Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 232 One Era, One Reign: Zhenguan?

After establishing the rules for the abdication ceremony and other rituals, the final issue came down to the reign title!
The first reign title in history was "Jianyuan", which was invented at the beginning of Emperor Xiaowu's reign. Before him, the reign titles were all written as "Emperor X, Year X".

After Emperor Xiaowu, the establishment of reign titles became a system. When major national events such as auspicious omens or national disasters occurred, emperors would choose to change the reign title.

For example, Emperor Xiaowu claimed that he had hunted a white unicorn with one horn and five toes during a hunting trip, which he considered an auspicious omen bestowed upon the Han Dynasty by Heaven, so he changed the era name to "Yuanshou".

A certain incompetent emperor also had three reign titles: Jianning, Xiping, and Guanghe. In later generations, there were even bizarre couples who used fourteen reign titles during their thirty-four-year reigns and fourteen reign titles during their fifteen-year reigns, completely ruining the use of reign titles.

The reign title was supposed to be a way to express the new dynasty and its new policies, to convey the court's wishes to the people, and to show the emperor's determination to the world. Although it was not a matter of national importance, it should not be taken lightly.

"Regarding the reign title, you gentlemen need not rush to offer suggestions. I do have a question I would like to ask you."

Seeing that Zheng Xuan, Lu Zhi, and others were eager to propose their own reign titles, Liu Bian gestured for them not to rush and slowly asked, "How do you usually record the years?"

Fu Qian knew that the Crown Prince wouldn't ask such a simple question, but he didn't mind playing the straight man for the Crown Prince to avoid him throwing a tantrum and wanting to quit. So he said, "Your Highness, taking this year as an example, it is naturally the seventh year of Guanghe."

Liu Bian nodded slightly and continued to ask, "Then what about six years ago? Which year was that?"

Without hesitation, Fu Qian replied, "The first year of Guanghe!"

No sooner had Fu Qian finished speaking than Lu Zhi immediately rejected Fu Qian's answer, or perhaps he believed that Fu Qian's answer was not accurate enough.

"Six years ago was also the seventh year of the Xiping era!"

In the third month of the seventh year of the Xiping era, the emperor changed the era name to the first year of the Guanghe era.

So six years ago was not only the first year of Guanghe, but also the seventh year of Xiping. But even these officials in the court could not remember, so what about the common people?
“Master Lu understands what I mean.”

Liu Bian clapped his hands and smiled at Lu Zhi; the tacit understanding between the teacher and student was unspoken.

"The reign titles are changed frequently. Every few years it becomes a new reign title. Yesterday it was the seventh year of Jiaping, and in the blink of an eye it has become the first year of Guanghe. If the common people didn't know, they would think that the emperor changes so frequently."

“I remember that at the end of June, Guo Tu, the chief judge of the Court of Justice, reported to me that among the cases handled in the summer, there were some special cases from local prefectures and counties. These cases involved people confusing the laws of the Jianning and Xiping eras, which led to them breaking the law.”

Liu Bian waved his hand, and Gao Wang took a stack of bamboo slips from a young eunuch. These were copies of the case files mentioned by the Crown Prince.

One of the most serious consequences concerns the issue of civil associations.

Although the Han Dynasty continued Emperor Huan's policy of cracking down on "factions" during the Jianning era, it allowed ordinary people to establish folk organizations for the purpose of sacrifice or mutual assistance, as long as they reported to the government.

However, in the sixth year of the Xiping era, Zhang Jiao's Fushui illness attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, which aroused the court's suspicion. Therefore, the court issued the "Order to Prohibit Gatherings," which restricted people from gathering without cause. Those who did not do so were punished with hard labor, while those who did not were executed.

The "ban on gatherings" in the sixth year of the Xiping era was not yet in effect because the Yellow Turban Rebellion had just been quelled and remnants of the Yellow Turbans still existed in some areas.

However, many people mistakenly took "Xiping" as Liu Hong's first reign title and "Jianning" as his second reign title. As a result, in some areas, due to the failure of officials or elders in office to properly disseminate the new laws in the sixth year of Xiping, people actually believed that the court had already lifted the "ban on gatherings" and many people were punished with hard labor.

Many people even gathered to worship the two officially recognized gods of "Sheji" after the summer harvest, praying for a bountiful harvest in the coming year. This was considered a violation of the prohibition, and the ringleaders of the worship were sentenced to beheading and awaiting execution in the autumn.

Liu Bian personally intervened in the matter, ordering the officials of all prefectures and counties to thoroughly investigate similar incidents. He even dispatched Fa Yan, the Left Supervisor of the Court of Justice, to inspect various prefectures and pardoned those who had been punished with hard labor or sentenced to death.

However, this matter did not attract the attention of court officials. The attention these events received at the time seemed to be only because His Highness the Crown Prince had taken notice of it, as similar situations occurred frequently and in many different forms.

