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[How did the Sima family rise to the top step by step during the chaotic Three Kingdoms period? And how did they fall to ruin? Understand the legendary life of the Sima family in one breath Sima Yi and the Eight Kings Rebellion of the Jin Dynasty]

On the stage of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty, the Sima family took a gamble, was born in Cao Wei, and became the final victor of the Three Kingdoms, founding the Jin Dynasty.

However, people in history did not think highly of the Sima family. The Eight Princes Rebellion led to the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, and many ethnic groups in the north and the western regions took advantage of the chaos to invade the Central Plains.

This caused the population in the Central Plains to drop sharply, and the people were living in poverty. The Sima family was eventually exterminated.

However, because Sima Yi was so famous, the entire Sima family was regarded by later generations as his auxiliary and continuation.

So how powerful was the Sima family in history? What happened during the Eight Princes Rebellion? Why was such a powerful Sima family exterminated? In this video, let us understand Sima Yi and his Sima family in chronological order.

Sima was the name of an official position in ancient China. It was established in the Shang Dynasty and was equivalent to the Six Ministers. It was responsible for managing military affairs and military taxes.

During the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, a man named Cheng Boxiu served as Sima. Because he made great contributions in the battle against the State of Xu, King Xuan of Zhou granted him the surname Sima based on his official title. Cheng Boxiu also became the ancestor of the Sima family.

In this way, Sima Yi and Cheng Yu can be considered relatives. During the Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan was honored as the Holy Ancestor of Jin after the Qi Temple. During the Warring States Period, a young man named Sima Ang became a general of the State of Zhao with his own abilities.

But at this time, Zhao State was destroyed by Qin State. It was not until the end of the Qin Dynasty that Sima Ang followed Xiang Yu to destroy Qin and was named King of Yin, in charge of Henei.

In 205 BC, when Liu Bang, the King of Han, marched into Chu, Sima Ang was captured and surrendered to Liu Bang, and his fiefdom became Henei. As a direct descendant of Cheng Bo Xiufu, Sima Ang became the ancestor of the Sima family in Henei.

But who could have imagined that the 56-strong coalition army of princes led by Liu Bang would be defeated by Xiang Yu's 3 troops in the Battle of Pengcheng. Sima Ang unfortunately became the only prince to die in this battle and did not see the subsequent Jedi counterattack by Liu Bang's camp.

The Sima family had to spend 300 years in obscurity in Hanoi County.

It was not until the reign of Emperor An of Han that another great man, Sima Jun, emerged from the Sima family. He was the 8th-generation grandson of Sima Ang and served as General Zhengxi at the time. Although he was later imprisoned for a crime and committed suicide in prison, Sima Jun was so popular that his descendants were well taken care of.

Sima Jun's son was Sima Liang, the governor of Yuzhang, his grandson was Sima Jun, the governor of Yingchuan, and his great-grandson was Sima Fang, the governor of Jingzhao, who was also the father of Sima Yi. Because Sima Fang had eight sons, each of whom had a "Da" in his name, they were also called "the eight Sima Da".

Among Sima Fang's eight sons, most of them were ignored by later generations.

But 5 of these 4 people were granted the title of marquis. And we all know that Sima Yi lived a long life and outlived three generations of Cao's monarchs. The longest-lived Sima family member was the third Sima Fu, who lived 20 years longer than Sima Yi.

First, let's take a look at the eldest Sima Lang's branch. What kind of people appeared when the Eight Kings Rebellion broke out? Sima Lang passed the Confucian classics examination at the age of 12 and became a Tongzilang, which is considered a child prodigy today.

At the age of 22, he was recruited by Cao Cao as a subordinate of Sikong. He was also one of the few people in the Sima family who had a majestic image. Sima Lang had a son named Sima Yi and an adopted son named Sima Wang who was adopted from the third son Sima Fu.

Because Sima Yi died childless, Sima Wang adopted his second son to Sima Yi as his successor.

In addition to Sima Yi, Sima Wang had three sons, namely Sima Yi, Sima He and Sima Mao.

The second son, Sima Yi, had nine sons. The three sons he had with Empress Zhang were Sima Shi, Sima Zhao, and Sima You.

The four sons born to Lady Fu were Sima Liang, King of Runan, Sima Lun, King of Langye, Sima Lun, King of Zhao, and Sima De, King of Yan. The eighth son, Sima Rong, was born to Lady Zhang, and the ninth son, Sima Lun, King of Zhao, was born to Lady Bai.

Among them, Sima Liang, King of Runan, and Sima Lun, King of Zhao, were two of those involved in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings.

Sima Yi, the most famous figure in the Sima family, was smart and thoughtful since childhood. Because he supported Cao Cao's enthronement, he gradually won Cao Cao's trust. After Cao Cao was crowned King of Wei, Sima Yi began to assist Cao Pi and helped Cao Pi win the battle for succession to Wei, and was therefore crowned Marquis of Anguo.

