History of Asia

The first hero after the Three Kingdoms! About Fu Jian's spectacular life and its influence on posterity Japan

The stage of the Three Kingdoms, where many heroes played an active part and was scattered, is about 50 years from the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 to the death of Zhuge Liang in 234.

I don't think many people know the development after that, but the country called Wei, where Cao Cao desperately laid the foundation, was destroyed by Sima Yi and his descendants, and the Jin dynasty under Sima's control was founded. Both Wu and Wu will be unified by Jin.

Jin has unified China since the Han empire, but the civil war between the Sima clan continues, and China enters a period of turmoil beyond the Three Kingdoms era.

It was five different races called the Five Barbarians who pierced it.

They occupied Hebei, the northern half of China, and built nations one after another. Jin founded Eastern Jin in the eastern capital construction industry (currently Nanjing), and the era entered the "Sixteen Kingdoms era".

The hero who appeared for the first time in such a turbulent era is Fu Jian, one of the five barbarians of the Tibetan Di tribe.

Dojin at a glance

Fu Jian was the third monarch of the country of Former Qin, whose capital is Chang'an, and was born as the nephew of the founder Fu Jian. The second generation Fu Sheng, who succeeded Fu Sheng, was doing all he could to violence, and instead of doing a liquor-colored female-colored indulgence politics, he became a suspicious demon and carried out a terrorist politics.

Fu Jian himself was about to be killed many times, but he managed to survive thanks to the success of a person named Lee Wei, who was General Sae.

At one point, the second monarch tells the lady-in-waiting that he will kill Fu Jian (Fu Jian's older brother) with drunken momentum. Upon hearing that, the lady-in-waiting reported it to Fu Fa and eliminated the second monarch with her younger brother.

Fu Jian encouraged his younger brother to become a monarch on his own initiative, and Fu Jian declined to do so, but in the end, with the recommendation of his mother, he became the throne of Daqin Tenno.

After that, he consolidated personnel, made heavy use of Wang Meng, who is from the Han Chinese, restored security, improved roads, consolidated and abolished unnecessary officials, rituals of gods, encouraged agriculture, established schools, etc. Helped to do good politics, which is rare in this era.

Good government invites the enhancement of national power, and Former Qin, led by Fu Jian, integrates the five barbarians and Han Chinese nations, including Former Yan and the nation under the control of the Xianbei, and becomes the champion of North China.

Fu Jian had a dream.

It was to create a society in which all ethnic groups lived equally and happily without discrimination.

To achieve this, Fu Jian will implement a somewhat unreasonable policy.

For the sake of his ethnic reconciliation, he settled the Xianbei and Qiang tribes near the capital Chang'an, and relocated his origin, the Di tribe, to a place away from Chang'an.

In addition, he heavily used Han Chinese bureaucrats and Xianbei and Qiang generals, and also maintained a stance of not giving preferential treatment to the Di tribe, which later became the Achilles heel.

These representatives were the Han Chinese Wang Meng and the Xianbei Murong Chui.

These generals were endowed with military and political talents and contributed significantly to the development of the Former Qin. On the other hand, the opposition from the Di tribe was strong, especially from the relatives of Fu Jian.

Fu Jian was a decisive monarch, but he did not hear the dissenting opinions of his subordinates.

He decided to fight with Eastern Jin to unify the Chinese Empire in order to realize his dream.

Battle of Fei River

In world history, there are several battles that determine history. The outcome of a single battle will change the fate of the country, such as Sekigahara in Japan, Farsalas in Rome, and the Battle of Mohacs in the Ottoman Empire.

Looking at the history of China, the Battle of Feihe in 383 would have changed the history of China significantly.

When Fu Jian of Former Qin unified Hebei, he also attacked Xiangyang, the most important city of Jingzhou, and advanced the army to Jiankang, the capital of Eastern Jin.

His troops numbered one million, and in addition to the Five Barbarians, Han Chinese also joined there.

It is a unit that embodies the dream of Dojin at first glance.

It is said that Eastern Jin's troops were about 60,000.

