The upbringing of Liu Xi, the emperor of the Han Yuan Dynasty, created his psychological characteristics such as timidity and cowardice, passing, and easily feeling defeated and losing confidence. Although these psychological characteristics are unknown in the history books, they are vividly reflected in the planning of the mausoleum in Weiling, the beginning of his long sleep. The reduction in the scale of the Weiling Mausoleum, the reduction in the number of burial pits, the ratio of the orientation of the mausoleum to the length and width of the mausoleum, and the reduction of the funerary cemetery everywhere reflect the weakening of the national strength of the Han Dynasty. This paper intends to explain Liu Xi's psychological characteristics and the influence of this psychology on the national fortunes of the Han Dynasty through the changes in the Weiling system.
1. Liu Xi's life and character
Emperor Liu Xi of Han was the eleventh emperor of the Western Han Dynasty. Born in the first year of Yuan Ping (74 BC), he was the son of Liu Xuan, Emperor Xuan of Han, and his original wife Xu Pingjun. A few months after Liu Xi's birth, his father Liu Xun became emperor and became Emperor Xuan of Han. In the third year of the Earth Festival (67 BC), Liu Xi was made crown prince. In the first year of the Yellow Dragon (49 BC), the Han Xuan Emperor Liu Xun died, and the crown prince Liu Xi ascended the throne, and in the second year (48 BC), he changed his name to "Chu Yuan".
During the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han, the Western Han state was strong, and it was also a turning point from prosperity to decline. The land acquisition of powerful landlords and homesteaders had a difficult life, the centralization of power gradually weakened, and the social crisis deepened. During his lifetime, Emperor Xuan of Han arranged for Liu Xi to be assisted by the "troika", led by Shi Gao, the Marquis of Leling, and the crown prince Fu Xiao Wangzhi and young Fu Zhoukan as deputies. Liu Xun's arrangement was the result of balancing all parties, with Shi Gao, the Marquis of Leling, a foreign relative holding great power, and Xiao Wangzhi and Zhou Kan being the prince's teachers and Confucians valued by Liu Xi. This arrangement allowed the courtiers and Confucian ministers to check and balance each other, and provided great convenience for Emperor Liu Xi to control the imperial government.
However, Liu Xi attached too much importance to Confucianism and gradually distanced himself from Shi Gao. Blinded by psychological imbalance, Scott colluded with the eunuchs to oppose Xiao Wangzhi's reforms. Xiao Wangzhi advised the emperor that it was not easy for the eunuchs to interfere in government, and the indecisive Liu Xi hesitated. Zhongshu Ling Honggong, servant Shi Xian, together with the snubbed Shi and Xu two foreign relatives, forced Xiao Wangzhi to death. After Xiao Wangzhi's death, Emperor Yuan was grieving, but he was shocked but did not punish these people, but only verbally reprimanded him for "exempting him from the crown and thanks", and still believed in Honggong and Shi Xian afterwards. The competition between the three forces of foreign qi, confucian ministers, and eunuchs ended in the victory of the eunuchs. Out of trust in Shi Xian and his own health, Liu Xi entrusted the imperial government entirely to him. Shi Xian said for a while, "heavy foot."
Although Emperor Yuan was the Son of Heaven, power was in Shi Xian's hands. From the fact that Emperor Han Yuan favored eunuchs, it can be seen that he was naïve. Liu Xi believed that eunuchs did not have a family and mainly operated in the inner court, could not make friends with foreign ministers, and the rights of eunuchs came from the emperor's grant rather than the provisions of the law, so eunuchs were only the eyes and ears of the emperor, and were more convenient to control than foreign relatives and courtiers. But the reality is not as simple as the idea, Shi Xianzhi and others are better at forming parties for personal gain and colluding with foreign DPRKS. And those Confucians who pursued fame and fortune in order to obtain high positions, so that eunuchs could collude. Internal and external echoes, stirring up troubles, and party unity and disagreement made the righteous ministers have no place to stand, which exacerbated the decline of the Western Han Dynasty. Shi Xian was in power, discipline was disordered, and officials were corrupt. Emperor Zhao's departure shocked Emperor Yuan's political chaos, but he could not repent in the end. Sima Guang once commented, "Even so, filial piety is a king, and it is easy to deceive and difficult to understand."
