Wang Mang - Wang Mang

Founder of the Xin Dynasty in China (reigned 9-23). ​​His pen name was Jujun. He is known for being the first in Chinese history to put the abdication revolution into practice, seizing power from the Former Han Dynasty and establishing the Xin Dynasty, and for trying to realize an ideal society based on the classical Confucianism found in the Zhou Rites. He was the second son of Man, the younger brother of Empress Wang of the 11th Emperor of the Former Han Dynasty, Yuan. When the child born to Empress Wang ascended to the throne as Emperor Cheng (reigned 33-7 BC), the Wang clan rose to prominence as matriarchs, and all seven of the Empress Wang's younger brothers were made Marquis, successively taking the post of Grand Marshal, and gaining military power in the country. Wang Mang was the only one of the Wang clan who was unlucky due to the early death of his father, but he eventually won a power struggle within the Wang clan and became Grand Marshal himself at the end of Emperor Cheng's reign. When Emperor Ai ascended to the throne in 7 BC, he temporarily stepped down, but when Emperor Ai suddenly died without a stepchild, Empress Yuan and Wang Mang staged a coup-like operation to seize power in one fell swoop, installing Emperor Yuan's grandson, the 9-year-old Emperor Ping, and giving Wang Mang overall control of national affairs. In 5 AD, he poisoned Emperor Ping and made himself regent, and Wang Mang's plan to usurp the dynasty became more serious. He exploited the theory of divination, which was the prevailing thought of the time, that the will of heaven is shown to the human world through auspicious signs, disasters, and talismans (divine will shown to humans in mystical forms), and finally took the throne himself in 9 AD.

After ascending to the throne, Wang Mang implemented various policies with a retrospective feel, such as reforming the government system, changing official and place names, changing the land system, reforming the currency system, and controlling commerce and industry. These were intended to address major social problems that had become evident at the end of the Western Han dynasty, such as limiting the large land ownership of the increasingly powerful local nobles, and preventing ordinary self-employed farmers from becoming impoverished and becoming refugees due to the loss of their land. However, many of these policies ended up failing, and instead increased social unrest. Furthermore, due to the failure of his policy against the Xiongnu, peasant rebellions (such as the Red Eyebrow Rebellion) that erupted in Shandong, and subsequent noble rebellions led by the Liu clan of Nanyang, Wang Mang was stabbed to death by the troops of Emperor Gengshi at the Weiyang Palace in Chang'an in 23. Wang Mang's 15-year reign has not been viewed well by later generations due to his anachronistic, restorationist socialist policies, but it is a notable period in Chinese history for the fact that he clearly demonstrated an ideal image of a Chinese dynastic state and an ideal image of an ideal monarch, based on Confucian ideals, including national ritual ceremonies such as the System of the Seven Temples of the Son of Heaven.

[Akira Kasugai]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、新(しん)朝の創建者（在位9～23）。字(あざな)は巨君。中国史上、禅譲革命の方式を最初に現実化し、前漢から政権を奪い新を樹立し、『周礼(しゅらい)』にみえる古文派の儒教に基づく理想社会を具現しようとしたことで知られる。前漢第11代皇帝元帝の王皇后（元后）の弟の曼(まん)の次子。元后の生んだ子が成帝（在位前33～前7）として即位すると、王氏一族は外戚(がいせき)として台頭し、元后の弟7人がすべて列侯に封ぜられ、大司馬の職を順次占め、国家の軍事権を握った。王莽は父が早死にしたため、王氏一族のなかで1人不遇であったが、やがて王氏内部の権力抗争に勝ち、成帝の末年、自らも大司馬となった。紀元前7年、哀帝が即位すると一時下野したが、継子なく哀帝が急死するや、元后と王莽はクーデターまがいの手段で一挙に実権を握り、元帝の孫で9歳の平帝を擁立し、王莽が国政を総覧することになった。この平帝を紀元後5年に毒殺し、自ら摂皇帝となり、以後王莽の王朝纂奪(さんだつ)の意図は本格化した。当時、支配的な時代思潮であった、天意は瑞祥(ずいしょう)、災異、符命(ふめい)（神秘的な形態を伴って人間に示される天命）によって人間界に示されるとする讖緯(しんい)説を作為的に利用し、ついに後9年自ら天子の位についた。

　即位後王莽は、官制の改革、官名・地名の改変、土地制度の改変、貨幣制度の改革、商工業の統制など復古的な色彩を伴う諸政策を実施した。これらは、強大化してきた在地の豪族層の大土地所有を制限し、一般の自営農民の土地亡失に伴う貧民化、流民化を防止するなど、前漢末に顕在化してきた大きな社会問題に対応しようとしたものであった。しかし、かえって社会の混乱を増大させ、失敗に帰するものが多かった。さらに対匈奴(きょうど)政策の失敗もあり、山東に発した農民反乱（赤眉(せきび)の乱など）と、これに続く南陽の劉(りゅう)氏を代表とする豪族反乱によって、23年、長安城内の未央宮(びおうきゅう)で、更始(こうし)帝軍によって刺殺された。王莽の治世15年間は、時代錯誤の復古的社会主義政策などによって、後世の評価はよくないが、天子七廟(びょう)制などの国家の祭祀(さいし)儀礼をはじめ、儒教理念を基本とする中国の王朝国家の理想的国家像、理想的君主像を明示したのは、中国史上注目されるべきものである。

［春日井明］

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