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Chinese History Series — Fall of the Architect of Qin | Silk and Steel · UK Column Radio

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of the Silk and Steeled podcast
0:05
Speaker 1: Chinese History ser So we talk about Chinese history from
0:08
Speaker 1: the deepest antiquity to what we optimistically hope for.
0:12
Speaker 2: The present day thereabouts.
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Speaker 1: I am the perpetual guest JJ, and welcoming us back
0:19
Speaker 1: is Carl from Bali.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hey Carl, Hi, JJ, thank you for your lovely intro.
0:26
Speaker 2: We are deep into the weeds of the first recorded
0:32
Speaker 2: Chinese peasant rebellion that would overthrow the Chin Dynasty, the
0:38
Speaker 2: first unified empire in Chinese history. And you know, last
0:45
Speaker 2: episode we talked about how the rebellion is spreading. But
0:49
Speaker 2: for this episode, I like to shift the lens back
0:52
Speaker 2: a little bit, back to the imperial core. So the
0:56
Speaker 2: time period is still around like two oh nine nine
1:00
Speaker 2: to ten BC, right around when the rebellion broke out.
1:04
Speaker 2: As a rebellion start to spread, the blame game started
1:09
Speaker 2: at the imperial court. The guy that gets a blame
1:12
Speaker 2: in the Imperial court is uh This as a Prime
1:16
Speaker 2: Minister of Ching. Well this actually he tried, repeatedly tried
1:20
Speaker 2: to request private audience uh with the impert who Hi
1:25
Speaker 2: to offer advice, but you know, Huhai would have nothing.
1:30
Speaker 2: Uh you know WHOI didn't permit it because he who,
1:33
Speaker 2: I just want to enjoy himself. You know, he does
1:37
Speaker 2: not care about administration. So Whuohai then summoned Lisa and said,
1:43
Speaker 2: I have heard, you know, I have I have heard
1:47
Speaker 2: a private conversation from Humphates. This this must be like
1:52
Speaker 2: when Huhai was much younger, because Humphates has been dead
1:57
Speaker 2: for like over ten years. And he said, I have
2:01
Speaker 2: heard a private discussion from him. Fez who said, when
2:06
Speaker 2: the sage King Yaou ruled the empire, his house was
2:10
Speaker 2: only three feet up streets three feet high. That doesn't
2:17
Speaker 2: sound right, but anyway, the bean were left on carved,
2:23
Speaker 2: and the thatched roof was not trim. Maybe three meter
2:27
Speaker 2: high three feet highest. Too small for anybody. The bean
2:35
Speaker 2: were left on carved and the thatched roof was not trim.
2:40
Speaker 2: Even the accommodation of an inn would be less arduous
2:44
Speaker 2: than this. In wintertime, he wore deer high robe. In
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Speaker 2: summer hymn tunic. His food was coarse grained porridge and
2:52
Speaker 2: stew made from wild vegetables. His rice was cooking earthen bowl,
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Speaker 2: and his soup laddle is earthen laddles even the ration
3:02
Speaker 2: of a gatekeeper. We're not as meager as this now.
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Speaker 2: Sage King, yeah was. His often was paraded as a
3:13
Speaker 2: moral example of how a kingship should be. You know,
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Speaker 2: he's been thrifty, he's been uh you know, living as
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Speaker 2: a common man. But WHOAI is going to cite a
3:27
Speaker 2: confaced passage that turned this around? And then then he
3:30
Speaker 2: goes talk about the sage king. You e the great
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Speaker 2: the flood tamer. Uh you know, you e the great
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Speaker 2: chisel opened the Loneman Gate to connect uh uh to
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Speaker 2: to dredge the nine rivers.
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Speaker 1: Uh.
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Speaker 2: You know he is famous for taming the flood, for
3:47
Speaker 2: for dredging the the Yellow Yellow River, allow it to
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Speaker 2: flow into the sea, constructed nine embankment, drain the snack
3:55
Speaker 2: and water and send it to sea. His thigh had
3:58
Speaker 2: no flesh left, His were hairless. What the idea is
4:02
Speaker 2: that you the tame the flood tamer? He worked so
4:06
Speaker 2: hard that the hair on his shin got you know,
4:10
Speaker 2: were out for heart labor, his hands and feet collless,
4:14
Speaker 2: His face and complexion darkened with labor, until he died
4:19
Speaker 2: outside and was buried in quite gee. The hardship, the
4:23
Speaker 2: hardship of a slave or captive could not surpass this. Yet,
4:29
Speaker 2: if the virtue, if the value of possessing the empire
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Speaker 2: is such, how could could it be that one desire
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Speaker 2: to endure physical hardship and mental strain, living like a
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Speaker 2: guest in an inn, eating food no better better than
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Speaker 2: a gatekeeper's ration, and performing labor akin to that of slave,
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Speaker 2: that is unworthy to strive for. It's not the pursuit
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Speaker 2: of the virtuous. Now, this conversation turned the virtue of
4:59
Speaker 2: You the Great and Yao completely around. Because the sage
5:05
Speaker 2: King Yao and Sage King You the word praise for
5:08
Speaker 2: being for working hard for the common people, for living virtuously,
5:12
Speaker 2: for living thrifty. But Kuhai, supposedly quoting Hampates, is saying,
5:19
Speaker 2: what's the point then, to rule? To be a ruler
5:22
Speaker 2: if you're working like a slave. The virtuous man who
5:26
Speaker 2: rules the empire use the entire world solely to satisfy himself.
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Speaker 2: This is what makes possessing empire valuable. The so called
5:35
Speaker 2: virtuous ruler must be able to bring peace to the
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Speaker 2: world and govern its people. Now, if one cannot even
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Speaker 2: benefit himself, how can he possibly rule all under heaven?
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Speaker 2: I wish so this. I mean, I think original Humphate's
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Speaker 2: passage is you know, Humphyser himself is kind of edge lord.
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Speaker 2: You know, he'd like to engage in these kind of rhetorics.
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Speaker 2: But Humphin's this point is an improt should not be
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Speaker 2: a micromanager. Improt should be able to delegate to his
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Speaker 2: subordinates and allow them to to you know, function, and
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Speaker 2: and that's how you you get, you know, the empire running,
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Speaker 2: not to work yourself as slave. But who is quoting
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Speaker 2: this passage for his own selfish aim of just be
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Speaker 2: a playboy, you know, like not do anything? So so
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Speaker 2: who I continue to say, I wish to be granted
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Speaker 2: the will and desire for great things, to enjoy it
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Speaker 2: last dominion over the empire without harm? What should I
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Speaker 2: do about this? Uh? And this time this was the
6:44
Speaker 2: time when this song the eldest son d'O, who was
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Speaker 2: a governor of the Sanchuan Commandery or Suntrn Prefecture, which
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Speaker 2: guards the Santrum Commandery, covers the form Zo Dynasty royal
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Speaker 2: domain of the law Young Basin and also part of
7:05
Speaker 2: the Hunt's former Hunt State Territory basically guards approach to
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Speaker 2: the Chin heartland, so when the rebel forces of ten
7:15
Speaker 2: sent under Zowen. You know, at first Wugwang moved to
7:20
Speaker 2: Sanchuan Prefecture to besiege the large Chin Granary, and then
7:26
Speaker 2: Sowen moved through the Sanchuan prefecture to attack the Chin heartland,
7:30
Speaker 2: while the Yo led his garrison to to defend the
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Speaker 2: granary against Wukwang's forces. But somebody gets got to get
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Speaker 2: the blame for allowing the rebel to break through the
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Speaker 2: pop passes into the Chin heartland. And that someone happened
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Speaker 2: to be uh, the eldest sound, the Yo, even though
7:53
Speaker 2: they did nothing wrong. I mean, he did the strategically
7:56
Speaker 2: correct thing of holding up single handling, holding up Wugong's forces.
