China has a long history and many emperors. The king is the head of a country and directly affects the whole country.

For about forty years, Emperor Wendi and Emperor Jingdi in the Western Han Dynasty enjoyed political stability and remarkable economic development. They have always been regarded as the "prosperous times" of feudal society, and are known as "the rule of culture and the rule of scenery" in history.

After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Heng, Emperor Gaozu, Hui Di and Lv Hou all devoted themselves to restoring agricultural production and stabilizing the feudal ruling order, and achieved remarkable results. After Emperor Wenjing ascended the throne one after another, on this basis, he took further measures to neglect paying taxes and share the interest with the people.

Liu Qi, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, attached great importance to agricultural production. After he acceded to the throne, he issued several orders to persuade farmers to take courses in agriculture and mulberry, set up a number of employees according to the proportion of household registration, and often rewarded them to encourage farmers to develop production. At the same time, he also pays attention to reducing the burden on the people. In the second year (before 178) and the twelfth year, Wendi "withdrew the land rent by half" twice, that is, the rent rate was reduced to 30 tax, and the land rent was completely exempted in the thirteenth year. In the twelfth year of Emperor Wendi, the customs clearance system was abolished, which was conducive to the circulation of commodities and economic ties between regions, and also promoted the development of agricultural production.

Emperor Wen of Han also carried out major reforms in criminal law since Qin Dynasty. (1) Criminals in the Qin Dynasty, that is, those who were sentenced to official service and were heavier than official service, mostly had no prison term and served hard labor for life. Emperor Wendi issued a decree and re-enacted the law, stipulating the term of imprisonment according to the seriousness of the crime; A sinner will be exempted from serving his sentence as Shu Ren. (2) According to the Qin law, the parents, brothers, sisters, wives and children of sinners should sit together, and the heavy ones should be put to death, while the light ones should be buried as official servants, which is called "sitting by death". Emperor Wen explicitly abolished it. (3) There were four kinds of corporal punishment in Qin Dynasty, namely, beating, licking, gouging out and palace. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty abolished flogging, flogging and gouging and replaced them with flogging. Jingdi also reduced flogging. Although the latter two reforms were not seriously implemented at that time and later, many officials of Wendi were able to break the prison lightly, and were generous and not demanding, so the prison service was simple and the oppression suffered by the people was significantly reduced compared with that of Qin Dynasty.

The Wenjing Dynasty did not easily fight against the surrounding ethnic minorities and tried their best to maintain peaceful relations. Lu Houshi, Zhao Tuo, king of South Vietnam, became emperor on his own, serving in Fujian, Vietnam, Ou, Luo and other places, taking the Huang family as an opponent and the Han Dynasty as an enemy. After Emperor Wendi acceded to the throne, he repaired the ancestral grave for Zhao Tuo, honored Zhao Kundi, and sent Liu Jia to South Vietnam to write to Zhao Tuo, so Zhao Tuo went to Zuoge, Huang Wu, and joined the Han Dynasty. In the second year after Yuan Dynasty (BC 162), Wendi went to war with Xiongnu. Since then, although the Huns broke the contract and repeatedly violated the border, Emperor Wendi only ordered the border counties to be on strict guard and not to attack dispatch troops, so as not to disturb the people.

The reason why Wenjing became the flourishing age of feudal society is inseparable from the personal efforts of Emperor Wen. Shortly after he ascended the throne, he abolished the crime of slanderous words, and envoys were able to boldly put forward different opinions. Since the Qin dynasty, there have been so-called "secret wish" officials, and whenever there is a disaster, they will fight. In the thirteenth year of Emperor Wen, he abolished it and declared the emperor responsible for the mistakes and sins of officials. The next year, he forbade temple officials to bless him. Wendi is also quite frugal. During his twenty-three years in office, palaces, cars and clothes did not increase. He has repeatedly sent letters prohibiting counties from contributing rare foreign objects. His beloved Mrs. Shen doesn't mop the floor or embroider curtains. Wendi Deng once wanted to build a terrace. Hearing that he wanted one hundred gold, which was equivalent to the output of ten people in China, he gave up. Because Emperor Wen advocated frugality, the national financial expenditure was restrained and reduced at that time, and aristocratic bureaucrats dared not squander it, thus reducing the burden on the people, which was also one of the important contents of the "rest and recuperation" policy.

