As for why Liu Bang chose to divide the princely states when he established the Han Dynasty, or why did he choose the parallel system of counties and states? This is closely related to the national background of the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty at that time and the practical problems faced by Liu Bang personally. It was also these two factors that determined that Liu Bang had to choose to divide the princes.
Liu Bang's sub-seal
Liu Bang's sub-fiefs can be divided into two levels, namely princes with different surnames and princes with the same surname. When Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty in 202 BC, he had already canonized or recognized seven heroes of the opposite sex as princes (counting a total of eight Lu Xie, who later succeeded Zang Di as the King of Yan), and then successively established and sealed eleven princes with the same surname during his reign. In these two levels, the princes of different surnames represent the old forces and the heroes of annihilation. The princes with the same surname represent the royal family.
Princes with different surnames: The eight princes with different surnames that Liu Bang divided were all old aristocratic forces and heroes of annihilation in various places. Among them, Han Xin the King of Chu, Peng Yue the King of Liang, Ji Xin the King of Han, and Lu Xie the King of Yan were the heroes of the destruction of Xiang, while Yingbu the King of Huainan, Wu Rui the King of Changsha, Zang Di the King of Yan, and Zhang Er the King of Zhao were the old forces that Xiang Yu had claimed as kings when he was a prince. However, these old forces, without exception, all supported Liu Bang, the king of Han, in the Chu-Han war. These princes with different surnames were the first princes to be divided by Liu Bang, and even Lu Xie, who later succeeded Zang Di as the King of Yan, was enfeoffed shortly after Liu Bang ascended the throne.
Princes of the same surname: Liu Bang successively divided the princes of the same surname to reach a total of eleven, and these people are undoubtedly representatives of the imperial family and clan. Among them, Liu Bang's brothers have three brothers, seven sons, and one nephew. Among these people, only Liu Bang's second brother Liu Zhong, the fourth brother Liu Jiao, the consort Liu Jia, and the eldest son Liu Fei were relatively early princes with the same surname, and the others were later divided in the process of gradually eliminating the princes with different surnames.
The process of Liu Bang's division of the seals: Judging from the stage process of Liu Bang's division of the princes, it can be roughly divided into three periods. First, in the process of fighting against Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, the division of the seals was mainly to win over the forces of all sides to form an alliance; second, after Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu, when the Han Dynasty was just established, at this time it was mainly to fulfill promises and reward meritorious heroes, and the basic framework for the division of the princes in the early days of the Western Han Dynasty was thus determined; the third stage was that shortly after Liu Bang ascended the throne, based on the jealousy and suspicion of the Chu king Han Xin, Liu Bang began to systematically eliminate the princes with different surnames, and then constantly divided the princes with the same surname to take over the fiefs of the princes with different surnames.
Liu Bang's helplessness in dividing the seals
Regarding the reasons why Liu Bang chose to continue to divide the princely states after establishing the Han Dynasty, the "compromise" system of the parallel system of counties and states was formed in the early Western Han Dynasty. If we analyze from the background of the national conditions at that time and Liu Bang's personal situation, in fact, all of them reveal Liu Bang's "helplessness".
"Qin lost its deer, the world chased after it" at this time the true portrayal of Chinese society at that time after the death of Qin. Whether it was Xiang Yu or Liu Bang, to some extent, they still couldn't help but admit that they didn't have the absolute ability to control the entire territory. Those "old nobles of the Six Kingdoms", the "princes" of Xiang Yu's separate seals, and the heroes who followed Liu Bang's birth and death all looked at this new Tianzi who had just finished the war. Of course, Liu Bang, who is well versed in human nature and political rules, will not be stupid enough to immediately "turn his face", because that will make him immediately change from a son of heaven to a "new target" for the world.
Liu Bang's victory was a victory representing "Buyi", but it also determined that he did not have enough family strength to control the great Han Dynasty. Liu Bang was born in jingcao mang, and his team was basically the "brothers" who followed him to start in Pei County, although these people had enough loyalty to Liu Bangbao, but these people did not have enough prestige in the six kingdoms of Shandong, which had long paid attention to blood, and Liu Bang's own royal family did not have enough talented people to come out of the town, combined with the lesson that when the Qin Dynasty fell, there was no help within the imperial family. Therefore, Liu Bang could only reluctantly recognize the status and power of these old forces, and at the same time gradually divided his brothers and nephews as princes to strengthen the Liu family's rule over the whole country.
