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"One emperor through the ages" originated from Li Zhi's "Collecting Books: The General Catalog of Biography of the Century", "The first emperor is the one emperor through the ages."

Li Zhi was a disciple of Xinxue, and in the final analysis he was also a Confucian student. Since the Qin Dynasty, Confucianism has not been in a good situation.

When this master of Confucianism reversed the verdict of Qin Shihuang, one of the greatest enemies of Confucianism, it shows the arrogance of this person.

After Li Zhi, Wang Zhijian of the Ming Dynasty believed that Li Shimin was the eternal emperor.

"Three generations later, whoever is like Emperor Wen will truly be an emperor through the ages!"

If you put aside all kinds of jokes, the most recognized emperor of the ages by the Chinese is either Qin Shihuang or Li Shimin.

In fact, this is just a subjective record in Chinese history.

But the so-called "stones from other mountains can attack jade".

From the perspective of others, there may be different discoveries.

In the book "Ranking of 100 Celebrities Who Affected the Process of Human History", two emperors, Qin Shihuang and Sui Wendi, are on the list. Therefore, if we talk about China's eternal emperor in the eyes of the West, it is nothing more than choosing between Qin Shihuang and Sui Wendi.

However, Toynbee, known as "the greatest historian in modern times", has a different opinion. He believes that it is neither Qin Shihuang nor Sui Wendi, but a "rogue" emperor in the eyes of the Chinese—— Liu Bang.

The two most farsighted political figures in human history and the greatest influence on later generations, one is Caesar who founded the Roman Empire, and the other is Liu Bang, the founder of Han civilization.

Caesar failed to witness the establishment of the Roman Empire and the rise of civilization, and unfortunately was assassinated and died. However, Liu Bang created a prosperous era with his own hands, and with his visionary leadership, created a new era for human history!
In Toynbee's eyes, Liu Bang's influence far exceeds that of Qin Shihuang, Sui Wendi, and Tang Taizong, and he has a higher evaluation than any emperor in China. He is a veritable emperor through the ages.

The Han Dynasty established by Liu Bang unified all the ethnic groups in the Central Plains, Jiangnan, and Lingnan for the first time, both in form and in spirit, and made Qin, Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Wei, and South Korea all recognize themselves as "Han people."

An unprecedented centralized multi-ethnic unified country has been formed.

After the Han Dynasty, although China experienced many divisions, it was able to form a great unity in the end, and Liu Bang contributed a lot.

From a historical point of view, from the beginning of the fission of the Zhou Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period, the emperor of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty declined, and the princes rose strongly.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to Qin Shihuang's unification of the world, there was an interval of more than 550 years, of which the Warring States period existed for more than 200 years.

After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he forcibly turned the people of the six countries into "Qin people".

Under the threat of Qin's tiger and wolf army, the people of the six countries could only humiliate themselves as Qin people.

But the bad thing is that Qin Shihuang enforced strict Qin laws in the six countries, which made the people of the six countries very uncomfortable and exacerbated the estrangement of the people of the six countries from the "Qin people".In fact, in just over ten years, it is impossible to completely change the identity.

Liu Bang is a native of Chu, but he cleverly avoided the word "Chu" in the country name, avoiding the discomfort of the word "Chu" to the people of the other six countries, but chose the character "Han" as the country name.

Opposite to Liu Bang is Xiang Yu, who established himself as the overlord of Western Chu and regarded himself as Chu State. For the people of the other six countries, Chu State was a foreign country after all, so it is naturally difficult to agree.

After several generations of hard work, the Han Dynasty eliminated the barriers between the six countries, and finally unified the Central Plains, Jiangnan, Lingnan, Liaodong, Northwest and many other ethnic groups under the banner of "Han". Since then, they have all become "Han people".

The Shang Dynasty emphasized ghosts and gods, and the Western Zhou Dynasty emphasized Zhou rituals.

Moreover, the culture of the Shang and Zhou dynasties was monopolized by nobles, and ordinary people were not qualified to read and write.In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, rituals had collapsed and music was broken, and Zhou rituals were useless. Big countries were busy annexing, and small countries were busy protecting themselves. In the end, all countries wanted to be strong, and all countries were not interested in anything that did not help to improve their current strength.