8:02
Speaker 2: So there was only one force that that went to
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Speaker 2: Chin harland, not like the combined forces of Wugong and
8:08
Speaker 2: so right, But anyway, like someone gets to get blamed,
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Speaker 2: and the Yeos this is the eldest son just happened
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Speaker 2: to be the convenient scapegoat. So now that the Imperial
8:26
Speaker 2: Envoid investigated the Sunchune region repeatedly, and they they censured
8:33
Speaker 2: this for holding a high you know, for holding the
8:36
Speaker 2: position of prime minister, yet allowing the bandits to reach
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Speaker 2: such level the Lisu right now, fearim for his life
8:45
Speaker 2: and valuing his his own position and salary. He did
8:49
Speaker 2: not know what to do so, but he knowed that
8:52
Speaker 2: what Wuhai Wantshi just don't want any responsibility. He just
8:57
Speaker 2: doesn't want to do anything. So he decided, you know what,
9:00
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna flatter who high h So he flatter
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Speaker 2: who his wishes in attempt to gain favor, and he
9:09
Speaker 2: submitted a famous written response and this this petition too, Hi.
9:18
Speaker 2: He said, a wise ruler must be the one who
9:21
Speaker 2: can fully uphold the way an employe method of strict
9:25
Speaker 2: supervisional accountability. If he supervises and hold his official accountable,
9:30
Speaker 2: the ministers will not dare to without their abilities, but
9:35
Speaker 2: must strive wholeheartedly for the ruler. This defines the fixed
9:39
Speaker 2: relationship between minister and sovereign, clarifies a proper conduct of
9:44
Speaker 2: superior and subordinates. Such all in the world, whether virtuous unworthy,
9:50
Speaker 2: will not dare to fail to exert their utmost effort
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Speaker 2: for the ruler. Therefore, the sovereign alone holds absolute authority
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Speaker 2: over all under heaven and the subject to no constraints.
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Speaker 2: He can sus attain the utmost in pleasure. This is
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Speaker 2: why it is an enlightened ruler, one who cannot be ignored.
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Speaker 2: This than then the you know, uh the society another
10:14
Speaker 2: legal scholars, Sable High. He says, you know, according to
10:19
Speaker 2: the the book by Sambol High, to possess the empire
10:25
Speaker 2: yet not to indulge freely. It's called bearing the empire
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Speaker 2: as a as a as a slave caller. There's no
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Speaker 2: reason for this other than the ruler's failure to enforce
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Speaker 2: strict accountability and instead devoting himself laboriously to the people
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Speaker 2: of the world like Yao and Yui. Hence it's termed
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Speaker 2: a slave caller to so. So again, I think the
10:52
Speaker 2: original symbol, original symbol highest idea as well as a
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Speaker 2: as a as well as the fates is to tell
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Speaker 2: a ruler issue delegate you no delegate responsibilities, but list
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Speaker 2: and Huhai has turned it around and saying, you know,
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Speaker 2: you should leave things to your officials, and you should
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Speaker 2: enjoy yourself and and in fact, the ancient sage king
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Speaker 2: you and Y'ao are foolish to be such micromanagers, you know,
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Speaker 2: working themselves to death for what. And then he goes
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Speaker 2: on to say to fail to cultivate the clear method
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Speaker 2: of symbol high and hun fids, or to follow the
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Speaker 2: path of strict accountability, yet instead merely strive to endure
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Speaker 2: physical hardship and exert mental effort for the sake of
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Speaker 2: the people, sacrificing oneself for the common folk. This is
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Speaker 2: nothing more than being a servant to the commoners, not
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Speaker 2: ruling all over heaven, all all under heaven. What value
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Speaker 2: can such approach hold? Again, I think it's this is
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Speaker 2: just originally hunphazd the kind of rhetoric he's kind of
12:04
Speaker 2: using a controversial point that sage King Ui and Yoo
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Speaker 2: are being foolish uh to to to drive home the
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Speaker 2: point that the rulers should delegate. But thissen, why kind
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Speaker 2: of turn turn it around to mean that why I
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Speaker 2: should should just devote himself to pleasure. To make people
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Speaker 2: serve oneself elevate one's own status while degrading other To
12:29
Speaker 2: sacrifice oneself for the sake of others is to degrade
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Speaker 2: oneself and to elevate others. Therefore, those who serve others
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Speaker 2: are lowly, and those who for whom the service is
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Speaker 2: rendered are esteemed. From ancient time to the presence there
12:45
Speaker 2: never being a different case. The reason why in antiquity
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Speaker 2: the virtuous were on their was because they held high status.
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Speaker 2: The reason why unworthy are despised was because of their
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Speaker 2: low lowliness. Yet yao, and you sacrifice by himself for
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Speaker 2: the world, so the people followed by honoring them. But
13:05
Speaker 2: this also deviates from the original intent of respecting virtue.
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Speaker 2: It can truly be called a great heir to cause
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Speaker 2: such a ruler. To cause such rulers a slave is
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Speaker 2: not inappropriate, isn't it. This is the fault of failing
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Speaker 2: to enforce strict accountability. And then he quote confiates a
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Speaker 2: kind mother has a way worse sung, while a strict
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Speaker 2: household has no unruly slaves. This is a uh punishment.
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Speaker 2: You have got to be strict. Why is this so?
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Speaker 2: It's because punishment must be applied without fail. Therefore, the
13:47
Speaker 2: laws of some young prescribed corporal punishment for anyone who
13:53
Speaker 2: discards the ashes on the road. Discarding ashes is a
13:56
Speaker 2: minor offense, yet it was punished with corporal punishment, a
14:00
Speaker 2: severe penalty. Only an enlightened ruler can impose strict supervision
14:05
Speaker 2: for even minor offenses. If a light offense is met
14:09
Speaker 2: with severe oversight, then what about serious crime? Therefore, people
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Speaker 2: will not dare to commit offenses. This is why Conveyss said,
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Speaker 2: common people do not let go of ordinary clothes and thread,
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Speaker 2: while the bandit h does not cease even one hundred
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Speaker 2: dollars of molten gold. This is not because common people.
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Speaker 2: This is not because common people value such things more
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Speaker 2: or find them more profitable, or because the bandits desire less.
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Speaker 2: It's also not that consider one hundred one hundred year
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Speaker 2: of waight to be light in value based on his
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Speaker 2: bandid conduct. If seizing such walls inevitably lead to the
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Speaker 2: immediate punishment, then the bandits were not there to see
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Speaker 2: even one hundred a yee uh but the But if
15:04
Speaker 2: the punishment is never certain, then the common people would
15:07
Speaker 2: not let go of their ordinary gains. This is why
15:12
Speaker 2: even a city wall five uh five meters high would
15:18
Speaker 2: not be lightly uh breached by lochi. These are like
15:26
Speaker 2: these are like references to I guess to ancient famous people.
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Speaker 2: Even though the Mountain Pie Rise hundreds of hundreds of
15:39
Speaker 2: like these are the I'm just gonna convert it to
15:43
Speaker 2: to to to to modern units, even though the mount
15:47
Speaker 2: Pie Rise thousands of meters seeing hide, lame sheeps still
15:52
Speaker 2: grease on its slopes. If loci find it difficult to
15:56
Speaker 2: breach a five meter barrier, how could lame she find
16:01
Speaker 2: it easy to ascend a thousand meter high among tides.
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Speaker 2: This is because nature and circumstances of the obstacle differ.
