In the treasury of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is an unexpected collection, "Wang Mang's head". The ancients have always believed in ghosts and gods, but in the face of the "Wang Mang's head", they did not shy away from collecting him, until a war in the Western Jin Dynasty, Wang Mang's head disappeared, and the collection inherited by the Liu royal family for 272 years ended.
What is the reason why the royal families of the Eastern Han Dynasty collected Wang Mang's head, and what did Wang Mang do to complain about the world and let him be treated like this after his death? What are the hidden secrets in this?
Wang Mang's family lineage
Wang Mang was born in 45 BC and had an aunt named Wang Zhengjun, later Empress Xiaoyuan, and when he was very young, his parents and brother died, so he lived with several uncles. As a powerful foreign relative, the Wang family was also a highly prestigious family during the Western Han Dynasty.
Most of the people in the clan were generals, Hou Ye, and even Da Sima, and their lives were very luxurious. Only Wang Mang lived a simple life, was modest, and diligent and studious. He worked hard for his mother and sister-in-law, raised his brother's widow as his own son, and was a moral model in the eyes of the world, and his good reputation spread farther and farther.
Step into the field
Gradually, Wang Feng, the great sima in the imperial court, began to notice Wang Mang, in addition to the identity of the great sima, Wang Feng also had a relationship with Wang Mang, as an uncle Wang Feng he has always been cared for by his nephew Wang Mang, in addition to taking care of his uncle meticulously, he also obeyed his uncle Wang Feng's instructions.
Wang Mang was recommended by Wang Feng after this to become a Huangmen attendant in the Western Han court. In this way, Wang Mang entered his career. Because of his filial character of respecting the old and loving the young, Wang Mang was praised by many people, and even Emperor Hancheng felt that Wang Mang was a capable person.
In 16 BC, Wang Mang was promoted by Emperor Cheng of Han to the new capital. At this time, although Wang Mang was in a high position, he was still honest and kind, and he did not hesitate to distribute his money to customers and the people, and also sold his property to help the poor, which was deeply loved by the common people. The ministers in the court also often praised Wang Mang.
Wang Mang's prestige and influence even overshadowed several of his uncles. In 8 BC, Wang Gen became seriously ill and recommended Wang Mang as Grand Sima. It has to be said that his family lineage brought him good conditions and paved the way for serving as a great sima. But his own noble character and reputation are obviously inseparable from his own efforts. During Wang Mang's reign, his character remained the same, he was low-key and modest, and his life was simple. One day, when Bai Guan came to visit Wang Mang's mother, he saw that his wife was dressed simply and did not bring any jewelry, which made the ministers praise one after another.
In 7 BC, Emperor Chengdi of Han died of illness, and Emperor Han ascended the throne. After the accession of Emperor Han to the throne, his mother Ding's foreign power began to gain power, and under this circumstance, Wang Mang could only retire from the post of Grand Sima and live in seclusion in his fief Xindu.
After retiring to his hometown, he is more low-key than before, and he rarely goes out. But the second son Wang Yu did not listen to the discipline and killed the family slave for no reason, which made Wang Mang's reputation at that time begin to be damaged, in order to calm the views of the people, he helplessly forced his son to death, and said: "The Son of Heaven committed the same crime as the common people, my son is just a commoner, and if he breaks the law, he will be punished accordingly!" This move has been appreciated by the world. This also caused many officials and people to redress Wang Mang's grievances and call on him to return to the position of Grand Sima, and Emperor Han, under pressure, could only recall Wang Mang to Beijing to serve Empress Dowager Wang, but did not reinstate him.
Ambition exposed
It was not until 1 BC, after the death of Emperor Han, that Wang Mang returned to the post of Grand Sima. Because Emperor Han did not leave any heirs, he supported the nine-year-old Emperor Hanping to the throne, and Wang Mang took control of the dynasty himself. Since then, Wang Mang's rights have been even more skyrocketing, and his own is no longer low-key, gradually revealing his ambitions. First, they eliminated dissidents and supported their henchmen to take office. In order to create a peaceful environment, he first sent envoys to the world, and then after returning to the dynasty, he trumpeted Wang Mang's way of governing the country, and then spent a huge amount of money to enlist the Xiongnu and other tribes, so that Wang Mang gradually became a virtuous king.
Wang Mang feared being targeted by Emperor Hanping's foreign family, so he imprisoned them in Zhongshan State and prevented them from returning to Beijing, while Wang Mang's eldest son, Wang Yu, was strongly resisted Wang Mang's actions because he was worried that Emperor Hanping would settle accounts with him in the future. was reprimanded by Wang Mang, but Wang Yu refused to give up.
