My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 559 Betting
There's nothing hard to understand about that.

—In feudal times, the gamble with the biggest stakes and the most lucrative returns was always betting on the crown prince.

From the time Lü Buwei used the Qin prince Ying Yiren as a "rare commodity" to ultimately obtain the position of Prime Minister of Qin, an extremely unique gamble was added to the genes of Chinese civilization.

Moreover, over time, these kinds of bets have evolved from the initial situation where it was optional to gamble, with high risk and high reward if you gambled, and no risk and no reward if you didn't gamble, into a mandatory bet where you "can't not gamble".

This is also easy to understand.

For example, you are the head of a family descended from a meritorious marquis.

Although it has declined somewhat, it is still a force to be reckoned with, and retains some influence or prestige both inside and outside the court.

In this situation, the gamble about the crown prince is no longer a question of whether you are willing to place a bet.

—If you bet on the wrong person, you will naturally be held accountable by the future crown prince or even the emperor.
If you don't place a bet, you'll still be questioned by the future crown prince or emperor: Why didn't you bet on me?
what?
Why didn't you help me become the crown prince back then?
Even if you're lucky enough to encounter a good-tempered crown prince or emperor, your decision not to bet on him, even if it doesn't lead to any repercussions later, will at least result in you being intentionally or unintentionally distanced.

The competition among marquises and nobles was equally fierce.

Of the 147 families of meritorious marquises who were the founding fathers of the Han Dynasty, only about 20 were able to enter the central government and become the Three Dukes or Nine Ministers.

This is just the family of the founding fathers.

From Emperor Taizu onwards, Emperor Hui, Empress Lü, Emperor Taizong, and Emperor Jing—each Han emperor also bestowed new titles of nobility upon their maternal relatives and military merits.

Even Liu Rong, who has only been on the throne for less than five years, has already been granted several military merits!
Marquis Bowang, Cheng Bushi, was granted additional titles and fiefs, with his estate exceeding five thousand households, making him a top-tier Marquis!

If you count on your fingers, from Emperor Taizu Liu Bang to the present day, the Han dynasty has enfeoffed at least nearly three hundred families as marquises!

This still only includes the top-ranking Marquis, while the slightly lower-ranking Marquis within the Passes and the larger group of feudal lords are not included in these three hundred families.

So, how many of these three hundred or so marquises, at least the same number of marquises within the pass, and several times that number of feudal lords—more than a thousand noble families in total—are still alive today?

The answer is: less than four hundred.

In the Han Dynasty today, there are only about a hundred families of marquises still existing.

There were also 180 households of Marquises within the Pass.

There were about two hundred feudal lords.

How could this be?

The Han dynasty enfeoffed nearly three hundred families as marquises, and only fifty or sixty years have passed. How come two-thirds of them have been lost?
There were over a thousand noble families, including Marquis of Che, Marquis of Guannei, and lords. How come now less than 40% remain?

The answer is obvious.

—Those noble families that disappeared into the long river of history were not all lost due to uncontrollable factors such as 'extinction of the lineage and the abolition of the state'.

In fact, since the Han Dynasty, the vast majority of noble families who lost their titles lost their kingdoms due to crimes committed by the emperor.

That's the crux of the problem.

In the Han Dynasty of today, in this era, losing the country due to a crime is actually a very absurd thing.

Because the legal system of the Han Dynasty is still a very typical feudal legal system.

What is 'typical feudal law'?
A law that cannot treat everyone equally, hold everyone accountable for the same crimes, and cannot uphold the principle that "princes are subject to the same laws as commoners" is a typical example of feudal law.

Moreover, unlike the laws of other eras, it harbored an invisible, unspeakable, and clandestine bias towards the aristocratic class.
The legal system of the Han Dynasty today records the preferential treatment given to the aristocratic class in black and white in the legal statutes.

For the same crime, a slave would undoubtedly die, while a peasant would most likely be sentenced to death, but could pay a fine or offset the crime with a noble title;

In other words, if a slave committed a crime punishable by death, a peasant committed a crime punishable by death, and an official committed the same crime, at most he would be dismissed from office and sent back to his hometown.

For nobles of higher status, there was basically no need to go through any procedures—the government would simply issue a fine, have the noble pay a symbolic amount, and the matter would be considered closed.