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Speaker 2: The reason why an enlightened ruler and sage king can
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Speaker 2: long remain in position of honor, holds great power for
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Speaker 2: extended period, and exclusively monopolize the benefit of all under heaven,
16:22
Speaker 2: it's not because they follow a different path. Rather, it's
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Speaker 2: because they alone possess authority to make decisions and strictly
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Speaker 2: enforced accountability, imposing severe punishments so that no one dares
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Speaker 2: to commit offenses. Now, if one does not focus on
16:39
Speaker 2: measure to prevent wrongdoing, but instead to follow the way
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Speaker 2: of a kind mother who unintentionally spoil her son, then
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Speaker 2: he has failed to understand the teaching of sage. He
16:50
Speaker 2: cannot practice the method of sage. Then what else is
16:56
Speaker 2: he but a servant to all under heaven? What purpose
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Speaker 2: is his existence? Sir? How pitiful this is? So? This
17:02
Speaker 2: is a This is again this argument against this Confucian
17:06
Speaker 2: idea of zen which is benevolence instead advocating, you gotta
17:13
Speaker 2: be applied strict punishment, so people will be afraid of you.
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Speaker 2: You know, if people are afraid of committing even minor offenses,
17:22
Speaker 2: they will not even dare of committing more grave crimes. Well,
17:26
Speaker 2: so that at least that's the idea that this is
17:29
Speaker 2: trying to trying to conveyed. It's the kind of a
17:32
Speaker 2: legalist idea. Moreover, if frugal and virtuous man of benevolence
17:38
Speaker 2: and righteousness holds position court, then licentious pleasure will cease.
17:44
Speaker 2: If minister who advised with reason and logic stands at
17:48
Speaker 2: ruler side, then recklessness ambition will be curved. If loyal
17:52
Speaker 2: men who die for their principles are honor in society
17:55
Speaker 2: and indulgent and decade in pursuit will be abandoned. Therefore,
17:59
Speaker 2: in lightened ruler can sit aside these three influences and
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Speaker 2: solely will the sovereign method to control obedient minister while
18:09
Speaker 2: refining his clear laws. This is why he attains personal
18:13
Speaker 2: prestige and great authority. So the idea is the ruler
18:16
Speaker 2: just got to maintain his power, his power over his officials.
18:21
Speaker 2: But let the officials wrung things. All virtuous ruler must
18:25
Speaker 2: be able to oppose prevailing customs and eradicate what they dislike,
18:30
Speaker 2: establishing instead what they desire. Says. When alives, they enjoy
18:35
Speaker 2: respect and authority, and after death the received posthumous titles
18:40
Speaker 2: of virtue and wisdom. This is why an enlightened ruler
18:43
Speaker 2: makes decisions alone, since the power does not lie with
18:46
Speaker 2: his ministers. Only then can he extinguish the path of
18:51
Speaker 2: benevolence and righteousness, silence those who speak eloquently by recklessness,
18:57
Speaker 2: recklessness listening, hinder the action of loyal man, block wisdom
19:03
Speaker 2: and insight from within, and solely realizes solely on his
19:06
Speaker 2: own judgment. Such externally, he cannot be swayed by conduct
19:11
Speaker 2: of virtuous and loyal individuals, nor internally can he be
19:15
Speaker 2: moved by argument or dispute from advisors. Therefore, he is
19:19
Speaker 2: able to act with complete self indulgence, following his own desire,
19:23
Speaker 2: without anyone daring to oppose him. Only in this way
19:28
Speaker 2: they one can be said truly understand the method of
19:31
Speaker 2: symbol high and confaces and refine the laws of some
19:35
Speaker 2: young So He's saying, the ruler should be a dictator
19:37
Speaker 2: right like he should hold all the power, but he
19:43
Speaker 2: just needs to have some strict rule to keep his
19:47
Speaker 2: ministers and officials in check so they don't usurp his power.
19:52
Speaker 2: There has there has never been a case where where
19:55
Speaker 2: where clear laws and well understood methods leads to chaos
19:59
Speaker 2: in the wor world. Hence, it is said the way
20:01
Speaker 2: of kingship is concise and easy to practice, only an
20:06
Speaker 2: enlightened ruler capable of carrying it out. If this is done,
20:09
Speaker 2: then the principle of strict accountability will be genuinely implemented.
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Speaker 2: When that happens, minister will have no malice. When minister
20:17
Speaker 2: are free from malice, the world will enjoy peace. With
20:21
Speaker 2: the peaceful world, the ruler gained authority and respect. With
20:25
Speaker 2: authority and respect, strict accountability becomes certain. With certainty in accountability, whoever,
20:33
Speaker 2: whatever is desire can be achieved. When desire are fulfilled,
20:38
Speaker 2: the state grows wealthy. As a state prospers, the ruler
20:42
Speaker 2: enjoy abundant pleasures. Therefore, once a method of strict accountability
20:47
Speaker 2: is established, whatever one's desire can be obtained without fail.
20:51
Speaker 2: Minister and commander will be so busy correcting their own
20:55
Speaker 2: mistakes that they dare not even to consider rebellion. In
20:59
Speaker 2: this way, the path imperial rule is complete, and one
21:02
Speaker 2: may be said to have truly mastered the ruler minister relations.
21:06
Speaker 2: Even if simple High and con Hanphais were returned to life,
21:10
Speaker 2: they could not surpass this. So I mean, I mean
21:14
Speaker 2: simple High and hunphys society kind of makes sense. But
21:17
Speaker 2: what Lisa and who are advocating for is Whoai, as
21:21
Speaker 2: an import, should do whatever he wants. Because he is
21:24
Speaker 2: an import, he should be able to indulge it in
21:27
Speaker 2: his desire however he wants, because you know, he alone
21:32
Speaker 2: holds authority, so so he kind of you know, turned
21:35
Speaker 2: the idea of the legal scholar of simple high and
21:39
Speaker 2: handphas down its head. And and and after, when this
21:47
Speaker 2: memorial was presented, the Emperor who Hi was very pleased.
21:53
Speaker 2: So the then the implementation of strict accountability become even harsher,
21:58
Speaker 2: and the official who heavily taxed the people were considered
22:01
Speaker 2: capable administers. And Imperor who said, if this is so,
22:06
Speaker 2: then one may be said to truly possess ability of
22:10
Speaker 2: strict accountability. The streets were half filled with criminals and
22:15
Speaker 2: corps pile up daily in the marketplace, because marketplaces where
22:20
Speaker 2: they execute criminals, those who kill many people were regarded
22:25
Speaker 2: as loyal ministers. And Imperor who said, if this is so,
22:29
Speaker 2: one may also said to be possessed ability of strict accountability.
22:34
Speaker 2: So I mean, who hires a lesson from this is
22:38
Speaker 2: that you gotta you just got to apply strict laws.
22:44
Speaker 2: You know, the harsher the punishment, the better. And it said,
22:47
Speaker 2: a kind of wrong incentive for the officials or whoever
22:52
Speaker 2: carry out the most executions can put that as his
22:58
Speaker 2: great accomplishment and get from And this kind of exasperated
23:03
Speaker 2: the problem of the chain dynasty. And now it's a
23:10
Speaker 2: gaul at this time it's as one of the co
23:12
Speaker 2: conspirator who put Emperor who high in power together with Lise.
23:19
Speaker 2: He had because he he had prosecuted and killed many people, uh,
23:26
Speaker 2: to settle private grudges. Now he feared that this minister
23:31
Speaker 2: might criticize him when they come to court to report
23:35
Speaker 2: the affairs. So he he told the Emperor who high.
23:38
Speaker 2: He said, the reason why a song of heaven is
23:41
Speaker 2: respected is because his presence is heard, but not seeing,
23:46
Speaker 2: no minister can be behold his face. Uh, so this
23:52
Speaker 2: is this way your Majesty. Moreover, your Majesty is young
23:57
Speaker 2: and may not yet fully understand the matter of the state.