The history books say that the Han Yuan Emperor Liu Xi was "soft and good Confucian", and when he saw his father reusing the Fa family to punish his subordinates and govern the country, he advised Emperor Xuan of Han to "hold the punishment too deeply, it is better to use Confucianism", Liu Xuan was furious after hearing this: "The Han family has its own system, which is originally a tyrant and miscellaneous, but it is pure morality and teaching, and Zhou Zhenghu is used!" And the vulgarity is not up to the times, but it is ancient and not modern, making people dazzled by the name, and they don't know what to keep, how to appoint! "Nai sighed: 'Whoever messes with my household, the prince!' "Emperor Han Xuan did not abolish the crown prince after all, out of his feelings for Xu Pingjun." Zhizi Mo Ruofather: "Liu Xun has already seen that the prince's temperament is not good at governing the country. From what Liu Xi did after he came to the throne, it is enough to see that his so-called "soft benevolence and good Confucianism" is just a cover for his cowardly, indecisive, and irresponsible character.
The formation of Liu Xi's character stems from his father's love for the house and the suppression of his strong father, and is also related to his life experience in childhood. The Han Xuan Emperor Liu Xun married Xu Pingjun in the people, and after Huo Guang deposed Liu He the Prince of Changyi, he urgently needed to find a Han clan relative to join the Cheng Da. After experiencing Liu He's incident, Huo Guang hoped that the new heir would be easy to control without a strong background, and Liu Aiji, who was in exile, came into his sight. Liu Yiji was the great-grandson of Prince Jing, a concubine of Emperor Wudi of Han, and had a noble bloodline. It just so happens that he has lived in the city since he was a child, and he does not have a strong background.
Therefore, Liu Bing has become the best heir in Huo Guang's heart. After Liu Aiji ascended the throne, Huo Guang changed his name to Liu Xun, and Sickness always had a sense of self-cursion, which was not suitable for the status of the king of a country. In order to make his position more secure, Huo Guang wanted Liu Xun to canonize his daughter as empress. Although at Liu Xun's insistence, Xu Pingjun, the "sword of the people", was made empress, she was soon poisoned by Huo Chengjun. After poisoning Xu Pingjun, the Huo family also poisoned Liu Xi many times. In order to protect the prince's life, Liu Xi had to test the poison before eating. Although none of them succeeded, they planted the seeds of suspicion in Liu Xi's heart. After Liu Xi ascended the throne, his character was reflected in the reuse of eunuchs.
Second, the uncharacteristically Weiling
Weiling is located in the southeast of Xinzhuang Village, Zhouling Town, Weicheng District, Xianyang City. It is bordered to the west by the Kangling Tomb of the Hanping Emperor Liu Yin, and to the east by the Yiling Tomb of the Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Xin. The central part of Weibei Ling District of Xianyang and the southern edge of Xianyang Plateau. Weiling was built in the fourth year of Yongguang (40 BC). The Weiling Mausoleum is rectangular in east-west direction, consisting of an outer moat, an outer wall, an imperial mausoleum, a queen's mausoleum, a Fu Zhaoyi's tomb, a ceremonial building and a funerary cemetery. The Imperial Mausoleum, Empress Wang Mausoleum and Fu Zhaoyi's Tomb are located in the south-central part of the Weiling Mausoleum, and the burial tombs of the concubines in the mausoleum are located in the northeast corner of the mausoleum, and the ceremonial buildings are not scattered on the north side of the imperial mausoleum.
Weiling Mausoleum is 1775.7 meters long from east to west and 1617.7 meters wide from north to south. The outer wall has seven gates on all sides, and one door on the east wall, opposite the east gate of the imperial mausoleum. The remaining three sides have two doors each. The imperial mausoleum is nearly square, 410 meters from north to south and 400 meters from east to west, surrounded by rammed earth walls. Located in the middle of the mausoleum, the mausoleum is in the shape of a bucket, with a length of about 120 meters at the bottom, 50 meters at the top, and a height of 29 meters. The top of the tomb has collapsed. The Queen Wang's Mausoleum is located in the northwest corner of the Imperial Mausoleum. The cemetery is square in shape and 377 meters long along the wall. The mausoleum is located in the center of the Houling Mausoleum, covered with bucket-shaped sealed soil, with a slightly square side length of 79~85 meters at the bottom, a length of 32 meters on the top side, and a residual height of 17.5 meters. The tombs of the emperors and empresses are all "Ya" shaped tombs. Fu Zhaoyi Cemetery is located in the northeast of the Imperial Mausoleum. The mausoleum is a rectangular rectangle with a length of 377 meters from east to west and a width of 353 meters from north to south, with four gates on each side. The serious damage to the sealed earth is only about 2 meters above the ground, which is known locally as the "collapsed cairn".
