Ying Zheng: My Great Qin fell in its second generation? Yang Jian: My Great Sui fell in its second generation too?
["Next came the Shang Dynasty. The Shang endured for an astonishing five hundred years and more, with glorious heights and dismal lows. Its glory came in Wu Ding's time, and its low point in King Zhou's. But if you said the fall of the Shang Dynasty was entirely King Zhou's fault, he certainly wouldn't stand for it."]
["In fact, there is a point in time when a dynasty's decline begins. Once you have reached unprecedented heights of glory, surpassing them afterward is extremely difficult."]
["From that point on, you have already begun to slip backward. Some rulers merely fan the flames further, hastening the dynasty's fall."]
["Di Xin is usually portrayed as a decadent, tyrannical ruler who craved pleasure. In fact, immense conflicts had already arisen within the Shang Dynasty at the time, and feudal lords on all sides were showing signs of turning against it. King Zhou could only keep going out on campaigns. Shang's power expanded outward, but it still could not escape its fate. When Shang was at its weakest, the Zhou people raised an army and destroyed the Shang Dynasty."]
In a late Qing plane.
"Wasn't Di Xin a decadent tyrant? Didn't he dote on Daji? He killed loyal officials and favored treacherous ones, provoking the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people. That's why the Zhou Dynasty replaced the Shang!"
"Have you read any books? Taking a myth for history—you'd make people laugh their teeth out."
["Since the Zhou people had launched this campaign, the other feudal lords knew what was good for them after Shang fell and loudly declared their submission."]
["Those who refused to submit were also dealt with by military campaigns. According to the records, ninety-nine states were conquered and 652 submitted. After Shang was destroyed, the Zhou Dynasty was established. The Zhou Royal Dynasty practiced a system of enfeoffment: once enfeoffed, you were the boss in your own territory, but overall you still acknowledged the Zhou Royal House as your superior—though, in fact, that was only in name."]
["If the Zhou Royal House itself was strong, the feudal lords below could only obediently do as they were told. But once the royal house's core power weakened, the Son of Heaven could only watch the faces of the lords below."]
["By the time King You of Zhou was killed, the Zhou Royal House's hold on power had already begun to waver. But without overwhelming strength, none of the feudal lords dared claim they could replace it."]
["Not until the late Warring States period did the Qin State grow powerful enough to deal Zhou a fatal blow. It then seized the momentum and wiped out the other feudal states in one sweep, giving rise to Great Qin at its height."]
["But before the Qin Dynasty unified the realm, it had been in chaos for hundreds of years, and everything was extremely unstable. At that point, the Qin Dynasty did not take effective measures to let the people rest and recover. Instead, it mobilized the populace on a massive scale and summoned them for corvée labor."]
["Things were all right while the First Emperor of Qin was there, but once he was gone, everything fell into complete chaos, and all the original arrangements were thrown into disarray."]
["Hu Hai did not realize that Great Qin was beset by dangers on all sides. He continued to drink and make merry all day, until things finally spun out of control. Great Qin fell, and the Han Dynasty inherited the mess."]
In the First Emperor of Qin's plane.
Ying Zheng's face darkened, and he said in a rage, "Hu Hai? Shouldn't it have been Fusu? How could my Great Qin fall in its second generation?! That unfilial son Hu Hai! Drinking and making merry, was he?!"
At that, Ying Zheng ground his teeth.
Great Qin's civil and military officials were stunned.
They had never imagined that Great Qin, which had swept away the Six States, would fall in its second generation, much less at Prince Hu Hai's hands.
Shouldn't Great Qin's next emperor have been Prince Fusu?
Cold sweat appeared on the face of Zhao Gao, Hu Hai's teacher.
With Great Qin falling at Hu Hai's hands, he could forget about ever becoming emperor.
Faced with the First Emperor's fury, Zhao Gao did not even dare plead for Hu Hai.
In Emperor Wen of Sui's plane.
Yang Jian smiled and said to the ministers around him, "When I founded Great Sui, I understood the importance of the people's support. Thus, I reduced corvée labor and taxes, encouraged farming and sericulture, and ushered in the Reign of Kaihuang. If the Qin Dynasty had cared for the people's livelihood as I did, how could it have fallen in its second generation?"
"Your Majesty is wise. The Emperor of Qin cannot compare!"
"Your Majesty excels in both civil and military affairs. The Emperor of Qin falls far short of you!"
The ministers all chimed in, praising Yang Jian's wisdom and martial prowess.
["At first, Liu Bang also wanted to solve some of the difficult problems, but found it simply could not be done. There were problems both at home and abroad: the meritorious officials were difficult to deal with, and the threat of the Xiongnu could not be resolved either. So he simply stopped meddling and began trying every means to restore the nation's strength and make the Han Dynasty powerful. Among his measures was the bachelor tax: upon reaching a certain age, people had to marry or pay a hefty tax for remaining single."]
["Finally, after several emperors, the Han Dynasty gradually grew strong."]
"The Han Dynasty, Liu Bang..."