The inertia of history made Liu Bang dare not "go against the tide". It is now recognized that a mature unified dynasty must implement a county system and suppress the system of sub-feudalism in order to stabilize the dynasty internally. However, Liu Bang's era was the stage of the rise of the county system, although after the practice of the Warring States period, all the princely states had realized the superiority of the county system, although it was not as thorough as the Qin State, but the six kingdoms had successively had such a system. The unification of the Qin State has made the county system basically implemented in the whole country. However, compared with the thousands of years of history of the sub-feudal system from the ancient Fangguo period to the improvement and implementation of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the implementation of the county system is still a new thing. Therefore, as soon as the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, Xiang Yu divided the Eighteen Road Princes, and in fact let the sub-feudal system return. As Liu Bang, who won the weak over the strong, his dependence was on the support of the princes of all sides, so he could not and did not dare to deprive these princes of their power and territory soon after the establishment of the new dynasty.
In summary, the influence of the implementation of the sub-feudal system for many years, the remaining aristocratic forces of the Six Kingdoms at that time, and the objective existence of various forces generated after the fall of qin and the end of the Chu-Han War made Liu Bang have to continue to divide the princes. At the same time, in order to consolidate his family's rule over the Great Han Dynasty, Liu Bang was also willing to use the princes of the same surname to consolidate his rule by dividing the imperial family.
Flexibility and strategy in Liu Bang's sub-sealing
In fact, from the bones of Liu Bang is contradictory to the princes of the division, if you put aside the helplessness of the above Liu Bang, he is definitely unwilling to divide the seals. But as a reckless hero who came out of the market, he had to adopt a flexible and strategic approach to this sub-sealing.
The earliest division of the liu bang clique actually began from the early stage of the Chu-Han War. When Liu Bang raided Guanzhong from Hanzhong, he retained their vassal status against the surrendered Qin dynasty generals, Sima Xin the Prince of Sai and Dong Yi the Prince of Zhai among the three kings of Guanzhong who were also divided by Xiang Yu. Of course, Liu Bang occupied their territory and coerced these princes to attack Xiang Yu in the east. This was Liu Bang's first strategy towards the division of feudalism, that is, annexing land and retaining titles.
Liu Bang, who then easily occupied xiang yu's capital, was defeated under the surprise attack of the elite cavalry led by Xiang Yu. This made the Chu and Han sides begin to move towards the stage of stalemate, and at the same time, Liu Bang soberly realized the gap between himself and Xiang Yu. At this time, he began to try his best to win over the forces of all sides and strengthen his strength in an alliance to fight against the powerful Xiang Yu. Thus, Liu Bang's strategy of "exchanging land for victory" adjusted Liu Bang's decision to divide the fiefs. A typical example of this period is the two sets of "land for victory" strategies proposed by two strategists under Liu Bang's account. One was Li Shiqi's proposal to divide the old nobles of the Six Kingdoms to win these forces together against Xiang Yu, and the other was Zhang Liang, who had dissuaded Li Shiqi's plan at that time, proposed a new version of "land for victory", that is, to crown Han Xin and Peng Yue and others in exchange for the support of these military forces, and finally won the victory over Xiang Yu.
After Liu Bang ascended the throne, in the face of these local forces and Wen wugong ministers, he had to first take the way of clarifying these princes to stabilize the overall situation, and it was also one of the means to appease these heroes. However, Liu Bang's sub-sealing was only a temporary compromise and appeasement, and he began to brew "cutting the domain" almost non-stop.
Soon after Liu Bang had finished sealing the princes with different surnames, he used the pretext of hunting down Xiang Yu's old department and forced the Yan king Zang Di to rebel. However, at this time, Liu Bang still took the initiative to divide Lu Xie, a new prince with a different surname, to appease the rest of the princes with different surnames. Because his most jealous King Han Xin of Chu had not yet been solved. Subsequently, Liu Bang used Chen Ping's scheme to trap Han Xin, remove his prince and bring him back to the capital to control it, at this time Liu Bang began to show his fangs, he divided the four princes with the same surname in one go, and divided Han Xin's Chu state into two, all of which were divided into his brothers, and then divided the Qi land with a very high strategic position in the six kingdoms of Shandong to his eldest son. These measures were all aimed at consolidating their rule and weakening the power of the princes of different surnames.
Subsequently, Liu Bang successively eliminated the other princes with different surnames, except for Wu Rui, the king of Changsha, who was located in a remote and barbaric land. The fiefdoms of these purged princes were also successively divided by Liu Bang to his sons and nephews. In the process of purging, Liu Bang also realized that his control over various places was still very weak, and the local forces were still very strong, so Liu Bang was also more and more worried about the emergence of new rebellions, so he began to be enthusiastic about dividing the seals, of course, at this time, the sub-seals must be his sons such as the blood of the concubines or the stronger of the sons and nephews.
In the end, before his death, Liu Bang also made a clear distinction on the division of the Western Han Dynasty, that is, to make a pact with the ministers to kill the white horse, "no one shall be king unless Liu Shi". It can also be regarded as a final footnote for his sub-sealing, that is, the sub-feudal system for different surnames, Liu Bang is opposed in his bones, but in view of the fact that the ruling foundation of his family is still relatively weak, he is keen to divide the children of the imperial family to consolidate his rule.