Fu Zhaoyi's tomb was severely damaged during Wang Mang's reign, and the chamber was opened. In the fifth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Mang Fu said: "The queen mother and Ding Ji did not have concubines, until the burial of the Weiling Tomb, Tsukasa and Yuan Emperor Shanqi, Empress Dowager Huai and Empress Dowager Huai were buried with silk, and should not be honored." If there is a reburial, please send the queen mother and Ding Ji Tomb, take their seal silk and wipe it out, and the Queen Mother and Ding Ji will return to Dingtao, bury the Gong Wang Tomb, and bury Ding Ji to restore his deceased." The Weiling Mausoleum area consists of two parts: the Weiling Mausoleum and the burial cemetery area. Weiling Cemetery is located in the center of the mausoleum area and is the core of the entire mausoleum area. The funerary tombs are mainly distributed in the south, southeast and southwest corners of the mausoleum. This is very different from the previous layout of the imperial tomb.
The Han emperor Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty, and the Han inherited the Qin system. The Qin people are still east, and the mausoleum is also sitting west facing east. The Yangling and Maoling Mausoleums in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty are rectangular in east-west direction, with an aspect ratio of roughly 20; 14 The aspect ratio of the mausoleum in Weiling became 18; 16 is close to a square. The main sacred road of the Han Dynasty imperial tomb before Weiling was the East Sima Men Road, while the South Sima Men Road in Weiling was longer than the other Sima Men Dao. The funerary tombs of the Hanjing Emperor Yang Mausoleum are distributed on both sides of the axis of the East Sima Men Road, with a total of more than 10,000. The Weiling tombs of the Han Yuan Emperor Liu Xi are mainly distributed on the south side of the mausoleum, and the number of funerary tombs is much smaller. The crowds of the Weiling Cemetery are different from the traditional ritual system of the Western Han Dynasty.
This is not unrelated to the Confucianism advocated by Liu Xi, which preaches a clan etiquette system of respect, inferiority, and order. The family-centered model governs the country, and the monarch is the grandfather of the royal family and the people of the country. The embodiment of this thinking in the cemetery is the rise of family cemeteries, and people no longer honor the burial of the imperial tomb. The number of funerary tombs is too small to reflect the power of the monarch and the power of the state, so the concubine mausoleum was built in the Weiling mausoleum, which enriched the funerary tomb system of the Weiling tomb, and also fully exposed the gradual weakening of the emperor of "Rouren", and had to shift the focus of the control of the whole country to the harem.
In the archaeological excavations of Weiling, archaeologists repeatedly probed around Weiling and its mausoleum, but did not find any traces of mausoleum. Starting from Liu Bang's Changling Tomb, the imperial tombs of successive emperors were set up with mausoleums, which had the dual tasks of maintaining centralized power and defending against northern threats, and were also the foundation of the Han Dynasty's foreign and internal security. The abolition of the mausoleum in Weiling was a huge change in the system of the Western Han Emperor's mausoleum.
In 40 BC, Liu Xi, who had been on the throne for eight years, began planning his own Shouling. He issued an edict: "Relocate the land, the nature of the people; Flesh and blood are attached to each other, and people want to. The people of Xiyuan County were given the purpose of serving the garden mausoleum, so that the people abandoned the graves of their ancestors, ruined their businesses and property, separated their relatives, and people cherished longing, and their families were uneasy. It is the harm of waste in the east, and there are bored people in the gate, and it is not a long-term solution. 'Poem' is not cloudy?' The people also work hard, so far can be moderately prosperous, benefit China, and succinate all directions. 'Those who are now the first mausoleum, do not put the county eup, so that the world may be happy and happy, and the heart of death will be shaken. Announce to the world, order to know"
This edict quotes the Confucian classic "Book of Poetry" to express that the emperor cares for the livelihood of the Li people, and cannot bear to disturb the people because of his mausoleum, so Weiling does not build a mausoleum to rest with the people. Just because a few short sentences in the Book of Poetry have changed the national policy of more than a hundred years since the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, this is obviously unrealistic. Liu Xi inherited from his father the most powerful era of the Western Han Dynasty, with abundant treasuries and rich people, and the Xiongnu outside could no longer threaten the rule of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the construction of the mausoleum was not difficult at the time. Most people today believe that Emperor Yuan of Han stopped building the mausoleum because the "Zhaojun came out of the country" to ease the relationship between Han and Hungary, resulting in the Weiling mausoleum losing its construction value and abandoning it.