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Speaker 2: If you now sit in court and criticize or reprimand
24:05
Speaker 2: someone unjustly, you will reveal your shortcomings before these ministers,
24:10
Speaker 2: and this will not be a way to demonstrate divine
24:13
Speaker 2: wisdom to the people. So furthermore, your Majesty should remain
24:18
Speaker 2: in deep seclusion within the palace and consult with me
24:22
Speaker 2: and the attendants who are well verse in legal matters.
24:27
Speaker 2: When the affair rise, we will have the means to
24:30
Speaker 2: assess them properly. In this way, Minister will not dare
24:34
Speaker 2: to present doubt for or questionable matters to you, and
24:39
Speaker 2: the whole world would acclaim your Majesty as a sage ruler.
24:43
Speaker 2: So this is a Go's plot to further isolate Imperor
24:49
Speaker 2: who high, and he's saying like, look, you are young.
24:53
Speaker 2: If you somehow expose your own youthful in the experience
24:59
Speaker 2: in front of the minute, they're going to take advantage
25:01
Speaker 2: of you. It's better you just secluding yourself in the palaces.
25:06
Speaker 2: Let me and your confidant, who are while versing the
25:10
Speaker 2: legal matters, advise you, and we will act as a
25:13
Speaker 2: filter between you and the ministers. And and that way,
25:17
Speaker 2: the ministers they know because you are you make a
25:22
Speaker 2: distant monarch. You you can maintain this kind of almost
25:26
Speaker 2: divine presence and your presence will not be challenged.
25:30
Speaker 1: Now, this kind of just does make sense in the
25:35
Speaker 1: way and that if you know, if the emperor is
25:37
Speaker 1: very hands on or relatively hands on and he you know,
25:41
Speaker 1: makes some errors, it kind of explodes makes him seem
25:44
Speaker 1: more human, more vallible. But this approach to governance that
25:51
Speaker 1: is suggesting is in order for it to work for
25:56
Speaker 1: the emperor, these attends who are acting as the intermediaries
26:02
Speaker 1: have to be kind of expendable because when things do
26:06
Speaker 1: go wrong, the emperor has to be able to like
26:10
Speaker 1: pull these people back or get rid of them and
26:13
Speaker 1: put and brings and make that person take the responsibility
26:16
Speaker 1: essentially and for the decisions and uh and you know,
26:21
Speaker 1: replaced with someone else so that all the mistakes are
26:25
Speaker 1: become the responsibility of his underlings.
26:29
Speaker 2: And he maintains this kind of you know, semi divine aura.
26:32
Speaker 1: But as we're going to see, this is not going
26:34
Speaker 1: to work with Chilcoal and and this second chain emperor.
26:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it would work assuming there's no actual
26:42
Speaker 2: filtering of the information from these unis to the emperor, right,
26:47
Speaker 2: because if everything is transparent, it's fine, if you are
26:51
Speaker 2: receiving there's But the problem is these Eunichs themselves, they
26:55
Speaker 2: can run interference in deciding what message had to filter
27:00
Speaker 2: to the top, and that that would create a problem.
27:03
Speaker 2: And and especially when the emperor himself, Huhai is not
27:07
Speaker 2: really a handsome person, you know, he doesn't really, it's
27:10
Speaker 2: the concern was governing. So now uh because uh so,
27:19
Speaker 2: the Emperor Huai adopted this plan, and so he no
27:23
Speaker 2: longer sat in court to meet with ministers, but remained
27:26
Speaker 2: secluded in the palace, and Salau became more important because
27:30
Speaker 2: he's served. He served, as he holds the real power everything,
27:34
Speaker 2: all the affairs now decided by Now Saga heard that
27:41
Speaker 2: these had spoken against this, so he so he decided
27:46
Speaker 2: to go to you know, he later travel these. He
27:50
Speaker 2: went to see this and said, okay, there are really
27:53
Speaker 2: many rebels in the land east of the past of
27:57
Speaker 2: the the you know, the in the former six state's land.
28:01
Speaker 2: Now his match is to urgently order, urgently orders more
28:06
Speaker 2: conscripts to be sent for building of a palace and
28:11
Speaker 2: to and it's gathering useless things like dogs and horses.
28:17
Speaker 2: I wish to remonstrate, but my position is too lowly.
28:21
Speaker 2: This truly falls within your Excellency's responsibility. Why don't you
28:26
Speaker 2: why why do you not, you know, advise the Import
28:31
Speaker 2: on this at Lisa said, well, that is true. I
28:33
Speaker 2: have long wanted to speak out on this matter. Now
28:36
Speaker 2: that Import does not sit in court, but reside deep
28:40
Speaker 2: within the palace. Whenever I wish to say cannot be conveyed,
28:44
Speaker 2: and I have no opportunity to meet with him. And
28:46
Speaker 2: so said, okay, this is no problem. If you're willing
28:49
Speaker 2: to advise the Emperor, allow me to find opportunity for
28:54
Speaker 2: you to speak with the Imperor, because I know when
28:57
Speaker 2: Emperor will have time. So so God would wait until
29:03
Speaker 2: the Emperor, who is engaged in uh in pleasure with
29:07
Speaker 2: his women, uh you know, and then that's when he
29:12
Speaker 2: he will send the messenger to to to these He said,
29:16
Speaker 2: oh you you're your majesty is now free. You may
29:21
Speaker 2: come forward to report affairs. So this always arrived in
29:26
Speaker 2: the opportune moment in the palace. And after after many times,
29:33
Speaker 2: who is getting angry and getting sick and tired of this,
29:36
Speaker 2: And he said, you know, I'm I often have many
29:40
Speaker 2: free days. Yet the yet the Prime Minister never comes
29:44
Speaker 2: when I'm free, He always comes to interrupt me. Well,
29:47
Speaker 2: I'm like in the middle of something, so whenever I'm
29:51
Speaker 2: engaging private pleasures that the Prime Minister somehow always managed
29:56
Speaker 2: to show up to request the audience does this? Uh?
30:00
Speaker 2: But does this this?
30:01
Speaker 1: Uh?
30:03
Speaker 2: Prime minister truly need me so much? Or is it
30:06
Speaker 2: that he wants to uh, you know, is it he
30:11
Speaker 2: he wants to to bite me so tightly? And so
30:14
Speaker 2: now it's all saw the opportunity. He said, Well, if
30:18
Speaker 2: in this case the situation is dangerous. You know, the
30:23
Speaker 2: original plot Assacho involved us, you know, involves the Prime
30:29
Speaker 2: Minister as well, to put you on the throne. Now,
30:32
Speaker 2: your Majesty has ascended to the throne, Yet the Prime
30:35
Speaker 2: Minister's rank and wealth have not increased, you know, he
30:39
Speaker 2: has this has already risen to the position that he
30:44
Speaker 2: could go no higher. This indicates he must be hoping
30:47
Speaker 2: for a fiefdom of his own, and perhaps he's hoping
30:52
Speaker 2: you would make him king. Moreover, if that your Magesty
30:56
Speaker 2: does not ask me, I dare not to speak. But
31:00
Speaker 2: now I feel like I need to speak up. The
31:03
Speaker 2: Prime Minister's oldest sung d O is the governor of
31:07
Speaker 2: Sunchune command Commandery. The rebels Hensen and other from the
31:11
Speaker 2: true state. Now they're all the people. All these people
31:16
Speaker 2: are from their hometown, are from the from the counties
31:21
Speaker 2: near the Prime Minister's hometown. And this is the reason
31:25
Speaker 2: why these rebels have acted so openly public. And that's
31:30
Speaker 2: why they were able to pack through the Sunchune prefecture
31:33
Speaker 2: where Lisa's Song was governor two to you know, penetrate
31:39
Speaker 2: deep into the Qin dynasty heartland. And and this and
31:46
Speaker 2: while Byos Garrison for whatever reason, refused to attack them.
