The incumbent decided to implement an unprecedented reform of the political body, deprived of vested interests launched a military coup, civil strife, armed intervention by foreign powers, the reform ended in failure ……
Don’t worry, the above is just an episode in the history of the State of Yan during the Warring States period.
King Ji Kuai Kuài of Yan was the 38th king of the state of Yan. Before him, the state of Yan had a history of about seven hundred years, and the succession system of the kingdom followed the Zhou dynasty, which was always the first-born son succession system. Other vassal states, for various reasons, also had brothers and siblings, and countries such as Lu and Qi did not pass on a few generations before the tragedy of flesh and blood, but only the state of Yan on the issue of succession unhurried.
This is a miracle of the Spring and Autumn Period.
But when it came to the generation of King Kuai of Yan, something big happened.
First of all, the general background is that the times are different. History, from the Spring and Autumn Period, which was still a period of reasoning, had entered the Warring States Period, which was entirely based on fists. The Zhou royal Family has become a master of God, the vassal states have embarked on their own path of development according to their own national conditions.
The two once dominant superpowers: Jin and Qi, have undergone dramatic changes.
First, the three families divided Jin: five hundred years ago, the Jin state with the same surname Ji was cut into three states by the powerful Zhao, Han and Wei, and was recognized by The Emperor of Zhou; then the Tian family replaced Qi: the descendants of Jiang Tai Gong were replaced by the deliberate Tian noble family, and was also recognized by Zhou.
In the process of changing the color of the rivers and mountains of Jin and Qi, there were bloodshed of different degrees, some kings were killed, some were exiled, and the ancestral incense was not continued.
It is not known how much impact these bloody facts, which were decades ago, had on King Kuai of Yan. However, I don’t believe that he took that historic step with these lessons learned from the past.
The so-called historic step was that he suddenly passed the throne to a person who was not related to him: Xiangguo Zi Zhi, when he had already established a crown prince and there was no external interference.
The Warring States Strategy and the Historical Records both say that King Kuai of Yan was fooled.
And the people who fooled him were the two famous brothers Su Qin and Su Dai, and another one named Deer Mao Shou.
Like many important ministers of that era, Zi Zhi saw the radical change of the wind and was not willing to be only the minister of Yan – Zhao, Han and Wei could divide Jin and Tian could replace Qi, so why can’t I replace Yan? So, he conspired with his in-laws, Su Qin and Su Dai, and tried to fool King Kuai of Yan into passing the throne to him.
A very vivid example of Zi Zhi’s scheming is recorded in Han Feizi.
When Zi Zhi was facing Yan, he sat down and pretended to say, “What is out of the gate? The white horse?” All the people around him said they did not see it. One of them went after him and said, “Yes.” This is how Zi Zhi knew the dishonesty of his left and right. (Han Fei Zi – Nai Chu Shang)
When Zi Zhi was a minister, in order to test the loyalty and honesty of his men, he once sat at Home and suddenly pointed to the door and said, “What is that thing that just ran out, it looks like a white horse? All around said no ah, did not see anything run out ah. Only one person ran out, and soon returned to him, said, yes, indeed, a white horse ran out.
This is what is meant by the art of mastering, and this is it.
The brothers Su Qin and Su Dai were both connoisseurs, and one mouth was better than a thousand horses. Not long after King Kuai of Yan came to the throne, Su Qin worked as a spy for Yan in Qi, his identity was exposed and he was killed by the Qi people, but King Xuan of Qi continued to reuse Su Dai.
In the third year of King Kuai of Yan, Su Dai went to Yan as an ambassador of Qi, and King Kuai of Yan asked him, “I heard that King Xuan of Qi is very powerful. Su Dai said, “Not very good. Anyway, it was impossible for him to dominate the lords. When King Kuai asked why, Su Dai said, “He has a fatal weakness, that is, he does not trust the wise and capable ministers, so how can he achieve great things?
The “Strategies of the Warring States” and “The Records of the Grand Historian” add a sentence here: “Su Dai wanted to provoke the king of Yan to honor (thickly appoint) his son.” Because at that Time, Zi Zhi was the No.1 minister of the State of Yan, so when King Kuai heard this, he “believed in Zi Zhi”. And Zi Zhi rewarded Su Dai with a hundred catties of Gold and obeyed Su Dai’s words.
But by doing so, he only made the king of Yan trust and reuse Zi Zhi, but he was still one step away from the goal Zi Zhi wanted to achieve. The last person who gave him a boost was a minister of Yan named Lu Mao Shou, who took a lot of money from Zi Zhi, but we do not know how much he took.