Due to the above-mentioned series of measures taken by Wenjing two generations, the social economy at that time made remarkable development and the feudal ruling order was consolidated day by day. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, there were only ten thousand governors and five or six hundred small countries. In the world of culture and scenery, refugees returned to the countryside, and their accounts soon increased. There are 30,000 to 40,000 people in the country, and the number of small households has doubled, which is much richer than in the past. The development of agriculture has greatly reduced the price of food. In the early years of Emperor Wendi, millet ranged from ten yuan to dozens of yuan per stone. According to the Records of Food in the History of Han Dynasty, during the seventy years from the early Han Dynasty to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, due to the stable domestic political situation, as long as there were no floods and droughts, the people always gave their families enough food, and the granaries in the county were full of food. The food in Taicang has been rotten for a long time and can't be eaten. There is more money in the government treasury, and there are millions in the capital, even the strings of money are broken. This is a vivid description of the rule of Wenjing.

Let's talk about tyrants. Xia Jie was the last monarch of the Xia Dynasty. He is outstanding in literary talent and martial arts; With his bare hands, he can kill tigers and leopards, and bend and straighten iron hooks at will like noodles. Such a person with elegant demeanor and superb skills should become a wise king. Unfortunately, Xia Jie spent all his wisdom on tyranny, pleasure and fooling around. He built a luxurious and exaggerated palace with nine pillars cast in gold. Xia Jie's most enthusiastic job is to hold a grand banquet, with no less than 3,000 people at each banquet, which was not an amazing number in that small country at that time. Three thousand people walked to the edge of the wine pool, stretched out their necks from the shore like cows drinking water, let go of their throats and drank in the deafening drums. Xia Jie's greatest "masterpiece" in office was the invention of a kind of torture called "branding". He put ointment on a copper column, burned charcoal fire under it, and taught the prisoner to walk barefoot on the copper column. It's impossible not to slide down. If you slide down, you will fall on the coal and be burned to death. Yin Zhou, the last monarch of Shang tribe, was also a legend, as versatile as Xia Jie. He is born with divine power and can pull nine cows upside down. His hands can still hold the beams of the building ... However, he did not use his intelligence to govern the country and the people, but used it to refuse persuasion and cover up mistakes. During his reign, he built many buildings, and the palace buildings were constantly renovated. Only "Yaogong" and "Yaotai" were built for seven years. The meat in the harem is piled like a mountain forest, and the wine is also packed in a huge pool-much like Xia Jie, the last monarch of the Xia Dynasty. At every banquet, the courtiers who attend the banquet often eat and drink, and they are drunk for several days, so that everyone often forgets what day it is today. Xia Jie and Yinzhou are too conceited to listen to different opinions. Should have become a monarch and eventually become a tyrant. Their rule immediately fell apart.

In my opinion, a country's monarch's own bad conduct will inevitably bring bad atmosphere to the whole country. For example, in the early Song Dynasty, the rulers advocated frugality, plain clothes and saving resources. However, in the middle and late Song Dynasty, the rulers pursued pleasure, which made the extravagant wind sweep across the Song Dynasty and affected the social atmosphere. On the contrary, if the rulers are virtuous, then the country will surely prosper. The monarch is superior and the country is prosperous; The monarch is bad and the country is weak. The fate of the country is in the hands of the ruler.

The character of the ruler is very important, and so is the policy. Kublai Khan in Yuan Taizu vigorously developed agriculture, forbidding aristocratic circles to occupy farmland for pasture, and restored and developed the agricultural economy. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appointed generals such as Huo Qubing and Wei Qing to fight back against Xiongnu, recover lost territory and expand territory, which went down in history. However, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty closed their doors to the outside world and closely monitored overseas trade, so that they could neither get the advanced technology of the West nor see the world situation, which led to the decline of China and made it notorious for thousands of years. Policies also determine the strength of a country.

The rise and fall of a country has a lot to do with its rulers.