While this situation was an unavoidable problem in the feudal era, it was also intentionally created by the feudal ruling class.

The purpose was to construct privileged classes of different statuses from high to low through this method.

On the positive side, building a privileged class gives the lower classes something to aspire to and something to hope for.

—Look!

—Being a nobleman comes with privileges!
Aren't you envious?

Do you like it?

—Then join the army and fight bravely against the enemy!

—Once you become a nobleman, you will also have this privilege!
On the negative side, or rather, the main reasons, there are two points.

Firstly, the highest ruling class, such as feudal emperors, used this method to create a common interest group from scratch for themselves, who were alone and powerless.

If the emperor is the only privileged class, then privilege is undoubtedly the most despicable thing in the world.
However, if an aristocratic class were to emerge, becoming a privileged class second only to the emperor, the situation would be different.

Secondly, feudal emperors used this method to build a solid power pyramid for their own privileges—especially their rule over all people.

Again.

If only the emperor, a privileged class, reigns supreme, then it is a castle in the air, a rootless duckweed.

But with layers and levels of privileged classes, the emperor became the very top of the pyramid, the unique and supreme point.

Below that high point, there is an entire pyramid serving as a support, or rather, a base.

Therefore, the practice of different punishments for the same crime is also unique to the feudal era. It may not be advanced, but it has its own objective rationality.

Given this—since the same crime can result in different levels of punishment depending on class and status—it is clearly abnormal for the Marquis class to "lose their country due to a crime."

What kind of crime could cause the highest-ranking member of the Han Dynasty, besides the Liu clan, to directly lose their title of Marquis? Theoretically, only extreme and principled errors such as treason and disrespect could have such power.

In reality, over the past few decades, many of the marquises who lost their kingdoms due to crimes committed by the Han dynasty were stripped of their marquis titles for trivial and insignificant offenses.

Historically, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, a violent political upheaval occurred, known as the "snatching of titles with gold."

More than a hundred marquises were stripped of their titles because the gold they offered in sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, as well as to the previous emperors of the Han Dynasty, was of insufficient purity. Emperor Wu of Han accused them of "disrespecting Heaven and Earth" and demoted them from the 20th rank of marquis all the way down to the 1st rank of duke.

Later generations said that Emperor Wu of Han himself had enfeoffed too many military merits and relatives of the emperor with titles of nobility, making the title of nobility in the Han dynasty so common that he found an excuse to clean up a batch of them in order to control the number of nobility in the Han dynasty and maintain the scarcity of the title of nobility.

This statement is both right and wrong.

—Yes, it was because Emperor Wu of Han deliberately used the pretext of awarding gold and stripping titles to purge a large number of marquises.

As for what's wrong, it's because Emperor Wu of Han did this not because he had enfeoffed too many marquises and made the title of Marquis worthless.
Rather, it was because, as time went on and the Chehou family came to control the government, the Chehou group, which had initially been meritorious marquises, became incompetent and dissolute second-generation heirs. As a result, the Chehou group became less and less helpful to the Han dynasty and more and more of an obstacle to the central government.

Because the title of Marquis Che was not only a noble title representing status and position, but also a political identity that involved participation in the highest decision-making of the Han dynasty.

Therefore, in order to purge the ancestral temples and the state of the state, and to remove obstacles on the road ahead, Emperor Wu of Han devised the strategy of confiscating titles and ranks to eliminate these corrupt nobles.

This is the essence of the 'competition' among nobles, and why the noble class must participate in the gamble of betting on the crown prince.

—Did Emperor Wu of Han really only purge those nobles who were objectively corrupt, decadent, and of no benefit to the country when he ordered the burning of gold and the stripping of titles?

Or, to put it another way, did the matter of confiscating gold and stripping titles truly uproot all the corrupt nobles from the reign of Emperor Wu of Han?
The answer is clearly no.

Emperor Wu of Han's decision to strip his title and grant him a fief was less a 'clean-up' in the absolute sense, and more a principled and as much effort as possible to focus his main energy on eliminating corrupt elements.
Incidentally, he also purged a group of nobles who were not necessarily corrupt, but whom Emperor Wu of Han disliked.

At the same time, some of the corrupt officials who should have been eliminated escaped being purged because Emperor Wu of Han found them pleasing to the eye and liked them.

Well, the problem is coming.