They originally used a mysterious way to persuade Wang Mang, but they were recognized by Wang Mang, and Wang Mang, in a fit of anger, arrested Wang Yu in prison, and then drugged him. Then he took the opportunity to slander the Hanping Emperor family and wipe out the entire family. Later, Wang Mang was afraid that the news would leak, so he ordered people to publicize it, and also wrote a special article praising Wang Mang's heroic deeds as the "Book of Filial Piety" to educate future generations. Tiger poison has not eaten children, and Wang Mang has become more and more frenzied under the guidance of power. At this point, no one could stop Wang Mang's footsteps.
Wang Mang was declared emperor
After Emperor Hanping died of illness, his son succeeded to the throne. A few years later, Wang Mang's reputation was unparalleled in the Western Han Dynasty. The entire court was full of voices supporting Wang Mang, so Wang Mang began to force the Empress Dowager to hand over the jade seal of the kingdom, so that the emperor abdicated to make way for Xian, and ascended the throne of the emperor. Changing the name of the country to "Xin", Wang Mang obtained the unjust imperial throne, and it was also the first emperor in Chinese history to "usurp" the throne.
After Wang Mang succeeded to the throne, he modeled on the rule of the Zhou Dynasty and carried out a series of reforms, which is the so-called "Wang Mang Change Law". Wang Mang is a Confucian advocate who believes that only by returning to the society of "propriety" can the world be truly peaceful. Wang Mang's new policies were: banning the sale and purchase of land, and placing all fields in state ownership and distributing them to the common people; The sale of slaves was prohibited. Private minerals, salt, iron ore, etc. are prohibited, all of which are exclusively owned by the state. The currency system has also been reformed several times.
Wang Mang has lived plainly for decades, and has seen the essence of "people are precious", but he looks at affairs from the perspective of a family is incomplete after all, although he lives a simple life, but he is also a member of the family, from a young age without worries about food and clothing, but the people are different, born with little food and clothing. Wang Mang did not understand why these people became slaves, nor did he understand the joy after eating a full meal. Although they were slaves, they were at least alive, but after the policy came out, many slaves were starved to death because they had nowhere to make a living.
The confiscation of land in the world made Wang Mang notorious, and the land that the family had worked hard for several generations to save up, who was willing to hand it over, went to the opposite side of the family in one step.
The reform of the currency system pushed Wang Mang into the abyss. It has been restructured four times, and each time it has dissatisfied the people. This led to the people's poor livelihood, and also paved the way for Wang Mang's failure.
In 7 AD, in order to implement his new policy, Wang Mang ordered a few more coins in addition to the five baht. In 9 AD, there were two reforms, the five baht and the big knife were abolished, and twenty-eight other currencies were introduced. Because all kinds of coins are not easy to exchange, they are not publicly available in the market, but the people are still used in secret, so Wang Mang specially issued a criminal punishment to prohibit the people from minting coins in the people.
But just a year later, Wang Mang had to cancel the 28 currencies issued, leaving only two currencies: "small currency" and "big currency". In 14 AD, the fourth monetary revolution took place, which once again caused an even greater turmoil. Because these currencies have no credibility, prices skyrocket and the economy is in turmoil. Monetary reform has increased the burden on the people, thus leading to opposition from all over the country.
Wang Mang's policy failed to alleviate the contradictions between the people, coupled with drought, plague, floods, and various natural disasters followed, which plunged the country into chaos, and eventually the people broke out in an uprising. In 23 AD, the rebel army of the Gongling army, led by Liu Xiu, invaded Chang'an.
Wang Mang died in the chaos, and the new kingdom he founded perished, but the people were still angry and not only divided his body, but only his head remained. Only a dozen years of the new dynasty was overthrown in this way, Wang Mang's idea was good, but it did not conform to the social environment at that time, and finally failed.
Wang Mang's fate
After Wang Mang's death, Liu Xiu ascended the throne, opening a new phase of the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty. Wang Mang, who died in the war earlier, was asked by Liu Xiu to ask craftsmen to brush his skull with black paint, and let the warlock do it, and used a special method to peel off the flesh and skin on Wang Mang's head, leaving only the bones, and then preserved.
As for Wang Mang's head, it has always been collected by Liu Xiu in the treasury. But everyone has no objection to this approach, what is the deep meaning behind this?
