Reasons for the obliteration of the Chinese dynasties

Reposted from Iron Blood Community

I. Relevant statistics:

Deaths by usurpation: Western Han Dynasty, Eastern Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, ****3.

Death by rebellion: Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Sui, ****5.

Died as a direct result of peasant revolts: Yuan, Ming, ****2.

Deaths indirectly due to peasant uprisings: Eastern Han, Sui, Tang, ***3.

Restoration of former dynasties: new, ****1.

Directly died due to foreigners, foreign invasion: Northern Song, Southern Song, 2.

Indirectly died from invasion: Western Jin, Eastern Jin, 2.

Overthrown by revolution: Qing, 1.

Two related analyses:

1. The greatest danger to the dynasties from Xia onward was rebellion. Five of the major dynasties*** died directly from rebellion.

2, followed by peasant revolts. Only two died directly from revolts, but three died indirectly from revolts. That is to say, in Chinese history there are not many successful peasant revolts, but they can shake the foundation of the dynasty. When someone within the ruling group rebelled after a peasant uprising, the fall of the dynasty was inevitable. This is that rebellion is the most dangerous of dynasties. It should be noted that the historical consensus that Qin's demise was due to peasant revolts is debatable. While the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang was the trigger, it was the Chu aristocrats Xiang, the grassroots officials of the Qin Empire, Liu Bang and Xiao He, who were the main political forces that overthrew the Qin Empire. The same was true at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

3. Only the Song dynasty died directly from aggression. First, the Jin broke the capital and plundered the two emperors, and finally died in Yuan. Although Jin died in the five hu chaos in the Central Plains, the main reason is internal strife, that is, the eight kings of the rebellion.

4, from the historical trend, since the Western Jin Dynasty, the external pressure on the survival of the Chinese nation gradually increased. The external forces did not establish a unified centralized regime during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. But after the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, which ruled China for 89 years, was established, and after the Ming Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which ruled China for 265 years, was established. By 1840 the challenges facing the Chinese nation (including the Mongols and Manchus) had become worldwide.

5. The analogous nature of dynastic politics. From the point of view of the basic or dominant factor in the demise of each dynasty is only tyranny, drowsy politics, evil politics. When the dynasty was first established, excluding a very few, most of them have a period of development, the heyday, and then enter the period of decline, that is, tyranny, lethargy, bad government stage, and finally perished. The development of the dynasty's ruling group of political sobriety, the heyday of forgetfulness, the decline of the more absurd and ridiculous, foolish. The so-called rising lord was also just a flash in the pan. This is the **** same reason for the demise of dynasties. What makes us sad is that the prosperous Song Dynasty was indeed destroyed by the backward nomads. It seems that being backward does not necessarily mean you can be beaten, but sometimes you can beat others. The key is the system.

6. Evaluation of the dynasties. Because of the Xia, Shang and Zhou historical materials are too little to dare to comment, only on the Qin after the major dynasties from a personal standpoint to evaluate.

The most bullish is the two Han, Han Chinese name originated from this, that dynasty of political and military diplomacy into one extraordinary achievement. Through the solemn and elegant, standardized and flooded with the spirit of the Han Clerical know how the Han Dynasty is an era.

The most like to talk about the Wei Jin, in addition, the era of the most fashionable is a man to lose weight, men care about their own appearance even to the degree of nausea of people today. It was the era with the most beautiful men.

The most powerful was the Tang Dynasty, which has been praised by too many sources to repeat. I just want to emphasize that Tang poetry influenced the Chinese language.

The most politically liberal was the Song dynasty. Although the Song dynasty was poor and weak, it was the dynasty that had the least amount of written prisons in China since the Qin and Han dynasties to the present day. That's why the Song Dynasty left us numerous cultural heritages. It is important to know that the mathematical papers of the Song Dynasty could not be understood by the mathematicians of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Unfortunately, the iron hooves of the Mongol cavalry crushed this academic environment.