What kind of nobleman could displease Emperor Wu of Han to the point that even if there was no original sin or need to eliminate him, he would still include him in the list of those to be stripped of their titles and honors?

There are probably many answers.

However, one thing is certain: during the process of Emperor Wu of Han vying for the throne, any nobles who did not actively bet on Emperor Wu during his time as a prince or crown prince—or even bet on one of Emperor Wu's brothers—would inevitably be included in the list of those sentenced to 'remove their titles and honors'.

What kind of noble family could Emperor Wu of Han find so pleasing and so likable that even if they were rotten to the core and should have been exterminated long ago, Emperor Wu of Han still managed to save them?

The same principle applies – there are many answers, but one must be: those original shareholders who bet on Emperor Wu of Han and made great contributions to his smooth succession to the throne.

The most representative example is undoubtedly Tian Fen, the maternal uncle of Emperor Wu of Han, who deliberately caused the Yellow River to breach its banks to prevent his own land from being flooded, thus bringing disaster to the country and its people.

So, yes, that's right.

—Since the Han Dynasty, about three hundred families were granted titles of nobility, and two-thirds of them have lost their titles.

The vast majority of those who lost their titles due to crimes—especially those whose crimes were insignificant but who were still stripped of their titles—were basically those who had bet on the wrong person and were thus punished later.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Ming Dynasty, those who bet on Liu Ruyi, the Prince of Zhao, including Zhou Chang, the Chancellor of Zhao and Grand Tutor to the King and Marquis of Fenyin, are now few of them still holding the title of Marquis.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Taizong, a considerable number of those who bet on Prince Liang Huai, Liu Yi, or even those who were not close enough to the then Crown Prince, Emperor Xiaojing, Liu Qi, were later punished by the late emperor.

Those who hadn't yet had time to settle scores were all recorded in Liu Rong's little notebook, just waiting for an opportunity.

Therefore, betting on the crown prince can be said to be the most important and crucial task for the aristocratic class.

—Every time power changes hands, the next round of betting begins.

If you bet correctly, it's a get-out-of-jail-free card for at least twenty years. Even if you cause a major disaster, the emperor will cover for you.
If you bet wrong, it's a countdown to death. If you make a mistake, you'll be reduced to a commoner at best, and your family will be destroyed at worst.

For the Marquis group, who were accustomed to a life of luxury and mostly lacked any skills or survival abilities, being demoted to commoners was essentially a reprieve from the death of their families.

As for not placing bets?
It can only be said that risk determines reward.

—The risk of betting is certainly high, and if you bet on the wrong person, you're definitely doomed.

But with betting, there's at least a chance of being right.

If you choose not to bet, you will definitely not receive the generous reward of "betting on the right person," and you will likely have to bear serious consequences.

This is essentially a gamble: if you win, you get a hundred million; if you lose, you lose your life.

You choose not to participate in the gambling, giving up the possibility of winning, and voluntarily accepting the punishment of having one of your internal organs removed.

To put it bluntly, since the Han Dynasty, those nobles who gradually declined and disappeared were basically alienated by the emperors of the Han Dynasty because they did not take risks, and gradually faded out of the central government.

—Those who bet against the right person will face direct retaliation;
Those who give up their bets are gradually marginalized and alienated, eventually disappearing without a trace.

That's why it's said that being a nobleman—especially a Han Chinese nobleman—has never been easy.

Besides the mandatory requirement to prepare one's own food and raise one's own troops when war breaks out, there are also non-mandatory measures: maintaining political influence and keeping close to the royal family, especially the emperor himself.

Betting on the crown prince is a crucial part of this process.

Betting on the right person will not only earn you the gratitude of the next emperor, but also the approval of the current emperor who will say you are "deeply loved by me".

Conversely, it is also something the Han emperor should do to make his intentions as clear as possible regarding the eldest son of a concubine, so as to avoid too many people betting on the wrong person too early, which could lead to excessive political turmoil.

The emperor's ambiguous statements and attempts to cover up his true intentions left everyone confused, leading to massive bets on the wrong person. Naturally, no one dared to blame the emperor.

However, making a large number of wrong bets will inevitably lead to large-scale repercussions in the future.

In the central government of the feudal era, anything described as "large-scale" was essentially equated with "turmoil."

(End of this chapter)