Introduction: In Chinese history, usurping the throne is a historical drama, and this kind of drama happens from time to time. For the sake of the throne, brothers turned against each other, and ministers would murder and poison each other at all costs. Let’s take a look at the top ten famous usurpers in history.
1. Winning over Hu Hai
As the first usurper in the history of China’s feudal imperial power, Hu Hai did not leave an impression of scheming. He just seems to be an ambitious guy. Perhaps this was the only thing he had in common with his father's father, which allowed him to gain the favor of the First Emperor, be able to play both sides, and gain a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to usurp the throne. This is a great blessing for Hu Hai himself, a great misfortune for his brother Fuxi, and a great tragedy for the 20 million people of the Qin Dynasty. As a typical prodigal son, he and his father, the emperor of the ages, worked together to interpret what is meant by "their prosperity leads to prosperity, and their death leads to suddenness". The only thing that won Hu Hai's victory was that he maintained the construction of the world's three major architectural wonders at the cost of his country's subjugation, and cast an indelible stone tablet for himself and the Qin Empire - one side was engraved with Qin Song and the other side was engraved with an epitaph.
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2. Wang Mang
As a relative of the Western Han Dynasty royal family, he inherited the tradition of relatives in power in the Han Dynasty, and gradually became a powerful minister from a relative. road. Wang Mang is humble and polite, worthy of a corporal, and has the moral character of killing relatives with righteousness. As a result, he rose step by step from an ordinary foreign son to the head of the family. In the end, with his extremely high reputation and a bloodless palace coup, he became the second usurper in the era of Chinese feudal imperial power. Wang Mang is a famous reformer in Chinese history. His new regime lasted only 14 years, and his short life was mainly due to his bold but failed reforms. According to the principle of victory or defeat, Wang Mang became a notorious figure in history and the image spokesperson of the "Hypocrite" brand. If Wang Mang had died before usurping the throne, he would probably have become an example of a good minister. Eight hundred years later, a poet named Bai Juyi lamented: "If you die from the beginning, you will never know the truth of your life."
3. Cao Pi
As a relative of the Eastern Han Dynasty royal family, Cao Pi inherited his father Cao Cao's family business and became the last powerful official of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Because of his inheritance, Cao Zihuan is slightly famous in literature, but he is most famous for being jealous of his younger brother Cao Zhi and leaving behind tidbits of seven-step poems. Cao Pi lacks the reputation of Wang Mang, but as the supreme leader of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he should succeed the lifelong puppet emperor Xian Di Han. As the third usurper, Cao Pi inherited and carried forward Wang Mang's bloodless coup, but Cao Pi seemed to be more blameworthy than Wang Mang because his victim, Emperor Xian of Han, was an adult, and his psychological damage was definitely far more than that of an ignorant person. Two year old boy. Fortunately, his father Cao Cao shared most of his notoriety, so that Cao Pi received far less moral criticism than the "hypocrite" Wang Mang. At best, he can only win the reputation of being a "real villain".
4. Sima Yan
The young Sima Yan lacks new ideas in usurping the throne. As the third generation head of the Sima family of Cao Wei, he confidently repeated the old drama of the previous monarch Cao Pi. However, this achievement is mainly attributed to his grandfather Sima Yi, uncle Sima Shi and father Sima Zhao. Sima Yan's own achievement was the return of the Three Kingdoms to the Jin Dynasty. The reputation of the third unifier in China's feudal imperial era was far better than that of the fourth usurper. Unfortunately, the ancient Han people had evolved into a period of decadence and decline in Sima Yan's time, and he himself became a typical example of the corrupt without exception. After he almost providentially entrusted the country and people to the mentally retarded prince Sima Zhong, the doomsday judgment of the ancient Han nation irreversibly accelerated.
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5. Liu Yu
Among the several usurpers during the decline of the ancient Han people, Liu Yu, who usurped the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was chosen for a reason . Unlike Wang Mang, Cao Pi and Sima Yan, Liu Yu was not born into a wealthy family. Instead, he was born into a humble family. His power and status were completely established by himself, and he had no capital to eat. Liu Yu was also the first emperor from the common people since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Bang. The emergence of Liu Yu is of great historical significance. His journey from the military to the political arena and then to the pinnacle of power has set an immeasurable role as an example and demonstration for future generations of people with lofty ideals who hold military power. The most obvious example is that only 59 years later, the Song Dynasty established by Liu Yu was usurped by a military commander named Xiao Daocheng. A hundred years or more later, most of China's regime changes evolved in accordance with the rules established by Liu Yu. What needs to be severely condemned is that the emperor, who was a warrior, launched a bloody coup. After him, while depriving him of the throne, the usurpers also deprived the victims of their right to survive, becoming an indispensable accessory of "Liu Yufa".
6. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty
After experiencing the dark days from the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the two hundred and seventy-two years of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the aging ancient Han heritage in the southeast was run over by the wheel of unification. Declare death. At the same time, the new mixed-race Han nationality grew rapidly with the emergence of a new unified country. When the 40-year-old Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty took over the throne from his 8-year-old grandson, he probably did not realize that he would become a key figure in the history of China and the Han people. Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty completed the unification of China in the year when he knew his destiny. This was a feat second only to Qin's destruction of six kingdoms. This reunification announced that China no longer has the possibility of falling into permanent division.
As the first generation leader of the new Han people, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty put the country and the nation on an upright path through a bloodless coup. His career reached its glorious peak in the hands of Li Shimin, the second generation leader of the New Han nationality.
7. Huang Shu
During the long Tang Dynasty, the rules for usurping the throne formulated by Liu Yu became a piece of paper until Huang Shu picked them up again and carried them forward. Under Huang Shu's guidance, the style of usurping the throne by military generals in the Southern and Northern Dynasties became popular again during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. From Zhu Wen, the leader of the Huangchao Peasant Army, to Zhu Quanzhong, the king of the Tang Dynasty, to Huang Shu, the Queen Mother of the Liang Dynasty, the experience of this usurper is strikingly similar to that of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Bang and Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty. But there is no doubt that Huang Shu's hooliganism is much higher than that of Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang. With this extraordinary rogue method, he alone created a Central Plains dynasty in Bianliang, the place where the Fourth War was, without the assistance of Zhang Liang, Han Xin or Xu Da Liu Ji. Unfortunately, Huang Shu's hooligan behavior was not only unusual, but also excessive. Cao Cao's appreciation for Sun Quan only allowed Liu Jingsheng's son to associate with pigs and dogs. He appreciates Lee's direct comparison of his son to an animal, but he doesn't know that his son is also an animal. What is this? As a result, the old gangster himself met an unpleasant end. —Year by his third animal, Zhu, according to the book.
8. Zhao Kuangyin
Surprisingly, the greatest statesman of all Chinese emperors was the usurper from Beowulf. Zhao Kuangyin restored the fine tradition of bloodless coups since Wang Mang, and completely abolished "Liu Yu" after implementing it with reservations. In terms of crossing rivers and demolishing bridges, Zhao Kuangyin was much gentler and smarter than Han Gaozu and Ming Taizu. Whatever you two need to do with a knife, Your Majesty can solve it with a glass of wine. What's even more amazing is that this warrior-turned-emperor successfully transformed the powerful scholar-official class. He voluntarily transferred part of his ruling power, thus winning 100% ideological loyalty from the scholar-official class. The high degree of ideological unity of this ruling class can only be matched by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's exclusive respect for Confucianism. It is of epoch-making significance to transform the lonely political idol of the emperor into the spiritual symbol of scholars
Among the many usurpers, Ming Taizong Zhu Di's martial arts was among the best, if not the best. He reopened the canal, built Beijing, conquered Annan, made five voyages to Mobei, seven voyages to the West, ten rounds of hard labor, and compiled the "Yongle Dadian". Even if the emperors of all dynasties only did one of these, they would be enough to be famous all over the world. No wonder Emperor Jiajing wanted to change the temple name of his late emperor from Zong to Zu. He inherited his father Mao's pro-people anti-corruption side, but he also inherited his father's cruel and murderous side, except that his killings were not directed at his own heroes, but at his orthodox political opponents. After Zhao Kuangyin's reform, the scholar-bureaucrats' loyalty to the orthodox imperial power exceeded Zhu Di's imagination. His punishment of the Ten Tribes and Gua Man can only deal with individuals, but cannot deal with the orthodox consciousness that has risen to social morality. Perhaps all Zhu Di did was to prove that he was better than his unfortunate nephew Emperor Wen Jian. When he realized that the Jingnan Incident had become a stain that could not be washed away for life, the traitor had to work hard to do his job well in order to gain history's understanding.
0. Emperor Yongzheng
Whether Yin_ usurped the throne has not yet been determined, but the evaluation of the suspected heir to the throne in traditional concepts has indeed been greatly affected. The examples of Zhu Di and Yin_ tell us that we must not offend scholar-bureaucrats. Even if an emperor can temporarily gain the upper hand with a butcher's knife, a scholar-bureaucrat's pen can bring him eternal infamy. The political persecution after winning the throne was the failure of Yin and Zhu Di's coups, and Yin seemed to have done more foolishly than Zhu Di. He had no force to seize the world, and no legitimate heir to the throne for him to overthrow. The bloodshed that followed the coup meant nothing to him. If he had been gentler at the time, he would not have been so diligent and died in the line of duty to clear his name.
The above are the ten famous usurpers in history. "The beans are boiling, and the beans are crying in the pot. They are from the same root, and they are cooked too hastily!" This seven-step poem by Cao Zhi exactly reflects the history of usurping the throne for benevolence.