The most incredible thing is the political openness of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty recognized the Yuan Dynasty as China's main political system, appointed a Catholic, Xu Guangqi, to run the government, and purchased cannons from Portugal for border defense. It emphasized national education. And so on. What would China's history have been like if the Ming emperors had not abused torture? Although history cannot be hypothesized. So the Ming Dynasty has a lot to be praised.

The most foolish were the rulers of the Qing Dynasty and their group. Its stupidity is manifested in: the use of Li Zicheng rebellion to destroy the Ming Dynasty, by the way to get the world, but as a parasite. With the blood and sweat of the people of the country to support the eight banners; do not want to make progress, Kangxi when the palace has a Western pipe band, the Qing army into the customs with the musket to the opium wars did not improve; do not know to absorb the essence of Chinese culture in order to strengthen their own, but to find ways to extract its sinews; Qing dynasty in the late years of the building will fall, but do not conform to the world trend to implement the constitutional monarchy, but the death of the imperial zombie not let go, the scourge of the Chinese nation, including the Manchu, but also a large number of Manchu compatriots, and also the Chinese people. It also harmed a large number of Manchu compatriots who did not know how to support their families after the Xinhai Revolution. Do you not see the proportion of constitutional monarchies in the developed countries of the world today? Basically take the route is political corruption (general history books will be considered from the relatives or eunuchs dictatorship, however, this is not necessarily related to the same as the red face), the people do not want to live naturally into the official forced the people to rebel, the external form is the peasant revolt, and then the warlords chaos, chaos to a certain extent, breaking the capital to seize power.

The exceptions are the Song and Ming dynasties, especially the Song dynasty, which was a complete loser in the war of aggression. The Ming dynasty was an absolute victory not after a strict warlords' conflagration but a peasants' revolt, 8 over, for the same reason as the Song dynasty that the successor (the replaced) was a foreigner of an aggressive nature.

The Qing dynasty was also a foreigner though, I don't think it was a war of aggression but a war of warlords, the Ming dynasty still didn't recognize the independence of the Qing government as the dominant regime in China up to the day of its demise, so it was a revolting warlord rather than an aggressor, by the ancient definition of the term.

Political corruption is the root cause, the Chinese dynasties believe in the rule of man, the good thing about the rule of man is to meet a good emperor is peaceful and prosperous, the bad thing is to meet a bad emperor (bad emperor in addition to the tyrant, comatose, similar to the mediocre good people and other cowardly weak type of characters are also counted), the world's great enemies. Sometimes the world is not in chaos because the mediocre emperor bumps into a good heavyweight. Han Zi said, "Yao passed on to Shun, Shun passed on to Yu, Yu passed on to Tang, Tang passed on to Wen, Wu, and Duke of Zhou, Wen, Wu, and Duke of Zhou passed on to Confucius, and Confucius passed on to Meng Ke." To say that the first person to put forward the idea of emphasizing the people is not good to draw definite conclusions, but we can know that in the process from clan society to slave society to feudal society, the idea of emphasizing the people can be said to have always existed, as can be seen from the records in the "Records of the Grand Historian", in the "Five Emperors" in the "vassal invasions and abuses and tyrannical abuse of the people, but Shennong's can not be conquered." to illustrate that "Xuan Yuan, the vassal invasions and abuse of the people. To illustrate, "At the time of Xuanyuan, the Shennong clan was in decline." It shows that the clan society is very concerned about the survival of the people, and Tang conquered the vassals. Tang said: "I have a saying: people see the water to see the shape, see the people to know the rule." It shows that the slave society also regarded the condition of the people as the standard for measuring the good or bad of the rule. The Song of the Five Sons of Xia in the Book of Shangshu also states that one of the five sons of the song says: "The emperor's ancestor has taught us that the people can be close to us, but not under us, and that the people are the foundation of the state, and that the foundation is solid, and the state is peaceful

The Qin Dynasty

The Qin dynasty was established by Qin Shihuang, the first Emperor of Qin, who assumed control of the state in 246 BC, and was united in 221 BC.

To be precise: Qin Shi Huang **** ruled for 36 years, of which 25 years to support the Qin state power to support the Qin dynasty power for 11 years.