31:51
Speaker 2: So he said, said, I heard of their correspondence. You know,
31:55
Speaker 2: the the do o is actually corresponding with the rebels,
31:59
Speaker 2: But yet I have not obtained conclusive evidence. That's why
32:03
Speaker 2: I dare not report it. But moreover, the Prime Minister
32:07
Speaker 2: holds power outside the palace. His authority is now greater
32:11
Speaker 2: than your majesty's now uh Now Juhai obviously believes this,
32:16
Speaker 2: so he wished to investigate Liz, but he he he
32:22
Speaker 2: worried that this accusation might not be substantiated, so he
32:25
Speaker 2: actually sent the Imperial Envoid to investigate these eldest Sondeo
32:32
Speaker 2: to to to to verify whether he did in fact
32:35
Speaker 2: collaborate with the rebels. And then this heard about this uh,
32:41
Speaker 2: this heard that the you know, the god had been
32:44
Speaker 2: bad mouthing him, and he finally realized, you know, like
32:49
Speaker 2: he fell into God's path. So at this time, the
32:55
Speaker 2: Emperor hu Hi was at the palace of Guntran where
32:59
Speaker 2: he was watching uh performance of you know, of his
33:04
Speaker 2: uh you know court court court performers, so unable to working,
33:11
Speaker 2: unable to meet with the emperor. So Lisa submitted memorial
33:15
Speaker 2: denouncing sau Gao and said, I have not heard that
33:19
Speaker 2: when a minister doubts his ruler, it's always dangerous for
33:23
Speaker 2: the state. When a wife suspects her husband, inevitably harmful
33:28
Speaker 2: to the family. Now there are ministers who act arbitrarily
33:32
Speaker 2: in taking benefits and inflicting harm, as if there were
33:35
Speaker 2: your Majesty himself. This is the most inconvenient in the past.
33:42
Speaker 2: Now he's he's referring to uh the time the uh
33:48
Speaker 2: when the Han was serving as a prime minister of
33:52
Speaker 2: the Song state, he personally carry out punishment and enforced
33:56
Speaker 2: authorities through fear. After a year, he eventually sees the
33:59
Speaker 2: power or from his ruler again the Tien family. When
34:03
Speaker 2: the Tien Tongue was the minister of of of of
34:10
Speaker 2: the Duke, of the of the of the Chief State,
34:15
Speaker 2: he held the highest rank of the state and his
34:18
Speaker 2: private wealth equal to the royal treasury. By bestowing favor
34:22
Speaker 2: and virtue upon others, he gained support from the common
34:25
Speaker 2: people below and the minister above, and secretly he sees
34:29
Speaker 2: the control of the Chief State. Uh and And you know,
34:33
Speaker 2: made himself the ruler assassinated the the ruling duke during
34:39
Speaker 2: a court session, served by seizing complete power over chie
34:44
Speaker 2: These are all facts well known to all under heaven. Now,
34:49
Speaker 2: so God harbored the wicked and wicked ambitions and engaging
34:54
Speaker 2: dangerous and rebellious action just like the powerful ministers. The
34:59
Speaker 2: hunt of uh Song uh and AND's private wealth now
35:04
Speaker 2: is compared to that of the Tiang clan in the
35:06
Speaker 2: state of Chi. He combined buying the treacherous way of
35:10
Speaker 2: the Tien ten And and the hun to seize your
35:13
Speaker 2: Majesty's authority and prestige with ambition akin to those of
35:18
Speaker 2: a of a Han shi. When he became prime minister
35:22
Speaker 2: of the King Hun of King Anna of Han. If
35:25
Speaker 2: your majesty does not take action, I fear that he
35:28
Speaker 2: will soon instigate a rebellion. Now Imperor Huai does not
35:34
Speaker 2: believe this, because he still have full trust in Saugau.
35:37
Speaker 2: So he said, what do you mean? Saga was originally
35:40
Speaker 2: a uniche. Yet he did not indulge in reckless desire
35:44
Speaker 2: for peace or change his mind when fear. When faced
35:48
Speaker 2: with danger, he maintained clean contact and cultivated virtue, which
35:52
Speaker 2: brought him to this position. He advanced through loyalty and
35:55
Speaker 2: held office by trustworthiness. I truly regard him as virtuous,
35:59
Speaker 2: but you doubt him. Why is that? More Over, I
36:02
Speaker 2: was young when my father passed away and knew nothing.
36:05
Speaker 2: Will I mean I am inexperienced? I'm I am inexperienced
36:10
Speaker 2: in governing the people while you are old. Now I
36:14
Speaker 2: fear that without your support I will be cut off
36:16
Speaker 2: on the world if I do not trust Augau? To
36:20
Speaker 2: whom should I trust? More Overgau is a man of
36:25
Speaker 2: precision and integrity, strong in ability. He understand the people
36:29
Speaker 2: sit him in below and can properly attend to my
36:32
Speaker 2: needs above. You must not doubt him. These retorted is
36:36
Speaker 2: this is not true. It's originally a low, lowly person,
36:39
Speaker 2: ignorant of principles. He has insatiable greed and ceaselessly desire
36:45
Speaker 2: for profit. Now he holds power second only to the
36:48
Speaker 2: Son of Heaven, yet his ambitions are endless. This is
36:51
Speaker 2: why I say the danger lies ahead. But but but Emperor,
36:55
Speaker 2: who I would would hear none of this. So so
36:58
Speaker 2: he feared at least take action to kill Zagau. So
37:02
Speaker 2: he secretly informed Aga of the secret memorial and said,
37:11
Speaker 2: the only person that the Prime Minister fear is me,
37:15
Speaker 2: because if I die, the Prime Minister himself will act
37:18
Speaker 2: as those powerful minister like Tiantan and handed in the past,
37:24
Speaker 2: and and and because of this, you know, got accused
37:34
Speaker 2: of this of rebellion. So so this now was under
37:39
Speaker 2: the order of the emperor to be arrested and put
37:42
Speaker 2: in jail. You wanted to say something, Yeah, this.
37:46
Speaker 1: Is basically Li got in on this plot to put
37:52
Speaker 1: the current emperor in charge because he thought he might
37:55
Speaker 1: get marginalized as prime minister by Muntian because the previous
37:59
Speaker 1: crime Prince Husu was vering close to general mention.
38:03
Speaker 2: Right.
38:03
Speaker 1: But uh, now, like the exact same thing has happened
38:07
Speaker 1: by his co conspirator, this unich like Chilco. It seems
38:10
Speaker 1: like odd that this like very old statesman, uh did
38:15
Speaker 1: not see this coming, right, because this is the guy
38:21
Speaker 1: who has like he is responsible for not having the
38:28
Speaker 1: first emperor revert to the feudal system of governance after
38:33
Speaker 1: the six States were defeated. Okay, so he has a
38:35
Speaker 1: very clear insight into the political affairs. But now he
38:42
Speaker 1: seems and he plainly is in control or at least
38:47
Speaker 1: largely controls the bureaucracy.
38:50
Speaker 2: But he's.
