家天下時代,禪讓帝位於外姓,不是政治的變態,而是和平轉移政權的常態。前新莽得位繫於元后;魏武挾主號令天下;司馬侵權寄於弱曹。凡禪讓時之前廢君,均能準前朝故事,讓其茍全性命。惟自劉裕崛起於混沌之中,因勢利導建宋代晉,開酖殺廢君之始例。爾後南朝凡以禪讓為名奪人天下者,廢君常遭弒於後。南朝各禪代之君,依零陵王故事,因循舊習遂成故事。劉裕為始作俑者,創下禪讓形式的嗜血性,後觀其劉氏子孫遭殺戮之慘,始作俑者之言,信而有徵。
In the ages of hereditary, an emperor who abdicated his throne to someone from a different family manifested not only the abnormality of politics but the normality of peaceful power transfer as well. Here are some examples: thanks to his aunt, Wang Mang ascended the throne; under the messy political circumstances, Tsao Tsao abducted the then emperor; Sima Yi seized power because the offspring of Tsao Tsao proved incompetent. Hence, according to numerous examples of the dynasties before,any former emperor who renounced the throne could be guaranteed safety and a restful life, along with his family, under the reign of the new emperor. Liu Yu, on the other hand, was a completely different story. He rose to power in a chaos, overturned Jin Dynasty before establishing Song Dynasty by murdering the former emperor.Afterwards, a former emperor would be annihilated by the new emperor. Liu Sung had set an example for the later dynasties; in other words, emperors of later dynasties imitated the example of Liu Yu in kill ng the last emperor of Jin Dynasty. As the first emperor who brutally killed the former demised emperor, Liu Yu set a model for his offspring, who brutally killed one another in the same manner. Was this annihilation their Karma?