Uprisings at the end of the 1st century. BC BC - beginning of the 1st century n. e. were an indicator of the extreme aggravation of class contradictions in the Han Empire and the maturation of a deep internal crisis.
The activities of Liu Xiu and the policies of the subsequent emperors of the new dynasty, called the Younger Han Dynasty, were ultimately determined by the profound changes that took place in the socio-economic basis of the empire.
Immediately after his confirmation on the imperial throne, Liu Xiu, known in history as Guang Wu Ti (25-57), proclaimed an era of peace and announced that he would act according to the example of his ancestor Liu Bang.
He understood that in the context of uprisings and economic devastation blazing throughout the country, it was impossible to act only by force. While decisively and brutally dealing with popular movements, Liu Xiu at the same time issued decrees that somewhat alleviated the situation of the oppressed masses...
During the uprisings of 18-28. many slaves were freed by rebel groups or fled from their masters. After the suppression of the popular movement, Guan Wu-di not only made no attempts to return the slaves to their former owners, but also repeatedly issued decrees to limit slavery and alleviate the situation of slaves.
A number of decrees of 26-37. People who were sold into slavery due to famine during the civil wars, as well as people who were forcibly enslaved at that time, were declared free. The “law on the sale of people” issued by Guan Wu was an attempt to limit the practice of forcibly capturing and selling into slavery the free.
In 31, a decree was issued to free certain categories of state slaves. It read: “Those officials and people of the people who in the time of Wang Mang were captured and enslaved for disagreeing with the previous laws should be released and become free.”
In 36-39. Guan Wu-di issued several decrees freeing certain categories of private slaves in a number of areas of the empire. In 36 AD e. A decree was issued limiting the right of slave owners to kill slaves. A year earlier, an imperial decree prohibited the branding of private slaves.
By the time of Guan Wu-di's reign, the economic importance of the areas in the river basin. Weihe, which was the main breadbasket of the state in the 2nd century - mid-1st century. BC e., falls significantly due to the neglect and destruction of the Weibei irrigation system and gives way to areas located east of Changan - in the territory of the modern provinces of Henan, Shandong and Southern Hebei.
In these areas, back in the second half of the 1st century. BC e. local authorities created irrigation structures that contributed to their economic growth. At the beginning of the 1st century. n. e. areas located on the territory of the Great Chinese Plain became the most developed economically.
Due to the increased economic importance of these areas and the decline of the areas in the Weihe Valley, Guang Wu moved the capital of the empire to the east, to the city of Luoyang. Both Guang Wu Ti and his successors paid great attention to supporting irrigation structures in the lower and middle reaches of the Yellow River.
Under Guang Wu-ti, the government took vigorous measures to improve the country's economy. Officials were given orders to encourage agriculture and sericulture. The poor who did not have land were given state lands (gun-tian) on preferential terms.
The settlers were exempted from taxes and duties for several years. Large holdings of disgraced landowners were partially distributed among people who lost their homes. Recovered and the state administration was going wrong.
In many years of intense struggle against the decentralizing tendencies of large aristocratic families, which intensified during the uprising and civil strife, Guan Wu-di managed to achieve the strengthening and centralization of the empire.
Having become emperor and taking the name Guan Wu-di, Liu Xiu largely continued the transformations begun by Wang Mang. He actively pursued the practice of enslaving people and even freed government slaves. He also made sure that the peasants received land and successfully cultivated it, and partly for this purpose the empty lands of the state and some of the powerful houses were used. The centralized administration was noticeably strengthened and again reduced land tax up to 1/30 of the harvest. All these measures yielded results, and the country’s economy began to recover rapidly. Following it, domestic and foreign policy stabilized, which was manifested, in particular, in the repulsion of the Huns (Xiongnu) and the reopening of the Great Silk Road for trade as a result of the campaigns of the famous commander and skillful Chinese diplomat Ban Chao. However, this stabilization did not last long. Already from the beginning of the 2nd century. The situation in the country began to deteriorate noticeably.
