"But, then again, I wonder if a few gentlemen have started to talk about the changes in the big man behind you?" Bao Hong said with a smile.

"Oh? What is the general asking? When Huo Guang heard this, he also said with a smile.

"We are all our own people here, and I am not pretending to be false, just talking about the problem of scholars, relatives, and eunuchs fighting endlessly. How can we build a stable political system? Bao Hong smiled and threw out an unsolvable puzzle to see what this guy who was recognized by the system as a political 100 thinks.

Why is it said that there is no solution to the problem? Because this is a problem that all emperors have pondered, if this problem can be solved, and the central scholars, relatives, and eunuchs of the country are of one mind, then it is not impossible for the country to last forever.

Needless to say, the so-called Shinong industry and commerce, and the so-called four people in ancient times, refer to those who study, farm, work, and do business.

The class of "taxis" appeared very early. In the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period, scholars were politically between the princes and the common people, at the lowest level of the aristocracy, and were almost connected with the common people; In the patriarchal law, the doctors and ministers are attached to the doctors, and there is no transgression; Economically, the scholar has a certain amount of "food field", which is enough to cultivate on his behalf, and he can eat without work; Culturally, scholars received a variety of educations such as etiquette, music, archery, royalty, calligraphy, and mathematics. Their social occupations were thus diverse, ranging from serving as samurai, to serving as vassals, or as vassals and retainers, or as ordinary officials in the courts and basic administrative bodies of the Son of Heaven and the princes.

In the mid-to-late Spring and Autumn period, the scholar as a social hierarchy gradually disintegrated. Due to the collapse of etiquette and the laxity of the patriarchal system, the scholars lost their livelihood security and had nothing but the knowledge of the "six arts"; On the other hand, while the scholar lost his status, he also got rid of the shackles of the patriarchal system, was no longer subject to the servitude of the minister, and gained greater personal freedom.

The political needs of the great powers competing for hegemony have made the vassal states compete to be "virtuous" and "enabled", thus stimulating the rapid growth of the society's demand for intelligence and knowledge. During this period, a large number of private schools mainly disseminated cultural and political knowledge emerged, which not only cultivated a large number of cultural people, but also formed a cultural concept of "not competing for the importance and the lowly, but striving for the Tao". The combination of various historical opportunities contributed to the rise of scholars.

Nowadays, the scholars do not exist as a class. Rather, it refers specifically to scholars, and it can also be said to be a general term for ancient Chinese literati intellectuals. They learned knowledge, disseminated culture, respected the king politically, followed the Tao academically, and maneuvered between the Tao and the king. They are participants in national politics, and they are also the creators and inheritors of traditional Chinese culture. Scholars are a special identity that only existed in ancient China, and they are an elite social group unique to Chinese civilization.

If you have mastered politics, culture, academia, and so on, you will inevitably get involved in politics.

The title of a famous scholar refers to the merger of a scholar and a bureaucrat. From scholars to scholars, it shows the historical trend of scholars intervening in politics and entering the political center.

Speaking of the Han Dynasty, relatives naturally inevitably occupy a very large proportion.

After Qin unified China, Qin Wangzheng thought that "the three emperors of virtue and the five emperors of merit", so he took the honorific title of "emperor" of the two, and thus established a whole set of systems related to the emperor, among which the imperial succession system is one of the most important systems. Although Qin Li II died, the system of succession to the throne initiated by Qin Shi Huang was retained, and by the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it had been perfected. This system of succession to the throne concentrates the scope of the prince among the heirs of the current emperor, and the choice is small, and once the emperor dies early, the probability of a young emperor ascending the throne is extremely great.

In particular, the Eastern Han Dynasty is the most typical representative. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, except for Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), Emperor Ming (Liu Zhuang), and Emperor Xian (Liu Xie), the rest died before the age of 36. Among them, except for the three emperors of An, Zhen and Huan, who ascended the throne as the Liu clan, the rest followed the inheritance principle of "father to son, family to the world".

Although the emperors have more concubines and marry early, due to their immature physical development and excessive indulgence, it will undoubtedly affect their own health, so that many of their offspring will be weak and die young. The first emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty died early, so the princes who survived must be young, but as long as the first emperor had children, it was indispensable, which caused the situation of many young emperors.

Since most of the emperors died young, the crown prince succeeded to the throne at a young age, so there was a situation where the queen mother came to the court and listened to the government. The Han Dynasty also established the status of the empress, when the emperor was young, cowardly, mediocre or the heir was interrupted, the empress dowager could supervise and select the heir as a guardian, and even the imperial system was pronounced. The Empress Dowager was in charge of the dynasty, and her power was equal to that of the emperor.

