东汉那些事儿 (Those Things Happened in the Eastern Han Dynasty)

为大事计，哥哥被杀他可以忍；为人才计，巴结讨好的事他可以做；为江山计，直言相谏他可以接受——光武帝的确是一等一的人物，没了光武帝，东汉就掉入了怪圈。从外戚手中夺回江山，又在宦官手中失了江山，这好像是东汉的宿命。外戚梁冀专权，宦官"五侯"诛之；"五侯"专权，桓帝裁抑；"五侯"之后，宦官又起，制造"党锢之祸"——还制造了两次；至"十常侍"乱政，东汉彻底完蛋了。东汉毁在宦官手中，似乎是注定的，实际上，这哪是命，是制度上有缺陷，不解决根本问题，苍蝇老鼠是永远打不尽的。(Considering the overall situation, he could tolerate his brother's killing by other people; considering talents, he may flatter others; considering his country, he could accept frank expostulation. All these mean Emperor Guangwu is actually one first-class figure. If without Emperor Guangwu, the Eastern Han Dynasty will fall into the trap. It is like the fate of the Eastern Han Dynasty because Emperor Guangwu recaptured country from the duke and lost the country because of the eunuch. Duke Liangji grabbed all the power and "five marquises" killed the eunuch; "five marquises" grabbed all the power and Emperor Huan of Han executed them; after executing "five marquises", eunuches rised up again and resulted in "Disasters of Partisan Prohibitions" for two times; until "Ten Attendants" corrupted politics, the Eastern Han Dynasty thoroughly collapsed. It seems to be doomed that the Eastern Han Dynasty would be damaged by eunuches. In fact, this is because of the defects in system rather than fate. Evildoers always will appear if the fundamental problem is not solved.)