It can be seen that the overall customs of society at that time were gradually leaning towards luxury.
Regarding administration, ministers also put forward many suggestions.
For example, Liu Song proposed to recuperate and develop agriculture to fill the granary. In order to develop agriculture, the government must sell grain at normal prices in normal times. He also proposed that sincerity should be shown in politics. Only with sincerity can the virtuous people be appointed to their duties. Discover the virtuous people.
Appointment ability lies in being an official for a long time.
Xun Xu proposed that "a provincial official is not as good as a provincial official, a provincial official is not as good as saving trouble, and saving trouble is not as good as a pure heart", and Fu Xian also put forward a similar proposal to eliminate redundancy, empty paid official positions, and install official positions, which would burden the people.
However, the merger of officials, the suspension of service, and the rectification of official affairs were not implemented in the Western Jin Dynasty. On the contrary, they went in the opposite direction.
In terms of external affairs, during the Han Dynasty, many ethnic tribes in the remote areas of the four directions were either attached to the borders or lived within the borders. During the Cao Wei Dynasty, in order to increase the population, the Hu people were moved into the central plains of Guanzhong.
However, assimilation cannot be completed in a day or a year. Throughout Chinese history, starting from the Han Dynasty, the integration of various ethnic groups took more than two thousand years. How could they become one family in a few hundred years?
The Hu people who migrated into the Central Plains were, after all, a minority compared with the Han people, and because their living habits, customs, etc. were different from the Han people in many aspects, the Han people, from nobles to common people to common people, looked down on them and bullied the weak.
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In such an environment, resentment arose, which gradually became poisonous to the bone marrow, and national antagonism deepened.
So these barbarians gave birth to offspring, which increased their numbers and gave birth to other thoughts.
Seeing this, Gou Xiong thought of Otohime from Mermaid Island in "One Piece": The resentment of mermaids towards humans cannot be passed on to children.
It’s just that this idea is too difficult to realize. For example, the Hu people who migrated into Senei were oppressed, sold, and enslaved by the Han people. In this environment, it is really difficult not to pass on the resentment to the children.
Otohime is really a great leader! There are many touching characters in One Piece, and among Bears, Otohime ranks first.
Oops, that's wrong. It seems that the bear needs to prepare more pulses.
In the Western Jin Dynasty, chaos broke out frequently in the northwest and northeast. Although the Central Plains seemed to be peaceful, it had become a hidden danger. Under such circumstances, Sima Yan still placed the Hu tribes who had surrendered or defected to the fortress.
Guo Qin, the imperial censor, and others wrote many times to advise Sima Yan to move the Hu people, but Sima Yan refused to listen.
There is also clan politics. At the beginning, it is said that Hyun wants to weaken the gentry, so what exactly is this clan politics?
It originated in the Later Han Dynasty, formed in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, developed most strongly in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and gradually declined and disappeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
The aristocrats had special privileges and maintained strict boundaries with the common people.
Politically, they have been highly respected senior officials for many years; economically, they occupy a large amount of land and working population according to their official status, and do not pay rent to the country for military service; they have a superior social status and do not marry or ride with common people who have no privileges.
Sit together.
In order to protect their privileges, they pay special attention to their family status. They monopolize politics and exclude the poor families of the common people. Even after the common people become officials, they are still discriminated against by the gentry. As for those common people landowners who are unwilling to curry favor with the gentry, they will remain stagnant throughout their lives.
No hope of promotion.
This also places great restrictions on the promotion of talents.
In terms of rewards, I mentioned it before.
In December of the first year of Taishi (265), Sima Yan just ascended the throne and reformed the enfeoffment system. All the descendants of his ancestor Sima Yi and the following clans were granted the title of king, with the county as the country and the 20,000 households in the city as the big country. , lower three armies, with 5,000 soldiers; each town with 10,000 households is a sub-state, with an upper army and a lower army with 3,000 soldiers; 5,000 households is a small country with 1,500 soldiers.
Sima Yan's younger brothers, cousins, uncles, uncles, cousins, and cousins were all crowned kings at the same time, totaling 27 people.
The honorable ministers and relatives of the Sima family who founded the business were all given titles and titles, including the Grand Sima Shi Bao, the Chariot and Cavalry General Chen Qian, the Minister Ling Pei Xiu, the Attendant Xun Xu, the Taifu Zheng Chong, the Taibao Wang Xiang, the Taiwei He Zeng, The hussar generals Wang Shen, Sikong Xunyi, and Zhenbei general Wei Guan were all granted the title of Duke.
