Why are the peasant uprisings that were praised in textbooks now criticized in all the articles?

Originally, in the handouts, the Nongming Uprising was rewarded and positively evaluated. However, after they emerged from society, they found that most people were criticizing, blaming, and saying that it was harmful to the people and the country. The harm caused; the great heroes and figures in your eyes, such as Zhang Jiao, Huang Chao, and Hong Xiuquan, suddenly became scourges in the eyes of historians. Why is this? Moreover, there were thousands of peasant uprisings in the feudal era, some even hundreds in one dynasty, from the establishment of the dynasty to its demise (Zhao Guangyi in the early Song Dynasty, Sai'er in the early Ming Dynasty), but they succeeded in the end. There are only one or two people who sit on the legitimate throne of the Chinese Dynasty. Why is this? So today we will not talk about anything else. The editor has read the materials from the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising in the late Qin Dynasty to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising in the late Qing Dynasty to see why there were hundreds of peasant uprisings in the feudal era and finally succeeded in taking the legitimate throne of the Chinese Dynasty. But there are only one or two people.

As the name implies, the peasant uprising is an uprising initiated by the peasant class. There are many more. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang are out-and-out peasants. They worked as police officers, then joined the army and were later expelled. Zhang Xianzhong is also a farmer, but for example, Huang Chao, Fang La, Wang Xiaobo, Wang Xianzhi, Hong Xiuquan, etc. we are talking about are either merchants from well-off families or scholars with civilization and common sense. Although they are not true farmers, most of the rebel troops The personnel were all peasants joining the army, so it could be considered a peasant uprising.

Although the peasant uprising can be said to have run through the feudal history of our country, only Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang were the only two people who truly succeeded in conquering China, and the former was not a peasant in the true sense, at least he was at the bottom. civil servant. Let’s look at the rest. The leaders of the three kingdoms at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty were all descendants of nobles and royal families. The Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, and Qing Dynasties were all high officials, nobles, and tribal leaders. Even small countries such as the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms were separated. During this period, those who eventually ascended to the throne of God were all descendants of wealthy nobles, and some were replaced by simple powerful ministers.

In other words, from ancient times to the present, classes have been solidified, and only one or two people can cross them. Moreover, the reason why Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang were able to cross this class was because they had many more unique conditions than other leaders of the peasant uprising, and they had stepped on many corpses of intrigues. Reached the position of finally becoming the emperor of China. For example, Liu Bang had a good fate because his boss Xiang Yu said, "The first to enter Xianyang will be the king." After all, although Liu Bang was a peasant uprising, strictly speaking, he was still a nobleman following Xiang Yu, the young master of the powerful Xiang clan in Jiangdong. uprising. As a result, shit luck took the name of "king", and finally defeated Xiang Yu many times to save himself from danger, and finally ascended to the throne.

What about Zhu Yuanzhang? Zhu Yuanzhang followed his father-in-law Guo Zixing, who was a subordinate of the leader of the Red Scarf Army. The bosses of the Red Scarf Army, Han Shantong and Du Zundao, one was the leader of the White Lotus Sect, and the other was a privy official in the former Yuan Dynasty. They were not out-and-out farmers. People are born. As for the troops who conquered the world for Zhu Yuanzhang, before Zhu Yuanzhang killed Guo Zixing's son and Han Shantong's son, Xiao Ming Wang Han Lin'er, and took the position of the leader of the Red Scarf Army, they all came to join him in the name of the Red Scarf Army, not Zhu Yuanzhang. Three words. If you calculate it this way, there is actually no real successful case of the "founder or co-founder" of the peasant uprising in feudal history. The only two, Xiang Yu and Han Shantong, were replaced by later department managers.

So why is this happening?

Because the original intention of most peasant uprising leaders was not to change the status quo of feudal society, but to satisfy their own desires. For example, the real peasant uprisings in history, such as the most typical Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, the reason for their uprising was because if they did not uprising, they would be beheaded. But as we said above, although there are countless peasant uprisings, there are very few real peasant uprisings. The vast majority are still uprisings by private tea and salt traders and the rich second generation.

In other words, these people actually had a pretty good life before the uprising. They did not have to choose between "uprising" and "survive" like real farmers, but between "living more comfortably" and "living better". Choosing between "living a better life", at least for them, even if they don't rebel, they will never say that life has really reached a point where they can't live without rebellion.

Of course, some people may have raised objections at this time, saying that the peasant uprising was of course due to the corruption of the court, rampant corrupt officials, and the devastation of the people. Moreover, the slogan they shouted during the uprising was also "equal wealth." ” is what the public thinks. But in the face of facts, this theory does not seem to be very tenable. When we look at all previous peasant uprisings, we can see that there are only three situations after launching uprisings. One is being ordered to peace by the court, such as the Liangshanbo Uprising and the Yellow Turban Army Uprising; the other is directly proclaiming the king and emperor before completely conquering the country. power was seized; thirdly, the founder was killed and department managers were promoted, but there were only two people, Zhu and Liu.

So if we want to see whether the first two failed uprisings were really uprisings for the masses, we have to look at the second article, whether they have achieved "equal wealth" after becoming king and emperor. " slogan. But it is very regrettable that few peasant uprising leaders will fulfill their promises after becoming emperor in the control area after becoming powerful. They all enjoy the treatment of "emperor" again, and then the internal kings fight, for example Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was even more arrogant, extravagant and lewd than the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it was even more oppressive for the people below. And Zhang Xianzhong slaughtered Shu and brought many concubines with the army for fun, which fully demonstrated his humanity. However, there are not without exceptions. For example, Dou Jiande, the leader of the peasant uprising in the late Sui Dynasty, who was called the "King of Xia", even after the founding of the country and the title of king, he remained simple and frugal, sharing the benefits of both the army and the people. Unfortunately, this is just one example.

So we can see that so few peasant uprisings succeeded after all, the overwhelming factor is still due to the "class" issue. This "class" is not the limitation of the peasant uprisings that we often talk about, for example Civilization is one level lower. But if you are a peasant, you are a peasant. It is almost impossible to cross the class, because no one will convince the peasants to ascend to the throne of emperor, except for two people who are unprecedented in both fate and strategy. other than people. And when we criticize the peasant uprising, you say that after becoming an emperor, he only cares about his own enjoyment. Is his original intention to revolt for the sake of the public?