Another thing that impressed Liu Bian was the interest rate on loans from powerful families to ordinary people. During the Jianning era, the "Loan Edict" from the reign of Emperor Xiaohuan was continued, prohibiting powerful families from lending money at rates exceeding the legal rate of 20% per annum. Although enforcement was lax, leading to "powerful families encroaching on and seizing land and property," at least when local officials were willing to protect the people, there was a law to follow.

However, a certain incompetent ruler abolished this law during the Xiping era, allowing powerful families to lend money to the people at the highest "double interest," which is 100% annual interest. Ultimately, through exorbitant interest rates, he plundered the people's land during natural disasters in the Xiping and Guanghe eras, turning landless people into slaves and making them unregistered residents in the local household register.

However, many ordinary people were unaware that when the powerful families presented the laws of the imperial court and stated in the contracts that the interest rate would be the highest allowed by the court, without specifying the exact annual interest rate, the people believed they were protected by law and were ultimately deceived by the powerful families.

"A new dynasty should have a new look; such things must never happen again under the rule of the Han Dynasty."

Liu Bian clenched his fist slightly. This was the first thing he would do in the next ten years. He said in a deep voice, "First, starting with me, the emperor of the Han Dynasty will have one reign title per generation. Once the reign title is set, it cannot be changed."

"Secondly, apart from the reign title calendar, the year when Emperor Gaozu ascended the throne on the south bank of the Fan River will be the first year of the Great Han Dynasty. This year is the 386th year of the Great Han Dynasty. From this day forward, all documents will be dated according to the Han calendar. Taking this year as an example, the document will be dated in the form of '386th year of the Great Han Dynasty, the seventh year of Guanghe'."

"Thirdly, the Han Dynasty will no longer accept auspicious omens. Anyone who dares to report auspicious omens will be dismissed from office and their entire family will be exiled to Jiaozhou!"

Without these so-called auspicious omens, later emperors would have lost most of their motivation to change reign titles. Furthermore, given his precedent, it would have been very difficult for the Han Dynasty to have an emperor with multiple reign titles.

Even if some unworthy descendant breaks the rules, at least the era name "a certain year of the Han Dynasty" can be passed down, and perhaps the next emperor will also continue this era name.

The crown prince's voice was not loud, but it resonated powerfully in the ears of the crowd.

The group exchanged glances and almost instantly reached a consensus, collectively agreeing with and praising the Crown Prince's viewpoint.

The drawbacks of using reign titles are not obvious, or rather, even officials with experience in being sent to other posts would mostly not realize this problem.

Of course, it's not that no one noticed this problem.

In the nearly two thousand years since Emperor Xiaowu, how many extraordinary talents have there been? Is it really only that commoner emperor who came from a beggar background who understood the benefits of a single era because of his early experiences?

These talented individuals were certainly aware of the drawbacks of frequent reign title changes, but the political significance behind such changes was too complex for ministers to propose and implement.

Regardless of changing the era name in the face of natural disasters or man-made calamities, the mere fact that local prefectures and counties report auspicious omens is enough to make the emperor change the era name because of the political significance behind the auspicious omens.

Must a subject tell the emperor that he is not the Son of Heaven at all, that he cannot communicate with the North Star (Purple Star) in the constellation Ursa Minor, which is 110 light-years away, and that all these auspicious omens are fake, so changing the era name is just self-deception?
Then that emperor will probably have to do a proper count of the number of his subjects' nine generations of relatives.

The concept of the interaction between Heaven and humanity may have become a means for later emperors to control the country, or it may have been so deeply ingrained that it was difficult to resist. Even if they knew the benefits of a single auspicious omen for one generation, they ultimately had to compromise or were unwilling to give up the political benefits brought by auspicious omens.

However, Liu Bian had already abolished the theory of the interaction between Heaven and Man with the help of both the Old Text and New Text schools of thought before it was deeply rooted, and he did not need the political benefits brought about by the theory of the interaction between Heaven and Man.

Ha, a dynasty that is going through a Little Ice Age, if it relied on the theory of the interaction between heaven and man, even if the Yellow Emperor came, he would probably be slapped twice and cursed as a tyrannical ruler like Jie and Zhou.

As for the reign title, one that Liu Bian never expected was proposed by Lu Zhi.

Lu Zhi suddenly straightened his clothes and said, "Your Majesty, I request that 'Zhenguan' be chosen as the reign title!"

(2636 words)
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PS: The above information regarding the promulgation of the "ban on gathering crowds" and the changes in the statutory maximum annual lending interest rate during the Jianning and Xiping reigns of Emperor Ling of Han is based on the "Book of the Later Han", "Dongguan Hanji", and the "Nine Chapters of Law - Household Law" from the Eastern Han Dynasty, and is not fictional.

(End of this chapter)