38:53
Speaker 1: Somehow he does not have he doesn't have the emperor's
38:56
Speaker 1: own confidence because Chiago is a eunuch. Is I guess
39:00
Speaker 1: this emperor thinks was guy man man with no balls
39:03
Speaker 1: cannot be a threat, you know, he he he can,
39:05
Speaker 1: he can only serve me, right whereas Lisa, you know,
39:08
Speaker 1: he's this old boomer from like my dad's generation, like
39:10
Speaker 1: always telling me what looks down on me, probably on
39:13
Speaker 1: some level. And uh so I'm just going to trust
39:17
Speaker 1: that child God Moore. This is kind of what it
39:19
Speaker 1: boils down to, right, Like he chi Gaul really has
39:25
Speaker 1: is also has you know, carried out a bunch of
39:30
Speaker 1: private event desert that does against people and a mask
39:33
Speaker 1: some wealth himself. But he is not presumably off to
39:36
Speaker 1: Lisa's level, but he's got the ear of this young
39:39
Speaker 1: emperor who's kind of good for nothing, and that makes
39:42
Speaker 1: all the difference, and Lisa is not, and Lisa doesn't
39:45
Speaker 1: win because he's not actually the opportunistic minister. He's not
39:50
Speaker 1: as opportunistic as he's being portrayed to be. He was
39:54
Speaker 1: willing to participate in the conspiracy to replace the former
39:58
Speaker 1: crown prince with this guy, but he's not. There are
40:02
Speaker 1: other chin princes still, as we will later learn, but
40:05
Speaker 1: he's not willing to like try to exert the same
40:10
Speaker 1: coercion against this current emper He's just kind of trying
40:13
Speaker 1: to go through the normal channels, right, And uh yeah,
40:18
Speaker 1: it seems kind of weird for me that this old guy,
40:21
Speaker 1: who is extremely experienced, he's going to like he can
40:24
Speaker 1: be led around the nose like this by Joe Gallen,
40:26
Speaker 1: like led to these moments to let to present his
40:32
Speaker 1: memorials at these like inopportune moments, you know, repeatedly.
40:36
Speaker 2: Well, I think he's a this is great weakness is
40:40
Speaker 2: actually his attachment to power, you know, it's because his
40:44
Speaker 2: attachment to power led him to participate in the conspiracy
40:48
Speaker 2: to enthrone the current imperor at the expense of the
40:52
Speaker 2: former crown prince because he wanted to preserve his own position.
40:56
Speaker 2: But I think he was because he probably didn't think
41:01
Speaker 2: would be a threat because is a unuch, right, But yeah,
41:08
Speaker 2: is that apparently you know has a year of the emperor,
41:12
Speaker 2: and that does make a difference. And I think this
41:16
Speaker 2: su wasn't counting on that. And he he also because
41:21
Speaker 2: he is a little bit maybe he's a little bit
41:23
Speaker 2: also full of hubers. He thought, imperor need me to
41:27
Speaker 2: run the country, right, because he felt like they need
41:32
Speaker 2: him to run the bureaucracy, so he felt he's in
41:36
Speaker 2: this indispensable. I think those those two things are the
41:41
Speaker 2: pride and his attachment to power is what led to
41:45
Speaker 2: his undoing. So when the suit was jailed, Salgau investigated
41:53
Speaker 2: and he punished these uh like these sue was bounding
41:57
Speaker 2: chains and confined in prison, and and and and and
42:04
Speaker 2: in and when when these suit was was in in jail,
42:11
Speaker 2: what would subject him to torture? You know too? To
42:15
Speaker 2: make sure he confessed to his crime of collaborating with
42:20
Speaker 2: rebels of treason. But you know, lisu fort in the beginning,
42:26
Speaker 2: Lisa would not bend. But eventually, you know, torture is
42:30
Speaker 2: such that you you you'll break anybody given time. So eventually,
42:36
Speaker 2: what what what what the so? So right now there's
42:41
Speaker 2: still seem to be two systems. You know, one system
42:43
Speaker 2: is these officials that sent by Uhau to to interrogate list,
42:49
Speaker 2: and when these refused to admit guilt, these confidant will
42:58
Speaker 2: report back to and would order uh jailers to to
43:04
Speaker 2: crank up the torture. So eventually Lis wised up, and
43:09
Speaker 2: you know, he confessed, He confessed that that he was
43:12
Speaker 2: he was indeed committed treason. And and but later after
43:17
Speaker 2: a while, the Imperor Huai sent his own man in
43:22
Speaker 2: prison to investigate investigate Lisa, but Lisa could not tell
43:27
Speaker 2: the difference between whether their man found Huhai or man
43:30
Speaker 2: found So he just admitted to his guilt. And now
43:35
Speaker 2: theseus guilt has been established, you know, by his own
43:39
Speaker 2: confession to the emperor and the the Huhai was very
43:42
Speaker 2: grateful for for spotting uh this is uh uh this
43:48
Speaker 2: is rebellion.
43:50
Speaker 1: And and.
43:51
Speaker 2: And and uh and then then that.
43:57
Speaker 1: Uh so.
43:59
Speaker 2: Or originally Uh. The Emperor had sent special envoy to
44:05
Speaker 2: investigate these Sung the Eo for possibly collaborating with rebels.
44:11
Speaker 2: But when the imperial envoyd went to investigate the Eyo
44:15
Speaker 2: that by that time Leo has already been killed in
44:19
Speaker 2: battle against the the Ubang and Shangis forces. So the
44:24
Speaker 2: Imperial Envoyd come back and says, oh, there's no you know,
44:28
Speaker 2: I don't think Leo is a rebel because he was
44:30
Speaker 2: killed in battle against the rebels. Uh. But again that
44:34
Speaker 2: report first reached Saugal, so Thug didn't didn't allow the
44:42
Speaker 2: report to reach the emperor and instead thal forged the
44:48
Speaker 2: uh A document and say, yeah, the O is actually
44:51
Speaker 2: the trader. So now we have we have the both
44:55
Speaker 2: the the investigative report that says this Sung the O
45:00
Speaker 2: is a collaborator with the rebels, and the himself confessed
45:03
Speaker 2: to to treason of rebellion. So he was sentenced to
45:08
Speaker 2: death by there's but but not not just ordinary death.
45:14
Speaker 2: There's like five processes. First they they tattooed his face,
45:21
Speaker 2: you know, as a humiliation, and then they cut off
45:24
Speaker 2: the nose as a second pop process, and and after
45:29
Speaker 2: that the cut off your feet and hand, and then
45:32
Speaker 2: they cut off your balls. And then lastly, uh, he
45:37
Speaker 2: was sentenced to be cut in half, bisecting in half
45:40
Speaker 2: at the waist so at and as Lisa and his
45:46
Speaker 2: youngest son were you know, sent to to the execution ground, uh,
45:52
Speaker 2: his sighed and and tell his youngest son, oh, we
45:56
Speaker 2: can no longer go through the yeast gate of sons
46:03
Speaker 2: and go go a hunt game with our our yellow
46:07
Speaker 2: hunting dogs, because that was his favorite pastime. Let's remember
46:12
Speaker 2: many decades ago, Lisu was a lowly official granary supervisor
46:20
Speaker 2: at the former two state at the City of Sounds huh,
46:24
Speaker 2: and after work his favorite pastime was to take take
46:28
Speaker 2: his yellow hunting dog and maybe take his son and
46:31
Speaker 2: go go hunting. And at the last moment of his life,
46:36
Speaker 2: he said, alas we will no longer I will no longer,
46:39
Speaker 2: we will no longer be able to doing that. But
46:42
Speaker 2: see this is the problem that he's he's realizing that
46:46
Speaker 2: the pleasure of like like he could have given up
46:50
Speaker 2: his post. You know, if if he wasn't so attached
46:55
Speaker 2: to his position, you know, he would not have participated
46:58
Speaker 2: in that plot to Putuhai in power. If he just
47:02
Speaker 2: followed the procedure made crown Prince Fusu the emperor. You know,
47:06
Speaker 2: he may be replaced as a prime minister by Monk Kim,
47:09
Speaker 2: but so what, you know, he could just retire and
47:13
Speaker 2: go hunt right with his son, and and that the
47:17
Speaker 2: just give another Chinese dy and domment Huang Tren, the
47:21
Speaker 2: Yellow Dog of the East Gate. It's about like last dying,
47:26
Speaker 2: which last dying regrets. And it's only when he faced
47:32
Speaker 2: that he realized, Ah, how nice it would be if
47:35
Speaker 2: we can go you know, like like the old times
47:38
Speaker 2: when we go hunt, uh after work. I mean like
47:42
Speaker 2: he could have done that, like at any moment in
47:45
Speaker 2: time before this, you know, like if he just gave up,
47:49
Speaker 2: even if he after he participately in the plot, if
47:53
Speaker 2: like when he realized how was holding all the power,
47:55
Speaker 2: he could have just retired.
