Douluo: The Lower Realm of the Children of the King of God and the Lord God

Chapter 45 White Horse Alliance

Introduction

The political system of the early Han Dynasty basically followed the Qin system, but under the centralized system, the feudal system that had been abolished in the Qin Dynasty was restored, and a parallel system of counties, counties and feudal states was adopted.As early as the Chu-Han War, Liu Bang created a group of kings with different surnames in order to recruit various military forces and compete with the Chu army for the throne.

Under the banner of the Han army, they finally made Liu Bang an emperor.Later, he believed that the king with a different surname could not be trusted and could only be used.Therefore, after he proclaimed himself emperor, he used various excuses to get rid of kings with different surnames. At the same time, he made the Liu family's nephews kings with the same surname. He also made a white horse alliance with the ministers and made an oath that "no one will be king unless he is Liu family", as a way to consolidate the Western Han Dynasty. auxiliary means of central power.

Cause

During the conflict between Chu and Han, Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu and gained the world by relying on many of his generals and the princes and kings who betrayed Xiang Yu. After the war, he had to confer the title of princes on a group of generals with the highest achievements. However, he had doubts and was afraid of princes and kings with different surnames. His rebellion endangered his own country, so he began to eliminate the princes, kings and heroes with different surnames.

Take Han Xin, one of the three heroes of the early Han Dynasty, as an example. After Liu Bang won the Battle of Gaixia, he changed the title of King of Chu and made him leave the base area of ​​Qi. In the following year, he planned to kidnap Han Xin to Chang'an and demoted him to the title of Marquis of Huaiyin. Finally, he was Empress Lu beheaded Han Xin.Later, kings such as Peng Yue, Yingbu, Zang Tu, and Lu Wan were all demoted and killed one by one.After Liu Bang eliminated the kings with different surnames, he found that the Han Dynasty's control could only stay in the Guanzhong area, but was beyond its reach in the border areas. Therefore, he enfeoffed the princes and kings with the same surname and implemented the system of prefectures and states to ensure the stability of the Liu family.

However, as Empress Lu's power grew, she was worried that the Han Dynasty would be taken away by the Lu family. Therefore, in her later years, she formed an alliance with the Liu family kings to kill the white horse to ensure a safe strategy.

Message

First, the country will last forever and benefit the Miao descendants. (As long as the Han Empire exists, ministers and their descendants will always have wine to drink and meat to eat).

Second, if someone who is not the Liu family is a king, the whole world will attack him. If he fails to do what he has done and ignores it, the whole world will punish him. (Non-members of the royal family cannot be granted the title of king, and those without military merit cannot be granted the title of marquis).

结果

After Liu Bang's death, Empress Lu wanted to make Zhu Lu king, and the Prime Minister Wang Ling on the right opposed it. However, Prime Minister Chen Ping and Jianghou Zhou Bo on the left thought that Empress Lu's move was okay. As a result, Empress Lu made Zhu Lu king. , the princes and kings of the Lu family were not deposed until the death of Queen Lu.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang took power as a foreign relative and was named a false emperor. Finally, he usurped the Han Dynasty and tore up this alliance.Later, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty reestablished the Han Dynasty, and this covenant was reiterated.It was not until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty that Cao Cao proclaimed himself King of Wei, and later his son Cao Pi succeeded him as King of Wei and usurped the Han Dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor, that the White Horse Alliance was completely torn up.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, the ancestral motto "If there is no Liu family, no king" was strictly observed except in the three periods mentioned above. Therefore, it can be seen that this covenant had a relatively large influence on the emperors of the Han Dynasty.

effect

The original intention of the White Horse Alliance was to consolidate the Han family, but instead relied too much on the king of the same surname and made it powerful.During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the rebellions of the King of Jibei and the King of Huainan occurred successively; and during the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion occurred.But in the end, these rebellions were put down, and Emperor Jing also took advantage of the victory to take back the power of appointing and removing officials in the feudal state, weakening the strength of the feudal state.Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued a favor order, and the strength of the king with the same surname was greatly weakened and turned into a false title.As a result, the original intention of Liu Bang's White Horse Alliance disappeared and remained only as a motto.

Critics

Historians generally believe that Liu Bang was afraid of being seized of power after ascending to the throne, and in order to prevent his descendants from being oppressed by heroes, he eradicated the founding heroes and established the White Horse Alliance.This reflects his selfish desire to "family the world" and also sets a precedent for later generations of founding monarchs to massacre heroes.

(End of this chapter)