Here it is appropriate to say a few words about the features of the Chinese dynastic cycle, which most clearly manifested themselves precisely during the years of the empire, starting with the Han. As a rule, each dynasty replaced the previous one in an environment of severe economic crisis, social unrest and the weakening of political centralized power, which manifested itself in the form of powerful popular movements, sometimes in the form of invasions from the north and foreign conquests. The mechanism of the cycle during which the next crisis arose is quite complex; Economic reasons, sometimes demographic pressure, environmental and other objective factors also played a role here. In its most general form, the matter was usually associated with the following processes.
The Chinese rural community, as a strong institution, and even more effectively defending its autonomy, was destroyed in ancient times. In the face of the treasury, each household was responsible for itself, despite the fact that the treasury was interested in facilitating and guaranteeing the collection of taxes and for this purpose artificially supported some traditional forms of mutual responsibility within the communal village. Treating the community as an important social corporation, which it was, the authorities, even during the Shang Yang reforms in Qin and then throughout the Qin empire, introduced a method of mutual responsibility that was convenient for them, creating artificial associations of courtyards into five-yards, within which everyone was responsible for fulfillment of tax and other obligations by the other four, up to the obligation to make up for the shortfall at their own expense. And although this harsh method did not always function in the empire, it was always remembered when it was necessary to strengthen the position of power. In particular, this was the case under Wang Man. The above means that in the face of the treasury, all landowners were taxpayers and everyone was equal in social and class terms. This also applied to strong houses. An exception was made only for certain categories of privileged persons - for officials and the highest nobility from among the emperor's relatives.
Accordingly, for the state there were only two forms of land ownership - state (also known as communal) lands, on which farmers who were obliged to pay rent-tax to the treasury and bear various duties lived and worked, and state service lands, the fund of which was intended for the maintenance of the court, the highest nobility and officials, mainly on the basis of temporary, conditional and official ownership. The lands of the first category were most often called the term ming-tian (people's *), the second - guan-tian (state, official). The second category was relatively small, usually no more than 15-20%. Everything else fell to the ming-tian. It was assumed that the ming-tian lands were more or less evenly distributed among farmers, as a result of which each plowman had his own field and carefully paid taxes to the treasury (the guan-tian lands were also cultivated by peasants, but the tax on them went to their owner - an official, courtyard, etc. .p.). In practice, however, this was only ideal. In reality, life turned out differently. Some had more land, others less, the rich crowded out the poor, by hook or by crook they annexed their lands and became even richer, turned into strong houses, while the poor were deprived of their last piece of land (“there is nowhere to stick an awl,” as Chinese sources put it). What did all this mean for the state, for the treasury?
* Sometimes this term confuses researchers who lose sight of the fact that in reality these were lands over which the state had supreme power, freely disposing of them from time to time, in particular, allocating them to peasants after crises.
Since ancient times, the traditional Chinese state has been perhaps the classic embodiment of the principle of power-property and centralized redistribution. It was precisely due to the redistribution of surplus product that for centuries the well-thought-out and almost automatically reproduced apparatus of power that ruled the empire existed. As long as the peasants had plots, cultivated the land and paid rent-taxes to the treasury, the structure of the Chinese empire was strong and viable. But as soon as lands in significant quantities passed to wealthy landowners - and this always happened sooner or later - the situation began to change. Rich owners of land, who rented it out to the needy for a high fee, were by no means always willing to take upon themselves the payment of the tax due to the treasury. On the contrary, rich farmers usually reduced the share of the tax that they had to pay to the treasury. And they had many opportunities for this, starting from the fact that from among them were officials in whose hands there was power (the ruler is always his own hand), and ending with the opportunity to bribe the same officials and with their help get rid of most of the tax.
The result was always clear: the treasury did not receive the normal amount of income, the government apparatus was forced to be content with less, i.e. tighten belts, and this was often, as mentioned, compensated by increased arbitrariness of local authorities (new exactions, forced bribes, etc.). This, in turn, led to a deepening of the crisis both in the economic sphere (loss of property, then land) and in social relations(the discontent of the peasants and their escapes, the emergence of robber gangs, uprisings), as well as in the field of politics (the inability of the ruling elite to cope with the situation, the increasing role of temporary workers who cared only about fishing in troubled waters, etc.). Actually, this is exactly what the dynasty cycle in Chinese history usually boiled down to.
