子孙骄逸,殒命亡国——西汉开国功臣群体的结局

Fall of A State Brought about by Arrogant and Luxurious Descendants:The End of the Group of the Founding Heroes of the Western Han Dynasty

当秦二世暴虐、民不堪命之时,群雄蜂起,欲奄有天下者,不知有几;攀龙附骥者,亦不计其数。最后,泗上亭长出身的刘邦逐灭群雄,建立汉家皇朝。追随刘邦征战的143人封侯食邑。这个开国功臣群体是西汉极其重要的政治势力,他们在西汉建立以后获取了极高的政治地位和极丰的经济利益。但是,他们或他们的子孙很快就陨命亡国,绝大多数传爵不过四世。在中国古代史上,西汉开国功臣覆亡颇具典型意义。

A large number of independent warlords rose in swarms when Ying Hu Hai （ b. 230 ~ d. 207BC; reigned 210 N207 BC） , the second emperor of the Qin dynasty （（221 ~207 BC）,） was in reign and the then people were hard pressed. Among them were a great number of those who attempted to take up and rule the whole nation, and innumerable of those who played up to people of power and influence. Finally, however, it is Liu Bang of the origin of a minor official at the region north of the Sishui River, Peixian county, who wiped out all the other warlords one after another, and founded the Western Han Dy- nasty （206 BC ~ 220 AD）. The 143 people who had followed Liu on the expedition were granted titles of nobility and were given fiefs to live on. This group of the founding heroes became therefore the most im- portant political forces of the Dynasty, and they were highly ranked politically with abundant economic in- terests. But, they themselves, or their children began to live a very arrogant, extravagant and dissipated life, and most of their titles could not be handed down for more than four generations, and this eventually brought about the fall of the Dynasty.