under the imperial power, and cannot compete with the emperor. The Sima clan used each other's power to assist the imperial authority to play a role, so for the time being, there was no resistance from the clans and nobles, and the imperial authority was strengthened to a large extent. The reason why they did not encounter resistance from the clan and clans was because there was a problem with the clan and clans. After the Battle of Feishui, the more famous family members died one after another.
Family clan
Since then, there has never been a situation where there has been a large number of talents in the clan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Because in order to protect their own status and purity of blood, the family members only intermarried with members of the elite family of equal status. The scope of intermarriage was very small, which caused the tendency of physiological talents to degenerate. Secondly, in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the clans advocated Lao-Zhuang's thought, valued the enjoyment of life, and did not pay much attention to the real industry. They were not interested in the theory of Confucian governing the country and peace of the world at all. I couldn't raise any interest in politics, and the soldiers began to heavy text Qingwu, gradually becoming rotten. At that time, if any gentry's children practiced martial arts and joined the army, they would be criticized, which would affect his reputation and status. Huan Wen was ridiculed by other clansmen and clans because he had always been in the army and was acting in a military style. To maintain their political rule, the gentry must rely on military force and civil servants. However, the famous gentry among the gentry advocates metaphysics and is aloof. Although they can gain a very good reputation in society, those who are good at managing martial arts can really maintain the interests of the clans. people. Since the founding of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there have been such figures in the clan family, so the continuation of clan politics actually depends on this kind of people.
Xie An
Once there are no such figures in the clan,There will be a crisis in that family politics. After the Battle of Feishui, such people basically disappeared. If the aristocratic family wants to safeguard their own interests and maintain their own status in real politics, they must have corresponding figures with strong political status and strength. If these sects in power do not have appropriate representatives in charge of power, his dominance of the sect cannot continue and can only be replaced by other sects. Therefore, the imperial power was extended after the Battle of Feishui. However, Emperor Xiaowu and Sima Daozi were incompetent and rotten. They did not take advantage of this favorable opportunity to further completely end the family politics and return to the imperial power politics. Instead, they launched an internal fight and fought for power. After the death of Emperor Xiaowu, Sima Daozi and his son Sima Yuanxian took over the power and began to fight with the clan. Finally, Huan Wen’s son, Huan Xuan , led his troops into Jiankang, eliminated the power of Sima Daozi and his son, and began to take charge of the government. Later, Huanxuan forced Emperor Jin'an to give him the Zen throne and established the Huanchu regime, replacing the Sima clan. Although the other clans and nobles did not agree with Huan Xuan's approach, they did not dare to express their opposition publicly, because they no longer had the strength to resist. However, the inferior clan who mastered Beifu soldiers Liu Yu rebelled in Jingkou at this time, defeated Huanxuan, welcomed Emperor Jin'an, and restored the Eastern Jin Dynasty. As a second-class clan, Liu Yu also took this opportunity to start to rise.
Liu Yu
So Liu Yu began to take charge of the government, implemented political and economic reforms, suppressed other separatist forces, led the army in the Northern Expedition, eliminated the Southern Swallows and the Qin Dynasty, and greatly expanded the territory of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. . This series of great contributions made Liu Yu's status and prestige in the dynasty extremely prominent, and he finally proclaimed himself emperor in 420 AD, the name of the country was Song, the Eastern Jin Dynasty fell, and the family politics officially ended. After the founding of the country, Liu Yu implemented a series of measures in order to avoid the reappearance of the power politics of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and finally formed a political structure in which the noble clans held high positions, the cold people controlled the secrets, and the prince town had the vassal vassal. The gentry enjoyed a lofty political status, but did not hold power. The poor gentry were reused and began to grasp important matters. Some people may ask, why should these aristocratic families enjoy such a high political status? Can you just leave it to them and do it alone? Because governing a country requires not only culture,You should also be familiar with the character support of the canon system , and at that time only the gentry could take on this task. Moreover, although the gentry did not have real power in politics and military, they still had great influence in society and culture, and the imperial power needed to use them to serve themselves. The imperial power recognizes and respects the existence of the gentry, as long as they are subordinate to the imperial authority and do not threaten the imperial authority.
In fact, it is not just the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The general political system is imperial power politics. From Qin Shihuang to the fall of the Qing Dynasty for more than two thousand years, the mainstream of China's political system has been imperial power politics, and this has not changed. The particularity of the Eastern Jin Dynasty’s clan politics is that the aristocratic family has indeed achieved parallel or even surpassing imperial power, but because it is so special and abnormal, it has only existed for more than a hundred years and disappeared in the long river of history. Inside.
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