Hello everyone, I am Anthony. Welcome to my channel. Today we continue to talk about the history of China. In the previous video, we first discussed the function of the Great Wall. The Great Wall, not just as the mainstream narrative claims, to defend against foreign enemies, protecting people, its other equally important, even more important is to control the people.

Nationalism often assume that “we” are a monolithic group, “we” must be naturally superior to “them”, so there is no need to consider the real situation inside "us". However, internal social injustice, oppression and poverty often more serious than so-called foreign threats.

Therefore, from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, what people want to escape from most, it is the various walls set up by the imperial system that, whether it is a tangible wall, a pass, or an invisible household registration system? Heavy corvée and taxes. These things are more important than national identity, and this, this is also what China's grand narrative wants to avoid.

At the end of the previous video, we also discussed, throughout the 20th century, the significance of the Great Wall is not static. At different stages in history, constantly given new symbols and missions. Its symbolic value, as state power and ideology change, the circulating, from a closed symbol that hinders modernization, to the national symbol that inspired the spirit of the War of Resistance, from the marginalized old Chinese heritage, to become the core totem of "cultural confidence" again.

The image of the Great Wall always shaped and rewritten by realistic political needs. This also shows, symbols of nationalism, not as it claims, natural and beyond time and space, it may have been invented not long ago. Created. That's it.

Some people might say, Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han built the Great Wall to fight against the Huns, although it has placed a heavy burden on society, but after all, protecting the lives and property of the people, their contributions in fighting against foreign enemies cannot be denied.

Today's video, we mainly take Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, as an example, let’s continue to explore the distortion of this nationalist propaganda. This video, it will also be included in the list of "History and Society". If you have anything you want to discuss with me and consulting topics, you can contact my email to make an appointment. So let's get back to our topic today.

We say that the expansion of authoritarian power, equivalent to the progress of the whole society, this is also the mainstream way Chinese society views history. For example, Lesson 12 of the seventh-grade history textbook compiled by the Ministry of Education, Emperor Wu of Han Consolidates the Unified Dynasty, the Han Emperor Wu was regarded as an emperor of "great talent and strategy".

The main points of this lesson, students are required to remember a series of measures taken by Emperor Wu of Han to consolidate the great unification. For example, weakening the power of princes and local tyrants, because these people rebelled against the court, cause social chaos. In terms of ideology, all other schools of thought were rejected, and Confucianism was the only one respected. In terms of economy, we should promote salt and iron monopoly to stabilize prices. Improved the country's financial situation. Certainly, the most important thing is to continue to attack the Huns militarily. Expanded the territory of the Han Dynasty. The textbook concludes that, Emperor Wu of Han's policy of unification, the Western Han Dynasty entered its heyday.

I personally think, the title of the emperor in Chinese culture, natural beauty with a beautifying meaning. So I am more used to calling him Liu Che, rather than Emperor Wu of Han. The vocabulary and narrative style of textbooks, in fact, it is to put the interests of the entire country, completely equivalent to the emperor's personal interests. Liu Che's actions were not for any special purpose. It is beneficial to the whole nation. But this is a rather outrageous and wrong misunderstanding.

An emperor with great talent and strategy in Chinese history, they are all powerful monarchs who have achieved great things. But even from the perspective of that time rather than modern times, this kind of great talent, it is also a sign of mental illness. Actually, we can easily find, the most noble spirit in Chinese culture, they are closely related to power. The highest state is the emperor's mentality, or they can spontaneously look at the problem from the perspective of an emperor.

For example, Liu Bang's "A real man should be like this", when Xiang Yu saw the emperor's carriage, he said "You can replace it". People praise these people for their little ambitions. Mao Zedong's poems, it is also full of this imperial perspective. For example, "I want to compete with the gods", "Look at today", "Dare to teach the sun and the moon to change the sky", "Look at the world turning upside down" and so on. This kind of broad-mindedness that looks heroic and romantic, big volume, big pattern, it's actually a very primitive desire for control and narcissistic state.

When people look at it from the perspective of aesthetics and cognition, entering this imperial atmosphere, from the perspective of the emperor, it is easy to forget the boundaries of interests between people. For example, people tend to think, wars launched by Liu Che, all for the overall interests of national security and society. He started too many wars. He was given the posthumous title "Wu".

However, these wars, there are quite a lot, it's just to satisfy his personal desires. For example, Liu Che was very fond of the famous horses of Dayuan. It's like the three generals of North Korea like Maybach very much. He sent messengers to buy, but it was rejected by Dayuan. So the envoy insulted the King of Dayuan. The result was killed. Dayuan did not threaten the security of the Han Dynasty. But Liu Che still decided to launch a war against Dayuan, to get those BMWs. It is also for his favorite concubine, Lady Li's brother Li Guangli created an opportunity to be crowned a marquis.