After outlasting the three emperors Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Rui, Sima Yi launched the Gaopingling coup in 249 AD. From then on, the military and political power of Cao Wei truly fell into the hands of the Sima family.

Sima Yi's eldest son Sima Shi had five daughters, so Sima Zhao adopted his second son Sima You to Sima Shi.

Sima You had a son named Sima Jiong, who was also one of the participants besides the Eight Kings. In addition to Sima Zhao, Sima Shi had 8 other sons, namely Sima Yan, Sima You, Sima Dingguo, Sima Guangde, Sima Yongzuo, Sima Yan, Sima Mo, and Sima Tong.

Sima Yan was the founding emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty. He had 26 sons, 18 of whom were well-known. The eldest, Sima Gui, died at the age of 2, and the second, Sima Zhong, was the second emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty.

The third of the Eight Sima was Sima Fu, the longest-lived person in the Sima family. Sima Fu had a kind and modest personality. He never made enemies with others and was very cautious. When Sima Yi was in power, he deliberately avoided getting too involved in political affairs. He also never participated in the planning of the Sima family's several actions to depose and enthronize emperors.

Sima Fu also had nine sons, namely Sima Jun, Sima Rong, Sima Mao, Sima Mao, Sima Tong, Sima Bin, Sima Tai, Sima Sui, and Sima Jin. Among them, Sima Yun, the son of the sixth son Sima Jun, participated in the Eight Princes Rebellion.

The fourth of the eight Sima clans was Sima Kui, who had three sons, Sima Gui, Sima Tai, and Sima Gui. Although not well-known, Sima Yue, the son of the second son Sima Tai, participated in the Rebellion of the Eight Princes.

As for the remaining four of the Eight Great Simas, since they did not participate in the rebellion, there are not many introductions about them in history books.

In 265 AD, Sima Yan forced Emperor Yuan of Wei, Cao Huan, to abdicate, ascended the throne, and changed the country's name to Jin.

He appointed the 9-year-old Sima Zhong as the crown prince. At that time, Sima Yan probably thought that his son was just developing slowly and did not take his intelligence seriously. But as Sima Zhong grew up, Sima Yan found that something was wrong and that his son might have some problems with his intelligence.

Although Sima Yan had more than 20 sons, he faced great resistance in deposing and enthroning the crown prince.

First, there is order of seniority. After the eldest son died, the second son Sima Zhong took the throne. Second, and most importantly, Sima Zhong already had a crown princess, whose name was Jia Nanfeng.

Although Jia Nanfeng was plain-looking and not very well-educated, her father was Jia Chong, one of the core members of the Sima family's auxiliary guard group.

Moreover, Jia Nanfeng, the daughter-in-law, had won over the Queen's Yang family. If the Crown Prince was to be replaced, it would be tantamount to offending two big families, so the matter was shelved indefinitely.

In 290 AD, Sima Yan was seriously ill and was unable to manage affairs for half a year.

Jia Chong and Qi Wang Sima You and several others formed the new power core. Sima You was originally the son of Sima Zhao, and later adopted by Sima Shi, whose father-in-law also happened to be Jia Chong.

For Jia Chong, it made no difference whether Sima Zhong or Sima You succeeded to the throne. However, Sima Yan, who was dying and seriously ill, had a sudden resurgence, seized Jia Chong's military power, and began to suppress Sima You, the Prince of Qi, so that Sima You died of frustration.

After weighing the pros and cons, Sima Yan still chose his stupid son Sima Zhong, hoping that he could become a king who maintained the status quo with the assistance of his ministers.

Afterwards, he balanced the forces of all parties, promoted his father-in-law, made his several adult sons kings, and issued an edict to let his father-in-law Yang Jun and Sima Liang jointly assist in the administration.

Sima Liang is Sima Yi's younger brother. Although he has no talent, he has no ambition. He hopes that Sima Liang and Yang Jun can restrain each other, and with the support of the kings, his stupid son should be able to smoothly take power.

He thought he had arranged everything properly, but Yang Jun took the opportunity to exclude the ministers and personally come to serve Sima Yan.

His daughter, Empress Yang, also withheld the imperial edict, issued a forged edict, controlled the government, and excluded Sima Liang.

After Sima Yan died, Sima Zhong officially ascended the throne. How stupid was Sima Zhong? One year, there was a famine and people were starving to death everywhere. Sima Zhong actually asked everyone why they didn't eat meat porridge when they had no rice to eat.

The emperor was stupid, and with the assistance of his tutor Yang Jun, the Jin Dynasty developed smoothly. However, his powerful queen, Jia Nanfeng, could not be content to be a queen. In order to control the government, Jia Nanfeng single-handedly concocted the Rebellion of the Eight Princes.

We have introduced to you the complicated relationships of the Sima family before. The eight people who participated in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings can be divided according to their generation: Sima Liang, King of Runan, and Sima Lun, King of Zhao, were the sons of Sima Yi. They were the uncles of Sima Yan and the grandfathers of Sima Zhong.

