1, extremely extravagant

Because the success of Sima family in the world mainly depends on Sima Yan's ancestors and fathers, Sima Yan and his descendants do not cherish what they have gained. Although Sima Yan was able to advocate frugality in the early days of his administration, it didn't last long. The royal family in the Western Jin Dynasty soon began to decay, and aristocratic families became more greedy and extravagant.

Who is more extravagant than Wang Kai or Shi Chong? A good minister reminded Sima Yan to stop keeping up with the joneses. Sima Yan was not only indifferent, but also sponsored his uncle to take part in the struggle for wealth. Moreover, senior officials are not only extravagant, but also openly rob and kill people. For example, during Shi Chong's tenure as the secretariat of Jingzhou, he "robbed businessmen of their wealth".

2. Do the right thing.

Although this system of selecting officials claims to be more advanced than the "checkpoint system" before Qin and Han Dynasties, its harm of "cheating" and "small scope" is exposed completely. Almost all the elected people are aristocratic families, so these people who have no skills of their own completely control the affairs of state, and the only thing they can do is to continue to monopolize and rot.

This directly hindered the enterprising spirit of the bottom people, and also made the unknown generals in the Western Jin Dynasty be bullied casually by the later "all corners of the country".

3. The issue of heirs

Although in ancient China, emperors before the Qing Dynasty generally praised the system of "the eldest son inherited the throne", Sima Yan made Sima Zhong the emperor, which directly led to the excessive power of Queen Jiahui, and the consorts in charge of state affairs caused the dissatisfaction of Sima Ben's family, which led to the "Eight Kings Rebellion".

4. Foreigners begin to become powerful.

The Western Jin Dynasty unified the Three Kingdoms and fought against Nanwu after its establishment. At that time, China never stopped fighting for 150 years. The result of years of war is a sharp decline in population. According to statistics, the population of China at that time had dropped from 60 million at the end of the Han Dynasty to 6 million when the Western Jin Dynasty was established, with a population loss of 90%.

At this time, the foreigners in all directions of the Central Plains have gradually grown up. During the Three Kingdoms period, although these foreigners were eager to move, the Central Plains was like a cloud and there was no chance of winning. Now that people who can't fight are in power, they will naturally flock.

Extended data:

nation

During the Western Jin Dynasty, a problem appeared in the surrounding areas, which was called "the five lakes moved inward". The so-called five lakes mainly include the Xiongnu, Jiejie, Xianbei, Di and Qiang ethnic minorities. These ethnic minorities live in the northeast, northwest and north of Hetao in China, and mainly lead a nomadic life. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, they gradually moved to the Yellow River Basin.

The attitude of previous civil strife in the Western Jin Dynasty was to resolutely reject the internal migration of ethnic minorities and drive them out. As early as the Western Jin Dynasty wiped out Wudong (AD 280), Minister Guo Qin wrote to Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, proposing to solve the problem of ethnic minorities moving in.

Guo Qin's letter regards ethnic minorities as a scourge. Although Guo Qin's suggestion was in line with the wishes of the imperial court at that time, it was really difficult to implement. Because these ethnic minorities have moved back to the mainland for a long time and in large numbers, they are scattered all over the country and live together with the Han nationality, so it is impossible to move back.

Because the government of the Western Jin Dynasty couldn't treat ethnic minorities well, and carried out the policy of ethnic discrimination and oppression, which aroused the strong resistance of ethnic minorities, the Western Jin Dynasty was very passive and unconfident in dealing with the relations with ethnic minorities because of its own instability. However, at that time, the inward migration and development of ethnic minorities had become a prairie fire, and the Western Jin government could not stop it.

In the end, the Western Jin Dynasty was wiped out by ethnic minorities. But all ethnic groups are moving towards national integration.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Western Jin Dynasty