New Theory About The Reform And Historical Status Of Emperor Jing Of Han Dynasty

The "Biography of the Emperor Jing of Han" in "Book of Han" praised that the Rule of Wen and Jing in the Han dynasty,just like the Rule of Cheng and Kang in the Zhou dynasty,is a golden age.Since then,the Rule of Wen and Jing became famous and praised by previous historians.However,the historians always studied the two emperors together and paid more attention to the Emperor Wen when they researched it,and the Emperor Jing was seen as a successor,even a mediocre emperor because of the words "Emperor Jing followed",just liked Cao Can who was Xiao He's successor.In fact,the Emperor Jing is not a mediocre emperor and his contributions can not be summarized by "following".During the era of Emperor Wen,the Huang-Lao politics accumulated many problems when resumed the development of production.Jia Yi showed the problems such as the arrogation of Laudatory Kings,the aggression of Huns,the mightiness of despotics,and the poverty of country and populace because of the much more attention paid by society to commerce instead of agriculture,meanwhile,the domination was in a hidden danger in "Policy of Public Security".These problems had not been resolved by Emperor Wen and caused the Emperor Jing's reform when he ascend the throne.The Emperor Jing's reform can be divided into two stages.At the first stage,Chao Cuo's reform,Chao Cuo combated the Military Power Group firstly.But the reform was interrupted by the case of Yuan Ang's bribery and the disclosure of intention of Wu king so that Chao Cuo had to deal with the Laudatory Kings first and the Rebellion of the Seven States broke out.Then the Military Power Group,relying on the army,forced Emperor Jing to kill Chao Cuo.Though the reform was over because of the death of Chao Cuo,Emperor Jing,relying on the victory,still wakened the Laudatory Kings drastically and fostered new groups.At the second stage,the later of his era,the reform happened due to the breaking out of the contradictions between Emperor Jing and ministers and Laudatory Kings.This time,he seized military power and wakened the Military Power Group and Laudatory Kings in a moderate way.At the same time,he promulgated a series of policies to make the country strong:in terms of economy,he expanded the source of taxes,strengthened economic control to make country rich;in terms of officials,he punished the criminals severely,redressed injustice and enhanced supervision.In terms of military,he recruited Huns,established horse farms,selected excellent frontier generals to strengthen the defense and counterattack ability in frontier areas.The Emperor Jing' s reform not only solved the social problems left by the Emperor Wen,but also made great changes in the Han dynasty:on the one hand,with the demise of the Military Power Group and the changes from states to prefectures,Emperor Jing completed the transformation from noble ownership to dictatorship.On the other hand,a great number of policies made the Han dynasty stronger and stronger and laid a solid foundation for Emperor Wu of Han.And it is the herald of Emperor Wu's reform.