The above is just written so that everyone can see the feudal hierarchy of the Western Jin Dynasty and how many people were granted it. This feudal system had to be discontinued because all the kings stayed in the capital and did not go to the feudal land.
In the early Jin Dynasty, the feudal system was delayed and undecided, and even when it was decided, it was not implemented.
In terms of the throne, Sima Yan was Sima Zhao's eldest son, but Sima Zhao actually wanted his younger son Sima You to succeed him at that time. It seems that Sima Zhao also weighed how much Sima Yan had.
Unfortunately, there was talk of "the order of elders and younger ones" in the court, so Sima Zhao had no choice but to appoint Sima Yan instead.
In Sima Yan's later years, all his sons were weak and had no imperial qualities, and the prince also had no imperial qualities and was not a person who could make people surrender, so he turned to Sima You again.
Let me go! Then what was Sima Zhao doing when he established the crown prince! So, the "order of elders and young ones" is something to be used for nonsense!
At this time, Zhongshu Supervisor Xun Xu and others believed that Sima You was favored by the public, and if he succeeded, it would probably affect their own interests. So Xun Xu and his attendant Feng Zuo advised Sima Yan:
"After your Majesty's long live birth, the prince shall not succeed to the throne."
Sima Yan was worried about this. Maybe Sima Zhong was not stupid, but he definitely did not have imperial qualities. Therefore, Sima Yan immediately asked:
"Why?"
Xun Xu said:
"Now in the court, Sima You has the loudest voice and is expected by everyone. Does your Majesty think that the prince can succeed to the throne under such circumstances?"
Sima Yan was also very worried about this situation, so he followed the two people's suggestions to implement feudalism again and forced Sima You to return to the country. Sima You learned that Xun Xu and others were behind it, and became angry and angry.
Ah, in fact, I really don’t understand how the ancients could not maintain a normal mind after being in the officialdom for so long? After the previous struggle for the throne, Brother Xiaoyou should have a Buddhist heart, maybe he is unwilling to give up.
As expected, allowing Sima You to return to the country aroused opposition from the ministers. Wang Ji repeatedly asked his wife Princess Shang Changshan and Zhen De's wife Princess Changguang to cry in front of Sima Yan and plead for Sima You, which made Sima Yan furious. , some admonishers suffered relegation, imprisonment, and even death from anger.
I really can’t understand the ancients…
As for Sima You, although Sima Yan sent imperial doctors to see him, they all said that Sima You was not sick. It was probably because Xun Xu and others had already done a good job in it, so Sima You dragged his illness back to the country and returned home the next year. He died of hematemesis.
After Sima Yan learned about Sima You's death, he cried very sadly, but Feng Can said: "The King of Qi is over-rated, but he has won the hearts of the people all over the world. His death today is a blessing to the country. Your Majesty does not need to be so sad!"
So Sima Yan "obediently" stopped crying.
Although Feng You was right, if Sima You had not died, the chaos of the "Eight Kings Rebellion" would probably have been brought forward, but as an elder brother, his own brother died, how did he die?
Are you counting? He just pretended to shed a few tears, and then killed the imperial doctor who treated Sima You, and buried Sima You according to the regulations. How could he be secretly happy in his heart?
Sure enough, emperors are ruthless, even their own fathers and brothers can be killed.
It's really a pity for Sima You. If when Sima Zhao established the crown prince, those ministers would not hold on to the nonsense of "the order of elders and younger ones", but really consider the emperor's quality and long-term considerations, maybe the Jin Dynasty could still exist
The time is longer.
Through Sima You’s incident, we can also see:
When Sima Zhao fell ill, he was worried about Sima You's safety and told Sima Yan about King Huainan of the Han Dynasty (Liu An of the Western Han Dynasty, who invented tofu and was the first practitioner in the world to try a hot air balloon into the sky. He was a very talented person, but he was too ambitious.
The story of King Chen Si of Wei (Cao Zhi, "Seven Steps Poetry", I won't talk about this), before he died, he put Sima You's hand in Sima Yan's hand, which was unexpected.
It goes without saying.
Before her death, the Queen Mother said to Sima Yan with tears streaming down her face, "Taofu (Sima You's diminutive) has an impatient temper, and as an elder brother you are not charitable. If I get sick, I'm afraid you won't be able to tolerate him. I take this as my excuse."
I charge you, I hope you will not forget my words." These worries are not unreasonable.
Ahem, when we talked about enfeoffment, we turned to Sima You again. However, the cause of the "Eight Kings Rebellion" was indeed due to the struggle between Sima Yan and Sima You for the throne. (To be continued)