47:57
Speaker 1: He could have just you know, I'm not sure he
48:01
Speaker 1: could still retire so easily after the plot, because he's
48:04
Speaker 1: the co conspirator in the plot, right, there is a
48:09
Speaker 1: chilegall might still have it out for him at that point.
48:13
Speaker 1: But before then, yes, certainly he is.
48:19
Speaker 2: Basic.
48:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess there is a sense of there is
48:23
Speaker 1: some sense of hubris that allowed that led him to
48:27
Speaker 1: underestimate the threat that Jargall can pose. And also because
48:34
Speaker 1: he's served under these like very powerful Chin rulers in
48:39
Speaker 1: the past, and I guess he's got some level of
48:41
Speaker 1: institutitutional loyalty uh to these memory of these prior empress
48:47
Speaker 1: it perhaps makes him makes it more difficult for him
48:53
Speaker 1: to protect himself through coercive means, because, as we're going
48:57
Speaker 1: to see later, Chargall has no such scruple. Right once
49:01
Speaker 1: he thinks that the second emperor is maybe going to
49:04
Speaker 1: like turn on him, he moves.
49:06
Speaker 2: Quickly to protect himself. Well, yeah, yeah, I get that.
49:10
Speaker 2: He yeah. I think one of the thing is he
49:12
Speaker 2: thought he was didn't think he would be executed, because
49:17
Speaker 2: he even in prison, he wrote a famous memorial to
49:21
Speaker 2: the emperor. He said, I have served that I have
49:24
Speaker 2: served as a prime Minister in governing the people for
49:27
Speaker 2: over thirty years. I have led the consolidation of Chin
49:31
Speaker 2: territory through its h You know when before the Chin
49:36
Speaker 2: was still confined within the narrow land passes. In the
49:42
Speaker 2: time of the previous kings, Chin territory did not exceed
49:46
Speaker 2: five hundred kilometers across, with armies numbering only in tens
49:51
Speaker 2: of thousands. I, with my limited ability carefully enforced laws
49:56
Speaker 2: and decrease. I secretly supported strategies by providing them with
50:00
Speaker 2: gold and jade, and sent them to persuade the feudal
50:03
Speaker 2: lords in secret at strengthened military equipment and trained soldiers,
50:08
Speaker 2: and refined governance and education. Appoint a capable official, honored
50:16
Speaker 2: meritorious ministers, and enriched their ranks and salaries so as
50:21
Speaker 2: we eventually coerce the state of Hun and we can
50:24
Speaker 2: the State of Way defeated the State of Yen and
50:27
Speaker 2: Zau subdue state of Qi and Two, ultimately annexing all
50:31
Speaker 2: six stays, capturing their kings, establishing the Son of Heaven
50:35
Speaker 2: as ruler of Qin. This is my first crime. The
50:40
Speaker 2: territory was not only vast, but we also drove the
50:46
Speaker 2: barbarian who and people in North world and pacify the
50:52
Speaker 2: in the South to demonstrate Chin's strength. This is my
50:57
Speaker 2: second crime. I honor high ranking Now he's talking about
51:02
Speaker 2: his past successes. I owned my high ranking ministry, and
51:06
Speaker 2: you elevate the ranks to strengthen loyalty. This is my
51:09
Speaker 2: third crime. I established my established ancestral temples and repair
51:14
Speaker 2: state affairs demonstrate the ruler's virtue. This is my fourth crime.
51:18
Speaker 2: A standardized measurement, equalize the bushels and weights, regulate writing style.
51:28
Speaker 2: Now he's he's claiming the credit for for everything that
51:32
Speaker 2: nowadays really attributed to the first Import. He's saying, he
51:36
Speaker 2: unified it and standardized the writing to standardize a measurement
51:40
Speaker 2: and spread these reforms throughout the empire to establish Chain's prestige.
51:44
Speaker 2: This is my fifth crime. I instructed imperial roads build
51:50
Speaker 2: pleasure pavilion to display ruler satisfaction. This is my sixth crime.
51:55
Speaker 2: I use punishment, reduce taxes and levies to fulfill the
51:59
Speaker 2: ruler's desire popular support. The people revere their sovereign even
52:03
Speaker 2: in death. They did not forget them. This is my
52:05
Speaker 2: seventh crime. A minister who acts in such a manner
52:09
Speaker 2: his crime are more sufficient to warrant death long ago again,
52:13
Speaker 2: Like he's saying, this is my crime for making the
52:17
Speaker 2: Chain great again. He is like still fall of Hubris,
52:21
Speaker 2: even though he was in prison right because he thinks
52:25
Speaker 2: by boasting about his past achievement, uh, he will able
52:30
Speaker 2: to change the minds of the import to allow him
52:33
Speaker 2: to live. Then he goes down to say, this sovereign
52:36
Speaker 2: has mercifully allowed me to use my full abilities, such
52:40
Speaker 2: enabling me to survive until now. I hope your majesty
52:43
Speaker 2: will examine this matter carefully. But of course this memorial
52:49
Speaker 2: never reach Import Who High because older official to discard
52:53
Speaker 2: it without presenting to the import saying how could a
52:57
Speaker 2: prisoner send the petition to the emperor. So but because
53:02
Speaker 2: by this time, you know, It's God had monopolized all
53:05
Speaker 2: access to Imperor who High and saw go wanted least
53:09
Speaker 2: to die. So this is this, I mean like he
53:15
Speaker 2: he is, he is a victim of his own desire,
53:20
Speaker 2: for his own desire to remain in power. You know,
53:25
Speaker 2: if he if he had not participate in the plot,
53:29
Speaker 2: he would have been fine, or if he have retired
53:31
Speaker 2: before you know, the plot time, he would have been fine,
53:36
Speaker 2: I think. But but but because he he tried to
53:41
Speaker 2: stay stay in the center of power for too long,
53:45
Speaker 2: and only near death he realized, oh life, simple pleasure,
53:49
Speaker 2: you know, hunting with my yellow dog. That would be
53:52
Speaker 2: so nice. But it was too late. And and the punishment,
53:56
Speaker 2: you know, bisecting by by the it's designed to be
54:01
Speaker 2: cruel because you don't die immediately after that. Right, Yeah,
54:06
Speaker 2: there's a Supposedly in the Chin Chin dynasty, the last
54:10
Speaker 2: imperial dynasties, there was one official that was executed by
54:14
Speaker 2: bisecting at the waist and he dipped his finger in
54:19
Speaker 2: his own blood and wrote like six letters ton time
54:23
Speaker 2: to I don't know how the transplates time into and
54:27
Speaker 2: it's like, uh cruel. Yeah, yeah, he wrote like six
54:31
Speaker 2: cruel before he finally died. But that that's and and
54:35
Speaker 2: eventually that was outlawed. I think in the late China,
54:39
Speaker 2: just before the Revolutionist I think the Chin dynasty finally
54:42
Speaker 2: all law that uh method of execution. But yeah, it's uh,
54:48
Speaker 2: it's it's also hard to sympathize with him because he
54:53
Speaker 2: is also he contributed, you know, because his own desire
54:57
Speaker 2: for power, He contributed to the death of Monkey and
54:59
Speaker 2: and the and the and the crown Prince Fusu, and
55:03
Speaker 2: in doing so he buried the chance of the of
55:08
Speaker 2: the of the next generation of Jean dynasty. Yeah.
