公器 ——八王骨肉相殘，中原百年塗炭The Common Good: Eight Princes Devouring Bone and Blood, a Century of Desolation in the Central Plains
Historical
Written by
闲窗框月The Public Instrument — Eight Princes, One Bloodline Devoured; a Century of Ruin on the Central Plain
In 265 CE, Sima Yan supplanted Wei and founded Jin, enfeoffing twenty-seven princes of the imperial clan, granting them troops and sending them to their domains while the provinces and commanderies were stripped of their armies. The Sima family treated the realm as its private inheritance, and the root of a public trust turned to private use was planted. Wei Guan remonstrated and was ignored; Shan Tao remonstrated and burned his own memorial. With the center hollowed out and the princes holding armies, with an imbecile crown prince installed and marriage alliances forged with the Yang and Jia clans, the Taikang era's prosperity concealed a quiet truth: the private vessel was already displacing the public one. Li Mi submitted his Memorial of Personal Feelings, Wen Chang planted jujube trees, Chen Shi inherited his place in the military registers, Le Hu was seized and sold into slavery. The original sin of carving up the realm had taken root beneath the appearance of peace.
In 290 Sima Yan died; Yang Jun became regent and Empress Jia seized the reins of government. In 291 the Empress killed Yang Jun, Prince Wei of Chu killed Prince Liang of Runan and Wei Guan, and the Empress then killed Prince Wei as well. Murder by forged edict, and the deposing and enthroning of rulers for private ends, became routine; the imperial guard could be commandeered, princes could be summoned, and Crown Prince Sima Yu was deposed and killed. In 300 Prince Lun of Zhao deposed and killed the Empress, usurped the throne in 301, and three princes rose against him. Prince Jiong of Qi, Prince Yi of Changsha, Prince Ying of Chengdu, Prince Yong of Hejian, and Prince Yue of Donghai took turns seizing power and attacking one another, kin turned into ramparts, and blood stained the Yellow and Luo rivers. The princes summoned barbarian troops to fight for them and seized and sold the Hu peoples as slaves; Liu Yuan proclaimed himself King of Han, then emperor, Shi Le crushed the Jin army at Ningping, and Liu Yao, Wang Mi, and Shi Le took Luoyang, captured Emperor Huai, and burned the capital. In 316 Emperor Min surrendered and Western Jin fell. The gentry fled south and the lineage of learning survived, but the public instrument remained private, merely relocated to Jiankang.
In the north the Hu peoples rose: Shi Le took the imperial title, Murong's Yan was founded, and Former Qin unified the land. At the Battle of the Fei River in 383, Former Qin collapsed and the north split once more. In the south the great clans quarreled without end, as Zu Ti's northern expedition, Wang Dun's rebellion, and Su Jun's rebellion followed one upon another; Sun En rose in arms, Huan Xuan usurped the throne, and Liu Yu restored Jin and took power, destroying Southern Yan, Qiaoshu, and Later Qin in his northern campaigns. In 420 Liu Yu replaced Jin, deposed Emperor Gong, and hunted down the collateral Sima lines until the imperial clan was all but extinguished and its bloodline withered away.
Across seven parts, the book takes the rise and fall of the Sima family as its main thread, joined by a strand of images: Li Mi's draft of the Memorial of Personal Feelings, Wen Chang's family letters and jujube tree, Chen Shi's army tally, the scars of Le Hu's whip. Sima Yan treated the realm as private property and parceled out land and troops to his princes; the Eight Princes pursued plunder in the name of legitimacy, and sixteen years of kin slaughtering kin reduced the public instrument wholly to a private tool. The Central Plain stood empty, and the Hu peoples went from onlookers to reapers. A dynasty founded on private interest ended with its clan elite all but destroyed, its imperial political circle annihilated, its bloodline withered.
Use the public instrument for private ends, and the state will perish and the clan be wiped out. The historian's pen is iron; the Way of Heaven closes its circle.