Cycles of this kind were not only in China, and this was already discussed when we talked about the alternation of periods of centralization and decentralization in various states of the East, starting with Ancient Egypt. But in Chinese history, dynastic cycles have always been the most visual; they are a kind of standard with the help of which the phenomenon itself can best be isolated and analyzed. The cycle usually ended with the accession of a new dynasty, which led to the elimination of the crisis, partly due to the destruction of wealthy property owners in the fire of riots and wars, partly due to the general decrease in the population of the country that died during the years of wars and turmoil, as well as the favorable opportunity that arose as a result of this to again distribute to each of the survivors allotment of land so that they would work properly and pay taxes, which were initially noticeably reduced.
We can add to all that has been said that sometimes the usual cycle was complicated by more or less successful reforms undertaken by the authorities, with the help of which the crisis was temporarily lifted through efforts from above. In these frequent cases, the dynastic cycle seemed to be interrupted in the middle. But soon the process began again, ending as usual. Successful reforms included those that actually extinguished the crisis. Wang Mang's reforms, for all their complexity and potential, cannot be considered one of them. The First Han Dynasty fell victim to a crisis. The beginning of the second Han dynasty was associated with its overcoming. But a little more than a century passed - a fairly common period within the cycle just discussed - and the state of prosperity in which the Han state found itself came to an end again. In the second quarter and especially from the middle of the 2nd century. Symptoms of destabilization, and then of a new approaching crisis, began to manifest themselves more and more noticeably.
The process of landlessness among peasants since the beginning of the 2nd century. progressed at an ever-increasing pace, both due to the absorption of lands by the rich, and in the process of a kind of commendation, i.e. voluntary surrender of one’s lands, oneself and one’s family under the protection of a strong house in order to receive protection from it in time of troubles, associated with the weakening of the effectiveness of the power of the center. This phenomenon, well known to other societies during periods of feudal fragmentation and civil strife, led to the formation of stable patron-client ties, which ultimately again strengthened the position of strong houses and weakened the position of the treasury. The process took place against the backdrop of another acute political crisis in the Han imperial house: starting from the 2nd century. the power of the rulers weakened due to the strengthening of temporary workers from among the relatives of influential empresses. Eunuchs again began to play an active role in politics, having the unique opportunity to be a mediating link between the inner chambers of the court and the external forces associated with the harem. The strengthening of temporary workers and eunuchs entailed the inevitable weakening of the positions of the serving Confucian bureaucracy, right up to the highest dignitaries of the empire.
The consequence of all this was not just a decline in power, but also an increase in arbitrariness and lawlessness, especially on the part of influential temporary workers who sought not to miss their time. Lawlessness and arbitrariness, in turn, gave rise to sharp discontent among the people, which was most noticeably reflected both in the growth of unrest and uprisings, and in the strengthening of the so-called pure criticism from influential Confucians, including many powerful houses. The center of criticism was the students of the capital's Tai-xue school, where officials were trained. In the 60-70s of the 2nd century. the struggle between officials and Confucians who sympathized with them with their pure criticism, on the one hand, and temporary workers and eunuchs, on the other, intensified to the limit. The country was on the verge of political collapse.
It was at this time that an ever-increasing social protest began to gain strength, taking the form of a sectarian movement under the slogans of Taoism. The followers of philosophical Taoism Lao Tzu and Zhuang Tzu by this time had transformed into supporters of religious Taoism, at the center of which were the eternal peasant ideals of “great equality” (tai ping) and hopes for mystical methods of achieving longevity and immortality. The head of the Taipingdao sect, Zhang Jue, who became famous for the art of healing and, according to legend, saved many people who flocked to him and believed in his miraculous power during the difficult years of the epidemic, at the turn of the 70-80s, unexpectedly found himself at the head of a large and active sect of supporters a new “yellow” sky, which in 184 (the beginning of the next 60-year cycle, which played the role of a century in China) was supposed to come, according to the sectarians, to replace the “blue” neo-Han, mired in vices. The sect's supporters, who covered their heads with yellow bands, planned to raise an uprising precisely at this sacred moment, which was already known to everyone in China.