* According to the materials at hand, Former Qin's troops are 870,000 and Eastern Jin's troops are 80,000. This is probably an exaggeration, and Former Qin's troops are less than half that. Nevertheless, it is certain that Former Qin was overwhelmingly superior to Eastern Jin in terms of troop strength.

It was Eastern Jin, who won the biggest battle in the 4th century, but was supposed to be overwhelmingly disadvantaged.

Did something happen?

There were some misfortunes for Fu Jian.

It was also the case that Xie An, the Chancellor of Eastern Jin, was capable, and that many of the group members other than Murong Chui opposed this expedition, most notably before the Battle of Fei River. Would have died in.

Former Qin's winning streak was largely due to the success of Wang Meng, who often commanded mixed ethnic units and commanded the department well.

The army that lost its essence was fragile.

Many of the Han Chinese in the Former Qin army turned over to Eastern Jin during the battle. The Xiongnu and Xianbei who saw it quickly left the front line, and the soldiers fled one after another because they were not enthusiastic in the first place.

On the other hand, Eastern Jin was desperate in the crisis of the existence of the nation. The troops were in command and morale was very high.

It is the morale of the soldiers that influences the war situation. Ancient Greece was able to defeat the mighty Persian Empire because of its consciousness and morale to protect the country.

At first glance, Dojin was a dream only for Fu Jian.

Qin was disorganized by this battle, and his vassals broke away or rebelled against Qin one after another.

Fu Jian's end was due to Yao Chang, a general of the Qiang tribe who treated himself well.

After the death of Fu Jian, Former Qin rapidly lost his power, and North China entered the era of war, in which the group of males was assigned.

Fu Jian and Buddhist protection

Fu Jian's name doesn't appear much in high school textbooks, but his protected name, Kumarajīva, appears frequently in world history textbooks.

Fu Jian was a guardian of Buddhism, and Kumarajīva was the one who protected him when Former Qin ruled Kuqa in the western region, and when Kumarajīva arrived in China, Fu Jian had already disappeared. However, he was the person who laid the foundation for the development of Buddhism in China, and the Buddhism that developed in North China eventually spread to Japan and Thailand, and has a strong influence even today.

Fu Jian protected a famous Buddhist monk named Doan when he occupied Xiangyang, and was very pleased to say, "I got one and a half with 100,000 soldiers!"

* Half is because one disciple came along.

Buddhism would not have spread in North China without a person named Fu Jian, and Buddhism may not have been introduced to Japan today.

It can be said that the influence of Fu Jian was very large both culturally and politically.

Personal evaluation of Fu Jian

Fu Jian is a dreamer.

During the Sixteen Kingdoms and Wei Jin North and South Dynasties, there were no scholars among the politicians. In the era of mass production of tyrants and dark princes, the struggle to wash blood with blood in the shadow of the gorgeous Six Dynasties culture continued.

Among them, Fu Jian, who set a vast ideal, realized a wealthy soldier, and realized that ideal, can be said to be one of the few heroes of this era.

The success of his reign was largely due to one talented person, Wang Meng, and after his death there was no one to unite the mixed nation.

It can be said that Fu Jian was an excellent monarch in that he hired excellent people regardless of their ethnic origin.

It is common to Cao Cao and Nobunaga Oda, and Fu Jian's forgiveness is similar to that of Caesar, the greatest hero in Rome.

He must have been an innovator who did politics without being bound by conventional wisdom, but he eventually failed.

Cao Cao, Caesar, and Nobunaga Oda all won the first battle here, but Fu Jian seems to have lost the first battle here.

If Qin had won the Battle of Fei River, China's history would have changed significantly.

Fu Jian was basically a very good monarch, but like Nobunaga and Caesar, he was killed by his kindly treated subordinates due to his rapid reforms.

Tolerance is sometimes a lie.

As Natsume Soseki said, "If you work with wisdom, you will get a horn, if you let your emotions flow, you will be swept away.

Justice does not win, but the winner creates justice and history.

It will take 200 years for China to be reunited.