Chapter 584: The Great Han Family
As the imperial edict was issued, all the powerful families in the world took action.
In the Later Han Dynasty, or in other words, in any period, classes always existed.
There has always been a difference in power between families, and each period has its own prominent families.
During the Later Han Dynasty, except for the Luo family of Zhaocheng.
In the Central Plains, when it comes to the top wealthy and aristocratic families, they are naturally headed by the Five Surnames and Seven Families that have been passed down for three hundred years.
These five surnames and seven families founded the empire for the second time and gained so many benefits that they lived in glory for three hundred years.
But even among these seven, there are differences in strength.
Among them, the Jimo Lu family and the Anyang Han family were the strongest, and they repeatedly served as high-ranking officials at the level of Three Dukes and Nine Ministers during the Later Han Dynasty.
The Zhang family has been the descendants of Huang-Lao Taoism since their ancestor Zhang Liang. In an era when Confucianism dominated the mainstream, their influence was naturally weaker.
However, the Zhang family founded Taoism, which is different from the track of other families.
The Yinghou Luo family was quite prominent during the first two emperors of the Later Han Dynasty. However, since the external relatives and eunuchs began to control the government and could not stand the chaos in the court, they gradually became less prominent.
But the sudden emergence of Luochuan proves that the reputation of the Yinghou Luo family still remains.
The Xiao family of Lanling was a typical example of a family with problematic thinking. They fought fiercely against the foreign relatives and eunuchs respectively, and naturally suffered heavy losses as a result.
If it weren't for the help from the in-laws, all the main branches might have been killed.
However, it still led to a lack of talent within the clan, and so it continued to decline.
The autistic Lanling Xiao turned to religion to seek spiritual sustenance.
The Huaiyin Han family is similar to the Lanling Xiao family. They occupy the local area and rarely enter the imperial court. As a family of military honors without outstanding talents, they are about to turn themselves into a family of two thousand stones.
These five surnames and seven families are indeed famous, but in fact, except for the Lu family of Jimo and the Han family of Anyang, they were all typical local super-rich families before Yinghou Luochuan emerged and gained huge fame.
The key lies in the word "place".
This can be considered a super enhanced version of the Five Surnames and Seven Aristocrats of the Tang Dynasty.
The Five Surnames and Seven Aristocrats of the Tang Dynasty were purely made up. Not to mention the hundreds of years of false history, even if it were true, they were only famous on the surface and admired by the world.
In fact, she had very little power and was manipulated at will by the Tang emperor. Her legitimate empress was killed and she dared not even say a word. She had to rush for an opportunity to marry a prince. She was completely a pawn of the Li Tang royal family to deal with the Guanlong nobles.
The five families of Luo, Lu, Han, Zhang and Xiao at least have real power, fiefdoms and subjects, and they don't just brag about it.
But since it is named after a local giant, there must naturally be a central giant to correspond to it.
The most powerful families in the Han Dynasty were the Confucian families who had served as the Three Dukes for generations and controlled the Taicao.
These Confucian families learned from the practice of the Luo family of Zhaocheng and combined Confucian knowledge, political resources and land for survival, thus forming the ultimate form of Confucian family, the Confucian clan.
Power is from the bottom up.
Power has nothing to do with the three highest officials of the family.
Power has equally little to do with a good reputation.
Power only has to do with whether you can give benefits to your subordinates.
If you cannot bring benefits to your subordinates, it is useless to have three dukes for four generations, or even three dukes for ten generations. This is why the Yinghou Luo family is not as prominent as some other families. They are too principled.
The Confucian scholars served as high-ranking officials such as the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, and established a huge network of relationships and in-laws, creating a monopoly.
Moreover, this monopoly seems difficult to break at present, because those talented scholars from poor families are absorbed into this kind of in-laws and relationship network.
There was a poor student who loudly criticized this situation, saying, "If all the poor students in the world are like this, when will we poor students be able to turn things around?"
Then a young man from a wealthy family replied: "I am a young man from a poor family. I studied hard for thirteen years, and one day I married a noble lady. After eight years in office, I was promoted to a rank of 2,000-stone official. My family has also become prominent. Isn't this considered a comeback?
I was born into a wealthy family, but I have only been a man of idleness until now. If I could choose, I would like to be a man of a poor family."
This conversation had a huge impact. All the poor scholars in the world always felt that something was wrong, but they couldn't put it into words.
This story was even included by Luo in "The History of the Later Han Dynasty" and circulated throughout the country.
The Luo family did not comment on this situation because the emergence of this kind of in-law network is even unstoppable.
If you randomly pick anyone from around the world and give the same position to one of their own or an outsider, they will choose to give it to their own people.
This is human nature, what can Luo say?
Until now, the Luo family is the most nepotistic in the whole world.
Since the Bang Zhou period, when our ancestor King Su divided the country, the Ji surname has occupied the vast majority of the country.
The difference is that the Luo family can guarantee the ability and character of their own people, while other families cannot.
This is how the power of Confucian families came about. If they could give benefits to those below them, naturally a large number of people would come to them. The same was true for the emperor. He gave benefits to his relatives by marriage, so they would do things for him. He gave benefits to the eunuchs, so they would be obedient.
During the Zhou Dynasty, the ministers of the princes were called external ministers to the emperor, and they were supposed to be loyal to the princes.
If a prince wanted to rebel and his subjects informed the emperor, this was considered disloyalty.
Under the dual monarchy, with the idea that the governor was equal to the monarch, the benefits brought by such recommendations and recruitments were extremely astonishing.
If all the prefects and county magistrates in the world were his students and former officials, then it would be questionable who the emperor was.
Although it is impossible for any family to achieve this level, it is still possible to have disciples and former officials everywhere in the world.
Although this relationship is not as stable as that during the Zhou Dynasty, after all, there is no legal support, but sometimes social concepts are a greater restraining force.
Only those who are born extraordinary will break the rules and trample them under their feet.
Such people are either successful and accomplish great things, or they are lunatics and are completely crushed into ashes by the wheels of history.
This kind of Confucianist family was called "Luoyang wealthy family" by the world, because although they had a county seat, their main activities were in Luoyang, and the family's direct descendants also operated in Luoyang.
After all, Luoyang was the safest place in the Han Dynasty. Living in the counties, if you encountered a major event like the Taiping Uprising, you would most likely be killed in the fields.
But in Luoyang, there wouldn't be a madman who would dare to kill the entire wealthy family.
The Lu family of Jimo and the Han family of Anyang are among the wealthy families in Luoyang, but only a few people from these two families stay in Luoyang, and the other five families are not among them at all.
The wealthy families in Luoyang were also implicated in the Party and Faction Persecution Incident, and it can be said that they suffered a huge blow during that period.
After the lifting of the ban on political parties, these wealthy families in Luoyang could not wait to do something big in Luoyang.
The issue of party imprisonment must never happen again!
It's cool to skip the Eastern Han Dynasty, but it's missing a lot of things.
(End of this chapter)
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