Why don’t we give the state to Zizhi? People say Yao is wise because he gave the world to Xu Yu, but Xu Yu didn’t accept it, so he had the name of giving the world away without losing it. Now the king gives the kingdom to Zi Zhi, and Zi Zhi will not dare to accept it.
You might as well give the throne to Zi Zhi. People praised Yao as a sage, mainly because he gave the world to Xu Yu, who did not dare to accept it, so Yao had the reputation of giving the world away, but in fact the world was still his. Now if you give the country to Zi Zhi, Zi Zhi will not dare to accept it. In this way, you will get the same good reputation as Yao.
This is the real foolishness. Because it is very likely that Yao Shun’s meditation is just a beautiful legend made up by Confucianism. The king of Yan, Kuai, was a believer of Confucianism, and once he heard that he could be as famous as Yao, he was certainly impressed.
As a result, “the king of Yan belonged his country to Zi Zhi, and Zi Zhi was very important”.
“In fact, he only gave all the state affairs to Zi Zhi, but he did not say that Zi Zhi should be the king of the state. Next, someone else said to King Kuai of Yan.
Yu recommended Yi, but he took Qi as an official. When he was old, he took Qi as an official, but he was not enough to serve the world and passed it to Yi. After that, Qi and his friends attacked Yi and took him away. The world said that Yu’s name was passed on to Yi, but he made Qi take it from him. Now the king said that he belonged to Zi Zhi, but the officials were not the prince’s people, the name belonged to Zi Zhi but the real prince used.
When Dayu recommended Bo Yi, he claimed that he would give the world to him, but in fact he appointed his son Qi’s cronies to be in charge of the key departments. When Dayu grew old, he decided that Qi was not strong enough to take on the responsibility of ruling the world, so he passed the throne to Bo Yi. Soon after, Qi and his cronies attacked Bo Yi and took away the throne. In this way, everyone in the world said that Dayu had nominally passed the kingdom to Bo Yi, but in fact he let his son Qi take it back. Now you have entrusted the country to Zi Zhi, but all the important ministers are the prince’s men, which is also nominally entrusting the country to Zi Zhi, but in fact the prince is still in charge.
Who was the one who said this? History does not contain any information, but it is certain that it was also Zi Zhi and Su Dai’s party. As a result, King Kuai of Yan was really cooperative and put away the seals and letters of top officials and gave them to Zi Zhi for appointment. Zi Zhi then officially sat on the throne and exercised the power of the king, while King Kuai of Yan stopped handling political affairs on the ground of old age and resigned himself as a vassal, leaving all state affairs to Zi Zhi.
This was in 318 B.C., more than two thousand years ago.
How about this “reform”, is it complete?
However, did the king of Yan consider the feelings of Prince Ji Ping when he did this? The successor was originally written into the state law, but you guys made it so that the prince immediately became a commoner, who will be happy.
For the people of the state of Yan, they really do not understand what you want to do. The previous law was written into the ancestral law, the state of Yan surnamed Ji, only the descendants of the Duke of Yan Zhaogong to sit on the mountain, now suddenly make such a play, is to tell us, as long as the ability, anyone can be the leader of the country?
This is also too far ahead of its time, right?
The people were at a loss, and the prince’s party made a mess of it, so “in three years, the state was in chaos, and the people were discontented”.
Only three years after the reign of Prince Zi, the state of Yan was in chaos, and the people lived in fear, not knowing what would happen next. The military leaders who supported the prince were pī, so they conspired with the prince to stage another coup to oust Zi Zhi from power. Qi, Yan’s neighbor, seeing the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, also sent someone to the crown prince to say, “I heard that you want to set things right, if there is anything we need to help, a word from you.
With the military on the inside and the help of a major power on the outside, the crown prince immediately launched a coup d’état, with General Shi being led to besiege the king’s palace in an attempt to destroy Zi Zhi in one fell swoop.
However, the crown prince and his cohorts counted a thousand calculations, but just did not count on the drifting public opinion.
As I said before, three years after the reign of the prince, the country is in turmoil and the people are discontented, but the prince is not a faint ruler, there should be a way to rule the country, there are still many people who support him. When the prince’s party got into trouble, the country became more chaotic, and many people were not happy about it, and “attacked the prince’s peace”, as a result, General Shi was killed in battle, and the prince was also killed by Zi Zhi.
