Stories of historical celebrities——Sima Zhong

Sima Zhong (259-307), Emperor Hui of Jin Dynasty, had the courtesy name Zhengdu.

Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, probably knew that his son had some "problems". It is said that once, in order to test Sima Zhong's thinking ability, Sima Yan specially asked him to submit several questions within three days. After Sima Zhong got the question, his eyesight went dark, he couldn't write a word, and he didn't know how to answer.

Although he is stupid and idiotic, there is one person who is not stupid. Not only is this person not stupid, but he is also very smart. He is simply too smart, and even insidious and sinister. This person is his wife. In history, The famous poison queen Jia Nanfeng.

After Jia Nanfeng heard about it, he immediately asked the "gunman" to answer the question. After answering it, Sima Zhong was asked to copy it and then sent it to Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty. Sima Yan saw that it was okay and felt that his son's thinking was still very clear, so he felt relieved.

Two of his jokes are household names.

One story is: Once, Sima Zhong took a group of eunuchs to play in the imperial garden. Suddenly, there was a cry of toads in the grass beside the pond in the garden. Sima Zhong looked around and asked: "Are these little things singing for the official family or private individuals?"

The eunuchs looked at each other, not knowing what they meant. One of the eunuchs was still smart and responded accordingly: "In official land, people are called official, and in private land, they are called private."

Sima Zhong felt that this eunuch's answer was very accurate and very good. dialectics. Therefore, I nodded my head in understanding and approved.

Another story is: One year, God did not bless Jin, and famine broke out in various places. Local officials reported the disaster to the court, saying that many people in the disaster area had starved to death.

Sima Zhong asked the minister: "How can a good person starve to death?"

The minister replied: "There is a famine in the world, and the people can't even eat chaff, so of course they will starve to death." "

Sima Zhong still didn't understand, and asked stupidly: "Since there is no bran to eat, why not eat minced meat (minced meat)?"

Yes! There is no bran. Eat, there is no bark to eat, no grass roots to eat, you can eat meat, you can eat fish, you can eat bear paws!

In 290 AD, Sima Zhong succeeded to the throne at the age of 31. By 307 AD, Sima Zhong passed away. During the more than ten years that Sima Zhong was in power, he was completely a puppet.

First, his wife Jian Nanfeng disrupted the government. Later, she was deposed by King Sima Lun of Zhao and imprisoned in Jinyong City. Later, she was reset. After the reset, she had no power. She was still a puppet. Those who were really in power were those chaotic people. The "Eight Kings" of politics, the "Eight Kings" are "you sing, and we will appear on the stage."

In fact, from the perspective of modern medicine, some modern scholars believe that Sima Zhong is not completely an idiot, but at best has a low IQ.

From this point of view, he is quite sad. He was played with and played with, and finally the cause of death became a mystery.

It was precisely because of his idiocy and inability to control the political situation that the Western Jin Dynasty's political situation was chaotic, the government's agenda was disordered, internal and external troubles, and the people's livelihood was in dire straits. So, he does have some responsibility.

I am afraid that the reason for Sima Zhong's brain retardation is only the superficial reason. The deeper reason is the feudal system (enfeoffment system), which is Sima Yan's mistake.

Because he went against the trend of history and enfeoffed people from the Sima family as kings.

These kings of Sima are real and famous, integrating military and political power. This is simply a separatist regime, just like the feudalism of the Western Zhou Dynasty back then.

The result of the feudal system of the Western Zhou Dynasty was that in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, etiquette was broken and music collapsed, and the princes fought for hegemony and killed each other. After His Majesty the First Emperor annexed the world, feudalism was no longer in line. Feudalism no longer conformed to the historical trend. A unified unified empire with centralized power was the general trend of the world.

Sima Yan thought that if he enfeoffed the people of his Sima family, there would be no problems, but he did not expect that the problems would be his own family members. The reason why the Eight Kings dared to rebel was because they had the right to have soldiers and horses.

Unification is the general trend of the world. There is only one emperor, and everyone wants to be the emperor, even if his own people kill their own people. How can this not be chaotic?

Therefore, the real cause of the chaos in the Western Jin Dynasty lies in the feudal system, Sima Yan, and retrograde policies.