This harm is that the power of the enfeoffed Liu Fan Wang became more and more powerful and began to threaten the rule of the central government of the Han Dynasty. In fact, there were many people of insight in the early Han Dynasty. Jia Yi gave Wendi advice:
"Public Security Policy": In order to maintain public security in the world, there is no way to establish vassals without their efforts. It is easy to do justice if the force is small, and the elementary school is innocent, so that the implementation at sea, such as the arm of the body and the finger of the arm, should be restrained.
Jia Yi's words mean: If you want political stability in the world, it is better to enfeoffment more vassals, thus weakening the strength of each vassal. When the vassal is weak, it is easy to use moral control; If the vassal state is small, there will be no nausea. In this way, governance in the four seas is like the body dominating the arm and the arm dominating the finger, and nothing is out of control.
Jia Yi's words are basically the embryonic form of the pardon, but Emperor Wendi of China thinks the time is not ripe. The reason is that during the reign of Emperor Wendi, there were two rebellions, namely Liu Xingju, king of northern Hebei, and Liu Chang, king of southern Huai. Liu Xingju is Wendi's nephew, and Chang Lu is Wendi's half-brother. In addition, Emperor Wendi of China was cautious, and did not listen to Jia Yi's decree of vassal surrender, but left it to his son China Jingdi.
Han Jing listened to Chao Cuo's suggestion to cut the seal, and directly cut the seal of the vassal fief on the grounds that the vassal broke the law. This move directly triggered the joint rebellion of the seven vassal States headed by Wu Wang Liu Bi, which was called the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion. In fact, even without Han Jing's separatist regime against vassals, it was only a matter of time before there would be rebellion among vassals. Han Jing's vassal reduction was only the fuse of this rebellion.
After the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion with Wu Chu was pacified, all the vassal states involved in the rebellion were abolished, but they did something wrong again, that is, enfeoffment of their own sons as vassals, which was tantamount to enfeoffment of their own sons, replacing the vassal group enfeoffed by Liu Bang. In fact, this is only a change in form.
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, I listened to my father Yan's suggestion on cutting the vassal, which was a favor. The specific method is as follows:
1. After the death of the warlord, he distributed his fief, title and property to all his sons.
In the past, the eldest son inherited all the fiefs, titles and property, and the other sons got nothing. Therefore, after the death of the vassal state, the strength of the vassal state will not change, and the decree requires that all fiefs, titles and property of the vassal state should be distributed to all sons. In the past, I was alone, but now my son is separated, and my strength has directly dropped by one level.
2. The eldest son inherited the title of king and the biggest fief, the other sons were made princes, and part of the land in the kingdom was enfeoffed.
There were two kinds of state-owned countries in the Han Dynasty, namely Kingdom and Hou State. The country established by the vassals is a kingdom, and the land of the kingdom is bigger than a county. The country established by Liehou is the country of Hou, which is equivalent to a county. After the implementation of the law of grace, a kingdom was quietly dismembered into a weakened kingdom (equivalent to a county)+several hou states (equivalent to a county).
3. The son who was enfeoffed as a marquis belongs to the marquis country, which is under the jurisdiction of the chief directly under the central government, while the kingdom inherited by the eldest son is automatically reduced to the kingdom equivalent to the chief, and its status is equivalent to the chief.
It turned out to be a kingdom. After the implementation of the imperial edict, the jurisdiction of all dismembered vassal States changed, from the original kingdom to the local governor, directly under the central government of the Han Dynasty. This means that except the eldest son, all newly established vassals are excluded from the kingdom, and other sons of the eldest son of the vassal Faye Wong are brought into the central jurisdiction, which quietly weakens the vassal.
What is the power of the favor order? 1, unable to crack.
For thousands of years, the inheritance system in China society is the eldest son system, and the eldest son has a high social status. However, in the law of grace, the eldest son is the object of attack, while the other sons of the princes are the object of being wooed. Therefore, the biggest loser is the eldest son. If he wants to resist, he must also be the eldest son. Those sons who are not the eldest son not only don't object, but also raise their hands to welcome him, because he didn't have the right to inherit, but now he does.
If the eldest son wants to resist the law, he must win over a group of eldest sons whose interests are equally damaged. Other sons can't afford him. He will find himself in a very small number, and his strength is not very strong. Now he is further weakened. If you dare to resist, you will abolish him. If he dare not resist, he can only accept this arrangement and continue to be weakened.
During the whole period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there was not a warlord rebellion. It is for this reason that they cannot be cracked and have to be accepted. If they dare to resist, the whole family will be in danger.
2. The effect is lasting.
Moreover, the weakening of laws will stimulate the effect of geometric series with the increase of time. After the death of the first generation of princes, the second generation will decompose and the third generation will continue to decompose in the shape of a tree fork. With four or five generations, it is possible to turn a prince into an ordinary person and a prince into a prince, and he is the eldest son.
The more princes have sons, the better this effect will be, and the smaller the kingdom will be. If the vassal has no son, there will be no son to inherit, and the vassal state will be abolished. For example, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty had a son, Liu Sheng, the king of Zhongshan. He had more than 120 sons, and his vassal state would be divided into 120. It was terrible to think about it. After two or three generations,
Moreover, the law of grace can be passed down from generation to generation, and is not limited by time and space. As long as the dynasty exists, until all the royal families become ordinary civilians, like Liu Bei, the royal family becomes ordinary civilians, without titles and fiefs, and can only turn over on their own.
3. It is a subtle system to gradually put the land of vassal states under central management.
There is an important provision in the imperial edict that the divided vassal States should be managed by local chiefs, because the Han Dynasty implemented the county system, and the subordinate administrative areas of counties are both counties and vassal States, which are equivalent to counties. As long as there are vassal States that have left the kingdom, they will be immediately included in the county management, which is managed by the central government of the Han Dynasty, which is equivalent to pulling the vassal States back to the central government step by step.
The most important thing is that when the Han Dynasty wanted to enfeoffment, it was always the central enfeoffment. When enfeoffment, the more developed and populous land will be separated from the kingdom, and when enfeoffment, the counties directly under the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty will try their best to separate the original kingdom and prevent all the land in the original kingdom from being connected. This is equivalent to surrounding the original kingdom with directly administered counties. These actions will further weaken the kingdom.
Moreover, after a series of operations, those vassal States with developed economy and large population will be placed under the jurisdiction of counties and counties, and the vassals who have been enfeoffed cannot object. The Han dynasty divided the vassal state into kingdom and vassal state step by step. There was no threat. The kingdom became as big as the county, and the vassal state became as big as the county. This situation lasted until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and all members of the royal family could only accept it. These details are the most terrible part of the law.