Wang Mang restored and reformed the system

Emperor Cheng of Han was a despotic emperor, and after his accession, the power of the court gradually fell into the hands of foreign relatives (relatives of the Empress Dowager or Empress were called foreign relatives). Emperor Cheng's mother, Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, had eight brothers, all but one of whom died early, and the other seven were made marquises. The oldest of them, Wang Feng, was also made Grand Secretary and Great General.

With Wang Feng in power, several of his brothers and nephews were very arrogant and extravagant. Only one nephew, Wang Mang, did not have that arrogant and extravagant habit because his father died early. He was like a normal scholar, prudent and careful, and lived a frugal life. People said that Wang Mang was the best son of the Wang family.

After the death of Wang Feng, his two brothers succeeded him as the Grand Secretary, and later Wang Mang became the Grand Secretary. Wang Mang paid much attention to recruiting talents, and some scholars came to join him because of his fame, and he took them all in.

After the death of Han Chengdu, within ten years, there were two emperors - Emperor Ai and Emperor Ping. When Emperor Ping was reigning, he was only nine years old, and Wang Mang, the Grand Secretary, was in charge of all state affairs. Some people who praised Wang Mang said that Wang Mang was a great meritorious minister to stabilize the Han Dynasty and asked the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun to make Wang Mang the Duke of An Han. Wang Mang said nothing to accept the title and fiefdom. Later, after the ministers repeatedly persuaded him, he only accepted the title and returned the fief.

In 2 A.D., there was a drought and locust plague in the Central Plains. For many years, the nobles and the powerful had been annexing the land and exploiting the peasants, and when there was a disaster, the people could not survive and were in an uproar.

To ease the people's resentment against the court and officials, Wang Mang suggested the public save food and cloth, and silk. He first put out one million money and 30 hectares of land as the cost of relief for the victims. When he started to like this, some nobles and ministers also had to put out some land and money.

The Empress Dowager rewarded Wang Mang with more than 20,000 hectares of land in Xinye (now Xinye, Henan Province), but Wang Mang refused again.

Wang Mang also sent eight of his ministers to go to various places to observe the customs and people. They spread the story of Wang Mang's refusal to accept the fiefdom of Xinye everywhere, saying how modest Wang Mang was and how humble he was. At that time, the small and medium landowners hated the powerful who annexed the land, and once they heard that Wang Mang did not even want the land granted to him, they thought he was a great and good man.

The more Wang Mang refused to be ennobled, the more people asked the Empress Dowager to ennoble him. It is said that there were more than 480,000 ministers in the court and local officials and commoners who petitioned Wang Mang to be ennobled. Some people also collected all kinds of words in praise of Wang Mang, totaling more than 30,000 words. Wang Mang's prestige was getting higher and higher.

The more people praised Wang Mang, the more Emperor Pingdi felt Wang Mang was terrible and hateful. Because Wang Mang did not allow Emperor Ping's mother to stay with him and killed all his uncle's family. When Han Pingdi grew older, he could not help but say some complaints behind his back.

One day, the ministers gave the birthday to Emperor Ping of Han. Wang Mang personally offered a cup of poisonous wine.

Emperor Ping did not suspect and took it and drank it.