Liu Xiu did this, the most important thing is naturally to punish Wang Mang, the thief of the country, the ancients have always paid attention to the dead for the great, into the soil for safety. Wang Mang's new dynasty was not in the right position, he relied on usurping the throne to ascend the throne as emperor, and in Liu Xiu's eyes, Wang Mang relied on the trust of the Han royal family in him, but step by step he turned against the Han family.
Therefore, Liu Xiu regarded Wang Mang as an enemy of the Han family, and Liu Xiu's attitude towards the "head of Wang Mang" was a revenge from the Han royal family.
And the nature of Wang Mang's usurpation is extremely bad, since Liu Bang's wife Empress Lü, the Western Han has been fighting against foreign qi, and the previous foreign qi has only exceeded his power at most, but Wang Mang has created a precedent for foreign qi usurpation, and the emperor wants to ascend to the throne must be inseparable from the support of the foreign qi forces of the mother family, but if the mother family foreign qi wants to usurp the throne, the nature changes, if everyone is like Wang Mang, then the Chinese dynasty does not know how many times it will be updated and iterated.
For the above considerations, in order to warn future generations not to follow Wang Mang's example, Liu Xiu must give Wang Mang the harshest, cruelest, and most cruel punishment, so that those powerful ministers who want to seek power and usurp the throne in the future can see that if they want to usurp the throne, they must first think about Wang Mang's fate.
And it is precisely because of this meaning that the "head of Wang Mang" has always maintained a special meaning, even after the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the rulers of the Wei and Jin dynasties silently left his head to warn the current courtiers and future courtiers.
When the people of the world also understood that this skull was just a white bone and did not play any role, for the Han Dynasty, since Empress Lü created the precedent of foreign qi dictatorship, the fate of the Han Dynasty was already inevitable. He Jin at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo and other powerful foreign officials still crushed the rivers and mountains and imperial industries laid down by Liu Xiu, the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and in the vast dust of history, no dynasty has ever been able to survive for thousands of years.
Under the historical trend of division must be combined for a long time, no dynasty is spared, and the cycle of reincarnation changes.
Is Wang Mang really a crosser?
In today's increasingly developed science and technology, most people in the world will judge Wang Mang as a traverser based on the avant-garde ideas of Wang Mang's new policy and the definition of the "modern caliper" created during his new policy.
Is Wang Mang really a traverser from the future? From a scientific point of view, Wang Mang is not a traveler from the future. The reason lies in his personal experience and the complex social environment of the time.
At the time of Wang Mang's birth, the Western Han Dynasty at that time was gradually declining, and the worldly lords and thousands of landlords desperately searched for the people's fat and anointed the people, and then annexed state-owned land, which would lead to the country's taxes and conscription becoming heavier and heavier, causing the common people to live in dire straits.
In his youth, Wang Mang was suppressed by others due to the death of his father and brother, resulting in his free life being barren. In order to get ahead, he familiarized himself with the Four Books and Five Classics and looked at the strengths of Confucianism to improve himself. After being influenced by Confucianism for a long time, Wang Mang's own Confucian atmosphere will also be very heavy.
He was too eager to return to the prosperous era of Datong in the Confucian books, so when he entered the world, in order to maintain his good reputation and morality, most of the people contacted ordinary people, and if the people had any dissatisfaction in their hearts, they were very willing to tell Wang Mang, and as he heard more complaints, his thinking was slowly undergoing fundamental changes.
He wanted to be the master of the people, let the poor peasants at the bottom take back their land, and he did not want the people to be exploited by the world's and thousands of landlords. He wanted to create a "socialist era" in which everyone had land and everyone could work hard and get rich, but he forgot the most deadly thing.
He forgot his own dynasty, forgot that this was a feudal dynasty, and in a feudal dynasty supplemented by an imperial family, the lives of the people were never worth anything, and their lives were as light and thin as paper.
When most of the troops are in the hands of the family and the royal family, even if Wang Mang finally succeeds in usurping the throne, even if he implements the idealized New Deal on the people, his ideas and his own strength and his era will never be proportional, when his reform policies, especially the reform of the currency system, stand on the opposite side of the gate family, erode the interests of these clans, it will cause dissatisfaction among the upper echelons of the imperial court, the gate family, and the people of the whole country, and then these people will unite into a phalanx and revolt one after another. Then kill Wang Mang, who they see as a mismatch with this era.
The gears of history are always moving forward, and the general trend is irreversible. Wang Mang's reforms promoted the development of history, but because they were unrealistic, they fell to this point. It also warns us that when doing things, we must consider many aspects and must not make subjective assumptions. Gentlemen, do you think Wang Mang is a traverser? Everyone is welcome to discuss in the comment area.