Sima Yong, King of Hejian, and Sima Yue, King of Donghai, were cousins ​​of Sima Yan and uncles of Sima Zhong.

King of Chengdu Sima Ying, King of Chu Sima Wei, and King of Changsha Sima Yi were all sons of Sima Yan and brothers of Sima Zhong. King of Qi Sima Jiong was the son of Sima You and a cousin of Sima Zhong.

Among these eight people, only King of Hejian Sima Yong and King of Donghai Sima Yue were not from the lineage of Sima Yi, and the other six were direct descendants of Sima Yi.

The first phase of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings began in 291 AD. In order to prevent Yang Jun from monopolizing power, Jia Nanfeng wanted to unite with the Sima clan to get rid of Yang Jun.

Jia Nanfeng's first choice was naturally the highly respected Sima Liang, but the Buddhist Sima Liang refused Jia Nanfeng's request, so Jia Nanfeng had to choose King of Chu Sima Wei as her second choice to lead troops into Beijing to attack Yang Jun.

With the support of Sima Wei, the King of Chu, Jia Nanfeng designed to have Emperor Hui of Jin issue an edict declaring Yang Jun a treason, impose martial law in Luoyang, and ask Sima Wei, the King of Chu, to lead the army to defend the palace and besiege Yang Jun's mansion. Yang Jun, who was timid and cowardly, was eventually killed in the stable in the mansion.

Afterwards, Jia Nanfeng issued an edict in the name of Emperor Hui of Jin to abolish Yang Zhi's position as empress dowager, demoted her to a commoner, and exterminated Yang Jun's three clans. At this point, Yang Jun's political power was completely eliminated.

Although Jia Nanfeng was somewhat cruel, she was smart and knew that she could not control the government. So she did not choose to share power with Sima Wei, but once again extended an olive branch to the highly respected Sima Liang. Sima Liang was not a fool. The Yang family had been eradicated, so there was no reason not to take advantage of it. Therefore, the government was jointly controlled by Sima Liang, Sima Wei and the veteran minister Wei Guan. Jia Nanfeng's relatives also held important positions.

After a while, Jia Nanfeng was extremely dissatisfied with herself for not being able to monopolize power, so she used the same old trick again and issued a secret decree in the name of Emperor Hui of Jin to let King of Chu Sima Wei kill King of Runan Sima Liang and Wei Guan. Sima Wei was not smart and was fooled by a woman once. After killing Sima Liang, Jia Nanfeng thought that Sima Wei had too much power, so she executed him on the grounds that he forged the edict and killed Sima Liang.

At this point, Jia Nanfeng had complete control over the government, and all the royal relatives, the third aunt, and the eighth aunt were entrusted with important tasks.

In the following eight years, the country was well governed. In the first stage, the two princes in the Eight Princes Rebellion were the first to be killed. If the Jin Dynasty could develop steadily at this time, there would not be any problems, but Jia Nanfeng started to make trouble again.

The Rebellion of the Eight Kings entered its second phase, which began in 299 AD and ended in 306 AD.

The scale of the turmoil in this stage was larger than the first stage, more royal princes were involved, and the war was more brutal. Because Jia Nanfeng had no son, in order to monopolize power in the future, she started to make trouble again and wanted to get rid of the prince.

Jia Nanfeng had someone get the prince drunk, and then had him copy a pre-written article calling for Emperor Hui of Jin to abdicate. Emperor Hui of Jin read the prince's handwriting and wanted to execute him, but under the persuasion of his ministers, he had to issue an edict to abolish Sima Yi's position as prince and imprison him in Jinyong City outside Luoyang.

Sima Lun, the Prince of Zhao, was the Prince's tutor at the time. He often tried to please Jia Nanfeng and was always trusted by her. He was in charge of the imperial guards guarding the palace. After the Prince was deposed, Sima Lun saw that this meant that the Sima family was going to change their names, which was not acceptable.

But as a member of the Sima family, Sima Lun also inherited the insidious and cunning characteristics. Sima Lun decided to let Jia Nanfeng kill the prince first, and then take revenge for the prince so that he could take control of the power.

So Sima Lun spread rumors that the prince's followers were planning a rebellion and pushed Jia Nanfeng to kill the prince.

Later, Sima Lun followed suit and forged an imperial edict from Emperor Hui of Jin, deposing Empress Jia Nanfeng on the charge of killing the crown prince.

After being sent to Jinyong City, another forged imperial edict caused Jia Nanfeng to drink gold-dust wine and die. Afterwards, Sima Lun forged an imperial edict again, appointed himself as prime minister, and took control of the government.

In 301 AD, King Sima Lun of Zhao deposed Emperor Hui and proclaimed himself emperor, and Emperor Hui of Jin was placed under house arrest in Jinyong City.