Talking about Chi Zhaoping, I have to talk about Wang Mang as a person. Do you think Wang Mang represents good or evil? It seems inappropriate to judge a politician in terms of good and evil alone. So we can change our perspective, who is Wang Mang on the side of to make a series of reforms?
Chi Zhaoping is of course a very outstanding woman, able to pull up an army of up to 100,000 people as a woman, and this woman's ability to command is beyond doubt.
However, the uprising against the imperial court was definitely not something that ordinary people were willing to do. But no one risks their lives to revolt if there is no special reason, such as not surviving or being harmed by key interests.
So what kind of person does Chi Zhaoping belong to? Why did she revolt against Wang Mang's rule? What good does it do her? We cannot find any evidence of Chi Zhaoping's identity from history, and can only rely on inference.
Chi Zhaoping
Wang Mang's chaotic government, the starting point is not bad, but there is a problem with the content
Many people did not care about Wang Mang's reforms. He advanced nearly two thousand years and proposed the WangTian system. In other words, the fields were no longer the landlords, because the imperial court had to recycle them all. However, the imperial court did not take it back and did not let the people of the world cultivate the land, but all the court arranged and distributed to the people to cultivate the land. The imperial court only needs to collect taxes from the people, and as for the land that the court gives to the people, the people only have the right to use it, and there is no property right in it.
Is this terrible thing for the people? Certainly not terrible. Because in the hands of the people at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there was no land at all. The vast majority of the land was in the hands of the landlords and powerful, and the people could only become their tenants and give their families land and grain. Therefore, Wang Mang only changed the ownership of the land and took the land in the hands of the landlord back to the hands of the imperial court. Because of this reform, the people of the world have revolted.
Many people may not quite understand why they have to rise up and revolt without harming the interests of the people. Because most of the people have become accustomed to eating on the landlords. Now the landlord tells the people that the land in his hands has been taken away by Wang Mang, and you will never be able to eat again.
Wang Mang
Therefore, many ordinary people joined the rebel army in this situation. The core leadership of the rebel army is overwhelmingly landlords and strong. Why? Because they have food in their hands, as long as there are these people, they are willing to follow them for their lives.
It can be seen that Chi Zhaoping, as the leader of the rebel army, is most likely a local landlord. Because the family's land was taken by Wang Mang, an uprising was launched. She had thousands of people following her as soon as she revolted, and she couldn't do that without financial resources.
What exactly did Chi Zhaoping's rebel army do?
It is undeniable that Wang Mang represented justice, but many of his systems were relatively advanced and did not conform to the level of development of the productive forces at that time. So since Chi Zhaoping rebelled against Wang Mang, what did they do?
Chi Zhaoping led a large army to attack the city strategically, killing all the local officials. Because of this move, the cities she passed through were basically in a state of chaos.
In addition, Chi Zhaoping also looted the money in the official palace. Even if she is a big landlord, she will eat a poor day. Therefore, only by continuously replenishing grain and grass can we ensure the continuation of the uprising.
Map of the Territory of the New Dynasty
Not only that, Chi Zhaoping also released all the criminals in the cell to join his team. Many historians praise Chi Zhaoping's great achievements, but she did a very stupid job in this matter, are all criminals innocent? It is terrible that those who have committed sins are so let out.
In the later stage, Chi Zhaoping was even more preying on his own people. Those landlords and powerful people who did not revolt were also ruthlessly attacked by the rebel army, the aristocratic clique suffered heavy losses, and the people became Chi Zhaoping's most powerful weapon.
The reason why Chi Zhaoping's rebel army is not very famous in history is not because they have no scale, but because they have no purpose. They have been in a state of confusion and do not know where to go, so they greatly limit their later scale.
Although the Chimei Army and the Green Forest Army were also rebel armies, they had their own political ideals and knew what to do after overthrowing Wang Mang's regime. At least it is better than Chi Zhaoping, and the Chi Zhaoping Group only knows how to survive, but does not know what development is.
An uprising is impossible without touching the interests
This is a very cruel fact, why was Wang Mang able to be emperor for 15 years? Is the army in his hands really very powerful? In fact, in the early days of Wang Mang's reign, no one expressed opposition at all, not even the clan relatives of the old Liu family.
Why? Because Wang Mang did not touch their interests, the old Liu family's prince was still the prince of the new dynasty, but the imperial court had changed an emperor, and since they did not have the strength to fight Wang Mang, there was only the reason for obedience.
Liu Xiu
Even Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, had read in Wang Mang's Taixue for 5 years, which showed that Liu Xiu was not very disgusted with Wang Mang at that time. Because Wang Mang did not touch Liu Xiu's fundamental interests after all.
Therefore, Chi Zhaoping, including Green Forest and Chimei, revolted, in fact, for their own interests. Chi Zhaoping's rebel army did cause great harm to Wang Mang's clique, but in the end it was not them who won, but Liu Xiu's clique.
Chi Zhaoping didn't even have a reasonable ending, why is that? I think that an important reason why Chi Zhaoping's uprising ended without success is that the reason for the original uprising is no longer a reason. That is to say, after the fall of Wang Mang, the landlords regained control of a large amount of land, and there was no need to fight with the princes of the world for the world.
Since ancient times, the landlord class has been the most terrible force for exploiting the common people, and they have often played a righteous role in history, which can be said to be the limitation of the times, but it should not be praised in various ways.
Schematic diagram of the Red Brow Green Forest Uprising
The uprising did have its own significance, but it was not as exaggerated as history describes. The most characteristic feature of the Chi Zhaoping Uprising is that the leader of the rebel army was a woman.
Beyond that, there is really no way to say that this is an uprising that represents justice, because the landlord class will always support its own interests. Is it commendable that they use the people as guns for their own interests?
Of course, Chi Zhaoping's ability must be affirmed. To be able to command such a powerful army, at least the leadership ability is not bad, but her foresight is very poor, there is no political ideal, and the final failure is also imaginable.