Chapter 2201: Renzong Chronicles 10: The Political Ecology of the Empire

During Fan Zhongyan's tenure in power, the Great Han Empire truly entered a "commoner era" — for the first time at the central government level, "commoner" officials genuinely overshadowed the aristocratic bloc.

In Fan Zhongyan's civil service reforms, a number of sinecure-holders were dismissed. Among them were certainly commoner magnates, but the majority were those who occupied high positions and important posts through pedigree and hereditary privilege.

At the same time, he promoted a large number of talented people, which inevitably increased the strength and influence of commoner officials. After all, after over a century of development and accumulation, with enormous changes in ideology and socio-economics, the talent reserve and coverage of the commoner bloc far exceeded that of the meritorious old aristocrats.

Of course, by the eleventh year of Zhengtong, the so-called aristocrats and commoners of the Great Han Empire were not two completely opposed factions. As early as the Taizong period, the two sides had already begun to merge.

Among the commoners, there was no shortage of those who attached themselves to the powerful to seek advancement, and quite a few even managed to climb to high positions. Meanwhile, the meritorious hereditary aristocrats — especially the old military meritocracy — facing mounting pressure from diminishing hereditary privileges, were likewise recruiting protégés and supporting the cultivation of commoner talent to preserve their families' power and influence.

Therefore, within the upper ruling class of the Great Han Empire, factional lines had long ceased to be drawn simply by pedigree or origin; the actual divisions among various power blocs were extremely complex.

The imperial clan, consort kin, hereditary houses, scholarly schools, examination year-mates, reformers, conservatives, the imperial party, the chancellor's party, centralizers, regionalists, and even the interest groups born within various government agencies over the long years — all greatly enriched the empire's political factions.

By contrast, it was the low-ranking, narrow-visioned mid- and lower-level officials and literati who placed greater weight on pedigree and made much of family background. Many who styled themselves as aloof and high-minded secretly envied and desperately chased after those "foul-smelling" magnates and their power.

The leaders of the various factions, whether aristocrat or commoner, actually all shared one identity — they were all magnates, all belonging to the same class — the ruling class. Their group divisions were merely internal contradictions differentiated by political stance and interest.

Even as the empire's upper class grew increasingly entrenched, conservative, sluggish, and degenerate, political stability was in fact continuously improving — precisely because of a system of checks and balances.

Perhaps some person or faction could dominate for a time and hold great power, but no one could ever completely suppress everyone and every force. This was the political ecology of the Great Han Empire during Fan Zhongyan's tenure — and this was the true reason why he, a "cold-gate" southerner, could rise to the top of all officials and serve as Director of State Affairs, holding the largest portion of chancellorial power in his hands despite the evident lack of imperial support.

The formation of this political ecology not only reflected the rise of new magnates and the yielding of power by old aristocrats — for the imperial authority itself, it was not necessarily a bad thing. After all, a balance that the founding ancestors had to scheme and strain every sinew to maintain had, after a century of vicissitudes, genuinely been established within the empire's upper echelons.

It was both customary and habitual — one could say deeply ingrained. Look at what Emperor Liu Weizhen did: if you carefully enumerate, it seems he did nothing at all — even the Daoist temple he had long wanted to build was blocked by Fan Zhongyan.

Yet the Great Han Empire stood unmoved as a mountain through wind and rain! This was the deep-rooted stability brought by the political system and ecology that the empire had spent a century forming.

Only, when the superstructure grows increasingly conservative and obstinate, problems and ills inevitably arise. For someone like Fan Zhongyan, trying to change or reverse such a natural trend and objective law — like a corpse floating downstream — was clearly very difficult.

From the universal expectation and thunderous acclaim upon his return to the capital in the sixth year of Zhengtong, to his "notorious reputation" and endless criticism by the twelfth year — over those six years, Fan Zhongyan's many reform measures and policy directions, while struggling to sustain the fading glory of the Jianlong golden age, were also constantly winnowing out comrades and fellow travelers.

The economic rectification needs no elaboration — clear wine reddens men's faces, gold stirs the heart's desire. Touch someone's cheese, and they naturally regard you as a mortal enemy. But the empire's economic arena was deep and murky, offering ample space for fishing in troubled waters, compromise, and deal-making.

The key lay in political measures — especially Fan Zhongyan's philosophy of selecting and employing talent. Meritocracy was certainly politically correct, an unassailable truth across the world, but one could not ignore the realities of the political environment.

Thus, when Fan Zhongyan began to eye the hereditary privilege system — even if only as a reform with some restrictions — he still drew a united attack, and his eventual failure and departure were foreordained, because what he touched was the fundamental political interest of all the old and new magnates of the court, far weightier than mere money.

The backlash truly arrived in the twelfth year of Zhengtong, only after the Hebei rebellion had been completely pacified — the instigators understood the times well, or rather, chose their moment perfectly.