55:13
Speaker 1: Also, I guess what you can see is that this
55:15
Speaker 1: is a difference between like Lise and say former chief
55:20
Speaker 1: ministers during the Spring Autumn period who became very powerful
55:24
Speaker 1: like Childun, is that he doesn't have his own his
55:27
Speaker 1: power base is really just in his office and I
55:30
Speaker 1: guess in the personal relations that he has cultivated. He
55:33
Speaker 1: does not have his own military force that he can
55:36
Speaker 1: just at least not to a large extent, that he
55:38
Speaker 1: can just go and like, you know, storm the palace.
55:41
Speaker 1: Now you could still do it, it will just be
55:44
Speaker 1: like twenty guys that you can get from your household staff,
55:48
Speaker 1: which can be enough, as we're going to see later on.
55:51
Speaker 1: But this old boomer Lise doesn't think in this way.
55:54
Speaker 1: He has like built up this politic. This helped build
55:58
Speaker 1: up this political structure where the it's assumed the emperor
56:03
Speaker 1: is actually going to be like take an active role
56:07
Speaker 1: in governance and you know, transmit orders through his ministers,
56:11
Speaker 1: including the chief minister him.
56:14
Speaker 2: So the.
56:16
Speaker 1: When the emperor is not is kind of a wall
56:20
Speaker 1: and he's not listening to him. Uh, he's kind of paralyzed.
56:24
Speaker 1: He's kind of old, and he doesn't he's hasn't not
56:27
Speaker 1: mentally agile enough under the circumstances. Not like Shaun Yu, who,
56:32
Speaker 1: as will later learn, is not bound by the rules
56:36
Speaker 1: of the organization that he's working in. He will see
56:39
Speaker 1: an opportunity and just take it. But this old gentleman,
56:42
Speaker 1: he is Yeah, he's kind of too loyal to the
56:47
Speaker 1: institution at this point because he's he put up basically
56:52
Speaker 1: a puppet emperor in place, but the puppet but all
56:55
Speaker 1: authorities still flow all not just the authority. The practical
57:00
Speaker 1: power still flows through that puppet emperor, but he's not
57:04
Speaker 1: the one puppeting him, even though he's the highest official.
57:07
Speaker 1: Right So yeah, but even at this point, with all
57:11
Speaker 1: these political intrigue going at the imperial core, the stated
57:16
Speaker 1: Chin still has a possible second least on life as
57:21
Speaker 1: long as the Chin Army is victorious in field. Right
57:26
Speaker 1: because right, because so far they have not been significantly
57:29
Speaker 1: defeated like the field armies of the Chin State, which
57:33
Speaker 1: is the frontier army and this like uh this amnesty
57:39
Speaker 1: convict prisoner army let out by Chianghan, they have not
57:44
Speaker 1: really been defeated in the field. In fact, Zanghan has
57:49
Speaker 1: crushed ten cents rebellion. He has crushed Hiang Yang like
57:54
Speaker 1: he's going from victory to victory. He just crushed the
57:56
Speaker 1: Way State. Now he's going on to subdue that South state.
58:00
Speaker 2: Uh. He did a pincer movement of the of the Tzao.
58:04
Speaker 2: He already reduced the Tzau capital Handan, and now he
58:08
Speaker 2: had the King of Tzao and his prime minister Jungers
58:11
Speaker 2: surrounded in the city of ji Lu. And now the
58:16
Speaker 2: two main Chin forces are converging like the Frontier two
58:21
Speaker 2: from the Gray Wall under the commander Wangli had besieged
58:26
Speaker 2: the city of chili Lu, and Zanghan was acting as
58:29
Speaker 2: his UH logistics supply by digging a canal through the
58:35
Speaker 2: Yellow River UH and build a highway to ship the grain.
58:40
Speaker 2: Which is kind of odd because up to this point
58:43
Speaker 2: somehow was defeating all the rebels by himself, right, and
58:47
Speaker 2: now you add in the frontier tube, but like the
58:52
Speaker 2: two plus two somehow does not give you four because
58:57
Speaker 2: you know, like you have Sanghan just basically reduced to
59:01
Speaker 2: like supply, like a supply and logistic position. I mean,
59:07
Speaker 2: I guess it makes sense because the frontier tubes that
59:10
Speaker 2: the Great Wall Gerrison one lead probably had about two
59:14
Speaker 2: hundred thousand people, and some Hunts forces probably a number
59:18
Speaker 2: two hundred thousand people. So sometimes probably have to you know,
59:24
Speaker 2: you know, some hunt himself, being a former like taxman
59:27
Speaker 2: and logistic officer, have to kind of make sure all
59:31
Speaker 2: these men get fed. And that that made all the
59:36
Speaker 2: dung hunts two hundred thousand men just like shipping grains
59:41
Speaker 2: for one lead horses. What we're going to see is
59:45
Speaker 2: that this is but still, this set up for the
59:49
Speaker 2: Chin state, whose chain armies besieging the Child capital is
59:54
Speaker 2: it's not bad. It's quite defensible because there will be
59:58
Speaker 2: a comparable size of able armies.
1:00:01
Speaker 1: That will appear, and they are not going to like
1:00:06
Speaker 1: really attack. Okay, they will try some probing attacks and
1:00:09
Speaker 1: get their like shit pushed in as people say now,
1:00:12
Speaker 1: and they are just gonna hold back. And this is
1:00:15
Speaker 1: like kind of you know rebel alliance. Everyone is kind
1:00:17
Speaker 1: of thinking about their own you know prospects. No one
1:00:20
Speaker 1: wants to sacrifice their own forces, and it's going to
1:00:23
Speaker 1: take someone who is like young and kind of crazy
1:00:28
Speaker 1: to just take a massive risk to like change the situation.
1:00:31
Speaker 1: Because if they were all, like if all the rebel
1:00:33
Speaker 1: commanders were like old cautious men, I think the Chin
1:00:35
Speaker 1: would have won right with that setup, because he's got
1:00:39
Speaker 1: he's there's the army besieging Handan, and then or not
1:00:43
Speaker 1: hand On. They already took Lou right and then like
1:00:50
Speaker 1: the there's a mind says that Jong Han's army is
1:00:53
Speaker 1: not only there to assure the logistics. It's the army
1:00:56
Speaker 1: in reserves, yes, there to support the army in the
1:01:00
Speaker 1: army doing the proceeging. So these rebel armies up north,
1:01:03
Speaker 1: even though they are in similar size, if they all
1:01:06
Speaker 1: attack and then they all committed, Chan Han's army can
1:01:09
Speaker 1: still come up to Uh to reinforce the these elite
1:01:14
Speaker 1: border troops. So all these like if they were all
1:01:17
Speaker 1: like old men, you know, leading these armies, they're all
1:01:19
Speaker 1: just kind of sit there and you know, wait for
1:01:21
Speaker 1: someone else to take the risk.
1:01:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, So somehow this will lead to one of the
1:01:25
Speaker 2: most decisive battles in the Chinese history. And we'll save
1:01:30
Speaker 2: that for next week when we come back. And this
1:01:34
Speaker 2: is when Shang you will make his name. And this
1:01:38
Speaker 2: is uh, this is it. It's quite it's quite a tale.
1:01:41
Speaker 2: And you will like that that that that battle, more
1:01:46
Speaker 2: than anything, is what decided the fate of changed dynasty,
1:01:50
Speaker 2: more than all the intrigues in the court, although the
1:01:52
Speaker 2: intrigue in the court will eventually have a boomerang in fact,
1:01:56
Speaker 2: but we talked about that when we come back next week,
1:01:59
Speaker 2: and other questions or comments, No, that should be it.
1:02:03
Speaker 2: So I look forward to the big battle. Okay, so
1:02:07
Speaker 2: thanks everyone for lestening. Until next time, we'll come back
1:02:11
Speaker 2: with the epic epic Battle of Chilu when over one
1:02:17
Speaker 2: hundred thousands troops clashed to decide the fate of the dynasty.
1:02:22
Speaker 2: Until next time, Bye, good righte.