Shuhan

After Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng left, Liu Chan began to think about how to deal with the aristocratic families.

To completely resolve the problem of the aristocratic families is naturally not an easy task, at least it cannot be accomplished in his hands when the world is not yet unified.

Since it cannot be solved completely, we can only settle for the next best thing.

To win over and to suppress.

Or
Eliminate the disobedient aristocratic families and support a group of new interest groups to replace the original aristocratic families.

Naturally, the interest groups he supported would listen to him more than the original aristocratic families.

As for what happens in the future, we’ll talk about it later.

At this time, Liu Chan remembered the "Clan Records" by Li Shimin of later generations.

"Clan Records" was not something that Li Shimin created alone. In fact, since the formation of the aristocratic political system in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, similar things have emerged one after another.

Due to the formation of the aristocratic political system during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, each aristocratic family had its rank determined under the guidance of the Nine-Rank System and had political privileges corresponding to its rank, so the aristocratic families became the privileged class during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

As a result, they became the backbone of the country and the court, controlling various resources such as the country's politics, military, economy, land and education, and became the root cause of the country's rise and fall.

Things like "Clan Records" are the standards for determining the power and status of the aristocratic families, and are also the basis for them to divide up national resources and form a ruling group.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the power of the aristocratic families was unprecedentedly strong, forming an aristocratic group headed by the five surnames and seven clans, namely Cui, Lu, Zheng, Li, and Wang.

These aristocratic groups all originated from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. After hundreds of years of development, they have become deeply rooted in the local area.

These aristocratic families formed a common chain of interests through intermarriage and other means, supported each other in court politics, and became an important political force in dominating the country's government.

Their monopoly on national resources not only makes family interests grow larger and larger, but also becomes a cancer of society, hindering the development of the country.

In fact, the historical cycle of frequent short-lived dynasties since the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was the result of the inherent crisis caused by the rule of the country by the aristocratic families.

After Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, ascended the throne, he was determined to solve this problem and came up with various solutions, one of which was to re-survey the "Clan Records".

Li Shimin wanted to break the historical cycle of aristocratic politics, which many emperors before him had tried, the most famous of whom was Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty.

But Yang Guang ended in failure, and even the country collapsed.

Li Shimin did not want to follow Yang Guang's footsteps, so he chose to start with the survey of the "Clan Records". This method was originally intended at the beginning of the establishment of the country, but Li Shimin ordered Gao Shilian to survey the "Clan Records" for his own reasons.

This idea had a significant impact on the future of Tang Dynasty politics and changed the course of history.

Judging from Li Shimin's request to revise the "Clan Records", it is obvious that there is a deeper political purpose.

At that time, the Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui Dynasty. Although it had gone through the baptism of the peasant war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the country's political structure did not change.

From the perspective of the political system, the Guanlong aristocratic families, the Shandong family clans, and the Jiangnan gentry group are still the three largest aristocratic groups.

They occupy an important position in the country's political system, control most of the country's resources, have complex relationships and interest chains, and implicitly manipulate the direction of national politics.

Although the Li Tang royal family was a royal family with a very respected status, in terms of the national resources they actually controlled, they were far inferior to these three major clan groups.

The five surnames and seven clans that lead these three major groups control countless national resources and are extremely powerful.

Once these forces become too powerful to be eliminated, they will inevitably endanger the country's rise and fall, so emperors of all dynasties have been concerned about these families.

Judging from the experience of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the emperors either won over the aristocratic families or weakened and disintegrated them.

Continuing to win over these aristocratic families is just a temporary solution, and there have been many examples of this during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

In order to win over the aristocratic families, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Tuoba Hong, designated "Fanyang Lu, Qinghe Cui, Xingyang Zheng, and Taiyuan Wang" as the four surnames of the royal family, but ultimately failed to prolong the Northern Wei Dynasty.

On the contrary, when the Northern Wei Dynasty encountered a crisis, these aristocratic families became the representatives who actively divided up the country's resources, accelerating the country's division and demise.

There were even more emperors who weakened and suppressed the aristocratic families, and the one closest to the Tang Dynasty was Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty.

Yang Guang organized the opening of the Grand Canal and launched three expeditions to Goguryeo, all of which involved large-scale mobilization of resources from Shandong clans and Guanlong nobles in the hope of weakening these clans.

This eventually led to the outbreak of the peasant war at the end of the Sui Dynasty. The major clan groups added fuel to the flames, and the Sui Dynasty perished in the civil war.

With Li Shimin's personality, it was impossible for him to win over the aristocratic groups. He knew that these aristocratic groups were untrustworthy, greedy and shameless, and it would not benefit the country no matter how much he tried to win them over.

Liu Chan naturally thought so too.

The so-called gentry are all parasites of the country. They have very little progressiveness and are basically negative.

During the Xuanwu Gate Incident, most of the powerful families stood on the side of Crown Prince Li Jiancheng, and only some small and medium-sized families supported Li Shimin.

Li Shimin would not force things like Yang Guang did. The lesson of the demise of the Sui Dynasty must be used as a warning.

One of the important measures taken by Li Shimin was to take the opportunity of surveying the "Clan Records" to adjust the status of the aristocratic families, weaken the power of these powerful families, disintegrate their political alliances, and reduce their influence on the country.

Li Shimin chose Gao Shilian after careful consideration. Gao Shilian was born in Bohai Gao family, one of the aristocratic families, but he also had a unique political status. He was a descendant of the Northern Qi royal family. His grandfather was Qinghe King Gao Yue, and his father was Taozhou Governor Gao Jie in the Sui Dynasty. This gave him a good relationship with the Shandong aristocratic group.

