How tragic was the death of Wang Mang, who founded a new dynasty?

The Han Dynasty was divided into the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was Wang Mang and the new dynasty he established that "cut off" this once glorious dynasty. Wang Mang is a famous political figure in Chinese history. The ancients denounced him as a traitor who sought power and usurped the throne. However, when looking at Wang Mang from today's perspective, there are many different views. For example, Hu Shi defended Wang Mang and said: "Wang Mang is China's first socialist." Jian Bozan also believed in "Outline of Chinese History" that "Wang Mang is the most courageous and smartest politician in Chinese history... He The socio-economic system that was riddled with contradictions at that time must be improved.” Regarding Wang Mang, many people even jokingly call him a "traveler". So, why is Wang Mang, the ancient usurper of power, considered a "traveler"? Why did the dynasty he established perish in one lifetime?

Wang Mang is considered a "traveler", which is related to the new dynasty he established. From January 9 AD to October 23 AD, the new dynasty established by Wang Mang lasted less than 15 years and only experienced one emperor. It was extremely short-lived, but it left a strong mark in ancient Chinese history.

In the late Western Han Dynasty, the royal family had few heirs, the bloodline withered, and several generations of emperors died early. In addition, Queen Xiaoyuan and Wang Zhengjun had been in power for a long time. The Wang family, a relative of the family, naturally rose rapidly and became the actual ruler of the Western Han Dynasty. As the most outstanding young talent of the Wang family, Wang Mang was deeply loved and valued by his aunt Wang Zhengjun. He gradually entered the center of the court and eventually proclaimed himself emperor on behalf of the Han Dynasty.

The ancients often regarded Wang Mang as a thief and a treacherous minister. However, objectively speaking, for Wang Mang, being the emperor was not the most important thing. Being able to implement his own reforms was the key. Wang Mang's reforms were extremely comprehensive, involving land, currency, diplomacy and other fields. After Wang Mang came to power, he announced: In the first year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (AD 9), he announced that the world's fields would be renamed Wang's fields, and private fields would be replaced by Wang's fields; slaves and maidservants would be renamed private, and like Wang's fields, they could not be bought or sold. Afterwards, the currency system and official system were reformed, salt and iron were stipulated to be government-operated, and mountains, rivers and rivers were nationalized.

New Dynasty Currency

The contents of Wang Mang's reform are indeed shocking. If Wang Anshi's reforms are drastic, then Wang Mang's reforms can be called earth-shaking. Various measures such as nationalizing land and prohibiting the slave trade are so familiar to modern people. It is no wonder that many people call him a "traveler" and a "socialist".

However, from a modern perspective, Wang Mang’s reforms are extremely advanced, and the focus is also on improving people’s livelihood and protecting the people. Why will Wang Mang’s new dynasty perish in this lifetime, and it was precisely because of the peasants? What about those who were overthrown by an uprising? The answer to this question is actually related to Wang Mang's reforms.

From a superficial perspective, Wang Mang's nationalization of land and the prohibition of slave trading were in line with the trend of the times and advanced. However, a careful analysis of Wang Mang's reforms will reveal that not only was he not an advanced A reformer, he is also an extremely "retro" reformer. During Wang Mang's restructuring, Wang Mang indeed advocated nationalizing land and suppressing land annexation, but his methods were retrograde and even retrogressive. Wang Mang believed in Confucianism and worshiped the era of ritual rule mentioned by Confucius, so he restored the well-field system in the name of Wangtian system. At the same time, although Wang Mang banned the slave trade, he did not abolish slaves. He only renamed slaves "private property" and could not be bought or sold with Wang's land. However, slaves still existed in fact.

Wang Mang’s starting point was not problematic. He recognized the fact that land annexation and human trafficking were serious at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, people were displaced, and people were resentful. At the same time, he hoped to use reforms to ease social conflicts. However, Wang Mang's reforms were retroactive in name and inconsistent with the reality. During the process of retaking the land, the interests of the powerful landlords were violated, and not much of the land finally came into the hands of the people. This caused Wang Mang to lose the support of the two major forces, the landlord class and the peasant class. Moreover, in the process of reform, Wang Mang would change his orders at night. After encountering opposition, Wang Mang would use severe punishment to force the reform. If Wang Mang's reforms can achieve results, the force opposing him will naturally become smaller. However, the fact is that with Wang Mang's reforms, the economy of the new dynasty declined, the plight of the people did not improve in any way, and the wave of opposition to Wang Mang grew stronger. vast.

Under such circumstances, Wang Mang not only failed to adjust the reforms, but instead took the initiative to provoke several wars and intensified the conflicts. During the Western Han Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty had good relations with the surrounding ethnic groups. Both the Huns in the north and the ethnic minorities in the south surrendered to the Han Dynasty. After Wang Mang proclaimed himself emperor on behalf of the Han Dynasty, the countries in the four directions did not oppose Wang Mang. They all defected to Wang Mang and supported the new dynasty. This was a great opportunity to win people's hearts, but Wang Mang was self-willed, arrogant and kept provoking wars.

After Wang Mang became emperor, he felt that there were three counties in the country: Beihai County, Nanhai County, and Donghai County, but not Xihai County. In order to cover the "four seas", Wang Mang gathered a large army to occupy the Qinghai Lake area and set up Xihai County. If this is nothing, in order to develop this desolate land, Wang Mang forced immigrants to immigrate. When there were not enough people, Wang Mang frantically increased laws and forcibly "created" criminals, and then moved them to Xihai County.

In addition, Wang Mang also sent envoys to the four countries to "downgrade" them all.

Wang Mang didn't like the name "Chanyu" of the Xiongnu very much, so he ordered his people to take back and destroy the "Xiongnu Chanyu Seal", and instead awarded it with "New Xiongnu Chanyu Zhang". The word "new" is harmless, but he replaced "Xi" with "Zhang" is undoubtedly a humiliation to the Xiongnu Chanyu. At the same time, Wang Mang's envoys also changed the name of the Xiongnu Chanyu to "surrender the slaves to surrender" and the name of Goguryeo to "Xiaguryeo". Wang Mang always used force against countries that did not cooperate. However, Wang Mang's military command ability was extremely poor, and the Wang family did not have many outstanding generals. This caused the new army to suffer heavy losses. War broke out everywhere, and the people of the Central Plains and all ethnic groups suffered heavy casualties. As a result, all the countries in the four directions stopped submitting to the new dynasty and continued to invade the borders of the new dynasty. The people of the new dynasty also resented Wang Mang extremely.

Wang Mang is undoubtedly a reformer, and his character is worthy of praise, but as the founder of a dynasty, he is obviously incompetent. Wang Mang's reforms were blindly retrograde and not combined with reality. Although the starting point was good, it violated the objective laws of historical development and failure was inevitable. Wang Mang's own headstrong, arrogant, manic and other character traits accelerated the failure of his reforms and the demise of the dynasty.

In the fourth year of Emperor Dihuang’s reign (23 AD), the rebel army invaded Chang’an. Wang Mang was killed among the rebels. His head was beheaded by the school captain Gongbin and hung in Wan City. The sergeants rushed to divide Wang Mang's body. When the people heard that Wang Mang died, they "attacked him or cut off his tongue." ("Book of Han") In this way, Wang Mang, this tragic figure, ended his legendary life.