Of course, even if he could not change the deep-seated, fundamental problems, Fan Zhongyan still managed to achieve some major leverage against the existing system. For instance, it was precisely during Fan Zhongyan's era that civil officials commanding the military first appeared openly on the empire's military-political stage. The military aristocracy's monopoly over the Ministry of War had already been broken for decades; by the Zhengtong era, under Fan Zhongyan's leadership and with the support of a host of commoner forces, taking advantage of the "Shi-Li Dispute," the military aristocracy's monopoly over the Bureau of Military Affairs' military-political power was also smashed.

"Shi" referred to Shi Yuansun, "Li" referred to Li Guangfu. One was a descendant of Shi Shouxin, the other a great-grandson of Li Yun — both were scions of the empire's most authentically red-blooded old aristocratic houses.

After Commissioner of Military Affairs Zhe Weichang died of illness, the struggle to seize his position drew in allies on all sides, escalating into a furious battle that triggered a major reshuffle within the empire's military command system.

In the end, Fan Zhongyan, in alliance with the Xiao clan, pushed Xiao Hui — a famed general of the Shizong era — into the post of Commissioner of Military Affairs. At the same time, Fu Bi, then Patrol Inspector of the Northwest, was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Military Affairs — the first time a civil official truly sat in the empire's military hall, even if only as the lowest-ranking deputy.

Scholar-officials of the academy school like Fu Bi and Han Qi, though they had gained reputations and full training during the Shizong era, only truly received important appointments after Fan Zhongyan took power.

Fan Zhongyan called Fu Bi a talent fit to be a king's right hand. Had it not been for his vigorous promotion, Fu Bi would have needed ten more years in officialdom to reach his current position. Of course, Fu Bi's rise was also clearly inseparable from his father-in-law, the old Chancellor Yan Shu.

As for the suppression of the Wang Ze uprising, although Deputy Commissioner of Military Affairs Shi Yuansun served as commander-in-chief, Jing Yanbo, serving as Pacification Commissioner, was also of literati origin and possessed military command authority. On the Hebei front, Han Qi, serving as Hebei Fiscal Commissioner and field headquarters provisions commissioner, was responsible for supplying the army's logistics — and likewise had troops under his command.

Though signs and trends had long existed, the reform of the empire's military command system, fully set in motion by Fan Zhongyan, clearly provoked widespread discontent among the old meritorious aristocrats. It made them directly feel their influence over the empire's military-political affairs wavering.

Fan Zhongyan's proposal to streamline the army — "lean troops and simplified administration" — also drew massive dissatisfaction. Even though it was motivated by a desire for strict discipline and stronger forces, it still repelled people, who instinctively felt he was overreaching.

Even the naval system, whose power had waned somewhat since Guo Liangping, resented Fan Zhongyan, because he attempted to cut the "Twenty-Year Shipbuilding and Cannon-Founding Plan" formulated by the old Commissioner Guo Liangping.

Fan Zhongyan's downfall left countless regrets for later generations and rankled the hearts of all who cherished the Jianlong golden age. But in the twelfth year of Zhengtong, his fall was inevitable — it was a counterattack collectively launched by the empire's ruling class, a turbid current of the age whose momentum could not be stopped.

Of the many marks Fan Zhongyan left on his era, the one truly embraced and emulated by the ruling class was the "charitable estate."

As early as the Jianlong period, Fan Zhongyan had pioneered the charitable estate. With the support of his elder brother Fan Zhongwen, the two brothers established a "Fan Estate" in Suzhou, acquiring land and developing production to shelter and relieve impoverished members of the Fan clan and their relatives.

Many rushed to imitate him, gaining both fame and profit. By the Zhengtong era, charitable estates established by magnates had blossomed across all the circuits of the empire.

The Great Han Empire's manorial economy experienced a wave of vigorous development, and the personal dependency relationships that Emperors Shizu and Taizong had striven to limit and break were re-established between landlords and tenant farmers — stronger and more obstinate than ever.

History is a circle — round and round it goes, inevitably returning to familiar tracks. It was precisely after Fan Zhongyan that the various ills and problems that appear in the rise and fall of dynasties began to manifest in the Great Han Empire in a conspicuous, unstoppable manner, and it could no longer recover its former clarity through effort.

Only, compared to past dynasties, the Great Han Empire's capital was somewhat more abundant, and its family fortune could be squandered for longer. But exactly how long it could last depended not only on the speed of the ruling class's degeneration, but also on the quality and actions of the emperor — after all, the empire was still a monarchy, and the sovereign father's influence on national development remained significant.

At the same time, with the large-scale development of the commodity economy, the vigorous rise of overseas trade, and increasingly close domestic and foreign exchanges, the sprouts of capitalism also appeared in the Great Han Empire in a manner that invited anticipation.