After Liu Bang built the Han Dynasty, he also dismissed culture at first, thinking that he would win the world immediately, and "Poems" and "Books" were useless.

Lu Jia, a Confucian scholar, asked: "If you get the world immediately, can you rule the world immediately?"

Afterwards, Liu Bang humbly accepted and asked Lu Jia to write a book summarizing the reasons why Qin lost the world for reference.

"Zizhi Tongjian" records, "The world is established, Xiao Heci ordered the law, Han Xin applied the military law, Zhang Cang established the regulations, Uncle Sun Tong established the etiquette, and Lu Jia created the "Xinyu".

He also made an oath with the meritorious officials by cutting the talisman, the iron deed of Dan Shu, the golden chamber and the stone chamber, and the ancestral temple of Tibet.Although there is no time to give, the imitation is far-reaching. "

To this end, Liu Bang also collected and sorted out pre-Qin classics, and established large-scale "National Libraries" such as Tianlu Pavilion and Shiqu Pavilion.

For the first time in Chinese history, Liu Bang attached great importance to culture at the national level, and the succeeding emperor of the Han Dynasty also attached great importance to culture, which had a profound impact on later generations of China.

Throughout the Han Dynasty, "Black Qin" was politically correct. No one dared to reverse the verdict for the Qin Dynasty and say that the Qin Dynasty was good or bad, but there are two undeniable points: the Han inherited the Qin system, and the Han perfected and innovated the Qin system.

Liu Bang and others raised troops to overthrow the Qin Dynasty. Why did they inherit the Qin system in the end?

There are two reasons: on the one hand, the Qin system is indeed in line with the general trend of history, and there is no need to oppose it for the sake of opposition. This reflects Liu Bang's vision and mind; Bashu received a large number of low-level officials from the Qin Dynasty, and overthrowing the Qin system will inevitably cause chaos in the fiefdom.

However, the six countries in the Kanto region were dissatisfied with the Qin system, and Liu Bang could not copy it directly.

The practice of "severe punishment and severe punishment" in the Qin Dynasty was abolished in the law, and Xiao He was asked to refer to the laws of the Qin Dynasty to "take the one that is suitable for the time, and write nine chapters of the law" to form the "Nine Chapters of Law", and let Shu Suntong and other Confucian scholars formulate appropriate times. The new system of rites and music, etc.

By perfecting the system of the Qin Dynasty that was more in line with the times and human nature, in the end, the whole feudal system inherited and perfected by the Han Dynasty became a template, which was inherited by successive dynasties and influenced China for more than 2000 years.

But no matter who is the emperor through the ages, Liu Bang was able to leave such an important mark in history, and he should indeed leave his proper status and influence in history.

Of course, even a person who is an emperor through the ages has some shortcomings in his character.

These shortcomings are not defects of personality, but a desire to protect oneself.

Every emperor has it. After all, after the establishment of the dynasty, it is a time for those favorite ministers and generals to enjoy the glory, but for the emperor, it is indeed the beginning of suspicion.

Being able to doubt the world is a necessary condition for being an emperor.

So how should we analyze the darkest side of Liu Bang's human nature?

This requires an analysis of Liu Bang's "combat power" first.

Since the rebellion against Qin, Liu Bang basically spent the rest of his life in war, and there seems to be no specific statement about his combat capabilities.

Judging from the fact that he and Xiang Yu have been defeated in all battles, it is estimated that future generations will not evaluate this highly.

After Liu Bang won the world, he discussed with his ministers the reasons for Liu Sheng's defeat and proposed the theory of the Three Heroes of the Han Dynasty.

In terms of combat capability, Han Xin is the first to be promoted.

And when Han Xin discussed the ability to lead troops with Liu Bang, he only said that Liu Bang could only lead [-] soldiers, and the more he himself, the better.

Judging from this record, Han Xin should have some reservations, that is, in his real thinking, Liu Bang may not even be able to bring 10 people.

The reason for saying this number is nothing more than to save Liu Bang enough face.

Liu Bang was not convinced by this. He said: "The more the better, what is my bird?" Han Xin replied: "Your Majesty can't use soldiers, but good generals. This is why Xin is your Majesty's bird. And your Majesty's so-called gift from heaven is not human power." also."