Qin Shi Huang completed the unification of China in 10 years

Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC), existed for 15 years

Qin Shi Huang died of illness in 210 BC on his return to the south of the country on the road from Shandong to Hebei. Zhao Gao, the prime minister, conspired with Li Si to kill the crown prince Fusu and succeeded his brother Hu Hai as the second Qin emperor. In July of the first year of the Second Qin Dynasty (209 BC), a peasant revolt led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang finally broke out, with anti-Qin forces from all over the world joining in. Later, Zhao Gao killed the prime minister Li Si, and then killed the Second Emperor, and established the grandson of the First Emperor, Zi Ying, as the King of Qin. In 206 B.C., Liu Bang entered the pass, and when he reached the dam outside Xianyang, Ziying surrendered out of the city, and Qin died.

After the fall of Qin, history entered the stage of "Chu-Han War" between "King of Chu" led by Xiang Yu and "King of Han" led by Liu Bang. In 202 BC, Xiang Yu died in defeat and Liu Bang assumed the throne of the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty

Western Han

The years of war brought great destruction. Therefore, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the tactics of Huang Lao's "Do Nothing" rule were adopted? The policy of resting with the people led to a lightening of the people's burden. The economy gradually recovered during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, known as the reign of Wen and Jing. By the time of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, the political, economic and military powers were already very strong. Here, he strengthened the power of the king and abolished most of the place-keeper lords and princes. Adopting the advice of Dong Zhongshu to "dismiss the hundred schools and revere only the Confucians," Confucianism became the dominant ideology in China from this time onward. After 2,000 years, it lost its official status after the founding of the People's Republic of China, but it is still the dominant value of the Moon people. Economically, casting mica and salt and iron mica were brought under centralized management. Agricultural production was strengthened. The White Canal was opened. Militarily, in order to resist the Xiongnu, generals such as Wei Qing and Huo Daizi emerged and defeated Shan Yu. Diplomatically, Zhang Qian was sent to the Western Regions twice and opened up the Silk Road. In the late Western Han Dynasty, the political situation was turbulent. Wang Mang, a foreign relative, seized power in 8 years and established the New Dynasty, which led to the end of the Western Han Dynasty.

The New Dynasty

Wang Mang's coup d'état cut the Han Dynasty in half, and set a precedent in Chinese history for a bloodless or less bloody regime change. The new dynasty was fifteen years old, which is not a short period of time, and it inherited all the territories of the Western Han, so it certainly counted as a unified dynasty. Wang Mang carried out a number of reforms after he claimed the throne, mainly including the introduction of the King's Field System: private land holdings were restricted and the excess was state-owned. The landless were allocated land by the state, and one husband was given 100 mu, aiming at solving the serious problem of land annexation since the late Western Han Dynasty, but it was totally unenforceable, banning the reward of slaves and maids, promoting state-run businesses and reforming the coinage system, etc. However, the new dynasty's policies were cumbersome and complicated. However, the new dynasty's decrees were cumbersome and changeable, and the reforms ultimately failed, leading to the dramatic downfall of the new dynasty.

The new dynasty set a precedent in Chinese history for the success of an emperor through abdication, and Wang Mang has since been famously described by Chinese historians as a hypocrite because of his traditional view of history, which favors abdication as a way of transferring power over war and revolution. Wang Mang was the sole ruler of the entire new dynasty, which was eventually replaced by the Eastern Han Dynasty, founded by Han Dynasty patriarch Liu Xiu.

Ancient Chinese historians were almost always negative about the new dynasty, especially the Book of Han, which regarded Wang Mang as a traitor. Later generations followed the Han Shu's view of Wang Mang until the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the assessment changed.

