Master Archaeologist

Chapter 304 The Emperor's Order!

What is the Excommunication Edict?

As the name suggests, it is the emperor's edict to remove Haihunhou!

This thing is equivalent to the imperial decree of the later Ming and Qing Dynasties.

There are some imperial decrees handed down from generation to generation. Although they are rare, at least they can be found.

However, this kind of imperial edict from the Western Han Dynasty has not been preserved at all!
In Haihunhou's tomb, there is actually an imperial edict from the emperor? !
It was just astounding.

Hearing the sound, Chen Han looked at it, hurriedly took three steps at a time, ran to the researcher who made the sound, grabbed his shoulder and asked eagerly, "Where is the imperial edict? Can you show me?"

The researcher smiled subtly, nodded, and greeted a few well-known Qin and Han archaeologists, and walked into the inner room with three or five people including Chen Han.

Only a dozen other archaeologists looked enviously in their eyes.

After entering the inner room, the researcher pointed to the wooden tablets that had just been sorted out and covered with glass pieces on the experimental table, and said with a smile, "These are the edicts to exterminate the country."

"The content is written in official script, which is fairly easy to recognize."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Han and the others rushed forward, each of them picked up a piece, and looked at it carefully.

The wooden tablets of this imperial edict are in the shape of a Han chi, roughly equivalent to 23 centimeters today.

The writing format is two vertical lines, and the written characters are official script.

According to the "Han System" record: "The Sangong also gave policies for forgiveness of crimes, but he used official script and used a ruler with two lines of wood." Compared with wooden slips, it can be proved to be true.

This should be a standard "exoneration" edict!
The wooden tablets are all written on one side, with neat characters, written in official script in ink, and written in two lines, which should be written by professional knife and pen officials.

The serial numbers on the back of the wooden tablets are "two", "three", "six", "seven", "nine", "eleven", "twelve", "nineteen", "twenty-four" and "Houjia".

Based on this, it can be seen that there should be no less than 25 editions.

According to what the researcher said just now, the lacquer box contains 10 wooden tablets, which are relatively well preserved, and there are 16 incomplete tablets with remaining characters.

The sum of these numbers is indeed 26 editions.

Everything can be right on the number!
This is the first physical object of the Western Han Dynasty's extermination edict unearthed so far!

Chen Han couldn't wait to look at the content on the wooden tablet.

Generally speaking, such edicts handled by the emperor and ministers will go through a series of processes of "proposed by local officials → meeting of central officials → the emperor agrees to become the highest will → conveyed to the local level by level" before they will finally take shape.

This kind of imperial edict has a clear writing process and exact forwarding records, and basically builds a relatively complete writing process and transmission system for high-level documents in the Han Dynasty.

After Chen Han and several other archaeologists exchanged and read the edict, they probably knew it in their hearts.

Because 16 pieces of this edict are incomplete, it is not complete as a whole.

However, there are still four parts left.

Including the titles of officials who participated in the memorial, the memorial of Liao, the prefect of Yuzhang, the text of the imperial edict, and the memorials of officials such as the prime minister.

The Imperial Edict provides the historical facts of Liu He and his family, the basic situation of Changyi Kingdom and Haihunhou Kingdom.

The important information includes Liu He's "September Yisi died", Changyi Kingdom's "combined six counties as a country", Haihunhou Kingdom's "numerous floods and droughts, many disasters", etc., all of which are unrecorded in history!
It can make up for the lack of records in "Hanshu"!

According to the determination that Liu He died in "September Yisi", it can be inferred that the exact date of Liu He's death is the eighth day of September in 59 BC!

The calendar used at that time should be the "Taichu Calendar" newly created by Emperor Wu Dynasty!
The imperial edict also clearly stated that after Liu He's death, Liao Weihai, the prefect of Yuzhang, wrote a letter to the Marquis of Haihun, "Dahonglu's first son took charge of the country and died of illness, and when he returned to his son to serve his relatives, it is impossible for heaven to die again."

"Shang" refers to Haihunhou, which is a kind of honorific title.

The prefect Liao Wei's letter roughly means that after Liu He died, Liu He's son Liu Chongguo also died of illness, and then Liu He's second son Liu Fengqin succeeded to the throne, but Liu Fengqin died of illness again. Hunhou Kingdom must sacrifice!

The content of this official document can be corroborated with the content of "Han Shu Biography of the Five Sons of Wu"!
This once again proves that the history recorded in the "Hanshu" about the history of Haihunhou after his death is accurate!

Combined with the time when the "National Edict" was issued to Yuzhang County "October Jiashen ([-]th)", it can also be calculated that the death of Liu He and his two sons Liu Chongguo and Liu Fengqin, and the removal of the country from Haihunhou less than forty days before and after the time interval.

That is to say, from Liu He's death, to the death of his two sons, and then to the Central Committee of the Western Han Dynasty hearing the news and deciding to get rid of the Marquis of Haihun, it took less than forty days!
In the era of the Western Han Dynasty before BC, from Nanchang to Xi'an, the two places were so far away, but all this could be completed quickly within forty days.

Well, should we praise Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty for his fast administrative speed, or is it a dark guess that there is a pusher behind all this?

This idea only flashed in Chen Han's mind for a moment, and then he suppressed it.

Continue to read this edict to expel the country.

Through the content of the imperial edict, it can be found.

The text on one of the wooden slips reads, "May the doctor of Gongqing discuss the system, and the doctor of the prime minister will have two thousand stones, Chen Ji, Chen Wangzhi, Chen Changchen...".

The "Zhi" here represents the emperor, and "Zhi said a certain official" is a procedure of the emperor's instructions.

The general meaning of the wooden tablet is: Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to the prime minister and doctors and other high-ranking officials with two thousand stones and two thousand stones, requesting a meeting of ministers to discuss the removal of the Haihunhou state.

Among them, "Ji" and "Wangzhi" are estimated to be the prime minister Bingji and the Yushi doctor Xiao Wangzhi among the "Eleven Heroes of Qilin Pavilion" during the Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.

They are all famous virtuous ministers in history.

Witnessing a wooden tablet that recorded these virtuous ministers and Emperor Xuandi's specific governance strategies, Chen Han suddenly had a feeling that he had traveled through time and space to see these virtuous ministers and Mingjun.

This feeling is so strange that one can't help but tremble all over!

Text, the information carrier spanning 2000 years, can make people feel what the ancients thought 2000 years ago.

This feels amazing!
The prefectures and states in the Han Dynasty were parallel, and there were many vassal states, many of which were expelled for various reasons.

"Hanshu·Wudi Ji" once recorded that "the princes sitting and offering gold alcohol to sacrifice to the ancestral temple were not as good as the law to win the title of one hundred and six people."

In September of the fifth year of Yuanding, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to expel more than a hundred princes directly from the country, without the need for a memorial.

However, the elimination of Haihunhou Kingdom is obviously very different.

Not only has it been discussed by the ministers, but it has also been approved by all officials!

This shows that the content of the edict not only involved most of the high-ranking officials of the imperial court at that time, but also implied the political tactics of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, which was a real manifestation of the political ecology of Emperor Xuan of the Dynasty.

It can be seen from the imperial edict that compared with his grandfather, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty was less powerful and less exclusive in terms of governance.

Most of the time, he discusses matters with the ministers instead of directly making decisions by himself.

This is consistent with the behavior of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty recorded in the "Book of Han", and his rejuvenation through benevolent rule, and even brought the Western Han Dynasty to its peak!

Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty was indeed a wise monarch!

(End of this chapter)