Wei Wenhou

Wei Wenhou

Wei Wenhou (472-396 B.C.) was born in Anyi (now Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province) and the grandson of Wei Huanzi. In 446 BC, he inherited the Wei leader of Jin State. He was the founder of the hundred years' hegemony of the state of Wei and the founding monarch of the state of Wei during the Warring States period.

In 403 BC, Wei, together with Zhao and Han, was officially made a vassal by the surviving emperor of Zhou (King Zhou Weilie). Later historians all praised Wei Wenhou's wisdom in writing books. Wei Wenhou appointed ximenbao, Zixia, zhaihuang, Wei Cheng and others to enrich the country and strengthen the army and open up a large area of territory, which made Wei become the overlord of the Central Plains.

When Wei Wenhou was in power, he was a courteous and virtuous corporal. He served as a teacher for the children of Confucianism, such as Bu Zixia, Tian Zifang, Duan ganmu, and so on. He appointed Li Yao and Zhai Huang as prime ministers, and Le Yang and Wu Qi as generals. They were born in the small nobles or civilian taxis and played their role in politics and military affairs, marking the beginning of clan politics replaced by bureaucratic politics.

Life of the characters

Jizuye branch

Weisi (472-396 B.C.) was the grandson of Wei Huanzi and the father of Wei Wuhou. He inherited his grandfather's family business in 446 B.C.; in 453 B.C., Zhao Xiangzi sent people to persuade Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi to pour Jinshui into zhizhai, destroy Zhishi and divide Zhidi into three parts. The division of the three schools was basically formed.

When the three families divided the Jin Dynasty, Zhao made the most profits, while Wei and Han got less.

Zhao got a large area of land in the north of Jin, and crossed Taihang mountain to the East, occupying Handan and Zhongmou. Wei and Han are in the south of Zhao, west of Wei and east of Han. The Zhi's territory occupied by Zhao's family is pressing on Wei's forehead, and Wei's family is very depressed.

In the west of the Wei family is the state of Qin separated by a river, in the north is the powerful Zhao family, in the East is the emerging Han family, and in the south across the Zhongtiao Mountain and the Yellow River is the Shaanxi area (Mianchi County, Shaanxi county and Lingbao City in Sanmenxia, Henan Province).

Wei was tightly wrapped in a corner of Southwest Shanxi. Weishi concentrated in the southwest of Shanxi, although there are several enclaves in the East, but they are not consolidated, so it is difficult to build a strategic base.

The core area of Wei family is Yuncheng Valley, with Luliang Mountain in the north, Zhongtiao Mountain in the South and Wangwu mountain in the East. The big corner of the Yellow River covers the West and south of Wei family.

This terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it is also easy to be oppressed and blocked. Therefore, the first thing Wei Wenhou should do is to strive for self-improvement and not be eaten by the foreign powers, and then to break the blockade and develop outward.

Governing the state of Jin

In the ninth year of Yougong (425 BC), Zhao Xiangzi, Zhao Wuji, died. Weisi succeeded him as the Prime Minister of the state of Jin, and appointed Li Zhen, the governor of Shangjun, to carry out the reform. Among the seven heroes of the Warring States period, Wei Wenhou first carried out political reform, reformed politics, rewarded farming and war, built water conservancy and developed feudal economy.

In the Warring States period, there were Qin and Han in the west, Chu in the south, Zhao in the north and Qi in the east of Wei state. It was located in the center of Wei state, easy to attack but difficult to defend. The anxious environment and great ambition made Marquis Wei Wenhou the first monarch in the Warring States period to carry out political reform.

He used Li Zhen and Zhai Huang as the prime ministers to reform the bad government; he used LeYang and Wuqi as the generals to invade Zhongshan, Qin and Chu; he used Li Zhen to teach the law and rule the country according to law, which made Wei a prosperous country.

In the history of more than 200 years in the Warring States period, the state of Wei was the first powerful and powerful country. During his 50 years in office, marquis Wen selected talented people and appointed capable people, practised morality and politics internally, and exercised martial arts externally. He conquered the Hexi area of the state of Qin to the west, crossed the state of Zhao to the north, defeated the state of Zhongshan, and defeated the army of Qi to the East.

To be a vassal

In the 11th year of Liegong of Jin Dynasty (405 BC), civil strife broke out in the state of Qi. Tian Hui rebelled and surrendered to Zhao in juancheng County, Shandong Province, and asked for help from the three Jin Dynasties. Zhao liehou ordered Kong Qing as commander-in-chief to lead zhaijiao's Wei army and Han army all the way to the great wall of Qi. Qi Kanggong, the monarch of Qi State, was captured by the Allied forces. Together with the monarch of the three Jin Dynasties, he met with the emperor of Zhou, and asked him to canonize the three Jin Dynasties as princes.

In 403 B.C., King Zhou Weilie officially recognized Han, Zhao and Wei as princes of the Warring States period. Sima Guang, a historian of the Song Dynasty, wrote Zizhitongjian from that year. The first thing recorded was that he appointed Wei Si, Zhao Ji and Han Qian as princes.

In the 50th year of marquis Wen (396 BC), marquis Wen was seriously ill. Before he died, he summoned Wu Qi, ximenbao, beimenke and others to entrust the prince Wei Ji to them. After the death of marquis Wen, the prince succeeded him as the monarch, who was Marquis Wu of Wei.