In the 23rd year of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Wang Mang's regime was finally destroyed by the Red Eyebrows Uprising and the Green Forest Uprising. The Green Grove Army made Liu Xuan, a royal member of the Han Dynasty, emperor and restored the Han Dynasty's state name, Shanshi. Later the Red Eyebrows overthrew Liu Xuan's rule. In the 25th year, Liu Xiu, who claimed to be a royal member of the Han Dynasty, assumed the throne as Emperor Guangwu of Han in the south of Ancheng County (southeast of present day Gaoyi of Hebei Province). He adopted the state name of Han Dynasty and called this year Jianwu Yuan (建武 元年). The capital was Luoyang, known as the Eastern Han Dynasty. In 37 years, he finally wiped out the various factions and achieved national unity. Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty abolished the bad government of Wang Mang and stabilized the society, which was known as Guangwu Zhongxing (光武中兴). However, the feudalization of land also led to the emergence of a lot of land annexation. After the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs dominated the imperial government, and the abolition and establishment of the emperor was subject to the control of eunuchs. Moreover, there were frequent struggles between the eunuchs and the foreign relatives, resulting in political instability. In 184, the Yellow Turban Uprising broke out. In 220, Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty was abrogated, ending the Eastern Han Dynasty and declaring the end of the Han Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty

In fact, it is very simple, the Tang Dynasty was destroyed due to the disintegration of the rule, and the excessive number of local ministers, such as An Lushan and Shi Siming, was because of the relationship between the ministers, which led to the occupation of the mountains by each of them as the king of the Tang Dynasty, and the disintegration of the Tang Dynasty, and the emergence of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which gave Zhao Kuangyi the opportunity to wait for the emperor's throne to set up the Great Song Dynasty. Song.

Song Dynasty

1, internal corruption

2, poor fighting ability of the army;

3, there were many Han Chinese troops in the Mongolian army, which were very capable of fighting;

4, the neighboring Jin, Xixia, Dali, and Tubo died successively, and Mongolia completed the encirclement of Song.

The Northern Song was destroyed in 1127 by the Jin regime ruled by Wanyan Shouxu.

The Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty founded by Marco Polo Kublai.

Yuan Dynasty

Late in the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol Yuan rulers continued to collect taxes from the people under a variety of complicated names, and the oppression and plundering of the people became more serious. As early as in the second year of the Taiding era (1325), there was an uprising led by Zhao Choujiao and Guo Bodhisattva in Henan Province. In the 11th year of the reign of Emperor Shun (1351), the Red Turbans led by Liu Futong revolted, while the ruling class of the Yuan Dynasty continued to fight each other for power and profit, thus accelerating the process of the Yuan Dynasty's demise. Between 1356 and 1359, Zhu Yuanzhang, the leader of the rebellion, expanded his power and unified half of the southern part of the country. In the 27th year of the reign of Zhengzhi (1367), Zhu Yuanzhang began his northern expedition. Assisted by generals Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, he captured the Yuan capital in August 1368, and Emperor Shunliu fled northward, bringing an end to the Yuan Dynasty and the restoration of China. In the same year, Zhu Yuanzhang was proclaimed emperor in Yingtian (present-day Nanjing) and established the Ming Dynasty. Afterwards, the Yuan rulers and ministers in the northern part of the desert still used the state name of Dayuan, which was known as Beiyuan. In 1388, after Emperor Tianguang was attacked and killed by the descendant of Ali Bhagwati, Yashu Dielle (in 1402, after the accession of Gili Chi), the Yuan Dynasty went under the name of Northern Yuan. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the royal bloodline was passed down from generation to generation in Mongolia until 1696, when Mongolia was conquered by the Qing Dynasty.

Ming Dynasty

The end of the Ming Dynasty was characterized by internal and external problems. It was preceded by the Eunuch Rebellion, in which the wise ministers were basically killed off and the remaining ones were no longer bloodthirsty. And Chongzhen emperor is a heart but not enough ability of the emperor. He wandered between edict Li Zicheng and not edict, and wandered between war and peace with the Manchu, and finally sat on the lost opportunity.

Originally, he had the chance to pacify Li Zicheng, but he repeatedly killed the right generals in front of him, leading to the fall of Beijing. Since then, the Southern Ming Dynasty has been divided among themselves, and has been broken by the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, which is even more sad in the sadness of the sadness of the sadness of the sadness of the sadness