History does not record Liu Bang's response to this, that is, in the eyes of later generations, Liu Bang's strength is that he can control people, and his combat ability is not worth mentioning.

But this is not true. The fact is that its actual combat capability may greatly exceed the estimates of later generations.

In fact, there are still some combat records about Liu Bang, and the frequency of his combat and the number of combat objects are probably one of the few in history.

But in people's minds, the easiest thing to remember is that he was often beaten by Xiang Yu and fled. He didn't even care about his children and troops, and he only ran away for his life alone.

Indeed, compared with Liu Bang's victories, these defeat scenes are both wonderful and vivid in Sima Qian's pen, and people will remember them firmly after seeing them once.

Throughout Qin and Chu, Liu Bang was defeated by Xiang Yu alone, and everyone else was defeated by Liu Bang.

For example, in the anti-Qin war, Liu Bang killed Sishui Shou in the battle at the beginning of his army. This is the highest military officer of the Qin army who was killed in battle.

Among the 36 counties of Qin, at least one-third must have been conquered by Liu Bang's troops.

Before Liu Bang joined Xiang Liang's camp, Xiang Liang had no record of winning against Qin, and only Xiang Yu had the victory in conquering Xiangcheng.

The addition of Liu Bang enabled Xiang Liang's troops to win consecutive victories against Qin.

"The Family of Liuhou" records that Zhang Liang sued Liu Bang with "The Grand Duke's Art of War", which was used very well by Liu Bang, which shows that Liu Bang is very talented in military use.

In the final battle to destroy Qin, Liu Bang completed a series of arduous tasks with less than [-] troops to assist Zhao, defend the capital of Chu, and advance westward to destroy Qin. It is unimaginable without extraordinary military talents.

Liu Bang's combat power may be reflected in several battles after he pacified the world.

Before Liu Bang died, there were rebellions against Zang Tu, King of Yan, Wangxin of Han, Chen Xi, and Yingbu. Each time, Liu Bang took command of the battle, which shows that in the Han camp, the abilities of other people cannot be surpassed. Liu Bang is relieved.

"The Benji of Gaozu" records that when he attacked Chen Xi, he analyzed: "Xin can't occupy Handan in the south and block the Zhang River. I know that he can't do anything."

The consequences are what they say.

Ying Bu's anti-time mentality can also explain the problem.

Ying Bu thought: "The superior is old and tired of soldiers, so he will not be able to come. Let all the generals, all the generals suffer from Huaiyin and Pengyue alone, and they are all dead now, so there is nothing to be afraid of."

From Ying Bu's point of view, the generals of the Han camp, except for Han Xin and Peng Yue, were nothing to worry about.Only Liu Bang's ability is worthy of scruples, but he is too old, and it is estimated that he will not lead troops to fight in person.

So the tattoo is reversed.

It is certain that in the eyes of the people at that time, Liu Bang's combat ability was highly respected.

But why did he leave a record of fighting Xiang Yu and losing all battles? The reason can only be that Xiang Yu's combat ability is higher, and Liu and Xiang are not on the same level, so Liu Bang has been in the shadow of Xiang Yu for a long time, and his combat ability is not obvious at all. come out.

Regarding Han Xin's statement that Liu Bang could not send troops, there is a counter-evidence in "Han Xin's Lu Wan Biography". When attacking Chen Xi, Liu Bang arrived in Zhao before the national army arrived. After the interview, Liu Bang scolded: "Can Lizi be a general?" The four fell down in shame.

Each of the thousands of households sealed off was considered a general.

The left and right remonstrated and said: "Since entering Shuhan and conquering Chu, the merits have not been done everywhere. What merits are awarded now?" Shang said: "If you don't know it! Call for soldiers from all over the world, but none have arrived, and now only the soldiers in Handan are in charge. I love four thousand households and seal four people, so I don’t want to comfort the children of Zhao!"

It shows that Liu Bang was able to make full use of authoritative means to mobilize the enthusiasm of local soldiers when there were no soldiers available, which may have resisted Chen Xi's fierce offensive.Liu Bang's constant victories when his strength is not strong enough should have something to do with his good at motivating morale.This piece of evidence alone makes it less reliable to say that bad generals are not good at soldiers.