What's the point if we only talk about kindness and ignore the emperor's ruling ability, and an emperor like this catches a lot?
If we refine the problem, among the founding emperors, I think Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty and Zhao Kuangyin must be among the best.
Both of them are lenient and even kind to the courtiers. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were 28 generals in Yuntai, and Zhao Kuangyin had the right to release soldiers with a glass of wine. Only these two don't kill heroes, they can create a century-old prosperity.
Of course, their attitudes and ways towards heroes are different.
Since the anti-Mang uprising, Liu Xiu has been absorbing strength for his own use. For example, his beloved wife, Yin Lihua's family and Guo's family (played by Guo Shengkun) all provided powerful foreign aid for his success. After conquering the world, Liu Xiu, as the founding emperor, was very interested in these heroes and gave them land and privileges, which prompted this group of people to form a huge aristocratic family in the Eastern Han Dynasty. These meritorious families formed a delicate balance and dependence relationship with the imperial power.
As a grandmaster, Liu Xiu certainly had the ability to cope with these forces, but in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, the emperors were shorter than each other, and the power basically fell to eunuchs and eunuchs. These big families have become the targets of the ruling parties, or become independent opposing forces, such as the Yuan family and the Yang family in the late Han Dynasty. This is another story.
Besides, Zhao Kuangyin, he didn't kill the hero on the surface, but he sent the military commanders home to be a rich man who died in the nymphs. This is also a kind of punishment and fear to some extent. Scrambling together so hard to kill things, just to give some money and a false name (of course, much better than Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang).
Song Taizu passed? Ancestor family law? In fact, they denied and suppressed military commanders, and innovatively enabled scholars of the common people class, such as Kou Zhun, Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Su San and Wang Anshi. The whole northern song dynasty was an unknown general, but Zhao was a military commander? Permanent seal? Has a lot to do with it. This national policy of suppressing martial arts and promoting literature also made the Northern Song Dynasty suffer a lot, and this deformed system even directly led to the country's demise.
During the Han and Tang dynasties, it was considered that the ethnic policy of the Western Han Dynasty was not as effective as abandoning military commanders or trying to suppress them. Although Liu Bang and his descendants tried their best to suppress the king with a different surname and separate the princes, they clearly knew that it was indispensable to remain strong as a security barrier for the state machine in order to eradicate the first evil (such as Han Xin, Peng Yue, Wang with the same surname who participated in the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, etc.). Therefore, the entire Western Han Dynasty was powerful in imperial power and famous soldiers came forth in large numbers. However, Zhao Kuangyin was too cautious and overcorrected, which made the Northern Song Dynasty a rare dynasty with rich countries and weak soldiers.
Of course, each era has its own uniqueness. Undoubtedly, both Liu Xiu and Zhao Kuangyin adopted a relatively moderate and wise strategy to complete the infrastructure construction in the early dynasty, which may not be right or wrong in itself. If we have to say kindness, I think it is the greatest kindness. Because after all, they can master the world in their own time, that is, they are responsible for the widest range of subjects.