The first war did not receive support from the Western Regions. Suffering a crushing defeat, almost annihilated. But no, how long did Liu Che mobilize another huge army? Start of the Second War. This army included 60,000 soldiers, 100,000 cattle and 30,000 horses. Under the shock of the massacre, countries in the Western Regions surrendered one after another. This war went relatively smoothly. Not many people died in the war. The Dayuan people were also forced to kill their king, and donated 3000 BMWs. But because the Han army was too corrupt, treating soldiers badly, wait until you return to your homeland, only 10,000 soldiers left. Two-thirds of these BMWs also died. But Liu Che was still very happy.

A similar war was waged against South Vietnam. Nanyue did not threaten the national security of the Han Dynasty. The attack on Nanyue was mainly to satisfy Liu Che's desire for expansion. It is worth mentioning that, in these two wars, the Han army was filled with criminals and prisoners. It can be said that this is an army of criminals. This can also explain, why did they suffer so many casualties? Human life is so worthless.

As for why there are so many criminals in the Empire, we also talked about this in the previous video. The Cruel Officials Politics in the Western Han Dynasty, make ordinary people, to the point where every move you make could violate the law. Once it is illegal, it's like becoming a slave to the country. When there is a shortage of troops, conscripting prisoners, it is a very economical way to save money. The state first convicts you of a crime, then just exempt your criminal law, it can motivate you to fight. So this was also a slave army. Not a citizen army.

This also makes us think of, in modern times, the Russian Empire also frequently conscripted prisoners to fight in the battlefield. Although the Russian army also won many wars, but this kind of treating soldiers as pure consumables, and the cannon fodder army, not respectable.

It is precisely because of the many wars during Liu Che's era, it's totally unnecessary. Therefore, Ban Gu praised Liu Che's achievements in the Book of Han, mainly focused on his establishment of the Imperial College and the formulation of legislation, in the cultural undertakings of abolishing all schools of thought, and completely avoids mentioning his military exploits.

Finally, Ban Gu commented: "A monarch as wise and capable as Emperor Wu of Han, if you can use your energy on frugality, that's great!" This makes it easy for us to think, Chen Shou's criticism of Cao Pi in "Records of the Three Kingdoms", let's talk about Cao Pi first. How knowledgeable and versatile! If I could be more open-minded, be more virtuous and kind, then it's perfect. This is actually what Chinese historians, under the imperial despotism, a helpless and obscure criticism.

Maybe someone will say, let's put aside those unnecessary wars. Han Dynasty's War against Xiongnu, even if it adds a heavy burden to society, but it still protects the lives and property of the people. However, we still need to clearly distinguish, the wars launched by Liu Che, anti-aggression wars with modern countries, the essential difference between.

An incident recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian illustrates this. Fight against the Huns, it has nothing to do with protecting people's rights. The Biography of Ji Zheng says: A tribe of the Xiongnu came to surrender to the Han Dynasty. This made Liu Che very proud. So Liu Che ordered 20,000 vehicles to welcome. The government had no money at that time. I had to borrow horses from the citizens. The citizens are not stupid either. They hid their horses. Liu Che was very angry, want to kill the Chang'an County Magistrate.

At this time, Ji An asked the emperor, the Huns surrender, all we need to do is ask the counties along the way to slowly prepare their carriages and horses. Why cause unrest across the country? Let the people run around serving the Huns? Liu Che remained silent. After the Huns arrived in Chang'an, buying goods on the market, law enforcement officials in Chang'an are obsessed with the letter of the law, think that the citizens are selling goods to the enemy, it is equivalent to committing illegal smuggling. More than 500 businessmen were executed in one go.

Ji An asked Liu Che again, we are here to conquer the Huns, countless people died in the war, it cost billions of dollars. I thought Your Majesty had obtained the Xiongnu's property. Will be rewarded to the family of the deceased, to comfort the hard work of people all over the world. Even if you can't do this, nor should we empty all the treasures in the government warehouses. Reward the Huns, recruiting honest and decent people to serve them, make them the best. We should not use harsh laws. Killed more than 500 ignorant people. This is how you protect the leaves at the expense of the branches.

But after Liu Che heard this, I think Ji An is talking nonsense. He was dismissed soon after. From such a small thing, we can clearly see, the true logic of the empire's war and the truth about cruel politics. First, the emperor wanted to save his own face. Allowing the Huns to enter the capital, and ordered the people to serve them. Then at this time, the Huns should at least not be considered enemies of the state. Citizens do business with them, they should no longer be charged with smuggling and treason.

