Diqin Designer

Chapter 57 How to appoint a crown prince?

"But if you divide the fiefdoms according to your idea, what will happen if the fiefdoms abroad want to harm Kyushu in a few years?"

Qin Shi Huang and Li Si hated feudal system, not only because it was not conducive to centralization, but also because of the lessons learned from the Zhou Dynasty, which had caused hundreds of years of chaos in the world.

Having experienced this turbulent period, Qin Shihuang and Li Si naturally did not want to restore the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty and let the world return to that era of great division.

The Records of the Grand Historian records: "The Minister of Justice Li Si said: 'Many of the sons and nephews of Zhou Wen and Wu have the same surname, and they are distant from each other and attack each other like enemies. The princes also kill each other, and the Zhou emperor cannot stop it.'"

In the vast land of Kyushu, if a family is separated for too long, their relationship will become distant and they will attack each other like enemies. What’s more, if they are divided outside Kyushu, the sky will be higher and the emperor will be farther away. How can those princes who are divided overseas not become disloyal?

Based on Ying Zheng's understanding of human nature, it is not just a possibility, but a certainty.

The princes who were granted fiefdoms overseas would definitely covet the Nine Provinces, and the attacks and killings between them would be even more brutal.

Li Nian said simply: "I can't solve it either!"

The First Emperor glared at him and said, "If you can't solve it, then why did you come up with this solution?"
"With the current strength of the Great Qin, it is indeed impossible to solve the problem. However, I think that instead of waiting for the foreigners in these places to attack China, it is better to seize these places first and turn them into the territory of the Great Qin. Even if the overseas kings have different intentions in the future, they will fight against each other and the flesh will be rotten in the cauldron."

Li Nian's meaning was very clear. The king wanted to completely rule the entire world, but it was impossible to do so now. However, if we did not occupy these overseas territories now, they would be occupied by barbarians.

These barbarians may also attack China in the future, so it is better to find a way to occupy and enfeoff the kings first. Even if the kings rebel and attack each other in the future, it will be a fight between brothers, not an invasion by outsiders.

It is better for the meat to rot in the Chinese pot than to be snatched away and eaten by foreigners!

Ying Zheng thought about it and realized that enfeoffment was the only way for him to control so much land, unless he turned a blind eye to these lands outside the Qin Dynasty, closed the country to the outside world, and only focused on the Qin Dynasty.

But as a king with an extremely strong desire for power and conquest, how could he allow such a large piece of land to be right under his nose and not occupy it?
It is true that historical records show that Qin Shi Huang was greedy. Almost all kings are greedy. But who is not greedy?
What's more, these lands were not the barren lands as originally thought. Some of the lands were even more fertile than the Nine Provinces. Moreover, he also wanted to make Daqin the first empire on which the sun never sets in Chinese history.

This was a multiple-choice question for the First Emperor: If you don't want to grant fiefdoms overseas, then give up the overseas lands; if you don't want to give up the overseas lands, then you have no choice but to implement overseas fiefdoms.

The First Emperor reacted at this time. This kid answered for a long time, but it seemed that he did not give a serious answer on how to solve the problem of the crown prince. That is, after his sudden death, how to ensure that the crown prince who succeeded to the throne was the one he wanted, and would not be tampered with by other people's conspiracy, so that the same thing as Li Nian said in history would not happen again?
The First Emperor immediately said, "I understand what you said, but I want to know how to avoid the incidents of Zhao Gao, Hu Hai, and Li Si?"

The best solution to this problem is naturally to appoint a crown prince early, or to establish a succession system that everyone recognizes and must abide by.

Why was primogeniture so popular in ancient times?
Were the ancients stupid? They couldn't see the downside of this system. They didn't know that the eldest son was not necessarily the best son?
The ancients could certainly see this, but compared to its disadvantages, the advantages of the eldest son inheritance system outweighed the disadvantages, so it was naturally chosen.