Ying Zheng murmured to himself, committing Liu Bang's name to memory, and immediately ordered people to find him.
["By Emperor Wu of Han's time, the Han Dynasty was strong enough to crush every surrounding state. Through Emperor Wu's successive campaigns, the Han Dynasty's territory expanded enormously, pushing it to new heights. But this also left the common people in unbearable misery and even led to large-scale uprisings. Fortunately, Emperor Wu of Han quelled the rebellion with an edict of self-reproach."]
["The Han Dynasty also suffered turmoil along the way, but fortunately Liu Xiu restored it, bringing its total duration to more than four hundred years."]
In Emperor Gaozu of Han's plane.
"Of a dozen or so dynasties, my Great Han enjoyed more than four hundred years of fortune. That's already quite good!" Emperor Gaozu of Han Liu Bang said with a carefree air. "Although the heavenly screen didn't say it outright, it mentioned that Emperor Wu of Han expanded our territory and that my Great Han was strong enough to crush every surrounding state. That means the Xiongnu threat was dealt with! A descendant worthy of me!"
Beside him, Lü Zhi murmured to herself, "Emperor Wu of Han... is he Ying'er's descendant?"
["Skipping over Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, let's go straight to the Sui Dynasty."]
["Like the Qin Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty was short-lived, and both brought an age of chaos to an end."]
["The First Emperor of Qin craved grand achievements, and Emperor Yang of Sui was the same. Both had all kinds of great meritorious officials, greatly depleted fame and profit, and ultimately brought about turmoil."]
["The First Emperor of Qin could keep things under control, but his descendants could not. As for Emperor Yang of Sui, he had lost the people's support and simply could not keep things under control."]
["The Tang Dynasty inherited the foundations left by the Sui Dynasty and, under the rule of several generations of wise emperors, eventually reached its peak. But it overlooked the excessive power held by certain positions. This ultimately triggered the An Lushan–Shi Siming Rebellion, after which Great Tang never recovered."]
Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian: "My Great Sui fell in its second generation? Emperor Yang of Sui?"
Yang Jian's face turned red with anger.
He had just mocked the First Emperor of Qin. Now, what difference was there between his Great Sui and Great Qin?
"The crown prince! Bring the crown prince to me!"
["After the An Lushan–Shi Siming Rebellion, power in the Tang Royal Dynasty became decentralized, regional military governors carved out their own domains, and central authority weakened. Turmoil erupted everywhere in its later years, and in the end Zhu Wen usurped power."]
"The An Lushan–Shi Siming Rebellion, regional military governors carving out domains, Zhu Wen usurping power." Li Shimin grasped the key points and said, "Those regional military commands should be the governor-general's offices. An emperor after me changed the offices into regional military commands and gave them immense power, causing an imbalance of power."
Zhangsun Wuji said, "Your Majesty, none of this has happened yet. Now that we know the future, we can change it and rewrite Great Tang's fate!"
["After Zhu Wen usurped the Tang, the regional military governors under him refused to submit to him at all. Thus began a period of division, until Zhao Kuangyin took the throne through the Chenqiao Mutiny and established the Song Dynasty."]
["The Song Dynasty's policy of favoring civil affairs over military affairs also left its army feeble. The emperors distrusted the army, feared it would rebel, and suppressed it in every way. With treacherous officials making trouble as well, it was eventually destroyed."]
Seeing that the Song Dynasty had fallen because it favored civil affairs over military affairs, Emperor Taizu of Song Zhao Kuangyin sighed helplessly. Given Great Song's present circumstances, he could not give military commanders too much power. He knew the consequences of letting them grow too powerful.
But he had not expected the emperors who came after him to keep favoring civil affairs over military affairs.
Emperor Gaozong of Song Zhao Gou: "What do people of later generations know? They don't understand, yet they talk nonsense!"
["The Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties that followed were much the same. The Yuan Dynasty fell because of internal conflicts, the Ming Dynasty was beset by troubles at home and abroad in its later years, and the late Qing closed itself off from the world. All eventually fell."]
The emperors of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties: Go on, tell us in detail! Why did you just gloss over us in a single stroke?!
["Looking across the ages, the foundations of nearly every dynasty lie in four things: politics, the economy, the military, and culture. An imbalance or collapse in any one of these can lead to a dynasty's decline and end."]
["Of course, the most important thing is still the people's support. After all, what the people desire is the direction governance must take."]
[Those who win the people's hearts win the realm.]
[Those who accumulate great virtue win the realm.]
[It depends on whether people's thinking keeps up with the times.]
[Learn from the previous dynasty's lessons and make improvements.]
[That's useless. The key is whether the people's hearts turn toward or away from you, whether you are strong and ruthless enough, whether your methods are tough, and whether you yourself are advanced enough.]
[Different paths lead to the same destination. External threats are always there; it just depends on who suffers an outbreak of internal troubles first.]
[Even if Great Qing had not closed itself off from the world, the disappearance of feudal dynasties was inevitable. All feudal dynasties should exit the stage of history.]
[Jie of Xia: Did you see me?]