However, the imperial government, however, no corresponding temporary regulations have been issued, to adjust the existing law. The legal obligations and risks of the people have not changed in the slightest. This creates a dilemma for grassroots officials: In this fuzzy area, they don't know whether to enforce the law. I am afraid that my superiors will investigate me. I killed them all in accordance with the principle of preferring the left to the right. Under the cruel politics, killing too many people, I can only say, it is a small mistake that can be corrected and criticized. If we kill less, that would be a principled mistake of not being firm in one's stance. So killing more is the best strategy.

However, for citizens, this is an unsolvable problem. If you sell goods to the Huns, you may be killed. If you refuse to serve them, you will be killed. The court defeated the Huns, not only has my weak position not changed at all, instead, there are more people. After all, in Liu Che's eyes, the Huns are more valuable for united front work. Therefore, the starting point of attacking the Huns was, it is not so much to protect people's lives and property, it's better to say, the emperor regarded the people as his private property, not to mention protecting the people's rights.

In fact, this was also the norm for ancient Chinese emperors. Another equally talented emperor, Li Shimin, the same is true. The Zhenguan Zhengyao records a very similar event.

That is, with the hard-earned taxes paid by the Chinese people, to feed the evil and cruel enemies, and there are more and more people to support. However, Li Shimin did not accept these opinions. Later, Li Shimin went out to travel, the Turks who had surrendered colluded with each other, attacked his camp. From then on, Li Shimin no longer trusted the Turks. Reflect on the people around you, said that Wei Zheng's suggestion was not adopted at the beginning, now I realize how wasteful and costly this policy is.

The people of the Central Plains are the foundation of the country. But this kind of reflection is very hypocritical. His change of mind was entirely due to, the Turks wanted to stage a coup and kill him. Instead of suddenly realizing those great truths. Therefore, we say, all despotic emperors, they all tend to achieve great things. That is the so-called great talent. The great achievements under the autocratic system, it usually means a lot of trouble.

As for why some emperors did not make trouble, it's more because objective conditions don't allow it. It's not that the emperor himself really doesn't want to. For example, Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han, no messing around like Liu Che did, mainly due to the early Western Han Dynasty, there is still a force that can restrain the imperial power. That is, the meritorious officials and the princes, not yet eliminated. They are still active in the political arena. It formed a tripartite relationship with the imperial power.

But as they were gradually flattened and eliminated by the imperial power, the system and ability of the imperial power to extract wealth from the people, growing stronger. At this time, it is almost inevitable that someone will appear, a powerful monarch like Liu Che. Or anyone, when you have great wealth and a large number of slaves, it's hard to bear to do nothing.

The reason why, such monarchs always appear in Chinese history, first, at the source of the legitimacy of power, in this issue, Chinese and Western jurisprudence have completely different views. Han Yu said: "When people are born, as solid as barbarians and beasts, saints stand, then I know that I live in a palace and eat grains of rice… Therefore, there is no greater way than benevolence and righteousness, "There is no better teaching than ritual, music, punishment and politics"

That is, the people were as ignorant as animals. It was the saints who established the system. Creates conditions for survival, so that people can survive. Just like that North Korean song, We Can't Live Without Him. Because, this great salvation and grace of the saints to their people, so all the mysteries of the law, only the saints can monopolize it. This is the Chinese legal system, the basic principles that have been reiterated and emphasized countless times.

As Wang Yi said, the great difference between the theoretical foundations of Chinese and Western law, this has led to China's legal culture, I can't imagine such a system. For example, in Roman law, even though the emphasis on the sublimity of imperial power, we must first acknowledge, imperial power comes from the authorization of the people and the law, recognize that the emperor's will has legal effect, because, the emperor exercised all legal authority over the Romans.

Chinese nationalism, always the Emperor, seen as a symbol of the national community. He compares the behavior of monarchs in a pre-modern and authoritarian regime, packaged as a product of rational operation of a modern country. For example, the foreign wars launched by the emperor, described as "defending the country". The emperor's territorial expansion was sanctified as "national dignity". Oppression and conquest of ethnic minorities in border areas, whitewashed as a "unified multi-ethnic country" or "national integration". Replace the logic of "family rule" with "national interests", and try to connect with the modern concept of state sovereignty. But these are far from the truth.

About this topic, there's still a lot to talk about. That's all for today's video. If you have any confusion or questions, want to communicate with me, just contact my email directly. For example, you want to discuss an article or a paragraph with me, a video, a social phenomenon, or your diary, you can send me the relevant text in advance. I will read it before the formal communication. Or you want to discuss your life experience with me, confusion and emotion, all are possible. If you are concerned about privacy, security, any questions about payment and communication methods, please also tell me in time. If you are unable to pay or join the membership, please contact me too, I will provide other ways. Please refer to this picture for details.

I will post this video, put it in the list of "History and Society". Also recommended, please go and watch the other videos in my list. Thank you for watching, goodbye!