The authorities tried to prevent the uprising, which, as a result, began prematurely, which affected its course and results. The rebels' initial successes were short-lived and the movement was ultimately defeated. However, the suppression of the Yellow Turban uprising turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Han: the imperial administration and the court soon after lost all influence on the course of events, and the main role in the final suppression of the rebels scattered throughout the country and in all the political struggle that followed began to be played by successful military leaders who relied on to strong houses. It can be considered that from this moment - from the end of the 2nd century - the military came to the forefront in the life of China for several centuries, and the military function became the leading one in the political life of the former empire that had fallen into pieces.
God of war and military valor, patron of warriors fighting for a just cause. This is the god who was worshiped until the middle of the 19th century.
This image combines ancient ideas about the god of war and legendary stories about a truly existing valiant warrior named Guan Yu, who lived in 160–219.
Apparently, in ancient times Guan Di was somehow connected with mythical dragons. In any case, in the Middle Ages there were widespread legends that before the birth of Guan Yu, a dragon circled over the house of his parents. According to another version, he was miraculously born from the blood of the executed dragon Yu Di, which a Buddhist monk poured into his cup. Therefore, Guan Yu had dragon blood in his veins.
They said that from childhood he had extraordinary strength and fearlessness. He accomplished his first feat by killing the cruel ruler of the district, who committed arbitrariness. So that he could not be identified, he washed his face with water from a magical stream. However, if he really committed such a desperate act, his grateful fellow countrymen would not have given him up anyway.
It is possible that there is some truth in this story, because the hero’s further behavior is quite realistic and prosaic: he became a seller of soy cheese and thus even managed to get a little rich. However, the second could happen after he, having entered the service of the ruler, was selflessly devoted to him.
Apparently, episodes from Guan Yu's biography explain the fact that not only the military, but also soy cheese traders and even businessmen and rich people considered Guan Di their patron (or was it important for them to have a reliable security guard?). Buddhist monks also revered him primarily as a protector of monasteries.
The veneration of Guan Di turned into a real cult of personality, in which the real Guan Yu became a mythological hero, and his virtues and deeds were truly extolled to the skies. The emperors bestowed upon him honorary titles - as if he were eternally alive. At the end of the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty, he was given the title “di” - sovereign.
In the mid-19th century, Guan Di received the title "sheng" ("perfectly wise") after he allegedly appeared in the sky and helped government troops defeat the Taiping, a rebellious peasantry who tried to create a people's state. Although in reality the rulers of the Qing dynasty were helped in this case by the British, Americans and French. However, half a century later, participants in the anti-imperialist uprising of 1900 also prayed to Guan Di.
There is no doubt that the cult of the faithful servant and the valiant warrior was rooted and spread primarily by sovereigns who were vitally interested in this kind of propaganda. Almost thousands of large and small temples scattered throughout China were dedicated to him. He was honored by representatives of different religious movements. Buddhists claimed that he had been converted to their faith. And the Taoists created a legend that Guan Di defeated the rebel monster Chiyu in battle, who in Ancient China was revered as a fierce god of war, a beast-man with the head of a leopard and tiger claws, who owned all types of weapons. According to another version, the monster had the hooves and horns of a bull, the body of a man, four eyes and six arms. It was believed that he rebelled against the legendary ruler Huang Di.
In fact, the allegory about the victory of the loyal subject Guan Di over the rebellious Chiyu had its own truth: over time, with the significant strengthening of the emperor’s power, loyal sentiments began to prevail among the people (the opposite were dangerous and were brutally eradicated). This was also facilitated by the fact that Guan Di was an example of fidelity to duty, and therefore was considered the patron saint of merchants. He was also popular as one of the gods of wealth. For Confucians, he became the patron saint of scientists and writers, because, according to legend, his reference book was the work of Confucius “Spring and Autumn”.
The example of Guan Di shows especially clearly how the mythologization of a historical figure occurs. It is not at all necessary to assume that some mystical forces or complex philosophical considerations play an important role here. Too often the explanation lies in the plane of the real interests of individual social groups, public organizations, and government agencies.
Much depended on the current political situation. The Han Empire, after a period of prosperity, when it covered a fifth of the entire population of the Earth, began to weaken and decline. In the 3rd century AD e. it was constantly shaken by uprisings and socio-economic crises. The question of strengthening tsarist power and creating national idols of statists was acute. One of them was destined to become Guan Yu, who turned into the mythological hero Guan Di.