Political initiatives

Agriculture

In order to improve the yield per unit of cultivated land and the efficiency of land use, Wei Wenhou made full use of Wei's land and mountains, and promoted the principle of intensive cultivation of making the best use of the land.

In order to balance the price of grain, Li Zhen also implemented the flat purchase law. In good years, according to the market situation, the state purchases farmers' grain at a price higher than the market price, so that farmers' interests will not be lost. In a disaster year, the government sells the grain stored in the state granary to the public at an appropriate price, so that the public will not be displaced because they can not afford to buy food.

In this way, the state of Wei well balanced the interests of farmers and citizens, the state reserves more and more grain, greatly improved the country's ability to resist the disaster years, social stability, people live and work in peace and contentment.

law

Li Zhen wrote six chapters of the law classic to regulate the behavior of Wei people. The state of Jin is a country with a tradition of rule of law, and the people support the rule of law. This set of statute law, which was made under the leadership of Li Zhen, played a great role in the political life of Wei state. When the monarch, nobles and officials were carrying out political affairs, the first thing to consider was the national law.

Because Wei Wenhou took the lead in abiding by the law, this set of laws formulated under the leadership of Li Zhen has been well implemented. Later, this set of laws was also adopted by Xiangong, Xiaogong and Shangyang in the state of Qin. Fajing was the first systematic code of landlord class in China, which laid the legal foundation of Chinese feudal society.

Trade

Wei's neighboring countries, each has its own specialty. The livestock, leather and jade of Qin state, the cloth and silk, jujube chestnut, livestock and leather of Zhao state, and the birds and animals, orange pomelo, bamboo and silk of Chu state were very famous at that time. Marquis Wenhou of Wei encouraged the people of Wei state to engage in business and participate in the trade of local specialties. Wei state obtained a lot of business taxes and the National Treasury was enriched.

military

And Zhao lianhan

For a long time after the division of the three Jin Dynasties, the state of Wei devoted all his energy to the cultivation of internal power. After a period of outward expansion, Zhao and South Korea returned to the path of internal cultivation due to internal instability. At this time, the state of Wei had basically completed the internal adjustment and began to look for export.

The surrounding environment of the state of Wei is very complex. If Marquis Wen of Wei is careless, he may be besieged and face the danger of subjugation.

Zhao xianhou wanted to unite with Wei Wenhou to eliminate the Han family. Zhao and Wei divided the Han family equally.

Han Wuzi wanted to unite with Marquis Wen of Wei Dynasty to destroy Zhao family, and Han and Wei divided Zhao family equally.

For Zhao, Han's proposal, Wei Wen Hou gave a clear refusal.

Wei Wenhou advised Zhao xianhou to break up the idea of dividing Han and Wei, so as to break up each one. He said that Wei and Han were relatively weak and would certainly unite against the state of Zhao so as not to be wiped out by Zhao.

It is more clear that Wei Hu and Zhao's idea of attacking the United Nations is to split with each other. Such a situation made it necessary for Korea and Wei to unite.

Wei Wenhou advised Han Wuzi not to attack Zhao because of Zhao's threat, in order to solve Zhao's threat once and for all.

It's unrealistic to think that Korea and Wei united to attack Zhao. Zhao's strength is too strong, and Korea and Wei united only to draw with Zhao. If both sides fight hard, they will lose each other. Even if Zhao was defeated, Han and Wei would continue to fight each other.

Wei Wenhou explained to Zhao and Han his thoughts on the development of the three. In Jin Dynasty, Zhao, Wei and Han were relatively closed, and only Zhao state extended the two tentacles of Dai and Handan. However, due to the threat of Han and Wei, Zhao state could not continue to expand through these two tentacles.

Zhao, Wei and South Korea are close neighbors, so they must live in peace. If they fight within each other, they will be dragged into the closed environment of Jin, and no one can develop. Zhao, Wei and Han had to unite to expand outward. Although Zhao xianhou and Han Wuzi agreed on Wei Wenhou's joint development strategy, they did not reach a consensus on how to unite, which direction to develop, and how to share profits. However, through this meeting, a rare peace situation has emerged among the three countries. In the end, Zhao, Wei and Han gave up internal fighting for the time being and embarked on their own development path.

The expansion of Qin Dynasty

Because Zhao's family is in the north and Han's family is in the East, Han's development direction is Wei's, Zheng's in the south of Han's family, and Wei Wenhou's development direction is Qin's in the West.

In the 27th year of Wei Wenhou (419 BC), the state of Wei crossed the Yellow River to the west, built a city in Shaoliang (now southwest of Hancheng in Shaanxi Province) and built a military stronghold to attack the state of Qin. Qin army counterattacked the invasion of Wei state. After several battles, the Wei army who crossed the river occupied Shaoliang, an important military stronghold. On the one hand, the Qin army besieged the Wei army in Shaoliang, and on the other hand, they built fortifications along the Yellow River to prevent more Wei troops from crossing the river.

Wei Xiang Zhai Huang recommended Wu Qi to Wei Wenhou. Wei Wenhou appreciated Wu Qi's command ability and appointed Wu Qi as the commander of Wei army attacking Qin state. After Wu Qi took office, the stalemate between Wei and Qin in Xihe was soon broken, and the Wei army won.

In the 33rd year of Wei Wenhou (413 BC), Wu Qi led the Wei army to defeat the Qin army in the Xihe battlefield and break through the Xihe defense line of the Qin army.

Chinese PinYin : Wei Wen Hou