Do we have to adopt the secret succession system of the Qing Dynasty? That thing seems to be easy to use, but after studying it, we will find that there are also many problems. For example, if we don’t know who will ascend the throne, then we might as well not have anyone ascend the throne or reduce the number of competitors. Therefore, the Qing emperors after Daoguang did not have many descendants.

The entire Qing imperial harem became a dark forest. Anyone who got pregnant would be shot: What, she's pregnant, maybe it's a son? I don't have a good relationship with her, if she gives birth to a son, will I still be okay? I have to find a way to get rid of it quickly.

Li Nian couldn't think of a perfect solution either. He said, "In order to prevent Prince Hu Hai, Zhao Gao, and Li Si from forging the will and plotting to change the crown prince, I think we need to establish a succession system that everyone must abide by. However, no system can be perfect and each has its flaws. I have limited wisdom, so I'll leave it to the king to decide!"

"The succession system of later dynasties can be roughly divided into: appointing the most virtuous, appointing the eldest son, appointing the crown prince secretly, and appointing the one the king loves. Appointing the most virtuous is to choose the most virtuous one among all the princes. The advantage of this method is that the crown prince chosen is virtuous and will generally not lead the dynasty to destruction after inheriting the throne."

The reason why he said "average" was that Li Nian thought of Guangshen. He thought about how wise Guangshen behaved when Yang Yong was still the prince, but how unrestrained he was after he became emperor.

The whole person seemed to have released his primitive nature. If his mother Dugu Jialuo saw Guangshen's later performance, she would be shocked: Is this my wise second son?
"But the downside of this method is that it can easily cause conflicts among the princes, leading to fighting and hatred among the royal children. The prince who ascends the throne often needs to kill his brothers and sisters, and ascending the throne in a bloody way is not conducive to the stability of the country."

Erfeng didn't take good care of himself back then, which resulted in the throne of the Tang Dynasty being filled with blood and gore, and "kind father and filial son" most of the time. Haven't you seen the Xuanwu Gate Law of Succession?
Of course, Erfeng had no choice. If he didn't kill his brothers, his brothers would kill him, especially Li Yuanji, who was eager to kill Erfeng.

"The succession system of the eldest son is the most commonly used system of succession in later dynasties. Its advantage is that it is stable and it is not easy to have people like Hu Hai, Zhao Gao, and Li Si, because everyone knows who will ascend the throne according to this system."

"However, the disadvantage of this system is that the eldest son may not be excellent and may not be loved by the king. If the eldest son is incompetent and tyrannical, and inherits the throne according to this system, it may lead to the end of the dynasty."

"The other is the secret succession system. This was established by the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty in China. The benefit is that it reduces the fighting among the princes, so that the succession to the throne will not become bloody in public, and better ensures the safety of the successor prince."

"But if the crown prince is appointed in secret, we won't know who will be the next emperor until the secret decree is revealed. How can we train a team for the crown prince and hone his abilities?"

"The secret decree is only taken out and read out after the previous emperor passes away. No one knows who will be the emperor in the secret decree beforehand. If the new emperor suddenly ascends the throne without any preparation, he may not be familiar with the ministers. How can he really rule a dynasty?"

"Moreover, after the implementation of the secret succession system, the number of Qing emperors' offspring decreased rapidly, and later on, they even had no children and had to adopt someone else. This was also a reason."

It is said that the secret system of appointing the crown prince was only used three times in the Qing Dynasty: Yongzheng appointed Qianlong, Qianlong appointed Jiaqing, and Daoguang appointed Xianfeng.

But the actual situation was that Xianfeng had only one son (Tongzhi), so there was no need to secretly appoint a crown prince. Tongzhi had no son either, so his cousin Zai Tian (Guangxu) succeeded him. Guangxu also had no sons, so Puyi, who succeeded him, was his nephew.

Is it still necessary to secretly appoint a crown prince?

　感谢“因为墨白”大大1张月票、感谢“何炎HE”大大一张月票、感谢“书友160415124748089”大大1张月票、感谢“五星战世”大大1张月票、感谢“书友150309032735457”大大1张月票、感谢“jw维”大大1张月票。

　　
　
(End of this chapter)