But we can find from the time of the two events that Liu Xi decreed the cessation of the construction of the mausoleum in 40 BC, while the incident of Wang Zhaojun and his relatives occurred in 33 BC. At this time, the Weiling Tomb had been under construction for eight years, and there were many cases of peace in the history of the Western Han Dynasty. Even if this peace was carried out in the context of the Han strong and weak Huns, it still could not be concluded at that time that the threat of the Xiongnu to the Han Dynasty was eliminated. Liu Xi could not have left the building of the mausoleum avoided the prophecy. Therefore, Emperor Yuan of Han had another reason for his abolition of the mausoleum.
Lingyi was an important part of the imperial tombs of the early Western Han Dynasty. The mausoleum system began in the Qin Dynasty, when Qin Shi Huang built the Lishan Mausoleum, he built Liyi "Yuanyi Zhixing, starting from strengthening Qin". Liu Bang inherited this system after establishing the Han Dynasty, but the Han Dynasty's mausoleum had a fundamentally different role from Qin Shi Huang's Liyi. The Liyi of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was to serve the mausoleum and serve the huge imperial mausoleum. The mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty has the dual role of "strong trunk and weak branch" and "defense against border troubles". Liu Bang selected the royal tombs on the Xianyang Plain on the north bank of the Wei River and migrated people to build a mausoleum as a barrier against the Xiongnu guarding the Jing Division.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, there were a large number of opposite-sex princely states in Kanto. These kingdoms, ruled by the nobles and meritorious landlords of the Six Kingdoms, were powerful and had solid foundations. In order to weaken the strength of the feudal kingdom and the power of the powerful clans in the local area, and at the same time develop the Guanzhong region, where the imperial capital Chang'an was located, the nobles and powerful clans of the Kanto region were moved to the Guanzhong region, leaving them from their sphere of influence and consolidating the new regime "Hanxing, establishing the capital Chang'an." The houses of Quzhao, Qu, Jing and the princes were in Changling". This not only weakened local strength, but also enriched the population of Guanzhong and enhanced the economic strength of the Guanzhong region. Liu Bang also gave great economic support to the people who migrated to the Kanto region, "Helitian House," which was a huge fortune in the Guanzhong District of "Jia Mu Yijin."
In addition, Lingyi is directly subordinate to Taichang, and Taichang is one of the Nine Qings, indicating that immigrants have a high political status. At the same time, the eligibility to be moved by the state to live in the mausoleum is also a sign of disguised recognition of status and dignity by the central government. Therefore, the people at that time were happy to see the state build a mausoleum, which can be said to be the "capital settlement policy" two thousand years ago.
Liu Xi will not be unclear about the role of the Lingyi system in consolidating centralized power, even if the threat of external troubles decreases, but consolidating centralized power is an eternal topic. There are deeper reasons why Liu Xi abolished the construction of Weilingyi. Emperor Yuan of Han ordered the construction of Shouling eight years later, and the auxiliary ministers left by Emperor Xuan of Han Liu Xun were basically eliminated by the eunuch clique, and most of the ministers in the central and local governments were also attached to the inner court eunuchs. The power of local tyrants and powerful people grew, and the central government, centered on imperial power, had a decline in its control over the local government. The main source of finance, the yeomanry, went bankrupt in large numbers due to land acquisition, and the country's fiscal revenue was also in crisis. Under the simultaneous effect of these two aspects, Liu Xi was no longer able to relocate the Kanto landlords to enrich the mausoleum, so he used the words of the Confucian classics to cover up the truth, stop the construction of the mausoleum, stop migrating powerful landlords, sit idly by and watch the expansion of local separatist forces, aggravate land annexation, and bankrupt the financial base of the Western Han Dynasty, and the yeomanry class, thus shaking the ruling foundation of the Western Han regime. Successive generations have praised Emperor Yuan of Han's "soft benevolence and good Confucianism" to rule the world with benevolence, which is just wishful thinking of later generations of literati.
Liu Xi Shangru is nothing more than a benevolent content of Confucianism that fits his own character and finds a pretext for his own incompetence. Confucianism has never preached blind weakness, and benevolent government should be based on the stability of the country. Liu Xikong talks about Confucianism, but does not delve into the true meaning of Confucianism, and cannot lead by example. Nominally appointed Confucianists, in practice reused eunuchs. Faint and incompetent in the Xiao Wangzhi and Zhou Kan incidents, at the mercy of Shi Xian, like an idiot. On the issue of Wang Zhaojun and his relatives, he marveled at the chaos of national politics to such a point, but still did nothing, still immersed in the harem. It was these psychological characteristics of Liu Xi that created the Weiling Tomb different from the past, and also indirectly led to the rapid decline of the Western Han Dynasty, sowing the seeds for the demise of the Western Han Dynasty.