A few months of chaos, the country died tens of thousands of people, public discontent boiling. At this time, King Xuan of Qi, who had been sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, felt that the opportunity was too good to miss and ordered his general Kuang Zhang to lead a large army to attack Yan. Once the Qi army arrived, “the soldiers did not fight and the city gates were not closed”. It only took 50 days for the Qi army to destroy the state of Yan, kill the former king of Yan, Kuai, and capture Zi Zhi alive.
Zi Zhi was the king of Yan for three years, but he was chopped into meat by the Qi army.
This historical tragedy that happened in the state of Yan can also be seen as a failed political reform that happened in this land more than two thousand years ago.
Was King Kuai of Yan, who voluntarily gave up his throne to Zi Zhi, completely fooled?
Not really. After all, before that, both Jin and Qi did have their own dissident seizure of the throne. It is possible that King Kuai of Yan took such a big step because he saw that the tide of history was swelling, and the obedient were prosperous and the rebellious were dead, and he wanted to make a soft landing, but he also wanted to win a historical position on par with Yao and Shun. The result click, really pulled.
Zi Zhi played the heart to get to the top, is it wrong?
Yes. If it is a fact that even the emperor of Zhou acknowledges the change of surnames of other countries, why can’t I do it if others can? I, Zi Zhi, ruled the country and crushed the Ji surname in a minute.
Why did it fail again?
The objective reason is the armed intervention of foreign powers.
You think, the prince party’s rebellion were suppressed by Zi Zhi, if there is no aggression of Qi, after a period of time, fait accompli, the emperor of Zhou will again send Zi Zhi official certification, as before to recognize the three families to divide Jin and Tian to replace Qi.
However, Qi had already changed its surname to Tian by this time. Please, you are also robbing people of their Jiang surname’s world, so why interfere with Yan’s reform?
Hegemony makes.
There is no righteous war in the Spring and Autumn period, and there is no “righteousness” in the Warring States dictionary, so give me an excuse, I will annex you, who does not want to do so.
However, the deeper reason, or the hearts of the people.
The three families can be successful, is the people of the three fiefdoms, has only recognized their own lord, Jin’s office later, like the Zhou royal family, only the nominal boss, so the three independent, the people did not feel too much change.
The success of the Tian family on behalf of Qi is due to the fact that the Tian family has been working hard in Qi for hundreds of years to win the hearts and minds of the people, the most famous “big fight out of the small fight in”, is the Tian family. In the end, the people of Qi only recognize the surname Tian, the surname Jiang completely no good feeling, before the water comes to fruition.
What about Yan’s Zi Zhi?
I’m sorry, neither the fiefdom as the basis, nor deliberately operated the hearts of the people, only by the heart, even if you have support, but also can not stabilize the basic plate.
Therefore, not to mention Confucianism to scold you, even the reform-oriented legalists also want to dislike you. In Han Feizi – Saying Doubt 44, the following is said about Zi Zhi.
If Qi Tianheng, Song Zihan, Lu Jisun Yiru, Jin Qiaoru, Wei Zinanjin, Zheng Dazaixin, Chu Baigong, Zhou Dantan, Yan Zizhi, these nine people are their ministers, they are all cronies than Zhou to serve their ruler, hidden the righteous way but do private twists, the upper forced the ruler, the lower disorderly governance, support the outside to scratch the inside, pro-lower to conspire with the top, not difficult to do.
The nine traitors, including Yan Zizhi, are listed, and their common denominator is that they forced the ruler to act on his strength, undermined the rule of law, and colluded with foreign forces in an attempt to usurp the throne.
Note that the word “foreign aid” is not the current word for foreign aid, but rather the use of foreign forces. To do so would be tantamount to throwing stones at the feet.
So, does this farce show that the world of one family is the universal value, and the abdication of King Kuai of Yan was too advanced and did not suit the national conditions, so it failed miserably?
One can imagine how many people would give credit to this statement.
However, it has to be said that the tragedy of King Kuai of Yan lies not in being ahead of time, but in being “appointed”.
Even if the people can’t decide whether the son can take the throne or not, giving the decision to the ministers can avoid civil unrest in the country to the greatest extent.
Even if the Zen transfer between Yao, Shun and Yu is true, Shun and Yu, are elected by the people, after a long period of time to examine, the top and bottom feel that they can come to the throne.
No push, no inspection period, the mountain is my bag, I want to give it to whoever I want, this is the root of the tragedy of the Yan State.
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