The ancients often said that "Reading history can make it wise, and only by knowing the past can you learn from the present." The famous founding emperors of all ages all have their own unique management methods, such as Liu Bang 's strategy and knowing others and being good at responsibilities; Li Yuan 's grasp of the mainstream and abandoning its tributaries; Zhu Yuanzhang 's super execution ability, etc.
Despite this, as the founding emperor Liu Xiu, his fame is far less than that of the above-mentioned emperor. Why is this happening?
In the book "Double-Magic Emperor: Liu Xiu" written by the author Sun Zhengyu, it is explained as follows: "The reason why Liu Xiu was not very popular is on the one hand because of the dynasty, that is, Eastern Han is just a continuation of Western Han . It was difficult for grassroots classes to have the opportunity to be promoted in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but in the Western Han Dynasty, the grassroots classes saw hope. This is also the reason why many grassroots classes in later generations lacked interest in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and had little understanding of Liu Xiu. On the other hand, most of the people's evaluation of Liu Xiu, the founding emperor, was mainly praised, and there were very few criticisms, so that in many people's impression, Liu Xiu was a perfect emperor."
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So, what kind of faction is this "perfect" emperor's management method? Let’s take a look at the final look through this book “Double Emperor: Liu Xiu” written by Sun Zhengyu!
01 respect Confucianism and advocate filial piety to maintain the rationality of status
The book records: Liu Xiu was originally a distant relative of the royal family of the Western Han Dynasty. In order to clarify that he was the legal heir to Emperor Gaozu, he attached great importance to Gaomiao, abide by the promise of Emperor Gaozu, respected Confucianism, advocated filial piety, and used the prophecy and "Zhao Houhuo De" as the theoretical basis for the legitimacy of the throne.
Although at the beginning, he was questioned by some Confucian intellectuals because there were some conflicts between the three: Maximum Prophecy, "Zhao Houhuo De" and Confucianism. In order to maintain the legitimacy of his status, Liu Xiu did not use political means to exclude those Confucian intellectuals, but instead integrated these three magic weapons to achieve the mutual communication of magic powers and form a theoretical system recognized by the authentic Confucian Confucian .
So, he used this book "Left Turn", which had a great influence on Confucianism to study it. By establishing a doctorate in " Zuo Zhuan ", he tried to include the two magic weapons of "Tiu Prophecy and "Yao Hou Fire Deity" into Confucian classics. Although this system was abolished later, in the Han Zhangdi , the famous Confucian scholar Jia Kui , through the re-examination of "Zuo Zhuan", finally included the pixiu and "Zhao Houhuo De" into the authentic Confucianism.
This actually avoided many unnecessary internal struggles and even wars within the ruling class to a certain extent, which was conducive to the stability of society at that time and the development of the national economy. From this we can see that Liu Xiu's management method of conquering people with "virtue" has achieved certain results.
02 Reorder the royal family and gradually stabilize the power of the government headed by himself
The book records: In the early days of the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to stabilize the hearts of the people, Liu Xiu had to win over the people of the Liu family and unite them to crack down on other separatist forces and the Liu family relatives who opposed him. Therefore, in the second year of Jianwu, Liu Xiu was granted a group of Liu Xiu's kings and princes.
In the twelfth year of Jianwu, the separatist forces in Shu Gongsun Shu were pacified. In order to weaken the threat of the king of Liu, Liu Xiu reordered the royal family after weighing the trade-offs.
Liu Xiu demoted the princes of his uncle Liu Liang and his nephew Liu Zhang to Duke, and demoted the princes of his far-reaching branch such as Liu De and Liu Mao to marquis. The position of Duke was on the marquis, which not only weakened the status of the original Liu kings, but also retained their corresponding titles, with the intention of weakening and winning over, so as to establish a new royal order centered on Liu Xiu's branch and blood ties as the yardstick.
Later, Liu Xiu took a step-by-step approach, first signing his sons as public officials, and then waiting for the time to be ripe before being crowned kings.
This actually reflects Liu Xiu's adherence to filial piety to a certain extent.At the same time, it also reflects that the emperor Liu Xiu has a certain overall thinking, just as the author Sun Zhengyu gave: "The emperor has no selfless affairs, it is a family matter, and it is also a state matter."
03 Reward meritorious officials, not giving real power, and achieving a win-win situation
The book records: At the beginning of the founding of the country, General Pingdi, General Pang Meng, and General Jianzhonghou, Peng Chong, rebelled against Liu Xiu. During the process of suppressing rebellion, Liu Xiu realized that the heroes were a double-edged sword. If they could be used for them, they could exert great positive energy. However, if these people have strong abilities, prestige or appeal, they are prone to rebellion, and their negative impact is also very great.
Therefore, after the world was first decided, Liu Xiu's way to place heroic officials was: raise all the heroic officials with high titles and rewards, and let the heroic officials and their descendants enjoy wealth without holding real power. In this way, it not only protects the interests of the heroes, but also maintains the stability of the court, which is a win-win situation. Management methods such as
are very referenceative for today's era. At this point, the author Sun Zhengyu also made such a high evaluation of Liu Xiu: " is not visible, there is no sword light, and there is no bloody wind. Liu Xiu achieved power with the seemingly invisible judo , which is conducive to the reintegration of imperial power, and is indeed the good luck of heroes! "
04 Written at the end
The author Sun Zhengyu once said, " Liu Xiu is an emperor who is both knowledgeable, can fight and can employ people!" His strategy and pattern are far superior to many founding emperors."
If you are also curious about Liu Xiu's strategy and pattern, you might as well read this historical biography of "Double Emperors: Liu Xiu" written by Sun Zhengyu.