These empress dowagers who are honest and obedient to politics are not very old, generally only in their twenties. They died of their husbands, their spirits were empty and decadent, and they had no sustenance, so they shifted their ideological and emotional focus from husband and wife life to the handling of major affairs in the court. correct

There were many young emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and these young empress dowagers did not have at least social experience and ruling experience, and basically had no cultural knowledge. They simply have no ability to control the state apparatus, so they have to rely on their parents and brothers to help them deal with national affairs. In this way, state power fell into the hands of foreign relatives.

In terms of the past experience of the Han Dynasty, the earliest case is the dictatorship of Empress Lü.

After the dictatorship of Empress Lu, he killed the successor of the young emperor Liu Gong (the third emperor of the Han Dynasty), and set up Liu Ying's son Liu Hong as the emperor. During the reign of Empress Lü, the Western Han Dynasty was surnamed Liu on the surface, but in fact it was the world of the Lü family, so when Empress Lü died, a bloody struggle broke out between the Liu royal family and the Lü family's foreign relatives.

With the efforts of Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, the Liu royal family won the victory, and the Western Han Dynasty finally returned to the hands of the descendants of the Liu family, thus entering the "Wenjing" era ruled by the fifth and sixth emperors, in other words, the second, third, and fourth emperors of the Han Dynasty were only in vain. Although the "Lvhou dictatorship" caused a certain disaster, the Han Dynasty still continued without danger, and the Han Dynasty was still "lucky" in the process.

Because of this, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not learn a lesson from it, but instead reused his relatives even more. What's even more unfortunate is that on the one hand, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is majestic and strategic, and his relatives have not made any waves, on the other hand, the relatives of the two families of 'Wei Huo' are also capable and loyal generals, not only did not bring adverse effects, but created great military achievements, making the Han Dynasty a real Eastern Empire.

In the early Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu Liu Che had just ascended the throne, and the government of the Han Dynasty was actually controlled by the then Empress Dowager Dou, during which the Empress Dowager Dou had many times to control the government, and could even remove the emperor at any time, as the emperor Liu Che was actually a puppet. Fortunately, since the Empress Dowager Dou was always loyal to the Liu family, although the Dou family who was attached to her was very powerful, the Han Dynasty did not have a tendency to "surname Dou".

In the later period of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che had relied on Wei Qing, Huo Qubing and other "in-laws" to attack the Xiongnu many times, when the "Wei Huo" family was in a high position, they did not threaten the Liu family at all, fortunately, when the throne of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was almost unheired, Huo Guang was also very responsible to take on his mission of entrusting orphans, if he was not appointed, the Han Dynasty was easy to change his surname at that time.

From Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, the "Wei Huo" family can be said to have supported half of the Han Dynasty to the letter. The enthronement of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty was actually the result of the power of "Wei Huo", and the emergence of such a very accomplished Zhongxing Emperor, the "Huo Dictatorship" in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty played a very key and positive role.

Perhaps because of these few situations, the official history not only did not develop in an unfavorable direction, but even some clues were eliminated before the outbreak, and even played a positive role. Under this premise, the successor Han Emperor naturally felt that his relatives were very credible existences, and if he trusted them and did not guard against them, then the next results would be self-evident.

During the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, due to Emperor Liu Zheng's blind trust in his relatives Shi Gao, and at the same time extremely dependent on the eunuch group, the result was a struggle between the three forces of "relatives, Confucian ministers, and eunuchs". During this period, although the relatives of the Han Dynasty did not reach the level of "autocracy", Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty relied too much on his relatives and eunuchs, which led to the decline of authority, and the government gradually lost control. Unfortunately, Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty had a "queen of kings" Wang Zhengjun, although she had not yet participated in the "dictatorship" at that time, but she was the "dictatorship bomb" that later led to the demise of the Western Han Dynasty.

The next allusion naturally goes without saying, and the 'Wang dictatorship' is naturally the matter of Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty. This time, after all, it caused great turmoil because of the dictatorship of foreign relatives.

Starting from Empress Lu to Empress Dowager Dou and Huo Guang, although the power of the Han Dynasty was once in the hands of relatives with different surnames, the Han Dynasty was always surnamed Liu; It is precisely because of this precedent of the dictatorship of relatives that the emperor of the Han Dynasty has not limited the power of his relatives much. If it is said that it is lucky to have relatives like the Wei family and the Huo family, then when it comes to the relatives of the Wang family, this kind of good luck of the Han Dynasty will come to an end.