Although it is not one of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, the Bohai Gao family is also known as the Gao family of the world that originated from Bohai, so it has great appeal among the aristocratic groups.

Gao Shilian was also the uncle of Empress Changsun. He raised Zhangsun Wuji and Empress Changsun when they were in trouble, so he had a special political status in the royal family and Guanlong nobles.

Having Gao Shilian in charge of the compilation of the "Clan Records" could take into account the interpersonal relationships among the royal family, Guanlong nobles and Shandong gentry at the same time, and reduce the conflicts among them.

In addition to Gao Shilian, Imperial Censor Wei Ting, Secretary of the Central Secretariat Cen Wenben, and Minister of Rites Linghu Defeng also joined the ranks of surveying the "Clan Records".

Among them, Wei Ting was born in the Jingzhao Wei family and was a representative of the Guanlong nobles. Linghu Defeng was a Henei family for generations and was a noble relative among the Daibei gentry. Cen Wenben was a family of officials in the Southern Dynasties. He himself had served as the Secretary of the Central Secretariat of Xiao Xian and had a very good relationship with the Jiangnan gentry.

Li Shimin used such a lineup to survey the "Clan Records", which shows how much importance he attached to this work.

After the first survey, Li Shimin was very dissatisfied because Cui Mingan of the Boling Cui family was ranked first, and the Cui family became the number one family in the world.

The Cui family occupies two of the five surnames and seven clans. The Boling Cui family and the Qinghe Cui family often took turns to appear in the position of the first family during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

There is actually nothing wrong with the ranking of Gao Shilian and others, as it continues the tradition of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

But this was useless for Li Shimin, because his purpose was not to re-identify the ranks of these aristocratic families, but to change the political structure of the Tang court and break the aristocratic families' monopoly on court politics and national resources.

Cui Mingan was ranked first by Gao Shilian and others based on the traditions of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Cui Mingan was born into the Cui family of Boling and was a loyal minister of Li Yuan who supported him in becoming emperor. He was also supported by Shandong aristocratic families and Guanlong nobles.

He made outstanding achievements in governing Songzhou and Youzhou, and was conferred the title of Shangzhuguo and the founding duke of Boling County.

Given his personal achievements and political status, plus the status of the Cui family of Boling among the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, there is no problem in listing him as the first class.

But if this ranking is followed, the Tang Dynasty will continue the political structure of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the country's selection of officials and power distribution will continue to be controlled by the major aristocratic families.

In the long run, the Tang Dynasty would inevitably follow the path of the Sui Dynasty and gradually perish in the struggle for power among the aristocratic families.

Therefore, Li Shimin asked them to re-survey the "Clan Records" and stipulated that the royal family was first, relatives by marriage were second, and the aristocratic families were ranked third.

Li Shimin's revision of the "Clan Records" seemed to inherit the tradition of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, but in fact it broke the monopoly of the aristocratic families over the country.

According to the tradition of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the recognition of the rank of aristocratic families was related to the selection of officials and the distribution of power, and directly affected the allocation of national resources.

At that time, those who were listed as aristocratic families were all large families with many officials in the court, so there was a saying that "there are no commoners in the upper class, and no aristocratic families in the lower class."

Li Shimin elevated the royal family to the first class, not only to win face for the Li Tang royal family, but also to gain more national resources.

He placed his relatives by marriage in the second place with the aim of gaining allies for the Li Tang royal family.

The relationships between the aristocratic families were complicated, and after hundreds of years of intermarriage, they formed a community of interests.

The Li Tang royal family is just a branch of the Longxi Li family. If they want to suppress the major clans, they must have sufficient resources.

These resources were originally in the hands of the major families, and Li Shimin's attempt to win over allies was to strengthen the Li Tang royal family's control over the country.

In order to improve their own status, each family would actively approach the royal family, hoping to become a royal relative.

In this way, the control of the Li Tang royal family not only increased, but also weakened the ties between the aristocratic families.

In order to compete for the second-ranked position among the foreign relatives, there must have been some struggle within the clan group, which also achieved Li Shimin's goal of internal friction.

The most important thing is that Li Shimin promoted many commoner landlords and declining poor families into new aristocratic families, allowing them to compete with the old aristocratic families.

This broke the aristocratic system based on family inheritance, changed the principle of "valuing surnames" in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the standard of "valuing official positions" in the Tang Dynasty, and squeezed the political interests of the old aristocratic families.

By supporting new gentry, Li Shimin broke the monopoly of the old gentry over the aristocratic group, strengthened the imperial power, and consolidated his own rule.

Through this method, he created a large number of new aristocratic classes in the Tang Dynasty, who formed an opposing balance with the old aristocratic classes, laying the foundation for Li Zhi and Wu Zetian to completely break up the aristocratic groups.

Thirty years later, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian promulgated the "Surname Record", which marked the beginning of the demise of the aristocratic group.

The successful experience was right in front of him, and what Liu Chan needed to do was to make some modifications to Li Shimin's successful experience according to local conditions and then implement it.

Moreover, the aristocratic families of this era were just starting out and were far from being as powerful as they would be in later generations.

There is definitely resistance, but it is not so great that it is limitless.

However, he could not destroy the aristocratic families in a short period of time, but he could transform them into obedient ones.

With his skills, he can still do it.

Anyway
Everything is for the purpose of destroying Wei, everything is for the purpose of unifying the world! (End of this chapter)