Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 22 On the Legal System of the Northern Wei Dynasty
The issue of legal legitimacy was very important in ancient times. Since the rise of the theory of the Five Elements' alternation, basically every dynasty that aspired to unify the country would determine its own legal legitimacy.

In addition to the circulation of the five elements, the most important thing about the legal system is to determine the previous dynasty, which is the so-called "previous dynasty's legitimacy."

The Northern Wei Dynasty was quite conflicted on this issue.

It is too cheap to trace back the Sixteen Kingdoms as the orthodox previous dynasty. In the end, the legal line recognized by the Northern Wei Dynasty was "Han - Cao Wei - Western Jin - Wei".

The Northern Wei Dynasty did not recognize the Eastern Jin Dynasty. They believed that the Western Jin Dynasty that migrated south was not the orthodox one. They denied that Sima Rui was a descendant of the Sima family, and determined that he was an island barbarian (a southern barbarian) who stole the Western Jin Dynasty. They also said that the Sima family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was a "Niu" family, and in history books they simply called it Niu Jin, denouncing it as a false dynasty.

The Southern Dynasties that inherited the legal system of the Eastern Jin Dynasty were also called "Island Barbarians" by the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The reason is naturally very simple. Both the Northern and Southern Dynasties were fighting for the right to inherit the orthodox Chinese culture.

The Ox Follows the Horse
There is a famous rumor about Sima Rui's origin that "Ox succeeded Horse".

It is said that during the Cao Wei period, there was a widely circulated prophecy book called "Xuanshitu", which recorded the prophecy of "the ox will succeed the horse". Sima Yi, a powerful official of Cao Wei, had also heard this prophecy. Sima Yi had a famous general named Niu Jin, who made great contributions to him. When Sima Yi was in a high position in his later years, he suddenly remembered the prophecy of "the ox will succeed the horse" and believed that Niu Jin had violated this taboo and would be detrimental to his descendants, so he held a banquet to poison Niu Jin.

Sima Yi's eldest son Sima Shi was puzzled and asked, "Niu Jin could be of great use, why kill him?" Sima Yi scolded him, "Have you forgotten what Shi Rui said, 'Queen Ma has a cow'?" Sima Yi thought that the descendants of the Sima family could rest easy from then on, but he didn't know that after his grandson Sima Jin inherited the title of King of Langye, his wife Xiahou had an affair with a minor official in the palace named Niu Jin. The two gave birth to a son, who inherited the throne of Langye after Sima Jin's death. This person was Sima Rui.

Niu Jin was based on this story.

(End of this chapter)