However, Wang Mang's "generation of Han" seems to be just to teach the descendants of the Liu family a lesson, the Han Dynasty's qi is still very strong, no, after Liu Xiu took over the world, this country still belongs to the descendants of Liu Bang, and this lesson can only be said to be not light or heavy.

But after all, after learning the lesson of the dictatorship of foreign relatives, there was a considerable degree of restriction on this power before the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty continued for many years.

Then here is the last group - the eunuchs!

Because of the lesson of the dictatorship of relatives, the Han Emperor also began to restrict the rights of relatives. However, compared to relatives, scholars are not a force that is very worthy of relying on, after all, they are not 'their own people', so wouldn't it be good for such a trustworthy 'person around them' to be raised?

Therefore, after the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, although most of the young lords came to the court, the power fell mostly among the relatives headed by the empress dowager. But when the emperor came of age, he was not willing to accept the dictatorship of his relatives, and in the struggle between the emperor and his relatives, the emperor was lonely because he was young and deep in the palace, and he could rely on the eunuchs who got along day and night, so he could only rely on the eunuchs around him to launch a coup d'état, so that the eunuchs formed a political group with the support of the emperor and manipulated the regime.

Once the eunuchs helped the emperor gain power, they would be proud of their achievements, and then dictate their power.

In addition, because the eunuchs had no social foundation and no political talents, politics became more corrupt. The more upright literati officials and the clique of relatives rose up against the eunuchs, and the eunuchs, with the support of the emperor, fought back and suppressed, which led to the disaster of the party, making the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty increasingly corrupt and the political situation more chaotic.

It can be said that their own social foundation and social status determine how much of the advantages and disadvantages they bring to the world.

After all, most scholars are scholars, and after all, they are more reliable guys, and if their moral cultivation is a little more reliable, there will rarely be problems. In fact, the proportion of loyal generals who are good generals are still very high.

As for relatives, this depends on the individual's own moral cultivation, academic quality, and so on.

For example, the two 'Wei Huo' families are like this. Relatively speaking, some of them are not 'right with the emperor' at all, and they suddenly gain huge rights and have no way to control them, which is undoubtedly equivalent to a child driving a carriage running wildly, and the final result is inevitably to fall into a cliff.

When it comes to eunuchs, it is needless to say, although it is not that it is completely unreliable, but after all, it is only a minority, after all, ordinary people have nothing to do to run to be eunuchs? There must be a special reason for going to be a eunuch. So in this case, the eunuch is the most unreliable guy.

Especially after helping the emperor seize power, he was proud of his achievements, and then ruled autocraticly. Although in most cases, eunuchs are still just vines attached to the emperor's big tree, and it is impossible for them to completely seize power like their relatives. But if they deceive their subordinates, or even flatter and bewitch the emperor, the disaster will be even more violent.

You must know that even if the dictatorship of foreign relatives or even the change of dynasty is really upon, whether it is Empress Lu or Wu Zetian, etc., maybe they slaughtered the descendants of the surname Liu and Li, but they can still appoint talents and develop vigorously in terms of governance.

And if the eunuchs bring the emperor badly, then the result is really that the people are not living and the world is in chaos.

Not to mention anything else, as far as today's situation is concerned, the current situation can be said to be caused by the 'fall' of the Ten Standing Servants and the Spirit Emperor together.

Their fathers, brothers, and children are all over the world, rampant in the countryside, harming the people, and no official dares to manage them. Unable to bear the exploitation and oppression, the people rose up to resist. At that time, some more sober officials had already seen the dark corruption of the eunuch clique, which led to a large-scale peasant uprising.

Zhang Jun of Langzhong clearly pointed out in his recital to the emperor that the Yellow Turban Rebellion was forced out by the dictatorship of the eunuchs of his relatives, and he said: "Zhang Jiao was able to raise troops and rebel, and those who were happy to be attached to it by ten thousand people, all of them were from the ten permanent servants who let go of their fathers, brothers, children, marriage clans, and guests to pawn the state and county, and to make sure of their wealth and interests, and invade the people, and the people's grievances were not told, so they plotted against each other and gathered as 'thieves'."

Of course, Zhang Jun will not open his mouth to spray Emperor Ling, in fact, Emperor Ling's actions have been led astray by the Ten Standing Servants, and it may be difficult to return to the journey. (To be continued.) )