"Cold hands" is a political situation that began in the Liu and Song Dynasties. It was initiated by Emperor Wudi, and was thoroughly improved during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu of the Song Dynasty, and continued throughout the Southern Dynasties. It not only ran through the whole Southern Dynasty, but also was used by the Northern Dynasty to hedge the threat of aristocratic families to imperial power after the Sinicization Reform, which further influenced the political trend of the entire Southern and Northern Dynasties until the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

"Poor people are superior" made the civilian forces in the poor gradually control the political center, which laid the foundation for the poor group to step onto the political stage and then replace the gentry, and also laid the foundation for the establishment of the imperial examination system in Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Historical background

At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, wars were frequent. After a series of warlord separatist wars, such as Wang Gong's Rebellion, Sun En's Rebellion, Huan Xuan's Rebellion and Lu Xun's Rebellion, the cremation suffered heavy losses, and the political situation between the cremation and the emperor was unsustainable. The poor faction, represented by Emperor Wu of Song, took advantage of the situation to rise and successively put down various separatist forces, thus unifying the south after more than 20 years of melee and eventually replacing Jin. In this process, civilians, a poor faction, also gained a rising position because of military achievements. Emperor Wu of song was born in poverty and won the world by military exploits. After he came to power, centralization greatly weakened the military and political power of aristocratic families, and established a powerful central army (also known as * * *) in the central government, ending the separatist regime of the gentry in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and at the same time reusing the poor, so the poor civilians participated in the discussion of state affairs in succession. After the gentry entered the Liu and Song Dynasties, although they were still high-ranking officials, they were all honest and elegant, and had no real power, so they were constantly marginalized. The official positions held by the cold people, such as the official position of the Chinese book Sheren, are of low taste, but they have real power to participate in confidential work and are told by the cashier. At the end of Song Dynasty, Qi Dynasty, Liang Dynasty and Chen Dynasty, the real power of military and political affairs was in the hands of cold people.

Specific content

During the Liu and Song Dynasties, with the overall decline of the gentry and the revival of the imperial power, the influence of the poor cloth clothes gradually increased, and the rulers of Liu and Song Dynasties themselves came from the poor cloth clothes. Therefore, a series of reform measures were taken to restrain the powerful and powerful, and the poor were centralized and reused. The poor began to hold important positions in the court and participate in confidential positions, gradually forming the phenomenon of "the poor are in power". This "ruthlessness" is mainly manifested in the following three aspects:

First, cold people control the political center. Since Liu and Song Dynasties, in order to strengthen the imperial power to check and balance the threat of the gentry to the imperial power, prevent the gentry in the Eastern Jin Dynasty from being sidelined by the great imperial power, and greatly weaken the political influence of the gentry, the emperors of Liu and Song Dynasties often used their humble origins and hard work to control various departments in the central government, such as ministers in Shangshu Province and Zhongshu Province. They actually controlled the two highest power organs, and the gentry served as ministers' orders. Since Liu and Song Dynasties, the reason why the poor controlled the political center was because the rulers of Liu and Song Dynasties weakened the gentry, and the royal family of Liu and Song Dynasties was born in poverty. Another reason is that the gentry themselves have become more and more decadent, unwilling to cheer up politically, unwilling to make progress and mediocre and incompetent. Except for some people who are keen on political affairs but suppressed by imperial power, most people have lost their ability to manage politics and their interest in politics, and objectively controlled politics for ruthless people.

The second is that the cold man is in charge of military power. After the chaos in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, the military power was completely in the hands of civilians. Liu Song's founding emperor, Emperor Wudi, as a civilian, backed by powerful military forces and relying on the Beifu Bingleng Group, which was dominated by northern refugees, started from the military and used military achievements to finally change the dynasty, thus creating the Liu Song regime. Since then, Emperor Wu of Song carried out military reform, rebuilt the system of China's army and foreign troops, and established a powerful central army under the direct command of the emperor. * * * Generals are almost all cold military commanders hired by the emperor and trusted by cronies. They rose through their military achievements, so they entered the stage. In this way, the gentry in the Liu and Song Dynasties lost their privilege as special forces in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and their military foundation against imperial power, so the military power was completely in the hands of the cold people. Of course, the military power of the gentry was completely deprived. At the end of the Jin dynasty, it was also "tired of military affairs" and "light military affairs" and did not care about military affairs. They abandoned the tradition of the gentry in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty and made some progress in martial arts. It was these gentry's own decay and incompetence that eventually led to the military power gradually falling into the hands of ordinary people, a poor man like Emperor Wu of Song, and the military power never fell into the hands of gentry.

The third is that cold people are appointed as local contractors. Since Liu and Song Dynasties, the emperor centralized the government, strengthened the control of local governments, and improved the status of officials (signing coaches) who delivered documents in the state. At the same time, he appointed Qian Dian, a scholar with genuine talent and practical learning, as the county town, to make them travel back and forth between the imperial court and the state government, so that they were responsible for conveying the important affairs of the county town to the central government for examination, and at the same time, they were responsible for supervising, conveying the central orders and assisting the local county mayors to handle affairs. And it has the power to report the situation directly to the court at any time, so the possibility of state towns rising up against the court is greatly weakened, which makes the central government further control the local military and political affairs, thus resulting in the situation of "only smelling the handsome signing, not smelling the secretariat".