Liu Xiu, known in history as Emperor Guang Wu Ti (25 - 57), proclaimed an era of peace and announced that he would act according to the example of his ancestor Liu Bang. He understood that in the context of uprisings and economic devastation blazing throughout the country, it was impossible to act only by force.
While decisively and brutally dealing with popular movements, Liu Xiu at the same time issued decrees that somewhat alleviated the situation of the population - both free and slaves. During the uprisings of 18 - 28. many slaves were freed by the rebels or fled on their own.
After the suppression of the popular movement, Guan Wu-di not only made no attempts to return the slaves to their former owners, but also repeatedly issued decrees to limit slavery and alleviate the situation of slaves. A number of decrees of 26-37. People who were sold into slavery due to famine during the civil wars, as well as people who were forcibly enslaved at that time, were declared free. The “law on the sale of people” issued by Guang Wu Ti was an attempt to limit the practice of forcibly capturing and selling into slavery the free. B 31 r. a decree was issued to free certain categories of state slaves. It read: “Those officials and people of the people who in the time of Wang Mang were captured and enslaved for disagreeing with the previous laws should be released and become free.” B 36 - 39 Guan Wu-di issued several decrees freeing certain categories of private slaves in a number of areas of the empire. B 36 AD e.
A decree was issued limiting the right of slave owners to kill slaves. A year earlier, an imperial decree prohibited the branding of private slaves.
During the reign of Guan Wu-di, the economic importance of the areas in the basin p. Weihe, which was the main breadbasket of the state in the 2nd - mid-1st centuries.
BC e., falls significantly due to the neglect and destruction of the Weibei irrigation system and gives way to areas located east of Changan - in the territory of the modern provinces of Henan, Shandong and Southern Hebei. In these areas, back in the second half of the 1st century. BC e. local authorities created irrigation facilities that contributed to their economic recovery. At the beginning of the 1st century. n. e. areas located on the territory of the Great Chinese Plain became the most developed economically. Due to the increased economic
Battle on the bridge.
Han stone relief from a mortuary temple in Wu and Shandong Province. Mid-2nd century n. O.
Due to the central importance of these areas and the decline of the areas in the Weihe Valley, Guan Wu moved the capital of the empire to the east, to the city of Luoyang. Both Guang Wu Ti and his successors paid great attention to supporting irrigation structures in the lower and middle reaches of the Yellow River.
Under Guang Wu-ti, the government took vigorous measures to improve the country's economy. Officials were given orders to encourage agriculture and sericulture. The poor who did not have land were given state lands (gun-tian) on preferential terms. The settlers were exempted from taxes and duties for several years.
Large holdings of disgraced landowners were partially distributed among people who lost their homes. The state administration was restored and established. The fight against the decentralizing tendencies of large aristocratic families, which intensified during the uprising and civil strife, led to success. Guan Wu-di managed to achieve the strengthening and former centralization of the empire.
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personal name - Liu Xiu) (5 BC - 57 AD) - China. emperor from 25, founder of the Later Han dynasty (25-220). Being a representative of a side branch of the Liu clan, to whom the emperors of the Early (or Western) Han Dynasty, G. Wu-d. belonged. during the period of crisis of the empire and the unpopular reign of Wang Mang (9-23), he managed to advance and become one of the major military leaders. Having gained the upper hand over his rivals after the death of Wang Mang, G. Wu-d. proclaimed himself emperor and moved the capital from Chang'an to the east, to Luoyang (hence the other name of the dynasty he founded - Eastern Han). Having become emperor, G. U-d. brutally suppressed the powerful people in 27. the uprising of the “red brows” and at the same time took a number of measures to overcome the consequences of the crisis: he issued decrees to reduce taxes, limit slavery, and provide state services to the poor and landless. land, exemption of immigrants from taxes for a number of years, etc. Having restored the destroyed economy of the country, G. achieved this means. successes in the fight against the decentralizing tendencies of the aristocracy and strengthened his power. Having re-conquered the north. part of Vietnam (Bac Bo), which recognized dependence on China, G. U-d. marked the beginning of active external politics East Han Empire. L. S. Vasiliev. Moscow.